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ISSUE 26 VOLUME 6 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

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Proudly Serving Celts in North America Since 1991

WIN FREE TICKETS

SAMHAIN BLESSINGS – ‘Dreaming of Journeying Into Her Depth’ – by Wendy Andrew.[Read more about the artist on page 2]

HIGHLIGHTS INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Win a pair of tickets to see The Gloaming concert at the Chan Centre atUBC on October 15. (See page 5 for more details). Mark your entry‘Gloaming’. Entry by September 23.

You could win a $100 gift certificate to Black Pudding Imports in Langley asthey celebrate their 18th anniversary in business. Check out their weeklysales on Facebook. (See page 9 for more info). Mark your entry ‘BlackPudding’. Entry by September 23.

Entries by E-mail only. Mark the name of the event on your entry, includingyour name and daytime telephone number. (Only one entry per person).Send to: [email protected].

AFTER nearly three decades, Galway are the 2017 All-Irelandhurling champions as they edged out a spirited Waterford sidein a memorable final in Croke Park on Sunday, September 3.

[Read more on page 23]

PHOTO: Ann O’ReillyAFTER just three years in existence, the Fraser Valley Gaels won the USGAA IntermediateFootball Championship at GAA Treasure Island Field in San Francisco on September 3. Foundingclub member Eoin McCloskey, who was once Derry’s number one goalkeeper, flew in fromIreland especially for the event. Under his guidance the team formed in 2014 has gone fromstrength-to-strength, winning awards and Western Canada championships along the way. Assoon as McCloskey, who moved back home earlier this year, learned the team had made it tothe finals weekend there wasn’t a chance he was going to miss out on it. [See page 22 inside]

THOMAS [TOM] O’FLYNN [1934-2017] who passed away inVancouver this summer will be remembered for his legendaryhospitality by friends far and wide. He set off on his final jour-ney on Wednesday, July 19. He has been described as a FiorGael, a genuine Irishman, and he will be greatly missed.

[Read more inside on pages 16 & 20]

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE GRAND OPENINGOF DONNELLAN’S IRISH PUB IN VANCOUVER....

IT WAS A NIGHT OF MORE THAN ONE BEGINNING[READ MORE ON PAGE 12]

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017PAGE 2 www.celtic-connection.com

THE CELTIC CONNECTIONISSUE 26 VOLUME 6 - Established in 1991

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Distribution: Arlyn Lingat • Allison Moore • Linda Robb • Frank Dudfield inSurrey • Eifion Williams in Burnaby & Coquitlam • Laurie Lang in Coquitlam• Joanne Long in Mission • Bill Duncan in Maple Ridge • Deirdre O’Ruaricin White Rock • Nanci Spieker and Heather Murphy in Seattle • OliverGrealish in Edmonton.Published 7X per year. Unsolicited submissions welcome but will not be returned.Please retain a copy for your files. Contents copyright 2017 The Celtic Connection.Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the publisher but rather areflection of voices within the community. All correspondence must include a name,address and telephone number.

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ABOUT OUR COVER ARTISTWENDY ANDREW LIVES, dreams and paints in the beautiful mysticalcountryside of Southern England. She has been a professional artistfor over 20 years and her work has been published internationally.Her paintings are inspired by the ancient mysteries that are wrapped inthe turning of the seasons, and the voice of The Goddess whisperingthrough the mythical realms.To order images by Wendy and see more of her paintings please visither website at: www.paintingdreams.co.uk. You can contact Wendy bye-mail at: [email protected].

s I write this, hurricanes, nuclear arma-ments, earthquakes, terrorism, speciesextinction, and moral vacuity rock thissmall blue planet.

Mortal Call and Natural DisasterForetell the Coming of Samhain

THE MYSTERIOUS bansheeor bean sidhe is a fascinatingcreature we encounter in Irishmythology.Throughout history and across culturesthere are stories and myths of beingsthat forewarn of human death. In Ire-land these frightening beings wereknown as the banshees.From Irish folklore we learn that when-ever you heard the thin scream of thebanshee, you knew death was aroundthe corner. The sound of their voice wasprophetic.The Irish do not believe the bansheecauses death, but merely warns of it.The banshees were Celtic death mes-sengers and although it is unknown pre-cisely when stories of the banshee firstwere told, they can be traced back asfar as the early Eighth Century.The physical descriptions of the ban-shees vary somewhat. In most cases, itis said the banshee is a woman withlong, red hair and very pale skin.According to other accounts on theother hand, it is an older woman withstringy, gray hair, rotten teeth and fieryred eyes.She is often depicted with a comb in herhair and this has led to an Irish supersti-tion that finding a comb on the groundis considered bad luck.Apparently the banshees were alsoshape-shifters that could take on anyform, much like the goddesses of Celticfolklore and the Greek gods who werealso shape-shifters.Other forms of the banshee include thebean nighe and the washer woman, bothmore attributed to Scotland than Ireland.According to legends, the bean nighewas a ghost woman who died duringchildbirth and would be seen wearingthe clothes of the person about to diewhile the washer woman is dressed likea countrywoman and is cleaning bloodyrags on a river shore.Sometimes a banshee will perch on awindowsill like a bird, where she’ll re-

ABy CYNTHIA WALLENTINE

Suffering seeps from the pages ofworld mythology.Suffering, in some philosophies, is seenas a path toward enlightenment or di-vinity.But such beliefs are a ruse meant toplacate when overwhelming sorrow,pain, and devastation suggest only twooptions meaning, or meaningless suffer-ing.One is a gift to the soul and the other isthe consequence of donning humanflesh.The tricky part comes when people tryto make one option, or the other, workentirely.Human life is the third of them, the per-spective that all life has meaning, evenas it is extinguished, and that sufferingwithout meaning is guaranteed at birth.The third way brings about words likenobility, courage, stoicism, and especially,grace.Mythology, like history, is written by theside that wins.Yet it carries the inextinguishable an-guish, symbolism, and footprint of thosewho lived through the times that becamethe tale.Darkness on the land, kingdoms underpestilence, marginalized women or menwho set out on a dim path, with no hu-man company, seeking to find, or to lose.Along the way, in mythology and folk-lore, the supernatural usually intercedes,help is offered, insight is provided, andthe new wisdom leads to different out-comes that might otherwise have beenhad.In life, sometimes wisdom does inter-cede and sometimes it does not.

It is the way of things in an existencewhere nothing is guaranteed, nor is any-thing necessarily as it seems.Samhain, on October 31, is fast ap-proaching.Watchwords of the season include dis-integration, instability, transformation,and chaos.Marking the end of a year and a sea-son, Samhain usually punctuates theyear by disruption the type that sets thefoot of myth or folk character to thepath.But in our season, we are already en-veloped in life-threatening disturbance,from within and without.The warning of the bean-sidhe, orwoman of the sidhe, the banshee, com-petes with the howling wind and is un-heard.The bitter hammering of politics, pollu-tion, and indecency no longer catch hu-man attention in fact many, already over-whelmed, turn away.Inured to horror, our attention and ourtimes cannot really be punctuated bydisruption, because it is already relent-less and ongoing.

In a season heated with racial intoler-ance and creeping levels of greenhousegases, what disruption could this seasonoffer that could make a difference add,instead of distract, and move us towardmythic purpose, and away from humanuselessness?A single mammoth sunflower stands si-lently in a garden that probably has afew too many weeds.The garden lacks not for fall flowers tofeed remaining bees and other visitors,even as the days grow cooler.A volunteer, the sunflower never gaineda lot of height about human size. It pickedits spot months ago.The prickly thick stem is solid and car-ries drying green leaves tattered by windand voracious insects.Its brilliant yellow head, at least a footacross, glances toward its feet, weighedfully down by dark, plump, sunflowerseeds packed tightly in every ridge,waiting harvest by the birds of winter.The sunflower appeared unbidden, andstands patiently to offer food when it isneeded most.When freeze kills what is left of its tis-sue, it will still provide, in every seed asit passes, nutrients and a whiff of a sum-mer breeze, sighing leaves, and clearmoon-filled nights.It is not words that will save us, it iswonder.Find it somewhere, in the wild, or thewild at heart, during the day when asunbeam illuminates just so, or at nightwhen the moon does the same.A smile, a silly moment amidst devas-tating conditions, wonder can be foundsometimes where you least expect it.Amid the disruption, nature quietly goesto ground at Samhain.The Celtic winter begins on November1. Gather in, sink down, hang on untilthe seed finds the right conditions to startanew.

The Banshee: Ireland’smessenger of death

main for several hours or even days –until death comes to call.Often, as the banshee escapes into thedarkness, witnesses have described abird-like fluttering sound. Thus, manybelieve that the Banshee is a birdlikecreature.The banshee tradition is widespreadthroughout Ireland and nearby islands.The Gaelic terms used most frequentlyto describe the banshee are the “bean-si” (a female dweller of a sidhe, or fairymound), the “bean chaointe” (a femalekeener, a term found in east Munsterand Connaught) and the “badhb” (re-ferring to a more dangerous, frighten-ing bogey).Although “bean-si” implies anOtherworld or fairy being, the bansheeis a solitary creature without male coun-terpart who never partakes in commu-nal human or fairie social enterprise.In Christianity, the banshee was re-garded as a devil who wails for the soulsthat are lost to her as they ascend toheaven, or that they are familial guard-ian angels or souls of unbaptized chil-dren or even the souls of women whocommitted the sin of pride in life.Some researchers have suggested thatthe banshee could be linked to the mys-tical race Tuatha De Dannan.The true origin of the Tuatha De Danaanis unknown. The name means literally“the folk of the god whose mother isDana.”These fabled Irish gods appeared oneday, on the first of May (Beltane) outof nowhere.According to some of the earliestsources, the Tuatha de Danaan camefrom the skies. The Tuatha De Danaanlanded in a dense cloud on the top ofSliev-an-lerin, the Iron Mountain in theCounty Leitrim.Although the existence of the bansheeis based on ancient myths and legends,there are still people who report seeingand hearing this mysterious creaturelurking around before she disappearsinto a cloud of mist. When she vanishes,a fluttering sound like a bird flapping itswings is heard.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017 PAGE 3www.celtic-connection.com

Shock and heartbreak as monumentto Rideau Canal workers smashed

OTTAWA – A Celtic Crosserected in remembrance ofmore than 1,000 predomi-nantly Irish labourers whodied during the building of theRideau Canal has been bro-ken into several pieces.The monument, located between theBytown Museum and the ChâteauLaurier overlooking the canal in Ot-tawa, was knocked off its pedestal andsmashed into four pieces on Monday,August 7.“It just breaks my heart,” said SeanMcKenny, president of the Ottawa andDistrict Labour Council (ODLC), whichworked to raise the $18,000 cross.He said it appears the monument wasdamaged accidentally, as a result ofcarelessness rather than vandalism.“We don’t mind people touching themonument; we think they can do that.We certainly want them to come downand see it, that’s why it’s there,” he said.“But recognize that this is a marker, thatthis is for a thousand workers and theirfamilies who lost their lives.”

THE STONE BASE is all that’s left at the site of the CelticCross dedicated to the memory of the workers that died build-ing the Rideau Canal.

McKenny says the number of peoplewho have come forward, offering tohelp pay for repairs, is heartwarming,but he said the cross is covered by awarranty.“We do have a warranty on it,” he said.“It won’t be able to be put back to-gether, but a monument company hastold me that, in a couple of months, itwill be recast and put up again.”All of the pieces, excluding the granitebase, have been collected by ParksCanada.McKenny said that at this stage,Campbell Monument – the companythat erected the cross – has told him itbelieves the base of the cross could beused to rebuild a new monument butthat the top would need to be rebuilt.“The other three pieces can’t be putback together,” said McKenny.The monument was first unveiled in2004. The inscription at its base reads“In Memory of the 1000 workers &their families who died building this ca-nal 1826-1832.”

THE MONUMENT was first un-veiled in 2004 in remembranceof more than 1,000 predomi-nantly Irish labourers who diedduring the building of theRideau Canal.

“We don’t mind peopletouching the

monument; we thinkthey can do that. ....But recognize that

this is a marker, thatthis is for a thousand

workers andtheir families

who lost their lives.”

New sign at Duffy’s Cutwhere 57 Irish railroad workers

died in PennsylvaniaPHILADELPHIA – History isbeing righted at Duffy’s Cut...185 years later.A new sign with the true identity, causeof death, and date of the incident hasnow been put in place.It reads: “At this site, known as Duffy’sCut, fifty-seven Irish immigrant railroadworkers from the Counties of Donegal,Tyrone, Derry and Leitrim died of chol-era and murder in the summer of 1832.”It was the summer of 1832, when PhilipDuffy, a railroad contractor, hired 57Irish immigrants on the docks of Phila-delphia.They were to fill in a ravine nearpresent-day Malvern so rails for a newtrack could be laid. They began theirtask, but only six weeks later all 57 weredead.History blames a cholera outbreak, butcholera generally only has a 50 percentdeath rate. Local legend claims thatsome, if not all, were murdered.The locals at the time had a high preju-dice of Catholicism and of immigrants.Whatever happened to them, they werequickly buried in a shallow ditch withno ceremony.

Railroad officials never notified theworkers’ relatives of their deaths, andthey later burned the shantytown.In the 1870s, a small fence was set uparound what people thought was themass grave site. It turned out to be thewrong spot.By 1910, it was discovered that at leastpart of the grave was now under thetracks. Some time prior, the railroad hadthe track reset.

Papers reporting the deaths of theworkers were found in the 1970s, hid-den in a vault.The events at Duffy’s Cut were almostcompletely lost to history. The areadidn’t even get a historical marker until2004.A marker is at the intersection of Kingand Sugartown. A few blocks away isthe mass grave, which is currently be-ing examined by archaeologists.

DUFFY’S CUT is now marked with a new sign at site where 57Irish railroad workers were buried without ceremony in 1832.


BySTEVEEDGE

THE ROGUEFOLK CLUB

‘We Need Your SupportMore Than Ever This Year!’

VANCOUVER –It’s been a long,hot, and smokeysummer. We’ve

taken in some amazing festi-vals, and we’re now ready tomove back indoors to theever-improving confines of St.James Hall for the RogueFolk Club’s new concert se-ries!For the past two months Rob Nelson,Peter Bennett, and a few erstwhilevolunteers have been working away onthe interior of the hall, making improve-ments to the stage and storage facili-ties.Meanwhile, City of Vancouver work-ers have replaced the aging roof tiles –and added eight centimetres of insula-tion (we wonder why nobody thoughtof doing this when the hall was built!).They have also added three ventilationfunnels to the roof. The fans and grillsare on backorder, but we are assuredthat they will be installed and opera-tional before the end of September.The effect of the insulation is alreadyapparent! There have been a fewevents in the hall in between work par-ties, and in previous years the tempera-ture inside would have been unbearablyhot.Even without the ventilation fans, theroom is appreciably cooler on a hot day.By the end of the year the hall will havea new dance floor, and hopefully cush-ioned and secured pews on risers andon the balcony, new folding chairs, anddefinitely new and improved lights andsound equipment!Concerts start September 7 with a soldout concert featuring Birds Of Chi-cago, and Newfoundland’s amazing tradsinger Matthew Byrne the followingnight.By the time this paper hits the streetslegendary American blues singer MariaMuldaur will have made a long-awaited return to Vancouver for a showat The Rio Theatre (September 13)and the next Rogue event at St. Jamestakes place on Friday, September 15with B.C.’s incredible stringband TheBills celebrating their 20th anniversarywith a concert.The following Monday, California fid-dler/singer Laurie Lewis brings herfine band The Right Hands – nowfeaturing David Grisman’s son, Sam,on guitar.Then Canadian folk icon GarnetRogers comes to town for what hesays will be his final concert in the west(Saturday, September 23).Garnet will not fly, and for the past 40years or so he has driven across thiscontinent many times to play concerthalls, coffee houses and festivals – atfirst with his late brother, Stan, and since1983 as a solo performer.As you can imagine, he has a few talesto tell from those road trips, and he hasjust published his memoir, Night Drive- Travels With My Brother.We just received 100 copies to sell atthe show – which we expect will beanother sell-out, so don’t miss this lastchance to see the big man out west –and have him sign this book for you.

We finish September with a concert byEarly Spirit, a quartet led by Spirit ofthe West founding member JayKnutson, joined by the brilliant B.C. fid-dler Gabriel Dubreuil, bassist WillRoss, and drummer Ben Kelly (sonof another SOTW founder, GeoffreyKelly of The Paperboys and IrishRovers fame). This show takes placeat St. James on September 29.The following week, Canadian guitarwizard Don Ross returns to The Rogue(October 5) bringing with him the amaz-ing young Alberta guitarist/songwriterCalum Graham – who was in excel-lent form at last month’s EdmontonFolk Festival. For Rogue concert info,please visit www.roguefolk.com.Speaking of festivals, we managed tocatch one day at the Harrison Festi-val of the Arts back in July, with anoutdoor performance by First Nationscellist Kris Derksen and an indoorshow by Cape Breton’s wonderfulCeltic band, Coig, who released theirsecond CD, Rove, that same week.There is some wonderful fiddling all overthis album, as you might expect, withChrissy Crowley and Rachel Davisin superb form.Pianist Jason Roach and multi-instru-mentalist Darren McMullen contrib-ute some excellent playing and Darrenadds a great arrangement of PeterGabriel’s Solsbury Hill to this fine CD.The band were in stellar form that night.Too bad they couldn’t stick around inB.C. for some more festivals. We’ll justhave to bring them back for a concertthen.The Vancouver Folk Music Festi-val celebrated its 40th anniversary inJuly.Far and away the best performance Ihave EVER witnessed at the VFMFwas given by Rhiannon Giddens andher excellent band on the Friday night.She seemed to cover every possiblegenre of Americana – and do it betterthan any of her predecessors!Channelling the spirits of Ella Fitzgerald,The Carter Family, The Balfa Broth-ers, Patsy Cline – and the much morealive Aretha Franklin – Rhiannonprowled the stage with banjo, fiddle,guitar and that oh so amazing voice andjust nailed everything! What a perform-ance.Tough to follow that, but Billy Braggdid a fine job.The rest of the weekend could not pos-sibly live up to such high standards, forme, but I had a great time listening tothe likes of French blues trio Delgres,Swedish trio Ellika Solo Rafael (al-beit, much too briefly), Scottish pipe andfiddle band Rura, Basque comboKorrontzi (although I would have pre-ferred just the accordion, mandolin andtambourine without the overbearingbass and drums), Boston singer AoifeO’Donovan with banjo whiz Noam

Pikelny, and the rousing finale withFerron and Roy Forbes in inspired –and not just nostalgic – form.We then spent two days at the Mis-sion Folk Festival’s 30th anniversary.I missed Mission last year, and was abit shocked to see it so much smallerthan in past years.Having two stages side by side is anovel idea, but the lack of down-timebetween alternating acts makes it a lit-tle hard to relax and enjoy the amazingambience of the site and the vendors.It’s also a bit hard on the MCs – well,on me, anyway – who have to extroone band and intro the next in the samebreath.Highlights included T Nile, Valdy, andAmerican jug band Crow Quill NightOwl.The best news is that they have prettymuch retired the festival debt and I lookforward to seeing a more expanded lineup again next year (he says, hopefully.)We also managed to take in one nightat Harmony Arts in West Vancouver,with Birds of Chicago in brilliant form.Nice venue at Ambleside Park, andsome inspired programming. It seemslike a relaxed and very enjoyable festi-val. Must take in some more next year!Then we were off to Edmonton for an-other fantastic weekend at the RollsRoyce of Festivals – the EdmontonFolk Festival.There was lots of Celtic music to befound there, including Ireland’s inimita-ble Four Men & A Dog, and CapeBreton’s Finest (Ashley & WendyMacIsaac, young James MacMasterand co).Wexford-born PEI-based singer IrishMythen delivered the most incrediblyimpassioned rendition of The Auld Tri-angle I’ve ever heard! What a voiceshe has!The new Celtic “supergroup” trio ofMichael McGoldrick, JohnMcCusker, and John Doyle was evenmore amazing!Mancunian McGoldrick has recentlybought a house in Galway and has addeda recording studio wherein he has al-ready produced two superb CDs thisyear – one by this new trio, and one byanother “supergroup” – Usher’s Island(McGoldrick, with Donal Lunny, AndyIrvine, John Doyle, and Paddy Glackin).I’m still awaiting delivery of the trio CD,but Usher’s Island is getting plenty ofairplay on The Edge On Folk.Rhiannon Giddens gave another su-perb set, Welsh singer Martyn Josephwas in great form, and formerWolfstone fiddler Duncan Chisholm– with piper Jarlath Henderson – andGeordie band The Unthanks werealso amazing.Scots singer Paul McKenna was ingreat form too. And that was just thetrad. tip of the iceberg at this fabulousfestival.Huge thanks again to Dubliner TerryWickham and his crew for making thisthe highlight of my summer every yearwithout fail!This summer has also seen the launchof a new volume of Acoustic Classicsby English guitar luminary RichardThompson, and another epic body ofwork from Irish-Norwegian-Americansongsmith Tom Russell (Folk Hotel).

