Celtic Corner - June 2014

CELTIC CORNER

Last month’s news letter concerning the arrest of Sinn Fein’s President Gerry Adams was a huge effort by British Unionest in the North of Ireland and the political parties in the south of Ireland to derail the National &^ European Election in Ireland, a huge failure. Sinn Fein is now the most popular party in Ireland, North and South. However, still in the North of Ireland, the peace process is plagued by the past.

When Gerry Adams sets foot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a two-day visit, don’t be surprised if he has a spring in his step and a smile on his face. And why not? Within the last few days, Sinn Fein, the political party he leads, cemented its status as one of Northern Ireland’s largest parties with strong results in local and European Parliament elections. Moreover, Sinn Fein – which not many years ago was the political arm of the now disbanded and disarmed Irish Republican Army – surged in the polls south of the border, too, and is now a major political force in the Republic of Ireland.

Nevertheless, Adams’ trip to the U.S. is no victory lap. Instead, Adams – who earlier this month was arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and questioned for four days over his alleged involvement in a 1972 IRA murder – says he will warn American officials that the 1998 U.S.-brokered Good Friday Agreement, which brought to an end 30 years of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, faces turbulent times. Adams claims “powerful elements” on both sides of the Roman Catholic-Protestant divide in the province “want to derail the (peace) process and build obstacles to it.”

"Every effort must be made to highlight the problems that currently exist and to chart a way through these dangers. His visit to Washington next week is to highlight these issues and concerns and to seek a renewed focus and support for the peace process and the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Adams, 65, denies any involvement in the murder, and he was ultimately released without charge. But the incident – which indeed had the potential of torpedoing the process – put into bold relief the fact that, 16 years on from the Good Friday accord, peace in Northern Ireland remains a fragile thing. To be sure, few in either community want to return to the bad old days of the Troubles, which claimed 3,600 lives. But as Adams’ arrest underscores, Ulster has not yet found a way to put to rest the ghosts from its bloody past, and simmering resentments could still boil over and push the province back into violence. 

“The peace process is not in jeopardy right away,” explains Adrian Guelke, a professor emeritus of comparative politics at Queen’s University Belfast. “But if there were a major blow, if say, Adams were convicted (of a crime), it could be an incitement.”

An academic project at Boston College led to Adams’ arrest. Its Belfast Project is an oral history of the Troubles, and it contains dozens of firsthand accounts of violence from IRA and loyalist paramilitary members. The archive of tapes and transcripts was not supposed to be released until all those interviewed were dead. But the Northern Ireland police successfully used a clause in a British-U.S. treaty to win a legal challenge to gain access to a portion of the archive: statements made regarding the execution 42 years ago of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of 10 who was murdered by the IRA on the false assumption she was an informer. Two IRA members, both now dead, told the researchers that Adams had ordered the McConville murder.

During Adams’ confinement, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, the Northern Ireland deputy first minister, claimed there was a “dark side” within the Police Service of Northern Ireland that was willing to work with anti-peace process republicans bent on upending the accord. He warned that Sinn Fein might reconsider its support for the police force. But had that happened, says Richard Wilford, a Queen’s University politics professor, Sinn Fein’s Protestant, power-sharing partner in government, the Democratic Unionist Party, would have forced a no-confidence vote against Sinn Fein, because the 2007 agreement that allowed for a cross-party-led Northern Ireland Assembly hinged on support for the Northern Ireland police. 

That would have brought the whole thing to a juddering halt,” Wilford says. “It would have been a real crisis.” 

Since his release, however, Adams has restated his party’s support for the police force.

Although it’s unlikely that Adams will be prosecuted over claims made about him unearthed from the project accounts, the trove of material collected by its academics might be used in other investigations. Both the Police Service of Northern Ireland and NBC News have filed new subpoenas asking that all of the project’s material be unsealed.

 “There are all kinds of victims’ groups demanding their day in court,” Guelke says. Given all those pressures, it’s certainly possible that some former senior IRA members, loyalist paramilitary fighters or British troops could still face prosecution for legacy crimes. But if any one of them were tried, Wilford says, “it could produce a seismic event. They’re all highly risky, politically.”

The solution, some believe – including Peter Hain, the former Northern Ireland secretary, and John Larkin, the province’s attorney general – is amnesty. 

