THE FISHERMAN Although I can see him still, The freckled man who goes To a grey place on a hill In grey Connemara clothes At dawn to cast his flies, It's long since I began To call up to the eyes This wise and simple man. All day I'd look in the face What I had hoped 'twould be To write for my own race And the reality; The living men that I hate, The dead man that I loved, The craven man in his seat, The insolent unreproved, And no knave brought to book Who had won a drunken cheer, The witty man and his joke Aimed at the commonest ear, The clever man who cries The catch-cries of the clown, The beating down of the wise And great Art beaten down. Maybe a twelvemonth since Suddenly I began In scorn of this audience, Imagining a man, And his sun-freckled face, And grey Connemara cloth, Climbing up to a place Where stone is dark under froth, And the down-turn of his wrist When the flies drop in the stream; A man who does not exist, A man who is but a dream; And cried, "Before I am old I shall have written him one Poem maybe as cold And passionate as the dawn." -- William Butler Yeats (1916) Note - Connemara is an area in Co. Galway, Connemara cloth is a rough tweed.

Hi Hilary, Happy New Year to You, Too. What surnames are you researching? The most common surnames at St. Mary's in Athlone in Westmeath in 1854 were KELLY (15), BRENNAN (7), CURLEY (7), FALLON (7), NORTON (7), REILLY (7), WALSH (7), ENGLISH (6), FLYNN (6), HUGHES (6). Then there is St. Peter's in Co. Roscommon, many others in the Athlone RD. The Athlone Registration District appears to cover not only Athlone town but many townlands around it, in both Cos. Westmeath and Roscommon, the majority in Westmeath. I believe it is one large registration district rather than two, but you would have to read more on it. Since you found a particular marriage, your local LDS FHC could give you more specifics as to townland, I believe. What other references are there concerning that marriage? Do you have any family history stories to suggest the family came from either Co. Westmeath or Co. Roscommon? If you go to the Leitrim-Roscommon website, find the (all Ireland) IreAtlas Townland Search Engine, type Athlone in the field for Poor Law Union, you will get a list of townlands and details on the county, civil parish, etc. What you probably need to do is to gather as much information on the family from relatives, see if you can come up with a particular location in one of those counties or Ireland. Unless they have unusual names, it is like looking for a needle in the haystack. What time period does your research pertain to? Do you know if they were Protestant or Catholic? Poor or well off? Might be listed in a commercial directory. John Grenham's "Tracing Your Irish Ancestors" has reader-friendly explanation of records and a chapter on each Irish county. Jean ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hilary Knopp" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 5:08 AM Subject: [IGW] Is Athlone RD in Westmeath or Roscommon? > Hi Listers > > Can anyone help with this query. I have found a marriage listed in the > LDS > Irish Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths as taking place in Athlone > Registration District. However I understand from another website that > there > are TWO Athlone Registration Districts, one in Co Westmeath the other in > Co > Roscommon! How do I work out which one I want? > > Happy New Year > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > -- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is > believed to be clean. > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.28/604 - Release Date: > 12/26/2006 12:23 PM > >

Hi Listers Can anyone help with this query. I have found a marriage listed in the LDS Irish Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths as taking place in Athlone Registration District. However I understand from another website that there are TWO Athlone Registration Districts, one in Co Westmeath the other in Co Roscommon! How do I work out which one I want? Happy New Year

