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  The Information about Ireland Site Newsletter 
                   October 2008
 
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) 2008  

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		IN THIS ISSUE

=== News Snaps from Ireland 
=== New free resources at the site
=== Irish Halloween Traditions
=== Did Someone say Twins?
	by Josephine Doherty McTague 
=== Ireland House-Swap
=== A Biography of Sean Lemass
=== The Ghost Story by Pat Watson
=== Gaelic Phrases of the Month
=== Shamrock Site of the Month: Celticattic.com
=== Monthly free competition result

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FOREWORD
========

Hello from Ireland! It is hard to believe that 
10 years have passed since we sent out our very 
first newsletter. I want to take this opportunity 
to thank all of our contributors over the years 
for their stories, poems, articles and goodwill.

This month we are delighted to announce our new 
service for Irish tourists. Our new web-board 
guarantees you an answer! Unlike most other web 
forums that go unattended if you post a query to 
this board you WILL be answered - and its free!

Such has been the response to our 'house-swap' 
service that we have decided to expand it 
dramatically. The new site with house listings 
will go live shortly but you can still register 
your house or apartment for free - see below.

Finally I would like to invite you to enter a 
competition to win 1 of 5 copies of Pat 
Watson's book 'Original Irish Stories' which 
has 60 of his 'lyrical yarns'. This competition 
will be available for the next 3 days only and 
only to those readers who enter their email here:

https://www.ireland-information.com/cgi-bin/quickcompetition.cgi

Good Luck!

Michael

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

GOVERNMENT UNDER PRESSURE OVER BUDGET CUTBACKS

The recently announced annual budget of finances 
has been greeted with scorn from the opposition 
parties and street marches by disgruntled interest 
groups. First up were the pensioners who were 
unhappy about the fact that the automatic right to 
free medical service for the over-70s was being 
replaced by a 'means test' system which accounts 
for an applicants financial situation. 

The Government had initially proposed that an 
income level of just over the standard rate of 
pension would apply, meaning that all pensioners 
who received an alternative source of income 
would be excluded from getting the coveted 
'medical card'. It is estimated that over 15,000 
senior citizens attended the much publicized 
gathering outside Leinster House (the seat of the 
Irish parliament). The fact that the pensioners 
were able to travel from all corners of the island 
using free travel provided to them by the 
government was not missed by some commentators. 

It is doubtful if Fianna Fail will have 
appreciated the irony however, as they have 
damaged their credibility with their handling of 
this issue. They backed down under severe 
political and media pressure and changed the 
income threshold to 700 euro per week which 
effectively means that 95% of those who are 
already in receipt of a medical card will retain 
it. The only real success in this for the 
government is in having introduced the concept 
of 'means testing' for the medical card, rather 
than an automatic entitlement for those people 
over 70 years of age.

Targeting older people in order to balance the 
economic books is rarely a good idea however, and 
it is likely that Fianna Fail will pay for this 
debacle at next years local and European 
elections. The fact that the country is now in 
dire need of financial restraint seems to have 
been lost on the opposition parties and the media, 
both of whom are practically giddy at the 
Governments discomfort.

Students were on the march also, complaining about 
the increase in their university fees. Farmers 
promise protests in the coming weeks, fearful that 
their overall income is to be drastically cut by 
budgetary cutbacks.

Another main platform of the recent budget was a 1% 
levy on all income to be paid by everyone earning 
up to 100,000 euro. Those earning over that amount 
would pay 2%. Hot stuff, except that the government 
then rowed back and declared that those on the 
minimum wage would be excluded. It is likely that 
the higher threshold for moving from the lower rate 
to the higher rate will be reduced to make up for 
this concession.

Other unpopular features of the tightest budget in 
decades include:

* 10 Euro airport departure levy for those flying 
  out of Ireland
* Motor tax up by as much as 5%
* Petrol hiked 8 cents per litre.
* VAT (sales tax) on retail purchase increased by 
  half percent to 21.5%
* 'Second home' tax of 200 euro per year, whether 
  the property is in Ireland or abroad.

