This is a new IRISH GENEALOGY and HISTORY group geared specifically to those with an avid interest in EAST COUNTY CORK, IRELAND. EAST COUNTY CORK, IRELAND is defined as the geographic area South of MIDLETON, West of YOUGHAL, East of COBH and North of BALLYCOTTON as seen on this map: http://www.eastcorktourism.com/res/East%20Cork.jpg This Group is for anyone: 1. searching for ancestors in East County Cork, Ireland. 2. expressing an interest in the history, geography, mapping, surveys, ordinances, customs and immigration patterns of families from East County Cork, Ireland. 3. willing to share family histories, genealogies, photographs, anecdotes, stories, and folklore from East County Cork, Ireland. Please join us! The owner and moderator of this Yahoo Group is: Bill Dorgan Website: www.billdorgan.com Email: billdorgan@billdorgan.com

This is a new IRISH GENEALOGY and HISTORY group geared specifically to those with an avid interest in EAST COUNTY CORK, IRELAND. EAST COUNTY CORK, IRELAND is defined as the geographic area South of MIDLETON, West of YOUGHAL, East of COBH and North of BALLYCOTTON as seen on this map: http://www.eastcorktourism.com/res/East%20Cork.jpg This Group is for anyone: 1. searching for ancestors in East County Cork, Ireland. 2. expressing an interest in the history, geography, mapping, surveys, ordinances, customs and immigration patterns of families from East County Cork, Ireland. 3. willing to share family histories, genealogies, photographs, anecdotes, stories, and folklore from East County Cork, Ireland. Please join us! The owner and moderator of this Yahoo Group is: Bill Dorgan Website: www.billdorgan.com Email: billdorgan@billdorgan.com

I forgot to mention where you can access the website: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irllex/index.htm -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com

The Ireland Genealogy Projects County Leix website has been updated. The following civil parish webpages have been added and/or updated: Attanagh, Kildellig, Cloydagh, Glashare, Kilcolmanbrack, Killenny, Sleaty, Tecolm and Timogue. The following townland webpages have been added and/or updated: Clogrenan, Gorteenahilla, Cremorgan, Garryduff, Killenny, Killone, Grange, Ballynafunshin (2), Clorhaun, Fermoyle, Glebe, Grenan (2), Brocka, Kildellig, Durrow Town, Clonaslee Town, Gurraun, Moneycleare, Raheenduff, Rosconnell Glebe, Knockbeg, Sleaty, Corbally, Ballinteskin, Ballycoolan, Ballyprior, Clondoolagh, Guileen, Timogue, Rathleague, Ballinakill Town. Other webpages have been updated with new information/data/pictures: Records, Surnames, Links, Land Divisions. If you have data, pictures and/or information you would like to add to this website, email me off list. Also if you have corrections or find errors, also email me off list. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com

DEAD I was the moon. A shadow hid me and I knew what it meant not to be at all. The moon in eclipse is sad and sinless. There is no passion in her plight. Cold, unlighted, moving in trance, she comes to her station or passes again to her place; uncovers her loneliness: eyeless behind no eyelids has neither sleeping nor waking, no body, parts, nor passions, no loving, perceiving, having, nor being; moves only in a wayless night; and drifting, as a ship without direction, sinks to a forgotten depth, among weeds, among stones. -- Rhoda Coghill (1903-2000) Born in Dublin, the late Ms. Coghill was a published poet, concert pianist, teacher, and accompanist at BBC. As a young woman she composed a large-scale orchestral work, "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking."

