News from the Old Sod

RESERVE POLICE FORCE TO BE SET UP IN IRELAND

A voluntary reserve police force to complement
the Garda Siochana presence on the streets has
been announced by the Minister for Justice. Up
to 900 volunteer reservists are expected to be
recruited during 2006.

Garda senior officials have big doubts about the
scheme and are especially worried that the reserve
force could be infiltrated by subversives and
criminals. It has been speculated that the measure
is in response to Sinn Fein attempts to introduce
community policing in Catholic areas of Northern
Ireland, and that similar moves may be made in
the South.

EARLY ELECTION SEEMS UNLIKELY

The Fianna Fail and PD coalition looks set to run
it terms with an election likely to be held in the
early part of 2007. Recent opinion polls have been
very good news for Bertie Ahearn's government who
took a hammering in the recent local and European
elections. The imminent maturity of the
part-government funded special savings accounts
(SSIAs) over the next 15 months will further add
to the 'feel good' factor among the Irish
electorate.

The opposition Labour and Fine Gael parties have
already signalled their intent to present their
parties as a potential alternative to the current
government. Labour in particular have been
recently modifying their stance on immigration
with a view to wooing those moderate voters who
may be disillusioned with the current setup.

Sinn Fein continue to do well in the opinion polls
although quite how this will translate into
parliament seats won remains to be seen. The party
has been criticized recently for its proposals to
increase corporate tax from 12% to 17.5% (a move
which would hamper foreign investment in Ireland)
and the implementation of a 50% income tax rate on
earners of over EURO 100,000 per annum.

ILLEGAL MUSIC DOWNLOADING TACKLED

A judge has ordered several Irish internet service
providers to release the names and addresses of 49
Irish people who are suspected of illegally
sharing and downloading music from the internet.
Thousands of songs have been uploaded and
downloaded without any payment being made to the
copyright owners of the music. Legal action by the
music companies against the named individuals is
now imminent.

M50 MOTORWAY TO BE UPGRADED

Work on the upgrade to the notorious M50 ring-road
around Dublin is to get underway this year. An
extra 24km of traffic lanes as well as a revamping
of the most heavily used interchanges are to be
provided by the year 2010 at a cost of EURO 1.5bn.

The government is expected to 'buy out' the
company who operate the toll-plaza near the
Blanchardstown exit and replace it with some form
of automatic tolling. peak-time congestion on the
motorway is now so heavy that Dubliners commonly
refer to the motorway as 'Europe's largest
car-park'.

NEW IRISH SOCCER MANAGER IS UNVEILED

In a surprise move by the Football Association of
Ireland Steve Staunton has been unveiled as the
new manager of the Irish soccer team. He will
be assisted by former England manager Bobby Robson
who was most recently involved in football as
manager of Newcastle United. He also brought
England to the brink of world cup success in 1991
before his team were beaten on penalties in the
semi-final.

Staunton is Ireland's most capped player and is
quite popular among the Irish public. The main
concern with his appointment however is his lack
of managerial experience. His only previous
managerial role is that of assistant manager at
lowly Walsall. How he copes with the big-earning
and big ego Premiership players who were recently
his teammates remains to be seen.

TOUGH DRAW FOR IRELAND IN EURO 2008 QUALIFIERS

Ireland have been handed a tough task if they are
to qualify for the 2008 European championships to
be held in Austria and Switzerland.

Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Wales,
Cyprus and San Marino join Ireland in Group D with
the top two teams certain of qualification.

Croke Park has been made available by the GAA for
2 rugby and 3 Soccer internationals during 2007.
The ground will be rented out to the FAI and the
IRFU for 25% of the gate receipts. The prospect of
up to 75,000 Irish fans cheering on the boys in
green against Germany and the Czechs is eagerly
anticipated.

OBESITY CRISIS IN IRELAND

The modern obesity crisis that has hit the Western
world has not bypassed Ireland. It is estimated
that there are now over 300,000 overweight and
obese children in this country.