“You would get a massive outcry from victims on both sides, but it still needs to be done,” Guelke insists. Amnesty proponents argue that justice is a necessary casualty in efforts to bring peace to conflict-torn societies, because high-profile trials could rekindle old hatreds and spark violent protests. When South Africa finally ended 43 years of apartheid in 1991 no one was prosecuted for hate crimes, but it eventually established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that allowed both victims and perpetrators of violence to speak freely of their experiences. 

The commission, Guelke says, “was not an alternative to amnesty, it was a mechanism for amnesty.” 

But Wilford claims amnesty is a non-starter because it’s opposed by so many on both sides of the sectarian divide. Late last year, talks led by American diplomat Richard Haass to deal with the province’s legacy issues, including Protestant marches and flags, tried to broach an agreement on limited immunity, but the effort failed to get cross-party support. Says Wilford: “There’s no chance for amnesty whatsoever.”

Which means that past crimes could still wreak havoc on Northern Ireland’s future peace.

If you want the Peace Process to continue, keep putting pressure on our politicians to understand we the Irish care and we vote.

Thanks for reading what is going on in Ireland.

Frank Darcy

Celtic Corner - May 2014

CELTIC CORNER

Ireland, yesterday’s fight never ends. One Ireland never two, as simple as that. Anyway that is what Dad always said.

We fought them in 1916, 10 great patriots gave their lives in 1981, you remember Bobby Sands and the Hunger Strikers. We have made great strides for peace in the North. Now the cowards strike again. They arrest Jerry Adams, another great patriot. Here is the story.

Adams arrest linked to Sinn Fein electoral strength

Sinn Fein's Six-County Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness has said that the arrest of party leader Gerry Adams by the PSNI last night was politically motivated.

Mr. Adams spent last night at the PSNI's main interrogation centre and is continuing to be questioned there.

Mr Adams was first contacted by the PSNI on Tuesday and had volunteered to help the investigation into the 1972 death of informer Jean McConville, Sinn Fein said.  He presented himself at 8pm last night and within an hour the PSNI announced that a "65 year old man" had been arrested in the case.

Reports have indicated he is being questioned under the Terrorism Act 2000 and can be held by the PSNI for 48 hours without recourse to the course.

Unionists reveled in the development but demanded the Sinn Fein leader face charged. Late last night, celebrating loyalists erected a large British Union Jack outside the police base in Antrim town.

Mr McGuinness said Mr Adams was "the single most important person" in the peace process. “In that context I view his arrest as a deliberate attempt to influence the outcome of the elections due to take place all over this island in three weeks," he said. “That raises very serious questions about the agenda of those responsible. There are people on the dark side of policing and this is an attempt to flex their muscles."

A recent poll showed Sinn Fein is on the brink of becoming the largest party in both parts of Ireland in elections being held separately in both jurisdictions later this month.

The Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald blamed "old guard
elements" within the PSNI and unionism were working against the party. She said it was wrong to suggest that Adams was a suspect in the inquiry, saying that he had volunteered to travel north to help the investigation. Ms. McDonald said there were people who viewed the growing strength of Sinn Fein with "very considerable alarm" and that there are people "who would wish to do things to stop that" ahead of the elections on May 23rd.

Asked if the arrest had damaged the PSNI's credibility and the peace process, she said that the PSNI have "questions to answer" but added that the peace process is "fairly robust".

The arrest of Mr Adams is being reported in the mainstream media in the 26 Counties as a major setback for the party's chances of a historic breakthrough in the local and European elections there.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny denied charges of political interference, saying that parties in the 26 Counties had "absolutely no connection with this at all"

Your Corres Secretary                                                              President

Frank Darcy                                                                              Ken Egan

Celtic Corner - April 2014

CELTIC CORNER

March is always for St. Patrick. April is for the Rising. On Easter Sunday in Newark, a group of men & women commemorate the 1916 Easter Rebellion with a march from Military Park to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  Frank & Kathie Darcy are honored to carry the banner in the march. A mass is celebrated in Irish Traditions and the Proclamation is read.

          98 years ago, on Easter Sunday, 1916, there were two conferences in Dublin: one, where the feeling was that because of the countermand issued by the Volunteer’s Chief of Staff, there could be no Rising; the other was held in Liberty Hall by the Volunteer and Citizen Army leaders.