SNIPPET: Burley clouds of steam billow and an old whistle screams, a train veers from the Irish Sea through the Vale of Avoca, spooking a heron outside Enniscorthy, a pheasant near Gorey. Day trip passengers enjoy the camaraderie, the soft pace and sentiment of a journey back in time made possible by individuals whose enthusiasm, hard work and commitment to train preservation (with the support of Iarnrod Eireann) has been a labour of love. The Jan-Feb 2004 issue of Dublin's "Ireland Of The Welcomes" magazine features a photo-story about the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland whose aging members hope to inspire more young people to join them in carrying out their important goals. Built between 1834 and the early 20th century, Ireland's railway system remained almost entirely steam operated up to the late 1940s, but the following decade wrought huge changes. CIE was nationalised in 1950, unprofitable lines were closed or reduced to freight-only status and, in the face of increasing competition from roads, diesel was embraced as the way forward. By the time the RPSI was formed in 1964, steam traction in the Republic was as good as gone. Members have worked hard to maintain the only collection of mainline steam locomotives and the largest collection of vintage coaches in Ireland, even going so far as to install an 1897 overhead crane and full smithy at Whitehead, Co. Antrim. No 4 was rescued from Northern Ireland Railways in 1971, and following the most extensive refurbishment in the society's history, today turns heads wherever she goes. Steam trains have served as a backdrop to formative historical events, from the 1916 Rising to World War II. And like many of the RPSI volunteers on board today, be they shovelling coal or buttering bread, they are ultra-conscious of the society's role in preserving these important pieces of Irish heritage. Locomotives and vintage carriages are offered to film and TV companies, facilitating the portrayal of railway scenes set between the 1880s and the 1960s. its rolling stock has played cameo roles in films such as 'Michael Collins,' 'The Dead,' and 'Angela's Ashes.' Day trips are very popular events among railway enthusiastics and nostalgia seekers, and there is a great spirit of anticipation amongst the passengers. Armed with cameras, sunglasses, newspapers tucked underarm, travel sweets and neck scarves, they eagerly await the familiar call - "on board." . Per RPSI Chairman, Norman FOSTER -- "Steam is live," Dashing past a carpet of bluebells and fern, headed for the viaduct at Rathdrum, he sees No. 4 as a "living, breathing machine" with its own particular personality. For some it is reminiscent of an era when travel was an event and end in itself. For others it is about grandparents who drove the engines, days spent growing up near the railway works at Dundalk or Inchicore. For still others, it is the old-style elegance or the therapeutic swaying and sounds of clicking over tracks. Maureen MAGUIRE and her husband Kevin travelled by steam as children and are today passing the hours knitting and reading and lluxuriating in the feeling of NOT having to rush around. They also have an especially good view of the landscape, can visit with others and participate in singsongs and enjoy their favorite refreshments. Railway enthusiastics often say they have an interest in trains going back to the their toy train sets as children, and they certainly enjoy the delight on the faces of children as they experience old-fashioned train travel with their parents or on "Santa excursions."

SNIPPET: In the Jan-Feb 1999 issue of "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine is a several-page article by Alannah HOPKIN w/ colorful photos by Brian LYNCH about the Ceide Fields and visitor centre near Belderrig, on the NW coast of Co. Mayo. Overlooking the Atlantic, the pyramidal building's bold design by the Office of Public Works and Mary McKENNA has won many awards and blends in nicely with the landscape. For many years local people who cut their turf by hand in the traditional way from the prehistoric bog suspected that the stones they found under the bog had been placed there deliberately, seemed to run in lines, as if they had once been walls. Patrick CAULFIELD, who taught at the National School in nearby Belderrig in the 1930s, wrote to the National Museum asking them to investigate, but to no avail. His son. Seamus, who had grown up in the area and trained as an archaeologist, pursued his father's quest and was to become the moving spirit behind the original Ceide Fields excavations. Underneath up to four metres of blanket bog a very different landscape has been preserved. Five and a half thousand years ago this was typical farming countryside, with cattle grazing in stone-walled fields interspersed by homes and kitchen gardens. Over four square miles of farmland, that supported a population of about 600 people, has been trapped in time by the growth of bog. The Ceide Fields is immensely old; it is, quite simply, the most extensive Stone Age monument in the world. No quern stones for grinding wheat and barley have been found, so it is concluded that they ate a kind of porridge. About a quarter of a million tons of stone were used in the walls at the Ceide Fields and speak of a society with a very high level of organisation. They did not build in a haphazard way; the fields follow the contours of the landscape, and the walls run parallel to each other, with cross-divisions creating different sized fields. It can be seen from the stone that these people lived in scattered, unfortified dwellings. Unlike those who dwelt 6,000 years later in the ring forts and crannogs of Early Christian Ireland, these people appear to have had no fear of attack, neither from within the community, nor from outsiders. Good land became wetter and less fertile, so that eventually the population moved away, possibly only five miles to the east, to the drier and more fertile land around Ballycastle. Visitors to the centre will find roaming flocks of sheep, larks singing high in the sky, rather windy conditions -- but on a beautiful sunny Mayo day the sea is a dazzling bright shade of turquoise. The next stop across the ocean is Iceland, and beyond that, the Arctic. Inside the centre one can watch a film on the history of the area, gaze up at a Scots-Pine towering overhead that was found in the nearby bog at Belderrig and radio carbon dated to 2300 BC, and view interesting displays depicting scenes of domestic life in the area's distant past.