AER ARANN TAKES ON RYANAIR

The Irish airline Aer Arann is taking on Ryanair
in the budget airfares stakes. It is expanding its
fleet by EURO 150M which represents the third
largest aircraft order ever by an Irish airline.
The airline currently operates flights to 13 UK,
3 French and 5 Irish destinations.

MICHAEL COLLINS WHISKEY TO BE LAUNCHED

A new whiskey bearing the name of the famous Irish
revolutionary leader is to be launched into the US
market. The Independent distiller Cooley is to
market the product complete with a signature on the
bottle of 'the big fella', similar to that which
appears on the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.


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Maynooth College

Maynooth College was founded in 1795 as a seminary for the education of priests and it soon grew to be very large. Over its history it has ordained more than 11,000 priests. Many of these have ministered outside Ireland and it has inspired two major missionary societies, directed to China (1918) and to Africa (1932).

The College was founded because it was urgently needed. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it had not been possible to educate Catholic priests in Ireland. Institutions had been established in Catholic Europe, where they had become concentrated in France. The French Revolution confiscated all of these in 1792 and 1793. In Ireland the Penal Code was being dismantled, and the British Government, at war with revolutionary France, was anxious to placate Irish Catholic dissatisfactions, and certainly did not wish to see 'revolutionary' priests returning from the continent. In consequence, a petition to Parliament by the Irish Catholic Bishops was successful, and 'An Act for the better education of persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion' was passed in June 1795. It provided a modest grant to establish a college.

The Bishops began to look for a site. It was desirable that the College be near Dublin, but they found themselves not exactly welcome in several desirable locations. They settled on Maynooth because the local magnate, the Duke of Leinster, was benevolent, and his Duchess even more so. This more than compensated for the fact that Maynooth was a little more distant from the city than they would have wished. The College opened in the autumn of 1795 in a house recently built by John Stoyte, steward of the Duke. Though heavily remodelled in the 1950s, it is still distinguishable as the projection on the row of buildings facing the front gate, and it is still called Stoyte House.

Maynooth and the Fitzgeralds

Maynooth is a historic spot. It is Mag Nuadat, the plain of Nuada, a name that bulks large in early Leinster legend. But above all it is associated with the Fitzgeralds. This association began in 1176, when Maurice Fitzgerald was granted a manor there by Strongbow as King of Leinster. He began to fortify the spot where a small tributary joins the Lyreen river. The great keep had risen before 1200, and in 1248 a chapel is mentioned in the complex of buildings. In all probability it was on the site of the present Church of Ireland.

Created Earls of Kildare in 1316, the power of the Fitzgeralds peaked with Garrett Mór (1478-1513) and Garrett Óg (1513-34). When a complaint was made to the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, that 'all Ireland cannot rule this man' he is reputed to have replied 'then this man shall rule all Ireland'. It was a situation the King had to tolerate. Ireland was indeed 'ruled from Maynooth'. The Great Earl - and perhaps even more so his son Garrett Óg - seemed able to combine control of Irish tribal policies with a wider European vision, instanced by such things as the library they assembled at Maynooth and the claim to fraternal kinship with patricians such as the Gherardini of Florence. So, when Garrett Óg decided to set up a church where priests would pray for his father's soul, it should be no cause of surprise that there were hints of hopes it might develop into that centre of higher education Ireland had always lacked. When the College of St. Mary was established in 1518 the Fitzgeralds were on the crest of a wave. It would seem certain that it occupied the site of the Church of Ireland and the adjacent tower beside the front gate.

