1. St. Patrick has served to inspire generations of people. On St. Patrick's Day March 17, 1943, Eamon de Valera, at the 50th anniversary of the Gaelic League, delivered his "Dream Speech" when he advocated "the Ireland that I would have." His vision, as described in "History Ireland" magazine, was a country where people are gainfully employed, disease and poverty under control, and citizens of all ages can enjoy a life of dignity, free from the degradations of want; a country in which spiritual concerns are more important than materialism and greed regarded as typical of industrial nations. It would, in short, be the home of a people living the life that God desires that man should live. 2. Perhaps the best known of saints throughout the world is St. Patrick; many associate his presence with the peace process particularly in Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland where two cathedrals bear his name, Catholic and the Church of Ireland, who present a united front for reconciliation, demonstrating that diversity does not mean disharmony. 3. Theobald Wolfe Tone was the main figure behind the United Irishmen and the 1798 Rising. Many of his adherents were subsequently transported to New South Wales, Australia. 4. New South Wales had its own rebellion of 05 March 1804, when about 300 rebels, including Irish and Scots, staged a revolt against the colonial government. 5. In 1815, thirteen Clonoulty, Tipperary men were arrested for seditious behavior and transported to New South Wales. This event was chronicled by Fr. Max Barrett in his book "Because of These, and by Fr. Brian Maher in his "Planting the Celtic Cross." 6. In 1998, Fordham University Press in the Bronx, New York, published the titles of Irish interest in its Irish in the Civil War series including: (1) "Irish Green and Union Blue, the Civil War Letters of Peter Welsh, Colour Sergeant, 18th Massachusetts; (2) "Memoirs of Chaplain Life," by William Colby; (3) "An Irishman in the Iron Brigade," by Sergeant James P. Sullivan; (4) "The Irish Brigade and its Campaigns, " by Capt. David P. Conyngham; (5) "Story of the 116th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers in the War of Rebellion," by St. Clair A. Mulholland (about a non-Irish regiment which became part of the famed Irish Brigade). (6) "Commanding Boston's Irish Ninth, the Civil War Letters of Colonel Patrick R. Guiney." 7. While I not certain of the destination, (?Boston) researchers should be aware that there was landlord-assisted emigration of tenants from the large Shirley Estate near Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan. 8. Per "Irish Roots," John Mitchel was tried and found guilty of treason before the rebellion. He was sentenced to 14 years transportation. He served his sentence initially in Bermuda, then in Tasmania. He has no living descendants with the Mitchel surname. Two of his three sons were killed fighting on the Confederate side in the America Civil War, and his grandson, who at one stage was Mayor of New York, as killed in a flying accident. Mitchel also had two daughters, one of whom married a nice of General Robert E. Lee. Some contemporary people with Mitchel connections: Patrick Mitchel of Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary, shared a common ancestor, his gggfather was John Mitchel's first cousin. Michael Higgins from the U.S. has an interesting link to John Mitchel; his gggmother was Jane Haslett, and her cousin, Mary Haslett, was John Mitchel's mother. The same Haslett family also claim a Colonel John Haslet (one T) who served in the Delaware Regiment of Washington's army.! A third person is Judith Burrisk, in Australia. Her gggfather, Daniel Burke, a Tipperary man, played a prominent part in John Mitchel's escape from Tasmania in 1853. He is mentioned in Mitchel's famous book, "Jail Journal." These three contemporary individuals were among those present at the plaque unveiling ceremony at Dromoland Castle in 1998, the 150th anniversary of the Young Ireland Rising. The ceremony took place on the 29th of July, the actual date of the rebellion. Dromoland Castle, was the birhplace of William Smith O'Brien, leader of the Young Irelanders. Direct descendants and descendants of allied lines of John Blake Dillon, William Smith O'Brien, John Mitchel, Thomas Francis Meagher, etc., attended the commemoration. An article and several photos of same can be found in the Third Quarter issue of the 1998 "Irish Roots" periodical.