IRELAND THE FIRST TO GUARANTEE ALL BANK DEPOSITS

In an unusually bold show of action by an Irish 
government Ireland became the first country in 
the world to have all of its citizens bank 
deposits guaranteed by its government. Bank 
officials had been in crisis talks with officials 
from the Deparment of Finance about the 
possibility of an Irish bank collapse. The 
guarantee had the short-term effect of preventing 
an old-fashioned 'run' on any of the banks, but it 
did little to reduce negative sentiment alluding 
to an Irish bank collapse. Despite continued 
statements from both the banks and the Irish 
financial regulator that the Irish banks are very 
well capitalised there are still fears that the 
acquisition of a direct capital stake in any or 
several of the main Irish banks by the government 
is still on the cards.

The unprecedented decision by the Irish 
government was greeted with disdain by some of its 
fellow EU partners. The UK were particularly 
miffed that deposits from some of their banks were 
now flooding into Irish banks, basking in their 
newly 'guaranteed' status. The French president, 
Nicolas Sarkozy even went as far as to blame 
Ireland directly for the financial liquidity 
problems being faced in London as cash made its 
way across the Irish Channel. 

Despite the fact that the bank guarantee was 
quickly copied by dozens of other countries around 
the world, the current President of the EU was 
barely able to contain his dismay at the 
'problematic' Irish. He promised that the EU would 
'work on a road map to see how we can deal with 
the Irish problem'.

Such rhetoric is only likely to fuel anti-EU 
sentiment in Ireland, which has been gathering 
pace since the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. The 
utter disrespect shown by the majority of EU 
leaders for the Irish vote is unlikely to be 
forgotten should the beleaguered Irish government 
attempt a second Lisbon referendum.

ECONOMY CONTINUES TO SLIP

Consumer spending has fallen 6% in the last year 
according to the Central Statistics Office. The 
August decline was the biggest since 1984!

Unemployment has risen to 6.3% in October, up from 
4.8% in January, still a relatively low rate but 
the upward trend is worrying.

LIGHT BULBS TO BE BANNED BY MARCH 2009

The use of high-energy light bulbs of over 
75 Watts is to be banned from next year with the 
gradual phasing out of incandescent bulbs in favour 
of low-energy fluorescent bulbs.

IRISH SOCCER TEAM PROGRESS IN WORLD CUP GAMES

The Irish soccer team have gotten off to a great 
start it their quest to qualify for the world cup 
finals to be held in South Africa in 2010. A recent 
defeat of Georgia and a draw with Montenegro was 
followed up with a hard-earned 1-0 victory over 
Cyprus at Croke Park. Damien Duff combined with 
Robbie Keane to provide the only goal of the 
match, although Ireland did enjoy the better of 
the chances. Anyone who thinks that Cyrpus are a
pushover should recall that this is the team that 
hammered Ireland 5-2 only 2 seasons ago. Ireland's 
main opposition in qualifying group 8 is Italy, 
who top the group with 10 points from 4 games, 
and Bulgaria who have only 3 points from 3 games. 
Ireland currently have 7 points from 3 matches. 
All to play for!


Voice your opinion on these news issues here:

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

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IRELAND HOUSE-SWAP LISTING

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home for a house-swap:

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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:

A: Avery
I: Innes
M: Montague, Morley
T: Toohey

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==========================
IRISH HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS
==========================

The Celts celebrated Halloween as Samhain, 'All 
Hallowtide' - the 'Feast of the Dead', when the 
dead revisited the mortal world. The celebration 
marked the end of Summer and the start of the 
Winter months. 

During the eighth century the Catholic Church 
designated the first day of November as 'All 
Saints Day' ('All Hallows') - a day of 
commemoration for those Saints that did not have
a specific day of remembrance. The night before 
was known as 'All Hallows Eve' which, over time, 
became known as Halloween.

Here are the most notable Irish Halloween 
Traditions:

Colcannon for Dinner: Boiled Potato, Curly Kale 
(a cabbage) and raw Onions are provided as the 
traditional Irish Halloween dinner. Clean coins 
are wrapped in baking paper and placed in the 
potato for children to find and keep.

The Barnbrack Cake: The traditional Halloween 
cake in Ireland is the barnbrack which is a 
fruit bread. Each member of the family gets a 
slice. Great interest is taken in the outcome as 
there is a piece of rag, a coin and a ring in
each cake. If you get the rag then your financial 
future is doubtful. If you get the coin then you 
can look forward to a prosperous year. Getting 
the ring is a sure sign of impending romance 
or continued happiness.

