Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Grades are Posted
The Fall Semester Grades for the Irish History and Literature class have been posted and should be available through the my.gcc site. Questions about the grades should go to Mr.Doyle. Questions about your essays should go to Dr.Queen. Good Luck; see you next year.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Questions for the Final Exam Essay
Our Final Exam is Friday, December 11th at 1:30PM in our regular classroom. Here are your options:
1. Our study of Irish history, literature and culture has shown a profound impact of forces from Britain and Europe (and to a lesser extent, North America) on Ireland. From the point of view of modern-day Ireland, what have been the most important influences from abroad? How have those influences been expressed in Irish literature? Are there any challenges left to the Irish from the legacy of those forces?
or
2. If you were to visit Ireland, what would you most be interested in seeing? What would you be least interested in? Be sure to support your itinerary with examples from history and literature!
1. Our study of Irish history, literature and culture has shown a profound impact of forces from Britain and Europe (and to a lesser extent, North America) on Ireland. From the point of view of modern-day Ireland, what have been the most important influences from abroad? How have those influences been expressed in Irish literature? Are there any challenges left to the Irish from the legacy of those forces?
or
2. If you were to visit Ireland, what would you most be interested in seeing? What would you be least interested in? Be sure to support your itinerary with examples from history and literature!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Music We've been Playing in Class
Album Title - Artist - Style
Irish Rebel Songs - The Battering Ram - group vocals
The Parting Tide - Nightnoise - Celtic new age, some artists from the Bothy Band
The Golden Dawn - Loretto Reid & Brian Taheny - excellent tin whistle
The Man that I Am - Sean Keane - solo vocalist
Here Among Strangers - Siucra - US-based Celtic ensemble
The Best of Altan - Altan - Donegal-base ensemble, hot fiddle, great Gaelic vocals
Riverdance, Music from the Show - Bill Whelan - featuring various artists
Best of the Bothy Band - The Bothy Band - groundbreaking ensemble trad band, with great vocals
The Chieftains 8 -The Chieftains - the first and the best Irish trad ensemble
The Long Black Veil - The Chieftains
Live From Dublin - The Chieftains
Live - Celtic Thunder - boy band, great vocals lush arrangements
The Back Door - Cherish the Ladies - my favorite group US based - all women - all very talented, group flute and whistle work
Threads of Time - Cherish the Ladies
This is the Day - Christy Moore - traveling balladeer, singer, song writer
Irish Blessings - Dennis Doyle - your humble instructor, US based traveling bard specialises in pieces by Carolan and Celtic Spirituality
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - classic Irish vocal ensemble, heard on the Ed Sullivan show, most of the music from the collection of Sarah Makem
Deanta Live - Deanta - ensemble out of Donegal, excellent instrumentallists
Wild Blue - Eileen Ivers - one of the top Irish America fiddlers, versatile,exciting, worked with Mick Moloney, Cherish the Ladies and Riverdance, now does world music
Immigrant Soul - Eileen Ivers
Watermark - Enya - related to the Clannad ensemble, then took traditional Gaelic song into a new age direction
Shepherd Moons - Enya
Ancient Rite - Eoin Duignan - excellent flute and tin whistle from the Dingle area
Half Moon Bay - Gerry O'Beirne - excellent soulful guitar player and vocalist, also produces others, worked with Patrick Street
Blath Gach Geag da dTig - Lillis O Laoire - sean nos singer works in Limerick
Great Songs of Ireland and Scotland - Men of Worth - Scoth-Irish ensemble US based
Far From the Shamrock Shore - Mick Moloney - classic trad vocalist, banjo player, now college professor from Limerick but working in Philadelphia, expert on early Irish-American ballads
The Best of the Pogues - The Pogues - ultimate Irish punk experience
Bonny Bunch of Rose - Seamus Ennis - classic trad vocalist
The Brendan Voyage - Shaun Davey - lush arrangments for the uillean pipes
Harmonic Motion - Slide - jazzy, upbeat instrumentals with original songs
For Love and Laughter - Solas - classic upbeat instruments with top musicians from Ireland
The Ultimate Collection - Clannad - Gaelic songs and instrumentals from Donegal, some Carolan
Flight of Green Linnet - Various Artists - sampler from the Green Linnet Label
The Lark in the Morning - Various Artists
Noirin Ni Riain - Noirin Ni Riain - Gregorian Chant through a sean nos and Celtic filter
From My Tradition - Seosamh O hEanai (Joe Heaney) - Classic Sean Nos from a Connamara native who lived in the USA
Irish Rebel Songs - The Battering Ram - group vocals
The Parting Tide - Nightnoise - Celtic new age, some artists from the Bothy Band
The Golden Dawn - Loretto Reid & Brian Taheny - excellent tin whistle
The Man that I Am - Sean Keane - solo vocalist
Here Among Strangers - Siucra - US-based Celtic ensemble
The Best of Altan - Altan - Donegal-base ensemble, hot fiddle, great Gaelic vocals
Riverdance, Music from the Show - Bill Whelan - featuring various artists
Best of the Bothy Band - The Bothy Band - groundbreaking ensemble trad band, with great vocals
The Chieftains 8 -The Chieftains - the first and the best Irish trad ensemble
The Long Black Veil - The Chieftains
Live From Dublin - The Chieftains
Live - Celtic Thunder - boy band, great vocals lush arrangements
The Back Door - Cherish the Ladies - my favorite group US based - all women - all very talented, group flute and whistle work
Threads of Time - Cherish the Ladies
This is the Day - Christy Moore - traveling balladeer, singer, song writer
Irish Blessings - Dennis Doyle - your humble instructor, US based traveling bard specialises in pieces by Carolan and Celtic Spirituality
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem - classic Irish vocal ensemble, heard on the Ed Sullivan show, most of the music from the collection of Sarah Makem
Deanta Live - Deanta - ensemble out of Donegal, excellent instrumentallists
Wild Blue - Eileen Ivers - one of the top Irish America fiddlers, versatile,exciting, worked with Mick Moloney, Cherish the Ladies and Riverdance, now does world music
Immigrant Soul - Eileen Ivers
Watermark - Enya - related to the Clannad ensemble, then took traditional Gaelic song into a new age direction
Shepherd Moons - Enya
Ancient Rite - Eoin Duignan - excellent flute and tin whistle from the Dingle area
Half Moon Bay - Gerry O'Beirne - excellent soulful guitar player and vocalist, also produces others, worked with Patrick Street
Blath Gach Geag da dTig - Lillis O Laoire - sean nos singer works in Limerick
Great Songs of Ireland and Scotland - Men of Worth - Scoth-Irish ensemble US based
Far From the Shamrock Shore - Mick Moloney - classic trad vocalist, banjo player, now college professor from Limerick but working in Philadelphia, expert on early Irish-American ballads
The Best of the Pogues - The Pogues - ultimate Irish punk experience
Bonny Bunch of Rose - Seamus Ennis - classic trad vocalist
The Brendan Voyage - Shaun Davey - lush arrangments for the uillean pipes
Harmonic Motion - Slide - jazzy, upbeat instrumentals with original songs
For Love and Laughter - Solas - classic upbeat instruments with top musicians from Ireland
The Ultimate Collection - Clannad - Gaelic songs and instrumentals from Donegal, some Carolan
Flight of Green Linnet - Various Artists - sampler from the Green Linnet Label
The Lark in the Morning - Various Artists
Noirin Ni Riain - Noirin Ni Riain - Gregorian Chant through a sean nos and Celtic filter
From My Tradition - Seosamh O hEanai (Joe Heaney) - Classic Sean Nos from a Connamara native who lived in the USA
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Writer Mary Pat Kelly Visits our Class
Mary Pat Kelly's most recent book is a fictionalized account of her family's emmigration from Ireland to Chicago during the Potato Famine.
Irish Famine or Starving?
In this world of ours, there is no lack of examples of “Man’s Inhumanity to Man”. My ancestors emigrated from Ireland to escape a sad history of poverty, disease and death. Our holocaust was the great Irish Famine, which was responsible for removing over 20% of the population from either starvation or forced immigration. Ireland’s population has never rebounded to its pre-famine days.
In Ireland, they called it “An Gorta Mor”, the“Great Hunger”. In the late 1840’s, Ireland suffered a series of famines due to the loss of their potato crop. The potatoes were attacked by a fungus from America turning the potatoes into inedible poisonous mush.
While the fungal infection was a natural disaster and impossible to combat, events in Ireland many years before the famine, the mindset and the behavior of the English government made this disaster much, much worse and led to the deaths of about 1.5 million people, the emigration of another 1.5 million and about another million unaccounted for.
The roots of this disaster actually started over 2 hundred years earlier. In the late 16th century, English forces put down a rebellion of Irish nobility. This defeat at the Battle of Kinsale lead to the exile of these Irish leaders. The English government confiscated their lands and protestant settlers from Scotland (loyal to the English) were “planted” on the land (like the way that the English later “colonized” the new world). This set the pattern for how England dealt with trouble from Ireland throughout the following centuries. Ireland, because of its proximity to England, would always have a role in internal English politics and had to be considered in English foreign policy. The Irish supported the Catholic King James II over the English parliament’s protestant choice, William of Orange. When James was defeated, Ireland was punished by even more confiscation of land, plantations of outside groups and a series of brutal “penal laws”, denying native Irish Catholics nearly all civil liberties and property. By the start of the 18th century most of the land in Ireland was held by outside Scottish or English settlers, English soldiers (who received land in pay for their service), land speculators and absentee landlords who lived in England, who used Ireland simply as a source of income.
As for the property that remained in Catholic native Irish hands, the penal laws required that their land should be divided equally between the children upon the death of the owner. This resulted in smaller and smaller parcels of land being passed on from generation to generation.
By far, though, most of the Irish were left landless, as tenant farmers. They raised what little food they could on small squalid plots, barely feeding their families and burdened with paying rent for the privilege.
The most unfortunate people, though, were the spalpeens or day laborers, working other peoples rented land for bare sustenance.
Into this mix, came the potato plant, introduced from the new world reportedly by Sir Walter Raleigh a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. The good thing about the potato was that it is a nutritious food, together with milk and butter, provided most vitamins that a family would need. The diet was filling, if not balanced and the Irish learned to make a lot of different dishes from the potato. It was easy to grow and it didn’t take much space to grow. With land at a premium and small parcels the rule, and rents high, you might just barely be able to feed your family with a patch of ground about the size of 2 classrooms. If you raise a pig on the side from the scraps, you could use that to pay the annual rent to the landlord. You could expect 2 crops a year, one in late spring and then one in the fall. The fall crop was the largest and it would have to be big enough to keep a family fed through the cold winter months. The disadvantage of the potato was that it is a delicate crop, the victim of several types of disease, easily damaged by bad weather, and subject to frequent failures. They used only one species of potatoes, called "lumpers" which had all the problems of a monoculture. Potatoes wouldn’t keep also. You couldn’t store potatoes year to year, like you could corn or other grains.
We know now about the danger of relying on a single delicate crop, but at the time it seemed like a blessing. Despite the extreme poverty of the Irish people, the potato provided a decent diet for the first time in many years. With the introduction of a relatively nutritious food, and the relative peace in the early 1800’s, infant mortality improved, and the Irish population boomed to over 8 million people. (Now it is about 4.5 million).
The first word about any trouble with the potato came in spring 1845 when there was news of a “potato blight” in the United States. There was fear that it would cross the ocean when there were reports of a similar blight in Belgium and on the Isle of Wight off England. Soon, reports from all over Ireland mentioned signs of distress with the potato. At first, government officials thought that the problem was local and exaggerated, especially since most potatoes appeared okay when first taken out of the ground. But after a few days of storage became piles of black putrid decaying mush. We know now that the disease was spread by airborne spores, which would attack wet spots on the potato leaves and skin and rapidly destroy a family’s entire annual supply in a few days.
