================================================

 The Information about Ireland Site Newsletter 
                  April 2010
 
The Newsletter for people interested in Ireland 
 Now received by over 50,000 people worldwide 
      https://www.ireland-information.com 
          https://www.irishnation.com
              Copyright (C) 2009  

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		IN THIS ISSUE

=== News Snaps from Ireland 
=== New free resources at the site
=== Most Popular Festivals in Ireland 2010
=== Countess Markievicz - a Biography
=== The Part Time Farmer by Pat Watson
=== Gaelic Phrases of the Month
=== Shamrock Site of the Month: IrishGathering.ie
=== Monthly free competition result

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FOREWORD
========

Well the dust has finally cleared from our skies 
and planes have started flying again. It was a 
surreal few weeks here in Ireland with all air 
travel grounded and visitors stranded. This 
unlikely boost to the hotel trade is sure to be 
tempered by a reluctance by travellers to visit 
Ireland at all in the future with tourist numbers 
being already well down for this year.

The economy here is still in some turmoil with 
just the hint that there may be an improvement 
later this year - here's hoping,

Michael

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=======================
NEWS SNAPS FROM IRELAND
=======================

STRIKE CHAOS MAY BE AVERTED IF NEW DEAL IS AGREED

The recent cutbacks in pay and pension conditions 
for the public sector have been strongly resisted 
by staff unions with the possibility of an all-out 
strike on the horizon. Unions and officials from 
the Government have now hammered out a deal which 
they hope will be endorsed by the union membership 
and thus avoid any strike action. 

The deal involves a number of painful concessions 
by the unions including the retention of the 
current round of pay cuts, longer hours, a 
reduction in overtime and greater flexibility by 
staff in respect of redeployment and outsourcing. 
In return for these concessions the unions have 
been assured that there will be no more 
immediate pay cuts with lower paid workers 
possibly having their pay increased in 2011. 
There will be no compulsory redundancies.

It is far from certain if this deal will be 
accepted by the staff membership and it seems 
likely that some unions will agree to the deal 
while others will not. The Government has 
already engaged in some sabre-rattling by 
suggesting that further pay cuts will be 
necessary if the deal is not accepted.

VOLCANO IN ICELAND CAUSES HAVOC

The recent eruption of a volcano in Iceland caused 
dramatic travel chaos in Ireland and western 
Europe. All flights were grounded while aviation 
experts considered the safety issues involved by 
flying in a dust-filled sky. Stranded tourist and 
business visitors resorted to a variety of means 
to exit the country with ferry services booming 
and helicopter trips from Ulster to Scotland also 
providing an escape route for some travellers. 
Transatlantic tourists scrambled to book onto the 
QM2 cruise liner leaving from Southampton with 
other international ferry and cruise ships 
reporting a big increase in business.

Ryanair and Aer Lingus suffered badly especially 
as they are legally obliged to compensate 
passengers for expenses they incur due to the 
grounded flights. It seems likely that this 
legislation will now be re-visited. The European 
Union recommended that the Irish State assist the 
airlines financially but the Irish Government 
has refused to do so. A legal battle seems 
inevitable.

LEGAL DRUG SHOPS TO BE TARGETED

So called 'head shops' that sell legal drugs 
are to be targeted in new legislation being 
prepared by Government. These shops have 
sprouted up all over Ireland in recent years 
and offer legal alternatives to banned drugs 
such as cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy. They have 
been the subject of much media interest of late 
with some community groups actually marching on 
the premises demanding that they be closed.

PROPOSAL TO LIMIT PASSENGERS IN NEW DRIVERS CARS

The high rate of accidents involving newly 
qualified drivers who have passengers in their 
car is to be addressed. Despite passing a 
driving test these new drivers are still 
relatively inexperienced and are therefore 
86% more likely to be involved in a fatal car 
accident if they have passengers in the car 
with them. The proposal is to ban all passengers 
for up to a year in a car driven by a new 
licence holder.

