issue 29 volume 2 march/april 2020 proudly serving celts ... · johnson, the steeldrivers, and...

ISSUE 29 VOLUME 2 MARCH/APRIL 2020

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Proudly Serving Celts in North America Since 1991

WIN FREE TICKETSWin a pair of tickets to see the Irishsupergroup Dervish on March 15 atKay Meek Arts Centre, West Vancou-ver (see page 7 for details). Mark yourentry ‘Dervish’ by March 6.

Win a pair of tickets to see The CelticTenors perform with VSO on Friday,March 27 at the Orpheum Theatre,Vancouver (see page 5 for details).Mark your entry ‘Celtic Tenors’ byMarch 19.

Win a pair of tickets to see M’Anam &Chor Leoni on April 24, at Chan Centrefor the Performing Arts, Vancouver(see page 2 for details). Mark yourentry ‘M’Anam’ by April 3.

All entries by e-mail only to:[email protected] (only one entry perperson to each event and must includeyour name and daytime telephonenumber).

THE FACES OF IRELAND (Clockwise L-R) – Children at the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin, Ireland; buskers at night on the streets ofGalway, Ireland, 2020 European City of Culture; the spectacular Bullig Bay Loop on Ireland’s Beara Peninsula; stones are eternal as seen atBeaghmore, an early Bronze Age megalithic with stone circles and cairns, north west of Cookstown, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland.

[Read more about Tourism Ireland and Galway, 2020 European City of Culture on pages 19 & 29]

PHOTO: Operio PhotographySPRINGTIME is the season for GAA sports. Pictured above aremembers of the Vancouver Irish Sporting and Social Clubcamogie team soloing the ball out on the attack against SeattleGaels at Emerald City Cup. [Read more pages 26 & 27]

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

BE SURE TO CHECK OUTOUR ST. PATRICK’S DAY

GREETINGS SECTION

VANCOUVER joined a growingcultural movement in 2020 withthe presentation of Lá FhéileBríde: Celebrating the Creativityof Women at Simon Fraser Uni-versity Harbour Centre. Readmore about the presenters andthe event on pages 30 & 31.

• Celtic Fest VancouverWestern Canada’s

Biggest Celtic Festival• Seattle Irish Week

Full Program of Events• St. David’s Day

Celebrations Vancouver• Reflections on aSt. Patrick’s Day

Long Past

MARCH/APRIL 2020PAGE 2 www.celtic-connection.com

VANCOUVER – Ireland holds a special place in the hearts ofpeople around the world and it also enjoys a unique benefit of aglobal diaspora with one of the widely recognized and celebratednational holidays – St. Patrick’s Day.

New Global Greeningsites revealed aheadof St. Patrick’s Day

One of the most interesting fea-tures to emerge with this world-wide fete is Tourism Ireland’sfamous ‘Global Greening’,which literally puts a spotlight onIreland.This initiative, which marks its 10thanniversary in 2020, sees famous land-marks around the world decked out ingreen on March 17.Among the world-famous landmarksto light up for the occasion are theEmpire State Building in New York,the National Museum of Qatar, CityHall in Bangkok, the National Theatrein London, and City Hall in Toronto.In fact, over 300 sites have signed upacross more than 40 countries and thisyear the list just keeps growing withmany new locations.In western Canada, some of the recog-nized landmarks include in Vancouver:the Sails of Light at Canada Place andthe Bloedel Conservatory.On Vancouver Island, the World’s Larg-est Hockey Stick and Puck will lightup at the Cowichan Community Cen-tre.In Alberta, the world’s largest beaverstatue in Beaverlodge, Alberta; theCalgary Tower, Calgary; and the High

Level Bridge, Edmonton will all bebathed in green on the day.And, we can’t forget Mac the Moosein Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, will alsobe part of the celebrations.

PICTURED outside the BloedelConservatory in Vancouver lastyear to mark the St. Patrick’sDay ‘Global Greening’ initiative,Ciarán Cannon the Irish Minis-ter of State at the Departmentof Foreign Affairs and FrankFlood the Consul General of Ire-land, Vancouver, alongside twoIrish wolfhounds.

MARCH/APRIL 2020 PAGE 3www.celtic-connection.com


VANCOUVER – CelticFestVancouver is western Canada’sbiggest annual Celtic festival.CelticFest is a rich cultural cel-ebration of the seven Celtic na-tions’ kinship and community.The festival showcases the best ofCeltic music, dance, spoken word andsupports the rich Celtic Communitybased here in Vancouver.CelticFest Vancouver will return inMarch 2020 with an ever-expandingline up of guests and events.On Sunday, March 8, Sharon Shan-non will be back in the Rogue FolkClub again entertaining the crowd withher accordion and fiddle technique.Beginning with Irish folk music, herwork demonstrates a wide-rangingnumber of musical influences, includ-ing reggae, Cajun music, Portuguesemusic, and French Canadian music. Hergig is bound to sell-out so book yourtickets fast at the Rogue Folk Clubwebsite [www.roguefolk.bc.ca].On Friday, March 13, the HellenicCommunity Centre will host theCelticFest Ceilidh from 7:30 PM.With traditional Irish performers anddances being taught throughout thenight, there is something for everyonehere.The beating heart of the CelticFest, theCeilidh is central to the Fest’s ethosand mission; to bring Celtic culture toVancouver. A Ceilidh is the essentialCeltic tradition – so make sure not tomiss out on this one!Tickets for this are on Eventbrite[www.eventbrite.com/e/celticfest-vancouver-ceilidh- 2020-tickets-73040210235]

CelticFest Vancouver 2020:Western Canada’s Biggest

Annual Celtic Festival

The iconic Irish folk group Dervishis now on a North American tour topromote the release of their firststudio album in more than a dec-ade, The Great Irish Songbook.Drawing from the traditional song cy-cles of counties Sligo and Leitrim innorth-west Ireland, this much antici-pated album features performances bya remarkable array of guest singers andmusicians from both sides of the At-lantic.Among those featured guest artists isIrish actor and director BrendanGleeson – perhaps best known for hisportrayal of Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’Moody in the Harry Potter films –who lends his lilting baritone to theband’s spirited rendition of DKGavan’s much-loved classic The RockyRoad To Dublin, which chronicles theadventures of a man as he travels fromhis home in Tuam, County Galway toLiverpool.Dervish – Michael Holmes, Cathy Jor-dan, Liam Kelly, Brian McDonagh,Shane Mitchell, Tom Morrow, andSeamie O Dowd – is also joined onThe Great Irish Songbook by fellowIrish musicians Andrea Corr and ImeldaMay; English singer Kate Rusby; Welshsinger-songwriter David Gray; and

The acclaimed Vancouver WelshMen’s Choir will perform at ChristChurch Cathedral on Saturday, March14, at 7:30 PM, their voices will liftthe roof with their mix of traditionalCeltic music and modern songs. Tick-ets are on the Welsh Men’s Choirwebsite and range from $15-$40[celticfestchristchurch.bpt.me].The much-anticipated St. Patrick’sFamily Day event will kick off on Sun-day, March 15, with a free daytimeevent for families and people of allages.This year, the Family Day will takecentre stage at Vancouver Art Gallery’sfront square, where there will be danc-ing, music, kid’s crafts, food vendorsand more to be announced!Look out for a second announcementon Facebook with the full list of theday’s events coming soon![ w w w . f a c e b o o k . c o m /CelticFestVancouver].On the evening of Sunday, March 15,The Kay Meek Arts Centre will hostDervish.Described by the BBC as “an icon ofIrish music” and The Guardian as“simply brilliant,” Dervish has playedits soulful folk drawing from the tradi-tion song cycles of counties Sligo andLeitrim in north-west Ireland.On tour with its new studio release,

The Great Irish Songbook, it celebratesthe group’s 30th anniversary. Ticketsare at the Kay Meek Arts Centrewebsite [kaymeek.com/events/der-vish].To round off the month of events therewill be more live gigs. The Altan IrishTrad band will perform at the RogueFolk Club on Sunday, March 22.Altan continues to be one of the mostimportant live acts to play traditionalIrish music in Ireland and on the worldstage. Tickets also available at TheRogue Folk Club website[www.roguefolk.bc.ca].The Celtic Tenors will perform along-side the Vancouver Symphony Orches-tra on March 27 and 28 at theOrpheum Theatre from 8 PM.With a polished international reputa-tion and with over a million CDs soldworldwide, The Celtic Tenors offersomething truly unique with the skill,range and ability of world-class per-formers, combined with the personal-ity and fun of genuine entertainers.Tickets are at the Vancouver Sym-phony Orchestra website[www.vancouversymphony.ca/event/the-celtic-tenors].All direct ticket links can be found atthe CelticFest Vancouver Facebookpage events section. Keep an eye hereto find out about other announcementsand information.

•[SPECIAL NOTE: Family Day will needa team of volunteers. If you are inter-ested in volunteering, email:[email protected]]

Any questions about sponsorship op-portunities, food vendors & general in-quires, please email:[email protected].

Irish Folk Icons Dervish on tourwith new CD The Great Irish Songbook

from the United States, Steve Earle,Rhiannon Giddens, Vince Gill, JameyJohnson, The SteelDrivers, and AbigailWashburn.Veteran music scribe Jackie Hayden’sreview in Hot Press recommends, “ifyou need an urgent injection of nour-ishment for your mind, body andspirit, treat yourself to this invigorat-ing excavation of The Great IrishSongbook,” while The Irish Edition’s

Jamie O’Brien calls Dervish “one ofthe best bands in any genre to evercome out of Ireland” and proclaims thisalbum “their best so far.”

•In the Vancouver area, Dervish willperform on Sunday, March 15 at theKay Meek Arts Centre located at 1700Mathers Avenue in West Vancouver.For more information and tickets, see:www.kaymeek.com.

DERVISH – Michael Holmes, Cathy Jordan, Liam Kelly, BrianMcDonagh, Shane Mitchell, Tom Morrow, and Seamie O Dowd.


‘A very good first year for the Consulateand hopefully an even better one in 2020!’

By FRANK FLOODIrish Consul General

Vancouver

A chairde gael,THIS is only the Consulate’ssecond St. Patrick’s Day and itis great to see such a variedprogramme of events beingheld over all of March withevents from White Rock toKelowna.On behalf of the Irish ConsulateGeneral Office in Vancouver, Iwould like to congratulate all in-volved in running this year’s pro-gramme of activities that are beingheld around St. Patricks Day in Van-couver and to wish them every suc-cess.The Consulate has facilitated obtain-ing Emigrant Support Programme fund-ing for a significant number of theevents and we will continue to be assupportive as possible, particularlyfor new initiatives such as the excel-lent St. Brigid’s Day programme ofevents organised recently by Maurade Freitas which was reportedly thebiggest such event in western NorthAmerica.Likewise, I am sure the first St.Patrick’s Day Family event in the Van-couver Art Gallery Plaza on Sunday,15 March will be a great success andhopefully it will get some well-de-served fine weather.Unfortunately, it seems very unlikelythat we will have an Irish minister inBritish Columbia for St. Patrick’s Day

but once a new government is formed,I am sure that a visit to the west coastof Canada will be high on their to-dolist.The past year has gone really quicklybut very successfully from a Consu-late point of view, thanks to the greatsupport we have received from theIrish community and the warm andopen Canadian welcome we have re-ceived.For example, in 2019 the Consulatefunded and supported 26 Irish com-munity, business and diplomatic re-lated events while I expect to have al-ready attended over 30 similar meet-ings and functions by the end of Feb-ruary.On the Irish community side, in 2019the Irish Women’s Network led byEilis Courtney carried out an innova-tive mapping project commissioned bythe Consulate.The project involved the developmentof a very useful website irishinBC.ca

which shows where the Irish are inB.C., the contact details for the aroundfifty Irish organisations in B.C. andhelped to clarify what are the issuesfacing Irish emigrants.An initiative to help raise awarenessof mental health issues is being under-taken by the Consulate this year aspart of our response to this study.What is really encouraging on the busi-ness side is that all of our trade mis-sions to B.C. are so impressed thatthey keep coming back!Following the successful mission offive Irish institutes of technology toB.C. last June organised by EnterpriseIreland, we now have12 Irish univer-sities and colleges coming back at theend of March.After our initial participation in theannual Roundup Mining and Explora-tion Conference last year, Ireland wasthe first European country to have astand at the exhibition this year reflect-ing our growing engagement and inter-est in this sector.On the services side, Chartered Ac-countants Ireland are launching a Van-couver Chapter on the 24 Februaryfollowing a visit to B.C. last Novem-ber while over 20 percent of all Cana-dian tourists to Ireland now come fromB.C.!