As the year moved on, it became apparent that the failure of the crop was nearly universal in Ireland and that there was going to be general starvation if something wasn’t done. The Prime Minister at the time was Sir Robert Peel. He was no friend to the Irish, but was an efficient and capable statesman, and concluded that the Irish diet had to be supplemented by grain, but this was complicated to do. Corn was an important staple in the English economy, protected by high tariffs. If the government were to buy large quantities of corn in England, it would drive up the price for English consumers; on the other hand, certain tariff laws would need to be repealed if he were to bring in grain from somewhere else. This was not popular with English farmers, who relied on the protectionist tariffs to keep their profits regular. His efforts to repeal the “Corn Laws” nearly got him removed from office, but they were repealed and he was able to order a quantity of maize or “Indian corn” from the United States. They believed that the maize might not interfere so much with the English corn market, since there was already a market for it. Unfortunately, he would have needed to order at least 30 times the amount he bought to cover the need in Ireland.
Peel and his Secretary of the treasury, a man by the name of Charles Trevelyan believed in a philosophy of economics called laissez faire, a belief in government non-interference in private enterprise, commerce. Property rights also trumped all other rights. Peel and Trevelyan planned to use the corn not to feed the Irish directly, but to balance out the market and to force the price of corn low in Ireland so that it might be purchased by the Irish and sold by English vendors. The market, thus adjusted would make sure everyone was taken care of.
The problem with this plan, hatched in London, was that it bore no resemblance to the reality in Ireland, especially in those remote areas in the west of Ireland where the famine was the worst. Ireland had been degraded and so mistreated by England, that parts of the country couldn’t access markets and weren’t even using currency, as they were in a barter economy (trading a pig for rent, for example). There was no way for Ireland to reasonably respond to market forces. Things that made perfect sense in England would not work in Ireland. Furthermore, the English officials were morally opposed to simply give away the grain to starving people; no, they had to work for currency to be used to purchase the grain by doing make-work road building or workhouse projects. Since roads weren’t suppose to give any undue advantage to any particular landowner, crazy roads to nowhere were built, still to be seen today in Ireland.
Furthermore, some of the funding for the program was supposed to come from local landlords, most of which were in bad straights themselves. The most ironic thing about this period of time was that, while people were starving, Ireland was producing enough food to feed itself, but the English landlords had to export food out of the country to meet their own debts and expenses. Food production actually rose during the famine years.
The Indian corn also proved to be another problem. It was harder than regular English corn and required an extra milling to make flour. Once again the places that were struck the most with the crop failure, had relied mostly on the potato, so they didn’t have the infrastructure to even grind the grain. Once people had the grain, they couldn’t grind it finely enough to put it to use. Eating poorly ground grain caused dysentery in people already weak from hunger. The harbors near those places weren’t large enough to accommodate the ships carrying the grain.
Soon all depots for food distribution, workhouses and other accommodations for starving people were overwhelmed.
At about this time, there was a change in government in London. Because of the unpopularity of the repeal of the corn tariff in England, Peel was removed as prime minister and replaced by Lord John Russell. Russell came into power in time for the second annual total failure of the potato crop in 1846. Russell, however, was even more committed to a laissez faire than was Peel. He advocated no additional help for Ireland. Trevelyan, remaining as Treasury secretary believed that famine was brought on by God and that the Irish should simply deal with it themselves. They both believed that market forces and free trade would solve the problem. Instead, we started to see the first massive numbers deaths from starvation in October of ’46.
At first, most deaths came from wasting diseases due to malnutrition: typhus, relapsing fever, dysentery from eating badly prepared corn, seaweed, simply any plant or animal available, scurvy and dropsy. At the peak of the famine in 1847, many deaths were from outright starvation. They still refer to that year as “Black ‘47”.
Tenant farmers, held back as long that they could from eating their livestock. They needed to use that livestock, (possibly a pig) to barter for their rent. As bad as these thatched huts were, wet, cold, dirt floors, one room, smoky, the livestock living with the family, it was particularly horrible to be evicted from these shabby homes and all your belongings put out on the road. The process of eviction happened to thousands of families during this period; people were reduced to living in ditches, starving, no shelter, and no work. Your old cottage was “tumbled” i.e. intentionally destroyed and the roof torn off by the landlord’s agent and the sheriff. The rights of property were absolute, so the landlord could evict you with little notice and for no reason, if they wished, even if you could pay the rent. Some landlords “shoveled- out” i.e. paid for passage oversees for entire groups of tenants on boats bound for the new world called coffin ships. Many landlords took advantage of the famine to clear their land of all tenants to open up the land for grazing cattle or sheep. This was the Marketplace responding to the emergency.
With the government doing little, outside groups responded to the famine. The Quakers set up soup kitchens. There were donations from England, more from overseas from Irish Americans, the Ottoman Empire, and even American Indians. Some religious groups offered soup to people who converted to their particular sect. People scorned those who “took the soup” and changed their religion. They called them the “soupers”…
People were desperate to get out; laws prevented easy emigration to England after the first years of the famine. After a while, none of the ports in North America wanted to take the ships full of sick and dying people. Immigration to Canada was originally easier and cheaper than to the USA because ships bearing timber from Canada could return to North America with hopeless Irish. Canada had their own problem with quarantine centers with ships full of sick people. A small island in the St.Lawrence Seaway called Grosse Isle was the site of over 11 thousand deaths due to ship-born wasting diseases and starvation, because Canadian authorities could not allow them to land in nearby Quebec City.
It was in 1849 when my great-great grandparents, Francis and Ann Doyle brought their children Margaret, Thomas and Patrick from County Wicklow through the port of Cork to America through the port of Baltimore, Maryland. Patrick was my great grandfather. They ended up in Williamstown, PA, north of Harrisburg, where Francis worked in the coalmines. They had 5 more children in the new world before Francis died at age 49.
The famine changed Ireland forever. Besides losing an estimated 25% of the population, entire districts were cleared of people. The famine cut the heart out of the Irish language, Gaelic, as most of the victims were Gaelic speakers. English continues to be the dominant language of Ireland despite government efforts to keep Gaelic alive. Religious expression became much more strict and puritanical and Victorian. Pregnancy outside of marriage could be an economic disaster. People delayed marriage later and later, until the parents died and the oldest son inherited the farm. You ended up with many marriages consisting of late middle age (rather old men) men and very young women. Emigration became a fact of life for all the rest of the children in a typical Irish family, as there were few prospects for them at home. Those who did emigrate formed a ready-made group of people who really hated the English, who knew that Ireland, which was supposed to be part of the United Kingdom, i.e. an important part of the England state, had been abandoned and mistreated grievously. The Irish concluded that there was no way England could be trusted again to support Irish interests unless forced to. Soon, the Irish Republican Brotherhood was started in New York, which lead to more rebellion in Ireland and eventual home rule and separation from England in early the next century. Some have said that bitterness from these oppressive events led Ireland to sit out World War II as a neutral state while England was under attack from Germany.
I’ll end now with a few verses from an old song about the famine:
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
Micheal they are taking you away
For you stole Trevelyn's corn
So the young might see the morn.
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.
Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly.
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.
In Ireland, they called it “An Gorta Mor”, the“Great Hunger”. In the late 1840’s, Ireland suffered a series of famines due to the loss of their potato crop. The potatoes were attacked by a fungus from America turning the potatoes into inedible poisonous mush.
While the fungal infection was a natural disaster and impossible to combat, events in Ireland many years before the famine, the mindset and the behavior of the English government made this disaster much, much worse and led to the deaths of about 1.5 million people, the emigration of another 1.5 million and about another million unaccounted for.
The roots of this disaster actually started over 2 hundred years earlier. In the late 16th century, English forces put down a rebellion of Irish nobility. This defeat at the Battle of Kinsale lead to the exile of these Irish leaders. The English government confiscated their lands and protestant settlers from Scotland (loyal to the English) were “planted” on the land (like the way that the English later “colonized” the new world). This set the pattern for how England dealt with trouble from Ireland throughout the following centuries. Ireland, because of its proximity to England, would always have a role in internal English politics and had to be considered in English foreign policy. The Irish supported the Catholic King James II over the English parliament’s protestant choice, William of Orange. When James was defeated, Ireland was punished by even more confiscation of land, plantations of outside groups and a series of brutal “penal laws”, denying native Irish Catholics nearly all civil liberties and property. By the start of the 18th century most of the land in Ireland was held by outside Scottish or English settlers, English soldiers (who received land in pay for their service), land speculators and absentee landlords who lived in England, who used Ireland simply as a source of income.
As for the property that remained in Catholic native Irish hands, the penal laws required that their land should be divided equally between the children upon the death of the owner. This resulted in smaller and smaller parcels of land being passed on from generation to generation.
By far, though, most of the Irish were left landless, as tenant farmers. They raised what little food they could on small squalid plots, barely feeding their families and burdened with paying rent for the privilege.
The most unfortunate people, though, were the spalpeens or day laborers, working other peoples rented land for bare sustenance.
Into this mix, came the potato plant, introduced from the new world reportedly by Sir Walter Raleigh a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. The good thing about the potato was that it is a nutritious food, together with milk and butter, provided most vitamins that a family would need. The diet was filling, if not balanced and the Irish learned to make a lot of different dishes from the potato. It was easy to grow and it didn’t take much space to grow. With land at a premium and small parcels the rule, and rents high, you might just barely be able to feed your family with a patch of ground about the size of 2 classrooms. If you raise a pig on the side from the scraps, you could use that to pay the annual rent to the landlord. You could expect 2 crops a year, one in late spring and then one in the fall. The fall crop was the largest and it would have to be big enough to keep a family fed through the cold winter months. The disadvantage of the potato was that it is a delicate crop, the victim of several types of disease, easily damaged by bad weather, and subject to frequent failures. They used only one species of potatoes, called "lumpers" which had all the problems of a monoculture. Potatoes wouldn’t keep also. You couldn’t store potatoes year to year, like you could corn or other grains.
We know now about the danger of relying on a single delicate crop, but at the time it seemed like a blessing. Despite the extreme poverty of the Irish people, the potato provided a decent diet for the first time in many years. With the introduction of a relatively nutritious food, and the relative peace in the early 1800’s, infant mortality improved, and the Irish population boomed to over 8 million people. (Now it is about 4.5 million).
The first word about any trouble with the potato came in spring 1845 when there was news of a “potato blight” in the United States. There was fear that it would cross the ocean when there were reports of a similar blight in Belgium and on the Isle of Wight off England. Soon, reports from all over Ireland mentioned signs of distress with the potato. At first, government officials thought that the problem was local and exaggerated, especially since most potatoes appeared okay when first taken out of the ground. But after a few days of storage became piles of black putrid decaying mush. We know now that the disease was spread by airborne spores, which would attack wet spots on the potato leaves and skin and rapidly destroy a family’s entire annual supply in a few days.
As the year moved on, it became apparent that the failure of the crop was nearly universal in Ireland and that there was going to be general starvation if something wasn’t done. The Prime Minister at the time was Sir Robert Peel. He was no friend to the Irish, but was an efficient and capable statesman, and concluded that the Irish diet had to be supplemented by grain, but this was complicated to do. Corn was an important staple in the English economy, protected by high tariffs. If the government were to buy large quantities of corn in England, it would drive up the price for English consumers; on the other hand, certain tariff laws would need to be repealed if he were to bring in grain from somewhere else. This was not popular with English farmers, who relied on the protectionist tariffs to keep their profits regular. His efforts to repeal the “Corn Laws” nearly got him removed from office, but they were repealed and he was able to order a quantity of maize or “Indian corn” from the United States. They believed that the maize might not interfere so much with the English corn market, since there was already a market for it. Unfortunately, he would have needed to order at least 30 times the amount he bought to cover the need in Ireland.