Newfoundland’s Matthew Byrnelaunched his third CD, Horizon Lines,last month – as good a collection ofsongs from The Rock as you could wishto hear – and brilliantly sung, too!American string quartet Kronos Quar-tet collaborated with Mali’s Trio DaKali (who play St. James Hall on Oc-tober 6) to record the superb CDLadilikan and they also teamed up withsingers Rhiannon Giddens, OliviaChaney and Sam Amidon to make analbum of trad. music called Folk Songs– which is absolutely fantastic!Ms. Chaney also fronts a band calledOffa Rex (most of whom also play inThe Decembrists) and made a stun-ning album called Queen Of Hearts –which pays homage to the likes ofSteeleye Span in bringing Child Bal-lads right up to date here in the 21stcentury.Pride of place amongst the new re-leases this summer though goes to Eng-

B.C.’S INCREDIBLE stringband The Bills celebrate their 20thanniversary with a concert at St. James on September 15.

lish guitarist / singer Martin Simpson,whose new CD Trails & Tribulationsis quite superb.New songs like Maps, Ridgeway, andDancing Shoes sit alongside impas-sioned renditions of trad classicsReynardine, and Willy O’Winsbury,and then there’s Emily Portman’stransformative Bones & Feathers,‘Uncle John’ Cohen’s Dillard Chan-dler, and even Presley’s HeartbreakHotel!Scintillating stuff – just make sure youget the deluxe version!You can hear some of this music on myradio show The Saturday Edge OnFolk every Saturday from 8 AM tonoon on CiTR fm 101.9 andwww.citr.ca.See you at The Rogue! We need yourcontinuing support more than ever thisyear.

SlainteSteve

EARLY SPIRIT plays The Rogue at St. James on September29. The quartet is led by Spirit of the West founding memberJay Knutson, who is joined by B.C. fiddler Gabriel Dubreuil,bassist Will Ross, and drummer Ben Kelly (son of anotherSOTW founder, Geoffrey Kelly of The Paperboys and IrishRovers fame).

CANADIAN folk icon GarnetRogers comes to town for whathe says will be his final con-cert in the west on Saturday,September 23.

CALIFORNIA fiddler/singerLaurie Lewis brings her fineband The Right Hands to TheRogue Folk Club on Monday,September 18.


Famed Irish Supergroup Returnsto the Chan Centre at UBC

VANCOUVER – TheGloaming made its Canadiandebut in 2014 and was metwith overwhelming praise.This October will see the quintet’smuch-anticipated return to Vancouveras part of the 2017/18 Chan CentrePresents series at the Chan Centre forthe Performing Arts at UBC.Formed in 2011, The Gloaming is an ex-traordinary collaboration of five musi-cians – each a distinguished soloist intheir own right.Leading the group is six-time All-Ire-land Fiddle champion Martin Hayes.Musical innovator Caoimhín ÓRaghallaigh plays the handanger fiddle.On vocals is sean-nós singer Iarla ÓLionáird who has mastered the ‘oldstyle’ singing technique, used to tell sto-ries of rebellion, emigration and loss.Joining them are Chicago guitaristDennis Cahill and New York pianistThomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) who,together with their peerless techniquebring The Gloaming’s reels and jigs tonew and exhilarating heights.While most of the musicians are trainedin traditional Irish music, what they cre-ate together goes far beyond thereaches of tradition and into other gen-res including jazz and contemporaryclassical.The Gloaming immerses audiences inthe pure beauty of Gaelic folk tunestransformed through their own distinct,modern interpretations.“These artists combine their consider-able talents to create some of the mosthaunting, lush, gorgeous music thatnever fails to touch me on a deep emo-tional level,” says Joyce Hinton, Co-Managing Director of the Chan Cen-tre.“What an incredible first impressionthey made on us back in 2014; we can’twait to welcome them back. I can saythat the combination of their music andthe Chan Centre’s incredible acousticsis truly a perfect match.”Since the beginning, The Gloaming re-ceived rave reviews for their interna-tional live performances as well as their2014 debut album entitled simply TheGloaming.The group is now celebrating their lat-est album, 2, described by The Guard-

THE GLOAMING immerses audiences in the pure beauty ofGaelic folk tunes transformed through their own distinct, mod-ern interpretations. The band made its Canadian debut in 2014and was met with overwhelming praise.ian as “an exquisite album from a vir-tuoso band.” It is considered a levelabove even their previous release, as“hours of playing together since thenhas honed the work” (Independent.ie).When The Gloaming played at the ChanCentre last, they astonished and capti-vated local audiences.The “dreamlike and haunting” perform-ance which The Ubyssey described sim-ply as “unlike anything you might haveheard before,” gathered widespreadpraise and won the group a brand-newcity of fans.This October’s performance promisesa similarly transformative display of un-paralleled musicianship and desire topush boundaries.In addition to the concert itself, MartinHayes will conduct a fiddle masterclass

as part of the Chan Centre Connectsprogramming.This already sold-out workshop willexplore bowing techniques, melody in-terpretation, variations, and improvisa-tion in traditional Irish music with inter-mediate and advanced students – amemorable way to learn about the tra-dition of Irish music-making.

•The Gloaming perform at the ChanCentre for the Performing Arts at UBC(6265 Crescent Rd.) on Sunday,October 15, 2017 at 7 PM. Ticketsstart at $46 and are available atwww.chancentre.com. There will bea pre-show talk with group leader andfiddle player Martin Hayes directlybefore the performance at 6:15 in theChan Centre’s Royal Bank Cinema.Entrance into the pre-show talk isfree for The Gloaming ticket holders.

GLASGOW – Scots folk band Hò-rò are left shattered after a firebug torchedtheir tour van with their instruments inside on September 6.The award winning group say they are “heartbroken” after their gear waswrecked in the blaze on Copland Road in the Govan area of Glasgow.A man has appeared in court charged with setting the fire. Stephen Campbell(47) is alleged to have wilfully set fire to two vehicles including the one belongingto the band.

Man in court after award-winningScottish band’s van set on fire

HÒ-RÒ at this year’s Hebridean Celtic Festival.

It comes just days before they were dueto perform, a series of high profile gigs.In 2014, the trad-band won the DannyKyle Award at Glasgow’s Celtic Con-nections and the One Step FurtherAward at the Western Isles’ HebrideanCeltic Festival.Earlier this year, Hò-rò played at theBelladrum Tartan Heart HebrideanCeltic festivals.They have vowed to play on after sup-port from other performers who haveoffered the loan of instruments.In a statement to fans they said, “Weare absolutely heartbroken. Last nightsomebody broke into our van and set iton fire. We have worked very hard toget where we are at the moment. Wesaved up as much as we could to buythe van and good equipment so that wecould get as good a sound as possible.The group’s fans were quick to lendtheir support as a fundraising pagecalled ‘Helping Hò-Rò’ was quickly setup by gig promoter EPL Events. So far,it has raised over £7,300 of a £10,000target.


Varadkar joins Trudeauto march in Montreal pride paradeMONTREAL – IrishTaoiseach Leo Varadkarjoined Canadian Prime Min-ister Justin Trudeau in Mon-treal last month when the twoleaders walked together in thecity’s annual pride parade.Varadkar is Ireland’s first openly gayleader and he became the first foreignhead of government to march in a prideparade with a Canadian prime minister.In a news release, the Prime Minister’sOffice said Justin Trudeau and LeoVaradkar would continue discussionsfrom July, when the two leaders metfor the first time in Dublin.Those talks will focus on the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Eco-nomic and Trade Agreement (CETA),which comes into effect on September21, and issues related to diversity andinclusion.While Trudeau and Varadkar sharesimilar political views – they both sup-port international co-operation, freetrade and diversity – their countries’laws take opposing positions on a con-troversial debate currently facing theIrish population: abortion.Abortion is legal in Canada. In Ireland,it is only allowed if a woman’s life is indanger. Action Canada for SexualHealth and Rights called on Trudeau,who has publicly supported a woman’sright to choose, to raise the abortion is-sue with Varadkar, who has describedhimself as “pro-life.”“With the Irish prime minister comingto Canada, there is a really great op-portunity to talk about women’s rights,reproductive rights and access to abor-tion,” said Meghan Doherty, global

CANADIAN Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, with Ireland’sPrime Minister Leo Varadkar at the Montreal Pride Parade onSunday, August 20.policy and advocacy officer at the pro-choice charity.“The [Canadian] prime minister’sstance…could be quite persuasive withthe Irish Government to encourage themto be progressive, to respect women’srights and to be seen as the moderncountry that it is.”Varadkar has pledged to hold a refer-endum in spring 2018 on whether torepeal the eighth amendment of theIrish Constitution, which forbids abor-tion even in cases where the fetus wasconceived through incest or rape.Abortion carries a prison term of up to14 years in Ireland, forcing many womento go to great lengths to access the serv-ice, including travelling to countrieswhere it is legal.On his visit to Canada, the taoiseachalso attended a business breakfast inToronto hosted by Enterprise Irelandand the Toronto Ireland-Canada Cham-

bers of Commerce.He met with a number of companiesincluding small and medium-sized busi-nesses supported by Enterprise Irelandand CETA was a major topic of discus-sion during those meetings.Vivian Doyle-Kelly, president of the Ire-land-Canada Chamber of Commerce inMontreal, said both governments under-stand the importance of the trade deal.“There are tremendous opportunities forincreased business between Ireland andCanada. Both of the economies aredependent on international trade.”Canada and Ireland share strong eco-nomic ties. Bilateral trade was valuedat $2.4-billion in 2016, putting Irelandas Canada’s 10th-largest trading part-ner in the European Union.More than 4.5 million Canadiansclaimed Irish ancestry in 2011, makingthe Irish-Canadian community one ofthe largest ethnic groups in Canada.

Taoiseach plans toincrease Irish diplomatic

missions overseasTORONTO – Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is exploring ways to boost linksbetween Canada and Ireland and he announced plans during a three-day visit here in August.

Speaking at an Enterprise Ireland event in Toronto, Varadkar pledgedto double Ireland’s diplomatic and trade forces abroad by 2025.

He set out how the government will unveil a plan to “double Ireland’sglobal footprint” , as Ireland tries to overcome challenges faced by Brexit.

The plan, which is being put together by Foreign Affairs Minister SimonCoveney, will see a doubling of agency strength in some diplomatic ar-eas, he said.

This means new and augmented diplomatic missions and as well assignificantly increased resources for investment, tourism, cultural andfood agencies overseas.

Varadkar highlighted how Ireland was under-represented in major econo-mies and regions globally. This included not having a full embassy inNew Zealand and no permanent consulates in Los Angeles or Mumbaiin India. There was also no IDA office in Canada, he said.

Varadkar said the move to ramp up Ireland’s presence in new regionswas partially a response to Brexit but also global demographic changes.

During his speech, he told business leaders in Canada, “Enterprise Ire-land client exports reached EU21.6 billion in 2016, up more than sixpercent year on year.

The taoiseach spoke about the importance of CETA – the EU-CanadaComprehensive Economic Trade Agreement – which comes into effectthis month.

This result is that more than 98 percent of the tariff barriers to tradebetween Canada and the EU, including Ireland, will be removed.

This will help unlock the enormous untapped potential for greater tradeand investment between Ireland and Canada.

The taoiseach said, “Notwithstanding our strong competitiveness andvigorous economic growth, Ireland today faces undoubtedly the great-est set of political and economic challenges in a generation, as a resultof Brexit. Now is the time to plan ahead with ambition.”

At the end of 2016, IDA Ireland had 28 Canadian companies employingover 3,100 people. Canadian investment in Ireland is estimated todayat C$14 billion while one in seven Canadians claim Irish ancestry, ahigher percentage than the United States.

Canadian residence in Dublinis haunted, ambassador says

THE CANADIAN residence in Ranelagh, Dublin, where alleg-edly paranormal activities are occurring.

OTTAWA – It’s the perfect setting fora spooky story: Glanmire House, nes-tled in an old part of Dublin, and theformer home of one of the leaders ex-ecuted after the 1916 Easter Rising.Now the official Canadian residence inIreland, Ambassador Kevin Vickerssays the elegant home is haunted.The ambassador, whose relatives aredescendants of Cork emigrants, wasappointed to Ireland in January 2015 –believes his official residence is beinghaunted by the ghost of Pádraig Pearse.Kevin Vickers, who made headlineswhen he rugby tackled a protestor tothe ground during a 1916 centenarycommemoration service, thinks thespirit of the 1916 leader lives on in theelegant setting of Glanmire House.The ambassador describes hearing unu-sual bangs, laboured breathing andheavy footsteps in the residence’s hallsin a recent social media post.“Ghosts. I never believed in ghosts.Until I arrived here,” he said.

Vickers is not easily spooked. Theformer sergeant-at-arms of the Houseof Commons, who spent 29 years in theRCMP, was hailed as a hero in 2014when he shot dead a gunman who hadopened fire on Parliament Hill in Ot-tawa.When he moved into the Ranelaghhome, Vickers heard rumours Pearsehad once lived there. After extensiveresearch he discovered documentssigned by Pearse to lease the groundsbetween 1908 and 1912.“I wonder if it is he who walks the hall-ways,” Vickers wrote on Facebook,where he has nearly 5,000 friends.“Some evenings he or she seems agi-

tated. Then days go by and all is quiet.”According to the BBC, Vicker’s maidAnna is sometimes nervous to go up-stairs. Vickers said that if anyone doubts“the validity of this story, you are wel-come to come and stay a night or twohere.”Interestingly, one of Pearse’s last writ-ten works was an essay called“Ghosts.”In the preface, he wrote, “Ghosts aretroublesome things in a house or in afamily. There is only one way to ap-pease a ghost. You must do the thing itasks you. The ghosts of a nation some-times ask very big things, and they mustbe appeased, whatever the cost.”

“The ghosts of a nationsometimes ask very bigthings, and they must

be appeased,whatever the cost.” TD Securities

chooses Dublin for EU trading hub post-Brexit

TORONTO – Toronto-DominionBank has picked Dublin for its ex-panded trading hub inside the Eu-ropean Union in preparation forBritain’s departure from the eco-nomic bloc.The bank’s TD Securities unit plans toestablish a bond-trading business there,subject to regulatory approval, accord-ing to a statement on the Irish develop-ment agency’s website.A unit of Canada’s largest lender byassets already has a fully licensed op-eration in the Irish capital, where it hasbeen operating for more than 20 years,and has an office in London.Dublin is the second most popular des-tination – after Frankfurt – for finan-cial-services companies seeking unin-

terrupted EU access post Brexit.The city provides a low-tax English-speaking location and has similar lawsand regulations to its UK neighbour.Barclays Plc and Bank of AmericaCorp. have also settled on the city fortheir new EU hub.“This is a great win for Ireland as weseek to deepen and expand the rangeof financial-services companies whoare investing in Ireland,” said Irish PrimeMinister Leo Varadkar in Toronto,where he was concluding a trade mis-sion in late August.“As we face into the challenges ofBrexit, we are determined to pursue andseize new opportunities and investmentprojects from key companies world-wide.”


Ireland submits bid to hostEuro Banking Authority post Brexit

DUBLIN – The Irish Govern-ment has made formal bids tohost two agencies that will berelocated from the UK afterBrexit.Ireland’s Department of Health andDepartment of Finance are competingagainst other EU countries to offer anew home to the European BankingAuthority (EBA) and the EuropeanMedicines Agency (EMA), currentlybased in London’s Canary Wharf.The banking and medicines agenciesemploy just over 1,000 staff betweenthem.Bids from the two departments to hostthe agencies have been submitted to theSecretary-General of the Council of theEuropean Union.“Ireland’s offer to host the EuropeanMedicines Agency (EMA) has todaybeen submitted to the Secretary-Gen-eral of the Council of the EuropeanUnion,” the Department of Health con-firmed.The department said that Dublin meetsall of the criteria necessary to success-fully host the EMA and presents an at-tractive option for the staff of theagency to relocate to.

Minister of State for Financial Servicesand Insurance Michael D’Arcy said arelocation to Dublin would be the leastdisruptive move for the EBA and itsstaff.Around 20 countries, including Dublin,Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, andPrague, are among the cities that areunderstood to be keen to host the agen-cies.They are all competing to attract theagencies’ highly skilled employees, theirfamilies and the business that comeswith them.This includes 40,000 hotel stays for visi-tors each year.