SNIPPET: In a fairly recent issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine readers shared their thoughts and experiences: Francis LOVETT, Waverly, OH -- "How many times over the years since my mother died have I found myself saying, "Oh, I must ask herself where that got into the family talk," or, "Why do we do that the way we do it?" Of course, I can no longer ask her. Well, Leslie GILMORE's article 'Old Habits Die Hard' (Jul-Aug 2003) has truly touched me, for in the telling of that essay, I hear my mother say to me again the what or the why of things Irish. She was a Tralee woman and my father's mother was from Ennis. The two of them go on well together and they filled my young head with accounts of just how life in their respective towns differed, and just had different from either was the new life in Massachusetts back then in the 1920s. I still use expressions that were common in our home eighty years ago, and my grandchildren often ask me do I truly believe that the fairies are real, or why my home has a real candle in every window on Christmas Eve. Why do I forget and call Hallowe'en "Samhain"? My mother never forgot the old ways and the old days that have passed and the article's reminder has stirred me to recall what I might have forgotten. I'll pass on whatever I can, and my thanks to all of you." Ray WEIGAND, Evansville, WI, wrote: "I just love Ireland! I visited Ireland with my parents in 1982 and since then have been back seven times. In 2001, I guided a group of twelve family members all over Ireland. It was the first visit for my Aunt Theresa YOUNG (QUINN). We had a wonderful time seeing the west coast of Ireland starting at Glenties, Co. Donegal and continuing south to Kinsale in Co. Cork. Then we travelled east to Wexford and ended our visit in Dublin. As we travelled we stayed at the farmhouse B&B's, where were were made to feel at "home away from home." My grandfather, William QUINN, the youngest of ten children, immigrated to the U. S. from King's Co. Ireland in 1876. King's Co. was later renamed Co. Offaly. During our 2001 trip we were able to meet with Ms. Margaret WHITE, a Research Officer of the Irish Midlands Ancestry Centre in Tullamore, Co. Offaly. Margaret and the staff at the centre were so kind and helpful in researching our family history. What an excellent resource you have in all the counties throughout Ireland for doing family history studies. My brother-in-law gave me "Ireland of the Welcomes" as a Christmas gift seven years ago...I am now giving it as a gift myself. The 'Byways Rather than Highways' feature is the first that I read. I have used it for trips taken in the past. It is excellent because it takes you to out of the way places that you would normally miss. Thank you so much for including this as a regular feature....." Bill RELPH, Loveland, CO, wrote: "..... My mother visited Ireland several times searching for her roots. Just before she died in 1994, my daughter visited her, and took a lock of her hair and promised her that she would find an appropriate place in Ireland to leave it. Not long after my mother's death, my daughter attended the Yeats Summer School in Sligo. While she was there, she looked up one day at Knocknarea and the tomb of the mythical Queen Maeve and thought this would be an appropriate place to leave the lock of hair. She climbed Knocknarea and with a little ceremony, she left the lock of hair. Last year, my daughter and my son took me to Ireland for my 70th birthday. We spent a wonderful week in a cottage in Easkey, just west of Sligo. While there, we climbed Knocknarea and, with much ceremony, we toasted 'all that is Irish' with a pint of the 'dark stuff.' We all felt my mother's smile that day - a day which I shall never forget."