Peel and his Secretary of the treasury, a man by the name of Charles Trevelyan believed in a philosophy of economics called laissez faire, a belief in government non-interference in private enterprise, commerce. Property rights also trumped all other rights. Peel and Trevelyan planned to use the corn not to feed the Irish directly, but to balance out the market and to force the price of corn low in Ireland so that it might be purchased by the Irish and sold by English vendors. The market, thus adjusted would make sure everyone was taken care of.
The problem with this plan, hatched in London, was that it bore no resemblance to the reality in Ireland, especially in those remote areas in the west of Ireland where the famine was the worst. Ireland had been degraded and so mistreated by England, that parts of the country couldn’t access markets and weren’t even using currency, as they were in a barter economy (trading a pig for rent, for example). There was no way for Ireland to reasonably respond to market forces. Things that made perfect sense in England would not work in Ireland. Furthermore, the English officials were morally opposed to simply give away the grain to starving people; no, they had to work for currency to be used to purchase the grain by doing make-work road building or workhouse projects. Since roads weren’t suppose to give any undue advantage to any particular landowner, crazy roads to nowhere were built, still to be seen today in Ireland.
Furthermore, some of the funding for the program was supposed to come from local landlords, most of which were in bad straights themselves. The most ironic thing about this period of time was that, while people were starving, Ireland was producing enough food to feed itself, but the English landlords had to export food out of the country to meet their own debts and expenses. Food production actually rose during the famine years.
The Indian corn also proved to be another problem. It was harder than regular English corn and required an extra milling to make flour. Once again the places that were struck the most with the crop failure, had relied mostly on the potato, so they didn’t have the infrastructure to even grind the grain. Once people had the grain, they couldn’t grind it finely enough to put it to use. Eating poorly ground grain caused dysentery in people already weak from hunger. The harbors near those places weren’t large enough to accommodate the ships carrying the grain.
Soon all depots for food distribution, workhouses and other accommodations for starving people were overwhelmed.
At about this time, there was a change in government in London. Because of the unpopularity of the repeal of the corn tariff in England, Peel was removed as prime minister and replaced by Lord John Russell. Russell came into power in time for the second annual total failure of the potato crop in 1846. Russell, however, was even more committed to a laissez faire than was Peel. He advocated no additional help for Ireland. Trevelyan, remaining as Treasury secretary believed that famine was brought on by God and that the Irish should simply deal with it themselves. They both believed that market forces and free trade would solve the problem. Instead, we started to see the first massive numbers deaths from starvation in October of ’46.
At first, most deaths came from wasting diseases due to malnutrition: typhus, relapsing fever, dysentery from eating badly prepared corn, seaweed, simply any plant or animal available, scurvy and dropsy. At the peak of the famine in 1847, many deaths were from outright starvation. They still refer to that year as “Black ‘47”.
Tenant farmers, held back as long that they could from eating their livestock. They needed to use that livestock, (possibly a pig) to barter for their rent. As bad as these thatched huts were, wet, cold, dirt floors, one room, smoky, the livestock living with the family, it was particularly horrible to be evicted from these shabby homes and all your belongings put out on the road. The process of eviction happened to thousands of families during this period; people were reduced to living in ditches, starving, no shelter, and no work. Your old cottage was “tumbled” i.e. intentionally destroyed and the roof torn off by the landlord’s agent and the sheriff. The rights of property were absolute, so the landlord could evict you with little notice and for no reason, if they wished, even if you could pay the rent. Some landlords “shoveled- out” i.e. paid for passage oversees for entire groups of tenants on boats bound for the new world called coffin ships. Many landlords took advantage of the famine to clear their land of all tenants to open up the land for grazing cattle or sheep. This was the Marketplace responding to the emergency.
With the government doing little, outside groups responded to the famine. The Quakers set up soup kitchens. There were donations from England, more from overseas from Irish Americans, the Ottoman Empire, and even American Indians. Some religious groups offered soup to people who converted to their particular sect. People scorned those who “took the soup” and changed their religion. They called them the “soupers”…
People were desperate to get out; laws prevented easy emigration to England after the first years of the famine. After a while, none of the ports in North America wanted to take the ships full of sick and dying people. Immigration to Canada was originally easier and cheaper than to the USA because ships bearing timber from Canada could return to North America with hopeless Irish. Canada had their own problem with quarantine centers with ships full of sick people. A small island in the St.Lawrence Seaway called Grosse Isle was the site of over 11 thousand deaths due to ship-born wasting diseases and starvation, because Canadian authorities could not allow them to land in nearby Quebec City.
It was in 1849 when my great-great grandparents, Francis and Ann Doyle brought their children Margaret, Thomas and Patrick from County Wicklow through the port of Cork to America through the port of Baltimore, Maryland. Patrick was my great grandfather. They ended up in Williamstown, PA, north of Harrisburg, where Francis worked in the coalmines. They had 5 more children in the new world before Francis died at age 49.
The famine changed Ireland forever. Besides losing an estimated 25% of the population, entire districts were cleared of people. The famine cut the heart out of the Irish language, Gaelic, as most of the victims were Gaelic speakers. English continues to be the dominant language of Ireland despite government efforts to keep Gaelic alive. Religious expression became much more strict and puritanical and Victorian. Pregnancy outside of marriage could be an economic disaster. People delayed marriage later and later, until the parents died and the oldest son inherited the farm. You ended up with many marriages consisting of late middle age (rather old men) men and very young women. Emigration became a fact of life for all the rest of the children in a typical Irish family, as there were few prospects for them at home. Those who did emigrate formed a ready-made group of people who really hated the English, who knew that Ireland, which was supposed to be part of the United Kingdom, i.e. an important part of the England state, had been abandoned and mistreated grievously. The Irish concluded that there was no way England could be trusted again to support Irish interests unless forced to. Soon, the Irish Republican Brotherhood was started in New York, which lead to more rebellion in Ireland and eventual home rule and separation from England in early the next century. Some have said that bitterness from these oppressive events led Ireland to sit out World War II as a neutral state while England was under attack from Germany.
I’ll end now with a few verses from an old song about the famine:
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
Micheal they are taking you away
For you stole Trevelyn's corn
So the young might see the morn.
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.
Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly.
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Turlough O'Carolan 1670-1738
Toirdhealbhach O'Cearbhallain
Quotes:
'Wider than the heavens is my fame...I am the best as regards the power of my fingers...nobody will ever be found to match me..."
Carolan
'Ludicrous tales delighted him..."
Charles O'Connor
"Est homo qui potest bibere"
(He is a man who is able to drink!)
Jonathan Swift
In Ireland about 300 years ago, there lived a harpist, singer and composer by the name of Turlough 'O Carolan. He was born in West Meath around 1670. When he was eighteen, he caught small pox, a disease which was usually fatal at the time. His life was spared, but he was left permanently blind. Turlough's blindness, in a way, was a blessing because it awakened in him a hidden gift for music. A local noble woman by the name of Mary Fitzgerald McDermott Rowe saw to it that he was trained in the Irish harp, gave him a horse and guide and sent him on his way.
At first, he was not considered a great musician. (The ancient bards were supposed to have started their training when they were still young children and Carolan didn't start until he was an adult.) One of his first patrons, a Squire Reynolds, suggested that he try his hand at composition. His first work, "Si Beag, Si Mor", resulted from this suggestion. After he finished the composition, his fame was spread throughout all of Ireland and he started his career.
The way Carolan made his living, was to travel from big house to big house, from castle to castle, entertaining the households and the friends of some of the most famous and wealthy people of Ireland at the time. Often, as a special favor, he would write a tune in honor of the man of the house, or his wife or daughter. He called these tunes "Planxties". He was very successful and people would often delay weddings and funerals until he could be present to play the appropriate tune.
When Carolan was a very young man, before his blindness, he met and fell in love with a young woman named Bridget Cruise. Bridget was part of a noble family and Carolan's family was of skilled laborers, so a match could never be made. And even though he went on to live a very successful life, he never forgot Bridget and wrote 3 planxties in her honor. He met her again near the end of his life, when he was on his way to a religious retreat in County Donegal. He happened to touch a woman's hand and instantly recognized that it was hers.
Carolan was also famous for his love of drink, especially Irish whiskey. He wrote a tune in honor of whiskey. As he was dying, he called for one last cup of his favorite brew. His dying words were said to be "the drink and I have been friends for so long, it would be a pity for me to leave without one last kiss." And he died.
Dates:
•1601 Battle of Kinsale marks the beginning of the end of Gaelic independence.
•1607 Flight of the Earls.
•1670 Carolan born near Nobber in County Meath.
•1684 His father John Carolan and family move west to County Leitrim.
•1688 Blinded by smallpox.
•1690 Battle of the Boyne, July 1.
•1692 He starts his public life as a traveling harper.
•1695 Introduction of the Penal Laws.
•1720 He marries Mary Maguire. She was a "young lady". He was 50. They had seven children; one boy and six girls. They lived in Mohill, County Leitrim.
•1733 Mary passes away.
•1738 Carolan passes away on March 25 (Saturday) at 68 years of age at the MacDermott Roe Estate, "Alderford" in County Roscommon and is buried with much ceremony in the church yard of Kilronan.
As a man he was:
-conscious of his position, convivial, high spirited, a serious drinker, irascible, proud, a teacher, a lover of ludicrous tales, a quick wit, a composer for Gael and Gall, a clever versifier, a skilled satirist, a flirt, and a liturgical musician.
His poetry was:
-secondary to the music, mostly in Irish, dignified and polished, described men and respectable women and their ancestry, hospitality and kindness (traditional court themes), had a cheerful and "carpe diem" attitude, is characterized by internal consonant and vowel rhyme and assonance of stressed vowels.
His poetry
translations by Dennis Doyle
Ode to Whiskey
A h- uisci chroidhe na n-anamann!
Leagan tú ar la'r me',
Bim gan chéill, gan aithne,
'Sé an t-eachrann do b'fhearr liom.
BÃonn mo chóta stracaighthe,
Agus caillim leat mo charabhat,
Is bÃodh a ndéarnais maith leat,
Acht teangmhaigh liom amárach!
translation:
O Whiskey, heart of my soul!
You always knock me down.
I'm without sense, I don't know where I am!
You'd think that I'd take the warning.
My coat is all torn up and
I lost my cravat because of you.
But let all you've done be forgiven,
So long as you meet me again tomorrow!
Miss Featherston (Carolan's Devotion)
Originally in English:
On a fair Sunday morning devoted to be
Attentive to a sermon that was ordered for me,
I met a fresh rose on the road by decree,
And though Mass was my notion, my devotion was she
Welcome, fare Lily, white and red,
Welcome was every word that we said,
Welcome bright angel of noble degree.
I wish you would love and that I were with thee,
(I pray don't frown at me with mouth or eye.)
So I told the fair maiden with heart full of glee,
Though Mass was my notion, my devotion was she.
Planxty Fanny Power (Mrs. Trench)
(Bean an Trinsigh)
Is mian liom labhairt ar óig-mhaol shuairc.
Is uaisle geanúla gnaol agus cáil,
Do bhios insa mbaile tá ag cuan Loch Riabhach
Táim buioch nar casadh mé laimh léi.