The banking and medicines agencies areseen as the first spoils of Brexit by the27 remaining members of the EU.“The fact that the United Kingdom hasdecided to leave the European Unionhas resulted in significant disruption anduncertainty.“For the EBA, its staff and their fami-lies, a move to Dublin is the least dis-ruptive option,” said D’Arcy.He added, “Our transport links to Eu-rope, our culture, language and skilledmultilingual education workforce makeDublin an attractive destination aheadof other potential locations.“Given the economic and strategic ben-efits for Ireland, we are making a strongproposal which includes incentives tosupport the relocation of the EBA andthe establishment of a Relocation Groupto aid the relocation of the Authority.”D’Arcy said the EBA’s relocation toDublin would further raise the country’sprofile as global leaders in the financialservices sector.The European Commission will assessthe entries based on the quality of of-fice space, job opportunities for spousesand transport links.A final decision on the relocation is dueto be made in November.

THE EUROPEAN Banking Au-thority is now based at OneCanada Square in CanaryWharf, London.


New Scottish Novel Anticipatedthe John A. Macdonald Debate

EDINBURGH – This year’sall-too-brief sojourn to sunnyVancouver was bookended bythe great naming debate.Just before I turned for Scotlandand its bleak September winds en-suing, the Elementary Teachers’Federation of Ontario passed aresolution urging school boardsacross the province to considerremoving John A. Macdonald’sname from public schools.By the time I landed at Glasgow air-port – a few miles from whereMacdonald was born – the issue ofun-naming or renaming had sparked afurious debate across Canada.Coincidentally, I reviewed a book justbefore I left Scotland which anticipatedthe Macdonald furore.The review was of a novel entitledmacCloud Falls by Scottish authorRobert Alan Jamieson who lives in Ed-inburgh but is originally from Shetland.Jamieson’s protagonist Gilbert Johnsonis an antiquarian bookseller from Edin-burgh who, like his creator, also hasconnections to Shetland.Gil, as he is commonly known, travelsto British Columbia to research a mi-grant Scot called James Lyle who hethinks he is related to.To that end, he takes a Greyhound busfrom Vancouver to the B.C. interior andhikes into a secret valley in the hope ofdiscovering the cabin where Lyle livedwith his first wife, a member of theNlaka’pamux nation.It’s soon clear that Lyle is a version ofJohn Teit (or Tate), a real-life migrantScot who married a Nlaka’pamuxwoman and became fluent in severalFirst Nations languages.Teit was born on the Shetland Islandsand migrated in 1884 to Spences Bridgein British Columbia’s Fraser Canyon.He initially helped manage a store onan estate owned by his uncle, JohnMurray, an enthusiastic renamer whocalled a local mountain after Edinburgh’sArthur’s Seat (now Art’s Ass to someirreverent Canadians).Murray grew fruit and his orchard be-came famous for Grimes Golden ap-ples when it was under the care of aWidow Smith.Teit eventually worked with anthropolo-gist Franz Boas and was an advocatefor First Nations’ rights in British Co-lumbia, acting as a bridge to white offi-cialdom.When Canadian Prime Minister WilfridLaurier visited Kamloops in 1910, heprepared the declaration that assertedland rights on behalf of the Secwepemc,Okanagan and Nlaka’pamux nations.His Nlaka’pamux wife was SusannaLucy Antko and they lived together for12 years until her death in 1899.Gil is keenly aware of the naming issueand writes in his journal about the rightto name, the language of power, thedominant narrative.With the help of an elder and a youngNlaka’pamux woman, he comes to un-derstand this and learns to read FirstNation silences rather than depend onthe voluminous written testimonies thatScots tended to leave behind.It’s here that the story, at least by im-plication, intersects with the Macdonaldkerfuffle. Teit/Lyle is the kind of Scot

sometimes used to assuage colonialguilt.The argument goes is that some Scotssettlers were more sympathetic to theFirst Nations and more prone to inter-marriage than others in the British co-lonial project and that this somehowatones for Scots like Macdonald who,whatever other qualities he had, wasthe architect of the assimilationist In-dian Act and the residential school sys-tem.It is very much to Jamieson’s credit thathe understood the naming issue so wellon the back of a handful of CreativeScotland-funded research trips to B.C.It’s also – belatedly – to Canada’s creditthat something that has bubbled underthe surface for so long is finally beingpublically debated.Some years ago I travelled acrossCanada on a Scottish Governmentproject visiting towns named for placesin Scotland such as Inverness, Banff,Calgary, etc.It was only when I arrived in MountCurrie, B.C. that I fully realized theother side of the story.Mount Currie is named for a Scot whointermarried and many of the peoplethere are Wallaces because, as I wastold, they were renamed by an Indianagent acting for the Canadian Govern-ment.The removal of their real names begatthe loss of everything else, including theirculture and their children.One of the things Jamieson’s protago-nist discovers on his quest is that Scot-land’s connections to Canada are notjust historical, they affect the wayCanada functions today.This too has been raised in theMacdonald debate.Now that it is out the bag the namingdebate will continue, as it should.

And the Scots who, as the title of atleast one book would have it, “builtCanada” might be particularly exposedbecause as they built it they named ittoo.There are hundreds, if not thousands,of towns, municipalities, buildings,mountains, rivers and, as in Jamieson’sbook, waterfalls across the country thathave names derived from Scotland.Two weeks ago I was on Cortes Islandwhich is part of the traditional territo-ries of the We Wai Kai, Kwiakah,Homalco, Klahoose and Sliammon FirstNations.A friend who was raised there showedme middens formed since time imme-morial.Yet, the toponymy of the island is de-fined by the Spanish conquest ofMexico and by the first settler MichaelManson who, by another coincidence,was from Shetland.It seems likely that Macdonald won’tbe the only individual Scot under scru-tiny.Already, there’s talk of James McGill’sconnection to the slave trade and whatthe implications are for the universitynamed for him.The entire debate seems to have beenignited by the U.S one around confed-erate statues which has taken a morecomplex form in Canada.Here in Scotland, there’s many a Glas-gow street named after tobacco lordswith a connection to the slave trade andno shortage of monuments to dubiousEmpire figures, but the only sign of ac-tivity so far is a revived interest in pull-ing down the Duke of Sutherland’sstatue from the top of Ben Bhraggie.He is the best known of the Highlandclearers and his statue is a reminder ofhow some Scots got to Canada in thefirst place.

SIR JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONALD [January 11, 1815 –June 6,1891] was the first prime minister of Canada [1867–1873, 1878–1891].

ABOVE (L) A NOVEL entitled macCloud Falls by Scottish au-thor Robert Alan Jamieson. (R) THE DUKE OF SUTHERLANDstatue overlooking Golspie and Sutherland from top of BenBhraggie in the Scottish Highlands.

UK oil job losses‘worse than expected’

The oil and gas industry still supports more than 300,000 jobsacross the UK but that is 150,000 less than the peak in 2014,according to the Trade body Oil & Gas UK’s annual report.

ABERDEEN – The number of joblosses in the UK oil and gas sector wasworse than expected last year, a majorreport has said.Trade body Oil & Gas UK’s annual re-port said 60,000 direct and indirect jobswere lost across the industry in 2016,more than the 40,000 it had predicted.The report said the sector could loseanother 13,000 jobs in 2017.However, it suggests that while somecompanies are still reducing headcount“the largest reductions may now bebehind us.”The oil and gas industry still supportsmore than 300,000 jobs across the UKbut that is 150,000 less than the peak in2014, the report said.According to the trade body report,“There are tentative signs that investorconfidence is starting to return to thesector.”It highlights the fact that almost $6 bil-lion (£4.6 billion) was invested in UKcontinental shelf assets and acquisitionsin the first half of 2017.According to the report, the current lowlevel of exploration activity “remains aserious concern” as it is vital to replen-ish production with new developmentopportunities.Elsewhere in the report, Oil & Gas UKmodelled scenarios for the impact ofBrexit on tariffs for the oil and gas in-dustry.

The report said Brexit could cost theindustry £1.1 billion a year if the UKwas unable to negotiate new trade dealsand reverted to WTO rules. It said thiswould be an “unhelpful” additional cost.Oil & Gas UK chief executive DeirdreMichie said, “There are still serious is-sues facing our industry which has suf-fered heavy job losses since the oil priceslump. But we are hopeful that the tideis turning and expect employment lev-els to stabilise if activity picks up.”Michie said the sector was successfullyre-positioning itself through efficiencyand cost improvements.“Although we are getting to a muchbetter place, we still need further in-vestment to generate new activity andsustain hundreds of thousands of UKjobs,” she said.A spokesman for the Scottish Govern-ment said oil prices had been “recover-ing from their previous low levels” andthere had been “some improvement ininvestor sentiment,” but acknowledgedit was a “challenging time for the in-dustry and the workforce.”He added. “We are focused on creat-ing a competitive and supportive busi-ness environment and promoting inno-vation throughout the supply chain –however, it is the UK Government thatretains control of the key taxation le-vers affecting the sector, and that musttake the action needed to incentiviseinvestment to protect jobs.”

VANCOUVER – The Welsh Society of Vancouver has an-nounced a number of upcoming events at the Cambrian Hall,215 East 17th Avenue in Vancouver.

Welsh Society of Vancouverupcoming events Fall 2017

She will give a talk on the subject ofDNA. All are welcome.Diane will be providing handouts, soorganizers need to know the number ofattendees (you are invited to bring alaptop if you wish).If you plan to attend, please e-mailCarole Smythe at [email protected].

Wednesday, September 13 – 3-5PM – Welsh classes at the VancouverWelsh Society are free and all are wel-come.Classes are designed for all levels ofWelsh learners, and beginners are al-ways welcome at any point in the term.Classes will be held every Wednesdayfor the term through to November 15.Wednesday, September 20 – 10:30AM – The Welsh Genealogy Groupmeets on the third Wednesday of eachmonth from 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM inthe Red Dragon.Wednesday, October 18, at 10:30AM – the Genealogy Group will host aspecial guest speaker, Diane Rogers, inthe Red Dragon (entrance at the rearof the building via the lane).

CAMBRIAN HALL


‘Potential for chaos’: Welsh portfears post-Brexit customs delaysCARDIFF – The Welsh portof Holyhead faces “chaos” ifa hard border is introducedbetween the UK and Ireland,with the shipping industry andlocal politicians warning oflorries carrying perishablegoods queueing for mileswhile they wait for customsclearance.Holyhead, on Anglesey, is the busiestroll-on-roll-off port in the UK afterDover, with 400,000 trucks a year pass-ing through on the way to and fromDublin.A report by the Welsh assembly on howBrexit could affect ports in Wales sayscustoms delays could have an unwel-come impact, while the route’s twoferry operators, which have previouslyremained silent on Brexit, told an as-sembly committee of their concerns forHolyhead.Irish Ferries said it feared a reintroduc-tion of customs checks could lead “UKplc” to quickly grind to a halt, whileStena Line said any custom or borderchecks could disturb the whole businessmodel for the “open port” of Holyhead.The assembly’s external affairs andadditional legislation committee calledfor transition arrangements to protectWelsh ports.It said it was extremely concerned atthe lack of talks between Britain andIreland over the issues facing all Welshports – including Pembroke, Fishguardand Milford Haven.The committee also expressed concerns

that electronic checks, often touted bypoliticians as a means of enabling swiftpassage across EU borders afterBrexit, would not provide a solution.That is a fear shared by the UK Cham-ber of Shipping (UKCS), which repre-sents 140 shipping companies.“It doesn’t matter if it is a pole acrossthe road or a cyber barrier, the point isthat the passage of trucks out of theport is on someone’s say so,” said TimReardon, its director of policy.Welsh assembly members heard thatmore than 70 percent of Irish cargocomes through Wales, including producefrom Northern Ireland, because it of-fers the quickest route to the UK forexporters of perishable goods.They fear that traffic to Wales from the

Republic of Ireland could “leak” to theNorthern Ireland-Scotland route if theland border on the island of Ireland doesnot involve customs checks.Reardon said the problems Holyheadfaced post-Brexit were worse thanthose at Dover because of ferry sched-ules designed to get fresh produce toDublin or Holyhead before dawn foronward distribution to supermarketsacross Ireland and the UK.Industry leaders have already warnedthat Brexit could choke roads aroundthe Kent port, through which 2.5 mil-lion lorries pass each year. Holyhead’straffic is smaller, but Brexit could over-whelm the town.“When the ferries arrive the problem ismore acute than Dover because thetraffic arrives in pulses unlike Doverwhere it is a steady stream,” saidReardon.“When the two ferries arrive togetheryou have 400 trucks coming off in 15minutes: There is simply not space inthe terminal for all to park and wait forsomeone in a yellow jacket to saywhether you can either proceed or not.It is particularly acute in Holyhead.”The local Labour MP, Albert Owen, saidthe prospect of a hard border neededurgent government attention.“Everyone is talking, quite rightly aboutthe hard border between [Northern Ire-land and the Republic of Ireland] andthat is hugely important because of theGood Friday Agreement, but the Com-mon Travel Area between Wales andIreland is hugely important because ofthe scale of business,” he said.Owen pointed out that there was al-ready gridlock in Holyhead whenweather did not permit sailings or whenthere was a problem on the bridge tomainland Wales.“Traffic backs up very quickly. If therewere checks, congestion would be adaily occurrence.“If you have two ferries in at once, thequeue could be seven kilometres,” hesaid. “There’s potential for chaos, andthere’s potential for restrictions for com-panies that need to get to the marketquickly.”The UKCS believes the only way toavoid disruption is for the UK to stay inthe EU customs union.“This is not a port issue, this is a stateissue. The government created the prob-lem for the country, it is the state that istoying with the idea of interrupting thesupply chain, it’s their problem, they haveto solve it.”

AROUND 400 trucks arrive off two ferries in a space of 15minutes at Holyhead ferry terminal. If there were checks, con-gestion would be a daily occurrence.


POSTCARD FROMBOURNEMOUTH

ByELFANJONES

Brexit negotiations now underway....and not going terribly well

THE WONDERFUL Red Arrows, the Royal Airforce Flying dis-play kicked off the proceedings with breathtaking manoeuvresat the 10th annual Bournemouth Air Show with half a millionspectators.

Greetings fromfoggy Bourne-mouth. Theweather had beenglorious up until

the day all the schools closedfor the summer holidays.Since then it has been miserable and Itruly admire the determination, thesheer grit, of holidaymakers.The kids who have been on the beach,in swimming costumes with buckets andspades, while their parents sit on can-vas chairs, huddle in their Kagools,grimly watching on.The occasional maniac has been seenrunning into the sea, but I think there isa special home for them.

•Despite the weather all the carnivals,county shows, country shows, and fes-tivals have carried on as usual, and thisweekend saw the tenth annual Bourne-mouth Air Show with half a million spec-tators.The weather was kind for three of thefour days, and the wonderful Red Ar-rows, the Royal Airforce Flying displaykicked off the proceedings with breath-taking manoeuvres.Sadly all flights on the last day had tobe cancelled because of strong winds,heavy rain and poor visibility, but therewere still thousands of people on thebeach and lining the cliff top, determinedto have a good time, optimisticallywatching the clouds for some sign ofimprovement.I suppose having now witnessed tenBournemouth Air Festivals the thrillwanes a little and this year the eventthat impressed me most was the GreatDorset Steam Fair.This is an annual show which has beenrunning for 50 years and is reputed tocontain the largest collection of steampowered vehicles and machinery in theworld.In 2013 the fair entered the GuinnessBook of World Records with the larg-est parade of steam rollers, consistingof 103 working vehicles.As we approached the venue which isjust outside Tarrant Hinton, a villagenear the small picturesque town ofBlandford Forum, we saw a city of cara-vans and campervans and a vast showground which covers 700 acres.Within the grounds is a funfair whereseveral of the traditional rides weresteam powered, and the fair containedthe largest collection of fairground or-gans in the UK.Displays included steam rollers and trac-tion engines, old ploughing machines,and all types of heavy machinery per-forming the work for which they weredesigned.There were several large marquees

containing bars and live music, a fieldof retail outlets selling food and every-thing from arts and crafts to industrialwear.There were numerous exhibits of shirehorses, classic cars, bicycles, motor-bikes, but the highlight for me was thecollection of shiny fairground caravansand the gleaming showman’s enginesthat pulled them, especially beautiful atnight when they were illuminated.The whole place had a slightly scruffyfeel to it as many of the exhibitors wereworking hard shovelling coal and theirfaces were grimy but it added to thecharm.

•Mercifully the political scene has beenrelatively quiet over the summer as thepoliticians have been on holiday enjoy-ing the fruits of their expense accounts.The Brexit talks are underway and Ihave been enjoying myself, as it is ex-tremely interesting reading the com-ments of the diplomats and trying todecipher what they are actually saying.My impression so far is that the nego-tiations are not going terribly well, be-cause the state of play appears to bethat the European commissioners thinkthat the British Government negotiatorsare delusional and out of their tiny minds,whereas our honourable representa-tives hold the considered opinion thatthe European Commissioners can getstuffed.Currently the debate centres on what

is referred to as the divorce payment;which is the sum of money that Britainwill be expected to cough up for leav-ing the club.The Europeans are suggesting a pricetag of EU50 billion, which is approxi-mately 50 billion more than the UK isoffering, leaving plenty of room to hag-gle.While this is all going on, our delusionalprime minister has just announced shewill lead her conservative party to vic-tory at the next election scheduled forMay 2022, although 25 members of herown party have already signed up toousting her as leader.With very little on television during thesummer all this has been very enter-taining.

•Finally, Andrew Alsop a Welsh fisher-man from Milford Haven, has landed aseven-foot seven-inches long, 500-pound tuna, 20 miles off thePembrokeshire coast.This is the biggest ever catch in Wales.Before World War II the Blue Fin tunawere commonplace but stocks dwindledwhen herring and mackerel were deci-mated by over fishing.Recently returning stocks and warmerwaters have seen tuna slowly return,so who knows one day tourists couldbe flocking to Wales to hire boats andcatch these monsters of the sea.

Best wishesElfan

THE GREAT DORSET Steam Fair is an annual show which hasbeen running for 50 years and is reputed to contain the largestcollection of steam powered vehicles and machinery in theworld. In 2013 the fair entered the Guinness Book of WorldRecords with the largest parade of steam rollers, consisting of103 working vehicles.

