The Information about Ireland Site Newsletter
    July 2010


    The Newsletter for people interested in Ireland

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    Copyright (C) 2010
    ================================================
    
     The Information about Ireland Site Newsletter 
                      July 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) 2010  
    
    ================================================
    
    		IN THIS ISSUE
    
    === News Snaps from Ireland 
    === New free resources at the site
    === W.T. Cosgrave - a biography
    === My Finest Hour by Pat Watson
    === Ireland Tourist Tip: Camper-Van & Caravan Touring
    === Irish Festival & Clan Gathering Noticeboard
    === Gaelic Phrases of the Month
    === Monthly free competition result
    
    =================================================
    
    FOREWORD
    ========
    
    The economic malaise continues in Ireland with the 
    body politic well exercised in accusations and 
    defence - business as usual then. There is now a 
    general acceptance that although things are 
    improving and that perhaps the bottom has been 
    reached that any recovery will takes several 
    years at the least. Let us press on then....
    
    This months edition includes a biography of 
    perhaps one of recent Ireland's least appreciated 
    leaders: W. T. Cosgrave.
    
    Michael
    
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    =======================
    NEWS SNAPS FROM IRELAND
    =======================
    
    HUGE TRANSPORT PROJECTS TO GO AHEAD
    
    A revision of the national development plan has 
    spared two major projects which will now go ahead 
    despite the financial squeeze on government 
    spending. The part-underground Metro-North scheme 
    will eventually link Stephens Green in the very 
    heart of Dublin City centre with Dublin airport 
    and will be 18km long. The Dublin underground Dart 
    scheme will also proceed and will involve the 
    construction of several underground rail links in 
    the city and will essentially link up the coastal 
    Dart service with the inter-city railway service.
    
    When completed these two huge projects will 
    transform the transportation infrastructure of 
    Dublin and are expected to greatly improve 
    accessibility for the local citizenry, businesses 
    and tourists alike.
    
    BOTTOM REACHED IN IRISH PROPERTY CRASH?
    
    The recent Permanent TSB and the ESRI house price 
    survey has revealed that the value of Irish 
    property has fallen back to 2002 levels. Despite 
    evidence of actual price increases in certain 
    sections of the market overall prices fell in the 
    second quarter of this year by 1.7% which is the 
    lowest quarterly fall since the bust began. Prices 
    are down 6.4% in 2010 and 35% down from the peak 
    reached in 2006. The average price of a house is 
    now 201,364 euro compared to 311,078 euro in 2006. 
    
    The human cost of these statistics is mounting. 
    Repossessions by banks of houses from owners unable 
    to pay mortgages are at an all-time high which has 
    promoted the government to intervene. New 
    legislation was introduced to allow further 
    breathing space for mortgage-holders in arrears. 
    Banks have also been prevented from moving 
    clients who are on 'tracker mortgages' onto 
    variable mortgages (more expensive) should they 
    need to refinance.
    
    Newspapers, radio and television are filled with 
    accounts of people who bought apartments and 
    houses for huge sums (perhaps 400,00 euro) and 
    are now in negative equity as the value of their 
    home has plummeted (often by half to 200,000 euro). 
    To add to the despair of these home-owners they 
    have had to watch on helplessly while the builder
    who sold them their apartment for 400,000 euro 
    slashes the purchase price of any remaining 
    properties in the development in an attempt to 
    recoup his investment.
    
    Worse still is when an apartment or housing scheme 
    is left only partly finished, with a scattering of 
    occupiers living among a building site that is 
    never likely to be finished. A program of 
    widescale demolition of housing developments 
    attached to rural towns is expected to be 
    instigated as demand for these homes falls back 
    to nil.
    
    ICONIC DUBLIN STORE TAKEN OVER BY BANKS
    
    Any visitor to Dublin city centre will be familiar 
    with the famous Arnotts department store located 
    on Henry Street. Together with Clerys and Roches 
    Stores (now gone) the three stores were the 
    absolute center of retailing at the O'Connell 
    street part of Dublin city centre. Staff and 
    shoppers alike were amazed to learn that the 
    company has now been taken over by the banks who 
    obviously fear that the 300M euro debts run up by 
    Arnotts are in peril of not being repaid. Arnotts 
    continues to be a profitable business but its 
    ambitious scheme to develop a large part of its 
    Henry Street store and to back onto Abbey street 
    into a 'Northern Quarter' has severely damaged its 
    bottom line. The banks plan to continue to operate 
    Arnotts with a view to selling it once market 
    conditions improve so there is still good hope 
    that the 160-year-old store will survive.
    