THE PITCHFORK Of all implements, the pitchfork was the one That came near to an imagined perfection; When he tightened his raised hand and aimed with it, It felt like a javelin, accurate and light. So whether he played the warrior or the athlete Or worked in earnest in the chaff and sweat, He loved its grain of tapering, dark-flecked ash Grown satiny from its own natural polish. Riveted steel, turned timber, burnish, grain, Smoothness, straightness, roundness, length and sheen. Sweat-cured, sharpened, balanced, tested, fitted. The springiness, the clip and dart of it. And when he thought of probes that reached the farthest, He would see the shaft of a pitchfork sailing past Evenly, imperturbably through space, Its prongs starlit and absolutely soundless -- But has learned at last to follow that simple lead Past its own aim, out to an other side Where perfection -- or nearness to it -- is imagined Not in the aiming but the opening hand. -- Seamus HEANEY

WHINLANDS All year round the whin Can show a blossom or two But it's in full bloom now. As if the small yolk stain >From all the birds' eggs in All the nests of the spring Were spiked and hung Everywhere on bushes to ripen. Hills oxidize gold. Above the smoulder of green shoot And dross of dead thorns underfoot The blossoms scald. Put a match under Whins, they go up of a sudden. They make no flame in the sun But a fierce heat tremor Yet incineration like that Only takes the thorn. The tough sticks don't burn, Remain like bone, charred horn. Gilt, jaggy, springy, frilled This stunted, dry richness Persists on hills, near stone ditches, Over flintbed and battlefield. -- Seamus Heaney

In Ireland, when a child smiles in its sleep, it is said to be "talking with angels." THE ANGEL'S WHISPER A baby was sleeping, Its mother was weeping, For her husband was far on the wild raging sea; And the tempest was swelling Round the fisherman's dwelling, And she cried, "Dermot, darling, oh! come back to me." Her beads while she number'd, The baby still slumber'd, And smiled in her face as she bended her knee; "Oh blest be that warning, My child's sleep adorning, For I know that the angels are whispering with thee. "And while they are keeping Bright watch o'er thy sleeping, Oh, pray to them softly, my baby, with me And say thou wouldst rather They'd watch o'er thy father! For I know that the angels are whispering with thee." The dawn of the morning Saw Dermot returning, And the wife wept with joy her babe's father to see; And closely caressing Her child, with a blessing, Said, "I knew that the angels were whispering with thee." -- Samuel Lover (1797-1868)

THE ROSARY The ash logs blazed behind us, as we knelt down to the family rosary on the cement hearth floor. One prayer stays with me still: Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this night be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. The climb upstairs to bed afterwards, was made easier as we watched the dark shadows jump off the wall from the shimmering candle light. -- Mary Guckian, "The Road to Gowel." Mary GUCKIAN, who was born in Kiltoghert, Co. Leitrim, has published at least volumes of verse. Among the poems are sketches of her life and the people she has known. The little softcover books are dotted with Mary's own colorful photographs of Ireland and other places around the world where she has traveled. ( Ms. Guckian produced a series of postcards during the 1980s that sold around Ireland, and her work has been exhibited). Her photos in "Road to Gowel," Swan Press (2000) Dublin include: Flooded River Shannon (at sunset); At St. Lasair's Well, Kilronan, Keadue, Co. Roscommon (tree with rosaries); Potted flowers on the Window Sill with Rainbow; Crane & Millennium Tower at Charlotte Quay, Ringsend, Dublin; View from Carrowkeel looking on to Lough Arrow, Co. Sligo; Bicycle of Pilgrim from Poland parked along the wall of the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth; Milton Hebold sculpture of James Joyce at Fluntern Cemetery, Zurich. Her photos in "Perfume of the Soil," Swan Press (1999) include: Emigrants Cottage; Creel (woven basket to bring home turf from the bog in Leitrim); Old Creamery Can at Kiltoghert with Flowering Tree; Modern sculpture "Harmony" by Sandra Bell; Graffiti at Dublin Docks.