Another little known statistic, reflect-ing the modest trade in goods, is thatIreland has now risen in importancefor B.C. exports from 61st place in2017 to 46th last year.The significant level of interest in pro-moting Irish-B.C. trade linkages washighlighted in the online trade direc-tory developed last year by the Van-couver Chapter of the Ireland-CanadaChamber of Commerce (see https://icccvan.ca).A first class trade directory, developedby Lar Quigley, it is a credit to all con-cerned.The new committee with RuairiSpillane as interim president is mak-ing use of the directory and going fromstrength-to-strength and well worthsupporting and attending the regularnetworking events.The opening of the new office for theConsulate has been slightly delayed toJuly of this year but the final plansand design are very impressive so itwill be well worth the wait.The new office will be based on the13th floor of the Manulife Building onThurlow and West Pender with aroundone third of the floor space earmarkedfor representational activities such asIrish community and business lunches.

The first Thursday of the month Irishbusiness community breakfast eventsthat started last September are prov-ing both useful and popular so do tryand make it along. After July most of our events, includ-ing our monthly business breakfastevents, will be held in the new Consu-late office rather than the VancouverClub. It will be much less salubriousbut also far less more expensive!Communications remains a key chal-lenge as there is so much going on, it isvery difficult to raise awareness amongthe Irish community let alone thewider Canadian population, so we willbe working on ways to meet this chal-lenge in 2020.Our email contact list is helpful, soplease sign up for our Consulate cir-culation list on the Consulate’s websiteevents page at www.dfa.ie/irish-con-sulate/vancouver/news-&-events.In line with data protection require-ments, anyone can unsubscribe fromthe list at any time by emailing theConsulate at [email protected].

Lá Fhéile Pádraigsona dhaoibh go léir

Frank FloodConsul General of Ireland,

Vancouver


BySTEVEEDGE

THE ROGUEFOLK CLUB

March is upon us...and yes,there will be music!

VANCOUVER –Well, as we areapproaching themonth of Marchat a frantic pace –

even though there is an extraday to come in February – thereis a plethora of Celtic musicevents coming up!Since this is a combined March/Apriledition and the next issue of The CelticConnection won’t be out until the endof April, there is much to tell you!First off, The Rogue Folk Club hashad a blockbuster start to 2020, withno less than six sold out shows at theMel Lehan Hall at St. James in the firstfew weeks!Concerts are coming thick and fast!• February 27 – J.P. Cormier andDaniel Lapp. The opening night ofour fiddle festival – The Driven Bow– sees the amazing Cape Breton singersongwriter and multi-instrumentalistJ.P. team up with Victoria’s mercurialfiddler Daniel Lapp. We first saw thiscombination at Celtic Colours a fewyears back and have been trying to bringtheir incredible show to The Rogueever since.• February 28 – Pierre Schryer andAdam Dobres plus Calvin Vollrath.You may have seen Pierre and Adamas David Francey’s backing band lastmonth. You might have seen them atthe Mission Folk Festival last sum-mer. Pierre is a multiple Canadian fid-dle champion and Adam is a brilliantguitarist.This is the official release of their firstalbum together, Mandorla. CalvinVollrath is a prolific tunesmith and re-markable fiddler with over 70 albumsto his credit.• February 29 – The Paperboys plusShane Cook. The festival concludeswith the wonderful, rollicking Celticstomp of Vancouver’s Paperboys andspecial guest, Shane Cook from On-tario – one of Canada’s finest youngfiddlers and composers.• There are seven participatory work-shops for fiddlers – and accompanists– on Saturday, February 29 as well.• March 8 – Sharon Shannon. Al-ways a delight, the accordion diva fromCo. Clare has sold out The Rogueevery time! This will also sell out. Sheis touring western Canada and startsher tour in Vancouver. She will bejoined by Jim Murray and JackMaher on guitars.• March 12 – Martyn Joseph. ThisWelsh troubadour is a proud valleyboy and one of the most passionateand committed singers and advocatesof the downtrodden you could everwish to hear.• March 22 – Altan. The Donegal pow-erhouse trad quartet led by fiddler/singer Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh is stillat the peak of its creativity. This prom-ises to be another sold out show sobook early.• March 26 – Irish Mythen. Wick-low-born, and now making her homein PEI, Irish possesses one of the mostpowerful voices you will ever hear!She is also a unique voice for the op-pressed and one of the most engagingperformers you could wish to hear.

Stan Rogers, Gordon Lightfoot, etc.The Rogue also celebrates the Blueswith Shakura S’Aida (March 5) andthe annual Hornby Blues show – withfour Canadian Blues singers on April25 (Angel Forrest, Rick Fines, PaulPigat, and Steve Marriner); andBluegrass with Toronto’s SlocanRamblers and Seattle’s DowntownMountain Boys (March 30); musicalcomedy with The Arrogant Worms(March 10, and a sold out show onMarch 13); and strong voices likeAmerica’s Eliza Gilkyson (April 9),PEI’s Rachel Beck & Vancouver’sSarah Wheeler (April 5); and Cana-da’s Good Lovelies (May 3!)There will also be two Friday eveningsof Gypsy Jazz on April 17 and 24 forApril In Paris. Visitwww.roguefolk.com for all the details.As if this wasn’t enough, it’s alsoCelticFest Vancouver from Febru-ary 20 to March 22, with specialevents including Blackthorn’s Cei-lidh at the Hellenic Community Cen-tre on Arbutus (March 13),Family Day on the Art Gallery Fore-court on Georgia Street on March 15from 12:30 to 6 PM (with music byFionn, Cannery Row, and Shoreline– and a host of family and adult activi-ties including a parade and a beer gar-den). www.celticfestvancouver.com.Irish supergroup Dervish make a wel-come return to B.C. with a concert atWest Van’s Kay Meek Theatre onSunday, March 15 at 7:30 PM. Notto be missed! https://kaymeek.com/events/dervish.There are two important Saints’ Days– March 1 is St. David’s Day andMarch 17 is St. Patrick’s Day and I’msure there will be some music that daysomewhere around town! (There’salso Roguelele Night at The Rogue,but I don’t think it’s on an Irish theme.Not my fault!!)Finally, Festival du Bois runs atMaillardville’s Mackin Park on March6-8, with The Sybaritic Stringbandplaying for a dance on opening night.The headliners include Yves LambertTrio (Quebec), Tipsy 3 (NB/PQ/NS),Blackthorn (BC), and Gervais/Dallaire/McDade (AB)www.festivaldubois.ca.You can hear music by all these per-formers – and much more – on myweekly radio show, The Saturday EdgeOn Folk on www.citr.ca and 101.9fmevery Saturday from 8 AM to noon.

Slainte,Steve

THE DONEGAL powerhouse trad quartet Altan, led by fiddler/singerMairead Ni Mhaonaigh, will be another sold out show for The Rogueon Sunday, March 22, so get your tickets as soon as possible.

• April 10 – The Fretless. Canadianstring quartet blending Celtic tuneswith chamber music arrangements butabove all playing searing medleys withtwo fiddles and viola driven by fiercelyrhythmic cello.• April 16 – Madison Violet. CapeBreton’s Lisa MacIsaac is Ashley’ssister: a fine singer songwriter whoalso plays fiddle. She is joined byBrenley MacEachern (from Ontario,with Cape Breton roots) and they havea new CD, Everything’s Shifting.• April 23 – Dave Gunning. FromPictou, NS, Dave is one of Canada’smost impressive songwriters. His nar-rative style and poignant lyrics placehim comfortably alongside such es-teemed Canadians as David Francey,

SHARON SHANNON plays TheRogue on Sunday, March 8.

IRISH MYTHEN is at TheRogue on Thursday, March 26.


VANCOUVER – Ireland’s lat-est super-choir, M’Anam (“MySoul”) will make their NorthAmerican debut in Vancouveron April 24.They will perform in a joint concertwith Vancouver’s Juno-nominatedChor Leoni Men’s Choir to openthe VanMan Male Choral Summitat the Chan Centre for the Perform-ing Arts.M’Anam is an all-male ensemble ofeight singers led by conductor/com-poser Michael McGlynn. McGlynnis famous for his work with the legen-dary Riverdance and also leads the re-nowned mixed choir, Anuna.In the short time since M’Anam’sfounding in 2018, the ensemble hasbeen featured on the soundtrack ofWorld of Warcraft, sung on the latestalbum by Japanese jazz-rock ensem-ble Mouse On The Keys, released sev-eral stunning videos, and enjoyed asuccessful album-launching Europeantour.The group draws on a huge range ofmusical experiences, from rock to clas-sical, folk to indie – but what excitesthem most are the connections betweenthe lands of Iceland and Ireland.

PHOTO: Nejc RudelM’ANAM – Ireland’s super-choir takes a curtain call following aconcert.

VANCOUVER – The Vancou-ver Symphony Orchestra(VSO) will present The CelticTenors at The Orpheum onMarch 27 and 28.The acclaimed tenors – Daryl Simpson,James Nelson, and Matthew Gilsenan– will perform as part of the VSO PopsSeries sponsored by London Drugs.As the most successful classicalcrossover artists ever to emerge fromIreland, The Celtic Tenors have a pol-ished international reputation withover a million albums sold worldwide.The program will consist of a uniqueblend of classical, folk, Celtic, and popsongs combined with the personalityand fun of genuine performers.They will perform classical arias, acapellas, hauntingly beautiful Celticharmonies, along with popular con-temporary songs.The program, led by conductor JohnSmith, features such favourites asNessun Dorma, Galileo, Red-HairedMary, Calypso, and many more.The Celtic Tenors first appeared onthe musical map in 2000 when theyperformed an off-the-cuff audition atEMI in London, UK.To the surprise of all witnesses, theywere signed on the spot to an interna-tional record deal. The trio has nowreleased five albums, sung leading roles

Ireland’s latestsuper-choir M’Anam

make Vancouverdebut this April

World-class performersThe Celtic Tenors will perform

with the VSO Pop Series

With repertoire ranging from 9th-Cen-tury Icelandic elegies to dead Vikings,to classic Irish folk songs and brand-new works written for them byMcGlynn, M’Anam brings a fresh newapproach to the tradition of male-voicesinging.Their North American debut will fea-ture M’Anam alongside Chor Leoni asthe opening concert of the annualVanMan Male Choral Summit.VanMan draws 300+ male singers to-gether for a weekend of rehearsals,workshops, and performances.For more tickets and more informa-tion about M’Anam and Chor Leonionline at: www.tickets.ubc.ca, or callChan box office: (604) 822-2697.

THE CELTIC TENORS will per-form at The Orpheum Theatreon March 27 and 28.

with renowned opera companies, andheadlined several festivals across theglobe.

They have appeared on televisionacross the U.S. and Canada, as well asEurope, and produced their very ownGerman TV special which aired to mil-lions of viewers.Founded in 1919, the Grammy andJuno-award winning Vancouver Sym-phony Orchestra is one of the largestarts organizations in western Canada.It is Canada’s third largest orchestra,and one of the few orchestras in NorthAmerica to have its own music school.The VSO and Music Director Maes-tro Otto Tausk celebrated the orches-tra’s 100th anniversary season in 2018-2019.For more details about the VSO PopsSeries and to purchase tickets for TheCeltic Tenors, visit www.myVSO.ca.

Put on yourdancing shoesfor an Irish ceiliSt. Patrick’s DayVANCOUVER – Put your green danc-ing shoes on for the annual St.Patrick’s Day ceili presented by theVancouver Irish Ceili Society on Sat-urday, March 14, 8-11 PM.Experienced callers teach the dancesstep-by-step and beginners are verywelcome. All dances are done to livetraditional Irish music. Wear comfort-able shoes that can slide.A 50/50 draw and special performanceswill be featured at the break. Refresh-ments will also be available. Wear greenor festive St. Paddy’s day accessories!The ceili will be at the Victoria DriveCommunity Hall, 2026 East Avenue,Vancouver (43rd Avenue at Victoria).Doors open at 7:30 PM.Tickets are available through BrownPaper Tickets until 12 hours beforethe event, and then they will be avail-able only at the door.[www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4502600].You don’t need to come with a part-ner, but why not invite a friend? Formore information, e-mail:[email protected], call:(604) 812-4131, or visit online at:ceili.vcn.bc.ca.

Famous Quotes“It is in the cultivation

of instrumental music I considerthe proficiency of this people to be

worthy of commendation; andin this their skill is, beyond allcomparison, beyond that of

any nation I have ever seen.”Giraldus, Cambrensis

(Gerald of Wales)[c. 1147 - c 1223]

The Topography of Ireland


I/CAN: Offering cross-Canadasupport with immigrationand wellness/mental health

TORONTO – The nationalmandate at The EamonnO’Loghlin Irish CanadianImmigration Centre (aka I/CAN) includes provision ofservices across Canada.Outside of Toronto, we currentlyhave a critical mass of clients inVancouver (some of you might re-member we used to provide on theground outreach in Saskatoon,Edmonton, Calgary, and FortMcMurray, but since 2015 we re-ceive fewer queries from those lo-cales).Though clients may reach out at anytime via our toll-free line or email, ourteam travels to Vancouver throughoutthe year to provide in-person outreachand information on immigration (par-ticularly with respect to permanentresidency).