Duke and Duchess ofCambridge expecting

their third childLONDON – The Duke andDuchess of Cambridge areexpecting their third child,Kensington Palace has con-firmed.The announcement came as Kate, whois less than 12 weeks pregnant, wasforced to cancel a planned engagementdue to severe morning sickness, thesame condition she had in her previouspregnancies.In a statement, Kensington Palace said,“Their Royal Highnesses the Duke andDuchess of Cambridge are verypleased to announce that the Duchessof Cambridge is expecting their thirdchild.”The palace issued the statement asKate was due to visit the Hornsey RoadChildren’s Centre in London to hearabout the mental health impact of be-coming a mother.However, she is suffering from hyper-emesis gravidarum, which can result innausea and vomiting so acute it can re-quire hospitalisation. She is currentlybeing cared for at the palace.The announcement comes as Williamand Kate are preparing to send theireldest child to school.Four-year-old George started at fee-paying independent school Thomas’sBattersea in south London on Thurs-day, September, 7.The past year has already been one ofbig changes for the Cambridges.

Their main home is now their Kensing-ton Palace apartment rather than theirNorfolk mansion Anmer Hall, andWilliam quit his job as a pilot for theEast Anglian Air Ambulance in July tobecome a full-time royal.The couple’s third child – who will bethe Queen’s sixth great-grandchild –will be fifth in line to the throne, behindPrince Charles, Prince William, PrinceGeorge and Princess Charlotte.If a boy, it will be the first time newrules to remove male primogeniture willbe invoked.The change – which stops royal sonstaking precedence over their female sib-lings in the line of succession – cameinto force in March 2015.

WILLIAM AND KATE, alongwith the couple’s two children,Prince George and PrincessCharlotte toured Poland andGermany earlier this year.

LONDON – The mystery of why therewas a spate of sperm whale beachingsaround the North Sea last year mayhave been solved.The great beasts weren’t starving ordiseased, but had all died in an areawhere they typically were not expectedto be.The solar storms that produce theNorthern Lights may have been toblame for last year’s stranding of 29sperm whales on beaches in the UKand other countries around the NorthSea.The whales washed up on the Lincoln-shire and Norfolk coasts in January andFebruary 2016, and there were alsobeachings in the Netherlands, Germanyand France.Scientists believe that whales – as wellas other animals such as birds – usethe earth’s magnetic fields to help themnavigate when they migrate.But – writing in the International Jour-nal of Astrobiology – a team of re-searchers argues that disruption tothese fields by solar storms can “leadto short-term magnetic latitudechanges” that confuse the mammals.The high-energy particles released to-wards the earth during a solar storm“deform the earth’s magnetic field.”These particles also produce the famousNorthern Lights – and can interferewith communications systems, satellitesand cause power blackouts.A few weeks before the whales washedup, a Norwegian measuring station nearShetland recorded changes in the mag-netic field intensity and inclination in the

area. It is at this crucial point that themigrating animals may have firststrayed off course, making a “fatal”error, the researchers suggest.They believe the first solar stormcaused a theoretical shift in the mag-netic field by up to 460 kilometres northto south.The second, which began on NewYear’s Eve 2015, caused fluctuationsequivalent to a latitude deviation of 277kilometres.The 29 whales that washed up were allmales, which grow up at lower latitudeswith a “largely undisturbed geo-mag-netic field.”The research team believes this meansthat younger males often “have no ex-perience of random, abrupt geomagenticstorms” and therefore are not used toswitching to a different way of navi-gating.Instead of swimming north of Shetlandto search for squid, the whales made afatal navigation error and headed southinto the much shallower North Sea.Three whales ended up stranded at OldHunstanton in Norfolk on January 22 –but two managed to make it back toopen water.On January 24, three beached nearSkegness. A day later, another whalebecame stranded at Wainfleet, Lincoln-shire.The final UK beaching was on Febru-ary 2 – again at Old Hunstanton.The biggest stranding, however, was inGermany, when eight whales washedup near Kaiser-Wilhelm-Koog.

Northern Lights linkedto whales stranding


Mayor of London callsfor social housing tsar in wake

of Grenfell Tower tragedyLONDON – The mayor ofLondon has urged the govern-ment to appoint a social hous-ing tsar to safeguard tenants’interests in the wake of theGrenfell Tower inferno.Sadiq Khan said there is a deepsense of “frustration and anger”that residents of the council-owned block were “ignored.”In a letter to the prime minister,he proposed the introduction of a

MAYOR OF LONDON Sadiq Khan takes part in a release ofdoves as a show of respect for those who died in the GrenfellTower fire, during the Notting Hill Carnival Family Day in westLondon.

Former Irish president McAleesesays border controls ‘inevitable’

DUBLIN – Former Irishpresident Mary McAleese hassaid she believes border con-trols and identity checks be-tween Northern Ireland andthe Republic are “inevitable”after the UK leaves the EU.In an interview with RTÉ following anevent at the Edinburgh Festival, shewarned of the dangers of Brexit anddescribed it as like “pulling a tooth with10,000 roots.”Northern Ireland is the only part of theUK that will share a land border withan EU state post-Brexit.In a recent paper, the British govern-ment stressed there should be no physi-cal infrastructure, such as customsposts, at the border, which has almost300 crossing points.McAleese said while she was reassuredthat the UK does not want a so-calledhard border, she was concerned theopen border cannot be maintained ifthere is no customs union and strongimmigration controls.“So far I haven’t heard anything apartfrom soothing words that it will be ok,”she said. “Part of me says that has tobe underpinned with something infinitelymore concrete than the desire that eve-rything will be alright.

TRAFFIC crosses from the Irish Republic into Northern Ire-land near Dundalk. There are almost 300 border crossingsalong the 310-mile border, which often zigzags through largelyrural areas, and would be impossible to police without a hugeincrease in resources. Trade and services between the twosides now flourishes. Between 23,000 and 30,000 people com-mute daily across the border – a figure that discounts “frontierworkers” such as community nurses or farmers who go backand forth across the border several times a day.

“We need to start hearing how it willbe alright.”Describing the open border as a hard-fought “joy,” she said some form ofidentification would be needed eventu-ally and that would make her “deeply,deeply unhappy.”She added that the lack of a power-sharing executive in Northern Irelandcould be “very costly” in the long run,

as Brexit was going to “reshape thefuture for generations to come” and thepeople and politicians needed to be“feeding the debate.”The prospect of a united Ireland, shesaid, had been brought to the fore byBrexit and there was a need for “newlanguage, new ideas and newunderstandings” in order to accommo-date unionists.

GRENFELL TOWER in westLondon where at least 80 diedand hundreds more were lefthomeless after an inferno atthe 24-storey, 220-foot highblock of public housing flats inNorth Kensington, west Lon-don. The fire started on June14 and burned for about 60hours until finally extinguished.

commissioner for social housingresidents, tasked with giving ten-ants a voice on “the nationalstage.”Khan said, “All of us who have spenttime talking to Grenfell residents sincethe fire cannot help but have felt theirfrustration and anger that policy-mak-ers have ignored them before and fol-lowing the tragedy.”The June 14 disaster came against abackdrop of repeated fire safety con-cerns flagged by the tower’s residents,which were allegedly ignored by boththe council and the organisation man-aging the building.Khan said the commissioner would op-erate independently of government andhold the legal powers to act as watch-

dog for social tenants, leaseholders andfreeholders.His intervention follows consternationexpressed by both politicians and sur-vivors of Grenfell Tower when the is-sue of social housing was excluded froma forthcoming public inquiry into thetragedy.Prime Minister Theresa May said thegovernment’s housing minister, AlokSharma, would instead carry out a sepa-rate review of the issue.At least 80 died when flames engulfedthe 24-storey block, while hundredsmore were left homeless.Both the council and the Kensington andChelsea Tenant Management Organi-sation are being investigated by theMetropolitan Police on potential corpo-rate manslaughter charges.


Grand Opening of Donnellan’s Irish Pub:A Joyous Night of Celebration

ANCOUVER –Situated in theheart of thebusy down-town entertain- By

CATHOLINEBUTLER

Along one wall there are two comfort-able snug areas which could each seatabout eight people, offering a lovely in-timate space for groups or parties.A floating gallery on the second flooroverlooks the main room, giving guestsa bird’s eye view of the stage and mainarea.Live music is featured seven nights aweek at the pub, and on opening nightMichael Viens and Elegwen ÓMaoileóin provided some excellent en-tertainment.It’s been awhile since I heard this duoand I was amazed at their full richsound. They are both great local en-tertainers.Later in the evening Irish dancers withthe O’Connor School of Irish Dancejoined the celebrations with some spec-tacular footwork.Donnellan’s is still a work in progressand they hope to have their kitchen upand running early this autumn.Donnellan’s feature live broadcasts ofthe hurling and Gaelic football gamesfrom Ireland, attracting many of thenewly arrived Irish who are all very in-terested in the GAA games back in theirhome counties.The All Ireland Hurling Final on Sun-day, September 3, attracted record earlymorning crowds to Donnellan’s towatch the live telecast of Galway de-feat Waterford.It was 29 years since Galway won theAll Ireland Hurling title and the right tolift high the Liam MacCarthy Cup.There was great celebration atDonnellan’s and days of celebrations inGalway.Donnellan’s will also be showing livethe All Ireland Football Final on Sun-day, September 17 – Dublin vs Mayo.So, who will lift the Sam Maguire Cup?This early-morning nail biter starts at7:30 AM.Donnellan’s Irish Pub is located at 1081Granville Street in Vancouver. Call(604) 564-4277 or online at:www.donnellansirishpub.com.

Vment district, Donnellan’sIrish Pub on Granville Streethosted a much anticipated of-ficial grand opening lastmonth.William and Laura Donnellan ofKnockcroghery, Co. Galway – proudowners of the pub – also own IRLConstruction, a very busy constructioncompany in Vancouver.Opening night on Friday, August 4 is oneWilliam and Laura will never forget! Itwas a tremendous night of beginnings.This was the night they had dreamedof and worked so hard to accomplish –the opening of their first Irish pub.It was also the occasion their first childdecided to make his arrival into theworld.Iarla wasn’t due until October, but hedecided to join the celebrations earlyand arrived on the same night.It was a joyous event, filled with con-gratulations for mother, father, and newbaby boy... and the family are all doingjust fine.Luckily, William’s mother and fatherwere visiting from Ireland and availableto do the honours of cutting the red rib-bon to officially declare the pub openfor business.Father James Hughes of St. Patrick’sParish in Vancouver, who is present atso many Irish gatherings, liberally sprin-kled holy water blessing the new es-tablishment.Donnellan’s Irish Pub is a long wideroom, with a cosy fireplace area nearthe main door where there is also enoughspace for the musicians to set up theirequipment.The two main focal points include amassive crystal chandelier in the cen-tre of the room, along with a huge goldsignature letter ‘D’ for Donnellan’s inthe shape of a harp and illuminated ona green background behind the bar.Throughout the pub there are high ta-bles and chairs along with large roundbarrels with lots of space on top fordrinks, allowing patrons to stand aroundand socialize like back home in Ireland.It’s the kind of space Celts love, whereyou can either sit or stand and socializewhile munching on Tayto crisps –cheese and onion seem to be the fa-vourite.

PHOTOSby Patrick King

OPENING NIGHT GUESTS – (L-R) Charlie Donnellan, MartinaDonnellan, Catholine Butler [The Celtic Connection], JimmySpeiran, Marie Donnellan [William’s mother], Father JamesHughes, John Donnellan [William’s father], Shaun Donnellan,and Rafael Salvino.

IT WAS a busy night at the bar for the bartenders. Picturedabove (R) is bar manager Jordan Flynn.

MICHAEL VIENS and Elegwen Ó Maoileóin, two enormouslytalented local musicians provided excellent entertainment onthe evening.

THE IRL CONSTRUCTION contingent at the grand opening ofDonnellan’s Irish Pub on Friday, August 4.

FATHER James Hughes as-sisted by Rafael Salvinoblessed the new business.

THE DONNELLAN sign is fi-nally out on Granville Street.

LOVELY dancers with theO’Connor School of I r ishdance provided some spec-tacular footwork.

THE TWO main fo-cal points include amassive crystalchandel ier in thecentre of the room,along with a hugegold signature letter‘D’ for Donnellan’s inthe shape of a harpand illuminated on agreen backgroundbehind the bar.PHOTO: Colleen Carpenter


IRISH CLUB OF WHITE ROCK

Looking forward to autumnafter a great annual summer BBQ

By SHARON NI CHOILLEPresident,

Irish Club of White RockThe Irish Club of White Rock,along with the Fraser ValleyGaels, held their annual sum-mer BBQ on August 13.This year it was held in the gor-geous Redwood Park in Surrey.It was a fantastic day with huge mem-ber attendance. Along with great foodthere was music, football, hurling andgames.It was really great to see so many newand returning members of both clubscome together to enjoy a day of Irishfun.A warm welcome is extended to all ournew recent members. Please see theIrish Club of White Rock Facebook pagefor upcoming events.The Irish Club would like to extend ahuge congratulations to the Fraser Val-ley Gaels on their win, in the NorthAmerican Championships. Well donelads, well deserved.

•For more club information, callSharon Ni Choille at (604) 338-3553or Deirdre O’Ruairc at (604) 803-0773.

KATHY KING with Mary McNulty and Bridie Eviston.

JAMES WOODS with Robbie Greville and Ricky.

MARK MOORE with Mairéad Colley/Nolan, Abby Moore,Christine Gannon, and Josh Nolan in front.

LISA CORRIGAN with Noel and Maureen McDermott.

MARY HARRINGTON and friends.GER GANNON with the Irishtricolour.

SHEA CREW wearing his weepeaked cap against the sun.


IRISH WOMEN’S NETWORK OF BCUpcoming Events this Fall

Vancouver FringeFestival

Standing Room Only Theatre presentsAlmost a Stepmom, created and per-formed by Keara Barnes; directed byMichael David Stewart.Based on a true story. Keara moved toIreland. She fell in love. Then she be-came a stepmom...almost.A darkly comic tale about the ups anddowns of becoming a stepmother. FiveIrish characters and a murder attemptround off this tumultuous and touchingsolo show.The show runs until September 17 atthe Vancouver Fringe Festival. Tickets:http://tickets.vancouverfringe.com/shows/almost%20a%20stepmom/events

•September 24: Walkfor Reconciliation

Join the Irish Women’s Network ofBC’s Team for a Walk for Reconcilia-tion on Sunday, September 24. Every-one is welcome.

The walk follows a two kilometre routefrom Cambie and Georgia Street toStrathcona Park. This event is organ-ised by Reconciliation Canada.To be part of the walk in Vancouverplease register online at http://reconciliationcanada.ca/walk-for-rec-onciliation-2017.Once registered select a team andchoose ‘The Irish Women’s Networkof BC’.The Walk for Reconciliation is a posi-tive movement to build better relation-ships among Indigenous peoples and allCanadians.This bold vision calls on everyone of allages, all backgrounds, all cultures andall faiths to come together as commu-nities and as individuals.The IWN team has opted not to raisefunds/set a target as they want to en-courage everyone to come and partici-pate. It is up to each team member ifthey wish to raise funds individually.All members of the Irish community arewelcome to walk with the IWN – we

hope to see you on the 24th.•

September 30: IrishNewcomers Info andNetworking SeminarFree networking seminar for all Irishnewcomers; learn about job hunting,making your Irish CV into a Canadianresume, information interviews and tipsfor finding a job.Network with established members ofthe Irish community; make new friendsand pick up other useful tips about set-tling in Vancouver.Resource people needed from differ-ent work areas to help give guidance tonewcomers, all you need to commit tois a couple of hours and provide infobased on your personal experience.To register as a newcomer or a re-source person, go to https://w w w. s u r v e y m o n k e y . c o m / r /SeminarSept30.Hope to see you at one of the upcomingevents.

Celtic Highlights ofVancouver Fringe Fest

VANCOUVER – A free pub-lic lecture by MichelineSheehy Skeffington – grand-daughter of Hanna SheehySkeffington – will be pre-sented at Simon Fraser Uni-versity Harbour Centre Cam-pus on Wednesday, November8.Micheline is coming to Vancou-ver as part of her USA/Canada lec-ture tour recreating her grand-mother’s lecture tour in 1917, andwhich is being filmed for a docu-mentary.Hanna Sheehy Skeffington was Ire-land’s most famous suffragette but to-day her contribution to the struggle forIrish freedom through the courage andtenacity of her U.S. tour is largely for-gotten.When her husband Francis was shot byBritish firing squad during the 1916Easter Rising, despite him being a paci-fist, Hanna undertook an epic lecturetour of the U.S., publicising what hadhappened.Following Frank’s murder, Hanna suc-cessfully lobbied for an independent in-quiry into his death.While it established his innocence, shewas dissatisfied that the officer who hadordered Frank’s murder was ruled in-sane.Hanna refused £10,000 hush moneyfrom British Prime Minister Asquith(U.S. $1 million today), and insteadsailed to the U.S. with her seven-year-old son Owen using false passports toensure that the full truth behind Frank’smurder and the reality of the BritishEmpire’s actions in Ireland wouldemerge.Hanna toured the U.S. over 18 months,giving over 250 speeches and fillingvenues such as Carnegie Hall, and theeven larger Dreamland Auditorium inSan Francisco.

A century of protest:Hanna Sheehy Skeffington

She was the only Irish representativeto meet President Woodrow Wilson toput forward Ireland’s case for independ-ence.During the tour the British did all theycould to silence her, even trying to ab-duct her. On her return, Hanna wasarrested and imprisoned.John Devoy, head of Friends of IrishFreedom in the U.S. wrote “Mrs.Skeffington has done more real good tothe cause of Ireland during her shortstay in America than all the Irish ora-tors and writers...[over] the past 25years.”Micheline is well-known in Ireland forher own stand against authority, win-ning a significant gender equality caseagainst her university NUI Galway in2009 which she won in 2014 in a land-mark decision by the Irish Equality Tri-bunal.Her win was the first by any femaleacademic in Ireland or the UK provinggender discrimination in academic pro-motion.It resulted in extensive media cover-age which was then doubled when sheannounced she was offering herEU70,000 award to the five otherwomen who were shortlisted and notpromoted in that round.This enabled them to take High Courtactions as they were by then out of timeto go to the Irish Equality Tribunal.Micheline regularly gives talks abouther famous grandparents and spoke atboth official state events in 2016 com-memorating Francis SheehySkeffington’s death.Her visit to Vancouver is sponsored bythe Irish Women’s Network, Vancou-ver; Department of Sociology and An-thropology, SFU; Department of His-tory, SFU; Academic Women, SFU.The lecture is free and open to the pub-lic. It will be held at the SFU HarbourCentre Campus, room 7000, 515 WestHastings Street, Vancouver – 7-10 PM.Follow the tour on Facebook at:www.facebook.com/hannas U.S. tour.