    ALEX 'HURRICANE' HIGGINS DIES
    
    The death has occurred of former world snooker 
    champion Alex Higgins who was aged 61 years. The 
    mercurial Belfast man was as much famed for his 
    prowess on the green baize as for his antics off 
    the snooker table. He was twice world champion, 
    in 1972 and 1982 and, along with Steve Davis, is 
    credited with bringing the game of snooker into 
    the modern era, transforming its image from that 
    of the smoky back-street snooker halls to the 
    very pinnacle of sporting fame during the 1980s. 
    He had long suffered with alcoholism and drug 
    abuse and was struggling with cancer. His legacy 
    as a supreme showman and ridiculously talented 
    player is assured both in the snooker fraternity 
    and also the wider sporting world.
    
    EASY PICKINGS AMONG THE RUBBISH DRY UP
    
    Pensioner John Putt has been picking up litter in 
    his home town of Moville in County Donegal daily 
    for the last three years. Asserting that it keeps
    him fit the 72-year-old is the very model of 
    public service and was even able to scoop up as 
    much as ten or twenty euro from the pavement while 
    on his daily duty. His biggest daily haul was 86 
    euro but those days are gone now. 'Yesterday I 
    found one cent!' he remarked ruefully.
    
    Voice your opinion on these news issues here:
    
    https://www.ireland-information.com/newsletterboard/wwwboard.html
    
    ==============================
    NEW FREE RESOURCES AT THE SITE
    ==============================
    
    IRELAND HOUSE-SWAP LISTING
    
    We are working on the online program to allow you 
    to freely add and view details of other people who 
    are interested in this service.
    
    You can add your home-swap details to our new free 
    listing service at:
    
    https://www.ireland-information.com/irelandhouseswap.htm
    
    IRISH HOLIDAY AND TOURIST BOARD
    
    Post a question about holidaying in Ireland 
    and we guarantee an answer will be posted on 
    the board.
    
    https://www.ireland-information.com/irishholidays-irishtourist/irishtouristboard.html
    
    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:
    
    G: Gallen, Gaynor
    N: Neary
    P: Pigott, Pumphrey
    
    View the Gallery here:
    
    http://www.irishsurnames.com/coatsofarms/gm.htm
    
    THE PERFECT WEDDING, ANNIVERSARY OR BIRTHDAY GIFT!
    We now have over 100,000 worldwide names available.
    Get the Coat of Arms Print, Claddagh Ring,
    Screensaver, Watch, T-Shirt Transfer or Clock for
    your name at:
    
    https://www.irishnation.com/familycrestgifts.htm
    
    
    
    =================================================
    YOU CAN HELP TO KEEP THIS FREE NEWSLETTER ALIVE!
    
    Visit: 
    https://www.irishnation.com
    where you can get great Irish gifts, prints, 
    claddagh jewellery, engraved glassware and 
    much more.
    
    Anne MacDonald ordered a family crest plaque:
    
     Hello, Michael,
    
     Received my plaque, carefully wrapped, 
     in good order. It is splendid! I am 
     thrilled, and I know that my dad, for whose 
     81st birthday this was ordered, will love 
     it. I would like to order another one! 
    
     Everyone who has seen the plaque has been 
     really impressed, even those who, as my 
     daughter says are 'not into ancestor 
     worship!'
    
     Again, my hearty thanks for this 
     first-class product.
    
     Best wishes for happy holiday season.
    
     Sincerely, Anne MacDonald
    
    THE PERFECT WEDDING OR ANNIVERSARY GIFT!
    
    View family crest plaques here:
    
    https://www.irishnation.com/familycrestplaques.htm
    
    ==========================
    KEEP THIS NEWSLETTER ALIVE! 
    
