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 The Information about Ireland Site Newsletter 
                  September 2007
 
The Newsletter for people interested in Ireland 
 Now received by over 50,000 people worldwide 
      http://www.ireland-information.com 
          http://www.irishnation.com
              Copyright (C) 2007  

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		IN THIS ISSUE
=== Foreword
=== News Snaps from Ireland 
=== New free resources at the site
=== Getting Connected	       by John B. McCabe
=== The Southern Irish during the Civil War
=== Who were the Black Irish?
=== Shamrock Site of the Month: celticattic.com
=== Gaelic Phrases of the Month
=== Monthly free competition result

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FOREWORD
========

Hello again from Ireland where the talk is of a 
slowing economy and what will happen next. For a 
country that has only recently experienced an 
economic boom the Irish are quick to jump on 
the 'gloom and doom' bandwagon!

Please do send us in a poem, story or article for 
inclusion in next months newsletter. Once it is 
about Ireland or the Irish then we would love to 
have it

Best from Ireland!

Michael


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or relatives who you think are interested in 
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NEWS SNAPS FROM IRELAND
=======================
 
INTERNATIONAL CREDIT CRUNCH HITS IRELAND

The recent turmoil in the US credit and housing 
markets has spread to Ireland and the UK where 
well established bank Northern Rock has been 
brought to its knees.

Scenes reminiscent from the 1930's were witnessed 
on Dublin's Harcourt Street where Northern Bank 
has its sole Irish branch. In the UK pictures of 
hundreds of people queueing outside branches all 
across Britain dominated the evening news. This 
was an old fashioned 'run' on the bank, the fifth 
largest mortgage lender in the UK. It took a 
declaration by the British Chancellor, Alastair 
Darling, that all savings were guaranteed by 
the Government before the panic subsided.

Despite reassurances by the Central Bank that 
Northern Rock was well funded and in no danger of
collapse, the fact that it had to offer the bank 
short term lending because of the international 
credit crunch sparked a wave of withdrawals by 
customers who just did not see any need to take 
a chance. It looks like Northern Rock, whose
share price has collapsed from £12 a share in 
2006 to £2 a share today, may now be sold on the 
cheap as its reputation has been destroyed

IRISH TEENAGERS FATTER THAN THEIR ANCESTORS

A public health conference held in University 
College Cork (UCC) has revealed that an average 
14-year old in Ireland now weighs 9.5 stone, 
compared to the 5.5 stone that his grandfather 
may have weighed in 1948. Modern teenagers are 
also taller by 9 inches at 5 foot 6 inches than 
their 1948 counterparts. A richer economy often 
means better nutrition and this was certainly 
the case in Ireland up until the 1970s. Since 
then however, the excesses of the economic boom 
have become apparent in the diet of the young. 
Diabetes in the adulthood of the fast food 
generation is expected to be one of the fastest 
growing diseases facing healthcare experts in 
the future.
  
LANGUAGE SKILLS NOW A REQUIREMENT FOR MIGRANTS

Migrants who have entered Ireland and who seek 
to become Irish citizens will in future be 
required to pass a language test. The issue of 
integration is very much to the forefront for 
immigrant and government groups alike and the 
proposed measure is intended to assist with the 
integration process. The Government also has 
one eye on the huge intellectual dividend that 
migrants can add to Ireland. Many of the Polish 
and eastern European migrants who have entered 
Ireland in recent years have University degrees 
but end up working in Coffee shops and the service 
industry simply because they can earn up to four 
times the weekly wage in Ireland than they might 
earn in their home country. Accessing this pool 
of talent and encouraging them into more 
challenging fields of employment is likely to be 
a key requirement if Ireland is to retain its 
economic competitiveness. The provision of 
language classes to immigrants is seen as one 
step along that road.

IRISH SMOKING BAN REDUCES HEART ATTACKS BY 10%

The ban on smoking in the workplace in 
Ireland has been credited with the reduction 
in heart attacks by its citizens of 10% a 
health conference has heard.

The ban on smoking has also led to a reduction 
in drinking in some categories as public houses 
continue to lose trade to off-licences.