We recently upscaled services to Van-couver and now offer a monthly semi-nar that addresses immigration andwellness/mental health supports.As I write this, I have just landed backin Toronto following three rain-soaked(records were broken!), inspiring daysin Vancouver.In addition to hosting a large formatworkshop on Express Entry (Canada’ssystem for processing PR applicationsfor skilled workers), I had the privi-lege of joining the Ireland Canada Cham-ber of Commerce-Vancouver(ICCCVan) event ‘Women LeadingChange’, participating as a panelistalongside Pauline O’Malley and GerriSinclair.Event organizers Bríd Dunne and AoifeDowling programmed an impactfulevening with thought-provoking ques-tions inviting robust feedback from theaudience.The following day on February 1, once

again I was a panelist, this time at LáFhéile Bríde (the St. Brigid’s Day Fes-tival) organized by the Irish Benevo-lent Society of B.C., the Irish Wom-en’s Network of B.C., and SimonFraser University.In a conversation moderated by MauraDe Freitas, Suzie Newman (OrchardRecovery Centre), Dr. Máire Durnin(Orchard Recovery Centre), AmyO’Sullivan (Darkness into Light-Van-couver) and I addressed “MentalHealth and the Irish Diaspora from awomen’s perspective.”This proved to be a considerable, rel-evant two hours as women from thefloor shared insights and asked toughquestions and panelists sign-posted tocritical services in Vancouver.I commend organizers for their visionin programming events with real pur-pose and actionable take-aways.If you know of anyone who could availof I/CAN’s service, please do sendthem our way: www.irishcdn.org.

A wonderful cross-cultural afternoonfeaturing Welsh and Irish music

By EIFION WILLIAMSVANCOUVER – An overflow crowdenjoyed an afternoon of Welsh andIrish music and hospitality at theCambrian Hall on Saturday afternoon,February 8.The occasion was a visit by interna-tionally acclaimed guest artists DewiGarmon Jones, a French horn playerfrom Wales, and concert pianist MáireCarroll from Ireland.The event was hosted by the Vancou-ver Welsh Society and supported bythe Consulate General of Ireland, Van-couver.Vancouver Welsh Society PresidentLynn Owens-Whalen was initially in-formed by the Irish Consulate that thetwo performers planned a visit to Van-couver while on a current tour.With the support of Irish Consul-Gen-eral Frank Flood and the Welsh Soci-ety’s Social Committee, Lynn thenproceeded to organize an informal af-ternoon of music and hospitality in theRed Dragon lounge at the CambrianHall.Pianist Máire Carroll has an impres-sive list of performances and academicachievements.She has played in venues all over theworld, including Carnegie Hall,Wigmore Hall, London’s Barbican Cen-tre, Dublin’s National Concert Hall,and many other venues throughoutEurope, Asia and North America.Máire is also very innovative. In 2018she launched a concert series called‘Hidden Pianos’, where she played toaudiences in unfamiliar spaces such asthe Dublin Port Waterways and intro-duced the series to primary schools inthe Dublin Docklands.Her most recent project was called‘Classical Collision’, which included aperformance at Ireland’s annual Bodyand Soul Festival last summer.Máire began her studies at the age offour at the Royal Irish Academy of

Music. She graduated with an M.Mus.degree with distinction at London’sRoyal Academy of Music.She was later awarded an LRAM de-gree and was the 2016 winner of theRoyal Academy of Music’s FranzReizenstein Award for outstandingachievement. She is currently complet-ing her doctorate studies at TrinityCollege, Dublin and the Royal IrishAcademy of Music.French Horn player Dewi GarmonJones also studied at the Royal Acad-emy of Music, London. He has per-formed with Ireland’s RTE NationalSymphony Orchestra, the Halle Or-chestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic,the Dublin Brass Ensemble and theWexford Opera Festival Orchestra.Dewi has also played for musicalshows in London’s West End and onUK tours in productions such as TheLion King, Les Miserables, West SideStory and Little Miss Sunshine. He regu-larly tours with Ensemble Cymru andSinfonia Cymru.In 2019 he performed Puccini’s Toscain Abu Dhabi, with Bryn Terfel in theleading role.

In earlier years, Dewi was PrincipalHorn of the National Youth Orchestraof Wales and is currently associate di-rector of the ‘Hidden Pianos’ serieslaunched by fellow performer MáireCarroll in 2018.The Saturday afternoon event at theCambrian Hall was an overwhelmingsuccess.Audience members, predominantlyfrom the Lower Mainland Welsh andIrish communities, were very appre-ciative of the guests’ performance whileenjoying a convivial atmosphere thatincluded a bar service and snacks pre-pared by Welsh Society members.Lynn Owens-Whalen opened the eventby welcoming the audience to theCambrian Hall and by reminding allthose present how valuable an assetthe hall was to the Welsh community.She invited everyone present to visitthe hall during an open house on St.David’s Day, March 1.Before introducing the two guest art-ists, Consul-General Frank Flood em-phasized the importance of maintain-ing social and cultural connections be-tween the two Celtic Nations and saidhe was pleased to see so many repre-sentatives of the Irish community inthe audience.The Cambrian Hall audience was hon-oured to be entertained by these twodistinguished and talented performers.Both included in their repertoire mu-sic resonant of their respective home-lands.Máire’s program included piano piecesshe had composed or arranged herselfand other classical pieces inspired byIrish composers, while Dewi includedin his program a couple of familiarWelsh folk tunes. Following their musical presentations,Máire and Dewi spent some time so-cializing with audience members andboth promised to return to Vancouverand the Cambrian Hall in the near fu-ture.

VANCOUVER WELSH SOCIETY President Lynn Owens-Whalenwith concert pianist Máire Carroll, Dewi Garmon Jones, a Frenchhorn player from Wales, and the Consul-General of Ireland FrankFlood.

ACCLAIMED GUEST ARTISTSDewi Garmon Jones and MáireCarroll.

DUBLIN – Former Taoiseach BertieAhern has predicted a new Irish Gov-ernment will not be formed before theend of March. He said work on creat-ing a “stable and sustainable” coalitionhad not yet properly begun.Sinn Féin surged during Ireland’s Gen-eral Election on a manifesto promisingchange in housing and health saw itbecome the third major party in theRepublic.The first meeting of the Dail parlia-ment on Thursday, February 20 is un-likely to elect a new government.Ahern told RTE’s The Week in Poli-tics, “When you are putting a govern-ment together we have to look to thefuture as well.“It is not just about sorting out thepresent position. It will have to takeinto account the election result andwhat is the policy formulation.”He said negotiators and party strate-gists needed to focus on housing, home-lessness and health. “Otherwise theywill lock themselves into a major prob-lem.”While taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader,Ahern helped create the 1998 GoodFriday Agreement which largely endedviolence in Northern Ireland.

Bertie Ahern: No Irishgovernment in placebefore end of March

Sinn Féin topped the first preferencepoll following the February 8 GeneralElection with a total of 37 seats – justone fewer than that of Fianna Fáil.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gaelwon 35 seats.No single party has enough seats togovern and Sinn Féin appears to havefailed to muster enough support froma coalition of small left-leaning partiesand independent members of the newIrish parliament.Fianna Fáil has ruled out entering acoalition with Sinn Féin because ofhistoric links to the IRA and widepolicy differences over issues like howto run the economy.It is reportedly veering towards dis-cussions with Fine Gael aimed at form-ing a grand coalition of two partiesfrom opposite ends of Ireland’s CivilWar divide a century ago.The pair have dominated power sincethe state’s formation.Sinn Féin president Mary-LouMcDonald has spoken out againstmore of the same political coalitionswhen the people have voted for change.She has called her political rivals “ar-rogant’ in denying her party a place inthe next Irish Government.

ELECTION 2020 Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, Mary-LouMcDonald Sinn Féin leader, and Leo Varadakar. Sinn Féin wonthe popular vote while Fianna Fáil narrowly won the largestnumber of seats. There have been bitter clashes between theleaders to determine the next taoiseach.


ICCCVan presents excellent discussionon the topic ‘Women Leading Change’

VANCOUVER – Thursday,January 30 saw the IrelandCanada Chamber of Com-merce Vancouver (ICCCVan)host a panel discussion on thetopic of ‘Women LeadingChange’.ICCCVan Vice-President BrídDunne opened the evening speak-ing of the Chamber’s mission tobring professionals in our Irishcommunity together so that theycan learn from and support eachother.The Chamber was founded in 2017 andhas grown from strength-to-strengthover the last number of years, includ-ing the launch of the BC/Ireland Busi-ness Directory and a doubling of theirmembership.Dunne spoke of the Lá Fhéile Brídefestival providing the ideal opportu-nity to celebrate a day that is increas-ingly seen as an opportunity to com-mend and applaud the strong womenof Ireland.Seeing that through their Ireland-Canada lens, organizers with ICCCVan

GUESTS at the ICCCVan ‘Women Leading Change’ event. [Fore-ground] Vice Consul General, Jennifer Bourke with JoanneMcAllister. [Background] Consul General, Frank Flood.

ICCCVan Board: Alan Cosgrave, Brid Dunne, Ruairi Spillane, AoifeDowling, Brendan Dalton (not pictured Mary Hatch).

GUEST PANELISTS: Cathy Murphy, Pauline O’Malley, GerriSinclair.

were excited to be able to bring togetheran incredible panel of women, with ex-periences from both side of the Atlan-tic Ocean.And with that, the three panelists tookto the stage at the Vancouver Club.• Pauline O’Malley developer ofRevTurbo, a business developmentmethodology based on behaviouralpsychology. O’Malley is also the au-thor of Lifestyle Selling Women and isthe Founding Chair of the Greater Van-couver Board of Trade’s Leaders ofTomorrow student mentorship pro-gram.• Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Managing Direc-tor of Kensington Capital Partners, isresponsible for directing the $100 BCTech Fund.Dr. Sinclair is also a digital strategyadviser at Vancity Credit Union. Gerriwas the founder and CEO ofNCompass Labs, the digital contentmanagement company acquired byMicrosoft in 2001. At this year’s Busi-ness in Vancouver Influential Womenin Business Award Gerri will receivethe Lifetime Achievement Award.• Cathy Murphy, Executive DirectorI/CAN – the Irish Canadian Immigra-

tion Centre that offers outreach andinformation in areas such as employ-ment, social services, and immigration.Cathy is also VP of the European Un-ion Chamber of Commerce Canada.Moderating the panel discussion wasAoife Dowling, Director, Digital Bank-ing Solutions with Vancity.It was an amazing evening of thought-provoking conversation.The discussion opened by asking“Why do we still need to have GenderEquality conversations?” and ended by

contemplating where next the panelistsand the audience wanted to leadchange.Even after the panel discussion hadended and the panelists had left thestage, the conversations continued asguests mingled throughout the roomintroducing themselves and makingimpactful connections.The next ICCCVan event will be theirannual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast Cel-ebration on the morning of March 17in the Terminal City Club.

For all the details, and to get your tick-ets, check out www.icccvan.ca/events.Tickets are limited, so be sure to getyours early.Don’t forget the Ireland Canada Cham-ber of Commerce Vancouver(ICCCVan) is a not-for-profit organi-sation so all ticket sales go towardsthe costs of running the business net-working events they hold.Membership is currently as little as$50 for 12 months and entitles you toheavily discounted tickets to theirevents.