RECOLLECTIONS: Alice TAYLOR wrote a warm remembrance of a 1940s-50s childhood in the Irish countryside in Co. Cork in her "To School Through The Fields" some years back that was popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Here are two small excerpts: "My grandmother was a formidable old lady. She was six feet tall and, dressed in flowing black with a crochet shawl around her shoulders, she carried herself with grace and dignity. In later years she used a walking stick, but she walked with regal bearing until the day she died at ninety-eight years of age. It could be that she needed the stick to maintain law and order when she was unable to move as fast as she wanted, for while grandmothers are supposed to be loving and soft-bosomed, mine certainly did not fit into that picture: she was strong willed and domineering and ruled the house with a rod of iron. Her husband was dead with years so she ran the large farm herself and thrived on it. She was a forerunner of the struggle for equality and she was confident that most women could run a business as well if not better than men. She did just that, but in her time she was no ordinary woman. She killed her own pig and seldom sent for a vet as she could dose cattle and repair fractures like an expert. Some of her mother's people were doctors so she maintained that medicine was in her blood and, indeed, when one of her workmen was gored by a bull her fast, skilful action saved his life.... My grandmother was a tough woman who did not know the meaning of fear..." And of her mother, Alice wrote: "Despite the fact that my mother was tolerant and flexible in most situations, she did have streaks of uncompromising rigidity. The family rosary was one of these: sick, maimed or crippled, we were all on our knees for the rosary, and helpers, visitors, or anyone who happened to call at the wrong time were apt to be included During the summer months I knelt inside the kitchen window looking down over the fields where the cows were grazing after milking. When my turn came to give out the decade I used the cows in the field to count my ten Hail Marys. I mentally sectioned off ten in a corner, but as my mind floated back and forth across the valley the cows naturally moved around so my ten could decrease to five or six. If I said the Glory before schedule my mother gently intervened in the background -- 'Two more.' Of if my herd increased and my Hail Marys swelled beyond the ten she interrupted with "Glory, now, Glory." She also fought gallantly to keep us all supplied with rosary beads, but they were continually getting lost or broken. She never tried to convert my father to beads, so he cracked his knuckles as he went along to keep count. Her rosary was one thing, but her additions to it were something else. First came the litany starting 'Holy Marys" and we would all chant, 'Pray for us,' in response. After Holy Mary came a long list and somewhere down the list came 'Ark of the Covenant' and 'Gate of Heaven.' After 'Gate of Heaven' one night my mother lost her concentration and she floundered and repeated it a few times, failing to remember what came next. Finally a little voice in the background piped up helpfully: 'Try Nelson's Pillar!' Everybody fell around the floor laughing, and my father took advantage of the opportunity to call a halt to the litany for the night. But the litany was only one of the many additions. There were three Hail Marys for this neighbour and a second lot for another one, until my father would start complaining, "For God's sake, we'll be here till morning." We prayed diligently for years for one neighbor who was studying to be a teacher and of whom my father voiced the opinion that "if a bumble bee had his brains he'd fly backwards," but despite this pronouncement on the neighbour's grey matter he still qualified. It was my mother's conviction that prayer could move mountains and indeed hers often did; at least they moved mountains of ignorance. During exam time she always lit a candle in the centre of the parlour table. I would come home during exams and peep into the parlour to check if she had remembered. It was always lighted. It was a symbol of caring and in later years her children wrote as adults to her from many corners of the world asking her to light her candle and pray for their special problems."

