The Ireland Genealogy Projects County Leix website has been updated. The following pages have either been added or updated: Links, Surnames, Athy Poor Law Union, Tullomoy Civil Parish, Resources, and Records. The following townland pages have either been added or updated: Brennanshill, Clopook, Coolglass, Coolrusk, Fallowbeg Lower, Middle and Upper, Fernyhill, Gorreelagh, Guileen, Knockahonagh, Luggacurren, Manger, Capard, Monamanry, Raheenbarnagh, Raheennahown, Scotland, Tomoclavin, Tullomoy. New records include baptisms, marriages, tithes, Griffith's Valuations and Ryan baptisms. You can access the website at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irllex/ If you have any comments, additions, corrections, requests for townland pages, please email off list. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

The IGP County Leitrim website has been updated. The following pages are either new or updated: Cloonlogher Civil Parish, Cloone Civil Parish, Boggaun, Buckill Barr, Larkfield, Lisgorman, Cloonaquin, Cloonlogher, Gortgarrigan, Pollboy, Srabrick, Drumherriff, Mohill Town, Corracloona, Cunnion, Tully and Cloone Town. A new section has been added for Poor Law Unions giving all the townlands with their Registrar's District, Electoral District, Barony and Civil Parish. The first union complete is Manorhamilton. If you have any records you would like to contribute to the website, or if you have any comments, additions or corrections, please contact me off list. You can find the website at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irllet/ -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

> > can anyone recommend any good books on the history of Ireland? Try checking out the Irish Book section of my website. At the bottom of the page, you will find links to parish history, local history and the general history of Ireland books. http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/books/ On this page, you will note, there is a mailing list dedicated to books about Ireland. It is not a very busy list but helpful, if you ask questions. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

Hi Listers, I will be leaving for five weeks tomorrow morning to visit family in OR and on to Ireland. (Lucky me!) Will share all my adventures with you when I get home. Gillie in Wales - not sure if you have been receiving my latest off-list e-mails with itinerary and possibly meeting up in Ireland? To make sure I receive any e-mails from you, please cc my sister, Margie Peterson - Mjpnrlp@aol.com Jean

"Names. Every art is inscribed with them. Every life depends on them. I was to find out, as I searched for information about her, just how wounding their absence can be." -- Quotation, Ms. Eavan BOLAND's prose memoir, "Object Lessons." and from Dr. Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, National Library Ireland (1984) ROOTS Today a note from M. O'Brien Arrived in my letter tray. 'Can you trace my roots?' he asks. 'What will I have to pay?' 'My forefather is Brian Boru, I want you to link him to me On a tree of yellow calfskin. I'm prepared to pay a fee.' In his letter he encloses Data on his elders and betters: His father and mother, Their fathers and mothers And a couple of dozen sisters and brothers. The census of '51 Records the family in Chorly: The head of the household a weaver, The mother a mother, One son a hand in a mill And the other (aged 10) A drawer of coal. The census of '61 Records the family in Bolton: The father a power-loom weaver, The mother a mother, One son a hand in a mill The other a collier And one daughter (aged 10) A scholar. The census of '81 Records the family in Wigan: The head of the household 'blind,' The mother a fishmonger, One son a hand in a mill, The other a collier The daughter a frame tenter And a grandson (aged 10) A scholar: The father of Mister O'Brien Descendant of Brian Boru. I want to reply to his letter: Keep your cash: Clontarf hardly matters To one whose genes survived The pits and mills of Wigan, Whose mother's days were woven In the powerful looms of Bolton, Whose childhood hours were spent With the unsold herrings' stench. But instead I send an invoice For ten pounds fifty pence And enclose a coat of arms To adorn his bedside shelf -- Excerpts, Cork's "Irish Roots" magazine

Here is a good informational blog on the 1841 UK census: http://blogs.ancestry.com/circle/?p=411&o_iid=23560&o_lid=23560&o_it=5910 -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