Is aerach is tréitheach an mhaighdean bhreá scafánta
Grá chroà na héireann an péarla deas galanta
ïOlaidh go tréan is ná déanaigi failli,
Faoi thuairim Fainà nion Dáibhi.
Siúd à an eala tá ag taobh a' chuain
Na sluaite fear dul in éag dá grá
'S à Faini deas geanúll na ndlaoi is na ndual
Fuar bua go minic le haille.
Nár fhága mé an saol ó go mbi mé go ceannasach
A' damhsa go h'aerach is mé ar do bhainis sé
Fógraim an té sin a d'iarrfadh aon spré leat,
A phéarla leanbh na mbán ghlac.
translation:
I wish to speak of a gracious young lady,
A loveable lady of beauty and reputation,
Who lives in the town near the bay of Loch Riabhach.
I'm thankful that I had the chance to meet her.
She's lively, airy, - a cultured fine maiden,
The love of all Ireland and a nice cultured pearl.
O drink up now and don't be slack!
To Fanny, the daughter of David.
She is the swan at the edge of the bay,
Crowds of men are dying for her love.
She's nice gentle Fanny of locks and braids,
Who often gets the prize for beauty.
May I not leave this world, if I may be so bold,
Unless I can first cheerfully dance at your wedding feast.
I challenge the one who would ever ask a dowry for you,
O Pearl-Child of white hands.
pictures here of O'Carolan sites
Quotes:
'Wider than the heavens is my fame...I am the best as regards the power of my fingers...nobody will ever be found to match me..."
Carolan
'Ludicrous tales delighted him..."
Charles O'Connor
"Est homo qui potest bibere"
(He is a man who is able to drink!)
Jonathan Swift
In Ireland about 300 years ago, there lived a harpist, singer and composer by the name of Turlough 'O Carolan. He was born in West Meath around 1670. When he was eighteen, he caught small pox, a disease which was usually fatal at the time. His life was spared, but he was left permanently blind. Turlough's blindness, in a way, was a blessing because it awakened in him a hidden gift for music. A local noble woman by the name of Mary Fitzgerald McDermott Rowe saw to it that he was trained in the Irish harp, gave him a horse and guide and sent him on his way.
At first, he was not considered a great musician. (The ancient bards were supposed to have started their training when they were still young children and Carolan didn't start until he was an adult.) One of his first patrons, a Squire Reynolds, suggested that he try his hand at composition. His first work, "Si Beag, Si Mor", resulted from this suggestion. After he finished the composition, his fame was spread throughout all of Ireland and he started his career.
The way Carolan made his living, was to travel from big house to big house, from castle to castle, entertaining the households and the friends of some of the most famous and wealthy people of Ireland at the time. Often, as a special favor, he would write a tune in honor of the man of the house, or his wife or daughter. He called these tunes "Planxties". He was very successful and people would often delay weddings and funerals until he could be present to play the appropriate tune.
When Carolan was a very young man, before his blindness, he met and fell in love with a young woman named Bridget Cruise. Bridget was part of a noble family and Carolan's family was of skilled laborers, so a match could never be made. And even though he went on to live a very successful life, he never forgot Bridget and wrote 3 planxties in her honor. He met her again near the end of his life, when he was on his way to a religious retreat in County Donegal. He happened to touch a woman's hand and instantly recognized that it was hers.
Carolan was also famous for his love of drink, especially Irish whiskey. He wrote a tune in honor of whiskey. As he was dying, he called for one last cup of his favorite brew. His dying words were said to be "the drink and I have been friends for so long, it would be a pity for me to leave without one last kiss." And he died.
Dates:
•1601 Battle of Kinsale marks the beginning of the end of Gaelic independence.
•1607 Flight of the Earls.
•1670 Carolan born near Nobber in County Meath.
•1684 His father John Carolan and family move west to County Leitrim.
•1688 Blinded by smallpox.
•1690 Battle of the Boyne, July 1.
•1692 He starts his public life as a traveling harper.
•1695 Introduction of the Penal Laws.
•1720 He marries Mary Maguire. She was a "young lady". He was 50. They had seven children; one boy and six girls. They lived in Mohill, County Leitrim.
•1733 Mary passes away.
•1738 Carolan passes away on March 25 (Saturday) at 68 years of age at the MacDermott Roe Estate, "Alderford" in County Roscommon and is buried with much ceremony in the church yard of Kilronan.
As a man he was:
-conscious of his position, convivial, high spirited, a serious drinker, irascible, proud, a teacher, a lover of ludicrous tales, a quick wit, a composer for Gael and Gall, a clever versifier, a skilled satirist, a flirt, and a liturgical musician.
His poetry was:
-secondary to the music, mostly in Irish, dignified and polished, described men and respectable women and their ancestry, hospitality and kindness (traditional court themes), had a cheerful and "carpe diem" attitude, is characterized by internal consonant and vowel rhyme and assonance of stressed vowels.
His poetry
translations by Dennis Doyle
Ode to Whiskey
A h- uisci chroidhe na n-anamann!
Leagan tú ar la'r me',
Bim gan chéill, gan aithne,
'Sé an t-eachrann do b'fhearr liom.
BÃonn mo chóta stracaighthe,
Agus caillim leat mo charabhat,
Is bÃodh a ndéarnais maith leat,
Acht teangmhaigh liom amárach!
translation:
O Whiskey, heart of my soul!
You always knock me down.
I'm without sense, I don't know where I am!
You'd think that I'd take the warning.
My coat is all torn up and
I lost my cravat because of you.
But let all you've done be forgiven,
So long as you meet me again tomorrow!
Miss Featherston (Carolan's Devotion)
Originally in English:
On a fair Sunday morning devoted to be
Attentive to a sermon that was ordered for me,
I met a fresh rose on the road by decree,
And though Mass was my notion, my devotion was she
Welcome, fare Lily, white and red,
Welcome was every word that we said,
Welcome bright angel of noble degree.
I wish you would love and that I were with thee,
(I pray don't frown at me with mouth or eye.)
So I told the fair maiden with heart full of glee,
Though Mass was my notion, my devotion was she.
Planxty Fanny Power (Mrs. Trench)
(Bean an Trinsigh)
Is mian liom labhairt ar óig-mhaol shuairc.
Is uaisle geanúla gnaol agus cáil,
Do bhios insa mbaile tá ag cuan Loch Riabhach
Táim buioch nar casadh mé laimh léi.
Is aerach is tréitheach an mhaighdean bhreá scafánta
Grá chroà na héireann an péarla deas galanta
ïOlaidh go tréan is ná déanaigi failli,
Faoi thuairim Fainà nion Dáibhi.
Siúd à an eala tá ag taobh a' chuain
Na sluaite fear dul in éag dá grá
'S à Faini deas geanúll na ndlaoi is na ndual
Fuar bua go minic le haille.
Nár fhága mé an saol ó go mbi mé go ceannasach
A' damhsa go h'aerach is mé ar do bhainis sé
Fógraim an té sin a d'iarrfadh aon spré leat,
A phéarla leanbh na mbán ghlac.
translation:
I wish to speak of a gracious young lady,
A loveable lady of beauty and reputation,
Who lives in the town near the bay of Loch Riabhach.
I'm thankful that I had the chance to meet her.
She's lively, airy, - a cultured fine maiden,
The love of all Ireland and a nice cultured pearl.
O drink up now and don't be slack!
To Fanny, the daughter of David.
She is the swan at the edge of the bay,
Crowds of men are dying for her love.
She's nice gentle Fanny of locks and braids,
Who often gets the prize for beauty.
May I not leave this world, if I may be so bold,
Unless I can first cheerfully dance at your wedding feast.
I challenge the one who would ever ask a dowry for you,
O Pearl-Child of white hands.
pictures here of O'Carolan sites
Monday, November 2, 2009
Mo Ghile Mear - A Jacobite Song
Sé mo laoch mo Ghile Mear
‘Sé mo Chaesar, Ghile Mear,
Suan ná séan nà bhfuaireas féin
Ó chuaigh i gcéin mo Ghile Mear.
He's my champion my Gallant Darling, he's my Caesar, a Gallant Darling, I've found neither rest nor fortune since my Gallant Darling went far away.
BÃmse buan ar buairt gach ló,
Ag caoi go cruaidh ‘s ag tuar na ndeór
Mar scaoileadh uaim an buachaill beó
‘S ná rÃomhtar tuairisc uaidh, mo bhrón.
Every day I'm constantly enduring grief,weeping bitterly and shedding tears,because my lively lad has left me and no news is told of him - alas (my sorrow!).
Ni haoibhinn cuach ba suairc ar ndeoin
Taid fiorchaoin uasal ar uaithne sport,
Taid saoite suaite i mhuairt 's i mbron
O scaoileadh uainn an buachaill beo.
The cuckoo sings not pleasantly at noon, the gentry do not enjoy their sport, the wise and learned are in sorrow and mourning, Since he went away from me, my lively boy
writen by the 18th century poet Sean Clarach MacDomhnail. It is one of many Irish Jacobite songs written in honour of Prince Charles Stewart, who was known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie".
‘Sé mo Chaesar, Ghile Mear,
Suan ná séan nà bhfuaireas féin
Ó chuaigh i gcéin mo Ghile Mear.
He's my champion my Gallant Darling, he's my Caesar, a Gallant Darling, I've found neither rest nor fortune since my Gallant Darling went far away.
BÃmse buan ar buairt gach ló,
Ag caoi go cruaidh ‘s ag tuar na ndeór
Mar scaoileadh uaim an buachaill beó
‘S ná rÃomhtar tuairisc uaidh, mo bhrón.
Every day I'm constantly enduring grief,weeping bitterly and shedding tears,because my lively lad has left me and no news is told of him - alas (my sorrow!).
Ni haoibhinn cuach ba suairc ar ndeoin
Taid fiorchaoin uasal ar uaithne sport,
Taid saoite suaite i mhuairt 's i mbron
O scaoileadh uainn an buachaill beo.
The cuckoo sings not pleasantly at noon, the gentry do not enjoy their sport, the wise and learned are in sorrow and mourning, Since he went away from me, my lively boy
writen by the 18th century poet Sean Clarach MacDomhnail. It is one of many Irish Jacobite songs written in honour of Prince Charles Stewart, who was known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie".
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Red-haired Man's Wife
The Red-haired Man's Wife
Ye muses divine, combine and lend me your aid
To pen these few lines for I find my heart is betrayed
By a maiden most fair, who was dear unto me as my life,
But from me she has flown and is known as the red-haired man's wife.
I straight took my way next day through a shady green grove,
And crossed hurling streams, where sweet birds mostly do rove
In the glade of a shade where nature displays her delight
I stood all amazed - and gazed on the red-haired man's wife.
I remember the day that I gave to you my true heart,
When you solemnly swore that no more we ever would part
But your mind's like the ocean, each notion has taken her flight
And leaves me alone to moan for the red-haired man's wife.
A letter I sent by a friend down to the sea-shore,
To let her understand I'm the man that does her adore,
And if she would but leave that slave I'd forfeit my life,
She'd live like a lady and ne'er be the red-haired man's wife.
I offered a favour and sealed it with my own hand,
She thus answered, instead - would you lead me to break a command
Please sir, be easy - let nature not cause so much strife
I was given away - and will stay as the red-haired man's wife.
Ye muses divine, combine and lend me your aid
To pen these few lines for I find my heart is betrayed
By a maiden most fair, who was dear unto me as my life,
But from me she has flown and is known as the red-haired man's wife.
I straight took my way next day through a shady green grove,
And crossed hurling streams, where sweet birds mostly do rove
In the glade of a shade where nature displays her delight
I stood all amazed - and gazed on the red-haired man's wife.