AER LINGUS CERTAIN TO LEAVE SHANNON

Plans by Aer Lingus to leave Shannon airport and 
to set up a hew hub at Belfast are still on 
course despite a concerted campaign by business 
and local interests in the west of Ireland. Rival 
airline Ryanair has repeatedly tried to get an 
EGM of the company called where there is a good 
chance the decision to pull out of Shannon would 
be reversed. Aer Lingus management have so far 
fought off their bitter rival but the game is 
not up yet.

IRISH SOCCER SHAMBLES CONTINUES

Any hope of the Irish soccer team qualifying for 
the 2008 European Championships have all but 
evaporated after two dismal performances by the 
Irish team. A lame draw against a poor Slovakia 
side in Bratislava was followed up by a narrow 
1-0 defeat in Prague to the Czech Republic. The 
poor results in the qualifying campaign of the 
Irish team (including a defeat to Cyprus) have 
resulted in calls for the resignation of Irish 
manager Steve Staunton. It looks unlikely however 
that the FAI will bow to the pressure and only a 
home trouncing by Germany or a big defeat in 
Wales might jeopardise Stauntons job.


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NEW FREE RESOURCES AT THE SITE
==============================

FREE KIDS GAMES TO PRINT:

Go here to print off some simple games to teach 
kids about Ireland:

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NEW COATS OF ARMS ADDED TO THE GALLERY:

The following 6 coats of arms images and family
history details have been added to the Gallery:

B: Bircumshaw
C: Callin, McCool
F: Fee
K: Knowlson
M: Mountjoy

View the Gallery here:

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THE PERFECT WEDDING, ANNIVERSARY OR BIRTHDAY GIFT!
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GETTING CONNECTED		by John B. McCabe
=================

Dear Michael

Enclosed find new article for your newsletter.
In America the Electricity has been around for a 
long time. We owe it to the great inventor Thomas 
Alva Edison. In Ireland we have harnessed the 
waterways and have caught up with the rest of the 
world. 
 
However in the 1950's many parts of the country 
had no electricity. The 'Rurual Electrification 
Scheme' was initiated in the late nineteen 
fifties. Our home was connected in 1959. The 
enclosed article recounts the excitement of that 
event.

Hope this article evokes many memories for your 
Irish readers.
 
Regards
 
John B.

===

Some moments are burned into the soul and remain 
as permanent reference points for a life time. 
They are as great watersheds between distinct 
periods of evolution where nothing will ever be 
the same again. Such was the summer of nineteen 
fifty nine which saw the arrival of the rural 
electrification scheme to south Monaghan. Great 
debates were held about the advantages and costs 
involved in being connected up and many an 
argument raged among the townlands about whether 
or not to 'take the electricity'. My father who 
lived with a terrible fear of penury, a nervous 
disposition which left him indecisive and prone 
to forebodings of imminent disasters, advised 
against it. The expense was too much and he 
firmly believed that once people were lured into 
acceptance by the initial low cost attraction 
the price would soar and 'drive us out of house 
and home'.

Mammy was more optimistic and her determination 
and pride which would not allow us to be 'behind 
the times' won the day. She took the matter into 
her own hands and rode her bicycle all the way to 
Ballybay where she engaged an electrician to wire 
the house and be ready for connection when the 
power lines were switched on.

It was a scorching summer and longer than any I 
had ever remembered. Meteorological records can 
easily prove otherwise but for me it was the first 
summer of real awareness, of excitement, of new 
beginnings and so much was happening that year 
that it seemed like I had never been alive before 
or else had stepped over an unseen border into a 
more vibrant world.

Men came and put down marking pegs along the 
roadside verges and at intervals across the fields 
to indicate where holes were to be dug for the 
poles. Soon the countryside was littered with 
mounds of clay as if enormous rabbits had scooped 
out giant burrows in the night.

All was not throbbing with the pulse of progress. 
The rabbits had bred like wildfire in the previous 
months and populated the area in plague 
proportions, destroying crops, cratering the 
fields and fouling the pastures with millions of 
droppings.

Mixamatosis was introduced to eradicate the rabbit 
population with devastating consequences. The 
disease caused horrible swelling in the head and 
eyes of these animals and they wandered stupidly 
to their death, sometimes killed in their hundreds 
on the road way. We watched these pitiable 
creatures with their gigantic death laden eyes 
huddled in their dying thousands in every field 
and country laneway.