The Ivy Leaf: Each member of the family places a 
perfect ivy leaf into a cup of water and it is 
then left undisturbed overnight. If, in the 
morning, a leaf is still perfect and has not 
developed any spots then the person who placed the
leaf in the cup can be sure of 12 months health 
until the following Halloween. If not.....

The Pumpkin: Carving Pumpkins dates back to the 
eighteenth century and to an Irish blacksmith 
named Jack who colluded with the Devil and was 
denied entry to Heaven. He was condemned to 
wander the earth but asked the Devil for some
light. He was given a burning coal ember which he 
placed inside a turnip that he had gouged out.

Thus, the tradition of Jack O'Lanterns was born 
- the bearer being the wandering blacksmith - a 
damned soul. Villagers in Ireland hoped that the 
lantern in their window would keep the wanderer 
away. When the Irish emigrated in their millions 
to America there was not a great supply of turnips 
so pumpkins were used instead.

Halloween Costumes: On Halloween night children 
would dress up in scary costumes and go house to 
house. 'Help the Halloween Party' and 'Trick or 
Treat' were the cries to be heard at each door. 
This tradition of wearing costumes also dates back 
to Celtic times. On the special night when the
living and the dead were at their closest the 
Celtic Druids would dress up in elaborate costumes 
to disguise themselves as spirits and devils in 
case they encountered other devils and spirits 
during the night. By disguising they hoped that
they would be able to avoid being carried away at 
the end of the night. This explains why witches, 
goblins and ghosts remain the most popular 
choices for the costumes.

Snap Apple: After the visits to the neighbours the 
Halloween games begin, the most popular of which 
is Snap Apple. An apple is suspended from a string 
and children are blindfolded. The first child to 
get a decent bite of the apple gets to keep their 
prize. The same game can be played by placing 
apples in a basin of water and trying to get a
grip on the apple without too much mess!

The Bonfire: The Halloween bonfire is a tradition 
to encourage dreams of who your future husband or 
wife is going to be. The idea was to drop a 
cutting of your hair into the burning embers and 
then dream of you future loved one. Halloween was 
one of the Celt 'fire' celebrations. 

Blind Date: Blindfolded local girls would go out 
into the fields and pull up the first cabbage they 
could find. If their cabbage had a substantial 
amount of earth attached to the roots then their 
future loved one would have money. Eating the 
cabbage would reveal the nature of their future
husband - bitter or sweet!
 
Another way of finding your future spouse is to 
peel an apple in one go. If done successfully the 
single apple peel could be dropped on the floor 
to reveal the initials of the future-intended. 

Anti-Fairy Measures: Fairies and goblins try to 
collect as many souls as they can at Halloween but 
if they met a person who threw the dust from under 
their feet at the Fairy then they would be obliged 
to release any souls that they held captive.

Holy water was sometimes anointed on farm animals 
to keep them safe during the night. If the animals 
were showing signs of ill health on All Hallows 
Eve then they would be spat on to try to ward off 
any evil spirits.

Happy Halloween from Ireland!

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

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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, 
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 81st birthday this was ordered, will love 
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 Best wishes for happy holiday season.

 Sincerely, Anne MacDonald

THE PERFECT WEDDING OR ANNIVERSARY GIFT!

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============================
DID SOMEONE SAY TWINS?
by Josephine Doherty McTague 
============================

James was sent to meet the midwife and assist her 
in anyway possible. He was a lean lad of seven 
years and walked briskly to meet Nora Stanton, 
the neighborhood midwife. The sheet had been put 
on the bush to give signal to the midwife that 
the time for help was at hand. James' mother was 
in labor with her fifth child. Nora Stanton was 
walking across the green fields towards the 
Kearns Homestead in Fargureens, a small village 
outside Balla, in County Mayo. James saw her 
coming in the distance and ran to meet her and 
carry her black bag. They walked up the road 
together. Mrs. Stanton entered the house and put 
on her white starched apron. Soon Delia Riley, 
the second neighborhood midwife, arrived and did 
the same.

Inside the three room cottage, Ellen (Kilgallon) 
Kearns was in labor assisted by her mother, 
Bridget Kilgallon. Thomas (Dan) Kearns, the man 
of the house was nearby. James joined his sisters 
Bridie, Lena, and Kathleen and played outside. 
They were not to come in the house. They had to 
wait for the new baby. An older cousin from 
America had been visiting that day and was 
summoned to play with the Kearns children on that 
particular day. Bridie the oldest daughter 
remembered the fun and excitement of having 
someone older to play with.