It all went badly wrong. The second Tudor King, Henry VIII, was not prepared to let the Fitzgeralds 'rule all Ireland'. Garrett Óg was summoned to London. He left his son Thomas in charge. The epithet 'Silken Thomas' is a piece of bardic whimsy that does not do him justice. Neither does the legendary image of his playing his lute under the great yew tree still known as 'Silken Thomas's tree'. (It stands on the left of the path leading up from the College gate.) Tree experts are agreed that it was there in his time and indeed well before him, but historians, while not necessarily denying the image of the lute-player, have to insist that Fitzgerald heirs had more serious preoccupations, especially in dangerous times. The revolt he led was a deliberate attempt to assert Fitzgerald indispensability. But the great castle was battered into submission and the garrison massacred. Already Garrett Óg had died in the Tower of London 'of thought and pain'. Thomas surrendered and was executed at Tyburn with his five uncles. The sole survivor, a child half-brother, was spirited abroad into Italy. But his restoration began in 1552 and he was the founder of a line that was content with the new pattern of court nobility. In the mid-eighteen century Carton and Leinster House (now the seat of the Oireachtas) showed off their glory. James the twentieth earl was created Duke of Leinster in 1766. His son William Robert, the second Duke, was the protector of the fledgling 'Catholic College' in 1795.

St. Joseph's Square

Students flocked in. The problem was to find staff and to put roofs over heads. A long wing was run out from Stoyte House, called, not very imaginatively, Long Corridor. It was begun in 1798, and it might be said that each room was occupied as soon as it became ready. Today it looks very new, because it was heavily remodelled in the 1950s. The authorities had in mind to build a square, and the north side was completed in 1809, not without serious financial anxiety. Again, not very imaginatively, it was called New House. The first part of the south side to be built was a detached building at the western end, to be called Dunboyne House. At the back of this is a curious tale.

John Butler became Catholic Bishop of Cork in 1763. He was of an aristocratic family, and in 1785 succeeded to the title of Lord Dunboyne and to extensive estates. He became obsessed with the thought that he was obliged to produce an heir, and when Rome refused him permission to marry he joined the Established Church in 1787. He died childless on 7 May 1800, reconciled to the Catholic Church. He left all his property to Maynooth College. Inevitably, the will was contested by the family. At this stage the penal laws against Catholics owning property had been repealed, with one exception, still there, everyone agreed, simply because it had been overlooked. If a Catholic converted to Protestantism and reconverted to Catholicism he could not bequeath landed property. But could the religion in which Lord Dunboyne died be established to the satisfaction of a civil court? Faced with the prospect of endless litigation, the parties agreed to a division of the property. For Maynooth, this was wealth indeed, and it is genuinely hard to understand why it was decided to devote it all to postgraduate studies - there were two professors of theology and an urgent need for buildings for undergraduate seminarians. But that was the decision, and the building, Dunboyne House, opened for postgraduate students of the Dunboyne Establishment in 1815. It still keeps the same name and function.

The south side of what was now beginning to look like a square was completed between 1822 and 1824. St. Joseph's Square has character, despite the ravages of time and sometimes questionable refurbishment. It may be that it is hard to go seriously wrong when building within a tradition (in this case the Georgian) and perhaps particularly difficult if there is not much money to spend.

South of the square is an untidy cluster of buildings which housed the lay college. At its heart is the finest heritage building in the College, the eighteenth-century Riverstown Lodge, which still survives the less worthy later additions that surround it. The buildings were incorporated into the seminary when the lay college closed in 1817, clearly made redundant by the opening of Clongowes Wood in 1814. Two large functional buildings, Rhetoric and Logic Houses, were built in the early 1830s and became the Junior House. In this area some relief is provided by the 'Junior Garden'. It is outlined as the garden of Riverstown Lodge on a map dated 1809. It was rejuvenated by the late Cardinal D'Alton when he was President in the 1930s. He initiated what is its most notable feature, the rock garden.

Finding a Staff

In the 1790s it was clearly a problem to find teaching and administrative staff in a country when there had never been a seminary. Fortunately there was a solution in the many émigré priests who had fled the French Revolution. Some were French, some Irish, the latter being strongly French in culture. In consequence, the College had a strong 'French' flavour at the beginning. The passage of time brought its inevitable 'greening'. A good place to get a sense of this is the cemetery, just beyond the Junior Garden, where the first burial took place in 1817. One might also reflect that the most famous of the earlier staff was neither French nor a theologian, Nicholas Callen, Professor of Natural Philosophy (or, as we would say, Mathematics and Physics) from 1826 to 1864. He was a pioneer of applied electricity, patenting an improved battery and a process for galvanising iron, and, it seems certain, making the first working induction coil, which, curiously, he did not patent. The apparatus he built for himself is in the College Museum, near the Junior Garden, and opened by request. The Museum also contains a collection of Irish-made scientific instruments and of ecclesiastical items.