The B,B,C. have a new series of the very popular series "Who do you think you are" so expect all the sites to be very slow or even down,there is a new site www.spatial-literacy.org which is a surname finder but at the moment very heavy traffic. For anyone interested in genealogy the BBCs site is a great place, go to TV, BBC2 and look for the series. Catherine

SNIPPET: Author Bram STOKER's mother Charlott/e was the daughter of Thomas THORNLEY, of the 43rd Regiment. The family lived in Sligo and witnessed the cholera epidemic of 1832. The epidemic was particularly severe in Sligo town and Charlotte's experiences are said to be his inspiration for the Dracula story. The THORNLEY burial plot is in St. John's Cathedral graveyard, Sligo. Charlotte STOKER was the first woman to present a paper to the "Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland" founded more than 150 years ago; her subject was deafness in children. Son Bram STOKER (1847-1912) wrote the horror story "Dracula" in 1897. Born in Dublin in 1847, he had been a sickly child and spent many days at home in bed. "Dracula's Guest," a continuation of "Dracula," was not published until 1937 - after his death. His other books include "The Mystery of the Sea (1902), "The Jewel of Seven Stars" (1904), and "Famous Imposters" (1910). Bram lived in England and was manager for actor Sir Henry IRVING, and wrote "Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving" (1906).

Sean It would appear you are correct. I,ve been through the list and some entries clearly show transportation to America. Pat a great find Rory --- Sean Duggan <seanduggan2@gmail.com> wrote: > Before American independence, transportation to > American colonies was > common. No convicts were transported to Australia > until the 1780s. > > Sean > > On 1/15/06, Pat Connors <nymets11@pacbell.net> > wrote: > > Here is a website listing, by county, those > deported/transported from > > Ireland from 1737-1743. It is a big list (1,920 > persons in 7 yrs): > > > http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ua-free_Convicts-and-Vagabonds.html > > While it gives dates, and whether the transported > person was a convict > > or a vagabond, I can't find where they were > transported to. However, I > > would guess it was Australia. > > > > -- > > Pat Connors, Sacramento CA > > http://www.connorsgenealogy.com > > > > > > > > ==== IRISH-IN-UK Mailing List ==== > > To unsub or change your subscription: > > > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Ethnic-Irish/IRISH-IN-UK.html > > > > ============================== > > View and search Historical Newspapers. Read about > your ancestors, find > > marriage announcements and more. Learn more: > > http://www.ancestry.com/s13969/rd.ashx > > > > > > > ==== IRISH-IN-UK Mailing List ==== > The Irish-In-UK Mailing List Website: > http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/IrishUK/ > > ============================== > New! Family Tree Maker 2005. Build your tree and > search for your ancestors at the same time. Share > your tree with family and friends. Learn more: > http://landing.ancestry.com/familytreemaker/2005/tour.aspx?sourceid=14599&targetid=5429 > > >

Before American independence, transportation to American colonies was common. No convicts were transported to Australia until the 1780s. Sean On 1/15/06, Pat Connors <nymets11@pacbell.net> wrote: > Here is a website listing, by county, those deported/transported from > Ireland from 1737-1743. It is a big list (1,920 persons in 7 yrs): > http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ua-free_Convicts-and-Vagabonds.html > While it gives dates, and whether the transported person was a convict > or a vagabond, I can't find where they were transported to. However, I > would guess it was Australia. > > -- > Pat Connors, Sacramento CA > http://www.connorsgenealogy.com > > > > ==== IRISH-IN-UK Mailing List ==== > To unsub or change your subscription: > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Ethnic-Irish/IRISH-IN-UK.html > > ============================== > View and search Historical Newspapers. Read about your ancestors, find > marriage announcements and more. Learn more: > http://www.ancestry.com/s13969/rd.ashx > >

Here is a website listing, by county, those deported/transported from Ireland from 1737-1743. It is a big list (1,920 persons in 7 yrs): http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ua-free_Convicts-and-Vagabonds.html While it gives dates, and whether the transported person was a convict or a vagabond, I can't find where they were transported to. However, I would guess it was Australia. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com

SNIPPET: "Irish Fright" refers to a mass panic in England in December of 1688 caused by reports of imminent pillage and massacre by Irish Catholic soldiers brought over to support James II's crumbling regime, and now leaderless following his flight. The panic, beginning in London on 13 December and spreading over six days or more to at least 19 counties, led to attacks on real or suspected Catholics and the hasty assembly of armed parties. James II (1633-1701), a convert to Catholicism since 1669, succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Ireland, and Scotland in February 1685. Contrary to later claims, he did not aspire to either absolutism or forcible religious change, believing that the use of his prerogative to suspend anti-Catholic legislation would be enough to promote a Catholic revival in England. However, suspicion of his intentions led to his overthrow in the revolution of 1688.