          Monday morning dawned; like all other Irish Risings this one was to be inadequately prepared. But these men were prepared to die, not for an island, but for a nation; a nation with a culture of its own, based on its own language, its own heritage and perhaps most important for”…the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland.”

The great achievement of the 1916 Rising was that it brought about a change in the attitude of public opinion. For although doomed to failure, it was a challenge to conscience and to courage; that Ireland was the first country in the 20^th century to gain its own independence is evidence of this.

The story of the Irish Uprising is one of intense dedication, of unvanquished belief in the rightness of the cause, of hopes, of almost blind fidelity with no chance of compromise to but one goal: a free and independent Ireland. This was the common faith of the leaders.

Fearing that disaster was imminent, Eoin MacNeill attempted to call off the maneuvers in an announcement made public Easter morning. The countermanding order was considerable effective: only 1200 or so men turned out to parade.

          Little attention was paid to the marching of the Citizen Army and Volunteers on Easter Monday. By the time the populace was aware that the “invasions” into public buildings were no longer the mock attacks they had become accustomed to, The G.P.O. had been occupied by forces of the Republic. Later in that day a new tri color flag was hoisted over the Post Office, while on its steps, Padraic Pearse read the official proclamation claiming authority for the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic.

          As Republicans fortified the occupied buildings and improvised barricades, the British in Dublin called for military reinforcement.

          By the second day of the Rising, British artillery was being brought into action. Meanwhile, small groups of Irish Volunteers from the county were coming to Dublin to join their comrades. They were shortly to find it impossible to make contact with Republican positions.

During the week that followed, position after position held by Republicans was given up to the British. Connolly was wounded, the Post Office burning, and on Friday morning Pearse issued a statement renouncing hope of military success.

And of course we know the ending, the heroes, the Patriots were executed. And we know that the ending as the Brits fought thinking it was the end, when it was only the beginning. The Irish after six more years of rebellion, independence for 26 counties was ultimately won. Finally after one hundred years, we may see peace & freedom in our last 6 counties of Ulster. Maybe at last a United Ireland.

          As dad always said “only one Ireland, not two”