The electricity board had delivered supplies of 
pylons, stacked in groups of five or six at 
strategic intervals along the road. The scorching 
sun raised blisters of oozing tar from their pores. 
Nineteen fifty nine forever in my mind recalls the 
smell of melting tar and the feted stench of 
decomposing rabbits on the road.

A new craze took hold of every boy in our area that 
year. The magic of digging holes, erecting pylons, 
coupled with the giddy adventure of being an 
overhead linesman caught the imagination. 
Everywhere on farms holes were dug, strings strung 
from tree to tree and old lids and polish boxes 
improvised as switches.

My mother was none too pleased when my brother and 
I paused from our exertions of digging yet another 
great hole and tore our vests so we could more 
accurately mimic the sweating workers with their 
manly chests exposed to the sun.

When at last the power was switched on we were 
high with excitement and my father warned us of 
the dangers of electrocution. 'It's no toy to be 
tampered with', he said, as we argued which of us 
should switch on the light. Eventually we took it 
in turns to do so, night about, until it had lost 
its novelty.
	
I have always been amazed at how important changes 
within ourselves happen so unconsciously that we 
are never aware of the small day to day 
developments. Growing up, growing old, growing 
tall or growing fat - these are not observed in 
the gradual daily progress which is too small to 
measure but in relation to other objects, people 
or environments. The phenomenological reference for 
my growing up pertains to that simple exercise of 
putting on the light. Initially I had to stand on 
a chair, later on tip-toes and later again it was 
but a hand stretch away. I have much cause to 
wonder at the many other changes which have 
happened to me as imperceptibly but equally 
dramatically as the process of growing up.

The following year the Shankill power lines were 
begun. This was a new development linking two 
generating stations and brought new drama to my 
world.

Huge steel giants strode across the hills, 
towering over the tallest trees, marching through 
swamps and straddling ditches. They carried heavy 
power lines that hissed and sizzled in the frost. 
I had broken my wrist that year and I remember 
standing outside the back of our house watching 
these pylons being erected. They were planted in 
a concrete base and built piece by piece until the 
two great arms branched out to carry the top 
section. The one in our field was nearly eighty 
feet tall and it stood there begging to be 
climbed. And climbed it was! My brother did it - 
I only went up as far as the arms. He had a better 
head for heights than me and up he went until he 
was a small dark speck - ten years old and 
dangling his feet from the triangular corner with 
nothing beneath him but the certainty of death. 
He got down safely and I have nightmares to this 
day to prove it happened.

One Sunday we conquered a smaller pylon on 
Trainor's Hill and my uncle bellowed from half a 
mile away to 'come down ou'are that before yiz get 
kilt'. His grammar was off but his concern was 
genuine!

The giants are still standing and hissing at the 
sky - ugly and un-magical, monuments to a blind 
progress which so disfigures the beauty of the 
country's face.

John B. McCabe

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THE SOUTHERN IRISH DURING THE CIVIL WAR     
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by David Donehoo

Although it is quite well known there were several 
Irish brigades who fought for the North, little 
has been said about the contribution the Irish 
made to the Southern cause.

This of course seems odd to us who are of Irish 
heritage with deep roots in the South, since a 
large percentage of the people around us were 
also of Irish descent. Names like Coleman, Farrell, 
Adams, Campbell, Reed, Thompson, Sullivan, Early, 
so on and so on, made up a majority of the people 
in our little north Georgia town. 

The fact is that probably over 90% of the Southern 
population were of Scot/Irish/English descent. 
Because of this, and because these individuals 
groups were so well assimilated into the culture, 
there was little call or desire for brigades made 
up of particular nationalities.

It has been noted that the South was the only region
in the United States that ever developed a unique 
and homogeneous culture. That of course, is because 
of the common heritage that was shared by those who 
originally settled in this area. Attributes like 
chivalry, honor, loyalty and civility were simply 
considered a part of life. Those of Irish descent, 
as a result, were not thought of as an individual 
group to be looked down on or separated. On the 
contrary, they were thought of as the backbone of 
the South, it is no mistake that the heroine of 
'Gone With The Wind' was named Scarlett O'Hara.