Deal or no deal, UK consumersface higher prices post-Brexit

LONDON – A British retail group haswarned that even if the UK negotiatesa trade agreement with the EuropeanUnion, it will face higher tariffs andextensive checks.Following the UK’s official departurefrom the European Union on January31, 2020, formal negotiations will belaunched next month to begin the proc-ess of forming a new trade relation-ship.During its membership of the EU’sCustoms Union and Single Market theUK was able to import and exportgoods seamlessly. But the UK Gov-ernment has said that border controlswill be needed to ensure the right cus-toms and excise duties are collected andborders are kept secure after the 11-month transition period ends on De-cember 31, 2020.The British Retail Consortium (BRC)said that without practical agreementswith the EU, companies could be re-quired to produce a mountain of pa-perwork at border crossings – VATsales tax and excise documents, freightdocuments, health and veterinary pa-perwork, export health certificates,exit and entry summary declarations,and safety and security permits.“The issue is simple – higher tariffsand extensive checks will harm con-sumers, retailers, and the UKeconomy. The government must setabout to negotiate a zero tariff agree-ment that minimizes checks and redtape otherwise it will be consumerswho suffer as a result,” said BRC chiefexecutive Helen Dickinson.Almost 80 percent of all the food thatUK retailers import comes from theEU. The lobby group said the govern-ment must establish import and exportprocesses along with the infrastructureneeded to conduct the necessarychecks.It said staff will need to be hired andtrained to carry out these checks, whileIT systems will need to be adaptedand tested. Holding facilities for lor-ries, particularly at the key ports ofDover and Folkestone in southernEngland, will also need to be built.Meanwhile, European CommissionPresident Ursula von der Leyen andchief negotiator Michel Barnier haveboth cast doubt on Boris Johnson’saim to reach a comprehensive agree-ment by the end of the year.The EU has repeatedly warned thatthe UK cannot expect to enjoy contin-ued “high-quality” market access if itinsists on diverging from EU social andenvironmental standards.The European Parliament has calledfor the UK to follow EU rules in ahost of areas, such as chemicals regu-lation, food labelling and subsidies forcompanies, as part of a process of “dy-namic alignment.” But UK ministershave repeatedly ruled out such a closeregulatory relationship.A Downing Street spokesperson said,“Our approach is clear – we are notasking for anything special, bespokeor unique, but are looking for a deallike those the EU has struck previouslywith other friendly countries likeCanada.It should be noted however that CETA(the “Comprehensive Economic andTrade Agreement” between Canada andthe European Union) took years tonegotiate and was about 22 years inthe making and is yet to be ratified.But this was a relatively simple tradeagreement that does not include the

services provisions and deals on non-tariff barriers that a big exporter of pro-fessional services such as Britain willalmost certainly require.Deals between larger economies suchas the US/EU Transatlantic Trade andInvestment Partnership (TTIP) and theUS/Asia deal known as the Trans Pa-cific Partnership (TPP) proved so com-plicated and controversial that theyhave collapsed under their own politi-cal weight.Meanwhile, just when the UK’s long-suffering fishing fleet were expectingto finally catch a break with a pro-spective Brexit bonus, instead they’regetting torpedoed according to JimPettipher of the Coastal ProducersOrganisation.Skippers of more than 2,100 vesselsin England have been ordered to use a

new Catch Recording App in a bid tocollect more detailed information onhow much fish is being caught bysmall-scale fishermen.Concerned industry representativessay the technology roll-out couldsound the death knell for traditionalfishing, just as Britain prepares to cutitself from the European Union’s Com-mon Fisheries Policy (CFP).Furious officials have accused the fish-ing regulator, the Marine ManagementOrganisation (MMO), of having “tor-pedoed” the survival chances of theEnglish industry with the impositionof its £1.8 million Catch App.Under 10 metre boats, which accountfor 80 percent of all UK vessels, arebeing forced to use the app to recordthe weight of their catch accurately –or risk a criminal record and fine.

THE UK’S LONG-SUFFERING FISHING FLEET were expectingto finally catch a break with a prospective Brexit bonus insteadthey’re getting torpedoed according to Jim Pettipher of the CoastalProducers Organisation.

FORMER DEPUTY at the Treasury, Chief Secretary Rishi Sunakhas been appointed to replace the British Chancellor of the Ex-chequer Sajid Javid following his dramatic resignation.

Sajid Javid quitsas British Chancelloramid disagreementwith Boris Johnson

LONDON – Sajid Javid has dramati-cally quit as British Chancellor of theExchequer in a disagreement with BorisJohnson over his closest aides.The British prime minister had beenexpected to keep Javid in his post andnews of his resignation shocked West-minster on Thursday, February 13.Allies of the former chancellor said theprime minister had ordered him to fireall of his senior aides if he wanted toremain at the Treasury – somethingJavid refused to do.He resigned rather than have many ofhis powers stripped and handed overto Johnson’s aides in 10 DowningStreet.The chancellor is considered Britain’ssecond-most powerful official after theprime minister and now his formerdeputy at the Treasury, Chief Secre-tary Rishi Sunak, will take the job hav-ing reportedly agreed to a joint Number10-Number 11 team of advisers.The bombshell came after long-stand-ing rumours of tensions between theex-chancellor and Johnson’s closest

aide Dominic Cummings.In August he had fired Javid’s aideSonia Khan and it appears Number 10wanted to go further in keeping a closereye on the chancellor.In appointing Sunak, a 39-year-oldformer investment banker who won hisseat in Parliament only in 2015,Johnson is out to make sure that theTreasury will not curb his free-spend-ing agenda.Javid said that “no self-respecting min-ister” could accept the condition beingimposed.He had walked smiling into Number10 in a sign that he expected to remainin place ahead of the March 11 Budget.His departure came after Julian Smithwas unceremoniously dumped asNorthern Ireland Secretary, AndreaLeadsom was sacked as Business Sec-retary and Theresa Villiers lost her jobas Environment Secretary.Other senior ministers axed by BorisJohnson included Geoffrey Cox fromhis post as attorney general, andEsther McVey as housing minister.

Boris Johnson appointsnew U.S. ambassadoramid Donald Trump‘fury’ over Huawei

DAME KAREN PIERCE will be-come the first woman to hold thepost of British Ambassador tothe United States. One of Brit-ain’s most senior diplomat sheis now the UK permanent repre-sentative to the United Nations.

LONDON – Boris Johnson hasappointed a new British ambas-sador to the United States amidreports of a furious row withPresident Donald Trump overChinese tech giant Huawei.Dame Karen Pierce, currently theUK permanent representative tothe United Nations, will become thefirst woman to hold the post,Downing Street said.She replaces Sir Kim Darroch, whowas forced to stand down last yearafter diplomatic cables he wrote criti-cising the Trump White House wereleaked to the press.Since joining the Foreign Office in1981, Pierce has been posted to To-kyo, the Balkans and Geneva. Sheserved as the UK’s ambassador to Af-ghanistan in 2015 and 2016.She became political director at theForeign Office, a leading domestic dip-lomatic position, before heading to theUN.There she has regularly crossedswords with Russia over its conductin the Syrian civil war, arguing its sup-

port for Bashar al-Assad’s regime hasweakened Vladimir Putin’s moral au-thority.Pierce has a blunt speaking style whennecessary and fought back stronglyagainst suggestions that British influ-ence at the UN was on the wane be-cause of Brexit.Her appointment comes amid reportsthat the president was “apoplectic” atJohnson’s decision to give Huawei arole in building the UK’s 5G network.The Financial Times reported thatBritish officials were taken aback bythe force of Trump’s language whenthe prime minister telephoned to ex-plain the move.It followed intensive lobbying fromWashington that allowing a Chinesesupplier access to the country’s criti-cal communications networks wouldconstitute a major security risk.U.S. officials repeatedly warned thatthey would withhold intelligence-shar-ing from any ally which did so.Downing Street refused to be drawndirectly on the report, insisting thatthe relationship with the U.S. remained“excellent.” However there was no di-

rect denial of the claims. But the claimsadd to the sense that Dame Karen –one of Britain’s most senior diplomats– may have her work cut out when shetakes up her new role once her appoint-ment is formally approved by theAmericans.As well as the differences over Huawei,the two countries are at odds over theUK’s plan to impose a tax on U.S. techgiants, with the Americans threaten-ing to retaliate with tariffs on the UKcar industry.The UK is also pressing for the extra-dition of the wife of a U.S. intelligenceofficial charged with causing the deathof 19-year-old motorcyclist HarryDunn, whom the Americans are refus-ing to hand over.At the same time, the government inLondon is anxious to secure an earlypost-Brexit free trade deal with theU.S. now that the UK has formallyleft the EU.Pierce said she was “honoured” to havebeen asked to take up the post. “I thinkit is the UK’s single most importantrelationship. There is a deep bond be-tween Britain and the U.S., built onmany pillars,” she said.


VANCOUVER WELSH SOCIETY

March 1 is St. David’s Dayand you’re invited

to join the festivitiesVANCOUVER – The Van-couver Welsh Society will cel-ebrate St. David’s Day on Sun-day, March 1 with an openhouse in the Cambrian Hall’sRed Dragon lounge.The event is open to the publicalong with members of theWelsh Society and everyone isinvited to enjoy a day of enter-tainment and activities. Refresh-ments will include traditionalWelsh cakes and leek soup.As in years past, there will also be a‘Druid’s ceremony’, a simulation of theWelsh National Eisteddfod’s Gorseddceremony, ending with the archdruid’scall for ‘Peace’.Doors will open at 2:30 PM for theopen house which is expected to con-tinue into the evening.The traditional St. David’s Day din-ner will be held on the evening of Sat-urday, February 29 with guest of hon-our Surrey-based harpist and classi-cally trained singer Leanne Page.Leanne will be making a welcome re-turn to the Cambrian Hall after delight-ing audiences at previous perform-ances with her melodious playing andbeautiful voice.Many will remember Leanne’s per-formance, together with her son

CARDIFF, Wales – Wales willnot be intimidated out of fight-ing for its interests in future ne-gotiations with the EuropeanUnion after Brexit, MarkDrakeford has said.The Welsh first minister also said theUK Government would have a “fighton its hands” if it decided to retainpowers returning from the EU whichfell into devolved areas of law.Drakeford was speaking at thePierhead Building in Cardiff Bay, wherehe said Wales would “remain a proudlyEuropean nation” but warned it andthe rest of the UK would experience“stresses and strains” in the comingyears.He said “Brexit may have happened

THOUSANDS were left with-out power on Sunday, Febru-ary 16 after Storm Dennisswept across the UK and theRepublic of Ireland, bringingheavy rains and strong winds.In the UK roads and flooded railwaylines were shut down. Flood warningsreached an all-time record, with a stag-gering 594 in place across England asevacuations took place across thecountry.Severe flood warnings were issued forthe Scottish Borders and for the RiverNeath in South Wales, while local me-dia reported the River Taff had burstits banks at Pontypool.The situation was said to be “life-threatening” in South Wales, where theMet Office issued a red warning dueto heavy rainfall and flooding risk.

Wales won’t be intimidated inpost-Brexit negotiations, says First Minister

Major incident declaredin South Wales after Storm Dennis

ABERYSTWYTH seafront in Ceredigion, Wales is battered withgigantic waves from Storm Dennis on Saturday, February 15.

Connor on classical guitar, at theCambrian Hall’s 90th anniversary con-cert at West Point Grey United Churchlast October.On Saturday, March 7, there will beanother Ceilidh/Twmpath/barn danceat the Cambrian Hall featuring thepopular Rattlebone Band.This event has become popular withparticipants of all ages, providing lotsof fun and social interaction.Dance steps are taught and called onthe spot. Refreshments including beer,wine, soft drinks and snacks will beavailable for sale.In addition to the above events, theVancouver Welsh Society offers sev-eral monthly activities, including a bi-lingual church service, Welsh learningclasses and Welsh speaking classes, agenealogy group, a book club andWelsh Spirit events.Further information on all the aboveevents can be found on the VancouverWelsh Society’s website:www.welshsociety.com.

By EIFION WILLIAMS

IN SOUTH WALES, residents of Nantgarw in a rescue boat beingevacuated by emergency teams.

Police there declared a major incidentas people were moved to emergencyrescue centres after their properties andbusinesses were devastated by waterfrom overflowing rivers.Some areas sustained heavy damage asstreets were evacuated with the helpof lifeboats in some of the worst-hitareas.South Wales Fire and Rescue Servicearea manager Ian Greenman said theservice had received an “unprec-edented” 1,300 calls during Sunday andhad carried out 76 life rescues.One of the worst-hit areas in SouthWales was the village of Nantgarw,Rhondda Cynon Taff, near Cardiff,which had seen entire streets left un-derwater since the early hours of Sun-day morning.Emergency teams including firefight-ers and volunteers had been evacuat-

ing the village’s Oxford Street sincearound 5 AM and were still workingmidday on Sunday.Paul Mason, group manager of SouthWales Fire and Rescue Service, said thescene his team had faced was the worsthe had experienced in his 31-year ca-reer.He said, “We started getting calls at 5AM. The water was up to the win-dow sills in some instances, so we senta number of boats and crews down hereto assist with our partner agencies,systematically going through each ofthe houses, knocking on doors, tryingto prioritise individuals.“This weather is unprecedented. Wehaven’t seen this, it’s incredible, andit’s right throughout the South WalesValleys. In my 31 years in the servicethis is the worst I’ve ever seen. I’venever experienced anything like thisbefore.”In the Scottish Borders people wereadvised to evacuate from their homeson the night of Saturday, February 15as Storm Dennis swept through thearea.The Scottish Environment ProtectionAgency (SEPA) issued the advice forresidents in Hawick due to the condi-tions.SEPA flood duty manager MarkMcLaughlin said, “Severe Flood Warn-ings for areas in the Scottish Bordershave been issued tonight as we con-tinue to see rivers respond to the im-pacts of Storm Dennis.“These warnings mean that extensiveflooding is expected to properties andbusinesses with many roads impass-able. Some evacuations have been ad-vised.“The Severe Flood Warnings have beenissued for Teviot and Slitrig at Hawickand Newcastleton. We advise peopleto stay away from flood water and tonot take unnecessary risks.”Over the weekend, the military wasdeployed to build flood defenses inWest Yorkshire in areas where peoplewere still struggling to repair theirhomes after the floods caused byStorm Ciara just days earlier.It was estimated that more than 40,000travellers were affected by the disrup-tion on air, rail and road networks andmore than 700 homes in westerly Corn-wall were left without power.

but we are yet to step out into thatbrave new world.“And while Brexit may be done in thatnarrow sense, the impact of Brexit, theform of Brexit is with us for years tocome.“Here in Wales and in the Welsh Gov-ernment, we will not be hoodwinkedby any simplistic assertion that Brexitis now over and done.“We will not be browbeaten by theassertion that the decision to leave theEU is a decision that brings an end todebate or to discussion.“And we will not simply be bored intosubmission by the reality that Brexitis with us not just for today but foryears and years to come.”During a question and answer session,

Drakeford said Wales and the otherdevolved nations should be given a“guaranteed place” in the forming ofthe UK’s negotiating mandate, and bepart of negotiations which dependedon devolved matters.He added, “If the UK Governmentthinks the way to sustain the UK af-ter the EU is to act unilaterally, to rideroughshod over the responsibilitiesthat have been devolved to Wales –devolved because of two referendums– then I say here, as I’ve said directlyto them, they have a fight on theirhands.”Drakeford also warned those whocomplained about being “rule takers”in the EU would instead now have tobe rule takers to the U.S. in order totrade with it in the future.