I remember the day that I gave to you my true heart,
When you solemnly swore that no more we ever would part
But your mind's like the ocean, each notion has taken her flight
And leaves me alone to moan for the red-haired man's wife.
A letter I sent by a friend down to the sea-shore,
To let her understand I'm the man that does her adore,
And if she would but leave that slave I'd forfeit my life,
She'd live like a lady and ne'er be the red-haired man's wife.
I offered a favour and sealed it with my own hand,
She thus answered, instead - would you lead me to break a command
Please sir, be easy - let nature not cause so much strife
I was given away - and will stay as the red-haired man's wife.
U2 World Wide Broadcast of the Rose Bowl Concert
U2 World Wide Broadcast of the Rose Bowl Concert
Yes, they are Irish musicians also.....
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A Refutation of Cambrensis by Geoffrey Keating
Cambrensis says, in his ninth chapter, that in Ireland the men used to marry the wives who had been married to their brothers, upon the death of their brothers: and he says that the tithe used not to be paid in Ireland, and that there was no regard for marriage there till the coming of Cardinal John Papiron; this, however, is not true for him, as we shall prove in the body of the history, and as will be evident from this same introduction shortly hereafter. He says, in his seventh chapter, where he treats of the wonders of Ireland, that there is a well in Munster which presently makes a man grey when he washes his hair or his beard in its water, and that there is likewise a well in Ulster which prevents greyness. Howbeit, there are not the like of these wells in Ireland now, and I do not think there were in the time of Cambrensis, but these wonders were (merely) set forth as a colouring for his lies.
Cambrensis says, in his twenty-second chapter, that whenever the nobles of Ireland are making a compact with each other, in presence of a bishop, they kiss at that time a relic of some saint, and that they drink each others blood, and at that same time they are ready to perpetrate any treachery on each other. My answer to him here (is), that there is not a lay nor a letter, of old record or of ancient text, chronicle or annals, supporting him in this lie: and, moreover, it is evident that it was obligatory on the antiquaries not to conceal the like of this evil custom, and even to put it in (their) manuscript on pain of losing their professorship, if it had been practised in Ireland. Wherefore it is clear that it is a lie Cambrensis has uttered here. Cambrensis says, in his tenth chapter, that the Irish are an inhospitable nation here is what he says:— Moreover, this nation is an inhospitable nation {Est autem gens haec, gens inhospita.}’’(says he). However, I think Stanihurst sufficient in his history by way of reply to him in this matter; here is what he says, speaking of the generosity of the Irish:—Verily (he says), they are a most hospitable people; and there is no greater degree in which you may earn their gratitude, than freely, and of your own will, to make your resort to their houses. {Sunt sane homines hospitalissimi, neque illis ulla in re magis gratificari potes, quam vel sponte ac voluntate eorum domos frequentare.}’’
Hence it may be inferred, without leave of Cambrensis, that they are hospitable people, (and) truly generous in regard to food. ...
Again, he says, in the twenty-fifth chapter of his narration concerning Ireland, that the king of Cinéal Conaill, i.e.
O'Donnell, used to be inaugurated in this wise: an assembly being made of the people of his country on a high hill in his territory, a white mare being slain, and being put to boil in a large pot in the centre of the field, and, on her being boiled, he to drink up her broth like a hound or a beagle with his mouth, and to eat the flesh out of his hands without having a knife or any instrument for cutting it, and that he would divide the rest of the flesh among the assembly, and then bathe himself in the broth. It is manifest that this thing Cambrensis tells is false, according to the ancient record of Ireland, for it is thus it describes the mode in which O'Donnell was proclaimed, to wit, by his being seated in the midst of the nobles and of the council of his own territory; and a chief of the nobility of his district used to stand before him with a straight white wand in his hand, and on presenting it to the king of Cinéal Conaill, it is this he would say to him, to receive the headship of his own country, and to maintain right and equity between each division of his country: and, wherefore the wand was appointed to be straight and white, was to remind him that so ought he to be just in his administration, and pure and upright in his actions. I marvel at Cambrensis reporting this lie, and I conceive that it was through malice he inserted it in his work. For it is well known that they have been at all times devout and religious people; and that many of them forsook the world, and finished their lives under religious rule, and, moreover, that from them came many saints, such as Columcille, Baoithin, Adhamnan, and many other saints whom we shall not mention here. Besides, it is not credible that the nobility of Ireland would permit the king of Cinéal Conaill to have in use that barbarous custom which Cambrensis mentions, seeing that the Catholic religion has lived among them from the time of Patrick to the Norman invasion, and, accordingly, I consider that it is a malicious unwarranted lie Cambrensis has uttered here.
Cambrensis says, in his twenty-second chapter, that whenever the nobles of Ireland are making a compact with each other, in presence of a bishop, they kiss at that time a relic of some saint, and that they drink each others blood, and at that same time they are ready to perpetrate any treachery on each other. My answer to him here (is), that there is not a lay nor a letter, of old record or of ancient text, chronicle or annals, supporting him in this lie: and, moreover, it is evident that it was obligatory on the antiquaries not to conceal the like of this evil custom, and even to put it in (their) manuscript on pain of losing their professorship, if it had been practised in Ireland. Wherefore it is clear that it is a lie Cambrensis has uttered here. Cambrensis says, in his tenth chapter, that the Irish are an inhospitable nation here is what he says:— Moreover, this nation is an inhospitable nation {Est autem gens haec, gens inhospita.}’’(says he). However, I think Stanihurst sufficient in his history by way of reply to him in this matter; here is what he says, speaking of the generosity of the Irish:—Verily (he says), they are a most hospitable people; and there is no greater degree in which you may earn their gratitude, than freely, and of your own will, to make your resort to their houses. {Sunt sane homines hospitalissimi, neque illis ulla in re magis gratificari potes, quam vel sponte ac voluntate eorum domos frequentare.}’’
Hence it may be inferred, without leave of Cambrensis, that they are hospitable people, (and) truly generous in regard to food. ...
Again, he says, in the twenty-fifth chapter of his narration concerning Ireland, that the king of Cinéal Conaill, i.e.
O'Donnell, used to be inaugurated in this wise: an assembly being made of the people of his country on a high hill in his territory, a white mare being slain, and being put to boil in a large pot in the centre of the field, and, on her being boiled, he to drink up her broth like a hound or a beagle with his mouth, and to eat the flesh out of his hands without having a knife or any instrument for cutting it, and that he would divide the rest of the flesh among the assembly, and then bathe himself in the broth. It is manifest that this thing Cambrensis tells is false, according to the ancient record of Ireland, for it is thus it describes the mode in which O'Donnell was proclaimed, to wit, by his being seated in the midst of the nobles and of the council of his own territory; and a chief of the nobility of his district used to stand before him with a straight white wand in his hand, and on presenting it to the king of Cinéal Conaill, it is this he would say to him, to receive the headship of his own country, and to maintain right and equity between each division of his country: and, wherefore the wand was appointed to be straight and white, was to remind him that so ought he to be just in his administration, and pure and upright in his actions. I marvel at Cambrensis reporting this lie, and I conceive that it was through malice he inserted it in his work. For it is well known that they have been at all times devout and religious people; and that many of them forsook the world, and finished their lives under religious rule, and, moreover, that from them came many saints, such as Columcille, Baoithin, Adhamnan, and many other saints whom we shall not mention here. Besides, it is not credible that the nobility of Ireland would permit the king of Cinéal Conaill to have in use that barbarous custom which Cambrensis mentions, seeing that the Catholic religion has lived among them from the time of Patrick to the Norman invasion, and, accordingly, I consider that it is a malicious unwarranted lie Cambrensis has uttered here.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Halloween Customs
Halloween Customs
by Dennis Doyle
Although the word "Halloween" comes from the words "All Hallow's Eve", literally the evening before the "Feast of All Saints", the celebration of this night and many of the practices pre-date Christianity. For centuries, the night before November 1st marked the begining of the pagan Celtic New Year and the official beginning of the dark half of the year, called "Samhain" (pronounced sow-wen). The druids would offer sacrifices on this night. In Irish Gaelic, it is still called "OÃche Shamhna" (pronounced "ee-hah how-nah") or "Samhain Night".
In the Celtic lands of Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man, the spirit world was never very far from everyday life. The Celts believed that spirits both benign and malignant were in intimate contact with regular people. Each family had it's own "Banshee" (fairy woman) who would appear occasionally to family members to announce an impending death. When Christianity came to the Celts, this same sense of closeness between the spirit and regular life became a feature of Celtic Christianity. God and Mary and the saints were always a hovering, helping presence in Celtic spirituality, but the trickster fairy folk, the Sidhe (pronounced shee), the leprechaun, the pookas, and the banshee still also remained at hand.
Never was this mischievous element in the spirit world closer to the people than on the eve of Samhain. The doors were wide open to the spirit world and spirits were on the road and in the lonely dark places that night. Holy water was sprinkled on farm animals to protect them. Hollowed-out turnips or gourds with candles inside were made into makeshift lanterns to help light the way of the spirits back to where they came from. There are stories of people who lost their way on this night, and found themselves among the fairies. It was said that when this happened, they heard beautiful music and were offered delicious food and drink. When they left the fairies a few hours later and got back to the real world, they find out that they've really been away for years.
In Ireland, it is a custom to bake a ring into a loaf of barnbrack bread, and the person who finds the ring would soon be married. Dunking for apples and coins was a portent for success in achieving wealth. Some would wear outlandish costumes masquerading as the souls of the dead. The traditions of Halloween which we celebrate in this country were brought here by Irish and Scottish immigrants who lived these Celtic customs.
GLOSSARY
All Hallows Eve: evening of the Catholic celebration of All Saint's Day, "hallowed" means "holy" or sacred
banshee: the dead spirit of a family member who appears when someone else in the family is about to die
barnbrack bread: a type of fruit cake
benign: likely to be good
Celt, Celtic: a tribal nomadic barbaric peoples who originally lived in central Europe and who eventually settled in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Britany, Cornwell and parts of Spain.
druids: a Celtic priesthood
dunking: dipping your head in water to catch a piece of fruit or a prize with your teeth while holding your breath
fairies, the Sidhe: supernatural creatures who are immortal and have special other-worldly powers
gourd: the dried shell of a pumpkin or squash
hallows, hallowed: an older version of the word "holy" as in "Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name."
hollowed-out: made empty inside
holy water: water blessed by a Catholic priest for use in religious rituals of baptism or for protection
hovering: hanging over a thing in the air
intimate: very close
Irish Gaelic: the native language of the Irish people
leprechaun: a short mischievous spirit, an elf
makeshift: made quickly of stuff which is laying around, hence, temporary
malignant: likely to be bad or evil
masquerading: in costume, in disguise
"mischievous element": supernatural trouble-makers
outlandish: wild, makeshift, incredible, disordered
pagan: not Christian, refering to the preChristian nature religions.
pooka: a wild devil spirit which often takes the form of a wild goat
portent: a mysterious sign foretelling an important event
Samhain: November 1, the Celtic new year pronounced (sou'-whan)
trickster: one who likes to trick people or cause inconvenient trouble
Local irish Dance Competition on October 24-25
October 24-25 - Orange County Feis, Doubletree Hotel Anaheim, 100 The City Drive, Orange, CA. http://www.fearon-oconnor.com/feis.orange.county.php .
More information about Irish Dance is at: http://www.feisworx.com/feisinfo.php.
More information about Irish Dance is at: http://www.feisworx.com/feisinfo.php.