HANNA Sheehy Skeffingtonwith her son Owen (MichelineSheehy Skeffington’s father).Following the murder of herpacifist husband, Hanna cou-rageously undertook an epiclecture tour of the United Statesin 1918.

ACADEMIC Micheline SheehySkeffington is the granddaugh-ter of the famous Ir ishsufferagette, Hanna SheehySkeffington.

Scottish spokenword sensation in Vancouver

Creative Scotland supported show Gi-gantic Lying Mouth to debut at thefringe festivalAward winning writer and performerKevin P. Gilday is bringing his new showGigantic Lying Mouth to the Vancou-ver fringe with support from the Scot-tish Government.The show will take place at the RevueStage, Granville Island on September14 at 6:45 PM, September 16 at 5:45PM, and September 17 at 2:45 PM.Kevin’s tour of Canada and the U.S.has been supported by Creative Scot-land, the country’s arts council, in or-der to promote Scottish art and identityabroad.Kevin P. Gilday is a writer, theatre-maker and one of the UK’s foremostspoken word artists.He has performed all over the worldincluding the BBC 6 Music Festival,Edinburgh Fringe, Toronto Fringe,Wickerman, Belladrum, Lingo (Dublin)and Glastonbury Festivals (on two oc-casions).He has supported artists such as SaulWilliams, Sage Francis and George thePoet.His writing has appeared in publicationsand websites around the world whilehis controversial series of videos cre-ated for the BBC have been viewed byover a quarter of a million people.A reflexive solo performance combin-ing contemporary spoken word withmonologues, multimedia and comedy –Gigantic Lying Mouth follows thestory of the eponymous author.After perishing in a tragic yoga acci-dent, Kevin finds himself trapped in theafterlife and in line for a celestial judge-ment – only to find things are a littledifferent on the other side.Guided through the afterlife by a Machi-avellian guardian angel, the mischievousLady Lazarus, Kevin must analyse thedecisions and lies that characterised hisexistence if he ever hopes of justifyinghis life on earth.

•Four Irish Tales ofthe Supernatural

‘Tween Earth and Sky is a one-manplay, dramatizing four Irish tales of thesupernatural presented by Mark Lyon.Journey back to a time, long ago; longbefore your great-great-grandfather’sgrandfather was born, when the worldwas filled with enchantment and bedev-ilment brought about by supernaturalentities who dwell within the invisibleworld ‘tween earth and sky.A time when Ireland was so much aplace of enchantment and bedevilmentthat a decent man could hardly pokehis nose outside the door of his owncottage without chancing upon spiritsand witches and all manner of fairy folkwho have the ability to bring either goodluck or bad luck to mere mortals suchas you and I.‘Tween Earth and Sky weaves a magi-cal spell through the dramatization offour traditional Irish tales of the super-natural ranging from the tale of a cleverlad’s attempt to outwit a leprechaun, tostones which weep tears of regret me-morializing the tragic romance betweenthe son and the daughter of two war-ring Irish clans, to a financially ruined

aristocrat who sells his soul to the Deviland a young rogue’s harrowing journeyseeking redemption while a talkingcorpse clutches tightly to his back.Actor and playwright, Mark Lyon, whowill portray 16 different roles, has en-chanted audiences from Orlando,Florida to Victoria, B.C. (where he wascalled “a master storyteller” by the Vic-toria Times Colonist) and across theAtlantic in Irish castles and at Ireland’smost prestigious literary event of theyear, the Listowel Writers’ Week Fes-tival, with his original one-man plays.He is a member of the Screen ActorsGuild, holds a masters degree in Thea-tre, studied at length in a master classwith Lynn Redgrave and was honoredto have been chosen to perform withRedgrave in a presentation of greatmoments from Shakespeare at theLouis B. Mayer Theatre for the benefitof the Motion Picture and TelevisionFund.Although the tales dramatized in ‘TweenEarth and Sky are based upon tradi-tional Irish folklore, while searching outsupernatural sites in Ireland, Lyon hasmet credible individuals who have toldhim of personal experiences involvingthe fairy folk and other legendary Irishsupernatural entities.These experiences resulted in his initi-ating a survey throughout Ireland insearch of present-day, first-hand en-counters with the fairy folk in all of theirintriguing forms.Mark Lyon will perform at the Vancou-ver Vancouver Fringe festival, at Stu-dio 16 - 1555, 7th Avenue West, V6J1S1 on the following dates: ThursdaySeptember 14, 8:30 PM; Saturday, Sep-tember 16, 8:15 PM.

•A Comedic Jab at

‘The One’Draining the Swamp: A musical Tweetpromises to “make theatre great again”with a comedic jab at The One and the1%.This is another original musical theatri-cal vortex from the same creative teamas last year’s hit Waiting For Garbo,which wowed audiences at both the Ed-inburgh Fringe and Vancouver FringeFestival and features Jacques Lalonde(Trump The Musical) with music byKevin Michael Cripps. (TUTS: TheDrowsy Chaperone).Comic mayhem ensues when The Bossfires his Apprentice, shoots his Driver,and gets arrested for murder. Refer-ences to contemporary political figuresare purely intentional, and most of thedialogue has been mashed from thetwitter sphere.The performances (70 minutes) are atthe Havana Cafe Theatre, 1212 Com-mercial Drive. Check it out on Sep-tember 14 at 9 PM, September 16 at1:15 PM, and September 17 at 12:15PM.

MARK LYON


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Two Edmonton Irish dancersearn a place as the toptwo Canadian females

EDMONTON – Two Edmontonsisters with the Mattierin Schoolof Irish Dance – Olivia and LondynNachtigal – claimed first and sec-ond place in their respective com-petitions at the 2017 NorthAmerican Irish Dance Champion-ships in New Orleans, Louisiana.Over 3,500 dancers from around theworld competed at the championshipsand the two Mattierin dancers haveearned a place as the top two Cana-dian females.Olivia Nachtigal, who won first place,claiming the title North American Na-tional Champion 2017 in the Girls U16category out of nearly 140 dancers wasalso the only female Canadian to winand one of only two Canadians to winthe North American Championship ti-tle.Londyn Nachtigal placed second in theGirls U18 category out of almost 120dancers and was the top Canadian inher competition.This is an incredible achievement forone dancer, let alone two dancers fromthe same family and school.Peyton Schroter, also of the MattierinSchool of Irish Dance, placed fourth inthe Girls U13 out of over 110 dancers,being western Canada’s youngest fe-male podium placer at the 2017 NorthAmerican Irish Dance Championships.Both Londyn and Olivia attended theWorld Irish Dance Championships inDublin, Ireland this past April whereboth girls brought home World Medals.Londyn is currently ranked seventh inthe World, top Canadian and now sec-ond in North America. Olivia is currentlyranked 15th in the World and now firstin North America.Londyn and Olivia Nachtigal have justreturned from a week in Boston atRiverdance School where they spent aweek working with Riverdance profes-sionals such as Ciara Sexton andPadraic Moyles.They performed a final show on the lastday in which Londyn earned herself alead spot in part of the show.The Mattierin School is very proud ofthese talented, hardworking and suc-cessful Edmontonians who are inspira-tions and role models within the Irishcommunity.

(L-R) OLIVIA NACHTIGAL, Londyn Nachtigal and PeytonSchroter with the Mattierin School of Irish Dance in Edmontonat the 2017 North American Dance Championships in New Or-leans.

OLIVIANACHTIGALwears a mask inNew Orleans asshe celebratesher first place winin the Girls U16category at theN.A. NationalChampionships.

Ireland’s revolutionary yearscaptured in comprehensive new bookCORK – The most comprehensivetreatment of Ireland’s revolutionaryyears has been published by Cork Uni-versity Press.Edited by John Crowley, Mike Murphy,Donal Ó Drisceoil with associate edi-tor John Borgonovo, The Atlas of theIrish Revolution promises to be one ofthe Irish publishing events of the year.Following the unprecedented criticaland commercial success of the Atlasof the Great Irish Famine (2012), theAtlas of the Irish Revolution bringsthe same engaging and detailed treat-ment to the Irish revolutionary period.With just under 1,000 pages – and fea-turing hundreds of maps, photographs,paintings and other illustrations – this

spectacular volume is the most com-prehensive treatment of Ireland’s revo-lutionary years ever produced.The Atlas presents the history of theIrish Revolution in a vivid and excitingway, using many photos and archivaldocuments that have rarely been seenby the Irish public.It covers all the key events and episodesfrom 1912 to 1923 – the Home RuleCrisis, the First World War and EasterRising, the First Dáil and the War ofIndependence, the Treaty and Civil War.It also features sections on the roots ofthe revolution in the 19th century; theimpacts, outcomes and legacies of theseturbulent years; and how they havebeen remembered in literature, on film,

in art and through public memorials.Over 140 separate contributions fromthe leading scholars of the era deal withthe revolution in all its complexity, in-cluding a chapter by Montreal’sConcordia School of Irish Studies His-tory Professor Gavin Foster.As well as detailed military and politi-cal accounts, the often neglected rolesof women and workers are given theirdue, as are the experiences of UlsterUnionists, Southern Protestants andIrish people in British uniform.The crucial role of the Irish diaspora isalso featured in this exhaustive andstimulating volume that is a must-havefor anyone with an interest in how mod-ern Ireland came into being.


In memory of my fatherThomas (Tom) O’FlynnBy JOHN O’FLYNN

VANCOUVER – On behalf ofmy sister Mary, brothersJames and Thomas, I want toexpress gratitude to our im-mediate family here in Van-couver and to our extendedfamily in Ireland, England andUSA for their manykindnesses throughout theselast few years.We are very thankful to those who sup-ported our efforts in the care of our dad– Thomas (Tom) O’Flynn.The varied communities that sent onnotes, Mass cards and donations to theBetty O’Flynn Memorial Bursary wereall deeply appreciated. Special thanksto St. Patrick’s Father James Hughes,Father David Hughes and DeaconMichael Boreham for their ministry.On the day of the funeral, it was reallyamazing to see 13 priests in attendanceon their traditional day off (and not outon the golf course)!The generosity from the many visitorsand the kind honors that were presentedto Thomas were many.The “Cross of Honour” medal fromPope Francis for dad’s ‘half a centuryof service’ with the St. Vincent de PaulSociety; Honorary Presidency of theVancouver Irish Sporting and SocialClub; “Spirit” and “Celtic Connection”awards for his contributions to the Van-couver Irish Community were all kindtestaments.Whether at his home near 17th andMain over so many years or in the lastyear with his residencies at both SouthGranville Park Lodge and St. John’sHospice, dad made friends.Charming nurses and staff with his de-lightful personality, he was always inreadiness to uplift another’s spirits andto make their day better.One of the most inspiring things in hischaracter was how he held his friendsin such high esteem.He didn’t want anyone to know howhard it was for him to receive visitorsand to be expected to participate in con-versation when in his weakened stateof endurance plus Alzheimer’s disease.It was encouraging to see how hestretched himself to greet every visitorwith his best attention to their conver-sation and even an invitation for themto return soon.My father was not a complainer. Evenup to the end, he would not push thecall button for assistance no matter howserious the issue, so as not to cause in-convenience.Tom was born in the town land ofTulligmacthomas, Feohanagh, WestLimerick in 1934 and shortly thereaf-ter, his family moved to Pallas,Kilmeedy when he was 10 months old.He left for Dublin in 1948 as a 14-year-old to work in an ice cream shop.Sadly, his father died in July of that yeardue to the ravages of alcohol.Dad could not afford the fare back toattend the funeral, as he made only apound a week, so he decided to use hiscoins to put an ad in the paper announc-ing his father’s death.

Tom joined the Pioneer Total AbstinenceAssociation of the Sacred Heart onSeptember 10, 1951 and remained a life-long member.Dad’s older brother John, a well-knownB.C. west coast fisherman, left forCanada in 1948 and when dad turned18, he came to Toronto in 1952.He made his way across the countryby train and worked as a faller in theforestry industry and a variety of otherjobs, including the Arthur Murray Schoolof Ballroom Dancing as an instructor.My father and mother (Betty) saw to itthat Gaelic Games and the best peoplein the world connected to the GAAwould be an integral part of our upbring-ing.The Vancouver Irish Sporting and So-cial Club (ISSC) formed in 1974 andmy proudest memory as a child, of myfather, was a day of Gaelic sports atJohn Hendry Park.Dad was the oldest competitor in the‘Poc Fada’ (long puck) and he won withhis ancient ‘Camán’.I remember Dad around a simplespeaker-phone listening intently to anAll Ireland Hurling Final – and then,years later, watching his first All Ire-

JOHN O’FLYNN with his dadat the 1916 Rising Commemo-ration banquet at the HiltonHotel in Burnaby last year. TomO’Flynn was a proud supporterof count less Ir ish eventsthroughout the VancouverLower Mainland over the years.

TOM was honoured to beawarded a life presidency ofthe Vancouver Irish Sportingand Social Club in 2015 alongwith his good fr iend JimSpeiran. They are pictured dis-playing their green ISSCneckties sporting the club logo.

land Football Final in Vancouver on abig screen (1990).Dad would see to it that the ISSC wouldhave a representative at the foundingof the CGAA (1987) in Toronto.He would attend games in Washington,Oregon, California, Alberta, and evenattended 40th anniversaries of St. Mikesand St. Pats in Toronto.When the ISSC celebrated 30 years in2004, the first competitive hurling matchin 28 years took place between Ameri-can and Canadian Irish and his “WestLimerick Holdings Ltd.” company spon-sored the trophy.It gave him great pleasure to sit at Ta-ble 1 “Croke Park” when the ISSC cel-ebrated 40 years in 2014.To conclude with a granddaughter’ssocial media post, “As Grandpa Tomonce said, ‘it takes all kinds of peopleto make up a world’ and we are all sofortunate to have had a gracious manlike him in ours.“He was one of the most selfless andgenerous people I ever had the pleas-ure to meet, and will forever stay in mymemory as a funny and light heartedcharacter. Cheers to a long and happylife, he will be missed.”By EIFION WILLIAMS

VANCOUVER - Members of theVancouver Welsh Society join the Irishcommunity in expressing their condo-lences at the passing of ThomasO’Flynn, whose kind and benevolentspirit was admired by all who knewhim.Tom lived across the street from thesociety’s Cambrian Hall and through-out the years proved to be a modelneighbour.As a strong supporter of the CelticHeritage group, Tom firmly believed thatthe various Celtic groups should worktogether and promote each other’s ac-tivities.He also frequently attended Welsh So-ciety events and encouraged his friendsto do likewise.Many of the contacts between theWelsh Society and other communityCeltic groups were largely due to Tom.He had a high regard for the WelshSociety, where he had many closefriends. He was especially close to thelate Neville Thomas, who shared Tom’sviews on wider Celtic cooperation.Tom’s support for the Welsh Society

The Vancouver Welsh SocietyRemembers Tom O’Flynn

was also expressed on a more activelevel.For many years he would assist themember in charge of Cambrian Hallrentals by occasionally opening the hallto prospective renters and checking itafter they left.The society could also rely on Tom todeal in a neighbourly way with any late-night noise problems from renters at thehall.Tom’s charitable nature was also evi-dent during the annual spring sale at thehall.Whenever possible, he would person-ally take any unsold items following asale and donate them to the St. Vincentde Paul Society, of which he was a valu-able and active member.Tom O’Flynn was a true friend of theVancouver Welsh Society. He will beremembered by members as a modelneighbour and as someone who dem-onstrated in practical ways the Chris-tian values that guided his life.President Lynn Owens-Whalen hasextended sincere condolences to Tom’sfamily on behalf of members of theVancouver Welsh Society.

IN MEMORY OF LAURIE KELLYOUR thoughts and prayersare with Pat Kelly and hisfamily on the sudden pass-ing of his wife Laurie Kelly(75) who died suddenly onholiday in Galway, Ireland.Pat Kelly is the managing partnerof Bradley Kelly Construction anda partner in the Heart & Crown IrishPub in Ottawa, Ontario.

Laurie will be sorely missed and issurvived by her devoted husbandPatrick and her children Donna,Greg (Wendy), Julie (Allan) andChristine (Gordon) and step chil-dren Veronica (Frank) and Padraig(Genevieve) and her loving sisterDoreen (Moe) and brother Brian(Karen) along with her preciousgrandchildren Amanda, Scott,

Stephanie, Holly, Robert, Riley andShaun and step-grandchildrenPatrick, Martin, Frankie, Jarlath,Dara, Sarah and Amelie and manynieces and nephews.

Laurie remained a dear friend toher former husband John Sauve(Bernadette) who share the sad-ness in her passing.

Death of well-knownearthquake specialist

Dr. Peter ByrneBy EIFION WILLIAMS

VANCOUVER – Dr. Peter Byrne,Professor Emeritus of UBC Engineer-ing, who passed away on August 17,was an earthquake specialist and ahighly regarded geotechnical consultant.Dr. Byrne received numerous awardsfor his many achievements. In 2014, hewas awarded the prestigious R.F.Legget Medal by the CanadianGeotechnical Society.The medal is the society’s highestaward, presented to an individual foroutstanding life-long contribution to‘geotechnique’.His previous awards included theGeoffrey Mayerhoff Award from theCanadian Geotechnical Society, theGzowski Medal from the Canadian So-ciety of Civil Engineers and the JulianC. Smith Medal by the Engineering In-stitute of Canada. The latter is pre-sented for ‘Achievement in the Devel-opment of Canada’.The Canadian Geotechnical Societynoted that Dr. Byrne’s achievementswere demonstrated by a wide range ofprojects on which he had been con-sulted, including bridges, tunnels, dams,rapid transit projects, high-rise buildings,airports and a wide variety of other fa-cilities in seismically active areas ofCanada and around the world.Dr. Byrne also had a reputation as aresearcher, having written many papersin his area of expertise while pioneer-ing many new procedures.He was also much in demand at na-tional and international conferences asa consultant.As a teacher, he raised awareness ofearthquake damage protection amongstudents, members of the public andgovernment bodies.He also served as Chair of the Van-couver Geotechnical Society and servedon several National Building Code com-mittees.

Peter Michael Byrne was born in 1936in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, andgained his first engineering degree fromUniversity College, Dublin.He completed post-graduate studies atthe University of British Columbiawhere he was a Professor of Civil En-gineering from 1967 until his retirementin 2001.To the Vancouver sailing fraternity,Peter Byrne was well known as a com-petitive sailor, a passion he had followedsince his early years in Ireland.In 1967, he won a Bronze Medal in theFlying Dutchman class at the PanAmerican Games and was a memberof Canada’s Olympic sailing team at the1972 Munich Olympic Games.In 1973, with his wife Jane as crew, hewon the Enterprise Class World Cham-pionships, held that year in Vancouver.Peter Byrne was a popular member ofthe Royal Vancouver Yacht Club forover 50 years.Family members and friends will alwayscherish the memories of summers sail-ing with Peter along the coast of Brit-ish Columbia.Peter Byrne is survived by his wife Janeof 57 years and sons Sean and Craig.