Cáisc shona duit

Happy Easter

Your Corres Secretary                          President

Frank Darcy                                      Ken Egan

Celtic Corner - March 2014

Celtic Corner
Saint Patrick's Day Traditions

THE WEARING OF THE GREEN
     The tradition of wearing Shamrock to celebrate Saint Patrick seems to date from the seventeenth or eighteenth century. This was a very turbulent time in Irish history. The suppression of the Gaelic way of life by the ruling British invaders resulted in many aspects of the Catholic religion in Ireland being forced underground. Strict laws were enforced which prevented the Catholic population from attending schools so 'hedge-schools' were operated in secret.
     These were schools run outdoors in secluded places (sometimes literally 'under a hedge!). The teaching of religion was also forbidden so it is only to be expected that teachers would use naturally available resources to inform their pupils. Thus the Shamrock plant was used to illustrate the message of the Christian Holy Trinity.
     Saint Patrick was credited with using the Shamrock in such a manner so the wearing of the Shamrock by the oppressed Catholic population became a means of demonstrating their defiance to the ruling British class. It also imbued a sense of kinship among the native Gaelic people, differentiating them from their oppressors.
     Wearing a clump of Shamrock is now a firmly established tradition throughout the world to celebrate not just Saint Patrick but Ireland itself. The Shamrock symbol is widely used by businesses seeking to associate with Ireland and, along with the Harp, is perhaps the single most recognizable symbol of Ireland. It is a shame though that the Shamrock is not a blue plant as the color originally associated with Saint Patrick was blue!
SAINT PATRICK'S DAY PARADE
     Saint Patrick's Day is unique in that it is celebrated worldwide. It is most unusual that a country has such an international celebration and is really evidence of the generational effects of emigration that has afflicted Ireland for centuries. After the 1845 to 1849 Irish Famine emigration soared with as many as a million native Irish leaving their homes in the decades after the famine to settle in places like Boston, New York, Newfoundland, Perth, Sydney and beyond. The US Census Bureau now reports that 34 Million US Citizens claim Irish descent. Most emigrants like to commemorate their heritage and thus the Saint Patrick's Day Parade came into being.
     The earliest record of a Saint Patrick's Day Parade was in the year 1762 when Irish soldiers serving in the British Army held a Parade in New York City. Earlier records suggest that the day was celebrated by the Irish in Ireland as early as the ninth and tenth centuries.
     Again, this was a very difficult time in Irish history with Viking raiders terrorizing the native Gaelic population. It is thus no surprise then that in times of strife the local population would turn to religion and to a commemoration of their own heritage and individuality - a practice that has been repeated by populations of troubled places since the dawn of time. The New York Parade is now the longest running civilian Parade in the world with as many as three Million spectators watching the Parade of over 150,000 participants.
     The first official Parade in Ireland was in 1931. The 1901 law that copper-fastened March 17th as an Irish national holiday was later amended to insist that public houses close down on the day. This restriction was later lifted in the 1970's. In the mid 1990's the Irish Government really started to promote the event when it changed from a single day's Parade into a 5-day festival attracting as many as a million visitors into the country. Parades are now held in just about every major city in the world with the biggest in several US cities reaching epic proportions.
GREENING OF BUILDINGS AND RIVERS
     The use of the color green reached new heights (or plunged new depths!) when in 1962 the city of Chicago decided to dye part of the Chicago River green. Since then the campaign to have just about every possible landmark turned green for the day has taken off in earnest and in recent years has included the Irish Parliament building, the Sydney Opera House, the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls and even the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt!
A PINT OF PLAIN
     The Irish association with drinking is well known and not always positive. Fortunately there are plenty of examples of the appropriate use of alcohol and Saint Patrick's Day is one of them. It is a widely held tradition in Ireland that beer or whiskey can be taken on Saint Patrick's Day although native Irish pub-goers can only look on aghast as visitors top the heads of their creamy pint of Guinness with a green Shamrock. Sacrilege! It is estimated that as many as 13 Million pints of Guinness are consumed on Saint Patrick's Day, up from the usual 5.5 Million per day!
DRESSING UP
     The tradition of dressing up in Irish outfits is not just confined to participants in Parades. Jovial creatures of Irish origin the world over use the opportunity of Saint Patrick's Day to dress up as Leprechaun or even as Saint Patrick himself. Kids love to wear the big green, white and orange hats and receive sweets thrown to them by similarly clad operators of the various Parade floats.
THE SAINT PATRICK'S DAY DINNER
     Corned beef and cabbage is as traditional an Irish meal as you will ever find and it is often hauled out for Saint Patrick's Day. Traditional Irish music in the background and a family gathering are other Irish Saint Patrick's Day traditions that have been going on for centuries.

Correspondence Secretary                                              President

Frank Darcy                                                                  Ken Egan

Celtic Corner - February 2014

CELTIC CORNER:

The Irish Builders of Canals and Pubs of Old

Some Irish came to New Jersey as unknowns and remained so, the forgotten chosen ones. They began arriving as early as the 1600’s, landing in South Jersey to escape two vicious wars in that century in their homeland. They were small groups searching perhaps for the Land of the Young, Tir na Og, where, in their dreams, they might find a place where sorrow, decay and death are gone. But they left us no memory of their Irish myths and no record of their presence, save a rare place name. Others came in the 1700’s, this time often as single men hired as teachers or indentured servants. But the largest group of unknown Irish immigrants to New Jersey came to build two canals, first the Morris and then the Delaware & Raritan (D&R).

The Morris Canal came first, with digging starting in 1825. The 102 mile canal from Phillipsburg to Jersey City was completed to Newark in 1831 and then to Jersey City in 1836. When it was finished, the incredibly successful Morris overcame more elevation changes than any canal in the world. At its peak, in 1866, the Morris Canal carried almost a million tons, including half a million tons of coal. When the railroad leased the canal land in 1871 (for ninety-nine years) along the waterfront, the Morris was soon doomed, and by 1924 it had become totally obsolete and was drained. The majority of the canal became sewers, water lines and even the Newark City Subway. Today, there are small parks in seven localities, but not much else marks its existence.