ByHARRY

McGRATH

DINBURGH –Looking for newsstories from west-ern Canada in theBritish media is

Royal watching in Victoria, B.C....but not as we know it!

E DOWNTOWN VICTORIA, B.C. – The Victoria Inner Harbour is oneof the most beautiful harbours in the world and serves as the gate-way to the city’s historic streets and distinctive architecture. It isalso just steps from the Parliament Buildings, home to the Legis-lative Assembly of British Columbia.like watching for a blue moon,

but with less expectation of suc-cess.I have been on the lookout sincereturning to Scotland 12 years agoand can count the number of sto-ries that I have spotted on onehand.For instance, there was a brief flurryof British press interest in Vancouverafter the hockey riot of 2011 though,generally speaking, there was a lotmore ‘in pictures’ coverage than report-ing or analysis.Looking back at The Guardian’s‘world gallery’ of fires, fights and po-lice horses, it’s not hard to understandwhy even broadsheets couldn’t resistthe temptation to prioritise imagesover text. From there things were quietfor a long time.The detention of Huawei’s global chieffinancial officer, Meng Wanzhou, inVancouver in 2018 got some media at-tention here. But the fact that it tookplace in Vancouver was secondary tothe international power play betweenChina and the United States.Prior to the Huawei story, it was Vic-toria that made headlines here when itwas discovered to be the home of Ag-gregate IQ, a small marketing companywhich had been lavishly funded byVote Leave and other groups with aninterest in Britain departing the EU.The story ran on as the main actors inAIQ were subject to political enquir-ies in Britain and in Canada.While the big story was the contribu-tion a small Victoria company made toBrexit, it was also fascinating (at leastto me) to watch the British press strug-gle to understand anything about Vic-toria, not least the fact that it is some-thing of a tech hub.Instead British Columbia’s capital citywas routinely described as “the backof beyond” or “the middle of no-where.”Eventually Channel 4 sent a journalistover to the “Canadian backwaters.” Hetravelled around on a small boat, mis-pronounced Cowichan, stared throughthe window of recently vacated officesin downtown Victoria and met someCanadians who politely informed himthat they weren’t keen to help him findanyone.Eventually he ran into a conspiracytheorist who saw dark forces at workeverywhere and had to settle for inter-rogating him.Which brings us in a roundabout wayto Harry and Meghan and whateverthe British press learned about Victo-ria via the AIQ story doesn’t seem tohave taken root.This may have something to do with

the fact that investigative journalistsand royal correspondents are entirelydifferent breeds but I suspect there ismore to it than that.When the news first broke that theroyal couple had “gone to Canada,”there was an outbreak of speculationabout how cold they would be and re-markably little interest in where ex-actly they were in the world’s secondlargest country.Belatedly narrowing it down to Victo-ria didn’t stop the snow and ice cari-catures despite the fact that Victoria’sweather is broadly similar to London’s.And descriptions of Vancouver Islandwere sometimes excruciating with onejournalist describing it as “a resort is-land near Vancouver.”It was something of a relief, then, whenmy friend and Victoria residentMichael Elcock popped in the Scot-tish Review with some actual knowl-edge to impart.Michael pointed out that while Victo-ria may not be on a resort island, it hasoften been a place of refuge for highprofile people who need a break frompublic scrutiny.These include Bob Hope, John Wayne,Winston Churchill, FranklinRoosevelt, Shirley Temple and Prin-cess Margaret.Michael ascribes Victoria’s popular-ity with famous types to the fact thatthe locals leave them alone.

I was in Victoria when the news brokethat the royals were around and, whileI had no luck spotting the other Harryfrom my barstool perch in the Bardand Banker, I did watch some local tel-evision interviewees insisting that thatthe couple’s privacy should be re-spected.Friends have since told me stories ofsmall Victoria businesses that wereclosed to paparazzi and people refus-ing to talk to British media outlets.And this is no small thing. Most royalwatching is mere stuff and nonsensebut everyone remembers the treatmentPrinces Diana received from some inBritain’s media, not least Prince Harryhimself who is now openly talkingabout it.The news just broke here about thesuicide of a former host of a ‘datingreality’ television show called LoveIsland.When her death was announced one ofBritain’s more virulent tabloids tookdown a story that mocked her.It was originally published on St. Val-entine’s Day, the day before she died.So more power to the collective elbowof Victoria’s citizens as they politelyspurn British media advances andguard the privacy of the now formerroyals.And here’s hoping Harry and Meghanstay where they are and wait for theBritish press to forget (again) whereVictoria is. Shouldn’t be long now.

PRO-EU CAMPAIGNERS take part in a ‘Missing EU Already’ rallyoutside the Scottish Parliament on January 31, 2020 when the UKofficially left the European Union.

Report says IndependentScotland ‘would face fiveyear wait to rejoin EU’

EDINBURGH – An independ-ent Scotland would take four tofive years to rejoin the EU, amajor new report has revealed.And it warns that Scotland wouldeffectively be forced to adopt theeuro or see its influence shrinkwithin the EU.The report, entitled ‘The EU Blue-print Pathway for Scotland’s Acces-sion to the European Union Under In-dependence’, was published by politi-cal scientist Anthony Salamone in Ed-inburgh.It urges Scotland to rejoin the Brus-sels bloc after a Yes vote as this wouldbe in the country’s “economic, socialand geostrategic interests.”Scotland will be in a “strong positionto satisfy the political and economicdimensions” of EU membership, thereport adds.“Scotland’s accession would not posea challenge to the EU’s integration ca-pacity,” it states.And although the length of accessionprocess is not defined, it would nothappen immediately.“Scotland will reasonably take 4-5years to join the EU,” it adds. “Thegovernment should adopt a target toEU accession of four years.”In the meantime, Scotland should seekto broker an “Association Agreement”on issues like customs and trade.A majority of Scots (62 percent) votedto Remain in the EU in the Brexit ref-erendum on 2016, but the weight of

votes south of the border swung theoutcome in favour of Leave.Nicola Sturgeon is demanding the rightto hold a fresh referendum on inde-pendence this year in response toBrexit and would seek to rejoin the EUafter independence.The Scottish Government has insistedit has no plans to join the EU singlecurrency if it becomes member state.The report accepts that the EU wouldnot require Scotland to join the euro ata “particular time” and it would be upto Scotland to determine this issue.But new members must eventually“participate fully” in the Economic andMonetary Union (EMU) which in-cludes joining the euro.“The eurozone is a core aspect of theUnion and the locus for most dimen-sions of future political integration,”it adds.“The longer the Republic were to re-main outside of the euro, the less in-fluence it will have in its operation and,by extension, the Union.”

JUST HOURS before the UK formally left the European Union,Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon addressed SNP support-ers in Edinburgh to unveil new measures as part of a push towardsan independent Scotland.

“Scotland will bein a strong position

to satisfy the politicaland economicdimensions”


EST-SELL-ING authorD i a n aG a b a l d o nhadn’t even

The Outlander Effect: The popular bookand TV series is increasing travel to these Scottish sites

kilts or play bagpipes; the whole cul-ture was extinguished.”A battlefield is a somber place to visit,but Hugh Allison, former propertymanager at Culloden who now ownsInverness Tours, says he’s found away to help U.S. visitors relate to thesite.“You could make the argument that thisis the battle that formed the UnitedStates of America,” he says.Its repercussions emptied English andFrench treasuries, which meant Eng-land’s King George III called for moretaxes in the American colonies, “andwe know where that went.”

At Culloden, various clans have me-morial stones on the battlefield. Al-though the character Jamie Fraser isfictional, his clan is not.And yes, that clan has a stone on thebattlefield as well.Falkland Palace, Falkland, Fife: Thisbeautiful hunting palace has marvelousgardens and the oldest tennis court inScotland, where Mary, Queen of Scots,and her father played.Besides serving as an apothecary inthe show’s “Hail Mary” episode, thepalace appears in the inaugural episodeif you know where to look for it, ac-cording to Allison.

Claire peers in the window of the iron-monger (a term used until the 1970s inScotland to mean “hardware store”) ata blue vase.“Look over her shoulder and you’ll seethe gatehouse of Falkland Palace,”Allison says.Doune Castle, Doune, Perthshire: Thismedieval stronghold that plays CastleLeoch on TV conveys visible poign-ancy: Claire and Frank visit it in ruinsin the show’s “modern day” 1940s,and Claire returns when it is in its hey-day.Visits to the castle have increased 227percent since the Starz series debutedin 2014, according to a report called“The Outlander Effect & Tourism,”commissioned by VisitScotland lastyear, the highest rise for the filmingsites in the study.Some sites are off the tourist path forother reasons.The Reverend Wakefield’s home, wherecharacters settle into the library toconduct research, is a private housenot open to visitors, according to JenniSteele, the film and creative industriesmanager at VisitScotland.“There are a lot of locations in the se-ries that I cannot promote,” she said.“They might be on private land, or ahistoric structure delicate in its fabricthat can’t cope with too many visi-tors.”

Preston Mill, East Linton, near Edin-burgh: This is another site that has ben-efited from needed repairs.The old mill’s wheel, under whichJamie hid from English soldiers, wasjammed, but Steele said Outlander fansresponded enthusiastically to a fund-ing appeal for restoration work, andthe target was reached quickly.Astonishingly, all the locations forOutlander, excepting South Africa,were filmed in Scotland. TheVisitScotland website features 42shooting sites up through Season 4,and after Season 5 ends, its locationswill be added, too.The Scots praise Gabaldon not just forthe tourists she’s brought but for hergenerosity of spirit and sense of kin-ship with the country.There are tales of book signings thatdidn’t end until 2:30 AM, benefits forhospice associations, sandwich shopsthat gave her food on the house be-cause she did so much to raise the lo-cal economy.“People may go to Scotland thinkingof Jamie and Claire, but when theycome home, it’s Scotland in their minds,because of the way Diana has repre-sented Scotland in the books,”Lowstuter says.“She kept very true to the history andmagic of Scotland, embellished by herability to bring it to life on the page.”

THE MEMORIAL CAIRN at Culloden Battlefield, near Inverness.There are also memorial stones for the various clans that foughtthere.

DOUNE CASTLE, a medieval courtyard fortress built around 1400by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, stands in for Castle Leoch inthe “Outlander” TV series.

WITH ITS CONICAL ROOF, Preston Mill is unusually shaped. Inthe show, Jamie hides under the wheel.