THE ISLAND The one saddle and bit on the island We set aside for every second Sunday When the priest rides slowly up from the pier. Afterwards his boat creaks into the mist. Or he arrives here nine times out of ten With the doctor. They will soon be friends. Visitors are few. A Belgian for instance Who has told us all about the oven, Linguists occasionally, and sociologists. A lapsed Capuchin monk who came to stay Was first and last to fish the lake for eels. His carved crucifixes are still on sale. Our ship continues to rust on the rocks. We stripped it completely of wash-hand basins, Toilet fitments, its cargo of linoleum We can estimate time by a shadow Of a doorpost inching across the floor. In the thatch blackbirds rummaging for worms And our dead submerged beneath the dunes. We count ourselves historians of sorts And chronicle all such comings and goings. We can walk in a day around the island. We shall reach the horizon and disappear. -- Michael Longley

thanks to George at the Irish Heritage Newsletter.... Athlumney Castle, County Meath Tower houses often provided the nucleus for the unfortified country seats that began to emerge in Ireland from the seventeenth century. Many remain occupied to the present day, but Athlumney, on the east bank of the Boyne, has long been in ruins. It comprises a mid-fifteenth-century tower house, built by the Dowdall family, which was considerably enlarged around 1630 by a long, narrow gabled mansion with large mullioned windows and a fine oriel window. The tower house has four storeys, with an attic and four projecting corner turrets of different sizes containing the stair, latrines and small chambers. In the south wall of the first floor there is a secret mural chamber reached down narrow stairs from above - created, one assumes, to hide priests, for the Dowdalls remained strong Catholics. The mansion was burnt in 1649 as "one of ye families of ye Maguires was living in it when Oliver Cromwell took Drogheda and to prevent Oliver from getting any shelter or subsistence there, set ye stately fabric on fire which consumed all ye curious apartments which were said to be very rich and costly". Located 1 mile SE of Navan off the Duleek (L5) road. NGR: N 887664. National Monument Key obtainable from the convent -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

> > Thank you for that very nice recipe but you omitted the oven temperature. Yeah, saw that after I did the copy, paste, send. I have emailed the Irish Heritage Newsletter requesting the oven temp but so far no reply...I would guess it would be the same as most cake recipes. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

Pat, Thank you for that very nice recipe but you omitted the oven temperature. Mary

SNIPPET: In April 2006 there were many events to celebrate the centenary of the birth (April 13, 1906) of the Irish writer Samuel Barclay BECKETT, whose plays "Waiting for Godot" and "Krapp's Last Tape" are perhaps the best known. BECKETT was born in Dublin. His works were influenced by his close friend, Irish writer James JOYCE. BECKETT began writing in the early 1930's, settling in France in the mid-1930's. He first gained international fame with his "Waiting for Godot" (1952). His best-known novels include the trilogy "Molloy" (1951), "Malone Dies" (1951) and "The Unnamable" (1953). BECKETT spent much of his life in France, but he always retained an interest in Ireland; his writings show an Irish reference in turns of phrase and description of the landscape. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, in 1969, he became the fourth Irishman to be awarded, the Nobel Prize for Literature. BECKETT wrote in French and translated many of his own works into English. His works show man as an absurd and pathetic creature in a meaningless, or at least unknowable, universe. His characters long chiefly for extinction. All of their actions, even suicide attempts, are futile. BECKETT was considered by many to be reclusive and unapproachable. The opposite appears to be true as the photographer John MINIHAN found out in 1980. MINIHAN was born in Athy, Co. Kildare. When he was eleven, his family moved to London where he later became a photographer, firstly with the Daily Mail and then with the London Evening Standard. Each time he returned to Ireland, he photographed his homeplace and in 1980, after learning that BECKETT was in London, John sent him a letter asking for a meeting. BECKETT responded positively and John got access - albeit conditionally - to the austere, reclusive writer, bringing along some of his Athy portraits. There was a quality in John's portrayals which appealed to BECKETT and so until his death in 1989, BECKETT allowed MINIHAN to photograph him in rehearsals in England and at home in Paris. MINIHAN's photographs of BECKETT are very moving and there was an ease between photographer and writer which they both understood and respected. When BECKETT first moved to Paris in 1928, one of his friends was Thomas MacGREEVY, who later became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland. BECKETT spent many hours at the Gallery, so it is fitting that, from June to mid-September, 2006, as part of the Beckett Centenary an exhibition 'Samuel Beckett - A passion for Paintings' will be held in the new Millennium Wing. Several of John MINIHAN's photographs may be seen in the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar, Dublin, and in the July-August 2006 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine.