    Visit: 
    https://www.irishnation.com
    ==========================
    
    ==========================================
    W.T. COSGRAVE - CHAMPION OF THE FREE STATE
    ==========================================
    
    W. T. Cosgrave was born in Dublin 1880. He joined 
    the Irish Volunteers in 1913, fought in Dublin 
    in the 1916 Easter Rising, and was captured and 
    condemned to death by the English. His sentence 
    was commuted to life in prison but he was released 
    and promptly won a parliamentary seat in a 1917 
    by-election for Sinn Fein. He repeated this 
    success in the 1918 General election. 
    
    January 21st 1919 is one of the most important 
    dates in Irish history as it was on that day that 
    Sinn Fein gathered in the Mansion House in Dublin 
    city centre and formed an 'Assembly of Ireland, 
    a parliament, which declared Ireland a republic 
    and independent from English rule. Cosgrave was 
    appointed by deValera as Minister for Local 
    Government in the now hunted government with the 
    job of organising non-cooperation with the British 
    authorities and establishing an alternative system 
    of government.
    
    The ensuing war of Independence ended with the 
    1921 Treaty and the subsequent split within the 
    nationalist movement. On one side were those 
    who followed deValera who refused to recognise 
    the partition of Ireland and the abandonment of 
    Ulster to the northern loyalists. On the other 
    side was those who supported Michael Collins who 
    viewed the Treaty as a stepping stone to full 
    independence. A bloody civil war ensued 
    culminating in the death of Collins and the 
    defeat of the deValera faction by the Free State 
    army. Cosgrave sided with Collins in opposing 
    deValera and assumed the leadership of the Free 
    State upon Collins death. He was now formally 
    the President of the Executive Council of the 
    Irish Free State.
    
    In 1923 he founded the pro-Treaty party Cumann 
    na nGaedheal. He was regarded as being effective 
    and efficient rather than flamboyant or 
    charismatic. He oversaw the formal establishment 
    of the structures of the state during this most 
    turbulent and crucial time in Irish history. 
    Many new European countries that formed in the 
    aftermath of the first world war shifted into 
    dicatatorship or even fascism. Cosgrave was 
    determined that Ireland should remain wholly 
    democratic. Nevertheless he oversaw a government 
    that ruthlessly executed without trial many of 
    his political and military opponents. 
    
    His determination to maintain the Free State as 
    a democratic institution is perhaps best 
    demonstrated by his overseeing of the peaceful 
    transition of power to deValera in 1932 after 
    the new Fianna Fail party had won the general 
    election of 1932. This was a pivotal moment in
    Irish history. The same soldiers and politicians 
    who has created a Free State after winning the 
    bitter Civil war only a few short years earlier 
    now peacefully handed the reins of power over to 
    the same people they had been fighting. It is to 
    Cosgrave's credit that he did not entertain the 
    rumblings of a military coup that circulated 
    among the army at the time.
    
    Cumann na nGaedheal was eventually transformed 
    into Fine Gael in 1933 with Cosgrave assuming 
    leadership of the party in 1935, remaining in 
    that role until 1944 when he retired. He died in 
    1965 and was awarded the honour of a State funeral 
    by his former nemesis Eamon deValera.
    
    It can be argued that the Free State managed by 
    Cosgrave was far more secular than the 
    Cathiolic-church dominated republic led by 
    deValera in later years. His establishment of 
    the framework of nationhood during his tenure 
    in charge was later acknowledged by deValera but 
    is perhaps not as well regarded or acknowledged
    by recent generations.
    
    ==========================
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    Visit: 
    https://www.irishnation.com
    ==========================
    
    ==============
    MY FINEST HOUR
    by Pat Watson
    ==============
    
    In the nineteen-forties cutting the turf was one 
    of the most important tasks of the year for most 
    families. Without turf there would be no cooking 
    or heating in the homes of Ireland. Considerable 
    planning went into the week on the bog as this 
    usually involved all hands, that is the entire 
    family, from the baby in the horses collar to the 
    daddy on the 'slane'. In between were the little 
    girls for looking after the fire, the cooking and 
    the baby, the middle boy for catching the sods 
    and filling the barrows, the older boy and the 
    mother for wheeling the barrow loads out the bog. 
    The bogs were divided in stripes about fifty 
    yards wide so there were several families within 
    sight of each other. Whatever anybody did, 
    everyone knew.
    