The Irish of the North and South, although similar 
in many ways, did have some major differences. 
Most of the Irish in the South were descendants 
of the 'dispossessed Ulster Presbyterians of the 
Eighteenth Century'. Thus, they were among the 
early settlers in the Southern States. By the 
1780s my particular family 'Donehoo' had settled 
in South Carolina. Later on, before the Civil War 
began, they packed up and moved into North 
Georgia. The Irish in the South were extremely 
patriotic toward their newfound home. According to 
John Mitchel, a Protestant Irish nationalist of 
the time, they viewed the Confederacy as 'a 
surrogate Ireland, an agricultural society 
fighting for its way of life, for self-rule 
against an Anglo-Protestant industrial state, 
much like England'.

Most of the Irish in the North, unlike their 
brothers of the South, migrated to their newfound 
home in the nineteenth century, just prior to the 
War, and were Catholic. Being a minority at the 
time, many doors were closed to them and they 
experienced quite a bit of discrimination. When 
the war came along they saw an opportunity not 
only to distinguish themselves as Irish-Americans, 
but also to carve out a place in Northern society. 
Several Irish brigades were established as a 
result, and were honored for their bravery and 
loyalty. No one can deny the great contribution 
these men made to their country, but the Irish of 
the South were fighting for different reasons. 

They were fighting for their way for life, for 
their homes, and for their families and neighbors. 
I know that there are those who place a special 
emphasis on the fact that the North had several 
Irish Brigades made up of individuals who were 
actually born in Ireland. However, we in the South 
who are of Irish blood, also take great pride in 
the fact that our forefathers had the courage to 
fight an enemy who overwhelmed them in numbers and 
were better armed. In spite of the odds, these 
brave Irishmen fought and won many battles until 
they could simply go no further. My Grandfather 
described for me in detail what his Grandfather 
had told him about the terrifying sound of the 
'rebel yell' as it would grow to a deafening 
crescendo across the battlefield. In my mind's 
eye I can see those ancient Irish warriors 
charging across a vast open field, swords and 
lances in hand, to do battle with a great Roman 
army. We Southern Protestant Irish are very 
proud of our ancestors who were so willing to 
give their all for their homeland.

David Donehoo

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WHO WERE THE BLACK IRISH?
=========================

The term 'Black Irish' has commonly been in 
circulation among Irish emigrants and their 
descendants for centuries. As a subject of 
historical discussion the subject is almost 
never referred to in Ireland. There are a 
number of different claims as to the origin of 
the term, none of which are possible to prove 
or disprove.

'Black Irish' is often a description of 
people of Irish origin who had dark features, 
black hair, dark complexion and eyes. 

A quick review of Irish history reveals that 
the island was subject to a number of influxes 
of foreign people. The Celts arrived on the 
island about the year 500 B.C. Whether or not 
this was an actual invasion or rather a more 
gradual migration and assimilation of their 
culture by the natives is open to conjecture,
but there is sufficient evidence to suggest 
that this later explanation is more likely. 
The next great influx came from Northern 
Europe with Viking raids occurring as early 
as 795 A.D. The defeat of the Vikings at the 
Battle of Clontarf in the year 1014 by Brian 
Boru marked the end of the struggle with the 
invaders and saw the subsequent integration 
of the Vikings into Irish society. The migrants 
became 'Gaelicized' and formed septs (a kind 
of clan) along Gaelic lines. 

The Norman invasions of 1170 and 1172 led by 
Strongbow saw yet another wave of immigrants 
settle in the country, many of whom fiercely 
resisted English dominance of the island in
the centuries that followed. The Plantation of 
Ulster in the seventeenth century saw the 
arrival of English and Scottish colonists in 
Ulster after the 'Flight of the Earls'.

Each of these immigrant groups had their own 
physical characteristics and all, with the 
exception of the Ulster Planters, assimilated 
to some degree into Irish society, many 
claiming to be 'more Irish than the Irish 
themselves!' 

The Vikings were often referred to as the 
'dark invaders' or 'black foreigners'. The 
Gaelic word for foreigner is 'gall' and for 
black (or dark) is 'dubh'. Many of the 
invaders families took Gaelic names that 
utilised these two descriptive words. The 
name Doyle is in Irish 'O'Dubhghaill' which 
literally means 'dark foreigner' which 
reveals their heritage as an invading force 
with dark intentions. The name Gallagher is 
'O Gallchobhair' which translates as 'foreign 
help'. The traditional image of Vikings is of 
pale-skinned blond-haired invaders but their 
description as 'dark foreigners' may lead us 
to conclude that their memory in folklore 
does not just depend on their physical 
description.