FISHGUARD TO ROSSLARE >From all my childhood voyages back to Ireland Only two things remembered: gulls afloat Off Fishguard quay, littering a patch of radiance Shed by the midnight boat. And at dawn a low, dun coast shaping to meet me, An oyster sky opening above Rosslare ... I rub the sleep from my eyes. Gulls pace the moving Mast-head. We're almost there. Gulls white as a dream on the pitch of Fishguard harbour, Paper cut-outs, birds on a lacquered screen; The low coastline and the pearl sky of Ireland; A long sleep in between. A sleep between two waking dreams -- the haven, The landfall - is how it appears now. The child's eye, Unpuzzled, saw plain facts: I catch a glint from The darkness they're haunted by. -- Cecil DAY-LEWIS (1904-72) born Ballintubbert House, Co. Laois, Ireland and poet laureate, England..

SNIPPET: In the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine, readers shared their thoughts: Katherine Russell WILSON, Hemet, CA: "... IOTW is so enjoyable, the stories and pictures on every page are great ... In 2004, I travelled to Ireland with my family, we were several in numbers. We came to Ireland with Brendan Tours. Our tour guide was Marie BURKE, a lovely lady who really knew her Irish history and folklore. As we travelled around Ireland, she told us some wonderful stories. One such story was about 'Nine Pike Irishmen.' After reading more about these men, I feel they were patriotic heroes, true sons of Ireland. Ireland's loss was the world's gain. All these men made their mark in the world. Thomas Francis MEAGHER (1823-1887) fought in our Civil War, was a Brigadier General and later became Governor of MT ...." Susan and Thomas LEHAN, Skowhegan, ME: "One week before my husband and I were to leave on our trip-of-a-lifetime to Ireland, an angel left four back issues of IOTW in our local donation box - just as I happened to be passing by. Until that moment, I had never heard of your magazine, so I could not believe my good fortune or was this the work of those tricky Irish fairies? We packed those four issues and carried them with us, referring to the articles and suggestions on several occasions, especially the 'Byways Rather than Highways' section, thus helping us discover some wonderful off-the-beaten path locations. We enjoyed 15 wonderful days, met many lovely, friendly people (including a long-lost third cousin in County Leitrim) and we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in Galway city with a vow to return to Ireland as soon as our bank account allows us. The first thing I did upon returning home to Maine was to send off the subscription card to your beautiful magazine. We've received two issues so far and have been able to say each time, 'We were there!" Mary K. RUGGIERO, Petaluma, CA: "I eagerly look forward to every issue of your magazine. It's my dream to live in Ireland someday, and I make notes from each issue of places to see and things to do. If I might offer one suggestion? I love your book review section and plan to add many of the books reviewed to my library. However, given how many readers you have in America, could you possibly consider quoting the prices in American dollars, as well as pounds and euros? You have a great magazine - keep up the good work!"

Hello Jean, Can you tell me something about Dungannon, County Tyrone? My anscestors lived there in the 1800s then migrated to Australia in 1864. Their name was Seignior and my great great grandfather was a Huguenot, who fled from France to live in County Tyrone. Are there records which I could look up to find out information about them? Colleen Seignior ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 8:02 AM Subject: Re: [IGW] Tipperary,Ireland > Hi Marie, What surname, what denomination (Church of Ireland, perhaps?) > what > location - Tipperary town or Co. Tipperary in general. Jean > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 12:34 PM > Subject: [IGW] Tipperary,Ireland > > >> Can someone tell me about this part of Ireland? My great great great >> grandfather came to America from there during the mid to late 1850's. >> Did they keep census,marriage,death records at that time? >> Any help appreciated. >> >> Marie > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