The white aprons for the midwives had been ready 
for days. The large pot of water was on to boil 
in the fireplace. The midwives were attentive. 
The labor for Ellen went on. Finally, after a 
few hours, a baby girl was born. Anne was her 
name. Now the count of the Kearns Family was one 
boy and four girls. After washing the new baby 
and wrapping her up tightly, Nora and Delia took 
off their aprons and went into the kitchen for a 
cup of tea. Minutes later, Ellen called from her 
bed in the upper room, 
'Put back on those aprons, 
I think there is another baby coming!' 

The midwives donned their aprons in a panic. Sure 
enough in a few minutes a second baby was born. 
Margaret was greeted with shouts of glee. 
'It's a girl, again!' 
From the doorway of the thatched cottage, it was 
announced, 
'Twins, twins! Your mom has had twins!' 
Bridie, the oldest girl and only six at the time 
had never heard the word 'twins.' She thought the 
midwife was saying WINS. Wins to Bridie was a 
thorny bush found on the hillside. Bridie thought, 
'What in the world is that woman talking about?' 

All the children were invited in to meet their two 
new sisters Ann and Margaret and to finally see 
their mother. They looked down in awe at the two 
bundles. James secretly had been desperately 
hoping for a new brother. Without any hesitation, 
he blurted out, 
'If I knew there were two girls in Mrs. Stanton's 
black bag, I would have thrown the bag in Riley's 
ditch.' 

James, after his initial disappointment grew to 
love his new sisters. The twins were an added joy 
to the growing Kearns Family and the word 'twins' 
would be repeated quite often in the Kearns 
country household.

===

This story was told to me by my mother, 
Bridie Kearns Doherty.
Retold and written by Josephine Doherty McTague

==================
IRELAND HOUSE-SWAP
==================

We had a great response to our article about 
house-swapping which you can view in a 
recent newsletter:


https://www.ireland-information.com/jul08.htm

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

==========================
A BIOGRAPHY OF SEAN LEMASS
==========================

Sean Lemass was Taoiseach (leader) of Ireland 
from 1959 to 1966. He is regarded by many 
historians as the greatest of all political 
leaders of Ireland and is credited with laying 
the foundations of the modern economic success 
in Ireland.

Born in Dublin in 1899 Lemass was a veteran of the 
Easter Rising in 1916. He fought in the War of 
Independence and was imprisoned in Ballykinlar in 
County Down for a year. He opposed the Anglo-Irish 
Treaty and fought against the Michael Collins Free 
State in the subsequent Civil War. He was among 
the rebels who occupied the Four Courts which 
were famously bombed by the Free State forces. He 
was again interned in Mountjoy and the Curragh. 

He was first elected to the Irish parliament in 
1924 as member of Sinn Fein and was re-elected 
from his Dublin South constituency at every 
election that followed, up until his retirement 
in 1969. With DeValera he was a founder member of 
the new Fianna Fail party in 1926 which had 
abandoned armed struggle in favour of using 
political means to achieve its goals. He served 
as Minister for Commerce, Minister for Supplies 
and finally as Tanaiste (Deputy-Taoiseach) before 
being elected leader in 1959. His dealings in 
economic matters on behalf of the State were to 
serve him well. 

Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s was an economic 
wasteland with little industry and huge 
emigration. Costello worked incessantly to develop 
industry and trade. His Programme for Economic 
Development saw the creation of Bord na Mona, Aer 
Lingus and the Irish Shipping industry. He worked 
to develop and expand the tourist industry, to 
extend the supply of electricity countrywide, to 
develop the sugar industry, and a myriad of other 
schemes and developments.

Irish society was changing at a rapid pace, with 
RTE being set up in 1961. The old conservatism 
was being challenged as never before. Ireland had 
applied for membership of the EEC and was becoming 
part of the wider modern European society.

Lemass favoured an attitude of co-operation with 
the new political entity that was Northern Ireland. 
In 1965 he became the first Irish leader to visit 
Stormont for talks with Prime Minister Terence 
O'Neill. The subsequent controversy as well as 
failing health may have convinced him that it was 
time to step down.

Sean Lemass retired as Taoiseach in 1966 and 
eventually retired from politics in 1969. 
He died in 1971.

His legacy of economic reform in Ireland is 
perhaps his greatest achievement and is being 
evidenced in the economic boom which began in 
the mid-1990s.