The Pogues at the Club Nokia Saturday October 17
Legendary Irish band the Pogues put a politically charged punk spin on traditional tunes, making it one of the most revered bands of the '80s. With lead singer Shane MacGowan at the helm, who is largely responsible for novel-length bar tabs after each show, Pogues fans have come to expect the unexpected whenever the band takes a stage. Club Nokia, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Sat. (213) 765-7000. www.clubnokia.com.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Gerald of Wales - Giraldus Cambrensis
Gerald of Wales, History and topography of Ireland, ed. John J. O’Meara (London 1982),
fragments of pp 100-110
‘I have thought it not superfluous to say a few things about the nature of this people both in mind and body, that is to say, of their mental and physical characteristics…
Irish Dress
Although they are fully endowed with natural gifts, their external characteristics of beard and dress, and internal cultivation of the mind, are so barbarous that they cannot be said to have any culture. They use very little wool in their dress and that itself nearly always black – because the sheep of that country are black – and made up in a barbarous fashion. For they wear little hoods, close-fitting and stretched across the shoulders and down to a length of about eighteen to twenty-two inches, and generally sewn together from cloths of various kinds, Under these they wear mantles instead of cloaks. They also use woollen trousers that are at the same time boots, or boots that are at the same time trousers, and these are for the most part dyed.
Battle Customs
When they are riding, they do not use saddles or leggings or spurs… Moreover, they go naked and unarmed into battle. They regard weapons as a burden, and they think it brave and honourable to fight unarmed. They use, however, three types of weapons – short spears, two darts … and big axes well and carefully forged, which they have taken over from the Norwegians and the Ostmen…They are quicker and more expert than any other people in throwing, when everything else fails, stones as missiles, and such stones do great damage to the enemy in an engagement.
Husbandry
They are a wild and inhospitable people. The live on beast only, and live like beasts. They have not progressed at all from the primitive habits of pastoral living. While man usually progresses from the woods to the fields, and from fields to settlements and communities of citizens, this people despises work on the land, has little use for the money-making of towns, contemns the rights and privileges of citizenship, and desires neither to abandon, nor lose respect for, the life which it has been accustomed to lead in the woods and countryside.
They use the fields generally as pasture, but pasture in poor condition. Little is cultivated, and even less sown. The fields cultivated are so few because of the neglect of those who should cultivate them. But many of them are naturally very fertile and productive. The wealth of the soil is lost, not through the fault of the soil, but because there are no farmers to cultivate even the best land: ‘the fields demand, but there are no hands.’ How few kinds of fruit-bearing trees are grown here! The nature of the soil is not to be blamed, but rather the want of industry on the part of the cultivator. He is too lazy to plant the foreign types of trees that would grow very well here.
Mineral Wealth
The different types of minerals, too, with which the hidden veins of the earth are full, are not mined or put to any use, precisely because of the same laziness. Even gold, of which they are very desirous – just like the Spaniards – and which they would like to have in abundance, is brought here by traders that search the ocean for gain.
Industry
They do not devote their lives to the processing of flax or wool, or to any kind of merchandise or mechanical art. For given only to leisure, and devoted only to laziness, they think that the greatest pleasure is not to work, and the greatest wealth is to enjoy liberty.
Behavior
This people is, then, a barbarous people, literally barbarous. Judged according to modern ideas, they are uncultivated, not only in the external appearance of their dress, but also in their flowing hair and beards. All their habits are the habits of barbarians. Since conventions are formed from living together in society, and since they are so removed in these distant parts from the ordinary world of men, as if they were in another world altogether and consequently cut off from well-behaved and law-abiding people, they know only of the barbarous habits in which they were born and brought up, and embrace them as another nature. Their natural qualities are excellent. But almost everything acquired is deplorable…
This is a filthy people, wallowing in vice. Of all peoples, it is the least instructed in the rudiments of the Faith. They do not yet pay tithes or first fruits or contract marriages. They do not avoid incest. They do not attend God’s church with due reverence. Moreover, and this is surely a detestable thing, and contrary not only to the Faith but to any feeling of honour – men in many places in Ireland, I shall not say marry, but rather debauch, the wives of their dead brothers. They abuse them in having such evil and incestuous relations with them…
Moreover, above all other peoples they always practise treachery. When they give their word to anyone, they do not keep it. They do not blush or fear to violate every day the bond of their pledge and oath given to others – although they are very keen that it should be observed with regard to themselves. When you have employed every safeguard and used every precaution for your own safety and security, both by means of oaths and hostages, and friendships firmly cemented, and all kinds of benefits conferred, then you must be especially on your guard, because then especially their malice seeks a chance…
From an old and evil custom they always carry an axe in their hand as if it were a staff. In this way, if they have a feeling for any evil, they can the more quickly give it effect. Wherever they go they drag this along with them. When they see the opportunity, and the occasion presents itself, this weapon has not to be unsheathed as a sword, or bent as a bow, or poised as a spear. Without further preparation, beyond being raised a little, it inflicts a mortal blow. At hand, or rather, in the hand and ever ready is that which is enough to cause death…
Crowning an Irish King
Woe to brothers among a barbarous people! Woe to kinsmen! When they are alive they are relentlessly driven to death. When they are dead and gone, vengeance is demanded for them. If this people has any love or loyalty, it is kept only for foster children and foster brothers… There is in the northern and farther part of Ulster, namely in Kenelcunill, a certain people which is accustomed to appoint its king with a rite altogether outlandish and abominable. When the whole people of that land has been gathered together in one place, a white mare is brought forward into the middle of the assembly. He who is to be inaugurated, not as a chief, but as a beast, not as a king, but as an outlaw, has bestial intercourse with her before all, professing himself to be a beast also. The mare is then killed immediately, cut up in pieces, and boiled in water. A bath is prepared for the man afterwards in the same water. He sits in the bath surrounded by all his people, and all, he and they, eat of the meat of the mare, which is brought to them. He quaffs and drinks of the broth in which he is bathed, not in any cup, or using his hand, but just dipping his mouth into it round about him. When this unrighteous rite has been carried out, his kingship and dominion have been conferred.’
Musical Ability
I find among these people commendable diligence only on musical instruments, on which they are incomparably more skilled than any nation I have seen. Their style is not, as on the British instruments to which we are accustomed, deliberate and solem but quick and lively; nevertheless the sound is smooth and pleasant.
It is remarkable that, with such rapid fingerwork, the musical rhythm is maintained and that, by unfailingly disciplined art, the integrity of the tune is fully preserved throughout the ornate rhythms and the profusely intricate polyphony—and with such smooth rapidity, such 'unequal equality', such 'discordant concord'. Whether the strings strike together a fourth or a fifth, [the players] nevertheless always start from B flat and return to the same, so that everything is rounded off in a pleasant general sonority. They introduce and leave rhythmic motifs so subtly, they play the tinkling sounds on the thinner strings above the sustained sound of the thicker string so freely, they take such secret delight and caress [the strings] so sensuously, that the greatest part of their art seems to lie in veiling it, as if 'That which is concealed is bettered—art revealed is art shamed'.
Thus it happens that those things which bring private and ineffable delight to people of subtle appreciation and sharp discernment, burden rather than delight the ears of those who, in spite of looking do not see and in spite of hearing do not understand; to unwilling listeners, fastidious things appear tedious and have a confused and disordered sound.
One must note that both Scotland and Wales, the latter by virtue of extension, the former by affinity and intercourse, depend on teaching to imitate and rival Ireland in musical practice. Ireland uses and delights in two instruments only, the cithara (likely a harp) and the tympanum (perhaps a hammer dulcimer). Scotland uses three, the cithara, the tympanum and the chorus. Wales uses the cithara, tibiae (whistles, flutes) and chorus. Also, they use strings made of brass not of leather. However, in the opinion of many, Scotland today not only equals Ireland, her mistress, but also by far outdoes and surpasses her in musical skill. Hence many people already look there as though to the source of the art.
fragments of pp 100-110
‘I have thought it not superfluous to say a few things about the nature of this people both in mind and body, that is to say, of their mental and physical characteristics…
Irish Dress
Although they are fully endowed with natural gifts, their external characteristics of beard and dress, and internal cultivation of the mind, are so barbarous that they cannot be said to have any culture. They use very little wool in their dress and that itself nearly always black – because the sheep of that country are black – and made up in a barbarous fashion. For they wear little hoods, close-fitting and stretched across the shoulders and down to a length of about eighteen to twenty-two inches, and generally sewn together from cloths of various kinds, Under these they wear mantles instead of cloaks. They also use woollen trousers that are at the same time boots, or boots that are at the same time trousers, and these are for the most part dyed.
Battle Customs
When they are riding, they do not use saddles or leggings or spurs… Moreover, they go naked and unarmed into battle. They regard weapons as a burden, and they think it brave and honourable to fight unarmed. They use, however, three types of weapons – short spears, two darts … and big axes well and carefully forged, which they have taken over from the Norwegians and the Ostmen…They are quicker and more expert than any other people in throwing, when everything else fails, stones as missiles, and such stones do great damage to the enemy in an engagement.
Husbandry
They are a wild and inhospitable people. The live on beast only, and live like beasts. They have not progressed at all from the primitive habits of pastoral living. While man usually progresses from the woods to the fields, and from fields to settlements and communities of citizens, this people despises work on the land, has little use for the money-making of towns, contemns the rights and privileges of citizenship, and desires neither to abandon, nor lose respect for, the life which it has been accustomed to lead in the woods and countryside.
They use the fields generally as pasture, but pasture in poor condition. Little is cultivated, and even less sown. The fields cultivated are so few because of the neglect of those who should cultivate them. But many of them are naturally very fertile and productive. The wealth of the soil is lost, not through the fault of the soil, but because there are no farmers to cultivate even the best land: ‘the fields demand, but there are no hands.’ How few kinds of fruit-bearing trees are grown here! The nature of the soil is not to be blamed, but rather the want of industry on the part of the cultivator. He is too lazy to plant the foreign types of trees that would grow very well here.
Mineral Wealth
The different types of minerals, too, with which the hidden veins of the earth are full, are not mined or put to any use, precisely because of the same laziness. Even gold, of which they are very desirous – just like the Spaniards – and which they would like to have in abundance, is brought here by traders that search the ocean for gain.
Industry
They do not devote their lives to the processing of flax or wool, or to any kind of merchandise or mechanical art. For given only to leisure, and devoted only to laziness, they think that the greatest pleasure is not to work, and the greatest wealth is to enjoy liberty.