PETER BYRNE


Stark contrast between U.S.and Canada viewed through lens

of working holiday visas

OTH America and Canada have longbeen destinations for Irish emigrants.However, with recent restrictions placedupon U.S. visa applications coupled with

ByMARK

COSTELLO

Bthe current political turmoil in America there are manyreasons why Canada is now the obvious choice whenchoosing between the two.America is often the destination mostassociated with Irish emigration. Thiscan be traced back to the 1840s whenthousands of Irish immigrants crossedthe Atlantic in coffin ships in an attemptto escape the potato famine that rav-aged Ireland.It is estimated that by 1850 nearly onemillion Irish emigrated to the UnitedStates, nearly half of all immigrants tothe nation.*However, today, America’s image ischanging. Where previously Americawas seen as an inclusive land of oppor-tunity, it is slowly becoming viewed ashostile rather than hospitable for poten-tial relocators.This is largely due to President Trump’shard-line stance on immigration thatcorresponds with the “America first”theme of his administration.This attitude led the then candidate todecry the popular J-1 working holidayprogram as a jobs program for “foreignyouths.”The J-1 summer work and travel pro-gram is a staple in the lives of youngIrish around the country thereforeTrump’s comments had many worriedthat his election would spell the end ofthe entire program.Today it fortunately remains intact how-ever it is uncertain for how long andunder what further constraints.Already new restrictions have been put

in place making it necessary now to at-tain a job in the U.S. before an Irishstudent is granted a 90 day J-1 visa.Such strict procedures and restrictionsadd new difficulties to the whole expe-rience of moving to America makingCanada seem all the more attractive.In contrast, Canada’s IEC visa inclu-sively offers young people from aroundthe world the opportunity to work inCanada for up to two years in any Ca-nadian province and for any Canadianemployer.Young Irish people from between theages of 18 to 30 can apply and cruciallythe visa does not require a job offer inorder to be awarded.Overall, it is relatively easy to acquireas long as an applicant meets the mini-mum age requirement, provides proofof citizenship and residence in theircountry of origin and has a clean crimi-nal record.Furthermore, the Canada visa is con-siderably cheaper and lasts for doublethe duration than its American counter-part which only accepts graduates andundergraduates as possible candidatesfor a 12-month period.Also, the job one takes in the U.S. mustbe directly related to one’s field ofstudy.Where a 12-month visa for Americastarts from EU2,730 (if you were toapply with USIT), a two-year working

visa for Canada costs you only $226CAD on the Citizenship and Immigra-tion Canada website.Such immigration policies are sugges-tive of the multicultural inclusivity thatCanada and its leader reveres.In January, in reaction to Trump’s travelban, Prime Minister Justin Trudeautweeted: “To those fleeing persecution,terror & war, Canadians will welcomeyou, regardless of your faith. Diversityis our strength.”The contrast between the leader’s andtheir country’s policies and attitudes arestark.At this moment in time the J-1 andGraduate programs to America remainsurprisingly intact.However, do not be surprised if thereis an increasing number of Irish studentsand graduates looking to Canada insearch of jobs, homes and craic.At the time of the U.S. election an IrishTimes poll found that only six percentof Irish voters would like to see DonaldTrump elected president.Despite numbers of people travelling tothe States on summer J-1 visas remain-ing high, the statistics imply that any Irishdelusion that America is the dreamlandof old is very much dead.Should Trump remain unimpeached andCanada’s inclusive and unrestrictivework visa program remain in place, thenit is likely that the number of Irish relo-cating to the land of the maple leaf isonly going to increase.Source: * http://www.emmigration.info/irish-immigration-to-america.htm

•Mark Costello recently moved to Van-couver, B.C. from Dublin on a two-year work permit. He graduated fromTrinity College Dublin with a B.A. inEnglish Literature & Philosophy.

MOTHER TERESA who wascanonized a saint on Sunday,September 2, 2016 began herlife as a nun in Dublin.Known in the Catholic Church as SaintTeresa of Calcutta, she was an Alba-nian-Indian Roman Catholic nun andmissionary, born in Skopje, then part ofthe Kosovo Vilayet of the OttomanEmpire.Mother Teresa was one of those veryfew people to be canonised by popularacclaim, even before her death.Amid the dirt and the dying in Calcut-ta’s slums, in the depths of the most ap-palling poverty for many people she re-vealed the face of God.Pope St. John Paul II personally fast-tracked her beatification because “she

Mother Teresa: ‘I will always have aspecial place in my heart for Ireland’

QUOTEOF THE MONTH

“If you want peace inthe world....go homeand love your family”

– St. Teresa of Calcutta[1910-1997]

made those who had been defeated bylife feel the tenderness of God.”She held a her deep affinity for Ireland.The order she chose to join was an Irishone, the Loreto Sisters, and she beganher time as a nun by serving two monthsas a novice in Rathfarnham in 1928 tolearn English.Her ties with Ireland remained strong.

She returned many times and was giventhe Freedom of Dublin in 1993.At the height of the ‘Troubles’ in 1971she sent a group of her sisters armedjust with bedrolls and a violin to Belfastto help “in whatever little way” theycould.Even after her death her Irish connec-tions remain as her sisters continuework in each of the four provinces: inDublin, Blarney, Sligo and Armagh.As a citizen of the world, MotherTeresa often said, “By blood and originI am all Albanian. My citizenship is In-dian. I am a Catholic nun.“As to my calling, I belong to the wholeworld – and to Jesus. The people ofthe world are my people but I will al-ways have a special place in my heartfor Ireland.”


Singer Daniel O’Donnell leads the fundraisingcharge to help devastated Donegal flood victims

DONEGAL – Donegal nativeDaniel O’Donnell joinedforces with other Irish coun-try stars on September 3 tohelp raise funds for people af-fected by the recent floods inthe north-west of Ireland.Torrential weather on August 23affected tens of families when amonth’s rain fell in just a fewhours.People were displaced from their homesand farms, while roads and bridgeswere badly damaged.Despite the fact he was in the middleof a sold-out Irish tour, O’Donnell re-sponded to a call from an InishowenPeninsula woman, Deirdre Grant, forhelp.She wanted to put together a fundraisingevent and with the help of O’Donnelland some of his peers, Flood Aid forInishowen was put together.The event held at the Aura Centre inLetterkenny featuring Declan Nerney,Johnny Brady, Dominic and BarryKirwan, and Nathan Carter with thehouse band, along with DanielO’Donnell.Well-known Donegal personality NoelCunningham hosted the show, assistedby Phil Mack – who has family inInishowen – from the Keep It Coun-try Music Channel.In a video message posted to socialmedia, O’Donnell said he hoped fans

DANIEL O’DONNELL, Nathan Carter and Declan Nearney wereamong the Irish country music stars who teamed up for a ben-efit concert in Donegal in aid of victims of the flooding on theInishowen peninsula.

would organise coaches to bring asmany people to the show as possible.“I’m sure, like myself, you are allshocked and horrified but, thank God,nobody lost their lives,” he said of theflood damage. “But nevertheless, lotsof people have suffered.”He also said, “And I know that as wellas the money raised, the very fact thatthere’s a large number of people whoare turning out and gathering together,it’ll give the people in Inishowen andfurther afield great hope that things arebeing done, and to make their plightheard.”Proceeds after costs will go to the IrishRed Cross, with all artists donating theirtime free of charge.Following the flooding, Irish DefenceForces worked to help build bridges,erect safety fences and clear outhomes.Donegal Fine Gael TD Joe McHughsaid, “All branches of government re-sponded speedily to the crisis whichunfolded.“A number of government ministerswere at the scene within hours of theflood and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wasalso in Inishowen that week along withfive other government ministers.”In addition, McHugh also acknowl-edged the input from musicians, GAAclubs, the Red Cross, the DonegalDiaspora and the neighbours who wentout of their way to help.He said, “Any time there is a crisis inDonegal, Daniel O’Donnell is alwaysat the forefront.”

PHOTO: Caroline QuinnJOHN MCLAUGHLIN, owner of the Point Inn Bar and B&B atQuigleys Point, Carrowkeel in Co. Donegal, is among thosedevastated by the flood water and sewage damage to his busi-ness.

CLEAN UP OPERATIONS underway at Cockhill Bridge inBuncrana, Co. Donegal, after heavy rain left a trail of destruc-tion on August 23.

A VAN TEETERS on the edge of a huge hole in the road atQuigley’s Point in Co. Donegal.

IRISH music superstar Dan-iel O’Donnell was at theOrpheum Theatre in Vancou-ver on Friday, September 8on his Canada/USA Tour. Heis pictured above withDeirdre Keohane who saidafterwards, “ Incredibleshow, Daniel O’Donnell issome showman! What Dan-iel O’Donnell gave the Irish-Canadians tonight was ahuge gift of love, way be-yond any other artist that Ihave ever seen. He cameout after this amazing showand gave individual hugs andrecognition to his fans.”

Sinéad O’Connor givesheart-breaking interview about

her troubled life to Dr. PhilNEW YORK – In an emo-tional chat with televisionpsychologist ‘Dr. Phil’McGrath, Sinéad O’Connorhas opened up about her trou-bled life.“I’m so grateful and very happy, veryexcited to be getting some proper help,”O’Connor tells Dr. Phil in the interview,which kicks off the daytime talk show's16th season.Sinéad’s mother died in a car crashwhen she was 19, and now the 50-year-old has opened up about the continuingproblems those terrible memories haveon her.In a preview clip of her interview,Sinéad says, “I am fed up of being de-fined as the crazy person; the childhoodabuse survivor.”Explaining what she went through as achild, she adds, “She [her mother] rana torture chamber. She was a personwho took delight in hurting you.”She accused her mother of physicallyand sexually abusing her.When Dr. Phil asked what she lovedmost about her mum, the singer replied,“What I love about my mother is thatshe’s dead.”

Sinéad – who has battled with her men-tal health for a number of years – re-portedly asked Dr. Phil to be interviewedjust a month after she shared a harrow-ing video where she spoke about hav-ing suicidal thoughts.The Grammy winner posted the tearful12-minute footage on Facebook in earlyAugust, revealing she was all alone andstruggling to live every day.She also discusses mental health on theshow, saying, “The fact that there’s suchstigma about mental illness means thatthe illness doesn’t get talked about.”

“For you to have the courage to can-didly and openly talk about this givesothers the courage to come forward andseek the help they need,” Dr. Phil tellsher.On Jimmy Kimmel Live, McGraw toldthe late-night show host that it wasO’Connor who reached out to him forhelp.“She called and she said, ‘I want todestigmatize mental illness’,” he said.“She said, ‘I clearly have a problem,too many musicians are dying. I wantto use my life, be a teaching tool. I’mwilling to sit down and talk’.”

SINÉAD O'CONNOR will appear on Dr. Phil for the show's re-turn on Tuesday, September 12.


HE ongoing suspension of the StormontAssembly in Northern Ireland has hap-pened in the context of: ‘immovable’deadlines being discreetly moved; a Brit-T

Have unstable politicsbecome the new reality?

AFTER 10 years of power-sharing at Stormont, Northern Ire-land has been without a functioning government for most of theyear.The Northern Ireland executive collapsed in January 2017,and the last round of power-sharing talks ended in stalemate inJune.

THE VIEW FROMIRELAND

ByMAURICEFITZPATRICK

ish Government reluctant to formally suspend theAssembly and rule from London; a deeply uncertainfuture for Britain as it negotiates terms for its exitpassage from the European Union; the DUP ridinghigh as kingmakers in Westminster Parliament whilebeing uncooperative as only they can be; Sinn Féindelivering nothing to its electorate either in Belfastor in London but frantically trying to pretend other-wise.Such a dismal situation cannot continuelong, not even in Northern Ireland.Unfortunately, the gratuitous dismissalof partnership, of bi-partisan policies andof mutual gain through co-operation thatthe DUP-Sinn Féin impasse representsexemplifies the political landscape inmany other countries in the westernworld just now.In Turkey, for example, the constitu-tional referendum held on April 16, 2017copper fastened Recep Erdogan’s ab-solute power and ended Turkey’s de-mocracy.What has ensued hardly bears thinkingabout: Thousands of arrests of civilservants, teachers, newspaper editors,writers and students who dare to uttercritical comments about Erdogan’s ad-ministration.A similar mode of government, if a lessdrastic form of it, prevails in Hungaryand right-wing movements in othercountries are strengthened by it all.Still, there are also grounds for opti-mism.For example, shifts towards autocraticgovernments threatened throughout thespring of this year in several Europeancountries; and yet they were repulsed.In April, France could have swapped avisionless leader for one who has a clearvision although an awful one of pullingFrance out of the European Union andprobably bringing the European Uniondown in its train.Instead, they voted in another vision-less leader in the form of EmmanuelMacron.A stable France took the wind out ofthe sails of reactionary movements else-where.This year the Italian electorate could

well be brought back to vote for a sec-ond year running, in a general electionthis time, after they gave Prime Minis-ter Renzi the bum’s rush last Decem-ber.Such an election may possibly returnBeppe Grillo’s anti-Euro Five StarMovement.But it is much less likely now thatFrance has fended off the surge to theright proposing an end to Europe: Italydoes not want to do to itself what Brit-ain, which slouches towards its fate tobe outside the European Union, hasdone.Finally, Europe’s last man standing as aviable economy, Germany, which hasbeen helmed by the redoubtable AngelaMerkel since 2005, will hold electionsthis autumn.Merkel, like her counterparts elsewherein Western Europe, has had cause tofear the growth of the right-wing in hercountry, Alternative für Deutschland,this year.But one of Germany’s closest economicpartners, Holland, held a general elec-tion in March which dealt with theDutch right-wing party, The Party forFreedom, at its ease.

With centrist politics prevailing inFrance and Holland, Merkel will almostcertainly triumph later this year.But what do these challenges to cen-trist government have in common? Andwhy have right-wing movements surgedjust now?To understand political instability today,it is necessary to understand the brandof stability that is being sold as a re-placement for democratic processesand genuinely democratic institutions.Adam Curtis in his epic BBC documen-tary, released late last year,Hypernormalisation, gives us a clue:“In a world where the overriding aimwas now stability, politics became justpart of a wider system of managing theworld.“The old idea of democratic politics –that it gave a voice to the weak againstthe powerful – was eroded. And a re-sentment began to quietly grow out onthe edges of society.”Curtis is right. When real participationin the democratic process is swappedfor the concept of management trust insociety suddenly diminishes. Managersof systems rather than leaders of peo-ple have, and will continue to, run afoulof popular opinion.Consider the American election lastyear. Hilary Clinton later expressed ‘re-gret’ that at the hustings last Septem-ber she said, “ You can put half ofTrump supporters into what I call thebasket of deplorables unfortunately,there are people like that and he haslifted them up.”Turns out that a vote from one of thedeplorables went as far as a vote fromanyone else. Hilary Clinton may wellhave felt regret, but her remorse wassurely all the more profound on themorning of November 9, 2016.Brexit and the election of Trump in 2016made clear that in the political worldas it is presently constituted people canbe persuaded to vote against their owninterests in dramatic ways.What is required is clear enough: anentirely new vision in politics and an ad-mission that the economic system thathas dominated the western world forthe past two centuries is ending.Trump may criticise the flight of jobsto Asia and Mexico but he is afraid tomention that far more jobs are lost toautomation (circa 7:1 of losses in manu-facturing).The reason that politicians avoid say-ing that is because they cannot fullygrasp the impact of the changes in ourtime, still less articulate a clear alter-native to the outmoded systems thathave hardened into our political struc-tures.Consequently, they try to reboot the oldsystem even though it is unsustainable.In short, they are not up to the job (notthat that will stop them from applying).The word leadership has been thor-oughly cheapened to mean somethingbetween a conformist and a trimmer,that when a leader actually emerges he/she is often misunderstood.People like Edward Snowden in theU.S. and Mikhail Zygar in Russia areidentified solely for their stancesagainst the U.S. and Russian Govern-ments.But what is intriguing about their ac-tivities is the way in which they mightbe lighting up a new way to do politics.

NI SECRETARY OF STATE James Brokenshire (L) may beforced to call a fresh election if no agreement is reached. IrishForeign Minister Simon Coveney (R) is to join talks aimed atgetting the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive back upand running.

Stormont deadlock:Irish Foreign Minister

to meet NI partiesBELFAST – Irish Foreign MinisterSimon Coveney is expected to meet theStormont parties as talks to resolve aneight-month political impasse continue.On Monday, September 4, Northern Ire-land Secretary James Brokenshirewarned that the window of opportunityto restore devolution was rapidly clos-ing.He met all five main parties and urgedthem to act to get the Assembly andExecutive back up and running. If not,then the government would have to leg-

islate for an NI budget, he said.The two largest parties, the unionistDUP and republican Sinn Féin, blameeach other for the lack of progress.Their government broke down over anumber of issues with the final strawfor Sinn Féin being the DUP’s handlingof a botched green energy scheme.If agreement cannot be reached,Brokenshire is under a legal duty to calla fresh election, but he is understood tobe reluctant to do that.

U.S. to abolish specialenvoy to N. Ireland

BELFAST – U.S. Secretary of StateRex Tillerson has proposed abolishingmore than half of envoys. The last en-voy to Northern Ireland was formerDemocrat Senator Gary Hart.His appointment lapsed when theObama administration left power, andthe position has not been filled by Presi-dent Trump’s team.The decision comes amid a substantialreduction in American involvement inthe peace process in recent years.The U.S. has sent a special envoy toNorthern Ireland for more than twodecades.Bill Clinton floated the idea in the early1990s amid growing transatlantic inter-est in Northern Ireland’s affairs. But itwas not until 1995 that a decision toappoint a special envoy was finallymade.The first envoy was former U.S. Sena-tor George Mitchell, who played a key

role in the 1998 Good Friday Agree-ment.Slashing some of the special envoypositions has been on the cards forseveral years, amid criticism theirrole and impact was reduced by thesheer number of posts.Tillerson proposed the cuts in envoyposts in a letter to Senator BobCorker, chair of the U.S. SenateCommittee on Foreign Relations.The Trump administration has vowedto slash the funding of the state de-partment, which manages U.S. rela-tions with foreign countries and gov-ernments.Tillerson has suggested that the spe-cial envoys for climate change andthe Iran deal, Afghanistan-Pakistan,disability rights, international labouraffairs and for closing theGuantanamo Bay detention centre, aswell as the Northern Ireland role, willbe eliminated.