thanks to George of the Irish Heritage Newsletter. Recipe for Glazed Irish Tea Cake 3/4 cup butter- room temperature 1 cup Sugar 2 tsp pure Vanilla extract 2 lg Eggs 3 oz Cream cheese- room temperature 1 3/4 cups Cake flour 1 1/4 tsp Baking powder 1/4 tsp Sal 1 cup Dried currants (or dates) 2/3 cup Buttermilk Directions for Cake: Preheat oven to, with rack in center of oven. Generously grease a 9-inch (7-cup capacity) loaf pan. Dust with flour; tap pan over sink to discard excess flour. Cut piece of parchment paper or waxed paper to fit bottom of pan. Set aside. Use mixer to cream butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating each until fluffy. Add cream cheese. Mix until well combined. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Put currants (or dates) in small bowl. Add 1/4 cup of flour mixture to currant and stir until well coated. Add remaining flour to batter, alternating with buttermilk. Mix until smooth. Use wooden spoon to stir in currants and all of the flour. Stir until well combined. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Smooth surface with spatula. Bake until well-browned and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 25 minutes (time will vary with individual ovens). Cake will crack on top. Let cake rest in pan for 10 minutes. Use flexible metal spatula to separate cake from sides of pan. Carefully remove cake from pan to cooling rack. Spread glaze on warm cake. Let cake cool completely. Cake can be stored 3 days at room temperature in foil. Cake can also be frozen up to 3 months, wrapped airtight. --GLAZE-- 1/2 cup Confectioners' sugar, sifted 2 tsp Fresh lemon juice Directions for Glaze : combine sugar and lemon juice in small bowl. Stir until smooth. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

EXCHANGE BUILDINGS My working days in Dublin, began at Exchange Buildings, in the old part of the city. Leslie, sitting at the grey entrance, kept an eye on our movements, as we skimmed past him when we left a minute early for lunch, or avoided his knowing eye whenever we came back late. I sat all day in a tiny space, in the grim office, responding to three hundred extensions on the switchboard and the thirty outgoing lines. The only disturbance came from the young insurance agents, parking in the lane outside, who tried to sell us insurance policies, that gave young women a lump sum when they married. -- Mary Guckian, born 1942 Kiltoghert, Leitrim, one of a family of seven and reared on a totally self-sufficient organic farm. She worked for Leitrim and Sligo County Councils before moving to Dublin Corporation. Later she travelled and worked in Sydney, Tasmania, the Channel Islands and Oxford. More recently, she has worked in the library of the Institute of Public Administration. Mary enjoys photography and produced a series of postcards during the 1980s that sold around Ireland and her work has been exhibited. Her first book of poetry, "Perfume of the Soil," (1999), enjoyed great success and has been reprinted. The book is an invitation to delve into life in rural Ireland throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Mary's little softbound books of poetry include her own lovely photographs of Ireland and stories of growing up. The poem above is from another volume, "The Road to Gowel," (Swan Press/2000), which also contains verse that speak of modern Ireland and life in the ! city. Her observations, emotions and sheer aiblity to go straight to the heart of a subject make her work popular and celebratory, and she has been published in many literary magazines. Mary has extended family in Leitrim and Boston, and has also taken part in a cultural exchange program in Boston in the recent past.

BIO: Per a year 2000 issue of Cork's "Irish Roots" magazine, the richest Irishman of the past millennium was Richard BOYLE, the first earl of Cork, who arrived in Ireland with 27 pounds but was worth an estimated 12.3 billion pounds (in today's money) when he died in 1643. BOYLE was the most successful of the "New English" who came to Ireland during the Tudor conquests. He arrived in Ireland at age 22 and became a minor land official. Later, he married a Limerick heiress coming into an estate worth 500 pounds a year. Regarded as an upstart by local dignitaries, he made a number of enemies, who had him jailed for embezzlement for a brief period around 1592. The accusations and sniping continued and at one point BOYLE was summoned before the Star Chamber. However, he managed to turn the tables on his accusers, who were themselves suspended from office. BOYLE bought Sir Walter RALEIGH's estate and became the virtual governor of Munster. He received his earldom in 1620. At his death he was worth 500,000 pounds and was almost certainly the richest man ever to have lived in Ireland.