Bset foot in Scotland whenshe began the book thatlaunched the popularOutlander series.But she’s made the country soattractive to readers – and towatchers of the Starz televisionprogram – that the Scottish gov-ernment’s tourism agency gaveher an honorary Thistle Awardfor generating a flood of visitorsto the fens, glens, jagged moun-tains and soft jade landscapesshe so alluringly describes.According to numbers fromVisitScotland, Outlander has in-creased tourism by an average of67 percent at the sites mentionedin the books or used in filming.Gabaldon, who is from Phoenix, Ari-zona, wrote the first book and part ofthe second before traveling to Scotland.As a research professor pre-Internet,she read exhaustively to craft indelibleimages of Scottish places for the “prac-tice novel” she kept secret from herhusband.When the unfinished draft sold in athree-book deal for a “staggeringamount of money at the time,”Gabaldon let her professorship lapseand headed to Scotland.Despite having no Scottish heritage,she says, “I remember seeing the greenland rising and thinking, ‘This feels likehome.’”She and her husband parked at CarterBar, where she posed for a photo infront of the England-Scotland borderstone.This stone appears in Book 3, Voy-ager, where the character Jamie saysof it, “Looks like the sort of stone tolast a while,” according to fan KarenHenry, who blogs at Outlandish Ob-servations.If you long to visit after being exposedto the sweeping vistas and compellinghistory in the books and the show –for which Gabaldon (68) is consultantand wrote several episodes – here aresome spots to include on the itinerary.Inverness: “It’s called the heart of theHighlands,” says Gabaldon of the cityshe names as her first recommenda-tion, “and has reverberations throughthe third book and on into the rest ofthe series.“It’s where the entire clan system cameto a screeching halt.” In the show, how-ever, Inverness is played by anothercity, FalklandCulloden Battlefield, five miles fromInverness: Here, the Jacobite rebellionended in one hour of brutal bloodshedin 1746.“The Scots really didn’t have a chance,”says Judy Lowstuter, owner of CelticJourneys travel company.After the loss to the English, Scots“were not permitted to speak Gaelic,and in the Highlands that’s all theyspoke. They wouldn’t let them wear


FRIEND reminded me recently of a St.Patrick’s Day many moons past whenwe first met down at Heritage Hall onMain Street and I started thinking backto those days with a bit of nostalgia.

Reflections on a VancouverSt. Patrick’s Day Long Past

THE HERITAGE HALL is an historical building on Main Street inVancouver, dating back to 1914. It has served many functions overthe years, having originally opened as a civic Post Office. For aperiod of time it fell into disrepair until a passionate communitygroup in the early 1980s spearheaded the reconstruction and thedevelopment of the site into the multipurpose resource space thatit is today. The interior boasts a 3,300 square foot, French-inspiredballroom that features many re-conceived details, including a largemural, a tile floor, and stained glass chandeliers.

MARIE MORRIS and Pat Warren presenting Pat McCay with thecoveted door prize: A beautiful painting of Killarney town by DickMorris.

ABy MAURA DE FREITASI had almost forgotten those

high-spirited young times whenwe were busy being the badboys and girls in the crowd.We were always up tosomething...usually not good,and having such a great laughdoing it.That particular celebration was a day-long event and, of course, I was therewith my little booth selling JimmyReddy’s exquisite Celtic jewellery. Iwas always working at something onSt. Patrick’s Day.From one end to the other, the roomwas festooned in green, white and goldand literally hummed with raised Irishvoices as people talked and joked andbantered back and forth.....and enjoyeda few drinks.There was a warm greeting at the doorfor everyone and all the familiar char-acters were on the scene.The Stage Eireann ladies were sellinghot dogs for $1 and engaged in the usualminor squabbles.Bernie Percy was behind the bar liningup the Irish coffees and keeping a closeeye on the cash. Marie Morris andcompany were on the door with awarm Irish welcome to the festivitiesfor everyone.Pat Warren was up on stage as the usualgenial host and master of ceremonies.Some of the usual actors stepped upto perform their party piece, whileother talented volunteers sang theirhearts out.Then Vi Moore arrived with a flurrysurrounded by her dancers but couldn’tget her music to work, so everyoneran around trying to somehow get ithooked up to the PA system. A feweyes rolled to the sky while others tut-tutted that some things never change.Earlier in the day it was mostly fami-lies with troops of kids and youngdancers running through the place, butas day stretched into evening, the chil-dren began to fade from view and stillmore people crammed into the old hall.By nighttime the room was literallyrocking with the band blasting out allthe favourite tunes. The dance floorwas so packed you couldn’t move, andit was impossible to hear anything co-herent over the music.Hopeful crowds kept lining up out-side trying to get in the door to jointhe craic, but chances were fading fastin that department.Finally, as a prank, late in the evening,someone decided to pull the fire alarmbut you couldn’t hear a thing over thedin, so everyone just carried rightalong. (I swear to God by the way itwasn’t us....but I have my suspi-cions!)Then, the fire department arrived infull gear but still no one noticed as theparty was in full swing.When the fire marshal arrived and sawthe state of the room, he nearly had afit with people hanging from the raft-ers. He tried to get someone to pay

BILL FORBES onstage singinghis heart out on St. Patrick’s Daywith Pat Warren at Heritage Hall.They are both departed now forgreener pastures but never for-gotten by friends and family.

attention but nobody cared and every-one just kept dancing.Finally, exasperated, he pulled the plugon the PA and shut down the music.He was nearly beside himself tryingto get a handle on the scene and roaredout that the room was dangerouslyovercrowded so the party was over.Everyone was very obliging once thesituation became clear and one-by-one,with a shrug and good humour, theybegan to drift away. It was a great nightbut everyone accepted that sooner or

LOCAL Celtic artist Brian MacIsaac [now owner of Crannóg Ales],Sharon Brown, Patricia (Warren) Burke, and Janet Feirin [formerowner of Aran Bakery] at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Herit-age Hall hosted by Stage Eireann on Main Street in Vancouver.

later it all had to come to an end.Such is life....and, as I reflect back onthose days, I think of so many of thoselovely people who have also now leftour lives forever.Those of us who were once so full ofmischief have now grown older but welook back with fondness on times wethought would never end.We didn’t realize how fleeting were thedays and how soon they would all bejust memories. How glad I am to haveshared them with such friends.

MARIE MORRIS with VeronicaStabler, two of the original mem-bers of the local Irish theatregroup, Stage Eireann.


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Page 4Page 4

Irish QuotesWhen I came back to Dublin I was court martialed in my absenceand sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shootme in my absence.

– Brendan Behan [1923-1964] (Irish author noted for his earthy satire

and powerful political commentary.)


Page 5Page 5

‘Fill Your Heart With Ireland’and discover your heritage

VANCOUVER – Tourism Ire-land led a delegation of 14 Irishand Canadian industry tradepartners on a tour across west-ern Canada earlier this month.The group showcased the islandof Ireland to travel agents and me-dia in Vancouver, Langley, Calgaryand Edmonton.Tourism Ireland is the organizationresponsible for promoting the islandof Ireland overseas as a leading holi-day destination and representativesincluded: Dana Welch, manager forCanada; Alison Metcalfe, vice presi-dent of North America and Australia/New Zealand; and Jocelyn Black, pub-licity and communications executive.The Vancouver event and workshoptook place at the Hotel Georgia indowntown Vancouver and the themethis year was ‘Fill Your Heart WithIreland’.The presentation included a very col-

ourful and impressive video showingbreathtaking landscapes from theCliffs of Moher to the Giants Cause-way and everywhere else in between.Each delegate spoke about their areaof tourism expertise and explained thevarious types of accommodationsavailable such as hotels, bed and break-fasts, home farm stays, or booking tostay in one of the many castles of Ire-land.Various types of tours are availablearound the island from bus tours toevery part of Ireland by bus, train, carrental, as well as boat tours to the AranIslands with Garrihy’s Doolin2AranFerries or Dublin Bay Cruises.

Ireland specializes in sumptuous su-pernatural foods from the sea and farmand the video highlighted some of thesemouth-watering creations.And, of course, who could forget tomention the pub night life in Irelandwith the music, dancing and singing.Two drinks that come to mind: Guin-ness – that legendary black creamybeverage for which the Emerald Isle isfamous – and delicious Irish coffeetopped with real whipped cream.For anyone who has previously vis-ited the island of Ireland, it could betime to plan a return visit and for thosecontemplating a first visit to the Em-erald Isle...there is no better time!Alison Metcalfe manages what iscalled the long-haul market and she saidthere are quite a lot of similarities be-tween what motivates consumers fortravel in the United States, Canada,Australia and New Zealand.Australia and Canada are quite alike interms of market size and what moti-

TOURISM IRELAND representatives toured western Canada earlier this month with a delegation of14 Irish and Canadian industry trade partners. The group included: Sandra Moffatt, Tourism Ireland;Rebecca Graham, Adams and Butler; Ellen Mitchell, Irish National Stud; Jennifer Bond, CIE; DanaWelch, Tourism Ireland; Eugene Garrihy, Doolin 2 Aran Ferries; Mark Odwyer, Secret Ireland Es-capes; John Higgins, National Trust; Alison Metcalfe, Tourism Ireland; Avril Collins, Ireland’s bluebook; Fiona Delahunty, Griffin Group; Jonathan Sargeant, Royal Irish Tours; Aidan McNally, TeelingWhiskey; Jason Powell, Mid & East Antrim.

ByCATHOLINE

BUTLER

FRANK FLOOD the Consul General of Ireland was a guest at theTourism Ireland event. He is pictured above (centre) with (L-R)Sandra Moffatt, Alison Metcalfe, and Dana Welch.

vates them to travel although Australiaand New Zealand visitors do tend tostay a long time since they are typi-cally coming to Europe for five or sixweeks and on average spend about twoweeks in Ireland.She said, “Tourism Ireland is trying toencourage them to start or finish theirvacations in Ireland. Now they can getto Dublin with one stop whereas be-fore they had to fly to London orAmsterdam. Now it’s through the Gulfand direct into Dublin, so it’s mucheasier and you can start or finish yourtrip in Ireland.She pointed out a number of key pointsthat play a very important role in con-tinuing to grow visitor numbers to Ire-land.• Tourism is the island of Ireland’s larg-est indigenous industry, responsiblefor in excess of four percent of GNPin the Republic of Ireland and employ-ing around 325,000 people across theisland;• In 2019 almost 11.2 million overseasvisitors were welcomed to the islandof Ireland, delivering revenue of almost5.8 billion euro.In the course of the presentation, DanaWelch spoke about the west coast as akey market for Tourism Ireland with675,000 Canadians with Irish heritagein British Columbia.She said access from western Canadahas never been better. “In Vancouver,Air Canada is flying direct from Aprilto October but we are hoping they willextend the service to year-round, es-pecially with the number of Irish herenow that are flying to and from Ire-land.

“WestJet also flies from Calgary di-rect to Dublin, it’s not year round yetbut hopefully that will be extended.“There are other options in that youcould fly to Toronto and connect withflights to Ireland, that are year-round,or go to Seattle and fly direct with AerLingus.”Dana also indicated a big market in-crease from Canada in 2014 when year-round direct flights became availablefrom Toronto to Ireland.She said, “In 2018 we had 244,000Canadians travelling to Ireland , lastyear we had about 250,000 and whenall is said and done we will probablyhave larger numbers this year.”Canadians generally stay from nine to10 nights and they are interested inancient history, so that is a real moti-vator as they like to explore their ownancestry. One in four Canadians willalso travel to Northern Ireland.Asked about any impact Brexit mighthave on tourism to Ireland, particu-larly to the North of Ireland, Allisonreplied, “The good news is that thereis no hard border, you can just driveacross since there is no border stop.“You just need a valid passport as faras tourism is concerned, but there isno change whatsoever. It’s business asusual and there is no interruption inservice.”

•Tourism Ireland’s international websiteattracted 23 plus million visitors in 2019.It offers 29 market sites available in 11language versions around the world.For more information, visit:www.ireland.com.

Keeping Faith in the Season of SpringBy CYNTHIA WALLENTINE

WITH the festivals of springcomes emergence, a time whenfaith must hold against the coldbefore the sprouts of the grow-ing season are seen.Our kind has forever celebrated thereturn of light to our hemisphere.Imbolg, Candlemas, GroundhogDay, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’sDay, the Vernal Equinox, Easter orEostre perhaps you can add to thislist from your own traditions.The spring months of any year areloaded with opportunities to recognizethe importance of what is becomingwhile it is yet a seed.We cannot know the traditions ormeaning behind the actions taken bythose whose feet crossed this earththousands of years before ours.

From them, though, come some of thearchaic beliefs and fragments uponwhich we hold to authenticate our fes-tivals and locate ourselves in their greatriver of time. Belonging is as impor-tant as becoming.Despite the removal of time, we arenever far from the electricity thatformed their thoughts, and kept theirhearts beating.We feel the cold, fear lack of food, gaspat the turn of worldly events, and loveour family and friends. We live and wedie. Our names and our selfies will beforgotten. Are we so different?The festivals of spring recognize andcelebrate change.Whether the birth of lambs, a celestialmoment of balance, the rebirth of man

from a cave, or the rambunctious fer-tility of hare and egg these expressionsof spring speak to change that is rarelyseen, but which we know will takeplace.This process by itself is the essenceof faith holding at arm’s length theworry of a hungry season with eyesscanning the horizon for the new thingthat will change the current course oflife.St. Patrick’s Day celebrates one formof faith. Another is the trust we havewhen we reach out to something be-

yond, something we cannot yet see.While we may not recognize the formof the return, something will in timereach back to us as a result of our quest-ing energy.What is it that you wish to emerge inthis spring season?Perhaps you await the birth of a child,a new job, a return of health or a vac-cine to stem a pandemic.Maybe you seek the return of the lost,a more stable life, a new love, or changejust for the sake of change.