DUBLIN – Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said he will set out his“future intentions” if he is re-elected party leader at its conference inNovember.Adams was speaking in County Meath before a party meeting. He said he woulddetail the party’s “planned process of generational change” if he is re-elected.He added that the party had a 10-year plan for “orderly leadership change” thathad been outlined by the late Martin McGuinness and he said Sinn Féin’s 10-yearplan was being finalised and had “been the focus of much internal discussion.”“It is about preparing the party for the next 10 years and to ensure that we arebetter able to achieve our strategic objectives. Martin McGuinness made it clearthat we had a plan for orderly leadership change.”He added, “It is our intention to unveil at the Ard Fheis in November the plan thathe helped to formulate. I will be allowing my name to go forward for the positionof Uachtarán Shinn Féin and if elected I will be setting out our priorities and inparticular our planned process of generational change.”

Gerry Adams to spell out future plans


ByJOHN

KEANE

SEATTLE IRISH NEWSPASSINGS

• JOAN MORIARTY SLY (103), a na-tive of Ireland, died in Seattle July14.

• FRANKIE MCILHENNEY, the fatherof Emmet McIlhenney of Olympia,died in Co. Tyrone July 20.

• GIL MARTIN (84), a former presi-dent of the Friends of St. Patrick,died in Bellevue on July 4

• PETER CONWAY, the father ofSeattle’s Dessie Conway, died in Co.Tyrone in June.

Ar dheis Dé‚ go raibha n-anamacha dílse

– May their faithful souls restat God’s right hand.

CONDOLENCES – Sincere condo-lences to the family of Limerick manTom O’Flynn who died July 19 in Van-couver.

Tom’s thoughtfulness and hospital-ity over the years was legendary andmembers of the Seattle Gaels andnumerous other Seattleites withwhom he was friends were very sorryto hear of his passing.

He was a Fior Gael, a genuine Irish-man, and will be missed.

NEW CONSUL-GENERAL – DublinerRobert O’Driscoll assumed duty asConsul General of Ireland in SanFrancisco on July 3, and he will visitSeattle for the first time the week-end of September 29-30.

While here he will attend the IrishSeniors Luncheon, the Irish NetworkParty and the Irish Reels Film Festi-val.

Robert has been a diplomat with theIrish Foreign Ministry since 2007 andhas previously served as PrivateSecretary to the Tánaiste (Ireland’sDeputy Prime Minister) and to Ire-land’s Foreign Minister.

He has also served in Brussels, inthe United Arab Emirates, and inSaudi Arabia. We offer him a heartyCéad Míle Fáilte to Seattle!

WHELAN & RUSS – The SeattleFolklore Society presents the stellarIrish button accordion and fiddle duoJohn Whelan and Dale Russ in con-cert at 7:30 PM on Saturday, Sep-tember 23 at the Phinney RidgeCommunity Hall, 6532 Phinney Av-enue N, Seattle.

Seven-time all-Ireland championJohn Whelan is one of the world’sbest Irish button accordion playersand has been inspiring Celtic musi-cians and fans since he moved to theUSA in 1980.

Seattleite Dale Russ has enjoyed along career of performing on the fid-dle and in fiddle instruction, and hasbeen featured as one of the finestIrish fiddle players living in theStates. Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3052094.

SENIORS LUNCH – The Irish Immi-grant Support Group has scheduledanother Irish Seniors’ Luncheon atthe Wilde Rover Irish Restaurant inKirkland at Noon on Saturday, Sep-tember 30.

This luncheon will have as a specialguest the new Consul General of Ire-land in San Francisco, RobertO’Driscoll.

Over 500 different Irish seniors haveattended these luncheons over the

past 10 years, and all have beenwonderful, fun occasions.

The cost for the buffet lunch is $10for seniors and $15 for non-seniorsand all are welcome, but advancereservations are required to (425)582-2688.

IRISH FILM FESTIVAL – The 20thannual Irish reels Film Festival re-turns to the SIFF Film Center (at theSeattle Center) on Saturday, Sep-tember 30, and Sunday, October 1,both days from 12 Noon to 10 PM.

The festival will kick off with a spe-cial 20th anniversary gala celebra-tion co-hosted by Irish NetworkSeattle at The Ruins, 570 Roy St,Seattle, on Friday evening, Septem-ber 29 starting at 6 PM.

Join Irish Consul General RobertO’Driscoll to celebrate 20 years ofIrish cinema in the Northwest, andmingle with VIP guests from the worldof Irish Film.

Tickets are available at http://bit.ly/2wONdbl. For the complete film pro-gram, visit irishreels.org.

BELLINGHAM IRISH FESTIVAL –Bellingham’s Irish Festival runs Fri-day-Sunday, October 6-8, with mu-sical performances, workshops, ses-sions, and more!

Events take place at a variety of ven-ues and businesses in downtownBellingham and all locations arewithin walking distance of each other.

Many events and performances arefree! For the full schedule and de-tails visit bellinghamirishfestival.com.

BELLINGHAM IRISH FILM – Aspart of the Bellingham Irish Festival,an Irish Film School Life, directed byNeasa Ní Chianáin, will be screenedat the Pickford Film Center inBellingham on October 8 at 12 noon.

School Life is an observational docu-mentary about a year in the lives oftwo inspirational teachers atHeadfort, the only primary-ageboarding school in Ireland.

Housed in an 18th Century estate,school life embraces tradition andmodernity. More details at https://www.schoollifefilm.com/.

HARP CLASSES – The School ofMagical Strings’ five week Fall termin beginning and intermediate CelticHarp starts Monday, October 16 inSeattle at 8551 Greenwood AvenueN, Suite 4, and Tuesday, October 17in Olalla at the Magic Hill Studio nearthe Southworth ferry dock.

Even students with no prior musicaltraining will find this a refreshing andenjoyable experience as they learncaptivating melodies from the Celtictradition.

For details, [email protected] or visitwww.magicalstrings.com.

GAELIC MASS – Seattle’s annualMass of Remembrance in the Irish

(Gaelic) language will be Friday, Oc-tober 27, at 7:30 PM, at St. Patrick’sChurch, 2702 Broadway Avenue E(just off I-5 at Roanoke Street).

This Mass commemorates the de-ceased members of Seattle’s IrishCommunity, especially those whohave passed away in the past 12months who will be remembered byname during the Mass.

To submit names to be rememberedor for more information, call (425)582-2688 or [email protected].

ACIS CONFERENCE – The WesternRegional American Conference forIrish Studies will be hosted in Spokanefrom October 19 - 22.

Organized by Professor Donna Pottsfrom Washington State University inPullman, the theme of the conferenceis ‘Ireland, Irish America, and Work’.

The conference features an excel-lent lineup of panels, plenaries, in-cluding the Irish poet Moya Cannon,in addition to awards to recognizeexceptional work by emerging schol-ars in Irish Studies. Visit https://aciswest.wordpress.com/ for details.

SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON –Micheline Sheehy Skeffington,granddaughter of Irish suffragistHanna Sheehy Skeffington and paci-fist Francis Sheehy Skeffington, willspeak in Seattle on Thursday, No-vember 2 with location and time TBA.

Micheline is also known for her fightfor gender equality and justice, andis repeating Hanna’s 1917 tour of theU.S., all of which will be filmed for adocumentary to be shown on IrishTV. More details at [email protected].

TANNAHILL WEAVERS – TheBallard Homestead, 6541 Jones AveNW, Seattle, presents the interna-tionally known Scottish traditionalband, the Tannahill Weavers, Friday,October 20, 7:30 PM.

The Tannahills are inductees of theScottish Trad Music Hall of Fame andtheir consummate musicianship andvibrant arrangements are not bemissed.

Ticket, etc., at ballardhomestead.org.

IRISH SOUNDERS – Lamar Neagle,who is back again with the SeattleSounders, is an Irish citizen throughhis Irish-born grandmother.

He joins Sounders midfielder AaronKovar who also is an Irish citizenthrough his Dublin-born mother. Bothplayers have indicated an interest insomeday playing for Ireland.

MISCELLANEOUS• Contact Seattle’s Irish Book Clubat [email protected].

• The Irish Times recently had anarticle about the headstone with anIrish language inscription that waserected on Whidbey Island in 1863.

Read the article at http://bit.ly/2f8udew and see more of the storyat irishclub.org.

• Best wishes to The Hot Club of Troy(thehotcluboftroy.com) from Langleyon Whidbey Island who will be par-ticipating at the Django Sur Lennon,the Gypsy Jazz Festival in Ramelton,Co. Donegal from October 27-30.

For more details, visit djangosurlennon.com.

BEFORE marching over to Safeco Field to perform in centerfieldbefore Irish Night at the Mariners on July 25 were the TaraAcademy Irish Dancers, the Seattle Police Pipes and Drums,and author Tim Egan (center, white shirt) who threw out theceremonial First Pitch.

(L-R) BRENDAN SHRIANE, Mícheál Keane, Melissa Ryan andGordon Jacobsen down on the field for batting practice beforethe Seattle Mariners played the Boston Red Sox on Irish Nighton July 25.

THE HIGH-FLYING men’s sack race at the Irish CommunityPicnic at Lake Sammamish State Park on July 16.

(L-R) KAILEEN SHRIANE, Frank Shriane, Caron McMahonand others try to catch water balloons at the Irish CommunityPicnic at Lake Sammamish State Park on July 16.

CHILDREN enjoy searching for coins in the straw at the IrishCommunity Picnic at Lake Sammamish State Park on July 16.


U.S. police launch searchfor missing Irish hiker

Police are searching for David O’Sullivan from Midleton, CountyCork. He travelled to the United States in March and intended tohike from the Mexican border to Canada along the Pacific CrestTrail. However, his family have not heard from him since he e-mailed them in April from Idyllwild, California.He had been scheduled to meet a friend in Santa Barbara in early May but he didnot show up. The 25-year-old had been hiking alone according to a missing per-son poster from Murrieta police.A Facebook page appealing for information has been set up by family membersappealing for information.One post reads, “By April 5, he had arrived in Idyllwild, CA. On April 7 myparents received an e-mail from him, detailing his hike since Mt. Laguna. Thiswas our last contact with him. We knew that weeks might pass without contactbut no more than 2/3.”O’Sullivan, who is described as having dark hair, blue eyes and speaking with athick Irish accent, has been reported as missing with the Irish police, U.S. andIrish embassies, Interpol and police and search and rescue organisations in Cali-fornia, according to the post. Anyone with any information is asked to call MurrietaPolice at (951) 696-3615, or Detective Lawlor at (951) 545-0030.

DAVID O’SULLIVAN fromMidleton, Co. Cork travelled tothe United States in March andintended to hike from the Mexi-can border to Canada alongthe Pacific Crest Trail.

Taoiseach wants President Trumpto appoint U.S. Ambassador ASAP

DUBLIN – Irish leader Leo Varadkarhas stated he is “very keen” for a newU.S. Ambassador to Ireland to be ap-pointed, given there has been no diplo-mat in place since Obama ambassadorKevin O’Malley departed in January2017.In an interview with IrishCentralfounder Niall O’Dowd, Leo Varadkarsaid he regrets that “as it stands thereis no envoy or ambassador to Ireland.”He said it has a higher priority than re-establishing a special envoy from

America to the Northern Ireland peacetalks. The Trump administration’s firstchoice for ambassador, philanthropistBrian Burns, had to withdraw due to ahealth issue.The statement by Varadkar is an indi-cation of concern that there is no moveyet to replace O’Malley, a process thatmight take as long as nine months giventhe backlog of appointments.Earlier this year, Varadkar appointed aspecial Irish envoy to the U.S. to dealwith the Irish undocumented issue.

Waterford TD John Deasy who hasextensive experience in the U.S. Con-gress, including working on immigrationreform legislation, was appointed towork with the Irish embassy in Wash-ington DC and the Department of For-eign Affairs in Dublin.He said people are “very concerned”with the hardline immigration policiesnow being pursued and will look afterthe interests of the undocumented Irishand lobby for immigration reform forIrish citizens in the United States.

Helping bereaved families to bringloved ones home to Ireland

DUBLIN – The Kevin BellRepatriation Trust aims to al-leviate the financial hardshipof bereaved families repatri-ating the body (bodies) ofloved one(s) who have diedabroad in sudden or tragic cir-cumstances back to Ireland.Set up by Colin and Eithne Bell follow-ing the tragic death of their son Kevinin 2013, the Kevin Bell RepatriationTrust (KBRT) helps bereaved familiesto bring home the remains of loved oneswho have died in sudden or tragic cir-cumstances abroad.From Argentina to Vietnam, the Bellfamily has helped repatriate 355 lovedones to the island of Ireland in just fouryears.Colin Bell recently deailed the historyof the trust in an account published bythe Crosscare Migrant Project.Kevin Bell was born on July 12, 1986,ten minutes before his twin Brendan.They were our second set of twins, born13 months after Sean and Ciara.They were quickly followed by Eamon,Conor and Maeve, making seven chil-dren under the age of six.He grew into a kind, thoughtful, caring,funny, very popular young man with agreat love of travel and a great zest forlife.

He, and a group of his great friends,spent a year in Australia but it waswhen he visited New York he fell inlove with it and decided he wanted tospend his life there.He had been 10 months in New Yorkwhen he was tragically killed when ar-riving home to his apartment in the earlyhours of Sunday, June 16, 2013 after anight out.When alighting from a taxi outside hisapartment he was struck by a speedingwhite van which knocked him into themiddle of the road where he was struckagain by a car – both vehicles drove onwithout stopping. He was 26.When news of Kevin’s death broke inhis home town of Newry (Co. Down),the place went into a frenzy of fundraising to bring his body home.A table quiz in the Canal Court Hotelon the Tuesday night following Kevin’sdeath raised EU42,000. A fun run/walkon the Thursday night made EU20,000.In the space of a week fundraisers inNewry, New York, Australia (where hewas so well remembered) amassed atotal of over EU150,000 to bring Kevinhome.Amazingly, thanks to Neasa NicDhomhnaill (Eithne’s cousin in Manhat-tan) and the Armagh Gaelic Club inNew York, Kevin was home on theWednesday, three days after his tragicdeath.

A couple of weeks after Kevin’s fu-neral we heard of the death of a youngman in Thailand.We contacted his parents to say thatwe had this money and we would bringhis body home.That was the beginning of the Trust.When we would hear of another deathabroad we would reach out to the fam-ily and offer our help.We then applied for Charity status withthe Northern Ireland Charity Commis-sion and achieved this after about ayear. We are in the process of gettingcharity status with the Charity Regula-tors in the Republic at the moment.We do not receive any funding fromgovernment, North or South, and no-body receives a wage apart from ourpart-time office administrator.As a result of a meeting with the thenMinister for the Diaspora JimmyDeenihan in 2015, all Irish Embassiesand Consulates throughout the worldnow have our contact details and canput families in distress in touch with us.We are now a well-established, well-known and well supported charityworking throughout the 32 counties ofIreland.To find out more about the Kevin BellRepatriation Trust and how we may beable to help you, see online: kevinbellrepatriationtrust.com.

A TIME TO REMEMBEROUR DECEASED LOVED ONES

All Souls’ Day, also known as the Feast of All Souls, follows All Saints’ Day(November 1). Both days mark a period for some churches, including theCatholic Church, to remember the saints in Christian history and to pray forpeople.All Souls’ Day is traditionally a time for the Christian community to rememberdeceased family members and friends.Some churches have special services on or around All Souls Day. These serv-ices feature hymns, music and prayers that center on the day’s theme.Some churches invite the congregation to write the names of deceased friendsor family members in a special book that would be placed on the altar at eachmass or service during November.Prayer of remembrance: Eternal Rest grant unto them (him/her), O Lord, andlet perpetual light shine upon them (him/her). May they (he/she) rest in peace.


2017 USGAA FINALS

Over 100 teams gatheredfor an exciting weekend of Gaelic

football, hurling and camogieBy BRIAN WHITE

SAN FRANCISCO – The2017 USGAA Finals tookplace over Labour Day week-end on Treasure Island nearSan Francisco.Over 100 teams and thousandsof athletes from across the U.S.,Canada and the Caribbean com-peted for championships inGaelic football, hurling andcamogie.The USGAA Northwest Divisionwas represented by the SeattleGaels, with men’s and ladies foot-ball teams, camogie and hurling.The Tacoma Rangers sent men’sfootball and hurling squads, Co-lumbia Red Branch hurling andPortland Eireannach Football alsohad teams travel.The Thomas Meagher Hurling clubof Montana was represented by ahandful of players who joined theSeattle Gaels panel.Also competing were teams fromBritish Columbia, with ISSC Van-couver sending men’s and ladiesfootball, hurling and camogieteams, and the Fraser Valley Gaelsrepresenting in men’s football atthe Intermediate level.Because the Gaels hurling andcamogie teams won the Junior Cand Junior championships at the2016 finals in Seattle, both teamscompeted at higher grades thisyear – the hurlers at Junior B andthe camogie team at the Interme-diate level.It made for a very competitive week-end, but both teams came up short inthe early rounds, with Gaels hurling los-ing a tough game to a talented TwinCities club, and camogie falling to theCú Chulainns of San Francisco.Seattle ladies football won their firstgame vs the OC Wild Geese from theLos Angeles area, but were knockedout in the second round by San Fran-cisco Clan na Gael.The Seattle and Portland Eireannachmen’s football teams also fell in the firstround, with Seattle losing to Austin andPortland dropping a tough game toDenver.After losing their hurling game to thePittsburgh Pucas, the Tacoma Rang-ers also lost a close and hard playedgame, falling to the Culver City Cou-gars in the Jr. D football final. Tacomahas a lot to be proud of, and showedwhat a solid program they are build-ing.Despite the losses, there were somebig highlights over the weekend forNorthwest teams.Columbia Red Branch Hurling playedwith great heart all weekend, and wonthe Jr. C Hurling Final over Philadel-phia, becoming the 2017 USGAA

PHOTO: Gregg MurphyVANCOUVER Irish Sporting and Social Club (ISSC) LadiesFootball at the USGAA Championships.

VANCOUVER – Congratulations to the Fraser Val-ley Gaels – USGAA Intermediate Football Champi-ons! Well done!After extra time the final score was Fraser Valley Gaels 0-14 - Padraig Pearses Chicago 0-11 at the North AmericanFinals in San Francisco on Sunday, September 3.Eoin McCloskey, who was once Derry’s number one goal-keeper, helped establish a new Gaelic football club in theFraser Valley in 2014, and he soon became responsible forteam development.Under his guidance the team has gone from strength-to-strength, win-ning awards and championships along the way.Earlier this year the Derry man moved back home, but as soon as helearned the Fraser Valley Gaels had made it to the finals weekend therewasn’t a chance he was going to miss out on it.McCloskey flew in from Ireland especially for the USGAA weekendand could not have been more delighted reporting from the event.There were scenes of pure and utter jubilation amongst the Valley players uponreaching the promised land, but nobody appeared to have enjoyed it more thanEoin himself.