The Crafts of Ireland

Regarded as one of the most important art treasures of the world, The Book of Kells is a stunningly decorated manuscript of the gospels written around the year 800 for the monastery at Kells in County Meath. The Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice both display the astonishing skill of 7th century goldsmiths. The designs are highly colourful, the profuse decorations intricate and precise. The brooch was found on a beach North of Dublin, the chalice in a field in County Limerick. Both are now in the National Museum.
A millennium later and craftsmanship in Ireland was still internationally famous. Bossi's inlaid marble chimmneypieces are now worth well into six figures - one was sold three years ago for £260,000. The Booker brothers made looking glasses in Dublin's Parliament Street in the early 18th century. Museum pieces, they too have been sold for over £200,000. The Irish rococo stucco work of the Francini brothers and their followers has never been equalled. In the hands of these maestros plaster cherubs seem to float across ceilings, and baskets of lucious fruit spill wantonly down swag encrusted walls.

Architecture in this island outpost of Europe developed a unique version of Paladianism. Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, whose cousin Vanbrugh designed Blenheim and Castle Howard, was one of the great architects of 18th century. The stately mansions designed by his successor Richard Castle, the later gothic castles of Francis Johnston, the elegant classicism of James Gandon and William Morrison, these have given Ireland a fabulous architectural heritage. Add to this the exquisite Casino, designed by Sir William Chambers for Lord Charlemont and considered to be the finest piece of architecture in Europe, and the Swiss Cottage, designed by John Nash, George IV's favourite architect. Within a country the size of Maryland you have the heritage of all Europe.

Irish silver, glass and furniture are all specialist fields to themselves. Waterford Crystal, established by Penrose in the 1780s, is still world famous. Irish furniture, with its vigorous and unrestrained carving, is unmistakable. And Irish silver has long been collected for its rococo splendour and rich decoration. In modern times the painter Jack B. Yeats, brother of the poet W.B. Yeats, has become amongst the most sought after expressionists in the world.

Though the names of Ireland's literary giants - Swift, Goldsmith, Joyce, Shaw and Wilde, echo round the world, Ireland's visual heritage has long been a secret, shrouded in mystery to those outside the circle of cognoscenti. With Country House Tours, the veil is drawn aside. Our contacts can bring you into the best collections, organise interesting and articulate experts to guide you, and reveal the full rainbow of applied and decorative arts that have flourished in Ireland for the last 5,000 years.

TITANIC AND IRELAND

The Titanic was built at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1912. It was 882 feet long and had a gross tonnage of 45,000 ton. It was the worlds biggest boat.

Owned by The White Star Line who intended employing the ship (as well as the Olympic - the sister boat) for transatlantic traffic between Europe and America. The White Star Line, owners of the Titanic, and also the builders, Harland and Wolff, never publicly stated that the Titanic was unsinkable.

Despite carrying a maximum capacity of over 3200 passengers and crew the ship was only equipped with 16 lifeboats and a handful of life rafts. In total only one third of all those aboard could have fitted into the life saving measures.

Passage cost anywhere between 870 and 2 pounds, with the majority of passengers third class) opting for the cheaper fare.

Splendour abounded on board the magnificent vessel with some of the rooms even having fireplaces that burned coal in the siting room, and gigantic beds in the bedroom. Huge 500 feet promenades demonstrated the sheer scale of the boat.

Captain at the maiden voyage was E.J. Smith who had sailed over two million miles for The White Star Line who had complete confidence in him. The Titanic was to have been his last voyage before retirement.

Some 63 males and 60 females boarded the giant ship at Cobh at the very South of Ireland. The people of Cobh erected a memorial to the Irish victims of the voyage. The memorial was unveiled in 1998 by Liam Birke, T.D., who was the nephew of one of the deceased passengers, Jeremiah Burke. The monument features the Rice family, all six of whom perished, along with 70 other passengers who boarded at the Cork port.