While each unique wish is deeply per-sonal, someone who walked this earthbefore you has wished for somethingsimilar, once upon a time.We are the present, but we are not sofar from our past. Keeping faith in thatwhich is becoming heals the past andcreates a path for us, and others, intothe future.May your heart be answered in thecoming seasons. Blessed Be.

•A NOTE: I had the opportunity recentlyto return to Vancouver for the confer-ence, Lá Fhéile Bríde: Celebrating theCreativity of Women. I wish to thankMaura de Freitas and all those whoorganized and attended the confer-ence. I feel genuinely blessed to havemet and mingled with so many beauti-ful souls during the conference. Thankyou so very much.

[Read more on pages 30 & 31]


GREETINGS from a wet andwindy Bournemouth.We are finally out of the EuropeanUnion and there is a political calm af-ter the idiotic Brexit storm.Boris Johnson’s emphatic victory inthe election means he has a large ma-jority and with the exception of theScottish Nationalists all the other op-position parties are in disarray. UncleBoris can do what he likes for the nextfour years. A scary thought.So far there appears to be no differ-ence to our lives, there are no foodshortages, house prices have not tum-bled, the bank interest remains thesame...and it is still raining.

•In Scotland there has been anothersighting of the Loch Ness monster.On January 18, Eoin O’Faodhagain,an Irish hospital clerk, spotted not onebut two large objects splashing aroundon Loch Ness and captured it all on awebcam.The video shows something risingfrom the water then disappearing. Thisis good news as the mythical creatureis reputed to be worth £41million ayear to the Scottish economy.A second giant creature has been spot-ted in the Nahuel Hauapi Lake in Ar-gentina whose economy is flagging.I believe Lough Neagh is the largestlake in Ireland. Watch this space.

•Two weeks ago my wife and I made aflying visit to Dublin.Our Canadian friends John and Lauriehad flown over from Canada to cel-ebrate Laurie’s sixtieth birthday.We decided to turn up at their hoteland surprise her. I had forgotten whata great city Dublin is although for usimpoverished Brits the price of a pintof Guinness there is almost (but notquite) prohibitive.

EOIN O’ FAODHAGAIN (54) was watching a live stream of LochNess in the Scottish Highlands when he spotted somethingunusual. He immediately started his own recording of the livestream to show the world what he had seen.

ByELFANJONES

POSTCARD FROMBOURNEMOUTH

We had time to spare so we took atour on the Hop on Hop off Bus Tour.This was brilliant.The driver and guide informed us thatwe had arrived during the rainy seasonwhich starts on January 1 and ends onDecember 31.We didn’t hop on and hop off but re-mained on board and laughed for twohours all around Dublin.There were so many interesting placesto see we will just have to return andvisit them, hopefully when it is notraining.We followed the tour with a pint in apub next to the statue of MollyMalone that the driver referred to as“The Tart with the Cart.”Why does Guinness taste so muchbetter in Ireland? I’m glad I don’t livethere because I would have drunk my-self to death by now.

•In 2014 a genius in Highways Englandcame up with the idea of a “smartmotorway.”A new type of motorway to managetraffic in a way that minimises cost,environmental impact and constructiontime by avoiding building additionallanes.These wonder motorways are the oldmotorways but modified to include

large signs regulating speed and scrap-ping what was known as the “hardshoulder”– a lane which you pulled intoif your car broke down or for any otheremergency [ie: Desperate comfortstop, child unwell etc.).The ‘hard shoulder’ has been replacedwith ‘emergency refuge areas’ whichare between a mile and two and a halfmiles apart and are 109 yards long,including the entry and exit approach.So far over 400 miles of motorway havebeen converted at considerable cost and38 people have been killed becausethey broke down outside the emer-gency refuge area and with no hardshoulder to pull into got hit by a truck.Another 1,485 near misses have alsobeen recorded.Work on “smart motorways” has beenput on hold for a safety review.It beggars belief that no one would havethought that this could happen.The boss of Highways England hassaid that the smart motorways are toocomplicated to use.My advice is that if you do break downon a smart motorway, say half a milefrom the emergency refuge area (whichwould be very inconsiderate of youconsidering the cost of it all), youshould put on your hazards lights, exitthe vehicle from the passenger side,and run like hell.As a constant user of the smart mo-torway, I confess it confuses me.Warning lights tell you to slow downfor no apparent reason, signs tell youthat the motorway is closed at a givenjunction and when you get there youfind it isn’t.My favourite is a notice board whichappears at the beginning of road works.It shows a picture of a little girl andthe caption reads: “My Daddy isworking here so please observe thespeed limit.”

Our wonderful whirlwind visit to Dublinreminds me what a truly great city it is

THE STATUE of Molly Malone and her cart is affectionately nick-named “The Tart with the Cart’ by Dubliners.” Located on Suf-folk Street, just a short walk from Trinity College and the fa-mous Grafton Street, it commemorates a young woman whoworked as a fishmonger but also as a working girl and who diedin one of the outbreaks of Cholera that regularly used to sweepthe city of Dublin.

Having been stationary for 20 minutes,I become obsessed with the idea ofgetting out of the car and writing: “Tellyour daddy to pull his finger out andget on with it.”

I was warned that on reaching 75 menget grumpy and I think they could beright.

All for now,Elfan

WHITE ROCK – One of thehighlights of the year for theIrish Club of White Rock is theannual St. Patrick’s Day dinnerand dance.This year it will be held on Saturday,March 14 at the Hazelmere Golf andTennis Club located at 18150 - 8thAvenue in Surrey.Doors open at 5:30 PM, dancers withthe Steele School of Irish Dance per-form at 6:30 PM sharp, and music isby Pat Chessell Band – the best Celticmusic in the Lower Mainland.The Irish Club of White Rock also hada very successful Celtic Christmas din-ner at Beecher’s Place, CrescentBeach, Surrey, on Friday, December 6.A big thank you to all who came out tothe event and who helped make it pos-sible.The club has been in existence for over40 years in the beautiful seaside townof White Rock, about an hour’s driveeast of Vancouver, which boasts astrong local Irish community.The main focus of the Irish Club ofWhite Rock is to promote Irish cul-ture and arts in the community and

THE IRISH CLUBOF WHITE ROCK

St. Patrick’s Day dinner and danceis always a highlight of the year

provide a strong social network for itsmembers.Everyone is invited to come and visitand also to share this information withfriends and family living in the area.A warm welcome céad míle fáilte [atraditional hundred thousand wel-comes] will always be extended to allnew arrivals.

Upcoming events and information areposted on the Irish Club of White RockFacebook page. Better yet, become amember and receive all the news up-dates by e-mail.The Irish Club of White Rock contin-ues to support and promote all theevents hosted by other Irish groups inthe Lower Mainland and shares thatinformation with its members.For more information or suggestions,contact president Sharon Woods byphone at (604) 338-3553 or e-mail:[email protected].

ORLA NÍ BHROITHE and Larry Ryan at the Irish Club of WhiteRock Celtic Christmas celebration.

KATHLEEN PEDERSEN, Sharon Woods (president) and DeirdreO’Ruairc at the Irish Club of White Rock Celtic Christmas celebra-tion, one of many events the club hosts throughout the year.

MARGARET RYAN and Mary Schlote socializing at the CelticChristmas celebration.


By EILIS COURTNEYPresident, Irish Women’s

Network of BCI was honoured to be invited to say afew words on behalf of the Irish Wom-en’s Network in tribute to Pam Glassand her involvement with the IWN.I first met Pam when I got involvedwith the IWN about 15 years ago andfrom the start I could see that she waspassionate about her connection withher homeland and very proud to be aDub (particularly a North-sider likemyself).She was hugely supportive of every-thing the IWN did and after I becamepresident, would often call to strategizeabout how to get more people in-volved and attending our events.She was awarded the IWN Woman ofthe Year in 2003 in recognition of hercontributions.Every January, the IWN celebrates anevent called Nollaig na mBan – Wom-en’s Christmas. During the early 2000swe held a big dinner downtown andthis was one of Pam’s favourite events.

ARRIVED inDublin in mid-November fullyexpecting theweather to be

My Winter Visit Home to Old Dublin‘The old heart of Dublin is alive and well,

it has the elegance of a capital city but a young vibe’

PAM GLASS with Declan Kelly, the former Ambassador of Irelandto Canada, in October 2009.

IBy MARIE BRUCE

IRISH WOMEN’S NETWORK OF BC

PAMELA (PAM) FRANCES GLASSOctober 23, 1929 – January 24, 2020

wintery and miserable but I waspleasantly surprised.The Irish are well used to badweather and dark evenings, sothe life of the city continues una-bated in winter.A few grey days here and there andseveral cold sunny days – this kind ofweather suited me perfectly. I broughtwith me a puffy coat and all the usualwarm comfortable clothes for travel-ling.Christmas decorations were up in ear-nest and the shop windows werepacked with every kind of temptationto entice shoppers.I was on a mission to see what Dublinhad to offer the off-season visitor. Inthe end, I came to the conclusion thatany time of year is a good time to visitDublin and Ireland.Dublin tourism made no concession towinter and all the hop-ons and tourswere roaring around the city and – tomy amazement – most of them werealmost full.All the “must see” tourist sites wereopen for first-time visitors,Kilmainham Goal, Guinness Brewery,the Dublin Zoo, Jameson’s Whiskey,as well as the two great churches ChristChurch Cathedral, and St. Patrick’sbuilt 1192 – both churches inremarkedly good conditiion.Taking a walking tour is a good way toget the feeling of the city and a chanceto get your bearings. There are alsoguided tours with special themes suchas pub tours and literature tours. Avisit to the local tourist office or hotellobby usually has all this information.My own choice was the new EPICMuseum, which is all about Irish emi-gration, the role it played in the world,and how it impacted the homeland.It is a very well designed and engagingmuseum built by the same people whocreated the Titanic exhibits in Belfast.It’s more of an experience than theusual walk about and read.There were heartbreaking stories ofhard times and terrible struggles, butthe Irish emigrant nearly always pre-vailed one way or another.They sent money home and despiteall odds, they laid down roots in for-eign soil. They also remembered thehomeland and held Ireland very close,especially in their music and religion.After four hours of being totally ab-sorbed in the exhibits, I realised it waslong past lunch time and I was hungry.I prowled around the city leisurelyvisiting the Art Gallery, the NationalMuseum, the National library all situ-ated around Kildare Street, they arefree and have good cafes serving lunchwith excellent soups and coffee.I never pass an old church in Dublinwithout going in to light a candle, thisis not because I am a deeply religiousperson but because lighting a candle ortwo brings me back to childhood, andto remember my departed friends andfamily.I made a special detour to visit theWhitefriar Carmelite Church on

Aungier Street and especially to lightcandle at the Shrine of St. Valentine.The sacred remains of St. Valentine,patron saint of love and lovers, wasgifted to this church by Pope GregoryXVI. It is a beloved church in a veryold part of Dublin and one much vis-ited around Valentine’s day.Back in the day, many a single womanliving in a bedsit in Rathmines trekkedover to Whitefrair Street weekly tooffer novenas and light candles to St.Valentine in the hope of meeting a goodhusband.I doubt if that tradition still exists inthe liberated 2000s, howeverWhitefriar is always busy with peo-ple praying for their special intentions,offering novenas and lighting candles.The old centre of Dublin is packed withbookshops, gourmet food stores, ca-fes and good pubs. Warm and welcom-ing fires are lit in the pubs, making themhomely and cosy.My choice of drink in winter is hotport and lemon studded with cloves.It is quite delicious, warming and just

perfect for the time of year.I can’t tell the difference between goodpints of Guinness and not so good,because any I tasted in Dublin werewonderful and creamy. Dubliners areconnoisseurs of the pint of Guinness,and they will tell you the difference.I walked over to St. Stephen’s Greento visit University Church built in1855 by Cardinal John Newman inByzantine style which reminded meof a small church in Italy. I was luckyto hear the choir practicing for Christ-mas services.Almost next door is the Museum ofLiterature called Moli. All the greatsof Irish literature like Joyce and Yeatsare celebrated there.Festivals continue throughout the win-ter and I was lucky to be there for theSwift Festival with 10 days of packedevents in some very historic Georgianbuildings.I managed a choral concert at the oldChurch of Trinity College and a won-derful evening of discussions at St.Patrick’s Cathedral where Dean Swiftis buried.The panel who spoke consisted of theReverend Justin Welby, Archbishop ofCanterbury, Dr. Mary McAleese, andseveral other prominent speakers. Abrilliant evening in that wonderful an-cient church.Dublin is the capital city of Irelandand has attracted many hi-tech andmulti-national companies lured by theyoung, well-educated workforce, andthe open economy.It is said the Irish are the most highlyeducated and employable graduates inthe world – quite an achievement for asmall country with a population un-der five million.Ireland is committed to its member-ship in the European Union and thecurrent conversation is all about theborder between Northern Ireland andÉire.I only touched the surface of what Icould do and what was on offer in thecity, I didn’t have time to see a play or

DELICIOUS baking on display atAvoca Food Market in Dublin.