GARDA SEEK BAN ON PART-TIME JOBS TO BE LIFTED

It is a sign of the economic times that the 
rank and file of the Irish police force are 
now demanding the removal of the ban on their 
holding a second job. Many police (Garda) are 
offered part-time jobs as bouncers, security 
staff or barmen but are prevented from taking 
up these positions due to laws which prevents 
them from doing so. This law is now under 
pressure as the financial squeeze continues.


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==============================
NEW FREE RESOURCES AT THE SITE
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IRELAND HOUSE-SWAP LISTING

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NEW COATS OF ARMS ADDED TO THE GALLERY:

The following 5 coats of arms images and family
history details have been added to the Gallery:

M: Meanwell, Mobley
N: McNeice
S: Scullin, Sexton

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======================================
MOST POPULAR FESTIVALS IN IRELAND 2010
======================================

There is an abundance of festivals held throughout 
Ireland every year, especially during the Summer 
months. They generally involve a gathering of 
talent of a particular variety or a celebration of 
some particular cultural or historical aspect. 
Among the most popular are the following:

FESTIVAL OF WORLD CULTURES - DUN LAOGHAIRE, DUBLIN
23rd to 25th July 2010
This very popular annual event is held in Dun 
Laoghaire town which is just outside of Dublin 
City and is very accessible by the DART train 
service. Exhibits and performers from every corner 
of the globe offer displays and events. 
See www.festivalofworldcultures.com for more.

CAT LAUGHS COMEDY FESTIVAL  - KILKENNY
3rd to 7th June 2010
National and international stars of comedy flock 
to the medieval city of Kilkenny every June for 
the well regarded festival of comedy. 
See www.carlsbergcatlaughs.com for more.

CORK JAZZ FESTIVAL
22nd to 25th October 2010
The annual jazz festival held in Cork is renowned 
as one of the top jazz festivals in the world. 
See www.guinnessjazzfestival.com for more.

FLEADH CEOIL FESTIVAL - COUNTY CAVAN
The Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann (Festival of Music 
in Ireland) has been held annually since 1951 and 
is the premier event in the Irish traditional 
music calendar. See www.fleadh2010.ie for more.

GALWAY ARTS FESTIVAL
12th to 25th July 2010
The annual Galway arts festival features hundreds 
of writers, entertainers, artists, musicians and 
performers from every genre. 
See www.galwayartsfestival.com for more.

WATERFORD SPRAOI FESTIVAL 
July 390th to August 1st
The Spraoi Festival showcases top quality national 
and international street art and world music.
See www.spraoi.com for more.

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=================================
COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ - A BIOGRAPHY
=================================

The famous Irish revolutionary known as Countess 
Markiewicz was born Constance Gore-Booth in 1868. 
She was born in London to Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 
the famous arctic explorer. As an Anglo-Irish 
landlord, her father was not typical of his type 
and administered his lands with a degree of 
compassion for the peasantry who farmed it.

He is reported to have provided famine relief at 
his estate in Sligo during the famine of 1879. 
This act of compassion undoubtedly inspired 
humanity and concern for the poor in his daughter. 
Living in Sligo the family were friends with the 
family of W.B. Yeats, the romantic Irish poet. 
He later wrote the poem 'In Memory Of Eva 
Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz'. 

Constance initially studied painting in London in 
1893 where she became involved in the issue of 
suffrage for women, joining the 'National Union 
of Women's Suffrage Societies'. She continued her 
artistic studies in Paris in 1898 where she met 
Count Markiewicz, who was a Ukrainian aristocrat 
of Polish origin. They wed in 1901 after which she 
assumed the title Countess Markievicz. The couple 
settled in Dublin in 1903 where the Countess 
co-founded the 'United Artists Club' which was a 
cultural and artistic organisation. It was perhaps 
inevitable that while circulating in such society 
she would be exposed to the revolutionary ideas 
that were being swept along with the Gaelic 
revival of the time. In 1908 she joined Sinn Fein 
and Inghinidhe na hEireann - 'The Daughters of 
Ireland', which was a revolutionary group 
established by Maud Gonne, with whom she later 
acted at the fledgling Abbey Theatre. She 
continued to participate in the Suffragette 
movement in England and by standing for election 
she helped to defeat Winston Churchill in a 1908 
Manchester by-election. 