going on holiday

> > going on holiday Here's where you go to unsub from list. Sending an 'unsubscribe' to the list, won't work. http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Ethnic-Irish/IRISH-IN-UK.html If you have problems trying to unsub, write me off list and I'll help you. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA, list admin http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net

> Film the Wind that shakes the Barley.... Director Ken Loach > I would like to bring to the attention of people on the list of the basic > details of a film which has just been released as it may be of interest to > some people looking at Irish history. > > The film's director has recently won the biggest prize in world cinema the > Palme D'or at Cannes for the film It's focus is on Ireland in the early > 1920's which encompasses partial Irish Independence the start of the civil > war and the birth of republicanism. > > It is controversial as the film has an anti oppression slant with > parallels of current conflicts around the world. He also has a film to his > name The Hidden Agenda about the murder of a civil rights lawyer murdered > in Northern Ireland in the 1980's with British intelligence involvement. > > Therefore Ken Loach is not exactly a favourite son in certain sectors of > the political establishment and press. > > Ciaran Colgan Looking for Colgans Mayo Ireland > chggf@btinternet.com > ==== NY-IRISH Mailing List ==== > The NY-Irish Mailing List Website > http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/NYIrishList/ > Get info on how to unsub, change your subcription, links, > archives,recipes, lookups etc. > >

How can we view these films? CIARAN COLGAN <CHGGF@BTINTERNET.COM> wrote: > Film the Wind that shakes the Barley.... Director Ken Loach > I would like to bring to the attention of people on the list of the basic > details of a film which has just been released as it may be of interest to > some people looking at Irish history. > > The film's director has recently won the biggest prize in world cinema the > Palme D'or at Cannes for the film It's focus is on Ireland in the early > 1920's which encompasses partial Irish Independence the start of the civil > war and the birth of republicanism. > > It is controversial as the film has an anti oppression slant with > parallels of current conflicts around the world. He also has a film to his > name The Hidden Agenda about the murder of a civil rights lawyer murdered > in Northern Ireland in the 1980's with British intelligence involvement. > > Therefore Ken Loach is not exactly a favourite son in certain sectors of > the political establishment and press. > > Ciaran Colgan Looking for Colgans Mayo Ireland > chggf@btinternet.com > ==== NY-IRISH Mailing List ==== > The NY-Irish Mailing List Website > http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/NYIrishList/ > Get info on how to unsub, change your subcription, links, > archives,recipes, lookups etc. > > ==== IRISH-IN-UK Mailing List ==== The Irish-In-UK Mailing List Website: http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrishUK/ ============================== Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx John F. Glynn glynnwood@sbcglobal.net