As you may know, I have transcribed many Griffith's Valuation records for the various counties I have covered on my website. In fact, I just did a bunch for 11 small civil parishes in county Leix/Laois/Queens. If you are new to Ireland genealogy or don't quite know what the GV covers, please check out my new blog where I have just entered a fairly complete description of the GV. It can be found in 'comments' under Ireland Genealogy Sources. Check it out and if you want to add to the description and/or add more sources, go right ahead, that is what the blog is for...the url for my website is under my name. At the top of my homepage, you will find a link for the blog. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com

O Ireland, isn't it grand you look -- Like a bride in her rich adornin'? And with all the pent-up love of my heart I bid you the top o' the mornin'! John LOCKE, "The Exile's Return" "We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English." Winston CHURCHILL In the Nov-Dec 2004 issue of Dublin's "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine readers shared their thoughts on the Emerald Island: Aine/Dick WALDRON, Ocean Pines, MD wrote: "My husband and I, both of recent Irish descent, have been travelling to our 'spiritual home' almost every year since 1991. We have seen many wonderful changes and are so pleased for the people of Ireland at their new prosperity. On several of our trips, we acted as guides for family and friends who accompanied us and, in May 2004, we took 45 friends, neighbours and relatives on a most extraordinary two-week odyssey to visit all our favourite places, including the Blasket Island Centre at Slea Head, Clonmacnoise, Dun Aengus on the Aran Islands, the National Stud Farm and so many other magnificent sites and major cities. Everything, including the weather, was perfect. In fact, the only thing we had promised that we couldn't deliver was a rainbow, but then how can you have a rainbow when there is not a drop of rain! We especially want to compliment CIE Tours International who provided a customised trip for us. We simply gave the! m a list of places we wanted to visit, the type of accommodation we required and the dates. They did everything else including providing us with a very special bus driver/guide, John McINTYRE, whose knowledge, good humour and helpfulness was exceptional. We had always heard that those of recent descent could have dual citizenship and on further inquiry discovered that because my husband's parents were both born in Ireland, he is already an Irish citizen! This was absolutely thrilling to us as we hope to spend six months or more in Ireland in the very near future and I'm sure having an EU Passport will be very helpful. We have subscribed to IOTW for many, many years and keep every copy, frequently referring to articles of interest before we set off on another Irish adventure. Thank you for a fantastic publication. It helps to ease the longing between visits." Joyce THOMPSON, Spencerport, NY shared: .... "I am not of Irish descent but my husband is. But even years before I met him, I was quite fascinated by your country and made it the subject of my Social Studies report in the 8th grade. That was a long time ago and I nurtured the dream of visiting Ireland someday. After I married, I got interested in family history and with the current explosion of interest in genealogy, I felt it was time to make that long-awaited trip. I devoured all the stories in your publication and yearned to see the landscapes and meet the people. I have just returned from my first trip and it was wonderful -- truly a dream which became a reality. Your magazine proved to be so informative; for example, a recent story on the roadside sculptures in County Kerry came to life right before my eyes. Our tour bus stopped to let us take pictures and I was able to have a much better understanding of the background, having read the article before I left. ! I appreciate your magazine so much; I feel that I am in touch with the people of Ireland. Obviously, I hope to return to Ireland again someday soon, maybe after I have discovered more of my husband's Irish roots." --- "The English language brings out the best in the Irish. They court it like a beautiful woman. They make it bray with donkey laughter. They hurl it at the sky like a paint pot full of rainbows, and then make it chant a dirge for man's fate and man's follies that is as mournful as misty spring rain crying over the fallow earth." T. E. KALEM "Everywhere in Irish prose there twinkles and peers the merry eye and laugh of a people who had little to laugh about in real life." Diarmuid RUSSELL "There is no language like the Irish for soothing and quieting." John SYNGE "Ah, Ireland ... that damnable, delightful country, where everything that is right is the opposite of what it ought to be." Benjamin DISRAELI, Earl of Beaconsfield