In 1909 she established the radical 'Fianna 
Eireann' which was aimed at instructing a youth 
army in the use of firearms. She was jailed by the 
British authorities in 1913 after speaking at an 
IRB rally to protest the visit of George V to 
Dublin. She had also joined the Irish Citizen Army 
(ICA) established by James Connolly in response to 
the 1913 'lockout' of workers. She established soup 
kitchens and aid for the Dublin poor, often using 
her own funds. Her marriage had by now 
disintegrated with her husband returning to Europe 
in 1913. 

As a Lieutenant in the ICA the Countess 
participated in the Easter Rising of 1916 where she 
was second-in-command at the fight on St. Stephens 
Green. Initially the rebels dug trenches in the 
green but soon retreated from this position once 
they were became vulnerable to snipers positioned 
on the high buildings around the enclosed green. 
Under the command of fellow ICA member Michael 
Mallin they occupied the Royal College of Surgeons, 
rebelling for a total of 6 days. They surrendered 
only when they received a copy of Padraig Pearse's 
surrender order. The Countess was jailed in 
Kilmainham and sentenced to death but her sentence 
was commuted on grounds of her gender. 'I do wish 
your lot had the decency to shoot me' she retorted. 
She was released from prison in 1917 by which time 
the tide of support had turned in favour of the 
rebels and the path to independence was set.

In 1918 she was again jailed for her 
anti-conscription campaigning but upon release was 
elected to the English parliament, refusing to 
take her seat. She was the first woman to be 
elected to the House of Commons. She was a member 
of the first 'Dail' (Irish Parliament) in 1919 and 
became the first Irish (and indeed European) 
Cabinet Minister, serving as Minister for Labour 
from 1919 to 1922.

She joined DeValera in opposition to the 
Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1922 which partitioned the 
country and fought in Dublin in the ensuing civil 
war. She was again imprisoned but this time by her 
former comrades-in-arms. Upon her release she 
became a founder member of Fianna Fail and was 
elected to the fifth Dail in 1927. DeValera had by 
this time changed tactics and intended to 
participate in the parliament. The Countess 
however, never got her chance when, at the age of 
59, she died of tuberculosis (or possibly 
appendicitis) in July of 1927. She likely caught 
the disease while working in the Dublin slums. 
Her husband and family were by her side.

She was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, the final 
resting place of so many Irish patriots with a 
farewell crowd of 300,000 in attendance.

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==================
A PART TIME FARMER   
by Pat Watson
==================

As I had a ten o'clock appointment in the morning 
in Dungarvan, a long way from my home in 
Roscommon, we retired early and I was soon in 
slumber land. I dreamt of some one running down a 
stairs and making tapping noises getting louder 
and more annoying. Then the tapping was on the 
window and was no longer a dream. The clock read 
three fifteen.
 'Who's there?'
 'The head is coming and no feet' came the reply.
 'Get hot water and soap and I'll be with you in 
  a minute.'
I pulled on an old pair of pants over my pyjamas, 
donned an ancient crombie coat saved for such an 
occasion and hurried to the scene of the problem.
Having discarded the crombie and pyjama top, I 
scrubbed up with tepid water and carbolic soap, 
right to the top of my arms. This was a big cow. 
Birth canals are designed for things to go down 
and things can only be pushed in the other 
direction in extreme emergency and amid great 
pain and suffering. However, needs must and there 
were two lives at stake here, so with great 
difficulty I pushed the head back and went 
searching for the legs. They lay along the belly 
of the calf and I had to reach the knee before I 
could start a rolling movement of the leg and 
shoulder to get it in the right direction and do 
the same again with the fetlock. At last I got 
one foot out. Having secured it with a rope I now 
had to repeat the performance in even tighter 
conditions for the second leg. Finally, when feet 
and head were lined up, the delivery was 
relatively easy. The big charolais bull calf 
seemed dead.

We caught him by the hind legs and swung him 
around until he cried out in pain. We then 
presented him to his exhausted mother who 
enthusiastically licked dry his poor swollen head 
and went into ecstasies of happy little moos when 
he responded with a slimy sneeze. Her pain and 
suffering were forgotten. Everything seemed to be 
all right but I knew that after all that handling 
she was almost certain to get a sickening, 
debilitating, rotten and life threatening 
infection. God knows she had suffered enough so 
I gave her an injection of twenty cubic 
centimetres of 'Penstrep.' (Penicillin 
Streptomycin). I would give her another tomorrow 
night. As I dried myself after scrubbing down I 
got paid.
  