All experts, without exception, agree that it was the Irish who built the canal. They were most often recruited by subscription in Ireland and often in gangs in America. Newark’s Irish population soared for the first, but not the last, time with workers looking for work on the Morris. The work itself was, as the late, great, Irish American historian Dennis Clark said, “arduous beyond belief…so grueling and dangerous was the work that Irishmen, considered less valuable than Negro slaves, were used at times in preference to and investment of black labor.” This adds credence to the famous black slave quote from Jamaica a century earlier: ‘If there were no Negroes, Irish would be Negroes of the world.” How many left homes and families in Newark(or Dublin) for months or years for less than a dollar a day is forever unknown, but there are plenty of small cemeteries like the one on Old Mine Road in Netcong that silently testify to the presence and death of the Irish along the route.

The D&R soon followed, with merchants eager to emulate the Morris but with goods traveling between the Philadelphia market, through Trenton and New Brunswick to New York. The D&R was forty four miles and digging began in 1830 before it opened in 1834. As with the Morris, 1866 was a big year, with the canal carrying more weight in goods than the more famous Erie Canal ever carried in any year. But the railroad again intruded and by 1893 the D&R had stopped being profitable. It officially closed in 1932.

Once again, it was the Irish navies who dug the canal. Though early Americans were no strangers to hard work, the digging of the canals by hand with axe, pick and shovel was a different ballgame. It was so brutal that workers were often recruited from Ireland; even the hardy Americans and Irish Americans wanted little of the opportunity. It was, as the Irish born Philadelphia newspaperman Matthew Carey said in 1831, “ungodly and unholy employment.” Hundreds more died, all lost to history, from cholera, typhus and broken hearts. Especially in 1832, when a cholera epidemic struck the D&R-in particular, the Princeton area-few of the hundreds of dead Irishmen had family in this country, and they were silently buried in or at the edge of the canal itself. Bull Island, just north of Stockton on the Delaware has a reputed large mass grave of Irish. In Griggstown, there is wonderful remembrance to twelve Irish canal workers’ graves, discovered only a decade ago and kept up by a local AOH. In New Orleans, the number of twenty thousand canal dead, mostly Irish, is seldom disputed.

In the encyclopedia of New Jersey, there is not a mention of the Irish in entries of either canal, and in the entry for the Irish, there is the following one sentence notation: “Irish labor was largely responsible for the building of the Morris Canal in the 1820’s and the D&R in the 1830’s.” The wonderful encyclopedia, long awaited, ended with the patronizing statement, “Precisely as industrialization gathered speed in New Jersey, a ready supply of Irish brawn-and sometimes brain-arrived to help it along.”

Today, though there is not much left of the canals, a day tripper can still follow the terrain carefully and glean an awful lot of lost New Jersey memories. The Morris is more difficult because of roads and construction, but the Morris Canal Society has done wonderful work reconstruction its history. The D&R is shorter, more flat and bucolic as it wends its way through a much less populated area of central New Jersey. Speckled throughout both canal routes, from Phillipsburg to Jersey City and Trenton to New Brunswick, are remnants of places the Irish are famous for- pubs.

It was in such places that the navies, pole men, lock supervisors and their families would congregate as they have for centuries, both here and in Ireland. In Irish conclaves, both past and present, the visitor can find along the route of the canal pubs where known and unknown Irish spent precious time. Wharton, Paterson, Newark and Jersey City all had Irish pubs along the Morris Canal, and Trenton, Princeton and New Brunswick pulled many a pint. These are not “plastic paddy” pubs, with green beer in plastic cups or cold Guinness and “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” on the box; there are no Notre Dame banners either. Pubs that don’t have to scream out “Irish!” just are.

We’re talking about an old time Irish pub. A bit dark and dusty, with country or local athletic banners, a pool table and a cacophony of conversations. Drowning out the TV-if there is a TV. A bartender without cufflinks, an occasional crooked table and a like pol sitting at it and history, with framed newspaper articles and black and white photos with stories to match. There are not many left, and soon they will go the way, not of the buffalo, but of the canal. But finding such a place is as joyful as walking along the D&R in Rocky Hill on a spring morning or resting along the Morris Canal at Waterloo Village in summer.

Jersey City has Dorian’s and Brennan’s in Grenville; tiny Wharton has the Irish Rose and the Trinity Pub, New Brunswick has McCormick’s; Elizabeth, Nugent’s and Newark, the indomitable McGovern’s. But the one with a feel for the most history is arguable Billy Brigg’s Tir Na Og in Trenton. One corner in a back alcove gives an idea of how much Billy understands about Irish and Irish New Jersey history. Sure, it has the obligatory 1916 proclamation, pictures of Pearse and Collins (not too many Irish American pubs are Dev fans) and other wonderful items, but in one small corner are eight Irishmen with New Jersey ties.