CUCHULAINN - THE HOUND OF ULSTER

There was a time in Irelands history when chivalry and
chieftainry ruled the land. When the country was occupied
by bands of warriors who spoke only their native tongue
and who cherished their heritage and civilisation. This
was the time of Conor McNessa and the High Kings of
Ireland, of the Gamanraide and the Red Branch Knights of
the Emania. It was the time of Cuchullain.

All of the warrior bands had their own Seanachie, a
person responsible for recounting the deeds of times past,
a chronicler of the ages. Cuchullain was their most famous
subject and hundreds of tales of his heroic deeds, both
real and imagined, have survived to this day.

Cuchullain was the nephew and foster son of King Conor of
Emania, and was originaly named Setanta. He arrived at the
Court to find the youths playing Camán (hurling) and,
having with him his red bronze hurley he so outplayed the
other youths that his future greatness could be seen by
all of the Court. The warriors of the Red Branch
acknowledged him as a blood relative of the King and heard
him proclaim before the Druids in the Hall of Heroes:

"I care not whether I die tomorrow or next year,
if only my deeds live after me".

Cuchulainns greatest deed was perhaps when he alone held
back the forces of Connaught and had to fight his friend,
Ferdiad, who was the champion and chief of the Connaught
Knights of the Sword. Ferdiad and Cuchullain had trained
together in arms in their youth and it was displeasing to
Cuchullain to have to fight his friend of old. He tried to
dissuade Ferdiad against fighting by reminding him of their
days in training, when they were both subjects of the great
female champion, Scathach, in Alba.

"We were heart companions, We were companions in the woods,
We were fellows of the same bed, where we used to sleep the
balmy sleep. After mortal battles abroad, In countries many
and far distant, together we used to practice, and go
through each forest, learning with Scathach".

Ferdiad would not be swayed. Lest he weaken under
Cuchullains pleas he responded only with taunts against
his friend, now foe.

So they fought. They fought for four days and eventually,
after a tremendous effort, Cuchullain laid Ferdiad down and
then fell into a trance of sorrow and weakness after the
epic duel.

As is the way with such heroes, Cuchulainn died on the
battlefield. He was propped against a large rock whilst
dead, with a spear in his hand and a buckler on his arm,
and with such a defiant attitude was able to strike fear
into his enemies even after death.

Killruddery House

Home to the Brabazon Family (the Earls of Meath) since 1618 Killruddery House is the most successful Elizabethan-Revival mansion in Ireland and also one of the earliest. In the 1820s the 10th Earl engaged the fashionable architects of the day - Richard Morrison and his son William - to remodel Killruddery. In the 1950s the house was greatly reduced to its present day proportions, but much of the Morrison's design and architecture still remain.

The approach to the house leads through a French Style 18th Century wrought iron gate into a granite forecourt. The forecourt was designed by Daniel Robertson, the architect principally responsible for the layout of the gardens at Powerscourt.

In the entance hall will be seen the stone Coat-of-Arms of Sir Edward Brabazon, Knight, dated 1586. Sir Edward was a Privy Councillor to Queen Elizabeth I and MP for Wicklow. In 1616 he was created Baron of Ardee. The stone Coat-of-Arms was found in 1892 when foundations were being excavated in Cork Street near Thomas Court in Dublin where he lived.
The stairs wind upwards to a small domed lobby. The wrought iron work is by Smith & Pearson of Dublin and the mahogany stair rails were made and put in place by Thomas Donegan. The hanging gilt lantern came from Adare Manor, home of the wife of the 13th Earl.
The domed ceiling above the staircase, hall and gallery was designed by Jones and executed by a local man called Henry Popje (1830).

The Pendulum Clock was made by the 13th Earl. The face is part of a dumb waiter, the pendulum is a copper bed warmer and the weight on the bicycle chain is the lid of a cooking pot. The pendulum is a free movementTo the east of the hall lies the Library which is incorporated in the oldest part of the House. The central part of the ceiling is a copy of a Charles II design and the chimneypiece and overmantel combine bold Gibbonesque carving of the period with later elements. The bookcases are Chippendale.