ODE We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems. With wonderful deathless ditties We build up the world's great cities, And out of a fabulous story We fashion an empire's glory: One man with a dream, at pleasure, Shall go forth and conquer a crown; And three with a new song's measure Can trample an empire down. We, in the ages lying In the buried past of the earth, Built Nineveh with our sighing, And Babel itself with our mirth; And o'erthrew them with prophesying To the old of the new world's worth; For each age is a dream that is dying, Or one that is coming to birth. -- Arthur O'Shaughnessy (1844-1881)

A PICTURE BY RENOIR Two stocky young girls in the foreground stoop For a ball -- red dress, white pinafore. Toned with the sunburnt grass, two more Follow in beige. That wayward troupe Is the butterfly soul of summer. Beyond them a stripe of azure-blue Distance fades to the kind of sky That calls for larks. In the blend of high Colour and hazy line is a clue To the heart of childhood summer. So lively they are, I can all but see Those halcyon girls elude the frame And fly off the picture, intent on their game Wherever the ball may go, set free Into eternal summer. It does what pictures are meant to do -- Grasp a moment and throw it clear Beyond the reach of time. Those four Maidens will romp for ever, true To all our youthful summers. -- Cecil Day-Lewis, born Ballintubbert House, Co. Laois (Queen's).

The Ireland GenWeb County Mayo website has been updated. A webpage for the Ballysakeery Civil Parish has been add. Webpages for the following town(land)s have been added/updated: Ballintecan, Broadlands, Knockafarson, Carrowkelly, Carrowreagh, Cloonawillin, Cloonshinnagh, Coonealcauraun, Coonealmore, Derreens, Knockalough, Knockatinnole, Lecarrow, Lisglennon, Mullafurry, Rathbal, Foxford Town, Newtownwhite, Rathglass East & West, Rathroeen, Rosserk, Rusheens, Freaghillan, Goose Island, Inishdugh, Balloughadalla, Ballybroony, Ballymackeehola, Cloonfadda, Cloonmaan, Coolcran, Farragh, Knockaunderry, Magherabrack, Raheens, Rathoma, Ballynaboll, Lauvlyer, Tooreenphilip, Ballysakeery, Cloonalough, Allwoan, Tonacrock, Gortbaun New records, links and surnames have also been added. If you have any additions, suggestions and/or corrections to this website, please write me off line. You can find the site at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlmayo/ -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com