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

===============
THE GHOST STORY
by Pat Watson
===============

It was a frosty night in January in the year of 
Our Lord nineteen hundred and nine. Bill was the 
church caretaker in this half parish. The priest 
only rode his horse out here on Sunday to read 
Mass or for funerals. This was one such day as 
this evening the remains of old Granny Smith had 
come to the chapel. Coffins were left in the back 
of the chapel overnight. He had locked the church 
earlier at ten and had only come out to look at 
the cows before going to bed. It was just after 
midnight. Was that a noise he heard in the church?

It couldn't possibly be as he had barred the 
double doors on the inside before exiting through 
the sacristy door, which he locked with the key. 
Why he still had it in his pocket. Just the same, 
it was only twenty yards to the double doors, he 
would have a look. Halfway there he felt a bit 
eerie so he called out. 

'Is there anyone there?' The only reply he got 
was a creaking door. As he moved into the shadow 
he could see that one of the double doors was 
half open. What the hell? He stopped in his 
tracks. He peeped in the door, he could not see, 
he pushed in the door a bit farther. He looked 
over to where the coffin was left on trestles. 
Good God! The old woman was sitting up in the 
coffin. He could see her by the moonlight that 
came through the stained glass windows. He could 
feel his hair stand on end. She had her head on 
the end of the coffin with her two arms hanging 
over the sides. The lid of the coffin was 
standing up against a pillar. 

'Did that lid move?' He thought it did. 
'Don't be daft' he told himself, coffin lids don't 
move on their own accord. There, it moved again, 
it had feet, little bare feet! He looked back to 
the coffin. It had legs, two bare legs. Had the 
old woman put her legs down through the bottom 
of the coffin? The legs had a white shroud 
dangling to the knees. Bill was rooted to the 
spot. Sheer terror froze him. Then a white cowl 
appeared over the edge of the coffin. He felt its 
eyes peering.

A great unearthly shriek emanated from the cowl. 
It sounded like r-u-n-f-o-r y-o-u-r l-i-f-e. So 
screaming, the white ghost emerged from behind the 
coffin and headed straight for Bill at the open 
door. A black ghost who came from behind the lid 
chased him. Bill collapsed into the back seat just 
in time to avoid been trampled on by the screaming 
ghosts. They went through the opening like bats 
out of hell. Had he really collapsed? Or did they 
run through him? He just didn't know any more. He 
was glad that the shrieks were receding into the 
distance. He hoped he had seen the last of them. 
His hair was still on end. It had probably turned 
white.

A few people who lived near the road thought they 
heard screaming, but they could not be sure. Some 
thought they dreamt it. Not so John and Stephen 
who were coming home with a good few pints on 
them. They saw the ghosts all right. They passed 
them on the road at great speed. Their shrieks 
had subsided by then. They disappeared after 
crossing the dragon stream, near old Granny 
Smith's house. 

John spent the rest of his life, which wasn't 
very long, mumbling in a drunken haze. Stephen 
on the other hand took the pledge the very next 
day and never drank again for the remaining 
thirty years of his life. Indeed, it was 
rumoured that he confided to his good wife that 
he saw the devil chasing his soul across the 
dragon stream and that he promised God that if he 
gave him another chance, he would never drink again.

Meanwhile back at the church, Bill sat in a trauma 
trance, silently invoking God, His Blessed Mother 
and every saint in creation. Eventually, his heart 
slipped back out of his mouth and began to beat 
normally, his hair lay down again and the sweat 
all over his body began to cool. Some of his 
reason returned. The small stipend he received as 
church caretaker made the difference between him 
being a poor small farmer and a very poor small 
farmer. His 'gossans' were serving Mass and doing 
well at school. He might even make a priest out 
of one of them yet. That would give him real 
stature in the parish. Fear or no fear, he had to 
keep his job and that meant keeping the church 
locked and corpses in their coffins. He got up, 
his knees were shaking, his hands were shaking, 
yet he closed the double oak doors, the handles 
of which were u-shaped made to line up with 
similar u-shapes on the frames when the doors 
were closed. Into those slots he dropped the six 
by three polished oak plank that was made for 
the purpose. This made the whole thing rock 
solid. Hopefully it would keep out the ghosts 
if they returned.