    In the Shannon valley, Roscommon, Westmeath, 
    Offaly, when the 'slanesman' threw up the sods 
    a boy caught them and placed them on the barrow 
    in well ordered symmetric double rows. Each row 
    had twelve sods and weighed nearly a hundred 
    weight. Barrow-men usually complained if more 
    than two rows were loaded on the barrow, as the 
    terrain was rough with clumps of caoibh and 
    heather. In other parts of the country, the 
    'slanesman' just threw the sods up on the bank 
    and somebody loaded the barrow with a pitchfork 
    in a somewhat higgledy-piggledy fashion. This 
    was how we found things east of the Sliabh Bloom 
    Mountains near Mountrath at the end of the 
    forties.
    
    My uncle had bought a farm there and come April 
    he employed a barrow-man and brought me as the 
    turf catcher. When I started catching the sods, 
    work ceased on every bank and a crowd gathered. 
    'Could I try that?' said a much older boy but 
    the sods slipped from his grasp. You could not 
    be up to the Connaught men, was the general 
    consensus. 
    
    This was my finest hour. Imagine a ten-year-old 
    boy being the envy of the whole bog. 
    Could things ever get better?
    
    
    'My Finest Hour ' 
    is one of sixty lyrical yarns from 
    'Original Irish Stories' by Pat Watson, 
    Creagh, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Ireland. 
    First published in May 2006.
    Visit: 
    http://www.myirishstories.com
    or you can email the author here:
    pjwatson@utvinternet.com
    
    ==========================
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    Visit: 
    https://www.irishnation.com
    =========================
    
    =================================================
    IRELAND TOURIST TIP: CAMPER-VAN & CARAVAN TOURING
    =================================================
    
    You wont see many Winnebagos cruising the roads 
    of Ireland and perhaps that is just as well 
    considering the small scale not just of the 
    country but of the secondary and regional roads. 
    The inter-city roads are greatly improved in 
    recent years which have allowed for a great 
    increase in the popularity of camper-van and 
    caravan touring. The Irish Caravan & Camping 
    Council operate a very useful website with links 
    to all of the major camping van parks. The site 
    also lists businesses who specialise in hiring 
    out camper vans and equipment.
    
    http://www.camping-ireland.ie
    
    So now you can tour the country without having 
    to keep to a hotel schedule!
    
    ===========================================
    IRISH FESTIVAL & CLAN GATHERING NOTICEBOARD
    ===========================================
    
    OTTAWA CELEBRATES ANGLO-CELTIC ROOTS
    ------------------------------------ 
    Ireland (north and south) is the focus of the 
    16th annual conference of the British Isles 
    Family History Society of Greater Ottawa 
    (BIFHSGO), and includes some presentations 
    marking 2010 Year of the British Home Child. 
    The three day genealogy conference (10-12 Sep.) 
    in Ottawa, Canada's beautiful capital, offers: 
    lectures by experts, educational events, access 
    to experienced researchers and data bases, 
    and a marketplace of related products and 
    services. 
    
    Visit for more: http://www.bifhsgo.ca 
    
    If you have an Irish festival or 
    event or a clan gathering notice 
    you would like included in the 
    newsletter do contact us:
    
    
    https://www.ireland-information.com/aboutus.htm
    ===========================
    GAELIC PHRASES OF THE MONTH
    ===========================
    
    PHRASE: 		Ta se a haon/do/tri a chlog
    PRONOUNCED:	taw shay a hane/doh/tree ah clug
    MEANING:		It is one/two/three o'clock
    
    PHRASE: 		Ta se a ceithir/cuig/se a chlog
    PRONOUNCED:	taw shay a kerr-ihh/koo-igg/shay a clug
    MEANING:		It is four/five/six o'clock
    
    PHRASE: 		Ta se a seacht/ocht/naoi a chlog
    PRONOUNCED:	taw shay shocked/ucked/knee a clug
    MEANING:		It is seven/eight/nine o'clock
    
    PHRASE: 		Ta se a deich/aon deag/do deag a chlog
    PRONOUNCED:	taw shay deh/ain djug/doh djug
    MEANING:		It is ten/eleven/twelve o'clock
    
    View the archive of phrases here:
    
    https://www.ireland-information.com/irishphrases.htm
    
    =======================
    JULY COMPETITION RESULT
    =======================
    
    The winner was: duval.patrick3@wanadoo.fr
    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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