SNIPPET: Elizabeth BOWEN (1899-1973), celebrated writer, was born in Dublin, but spent most of her life in England. After inheriting the family home, Bowen's Court, in Co. Cork, she lived there part of each year. This memoir of her comfortable childhood winters in Dublin presents a matter-of-fact picture of the Protestant Anglo-Irish daily life. "On Sundays we went to St. Stephen's, our parish church, a few minutes' walk along the canal. St. Stephen's Georgian facade, with its pillars and steps, crowns the Upper Mount Street perspective, and looks down it into the airy distance of Merrion Square. To the ascending sound of bells we went up the steps -- my mother with a fine-meshed veil drawn over her features, my father already removing his top-hat, I in my white coat. The Sunday had opened with mysterious movements about the staircase at Herbert Place -- my mother's and father's departure to 'early church.' About this Matins I went to there was no mystery. I could be aware that this was only an outer court. None the less, I must not talk or look behind me or fidget, and I must attempt to think about God. The church, heart of and key to this Protestant quarter, was now, at midmorning, packed: crosswise above the pews allotted to each worshipping family ran galleries, but always unmistakably Sunday light, and gas burned where day did not penetrate far enough. The interior, with its clear sombreness, sane proportions, polished woodwork and brasswork and aisles upon which confident feet rang, had authority -- here one could feel a Presence, were it only the presence of an idea. It emphasized what was at once august and rational in man's relations with God. Nowhere was there any intensity of darkness, nowhere the point of a small flame. There was an honourable frankness in the tone in which we rolled out the General Confession -- indeed, sin was most felt by me, in St. Steph! en's, as any divagation from the social idea. There was an ample confidence in the singing, borne up by the organ's controlled swell. Bookless, (because I could not read) I mouthed my way through the verses of hymns I knew. Standing packed among the towering bodies, I enjoyed the feeling that something was going on. During prayers I kneeled balanced on two hassocks, and secretly bit, like a puppy, sharpening its teeth, into the waxed prayer-book ledge of our pew. Though my inner ear was already quick and suspicious, I detected, in the course of that morning service, no hypocritical or untrue note. If I did nothing more I conformed. I only did not care for the Psalms, which struck me as savage, discordant, complaining -- or sometimes, boastful. They outraged all the manners I had been taught, and I did not care for this chanted airing of troubles. My mother attended St. Stephen's out of respect for my father's feeling that one should not depart from one's parish church. He mistrusted, in religion as in other matters, behavior that was at all erratic or moody; he had a philosophic feeling for observance and form. But she liked St. Bartholomew's better because it was 'higher,' and once or twice in the course of every winter she would escape and take me there. Archbishop TRENCH and his daughters were her cousins; the happiest days of her girlhood had been spent at the Palace, and for the rest of her days she remained High Church. She spoke of 'Prods' (or, extreme, unctuous Protestants) with a flighty detachment that might have offended many. I was taught to say 'Church of Ireland,' not 'Protestant,' and 'Roman Catholic,' not simply 'Catholic.' It was not until after the end of those seven winters that I understood that we Protestants were a minority, and that the unquestioned rules of our being came, in fact, from the closeness of a minority world. Roman Catholics were spoken of by my father and mother with courteous detachment that gave them, even, no myth. I took the existence of Roman Catholics for granted but met few and was not interested in them. They were, simply 'the others,' whose world lay alongside ours but we never touched. As to the difference between the two religions, I was too discreet to ask questions -- if I wanted to know. This appeared to share a delicate awkward aura with those two other differences -- of sex, of class. So quickly, in a child's mind does prudery seed itself and make growth that I remember, even, an almost sexual shyness on the subject of Roman Catholics. I walked with hurried step and averted cheek past porticos of churches that were 'not ours,' uncomfortably registeri! ng in my nostrils the pungent, unlikely smell that came round curtains, through swinging doors. On Sundays, the sounds of the bells of all kinds of churches rolled in a sort of unison round the Dublin sky, and the currents of people quitting their homes to worship seemed to be made alike by one human habit, such as of going to dinner. But on weekdays the 'other' bells, with their (to my ear) alien, searching insistence had the sky and the Dublin echoes all to themselves. This predisposition to frequent prayer bespoke, to me some incontinence of the soul..." -- Excerpts, Elizabeth Bowen, 'Sundays,' from "Seven Winters: Memories Of A Dublin Childhood." Of note, a fine 20th-century oil on canvas portrait of Elizabeth BOWEN at Bowenscourt by Patrick HENNESSY can be seen at CRAWFORD Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland.