The neo-classical style of the Great Drawing Room was probably suggested by the chimney piece which was ordered in Italy from Giacinto Micali in 1817, The very fine architectural decoration in the ceiling was completed 1824, the date 24th April of that year and the name of Simon Gilligan being inscribed on top of the cornice, where it was first noticed by Elizabeth, Countess of Meath, in 1968 when she undertook the mammoth task of painting the ceiling virtually single-handed.

The next room was known as the ladies small Drawing Room but with the reduction of the size of the house in the 1950s this became the Dining Room. It's magnificent plaster ceiling was executed by Henry Popje, a local craftsman, likewise the Drawing Room and Hall ceilings.The Orangery was designed and built by William Burn in 1852 after the fashion of the Crystal Palace in London. The orignal glass dome was the work of Richard Turner who designed the curvilinear range at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin and at Kew Gardens in London.

The Orangery houses an interesting collection of marble statues gathered in Italy in the 1830 - 1850 period. Classical figures include Ganymede giving water to Zeus disguised as an eagle; Cyparissus with his dying stag; Cupid with Pysche and Venus. Other prominent busts include Homer, Socrates, Napoleon, William Pitt and Wellington.

This building was restored in the year 2000 with financial help from the European Regional Development Fund administerd by Bord Fáilte. This is Irelands only millennium dome! The Orangery is only accessible to visitors through the House. It is available for hire for certain functions.

Irish Poteen

Folklore



Poteen was produced in Ireland according to legend, from the time when the first potato was harvested. The term 'Irish moonshine whiskey' commenced from around 1660. A levy was then introduced on the legal distillation of spirits carried out privately and unless the operator was licenced by the State, it would be deemed an illegal act and therefore a criminal offence. Not surprisingly, it then appeared that a substantial element of the Irish population were elevated to the 'criminal classes', overnight!



The following articles have been selected as being typical of poteen folklore:



""First poitín haul of season puts judge in nostalgic mood"
Tuam Herald, Ireland
An article dated 21st November 2002

"Garda poteen hunter steps down after 35 years"
Limerick Online, Ireland
An article dated 24th March 2001

"Poteen Fine for Smithboro Farmer"
Clone News Ireland


"Must keep that poteen well away from Euan Blair"
The Observer, U.K. (Euan Blair - son of Tony Blair U.K. Prime Minister)
Sunday, October 22, 2000

"Viewpoint: On This Day: March 2, 1927: Poteen for Rheumatism"
The Irish News
Tuesday, March 2, 2000

Sun Sets on Irish Moonshiners
By Steven McCaffery, The Irish News
November 8, 1999

"Not so pure mountain due"
The Irish Post
April 17, 1999 (Page 11)

"Poitin worth £15,000 seized in Co Donegal"
The Irish Times
Home Section: Monday, April 5, 1999

"Gardaí seize 70 gallons of poitín in Donegal"
RTE Interactive News
An article from issue dated 3rd April 1999

"Spirit Explained: Poteen"
CLASS: The Magazine Of Cocktail Culture
(Editor: Simon Difford)
Extract from an article by Lesley Singleton
September / October 1998 - Page 36

"Festive leftovers seized"
The Examiner Newspaper, Ireland
An article from issue dated 2nd September 1998 (Page 2)

"Is it time for us to legalise poitín and market it abroad? Deasún Breathnach thinks so"
The Irish Times
Features Section; Tuesday, January 13, 1998

"Donegal pioneer cleared of owning poteen"
The Irish Times
Opinion Section; Monday, July 7, 1997

"Gardai hunt for poitin-makers"
The Irish Times
Home News; Monday, December 23, 1996

"An outline history of Clonmany Parish"
1978

Big Capture on Inismurray: A Small Distillery
"King" sentenced in Sligo Court
Sligo Independent & West of Ireland Telegraph
Saturday, June 7th 1924

Happy New Year