SNIPPET: English Victorian traveller, Richard LOVETT, kept notes of his travels throughout Ireland that were published in 1888 by the Religious Tract Society. This was the great age of railway travel, before the coming of the motorcar and aeroplane, and Mr. LOVETT's itinerary was undertaken at a leisurely pace, while he travelled by steamer, train, carriage and on foot. Here were some of his observations in Ulster, I believe, in the vicinity of the Donegal highlands. "After a fine ride from the Lackagh River, Mulroy Bay, in some respects the most interesting of all these fjords, is reached. Unlike Sheephaven or Lough Swilly, it is broken up by a multitude of islands, affording ever-varying and ever-fresh views. Skilful boatmen are to be had, and very enjoyable sails can be obtained on the bay. As the Atlantic is neared the shores get lower and more rocky and bare. At the extremity of the eastern headland is the little fishing village of Ballyhoorisky, inhabited by a sturdy race of fisherman, capital boatmen, ready when occasion serves to sail on the bay, to visit Tory Island, and for any other trip. One drawback is that they chatter away in Irish to one another, as that language sounds singularly inharmonious to a Saxon ear, the inability to understand what is said is unrelieved by sounds that in themselves are pleasing. On one occasion the writer found himself in this out-of-the-world nook. He had come hoping for a fine day, and a long sail to Tory Island. but alas! Nature was in an unkindly mood, donning grey skies, and letting fall a drizzling rain. Beyond the village broad spurs of rock covered with heaps of sand jut out into the ocean, which was breaking upon them with considerable force. Just as we left the village a procession came down the lane. At the head walked a man in his best apparel, bearing aloft a huge wooden cross, then followed a plain coffin borne by four men; and close after this, walking two by two, all in their best dress, came what must have been nearly the whole population of the village. The funeral was plain and very touching from its absolute simplicity. It was one of those sudden unexpected incidents that give at once the charm and the value to travel, striking those deeper chords that vibrate in all hearts. Here too Death claimed his victims, here too love and s! ympathy and kindliness flourished. No doubt even in Ballyhoorisky the bonds of custom are strong, and some followed, possibly, on this account only; but the signs of neighbourly fellowship and interest were predominant. As the little procession wended its way over the waste, the humble cottages, the varied and subdued dresses of the mourners, the yellow sand-heaps, the bare rocks, upon which the Atlantic surges were hurling themselves in a heavy fringe of snow-white surf, stood out in sharp contrast against the clear background of the steel-grey waters stretched out to the distant horizon. Over all hung the dull sky, harmonizing well with the scene of mourning, the combination uniting to form a picture that will live long in the memory by reason of its blending together the uncommon and beautiful in Nature with the too common manifestation of human frailty and sorrow."

This is from the Irish Heritage Newsletter. They are starting a new series on Castles of Ireland. Athenry Castle, Co. Galway For about five centuries Athenry Castle has been abandoned, rootless and fallen into a ruinous state. Athenry Castle consists of a keep and surrounding curtain-wall or bawn. It was built shortly after 1235 when Richard de Burgo, Lord of Connaught, granted a charter to Meiler de Bermingham. Most accounts give about 1238 as the date, but some suggest as late as 1250 - though by about 1240 seems logical because in 1241 Meiler was sufficiently well ensconced there to invite the Dominicans to come and build a priory in the town. The remains reveal at least three main phases of buildings. The original keep was low and squat, the root being at the level of the present second floor. This can be seen by the two large holes (for draining away roof-water) halfway up in each gable. Shortly afterwards the castle was raised in height by another storey (also 13^th cent. c.1250), while in the 15^th century the gable-ends were raised to accommodate a new and higher root rising above the battlements. The present basement vault is an insertion. Entrance to the castle was by an external wooden stairs leading to a decorated doorway in the east wall at first floor level. Two line windows remain at this level, both carved like the doorway - such carved work is unique to Athenry Castle though quite common in ecclesiastical buildings. Also unique to Athenry Castle is that over its doorway was a small canopy-like affair, traces of which remain; this consisted of slabs projecting from the wall above the doorway. Access from the first floor to the second floor was by a wooden stairs (assumed as no trace of any other stairs remain), and from the second to the third floor by an intramural stairway, within the east wall, beginning roughly above the doorway. The main room (first floor) also had a garde-robe or latrine at its north-western corner, consisting of a projecting 'room', only part of which still remains. The keep was built close enough to the north-western part of the surrounding curtain-wall to allow it to overlook the wall, thus making a wall-tower at this point unnecessary. Wall-towers, however, were built at the north-east and south-east corners of the curtain-wall, while the south-western corner was fortified by the gate, now a modern replacement, but undoubtedly originally strong and adequately fortified. The castle seems to have generally been cold and dark; there are no windows at second floor level, and no fireplaces anywhere. The fire was probably centrally placed In the upper room, the smoke escaping through a louvre or opening in the centre of the roof. In the 15^th century the Berminghams moved from it to their town house near the market cross In the square. In 1990 the National Monuments Branch of the Office of Public Works started work on its restoration, following on some minor excavations within the curtain wall. While it is not yet quite certain for what purpose exactly it will be used when restored, the State, insofar as it has expressed any plans at all towards its ultimate use, apparently intends to use It as a sort of state storehouse, in the nature of a museum or display centre for loose sculpture at present lying around the National Monuments in the region. The restored castle will also be used as a heritage centre to explain the town and immediate vicinity to interested visitors and scholars. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com http://www.connorsgenealogy.net