Thanks to George Trainor of the Irish Heritage Newsletter for passing this on. The Night of the BIG WIND Oi'che na Gaoithe Mo'ire_ (The Night of the Big Wind) is the name given to the night of Sunday, January 6-7, 1839 A disastrous storm struck Ireland Sunday, January 6, 1839. The day began well enough. The children were outside playing in the snow. Indoors was hustle and bustle as everyone was looking forward to the evening's festivities of Little Christmas. At about three o'clock in the afternoon it became unnaturally still. So calm that voices floated between farmhouses more than a mile apart. Something strange was happening but no one knew exactly what. Maybe it was just as well for what followed was the most terrifying night of their lives. The violence of the storm, its sheer brutality, horrified those who lived through it; many counted it the most extraordinary experience of their lives. Along the western seaboard people made their peace with God, convinced that the end of the world was at hand. The morning after, the sun rose on a wasted land. Familiar things were unrecognizeable. Known landmarks were gone. The country came to a standstill. People were dazed and bleary from lack of sleep and nervous exhaustion. The storm had been an ecological disaster. Nothing was where it should be. The produce of the land was in the rivers and the rivers were in the fields. Boats were put out to gather hay. Much of the harvest ended up in the Atlantic and the waters of the Irish Sea swept into "old scaws and bog holes". Grain was killed by frost or eaten by birds and grew where it dropped. People survived by helping each other. There was an outbreak of something close to brotherly love. Folks opened their homes, sheltering, and where necessary, feeding and clothing relatives and neighbors. This warmth was so universal that it is almost shocking to read of the clergyman in County Cork who took refuge in a hotel. Had he no friends or neighbors? Did no one love him? All did not suffer equally. Ulster, the West and Midlands bore the brunt of the storm. Almost every class of building was damaged; factories and barracks were ruined; windmills were decapitated and set on fire. Agriculture, industry, commerce and communications were all seriously disrupted. Belfast's great cathedrals of manufacture were hard hit. Given the storm's ferocity, the death toll was surprisingly low. Perhaps 250-300 people lost their lives, most at sea in the disastrous wrecks. There were many lucky escapes. The story of the relief effort reads like a dry run for the Famine. What did the administration do? Nothing! At first glance this may seem to reveal the British indifference towards Ireland's suffering but it was not. Liverpool and Manchester, equally devastated, received no help either. The explanation runs deeper. Even if the government wished to intervene, the mechanism to do so was lacking. In most places, it was down to self help and charity. Schools were opened as shelters, soup kitchens were set up and straw was distributed for thatching. Another problem was the contract between landlord and tenant. This required the tenant to make good on storm damage. In the crowded West the situation was critical. Food shortages, typhus and cholera were feared. The price of food was high even before the storm. Potatoes were "at a famine price" in January and the storm decimated reserves. In Connemara, where provisions were already scarce, fears of famine were widely voiced. A natural disaster was the last thing these people needed, particularly in the south-west. The countryside had secret societies with interclass and factional outrages a daily occurrence. Rural violence was an important part of the background of the storm. Although it heightened many of the pre-existing stresses in the social order, it did not upset it, at least not enough to require reform. Ireland did not profit from the experience but marched toward the Famine. The Big Wind of 1839 was a landmark experience, a horror that was in its way comparable to the Famine. What the Wind did to property, the Famine did to life. More people were made homeless during the night of the Big Wind than were evicted during the years 1850-1880. It straddled Ireland and England, did great damage to parts of Scotland, the northeast and Midlands of England, and the coast of Wales. It crossed the North Sea to Denmark, then dominated the eastern Baltic for several days before dissipating. The storm generated a mass of lore. Stories by the millions circulated. Why did it cast such a spell? The answer is probably fear and people's sense of helplessness in the face of it. Even though it was common experience, the storm was essentially a personal affair. It had a life in the hearts of the men and women who experienced it, in the detail of personal experience. The storm came in the night, climaxing in its darkest hours, and totally without warning. There was a profusion of weird wind effects. The losses were not only measured in pounds, shillings and pence, but in the personal tragedies of homelessness, lost limbs and deaths. Effects were subtle and delayed. The full impact was registered in the spring when people went to market. The towns looked patched and the fields were overgrown with wheat and oats and mongrel crops. A great source for historians is newspapers. In 1839 some 83 newspapers were being published in Ireland, seventeen of them in Dublin. While Ireland was viewed from a range of political perspectives, it was covered from a high and relatively narrow social base. All the papers grieved over the condition of the country, but few took the trouble to send out correspondents. Editors depended on letters from subscribers, borrowed copy and lurid travelers' tales. From Sunday night on, horrendous reports flooded in the newspaper offices. But within a fortnight the disaster disappeared from the newspapers. Memories of the Big Wind were rekindled in 1909 when the Old Age Pension was initiated. Everyone aged seventy and over was entitled to a weekly pension. How do you prove your age if there are no birth records? If you could remember the Big Wind, or make a good show of remembering, you were eligible for the pension. One reason the storm was so memorable was the extraordinary sound of the wind. What else happened because of the Big Wind? Building standards changed. Thatching was pegged. Houses were placed with the gable to the west. Implementation of the Poor Law was hastened by the need for disaster relief. Historians have mostly ignored the Big Wind. It had no social origins, few social consequences and it did not topple a government. No one could use it as a political weapon as they did with the Famine. Reprinted with permission from The Celtic Knot Vol.1, No.1 February 1994 -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com