Behavior
This people is, then, a barbarous people, literally barbarous. Judged according to modern ideas, they are uncultivated, not only in the external appearance of their dress, but also in their flowing hair and beards. All their habits are the habits of barbarians. Since conventions are formed from living together in society, and since they are so removed in these distant parts from the ordinary world of men, as if they were in another world altogether and consequently cut off from well-behaved and law-abiding people, they know only of the barbarous habits in which they were born and brought up, and embrace them as another nature. Their natural qualities are excellent. But almost everything acquired is deplorable…
This is a filthy people, wallowing in vice. Of all peoples, it is the least instructed in the rudiments of the Faith. They do not yet pay tithes or first fruits or contract marriages. They do not avoid incest. They do not attend God’s church with due reverence. Moreover, and this is surely a detestable thing, and contrary not only to the Faith but to any feeling of honour – men in many places in Ireland, I shall not say marry, but rather debauch, the wives of their dead brothers. They abuse them in having such evil and incestuous relations with them…
Moreover, above all other peoples they always practise treachery. When they give their word to anyone, they do not keep it. They do not blush or fear to violate every day the bond of their pledge and oath given to others – although they are very keen that it should be observed with regard to themselves. When you have employed every safeguard and used every precaution for your own safety and security, both by means of oaths and hostages, and friendships firmly cemented, and all kinds of benefits conferred, then you must be especially on your guard, because then especially their malice seeks a chance…
From an old and evil custom they always carry an axe in their hand as if it were a staff. In this way, if they have a feeling for any evil, they can the more quickly give it effect. Wherever they go they drag this along with them. When they see the opportunity, and the occasion presents itself, this weapon has not to be unsheathed as a sword, or bent as a bow, or poised as a spear. Without further preparation, beyond being raised a little, it inflicts a mortal blow. At hand, or rather, in the hand and ever ready is that which is enough to cause death…
Crowning an Irish King
Woe to brothers among a barbarous people! Woe to kinsmen! When they are alive they are relentlessly driven to death. When they are dead and gone, vengeance is demanded for them. If this people has any love or loyalty, it is kept only for foster children and foster brothers… There is in the northern and farther part of Ulster, namely in Kenelcunill, a certain people which is accustomed to appoint its king with a rite altogether outlandish and abominable. When the whole people of that land has been gathered together in one place, a white mare is brought forward into the middle of the assembly. He who is to be inaugurated, not as a chief, but as a beast, not as a king, but as an outlaw, has bestial intercourse with her before all, professing himself to be a beast also. The mare is then killed immediately, cut up in pieces, and boiled in water. A bath is prepared for the man afterwards in the same water. He sits in the bath surrounded by all his people, and all, he and they, eat of the meat of the mare, which is brought to them. He quaffs and drinks of the broth in which he is bathed, not in any cup, or using his hand, but just dipping his mouth into it round about him. When this unrighteous rite has been carried out, his kingship and dominion have been conferred.’
Musical Ability
I find among these people commendable diligence only on musical instruments, on which they are incomparably more skilled than any nation I have seen. Their style is not, as on the British instruments to which we are accustomed, deliberate and solem but quick and lively; nevertheless the sound is smooth and pleasant.
It is remarkable that, with such rapid fingerwork, the musical rhythm is maintained and that, by unfailingly disciplined art, the integrity of the tune is fully preserved throughout the ornate rhythms and the profusely intricate polyphony—and with such smooth rapidity, such 'unequal equality', such 'discordant concord'. Whether the strings strike together a fourth or a fifth, [the players] nevertheless always start from B flat and return to the same, so that everything is rounded off in a pleasant general sonority. They introduce and leave rhythmic motifs so subtly, they play the tinkling sounds on the thinner strings above the sustained sound of the thicker string so freely, they take such secret delight and caress [the strings] so sensuously, that the greatest part of their art seems to lie in veiling it, as if 'That which is concealed is bettered—art revealed is art shamed'.
Thus it happens that those things which bring private and ineffable delight to people of subtle appreciation and sharp discernment, burden rather than delight the ears of those who, in spite of looking do not see and in spite of hearing do not understand; to unwilling listeners, fastidious things appear tedious and have a confused and disordered sound.
One must note that both Scotland and Wales, the latter by virtue of extension, the former by affinity and intercourse, depend on teaching to imitate and rival Ireland in musical practice. Ireland uses and delights in two instruments only, the cithara (likely a harp) and the tympanum (perhaps a hammer dulcimer). Scotland uses three, the cithara, the tympanum and the chorus. Wales uses the cithara, tibiae (whistles, flutes) and chorus. Also, they use strings made of brass not of leather. However, in the opinion of many, Scotland today not only equals Ireland, her mistress, but also by far outdoes and surpasses her in musical skill. Hence many people already look there as though to the source of the art.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Example of Early Irish English
From a book dedication:
THE GOUERNAUNCE OF PRYNCES
TRANSLATED BY
JAMES YONGE
(1422).
Printed from MS. Rawl. B. 490.]
folio 28b
IN the Honoure of the Hey Trynyte, Fadyr, Sone, And Holy gooste, Almyghti god; oure lady Seynte mary, and al the holy hollowes of hewyn: To yow, nobyll and gracious lorde, Iamys de Botillere, Erle of Ormonde, lieutenaunt of oure lege lorde, kynge henry the fyfte in Irland, humbly recommendyth hym youre pouer Seruant, Iames yonge, to youre hey lordshipp: altymes desyrynge in cryste, yowre honoure and profite of body and Sowle, and wyth al myn herte the trynyte afor-sayde beshechynge that he hit euer Encrese. Amen. Amen.
Fragment of a ballad:
Icham of Irlaunde
Ant of the holy londe
Of Irlande.
Gode sire, pray ich the,
For of saynte charite,
Come ant daunce wyt me
In Irlaunde.
-- Anon., (14th century)
THE GOUERNAUNCE OF PRYNCES
TRANSLATED BY
JAMES YONGE
(1422).
Printed from MS. Rawl. B. 490.]
folio 28b
IN the Honoure of the Hey Trynyte, Fadyr, Sone, And Holy gooste, Almyghti god; oure lady Seynte mary, and al the holy hollowes of hewyn: To yow, nobyll and gracious lorde, Iamys de Botillere, Erle of Ormonde, lieutenaunt of oure lege lorde, kynge henry the fyfte in Irland, humbly recommendyth hym youre pouer Seruant, Iames yonge, to youre hey lordshipp: altymes desyrynge in cryste, yowre honoure and profite of body and Sowle, and wyth al myn herte the trynyte afor-sayde beshechynge that he hit euer Encrese. Amen. Amen.
Fragment of a ballad:
Icham of Irlaunde
Ant of the holy londe
Of Irlande.
Gode sire, pray ich the,
For of saynte charite,
Come ant daunce wyt me
In Irlaunde.
-- Anon., (14th century)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The First St.Patrick's Day Parade
The first St. Patrick's Day parade in America took place in New York City in 1762.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Hymn of Victory Over the Vikings
De Strage Normannorum
attr. Sedulius Scottus circa 840AD
1. Gaudeant caeli, mare, cuncta terra,
Gaudeat Christi populusque vernans,
Facta miretur Domini tonantis
Fortia patris.
2. Landibus dignis, bonitatis anctor,
Magnus in magnis opifex beatus
Cuncta dispensat dominanto nutu
Sceptriger orbis.
3. Spes, salns mundi, pins ipse rector,
Gonterens pravos brumiles coronat;
Snblevat valles reprimitque montes
Celsa potestas.
4. Qui facit rectis radiare verum
Lnmen in cordis specnloque mentis,
Qnos tegit semper pietate pollens
Conditor almus.
5. Panperes, dites, laici, potentes,
coronate clericalis ordo,
Omnis aetatis decus atque sexus,
Plaudite cuncti.
6. Brachium patris validum potentis,
Ecce, protrivit subita rebellem
Strage Normannum, pietatis hostem ;
Gloria patri!
7. Froelium campo stmitur patenti,
Splendor armoioim radiat per auras,
Voce bellantum varia tremescit
Machina caeli.
8. Tela sparsemnt geminae phalanges,
Danus infelix sua damna quaerit,
Ferreos imbres serit atque fixit
Agmen enorme.
9. Quem sitiverunt varios per annos,
Sanguinem sumunt rabidi tyranni,
Dnlce iit cunctis satiare pectus
Caede viromm.
10. Quique fodemnt foveas, ruere;
Quae fuit turris nimium superba,
Ecce, curvatur nihilata Christo
Gens inimica.
11. Steraitur grandis populusque fortis,
Tota contrita est maledicta massa,
Sorbet os mortis subolem malignam;
Laus tibi, Christe!
12. Hinc fenmt stragem populi finisse
Praeter ignotos hominesqne viles
Horrido campo nimio cmore
Tres myriades.
13. lostus est iadex, dominator orbis,
Christianomm decns omne, Christas,
Gloriae princeps, domitor malomm
Begmine summo.
14. Fortis est terris, clipens salntis,
Conterens bello validos gigantes,
Cnios excelsam saper omne nomen
Est benedictam.
15. Ultor exsistit popali fidelis,
Qai maris qaondam tamidis procellis
Pressit Aegyptom celeres rotasqae
Obrait imo.
16. Ostriger lesas saper omne regnat,
Qaidqaid excelsas genitor creavit,
Stirpe Davidis benedicta proles,
Gloria nostra.
17. Cni rependatur tymiama voti,
Qnem celebremas pietatis acta,
Cai melos proraat saper astra regi
Fistala laadis.
18. Gloriae plaosas, modolans Hosanna
Personet patrem genitomque Christom,
Spiritom sanctom polos, onda, tellos,
Glorificate.
attr. Sedulius Scottus circa 840AD
1. Gaudeant caeli, mare, cuncta terra,
Gaudeat Christi populusque vernans,
Facta miretur Domini tonantis
Fortia patris.
2. Landibus dignis, bonitatis anctor,
Magnus in magnis opifex beatus
Cuncta dispensat dominanto nutu
Sceptriger orbis.
3. Spes, salns mundi, pins ipse rector,
Gonterens pravos brumiles coronat;
Snblevat valles reprimitque montes
Celsa potestas.
4. Qui facit rectis radiare verum
Lnmen in cordis specnloque mentis,
Qnos tegit semper pietate pollens
Conditor almus.
5. Panperes, dites, laici, potentes,
coronate clericalis ordo,
Omnis aetatis decus atque sexus,
Plaudite cuncti.
6. Brachium patris validum potentis,
Ecce, protrivit subita rebellem
Strage Normannum, pietatis hostem ;
Gloria patri!
7. Froelium campo stmitur patenti,
Splendor armoioim radiat per auras,
Voce bellantum varia tremescit
Machina caeli.
8. Tela sparsemnt geminae phalanges,
Danus infelix sua damna quaerit,
Ferreos imbres serit atque fixit
Agmen enorme.
9. Quem sitiverunt varios per annos,
Sanguinem sumunt rabidi tyranni,
Dnlce iit cunctis satiare pectus
Caede viromm.
10. Quique fodemnt foveas, ruere;
Quae fuit turris nimium superba,
Ecce, curvatur nihilata Christo
Gens inimica.
11. Steraitur grandis populusque fortis,
Tota contrita est maledicta massa,
Sorbet os mortis subolem malignam;
Laus tibi, Christe!
12. Hinc fenmt stragem populi finisse
Praeter ignotos hominesqne viles
Horrido campo nimio cmore
Tres myriades.
13. lostus est iadex, dominator orbis,
Christianomm decns omne, Christas,
Gloriae princeps, domitor malomm
Begmine summo.
14. Fortis est terris, clipens salntis,
Conterens bello validos gigantes,
Cnios excelsam saper omne nomen
Est benedictam.
15. Ultor exsistit popali fidelis,
Qai maris qaondam tamidis procellis
Pressit Aegyptom celeres rotasqae
Obrait imo.
16. Ostriger lesas saper omne regnat,
Qaidqaid excelsas genitor creavit,
Stirpe Davidis benedicta proles,
Gloria nostra.
17. Cni rependatur tymiama voti,
Qnem celebremas pietatis acta,
Cai melos proraat saper astra regi
Fistala laadis.
18. Gloriae plaosas, modolans Hosanna
Personet patrem genitomque Christom,
Spiritom sanctom polos, onda, tellos,
Glorificate.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Vikings
Map of Viking Expansion by Max Naylor
The Gokstad Viking ship on display in Oslo, Norway.
Danes about to invade England. From "Miscellany on the life of St. Edmund" from the 12th century.