 'God Bless Your Gifted Hands and May you pass 
  them on to the next generation!'
As a youth I had gained a reputation for being 
handy and lucky so I catered for the whole 
village.

Coming home along the lane way, I was treated to 
the dawn chorus mingled with the enchanting 
aroma of the whitethorn blossom. The old people 
used to say, it was an echo of the heavenly 
refrain. Man had built this lane and the 
stonewalls enclosing it, but the bushes, the 
briars, the birds, the bees and a myriad of 
creepy-crawlies had ribbon built its full length 
in a most higgledy-piggledy fashion and without 
planning permission. Then I met a fox. I looked 
at him and he looked at me as if to say, 'What 
the hell are you doing here at this hour of the 
morning, invading my space?' His family and my 
family had grudgingly shared those lands for 
three hundred years, of course his family and the 
families of the ribbon builders were probably 
here twenty times that long. There was also The 
Right Honourable RamPotts family, absentee English 
landlords, who for a few hundred years extracted 
penal rents and thought they owned estates in 
Connaught.

Having showered shaved and downed a good 
breakfast, I set off for Dungarvan. I crossed the 
Shannon at Shannonbridge, the Brosna and the 
Grand Canal at Clonony, the Camcor at Birr and 
the river Mall at Roscrea before crossing the 
River Suir for the first time at Thurles. I 
followed the Suir valley all the way to Clonmel 
where I turned right and crossed the river for 
the last time. I then went the scenic route, 
round the hills to where the 'old oak tree' of 
song overlooks Dungarvan. To me, an inlander, it 
was breathtakingly beautiful nestling in the great 
sea that stretched away to the horizon and beyond 
to France.

 This is where I called into a country shop, one 
of those places that sell everything. A department 
inspector was just prosecuting the owner for 
selling country eggs. 
 'It is an EEC regulation,' he said 
 'That all eggs have to go through proper channels 
  and be officially weighed, graded and stamped 
  before being offered for sale. Otherwise, we have 
  no way of knowing where those eggs might have come 
  from.'
I tentatively suggested that they probably came 
from a hen.
Well! He turned on me like a soot drop, 
 'Do you realise that it is illegal to interfere 
with an EEC official in the course of his duty?' 
He then requested a heavily pregnant young Ban 
Garda to arrest me. I apologised profusely as I 
did not want my delivery services called on twice 
in one day. Enough said.


'A Part Time Farmer' 
is one of sixty lyrical yarns from 
'Original Irish Stories' by Pat Watson, 
Creagh, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Ireland. 
First published in April 2006.
To get your copy email the author here:

pjwatson@utvinternet.com

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===========================
GAELIC PHRASES OF THE MONTH
===========================

PHRASE: 	an Samhradh, an Fhomhair, an Geimhreadh, an tEarrach
PRONOUNCED:	on sow-rah, on o-wirr, on geh-rahh, on tarrack
MEANING:		Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring 

PHRASE:		ta se gaofar/fuar/ag cur baisti
PRONOUNCED:	taw shay gayfur/foor/egg curr bah-stee
MEANING:		It is windy/cold/raining

PHRASE:		La brea ata ann
PRONOUNCED:	lah brah ahtaw ow-inn
MEANING:		It's a lovely day

View the archive of phrases here:

https://www.ireland-information.com/irishphrases.htm

=============================================
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=============================================

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========================
APRIL COMPETITION RESULT
========================

The winner was: racheljennings@live.ie
who will receive the following: 

A Single Family Crest Print (decorative) 
(US$19.99 value)

Send us an email to claim your print, and well 
done! Remember that all subscribers to this 
newsletter are automatically entered into the 
competition every time. 

=================================================

I hope that you have enjoyed this issue.

Until next month, 

Michael Green,
Editor,
The Information about Ireland Site.

https://www.ireland-information.com

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