CHRISTMAS TREE little tree little silent Christmas tree you are so little you are more like a flower who found you in the green forest and were you very sorry to come away? see I will comfort you because you smell so sweetly I will kiss your cool bark and hug you safe and tight just as your mother would, only don't be afraid look the spangles that sleep all the year in a dark box dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine, the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads, put up your little arms and i'll give them all to you to hold every finger shall have its ring and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy then when you are quite dressed you'll stand in the window for everyone to see and how they'll stare! oh but you'll be very proud and my little sister and i will take hands and looking up at our beautiful tree we'll dance and sing "Noel Noel" -- e. e. cummings American poet Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962), renowned poet, painter, and playwright, was born in Cambridge, MA, the son of a prominent Boston clergyman and teacher. Cummings volunteered as an ambulance driver in WWI and wrote his experiences in a detention camp, "The Enormous Room." (1922). Seeking a spontaneous and fresh presentation in his writing, he generally disregarded grammar and punctuation, even in his own name - coined his own words, ran words and sentences together. After their divorce, his first wife and daughter went to live in Ireland. Cummings always stressed individualism. Some of his verses have been set to music and played in various venues including Ireland. In Kilkenny the former Augustinian Friary played host to "A Wind Has Blown The Rain Away," an evening of e. e. cummings songs with NY composer/pianist Ellen Mandel, accompanied by tenor Toss Almond. The Queen's University, Belfast, has one of Cummings lines on their website - "The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."

TRUCE It begins with one or two soldiers And one or two following With hampers over their shoulders. They might be off wildfowling As they would another Christmas Day, So gingerly they pick their steps. No one seems sure of what to do. All stop when one stops. A fire gets lit. Some spread Their greatcoats on the frozen ground. Polish vodka, fruit and bread Are broken out and passed round. The air of an old German song, The rules of Patience, are the secrets They'll share before long. They draw on their last cigarettes As Friday-night lovers, when it's over, Might get up from their mattresses To congratulate each other And exchange names and addresses. -- Paul Muldoon. The Christmas Truce of 1914 is one of the most remarkable incidents of WW-I and perhaps of all military history, with enemies laying down their arms for some hours, singing Christmas songs, sharing food, and binding up each other's wounds. It began in some places on Christmas Eve and other on Christmas Day, the truce covered as much as two-thirds of the British-German front, with thousands of soldiers taking part. Perhaps most remarkably, it grew out of no single initiative but sprang up in each place spontaneously and independently. Many first-hand accounts have been transcribed to the Internet.