THE WHISPERING ROOTS Roots are for holding on, and holding dear. Mine, like a child's milk teeth, came gently away From Ireland at the close of my second year, Is it second childhood now -- that I overhear Them whisper across a lifetime as if from yesterday? We have had blood enough and talk of blood, These sixty years. Exiles are two a penny And race a rancid word; a meaningless word For the Anglo-Irish; a flighty cuckoo brood Foisted on alien nests, they knew much pride and many Falls. But still my roots go whispering on Like rain on a soft day. Whatever lies Beneath their cadence I could not disown; An Irish stranger's voice, its tang and tone, Recalls a family language I thrill to recognize. All the melodious places only seen On a schoolboy's map -- Kinsale, Meath, Connemara; Writers -- Swift, Berkeley, Goldsmith, Sheridan: Fighters, from Vinegar Hill to Stephen's Green: The Sidhe, saints, scholars, rakes of Mallow, kings of Tara -- Were background music to my ignorant youth. Now on a rising wind louder it swells From the lonely hills of Laois. What can a birth - Place mean, its features comely or uncouth, To a long-rootless man? Yet still the place compels. We Anglo-Irish and the memory of us Are thinning out. Bad landlords some, some good, But never of a land rightfully ours, We hunted, fished, swore by our ancestors, Till we were ripped like parasite growth from native wood. And still the land compels me; not ancestral Ghosts, nor regret for childhood's fabled charms, But a rare peacefulness, consoling, festal, As if the old religion we oppressed all Those years folded the stray within a father's arms. The modern age has passed this island by And it's the peace of death her revenants find? Harsh Dublin wit, peasant vivacity Are here to give your shallow claims the lie. Perhaps in such soil only the heart's long roots will bind -- Even, transplanted, quiveringly respond To their first parent earth. Here God is taken For granted, time like a well-tutored hound Brought to man's heel, and ghosting underground Something flows to the exile from what has been foresaken. In age, body swept on, mind crawls upstream Toward the source; not thinking to find there Visions or fairy gold -- what old men dream Is pure restatement of the original theme, A sense of rootedness, a source held near and dear. -- Cecil Day-Lewis, born Co. Laois, IR, late Poet Laureate England, visiting professor Harvard.

The County Armagh website at Ireland Genealogy Projects has been updated. The following civil parish webpages have been added and/or updated: Armagh, Ballymore, Ballymyre, Confeacle, Creggan, Derrynoose, Jonesborough, Killyman, Tartaraghan. The following town(land) pages have been added and/or updated: Aghanore, Allistragh, Annahagh, Aughnacloy, Ballygassoon, Ballymackilmurry, Cabragh, Carganamuck, Carrickaloughran, Drumcarn, Drumsill, Grange Blundel, Grangemore, Killylyn, Shantally, Breagh, Portadown Town, Derryhirk, Knockaconey, Lisdonwilly, Moneycree, Mullynure, Teeraw, Tirgarve, Tullyard, Tullygarran, Tullygarran, Tullygoonigan, Annaclare, Ballybrannan, Drumman Beg & More, Drumogher, Kilmachugh, Salters Grange, Annacrampt, Ballknick, Tiregerty, Drumart, Greenan, Carricktroddan, Ardrea, Lurgan Town, Crossdall, Carrive The following sections have also been updated: Surnames, Records, Land Divisions. You can access the website at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nirarm2/ If you have any suggestions, additions or corrections for the website, email me off list. -- Pat Connors, Sacramento CA http://www.connorsgenealogy.com