“Fraser Valley won their first North American title today after a titanic struggleagainst Na Piarsaigh from Chicago,” he posted on social media.

“It took extra time to get over the line. These players today emptied everythingon the field in extreme heat to get this victory on a score line of 0.14 to 0.11.

“I couldn’t be more proud to help this team and club and after only three years inexistence we have achieved a lot.

“The players and management deserve the highest respect for this achievement.Well done to all and massive congratulations.”

We couldn’t have said it better.

EOIN McCLOSKEY helped establish the new Gaelic footballclub in the Fraser Valley in 2014. In the mid-1990s Eoin wasDerry’s number one goalkeeper and he was selected to repre-sent his home county a number of times at the All Ireland Finalin Croke Park.

THE SEATTLE GAELS men’s football team which competed atthe USGAA Finals in San Francisco on the Labor Day week-end.

THE TACOMA RANGERS HURLING team which competed atthe USGAA Finals in San Francisco on the Labour Day week-end.

JP RYANS Camogie team from Vancouver, B.C. at the USGAAin San Francisco.

champions. They keep the cup in theNW Division for the second straightyear.

It was a great win and capped a ter-rific season for the Branch.

The Fraser Valley Gaels also put in solidperformances throughout the weekend,going on to take the Men’s Intermedi-

ate Football championship with an ex-citing win in extra time over a toughChicago Padraig Pearse club, 0-14 to0-11. A strong showing for a very goodfootball club.

All in all, it was a great weekend forGaelic football, hurling and camogieenthusiasts.

Fraser Valley Gaels:2017 USGAA

Intermediate GaelicFootball Champions


NOVENASNOVENA TO THE BLESSED

VIRGIN MARYNovena to the Blessed Virgin Mary (neverknown to fail). O most beautiful flower ofMount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour ofHeaven, Blessed Mother of the Son ofGod Immaculate Virgin, assist me inthis my necessity. There are none thatcan withstand your power. O show meherein you are my Mother, Mary, con-ceived without sin, pray for us who haverecourse to thee (three times). SweetMother, I place this cause in your hands(three times). Holy Spirit, you who solveall problems, light all roads so that I canattain my goal. You gave me the Divinegift to forgive and forget all evil againstme. This prayer must be said for threedays, even after the request is grantedand the favour received, it must be pub-lished. – PMK, MJ, ED, CB

•NOVENA TO ST. CLARE

God of mercy you inspired Saint Clarawith the love of poverty. By the help ofher prayers may we follow Christ in pov-erty of spirit and come to the joyful vi-sion of your glory in the Kingom ofHeaven. We ask this through Our LordJesus Christ, Your Son, who lives andreigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one

God, forever and ever. Amen. – SVS•

NOVENA TO ST. ANTHONYO Holy St. Anthony, gentlest of Saints,your love for God and charity for his crea-tures, made you worthy, when on earth,to possess miraculous powers. Encour-aged by this thought, I implore you toobtain for me (request). O gentle andloving St. Anthony, whose heart was everfull of human sympathy, whisper my pe-tition into the ears of the sweet InfantJesus, who loved to be folded in yourarms; and the gratitude of my heart willever be yours. Amen.

– SVS•

NOVENA TO THE BLESSEDVIRGIN MARY

Novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary (neverknown to fail). O most beautiful flower ofMount Carmel, fruitful vine, splendour ofHeaven, Blessed Mother of the Son ofGod Immaculate Virgin, assist me inthis my necessity. There are none thatcan withstand your power. O show me

herein you are my Mother, Mary, con-ceived without sin, pray for us who haverecourse to thee (three times). SweetMother, I place this cause in your hands(three times). Holy Spirit, you who solveall problems, light all roads so that I canattain my goal. You gave me the Divinegift to forgive and forget all evil againstme. This prayer must be said for threedays, even after the request is grantedand the favour received, it must be pub-lished. – SVS

•NOVENA TO ST. JOSEPH

Oh glorious St. Joseph, thou hast powerto render possible even things which areconsidered impossible, come to our aidin our present trouble and distress.Take this important and difficult affairunder thy particular protection, that itmay end happily. (Name your request).O dear St. Joseph, all our confidence isin thee, let it not be said that we wouldinvoke thee in vain and since thou artso powerful with Jesus and Mary, showthat thy goodness equals thy power.Amen. St. Joseph, friend of the sacredheart, pray for us. (For favour received)– CB

Publication of a novenais $25 monthly

GALWAY – The West’s Awake rangout once again as the triumphantGalway hurlers – minor and sen-ior – received a heroes welcomein Ballinasloe, their first stop af-ter crossing the Shannon.Gardai estimate that some 15,000 peo-ple gathered at the Fairgreen in thetown to catch their first glimpse of Gal-way’s new superstars following theirstunning win at Croke Park on Sunday,September 3.The excitement was enormous. Peoplestarted to arrive at about 1:30 PMahead of the scheduled arrival at 3 PM.They were late – the senior panel tak-ing the stage shortly after 4:30 PM.They patiently waited for the Minorteam to have their moment in the sun,standing on the steps as they signedhurls and posing for pictures with the

DUBLIN – After nearly three decades, Galway are All-Ire-land hurling champions as they edged out a spirited Water-ford side in a memorable final in Croke Park on Sunday,September 3.

Joyous Scenes as GalwayWin First All-Ireland Hurling

after nearly 30 years

HUGE crowds gathered to welcome home the conquering heroes to Galway.

It was tense, it was nervy and, at times,not the prettiest game, but take nothingaway from the Tribesmen – who willbe bringing Liam MacCarthy west ofthe Shannon for the first time since1988.After Galway flew out of the blockswith the first four points, Waterford’sKevin Moran got the final’s first goal.After a super run into the danger zone,Moran supplied the cool finish to getthe Déise on the board.However, the Tribesmen respondedwell, hitting the next two points.Galway had nine points before hitting awide but, because of Moran’s goal,

Waterford didn’t fall too far behind.In fact, when Michael ‘Brick’ Walshscored a super point from under theCusack Stand, the deficit was just twopoints – despite Galway playing all thehurling.The Déise soon leveled the game, whenKieran Bennett’s long clearance wentall the way into the net after a mix-upbetween the Galway goalkeeper and thedefenders.The Tribesmen led at the break 0-14 to2-07 at the interval after Joe Canningscored a free with the last puck of theperiod to edge them in front.After the sides traded frees at the start

of the second half, Pauric Mahony gota fine point after a great run from JamieBarron to level matters again.Mahony got his sixth point, this timefrom a free, to give the men from thesouth-east their first lead of the final.Waterford were gaining in confidencebut with just over 20 minutes to play,Niall Burke brought the sides level again– 0-18 to 2-12.Seconds later Burke popped up againto give the men from the west the lead– before a Joe Canning free doubledtheir lead.Just as looked like Micheal Donoghue’smen were getting on top, up steppedsubstitute Tommy Ryan to put the mini-mum between them once again.However, Galway then put the footdown, hitting the next three points – 0-25 to 2-15 – with time running out forthe Déise.

The West’s Awakeas homecoming party

kicks off in GalwayLiam MacCarthy Cup until the speechesended.And then it was their turn, the crowdgoing wild as each player was namedout individually – with a particularlymassive roar for Portumna man JoeCanning who scored nine points in theFinal and captain David Burke.Player Paul Flaherty was called for-ward and launched into The West’sAwake – famously sung by JoeMcDonagh after Galway won the hurl-ing final in 1980.Manager Micheal Donoghue urged thecrowd to focus on the development ofhurling in clubs saying “we can’t waitanother 29 years and hopefully we willhave the Liam MacCarthy back hereagain soon.”After that, it was back on the bus asthe team headed for Pearse Stadium inSalthill.

Hemochromatosisaka The Celtic Curse:

More awareness neededBy JEANIE LAMB

I used to be really active. I participatedin lots of sports, things like tennis, ski-ing, running, going to the gym. I lovedswimming.When I was 55, my joints were hurtingquite badly and I went to my GP.She sent me to a rheumatologist, a verygood one, who sat me down and talkedto me about my family and looked atmy body.He looked at my hands and my skin,and asked me about both of my par-ents.And he said, “I think I know what thisis. I’m going to send you for a simpleblood test, and then you come back andsee me.”Which I did – and he had nailed it. Thetests showed I had hemochromatosis,and my full diagnosis included severeand prolonged osteoarthritis.It was devastating. I had a business ofmy own. I produced photos. I managedphoto shoots, usually for internationalphotographers.So I was really independent and I wasmaking a good living doing it, but all ofthe sudden I was told that I have fivejoints that needed to be replaced.I couldn’t work anymore. I couldn’tstand for any period of time and myjoints just got worse and worse.My first surgery was a knee replace-ment, then a shoulder, then a hip atwhich time my left pelvis crumbled.I had an excellent surgeon who had theknowledge to rebuild my left pelvis.Ispent five weeks in hospital for that one.Currently I am waiting for the otherknee to be replaced, the other shoulderto be replaced and for a surgeon con-sultation for one of my ankles.Treatment started out with me going forphlebotomies very regularly, about oncea week.That brought my iron down, but in themeantime I was still waiting for my jointreplacements.

Now, at this point in time, I still go forphlebotomies but less frequently. I getmy blood checked every three months.Looking back at our family history, mymother and father and an older brotherare all deceased so I don’t know if theyhad the disorder, but I’m fairly certainmy mother did.Before I was diagnosed, I had bodyaches and pains for some time. I hadnumerous blood tests taken over theyears, and not once did any of my doc-tors check my ferritin levels.I think there needs to be more aware-ness for doctors to test forhemochromatosis.As soon as they know that their patientis of a Northern European bloodline,they should just test for this disorder.It’s a very simple remedy to somethingthat is very simple to diagnose.Despite how hard it has been, I still feelvery fortunate that I’ve gotten throughand managed my condition thus far.I have a very strong inner strength, anda lot of will, which is what it takes toget through something like this. In theend, I may well qualify as a BionicWoman!

•One in 300 Canadians, mainly ofnorthern European descent, are atrisk for hemochromatosis. Most areunaware of the condition.

The Canadian Hemochromatosis So-ciety’s mission is to promote the earlydiagnosis, screening and testing ofhereditary hemochromatosis throughits awareness-raising programs inmedical communities and with thoseat risk, to see an end to suffering andpremature death related to the disor-der.

Please support this mission with adonation to the CanadianHemochromatosis Society, 285 –7000 Minoru Blvd., Richmond, BCV6Y 3Z5. More information can befound at www.toomuchiron.ca/celtic.


UBLIN – Bad luck caused by disturbed fairyforts is causing dips in a major road be-tween County Kerry and County Cork, anIrish member of parliament has said.

Dips in the road in Killarney causedby fairy forts, according to the TD

THE BEARA PENINSULA fairy fort in south-west Ireland.

GLASGOW – Archaeologistssay they have identified theremains of the cell of St.Columba on the Scottish is-land of Iona. The cell, orscriptorium, is where heworked, prayed and spent hislast day.They have used radiocarbon datingto place samples of burned woodin the middle of Columba’s timethere almost 1,500 years ago.The charred remains of a hut were ex-cavated in 1957, but it has taken untilnow for science to accurately datethem.

Who was St.Columba?St. Columba arrived on Iona from Ire-land in the year 563. His Gaelic nameis Colum Cille – “the dove of theChurch.”He is widely credited as one of the keyfigures who brought Christianity toScotland. From his vision sprang IonaAbbey, which became a centre of lit-eracy, learning and worship.After his death Iona became a place ofpilgrimage for both kings and common-ers. Now, 60,000 of the latter still visitthe rebuilt abbey every year.But did Columba leave any physicaltrace?His successor Adomnán, writing 100years after the saint’s death, describedhim working in his cell on a rocky hill-ock. That knoll is called Tòrr an Aba –“the mound of the abbot.”

Centre of worshipSixty years ago the site was excavatedby a team led by the Cornish historianand archaeologist Charles Thomas.Early in his career, Thomas became theleading archaeologist of early Christi-anity in Britain and Ireland, with postsat Edinburgh and Leicester universities.He eventually became the first profes-sor of Cornish studies at Exeter Uni-versity and a Bard of the CornishGorseth.His dig in 1957 made an intriguing dis-covery. On Tòrr an Aba the diggersfound hazel charcoal, apparently theremains of a wattle hut.The site had been deliberately coveredwith beach pebbles and there was a holewhere a post – possibly a cross – hadbeen placed.Were these the remains of Columba’scell? Charles Thomas thought so.

DDanny Healy-Rae told theIrish Times in August that is-sues with the N22 werecaused by “numerous fairyforts in the area.”The N22 is the main road betweenKillarney in County Kerry andCork. The road had previouslybeen repaired but problems hadreappeared.Healy-Rae said he shared localbelief that “there was somethingin these places you shouldn’ttouch.”He added that the road passedthrough an area that was rich infairy folklore and magic. “Thereare numerous fairy forts in thatarea,” Healy-Rae said. “I know thatthey are linked. Anyone that tam-pered with them back over theyears paid a high price and had badluck.”In Irish folklore, it is believed that dis-turbing areas, said to have strong con-nections to fairies, could bring bad luckor a curse.

DANNY Healy-Rae is an IrishIndependent politician and aTeachta Dála (TD) for theKerry constituency, upon be-ing elected at the 2016 gen-eral election.

bushes, could lead to them dying youngor becoming seriously ill.

Healy-Rae, an independent TD (Irishmember of parliament) for CountyKerry, said, “I have a machine stand-ing in the yard right now. And if some-one told me to go out and knock a fairyfort or touch it, I would starve first.”

The issue was raised at Kerry CountyCouncil, where Healy-Rae’s daughter,Maura, is a councillor. She told a coun-cil meeting that her father was con-vinced fairies were in the area of theroad problems.

When she was asked if he’d seen thefairies, she replied, “I don’t know, buthe’s convinced they’re there.”

Maura Healy-Rae took over the coun-cil seat vacated by her father when hewas elected to the Dáil in the last gen-eral election.

Healy-Rae also raised the issue atKerry County Council in 2007 when hewas a councillor, asking if a dip in theN22 near Curraglass was caused by“fairies at work.”

The Irish Times reports that the coun-cil’s road department replied that it wasdue to a “deeper underlying subsoil/geotechnical problem.”

It’s not the first time that the Kerry TDhas made some claims deemed ques-tionable by the public. Just recently heclaimed that eating a big meal beforedriving is as dangerous as drink driv-ing.

“Can I just say to you, and many peo-ple will agree with me, if you actuallyeat too much and get in behind thewheel of a car, you are a danger on theroad because you are liable to fallasleep after eating a big meal,” Healy-Rae said in a Oireachtas TransportCommittee debate.

He previously said in an interview withHot Press magazine, that Noah’s Arkis proof that climate change does notexist and reiterated his belief that Godis in charge of the weather and wecan’t change that.

These areas include fairy forts, alsoknown as raths or lios, which are theremains of hillforts or ancient circulardwellings, and fairy trees or thornbushes.

Some people believe that destroying ortampering with these forts, trees or

BELFAST – Northern Ireland pho-tographer Gavin McKay is bask-ing in the glow of worldwide ex-posure after one of his photo-graphs was chosen to form part ofa worldwide showcase on worldsocial media channel Instagram.The superb picture taken atCastlewellan maze has already beenseen over 600,000 times, with thousandsof positive comments posted onlineabout the image.Freelance photographer Gavin (45) –who has 53,000 followers on Instagram,said it was the first time a Northern Ire-land image had appeared on Instagram’smain image showcase.“I’ve had lots of comments from peo-ple asking where the picture was taken– so it’s great exposure,” said McKay.“It’s as big as it gets. It’s what every-one aims for.”The Castlewellan Forest Park andPeace Maze is located in Castlewellanin County Down, Northern Ireland.

A-maze-ing Castlewellan picturecreates Instagram buzz

Scientists uncoverSt. Columba’s cell

Radiocarbon datingIf only they could be accurately dated.But in 1957 that was impossible.The technique of radiocarbon dating wasin its infancy then. It measures the levelof carbon 14, a radioactive isotope, toassess the age of a sample of organicmaterial.But 60 years ago the process was ex-pensive, required the destruction of arelatively large sample, and the dates itproduced had a wide margin of error.So Charles Thomas did not write up hisfindings in an academic paper. Instead,he carefully preserved the samplesfrom the dig along with his notes.He took the remains with him from uni-versity to university. After he retired hestored them in his garage in Truro.Which is where they sat until five yearsago when a project led by Universityof Glasgow archaeologists Dr. EwanCampbell and Dr. Adrián Maldonadoheard of them.Professor Thomas was happy to handthem over for testing using radiocarbontechniques of an accuracy unimagina-ble six decades ago.The project, funded by Historic Envi-ronment Scotland and supported by theNational Trust for Scotland, had thesamples tested by the Scottish Univer-sities Environmental Research Centre.The result? The remains of the hazelstakes date the hut between the years540 and 650. Columba died in 597.Adrián Maldonado says it is “within astandard deviation of the lifetime of St.Columba,” which he says is “about theclosest you can get to being certain thatit is something that was standing whenColumba was on Iona.”Historic Environment Scotland’s Sen-ior Archaeologist Richard Strachan issimilarly enthusiastic.He said, “It’s fantastic, it absolutely nailsit. There’s no debate. We can actuallyprove this scientifically. This is real. Thisactually happened here.”Historic Environment Scotland is fund-ing the project as part of Scotland’s Yearof History, Heritage and Archaeology2017.Sadly Charles Thomas did not live tosee his work vindicated. He died lastyear before the definitive date of hissamples could be established.But Dr. Maldonado is in no doubt aboutthe significance of his legacy, “WhatCharles Thomas and his team found –and couldn’t prove until now – was thatwe’ve been walking on the early mon-astery this whole time.”

THE SCOTTISH island of Iona where St. Columba establisheda monastic settlement in 563 remains an important place ofpilgrimage, with tens of thousands of people visiting its abbeyevery year.

CASTLEWELLAN FOREST park's 'Peace Maze' was commis-sioned in 1998 and in 2000 and 2001 over 4,000 school chil-dren and 1,000 people attended community planting days toplant the maze's 6,000 yew trees. The design for the maze wasconceived by Beverley Lear of Lear Associates who used thebest idea's from thousands of children's designs that were sub-mitted at the time. The maze is one of Northern Ireland’s fast-est growing tourist attractions, with over 240,000 visits betweenthe opening date in September 2001 and June 2004.

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