SNIPPET: Per 2004 article -- Rose EGAN (nee PRIOR) who recently celebrated her 90th birthday in March, was born in Kiltyhugh, Ballinamore and is very proud of being a Leitrim woman. She has very fond memories of the people she knew - the FEEs, FLYNNs, McCABEs, McNIFFEs and others around Kiltyhugh. Having a great memory she can recall many places and people from Ballinamore - FLYNN's shop in Church St. and HOY's where they bought the groceries, MAGUIREs, DEIGNANs, CRYANs, MARTIN's P.O. Rose's memories of her childhood and growing up in Kiltyhugh are very happy ones -- walking barefoot through the fields to school with her friend Annie McTIERNAN (nee McGOVERN), dances in Aughawillan and Drumbrick Hall especially the Christmas ball which cost a half crown and included tea and barm brack. She remembers fair days in the town, working hard on the farm, the itinerants at the side of the road making and mending tin cans, pitch and toss and dances at the crossroads. There were dances in the house, too, especially when relations came home from America. Her late brother Sonny was a very good melodeon player and played at the house dances. He also played the French fiddle (mouth organ). Her father John played the flute in a pipeband in the early 1900s. Sadly, Rose's father was tragically lost in the Lusitania disaster on May 7, 1915. He was returning from America having gone there in the latter part of 1913. Rose never saw her father as she was born while he was away. His body was never recovered and his death is recorded on the family headstone in Corraleehan graveyard. Rose's mother, Mary Anne, was left a young widow with three children under the age of three, so it was a very difficult time for her. Happily, some years later Rose's mother married Danny BOHAN from Mohill and they had another daughter, Annie. They had a long and happy life, living into their 80s. Rose attended Derradda National School until she was 15. Her teachers there were Mr. CURRAN and Mrs. GILHEANEY and Rose recalls winning a prize for being "best in class." When she left school she went on to learn her trade as a dressmaker with Mrs. W. ROURKE, Church Street. She was a very good dressmaker and spent all her life making clothes for family and friends. She met Tom EGAN from Sligo in the early 1940s and they were mraried in Corraleehan Church. Tom, a railway worker with the Narrow Gauge railroad, was from a well known family in railway circles, being one of ten brothers and five sisters, many of whom worked for CIE as did his father in Kilfree Junction, Co. Sligo. Rose and Tom lived in Church St. and their son Kevin and daughter Maureen were born there. Shortly after the war Tom was transferred to Rosslare Harbour, Co. Wexford, where they spent ten years and their second daughter Rosaleen was born . In 1957 they returned to Ballinamore. and lived in Railway Tce. Two years later the railway closed down. Tom was a guard on the railway and Rose remembers being on the last train to run on the Ballinamore/Dromod line. They then moved to Sligo. Rose was widowed 23 years ago. Rose's sister, Anne GALLAGHER, lives in Trathnona, Ballinamore, while her other sister, the late Mary Kate KIERNAN lived in Mohill. Her grandson Kian EGAN is a member of the world famous pop group, Westlife, his father being Rose's son, Kevin. Rose was looking forward to the upcoming wedding of her granddaughter Gillian, daughter of Rosaleen, to Shane FILAN, another member of Westlife. A sweet photo of Rose appeared with an article entitled 'Bridging the Generation Gap' in the 2004 issue of the yearly "Leitrim Guardian" magazine.

My great grandparents are listed below. I am trying to determine where this family came from. I found a family in Griffiths valuation for a Francis McGucken in Londonderry. Is there mailing list for Derry or Londonderry? as listed in Glasgow census Piece: SCT1841/644 Place: Glasgow-Lanarkshire Enumeration District: 1 Civil Parish: Glasgow Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: St Georges field Folio: 252 Page: 11 Address: Cambridge Street Surname First name(s) Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks MCGUCHIN Francis M 40 Male Servant Ireland MCGUCHIN Rosa F 30 Ireland MCGUCHIN Ann F 13 Cotton Power Loom Weaver Ireland MCGUCHIN Patrick M 11 Ireland MCGUCHIN Elisabeth F 9 Ireland MCGUCHIN Jane F 7 Ireland MCGUCHIN Francis M 5 Ireland MCGUCHIN Rosa F 2 Lanarkshire Listing from 1861 index. (under the name McEachern on ancestry) Francis McGucken age 65 born Ireland Rosey McGucken age 60 born Ireland Sarah McGucken age 17 born Glasgow Peter Kensy age 12 born Glasgow.

Hi Jean, I know very little except their surname was JACKSON and was born in Tipperary,Ireland.Location and church unknown. James T. Jackson b, Ireland abt.1830. His father was also James T. Jackson. Mother:unknown Sorry to bother you, Marie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 3:02 PM Subject: Re: [IGW] Tipperary,Ireland > Hi Marie, What surname, what denomination (Church of Ireland, perhaps?) what > location - Tipperary town or Co. Tipperary in general. Jean > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 12:34 PM > Subject: [IGW] Tipperary,Ireland > > > > Can someone tell me about this part of Ireland? My great great great > > grandfather came to America from there during the mid to late 1850's. > > Did they keep census,marriage,death records at that time? > > Any help appreciated. > > > > Marie > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Can someone tell me about this part of Ireland? My great great great grandfather came to America from there during the mid to late 1850's. Did they keep census,marriage,death records at that time? Any help appreciated. Marie