The Normans were invited into Ireland by 
Dermot McMurrough and were led by the famous 
Strongbow. Normans are ultimately of French 
origin where black haired people are not 
uncommon. As with the Vikings these were 
viewed as a people of 'dark intentions' who 
ultimately colonised much of the Eastern 
part of the country and several larger 
towns. Many families however integrated 
into Gaelic society and changed their Norman 
name to Gaelic and then Anglo equivalents: 
the Powers, Fitzgeralds, 
Devereuxs, Redmonds.

It is possible that the term 'Black Irish' 
may have referred to some of these immigrant 
groups as a way of distinguishing them from 
the 'Gaels', the people of ultimately Celtic 
origin.

Another theory of the origin of the term 
'Black Irish' is that these people were 
descendants of Spanish traders who settled in 
Ireland and even descendants of the few 
Spanish sailors who were washed up on the 
west coast of Ireland after the disaster 
that was the 'Spanish Armada' of 1588. It is 
claimed that the Spanish married into Irish 
society and created a new class of Irish who 
were immediately recognisable by their dark 
hair and complexion. There is little evidence 
to support this theory and it is unlikely 
that any significant number of Spanish soldiers 
would have survived long in the war-torn place 
that was sixteenth century Ireland. It is  
striking though how this tale is very similar to 
the ancient Irish legend of the Milesians who 
settled in Ireland having travelled from Spain.

The theory that the 'Black Irish' are descendants 
of any small foreign group that integrated with 
the Irish and survived, is unlikely. It seems 
more likely that 'Black Irish' is a descriptive 
term rather than an inherited characteristic that 
has been applied to various categories of Irish 
people over the centuries.

One such example is that of the hundreds of 
thousands of Irish peasants who emigrated to 
America after the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849. 
1847 was known as 'black 47'. The potato blight 
which destroyed the main source of sustenance
turned the vital food black. It is possible that 
the arrival of large numbers of Irish after the 
famine into America, Canada, Australia and beyond 
resulted in their being labelled as 'black' in 
that they escaped from this new kind of black 
death. 

Immigrant groups throughout history have generally 
been treated poorly by the indigenous population 
(or by those who simply settled first). 
Derogatory names for immigrant groups are legion 
and in the case of those who left Ireland include 
'Shanty Irish' and almost certainly 'Black Irish'. 
It is also possible that within the various Irish 
cultures that became established in America that 
there was a pecking order, a class system that 
saw some of their countrymen labelled as 'black'.

The term 'Black Irish' has also been applied to 
the descendants of Irish emigrants who settled 
in the West Indies. It was used in Ireland by 
Catholics in Ulster Province as a derogatory term 
to describe the Protestant Planters.

While it at various stages was almost certainly 
used as an insult, the term 'Black Irish' has 
emerged in recent times as a virtual badge of 
honour among some descendants of immigrants. It 
is unlikely that the exact origin of the term 
will ever be known and it is also likely that it 
has had a number of different creations depending 
on the historical context. It remains therefore a 
descriptive term used for many purposes, rather 
than a reference to an actual class of people who 
may have survived the centuries.

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Wendy Walker of Columbia, Missouri got a
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SHAMROCK SITE OF THE MONTH:	CELTICATTIC.COM

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

PHRASE:		Gardai! Ta se prainneach. 
PRONOUNCED:	gard-ee! Taw shay pronn-ack
MEANING:	Police! It's an emergency. 

PHRASE:		Taim i gcruachais anois
PRONOUNCED:	tah-imm ih grew-cuss ah-nish
MEANING:	I need your help now

PHRASE:		Chaill me mo mhala. 
PRONOUNCED:	kyle may muh wall-ah/spar-awn/tick-aid
MEANING:	I lost my bag/wallet/ticket

View the archive of phrases here:

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

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

SEPTEMBER COMPETITION RESULT
============================

The winner was: borourke@tinyworld.co.uk
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.


http://www.ireland-information.com

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