Wolfe Tone is there and for two years this unforgettable nationalist lived in Princeton. Tone left New Jersey in 1796 but he left behind his wife, who was just as committed to his ideals as anyone in Ireland. Wolfe Tone, buried in Bodenstown, County Kildare, also left a son in New Jersey, William, who was born in 1791.

James Connolly is there too. Connolly and his poverty stricken family lived for several years in Newark while he worked at the Singer Sewing Machine factory in Elizabeth. In September 1903, Connolly immigrated to America, where he worked as an insurance collector. Later he would be fired from Singer’s as a communist agitator.

James Turner is below Connolly, but not because he was less a patriot. Turner was an attorney from Jersey City, who arrived in the United States in 1849 and became a lawyer in 1859, just prior to the Civil War. Turner, as did many Jersey guys, joined the Eighty- eight Regiment, which became part of the Fighting Sixty- ninth Irish Brigade. In addition to being a fighting soldier, turner, son of a County Louth man, was also a renowned writer during the war. Turner became a captain with the Irish Brigade in 1864. He was shot in the head and killed at the Battle of the Wilderness. He was buried in Jersey City and left a wife and child.

John Devoy was a Billy Briggs type guy. Devoy spent much time in New Jersey and died in Atlantic City. It was September 29, 1928 and the grand old fighter was eighty seven. After a funeral mass in New York, he was interred back in the mother country. A recent biography of Devoy by Terry Golway, Irish Rebel, proves him to be one of the most indomitable figures of his age and though he was not a major New Jersey figure, he belongs on Billy Brigg’s wall and every other one that claims to be Irish.

Even when they have nothing,

The Irish emit a kind of happiness and joy

Correspondence Secretary                                              President

Frank Darcy                                                                    Ken Egan

Celtic Corner - January 2014

CELTIC CORNER:

Many people received a Claddagh Ring for Christmas last year and should be aware of its significance.  Designed and worn in Ireland since the late 1600’s, the Claddagh Ring has enjoyed a growing popularity with Irish exiles the world over. The modern Galway jeweler, Stephen Fallon Ltd. notes that the use of joined hands to denote friendship and the human heart to denote charity is common enough in forms of art which use highly conventionalized symbolism and rings of this general type, known as fidelity rings are not excessively uncommon. However, when referring to the crowned heart supported by two hand, it is stated that this particular style is most definitely the Claddagh Ring and nothing else.

The earliest maker of this design was a Galway goldsmith named Joyce who had learned his craft in a remarkable way. When still a young man, he was taken by Algerian pirates and spent several years in captivity indentured to a Tunisian goldsmith, where he became a skilled craftsman in precious metals. When William III acceded to the throne of England in 1689, he made a treaty with the Moors whereby all of his subjects who were in captivity were freed. Joyce returned to the town of Claddagh in County Galway and pursued a career with his new found skills. He prospered as a goldsmith and several examples of his ecclesiastical works are still in existence. Shortly after his return home, Joyce created a ring design that became popular around the town of Claddagh and gradually across the whole of County Galway. Known as the Claddagh ring, they were kept as heirloom with pride and passed from generation to generation, often being used as wedding rings. Even people of limited means were prepared to exert themselves to make enough money to purchase a good example of the ring. Its popularity continued to spread and after Joyce’s death, the tradition was carried on by the Robinson family who became the principle makers of the ring throughout the 18^th century.

As to the meaning of the symbols on the ring, several stories exist. The most likely however, is one that a writer learned from an old Galway shanachy, and it had to do with the history of time. During England’s attempted conquest of Ireland, each generation of Irish resisted the yoke of slavery forced upon them. In 600 years of English intrusion, there were no less than 14 resistance movements- 11 of which were armed rebellions. It was after one of these aborted risings-the Nine Years War of O’Neill, Maguire and O’Donnell against the Crown-that the English decided to end the threat of the Irish clans forever. In 1607, charges of treason were fabricated against the strongest clan Chieftains: those of Tyrone, Tirconnell and Fermanagh and those noble leaders were forced to flee Ireland in what became known as the Flight of the Earls. After the Flight of the Earls, the Irish again found themselves oppressed and in desperation, the next generation rose against the Crown in the Williamite War. In 1691, when the last bastion of Irish resistance in that war fell with the capitulation of Limerick, the English pressed their advantage. The remaining Gaelic aristocracy was either destroyed of forced into exile in what became known as the Flight of the Wild Geese. In exile, the Irish lamented hat the loss of their beloved Erin and preserved their love for Ireland in song and story.