Source: Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Viking Age Arms and Armor
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Revised Weekly Assignments
Weekly Assignments
Aug. 31-Sept. 4 Week 1 Introduction
Sept. 7-11 Week 2 Chapter 1
Sept. 14-18 Week 3 Chapters 2+3 Quiz 1
Sept. 21-25 Week 4 Chapters 4+5
Sept. 28-Oct. 2 Week 5 Chapters 6+7 Quiz 2
Oct. 5-9 Week 6 Chapters 8+9 Essay 1
Oct. 12-16 Week 7 Chapters 10+11
Oct. 19-23 Week 8 Chapters 12+13 Quiz 3
Oct. 26-30 Week 9 Chapters 14+15 Essay 2
Nov. 2-6 Week 10 Chapters 16+17 Quiz 4
Nov. 9-13 Week 11 Chapters 18+19 Essay 3
Nov. 16-20 Week 12 Chapters 20+21
Nov. 23-27 Week 13 Chapters 22+23 Quiz 5
Nov. 30-Dec. 4 Week 14 Chapters 24+
The Dubliners Essay 4
Dec. 7-Dec.11 Week 15 Playboy of the Western World
Fri. Dec. 11@1:30 Final Test Essay 5
Aug. 31-Sept. 4 Week 1 Introduction
Sept. 7-11 Week 2 Chapter 1
Sept. 14-18 Week 3 Chapters 2+3 Quiz 1
Sept. 21-25 Week 4 Chapters 4+5
Sept. 28-Oct. 2 Week 5 Chapters 6+7 Quiz 2
Oct. 5-9 Week 6 Chapters 8+9 Essay 1
Oct. 12-16 Week 7 Chapters 10+11
Oct. 19-23 Week 8 Chapters 12+13 Quiz 3
Oct. 26-30 Week 9 Chapters 14+15 Essay 2
Nov. 2-6 Week 10 Chapters 16+17 Quiz 4
Nov. 9-13 Week 11 Chapters 18+19 Essay 3
Nov. 16-20 Week 12 Chapters 20+21
Nov. 23-27 Week 13 Chapters 22+23 Quiz 5
Nov. 30-Dec. 4 Week 14 Chapters 24+
The Dubliners Essay 4
Dec. 7-Dec.11 Week 15 Playboy of the Western World
Fri. Dec. 11@1:30 Final Test Essay 5
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Local Irish Dance Competitions (Feiseanna)
If you are interested in seeing real Irish dancing in Southern California, here are two upcoming events:
September 26-27 - St.Ambrose Irish Dance Association Feis, The Anaheim Marriott, 700 West Convention Way, Anaheim, CA. Details available at: http://www.clearyirishdance.com .
October 24-25 - Orange County Feis, Doubletree Hotel Anaheim, 100 The City Drive, Orange, CA. http://www.fearon-oconnor.com/feis.orange.county.php .
More information about Irish Dance is at: http://www.feisworx.com/feisinfo.php.
September 26-27 - St.Ambrose Irish Dance Association Feis, The Anaheim Marriott, 700 West Convention Way, Anaheim, CA. Details available at: http://www.clearyirishdance.com .
October 24-25 - Orange County Feis, Doubletree Hotel Anaheim, 100 The City Drive, Orange, CA. http://www.fearon-oconnor.com/feis.orange.county.php .
More information about Irish Dance is at: http://www.feisworx.com/feisinfo.php.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Welcome to Irish History & Literature
Humanities 111
Web Page: http://historyireland.blogspot.com
Your Professors:
John Queen ext:5459 e-mail:jqueen@glendale.edu office:SR 359
Dennis Doyle ext. 5343 e-mail:ddoyle@glendale.edu office:LB 203
Texts:
The Course of Irish History, Moody & Martin, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado
The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse, Thomas Kinsella, Ed.,Oxford University Press, New York
The Playboy of the Western World by J.M.Synge
Dubliners, James Joyce, Penguin Books, London
optional outline:
Humanities 111 Course Syllabus
Catalog Description:
Irish History, Literature, and Culture from the Beginning to the Present 3 Units
Humanities 111 is a broad-based, interdisciplinary course that covers the entire history of Ireland: its mythology, folklore, art, music, literature, and major political events. The course also focuses on the impact of Irish culture on England, Europe, Spain, Canada, and the United States through the centuries. Through assigned readings, discussions, and writing, the students gain critical insights into the causes and consequences of Ireland's turbulent history and struggle for independence as well as its literary and sociopolitical contributions to world culture and civilization. Lecture 3 hours. Recommended preparation: Eligibility for English 101. Transfer credit: CSU, UC, USC
Student Learning Outcomes
• Write five essays which show the ability to analyze, synthesize, and think critically about the class text.
• Compare and contrast relationships between literature and history and their effects on society.
• Discriminate between fact and opinion statements and recognize bias and prejudice in a text.
Expectations:
It is the student's responsibility to withdraw officially from the college or drop classes when he or she stops attending and to observe established deadlines, otherwise, "F'' grades may be assigned. Students are expected to attend all classes; irregular class attendance and/or frequent tardiness may result in being dropped. Students are also required to be respectful of the learning environment and to avoid disrupting class by arriving late, engaging in personal conversation, or leaving class before the assigned dismissal time.
There will be five objective examinations, and five essays, including the final exam essay. The lowest quiz grade and the lowest essay grade will be dropped. The quizes are worth 40% of the final grade and the essays are worth 60% of the grade.
Students with Disabilities
The instructors and Glendale College invite the participation of all students in this class. For special help and accommodations, including obtaining special proctoring for tests, free note taking, assistance for blind students, etc. please contact the GCC Center for Students with Disabilities. These students' helpers, note takers, guides and assistants are welcome as well.
Academic Dishonesty Policy
Glendale College has an Academic Dishonesty policy forbidding various types of cheating, including plagiarism. Incidents of academic dishonesty will be referred to the Vice-President of Instruction's office.
Electronic Device Policy
Generally, cell phones, ipods, and other electronic devices should be turned off when class begins to avoid disrupting class. Students may not text-message or make or receive calls during class. However, students may use laptops in class to take notes or to access the class web page or the online syllabus. Abuse of this privilege may result in its revocation. Students may use digital recording devices to tape lectures. Students with disabilities and their assistants may use any necessary electronic accommodating device.
Holidays:
Monday, September 7, Labor Day
Friday, November 13, Veteran's Day
Thursday, November 26-27, Thanksgiving Holiday
Finals run from December 9-16
Weekly Assignments
Week 1 Introduction
Week 2 Chapter 1
Week 3 Chapters 2+3 Quiz 1
Week 4 Chapters 4+5
Week 5 Chapters 6+7 Quiz 2
Week 6 Chapters 8+9 Essay 1
Week 7 Chapters 10+11
Week 8 Chapters 12+13 Quiz 3
Week 9 Chapters 14+15 Essay 2
Week 10 Chapters 16+17 Quiz 4
Week 11 Chapters 18+19 Essay 3
Week 12 Chapters 20+21
Week 13 Chapters 22+23 Quiz 5
Week 14 Chapters 24+The Dubliners Essay 4
Week 15 Playboy of the Western World
Final Test Essay 5
*The chapters refer to the text The Course of Irish History.
We will read the following short stories from The Dubliners:
-Encounter, Araby, Sisters and The Dead.
We will read all of Playboy of the Western World.
Web Page: http://historyireland.blogspot.com
Your Professors:
John Queen ext:5459 e-mail:jqueen@glendale.edu office:SR 359
Dennis Doyle ext. 5343 e-mail:ddoyle@glendale.edu office:LB 203
Texts:
The Course of Irish History, Moody & Martin, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, Colorado
The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse, Thomas Kinsella, Ed.,Oxford University Press, New York
The Playboy of the Western World by J.M.Synge
Dubliners, James Joyce, Penguin Books, London
optional outline:
Humanities 111 Course Syllabus
Catalog Description:
Irish History, Literature, and Culture from the Beginning to the Present 3 Units
Humanities 111 is a broad-based, interdisciplinary course that covers the entire history of Ireland: its mythology, folklore, art, music, literature, and major political events. The course also focuses on the impact of Irish culture on England, Europe, Spain, Canada, and the United States through the centuries. Through assigned readings, discussions, and writing, the students gain critical insights into the causes and consequences of Ireland's turbulent history and struggle for independence as well as its literary and sociopolitical contributions to world culture and civilization. Lecture 3 hours. Recommended preparation: Eligibility for English 101. Transfer credit: CSU, UC, USC
Student Learning Outcomes
• Write five essays which show the ability to analyze, synthesize, and think critically about the class text.
• Compare and contrast relationships between literature and history and their effects on society.
• Discriminate between fact and opinion statements and recognize bias and prejudice in a text.
Expectations:
It is the student's responsibility to withdraw officially from the college or drop classes when he or she stops attending and to observe established deadlines, otherwise, "F'' grades may be assigned. Students are expected to attend all classes; irregular class attendance and/or frequent tardiness may result in being dropped. Students are also required to be respectful of the learning environment and to avoid disrupting class by arriving late, engaging in personal conversation, or leaving class before the assigned dismissal time.
There will be five objective examinations, and five essays, including the final exam essay. The lowest quiz grade and the lowest essay grade will be dropped. The quizes are worth 40% of the final grade and the essays are worth 60% of the grade.
Students with Disabilities
The instructors and Glendale College invite the participation of all students in this class. For special help and accommodations, including obtaining special proctoring for tests, free note taking, assistance for blind students, etc. please contact the GCC Center for Students with Disabilities. These students' helpers, note takers, guides and assistants are welcome as well.
Academic Dishonesty Policy
Glendale College has an Academic Dishonesty policy forbidding various types of cheating, including plagiarism. Incidents of academic dishonesty will be referred to the Vice-President of Instruction's office.
Electronic Device Policy
Generally, cell phones, ipods, and other electronic devices should be turned off when class begins to avoid disrupting class. Students may not text-message or make or receive calls during class. However, students may use laptops in class to take notes or to access the class web page or the online syllabus. Abuse of this privilege may result in its revocation. Students may use digital recording devices to tape lectures. Students with disabilities and their assistants may use any necessary electronic accommodating device.
Holidays:
Monday, September 7, Labor Day
Friday, November 13, Veteran's Day
Thursday, November 26-27, Thanksgiving Holiday
Finals run from December 9-16
Weekly Assignments
Week 1 Introduction
Week 2 Chapter 1
Week 3 Chapters 2+3 Quiz 1
Week 4 Chapters 4+5
Week 5 Chapters 6+7 Quiz 2
Week 6 Chapters 8+9 Essay 1
Week 7 Chapters 10+11
Week 8 Chapters 12+13 Quiz 3
Week 9 Chapters 14+15 Essay 2
Week 10 Chapters 16+17 Quiz 4
Week 11 Chapters 18+19 Essay 3
Week 12 Chapters 20+21
Week 13 Chapters 22+23 Quiz 5
Week 14 Chapters 24+The Dubliners Essay 4
Week 15 Playboy of the Western World
Final Test Essay 5
*The chapters refer to the text The Course of Irish History.
We will read the following short stories from The Dubliners:
-Encounter, Araby, Sisters and The Dead.
We will read all of Playboy of the Western World.
Friday, July 3, 2009
New Section of Humanities 111, Irish History & Literature, coming this Fall to GCC
New Section of Humanities 111, Irish History & Literature, coming this Fall to GCC:
An Evening of Celtic Music - 2009
An Evening of Celtic Music
with
Dennis, Paula and Terry Doyle
at the
Holy Spirit Retreat Center
4316 Lanai Road
Encino, CA 91436
Special Guest: Austin Doyle
Wednesday, July 8 – 7:30PM
Come early, picnic under the stars
Tickets at the door $15
Info:818-784-4515
with
Dennis, Paula and Terry Doyle
at the
Holy Spirit Retreat Center
4316 Lanai Road
Encino, CA 91436
Special Guest: Austin Doyle
Wednesday, July 8 – 7:30PM
Come early, picnic under the stars
Tickets at the door $15
Info:818-784-4515
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