He then went to the coffin, put back the arm on 
the right, walked round, put back the other arm, 
then down to the foot where he caught the two 
ankles and pulled the old woman back into the 
coffin. Her head bounced off the bottom with a 
thud, no lining in the coffins of the poor, not 
even a fist full of sawdust. He then rearranged 
her habit just for decency. He peered behind the 
lid, just in case, then picked it up and put it 
on the coffin. The wooden dowels for holding it 
on were under the trestles. He put them in 
position, pulled off one boot to tap them home. 
He replaced the boot, now for the walk up the full 
length of the church to the sacristy.

He could not look both sides at once and ghosts 
might emerge from the shadows of the seats at 
any time. The red sanctuary lamp looked down. 
Its dull light mingling with the dim moonlight 
making the whole scene eerie, unreal, ghostly 
even.

He could hear his own breathing, his heart was 
pounding again, the sound of his own footsteps 
unnerved him, but finally he reached the 
sacristy. He rushed in, unlocked the outer door, 
dashed out and locked the door behind him. He 
had done his duty. He would keep his job. Nobody 
would ever know what happened here.

Having broken the ice on the barrel under the 
eve, he washed death from his hands, wiped them 
in his trousers and tiptoed back into his house. 
Everybody was still asleep. He had not been 
missed. As he crept into bed beside his sleeping 
wife his courage and reason returned. Why had the 
ghosts left the dowels under the trestles? Had 
they intended to replace the lid? If so, why? Why 
were they so small? Perhaps they were not ghosts 
at all. The Granny had only been rescued from the 
poor-house because of the new five-shilling old 
age pension. By the time they had brought her 
home ten miles on the ass's cart she had the 
rattles in her throat. She died the next day. 
One five-shilling pension was all they got. It 
wouldn't half pay for the drink at the wake. And 
another thing!

He had heard that the she was laid out on a 
linen sheet on the kitchen table. No one 
belonging to them ever owned a linen sheet, 
no, nor even a flour bag sheet. That's where 
unrestrained young love led to, poverty and want. 
Where would they have got the sheet? Where! Only 
on loan from their cousin who worked in the big 
house? It would have to be returned even if 
through drink or pride the undertaker was allowed 
to put it in the coffin with the old woman. If 
two grandchildren hid in the church wrapped in 
granny's black shawl they could remove the sheet 
when everyone was in bed. If they were disturbed 
in their weird work, might they not have wrapped 
themselves in the sheet and the shawl and run 
screaming from the scene? Had he solved the 
puzzle? He would confront the children after the 
funeral tomorrow and confirm his suspicions. 
Until he had talked to the children he would not 
mention any of this to a soul. He had a long wait. 
He would never be sure.

The children weren't at the funeral, sick, someone 
said. He supposed they got cold in the church, he 
would see them at Mass on Sunday. They didn't 
come, still sick? He never saw them again. 
Consumption took them with the blooming of the 
daffodils, only twelve hours apart. They were 
buried together beside the Granny. 

'Maybe it was ghosts that night after all. 
Maybe it was the children. Maybe, just maybe they 
should have let the dead rest? Maybe just maybe 
we should do the same?'

May they all stay resting in peace!       

===
'The Ghost Story' 
is one of sixty lyrical yarns from 
'Original Irish Stories' by Pat Watson, 
Creagh, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Ireland. 
First published in March 2006.
Get your copy from here:
http://www.myirishstories.com

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

PHRASE:	 	Oiche Shamhna
PRONOUNCED:	ee-ha how-nah
MEANING:		Halloween (the night before Samhain)

PHRASE:		Tabhair feirin dom no buailfidh me bob ort! 
PRONOUNCED:	tour ferr-een dum no booligg may bob urt
MEANING:		Trick or Treat 
	(give me a treat or I will play a trick on you!)

PHRASE:		Tine cramha/Cailleach/Taibhse
PRONOUNCED:	tinneh cravh-sheh/coll-yuk/tavh-sheh
MEANING:		Bonfire/Witch/Ghost


View the archive of phrases here:

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

===========================================
SHAMROCK SITE OF THE MONTH: CELTICATTIC.COM
===========================================

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Phone orders 360-765-0186

==========================
OCTOBER COMPETITION RESULT
==========================

The winner was: blueisa@gmx.at
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.

Here's to another 10 years!

Michael Green,
Editor,
The Information about Ireland Site.

https://www.ireland-information.com

Click here to contact us