*In middle of "spilling" rain, a party of 6 lovely people from Butte, Montana, led by Jim Barry, arrived at my door yesterday evening. As usual, I invited them in with a heart and a half. They were there to meet me. I hope that good people mightn't get the impression from all my research that I am a first cousin to Our Lord !!. Anyhow, we had a great evening. Being from Butte, there always is a particular welcome for visitors from that part of Montana to which many, many, many, workers from most parts of Bearawho worked in the copper mines in Allihies emigrated when work here in the local copper mines slackened off. Many of those miners used bring some earth from Beara to the mines of Butte in case they would never again see Beara. and the earth would be placed on their graves in memory of our Peninsula from which they came. After giving them a cead mile failte (= a hundred thousand welcomes) in Beara style, we all sat down to a most interesting evening's entertainment. I remember many of the people from Butte, while I was there, meeting such as Fr. Sarsfield O'Sullivan and his sister Vernie, John "the Yank" Harrington, Tom Mulcahy, Nealie Healy (from Barrakilla, Ardgroom) and his wife, Tracey Thornton, Ellen Crain, and many other fine helpful people who couldn't have been nicer to Joan and myself. I was in Butte many years ago making, with Fr. Sars, the Film "From Beara to Butte" about the copper miners who emigrated to Butte from Beara. I told them --- Jim and the people who were with him --- about the evening when I had a great session with "the Yank" (who lived to be over 100) playing his single-row melodion and me with my accordion ---- the two of us lifting the roof with jigs, reels and hornpipes; the story of when I was walking down a street in Butte when a man came up to me and asked "Are you the guy who was in the newspaper yesterday ?" "How do you know ?" says I. "Well" says he,"the map of Ireland is written all over your face !!"; and about the day "the Yank" & I were playing our Irish music on the aeroplane terrace in Butte. A big c rowd were around us. An air hostess must have heard us, because, when I got on the aeroplane to travel on, she asked me if I would play my accordion for the passengers, so, on the flight, my accordion was taken out and I entertained the passengers with plenty traditional Irish music all the way from Butte to Salt Lake City. I told them then about the Siege of the oldCastle in Dunboy near Castletownbere wh ich was destroyed when an English army of a few thousand men attacked the garrison of 143 in the Castle in the year 1601. I showed them a cannon ball which was dug from the ruins of the Castle by a Cork archaeologist some years ago when he was excavating. And then. of course, I took out my accordion and played some lively Irish traditional music for them. After about an hour enjoying themselves with us, I told them about the museum further west in Allihies (to which they headed) which shows many things associated with the local copper mines and the miners who later emigrated to Butte. They also spent a most interesting hour there as well. Despite the lashing rain, they headed back to Killarney waving heartily to Joan and myself standing in our door and sprinkling a drop of Holy water after them for a safe journey. ---- Riobard. *