          When the Claddagh Ring was designed, the Flight of the Earls was recent memory and the Flight of the Wild Geese was a current event. Joyce, who was well aware of the heartbreak of a forced exile from Ireland, fashioned the Claddagh Ring as a reminder to all Irishmen of the ties that bound them to the heritage. The two hands of the hearts of Gaelic royalty, and it was cast in gold as a reminder of the riches of Erin stolen by the Saxon invader. It received its name from the little town of Claddagh, the village where Joyce introduced his creation. This is the traditional explanation offered by many Galway natives whose families go back to the days of Joyce and beyond. However, Joyce never left a written explanation of his design and modern jewelers offer more romantic explanations hoping to improve its marketability among non-Irish and it has become very popular with lovers. Today, there is no other ring which can offer the buyer a choice of so many meaning. As is the case with most ancient creations whose origins are clouded by the mists of time, the truth may lie somewhere between the fact and the legend that has combined in the legacy of the Claddagh Ring. As for this writer, my Claddagh ring will always remind me of the hold that Ireland has on my heart.

Correspondence Secretary                                              President

Frank Darcy                                                                    Ken Egan

Celtic Corner - December 2013

Irish Christmas History

Irish Christmas history begins with the English King, Henry II in 1171. The English monarch took the Christmas celebrations to Ireland. Henry II built a very big traditional Irish hall in the village named Hogges. Sumptuous feasts and Christmas plays were held in which the Irish chiefs loyal to the English sovereign also took part. Down the ages, the Christmas celebrations in Ireland have deviated somewhat from the early times, but the spirit is essentially the same.

Irish Christmas history shows us some traditional rituals of Christmas in Ireland. Ritual here is used in a very broad sense, some have little religious significance, but great social importance. A lighted candle in the window on Christmas Eve is one such custom. All Irish homes have a lighted candle, which has the symbolism of showing the light to the stranger after dark. This is a most ancient custom when people were really hospitable. The candle has to be lit by the youngest in the family and extinguished by any girl named “Mary”. The custom of a laden table is also an endearing one. The table is laid with bread filled with caraway seed and raisins and a large pitcher of milk and a lighted candle. This means that any weary traveler or Joseph and Mary can avail of this hospitality if they so wanted and is an integral part of Irish Christmas History.

The Wren Boy Procession

The Wren Boy procession took place on St. Stephen’s day, the day after Christmas. It shows similarities to Halloween. Children wandered the streets, carrying a stick topped with a holly bush. They painted their faces, wore old clothes sang and played music, demanding money “for the hungry wren.” Although this custom seems harmless enough, its origins are rather dark. The wren was said to be a treacherous bird; it was blamed for betraying the hiding place of St. Stephen to his persecutors. It was also claimed that the bird beat its wings on the shields of the Norsemen to alert them to the presence of Irish soldiers. However, going further back in time, the wren may have been used in Druidic rites, to which Irish Christians would have been opposed. Early Wren Boy processions sported a real dead wren on top of the stick. Currently, a fake bird is used and the processions usually occur in the southern parts of Ireland.

Little Women’s Christmas

In the old times, housework was firmly considered women’s business, which means that after all the cooking, baking and cleaning, the women used to be completely exhausted. Come the 6^th of January, they got one day of relaxation. On this day, the men did all the housework and the women went to the pub for a day out. Although “the New Man” has now arrived in Ireland, many Irish women love to keep this tradition alive. Little Women’s Christmas also marked the day when it was “safe” to take down Christmas decorations. Any earlier was considered unlucky.

An Irish Christmas Blessing

The light of the Christmas star to you

The warmth of home and hearth to you

The cheer and good will of friends to you

The hope of a childlike heart to you

The joy of a thousand angels to you

The love of the Son and God’s peace to you

Nollaig Shona

Happy Christmas

Correspondence Secretary                                              President

Frank Darcy                                                                    Ken Egan