A PRESERVED Iron Age bogbody on display at the NationalMuseum of Ireland.

MARIE BRUCE lighting a candle at St. Valentine’s Shrine atWhitefriar Street.

THE AWARD-WINNING EPICIrish Emigration Museum wasnamed ‘Europe’s Leading Tour-ist Attraction’ at the World TravelAwards in Lisbon last year.

visit the pubs in Temple Bar wheremusic roars on day and night.Music should be on everybody’s listwhen in Dublin, check the listings onthe current “what’s on” to find outtimes and venues.Dublin is fairly compact, so walkingand buses during the day, and taxis in

the evening was my mode of trans-port.The old heart of Dublin is alive andwell, it has the elegance of a capitalcity but a young vibe.As the Irish say – céad míle fáilte –come anytime, winter or summer, anda warm welcome awaits.

Pam was always in attendance andevery year she brought a gang of Glasswomen – daughters, granddaughters,daughters-in-law – as she wanted toshare her enthusiasm for celebratingIrish women.In order to encourage attendance fromthe White Rock group, she came upwith the idea of getting a limo to bringthem in and home so they could have aglass or two and kick up their heelsbut always get home safely. She lovedto dance and was always first on thedance floor.Pam had a great sense of humour andwas always up for the craic and herinvolvement in the 2008 calendar wasa great example of that.For those that don’t know, in 2008the IWN celebrated their 10th anni-versary by producing a calendar basedon the movie Calendar Girls.Pam was totally game to be involvedfrom the start and, in fact, one of thecalendar pictures was in her garden andthen changed to White Rock City Hall,

where she was the judge in the photo,highlighting her position as a citizen-ship judge.When I asked other members of theIWN what words came to mind whenthey thought of Pam, they said shewas a mentor, a role-model for women,a community builder, open-minded,positive and enthusiastic for every-thing. She will be sorely missed.

•Pam passed away on January 24,

2020. She is predeceased by her lov-ing husband Cecil (2013), and her be-loved daughter Kelli (2009). She issurvived by daughters Maeve (Steve),and Siobhan, and son Eamonn (Ma-rina), her adored grandchildren, Dan,Liam, Caitlin, Sam, Connor, Eilish,Ciaran, Kaja, and Kata, and great-granddaughter Delilah, her brother JimKelly (Kitty), nephew John Carr (Ann),the Harrold family in Dublin, and nu-merous family and friends nationwideand internationally.


Governments North andSouth of the Border

THE threat that forced the twobiggest parties to return to theNorthern Ireland Assembly inJanuary was the prospect of anassembly election if they didnot.Terrified by the pounding they wouldlikely receive from the electorate, theDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) andSinn Féin did a deal to restore the as-sembly after a three-year hiatus.Sinn Féin had recorded three consecu-tive electoral slippages in the preced-ing 18 months and it would have beendelusional to expect to be rewarded byan angry public deprived of public serv-ices as a consequence of the moribundassembly.So Sinn Féin cowered from the elec-toral blowback and signed up. How,then, did the same party, in the Irishgeneral election in February, notch upby far its greatest electoral success inliving memory?As the only party that operates in bothjurisdictions on the island of Irelandand whose raison d’être is to unite Ire-land, Sinn Féin would be loath to ad-mit the reason it stood to do so badlyin the North in January and did so wellin the South the following month ispartition.If issues such as Brexit, Sinn Féin’sviolent past and its record of govern-ing in Northern Ireland were game-changers in the minds of the Southernelectorate there would have been nosurge in support for the party.But those issues are alarmingly remotefrom the Southern electorate’s priori-ties.That electorate is completely preoc-cupied with its own remediable crisesin housing, cost of living (particularlychildcare and insurance) as well as thedysfunctional health service and ever-longer commutes.For over a decade, government policyhas deprived young people of the rightto a decent standard of living.So Sinn Féin’s strategists put theseconcerns into the machine and foundthat the word tying them all togetherin the minds of voters is change; andcampaigned on that platform.Naturally, the two main parties thathave formed governments since thefoundation of the State, Fine Gael andFianna Fáil, also understood that thepeople wanted change.But they were considerably disadvan-taged from presenting themselves ascredible agents of it: Fianna Fáil sup-ported Fine Gael in a minority gov-ernment arrangement since 2016 andthe public was so thoroughly sick of itthat it was willing to punt for SinnFéin to clean the Augean stable.

What Sinn Féin’s very long period inopposition has finally taught the partyis to tailor its message to the dominantmood of the people rather than to fix-ate on its less popular (in the South)constitutional aspirations.The constitutional question alwaystakes precedence in Sinn Féin’s agendaand, while that garners votes in theNorth, it is not nearly as important inthe South.Assuming Sinn Féin has properly ab-sorbed that lesson it now stands toendure as the third force in Southernpolitics, representing the left of centrevoter.Paradoxically, though, Sinn Féin hasconsistently supported austerity meas-ures in the North. So how can it posi-tion itself to the left in Southern poli-tics?Either it has a left-wing identity or ithas a cross-border identity, but main-taining both does not stand up to scru-tiny. In truth, its pull to the left thecentral reason it won the popular voteis merely a vehicle to ride to power.Ireland will now have a caretaker gov-ernment (the same government) untilanother government can be formed.It is plausible that Fianna Fáil, theparty that won the most seats, willmaintain its stance of refusing to forma government with Sinn Féin.If it does, then a grand coalition’ be-tween Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael withsupport from the Greens couldemerge. In that case, the parties thatform the government of the 33rd Dáilmust do two things, or face dire con-sequences in the next general election.Firstly, they must position themselvessignificantly to the left of the outgoinggovernment. If drastic economic changeis what the public wants and votedfor, it must now get it.Sinn Féin would make hay out of be-ing thus marginalised, so only a majoreconomic overhaul would enable thegovernment to survive and to justifyitself to the public for not incorporat-ing the winners of the popular vote.

THE VIEW FROMIRELAND

ByMAURICEFITZPATRICK

Secondly, there is a card they couldplay to outmanoeuvre Sinn Féin on theconstitutional question (and I acknowl-edge that there is no evidence that theparties have been discussing this idea).The most Machiavellian move for sucha coalition would be to put Irish unifi-cation centrally on its agenda.Given Prime Minister Boris Johnson’sdecreasing commitment to unionismand the potential of the EU to help tofinance the transition, they might justachieve that historic and increasinglyinevitable feat during the five-yearlifespan of a government.The All-Ireland agenda under any guiseis anathema to unionists, but it is adiabolical prospect when it is spon-sored by Sinn Féin, which continuesto provide unionists with reasons todistrust them: on being elected in Wa-terford, a Sinn Féin candidate cheeredfor the IRA.Sinn Féin, in opposition, would be bothunable to oppose the motion they arein politics to realise and unable to claimit as their achievement if it happens.Doubtless, Sinn Féin would find a wayto cavil about the form of unity nego-tiated while not opposing the motionin itself, but such objections would besmall beer.Unification by this route would putSinn Féin in a bind and force them toaccept that accomplishing unity ismore important to them than deliver-ing it themselves.In this scenario, one of the paradoxicalconsequences for Sinn Féin of thisearthquake election would be that, hav-ing finally won a compelling mandateto participate in government, its ulti-mate agenda would be best advancedby remaining outside of it. It wouldalso give the other parties an ambitiousagenda that they badly need.

•Irish filmmaker and writer MauriceFitzpatrick is the Heimbold Chair of IrishStudies at Villanova University. Hisbook, The Boys of St. Columb’s, hasbeen recently re-published by the Uni-versity of Notre Dame Press.

BELFAST – Powersharing has re-turned to Northern Ireland as all fiveof the main parties have taken seats inthe region’s new executive.The Assembly sat once again on theafternoon of Saturday, January 11 af-ter the landmark agreement to restoredevolution.MLAs were in the chamber for aroundtwo hours to conduct the business ofelecting and appointing speakers andministers.DUP leader Arlene Foster resumed thefirst minister role she lost when thelast administration collapsed in 2017,while Sinn Fein’s Stormont leaderMichelle O’Neill has become deputyfirst minister.Prime Minister Boris Johnson andTaoiseach Leo Varadkar hailed the lo-cal politicians for backing a compro-mise deal to revive the institutions.The DUP has also taken the economy,education and agriculture ministries;Sinn Fein the finance and communitiesportfolios; while the SDLP, UlsterUnionists and Alliance Party fill infra-structure, health and justice respec-tively.Foster said she was “deeply humbled”to be reappointed first minister.The DUP leader said there was plentyof blame to go around for the three-year powersharing impasse, but sheinsisted it was now time to look to thefuture.Despite the titles, Foster and O’Neillhold equal standing at the top of theministerial executive.O’Neill said it was a “defining mo-ment” for the region. She said she washonoured to follow in the footsteps ofthe late Martin McGuinness and be-come deputy first minister.The inclusion of all five of the mainparties in the executive is a significant

development. The last executive priorto Stormont’s collapse in 2017 did notinclude the three smaller parties.Powersharing returned after the DUPand Sinn Fein, the region’s two largestparties, agreed to re-enter a mandatorycoalition ministerial executive.They both signed up to a deal, tabledby the UK and Irish Governments, thatoffered compromise resolutions to arange of long-standing disputes on is-sues such as the Irish language.The endorsement of the two partieswas essential for the formation of anexecutive, as peace process structuresmean an administration can only func-tion if it includes the largest unionistparty and largest nationalist party.The “New Decade, New Approach”deal will also be accompanied by whatthe UK Government has promised willbe a major investment package.Government funding is set to helptackle a host of acute problems facinga public sector that has been flounder-ing amid the governance vacuum.One of the most high-profile of thoseis an industrial dispute in the healthservice that has seen nurses take strikeaction on three occasions in the lastmonth.Under the terms of the deal, the newexecutive will also take action to re-duce spiralling hospital waiting lists;extend mitigation payments for ben-efit claimants hit by welfare reforms;increase the number of police officerson the beat; and resolve an industrialdispute involving teachers.The last DUP/Sinn Fein-led coalitiongovernment collapsed in January 2017over a row about a botched green en-ergy scheme.That row subsequently widened totake in more traditional wrangles onmatters such as the Irish language andthe thorny legacy of the Troubles.

SINN FEIN returns to devolved government with Stormont leaderMichelle O’Neill becoming deputy first minister.

ARLENE FOSTER of the DUP leads her party into the chamber atthe Parliament Buildings. She has been reappointed first minister.

Powersharing returnsto Northern Ireland

BELFAST – After 283 years, the lastof the Penal Laws in Ireland has beenrepealed by proposals to restorepower-sharing that was backed byStormont parties on January 10.The proposals put forward byTánaiste Simon Coveney and North-ern Secretary Julian Smith will repealthe Administration of Justice Act(Irish Language Act) 1737.It will establish a Commissioner forthe Irish language in Northern Irelandand there will be legal recognition ofthe language, translation services andspeaking through Irish or Ulster Scotsin court will be permitted.Historian, Dr. Eamon Phoenix said,“About 36 percent of the populationin the 2001 census in the North saidthey spoke Irish to some degree…youmeet so many people who have a lovefor the language and now they can sayit has parity with the other traditionsin the North of Ireland.”The Penal Laws were put in place af-

Final Penal law in Irelandfinally repealed after 283 years

ter the Battle of the Boyne in order toquiet the Catholic upper and middleclass. They were meant to force IrishCatholics and Protestant dissenters toaccept the Church of Ireland.“The Act really said only English couldbe used in a court of law in the King-dom of Ireland. It actually didn’t evenname the Irish language, which was thenspoken by the vast majority of thepeople on the island even in Ulster,Irish was widely spoken in the 17thCentury” said Dr. Phoenix.They stopped people in Ireland fromgoing to school or university, going tomass publicly, holding jobs in publicoffice or running for parliament. Mostof the laws were repealed by CatholicEmancipation between 1766 and 1829.Dr. Phoenix said he feels the executivein Northern Ireland can now get downto the ‘bread and butter’ of what peo-ple need: “The Irish Language act hasvery much been something that hasbeen blocking progress over the lastthree years.”


Seamus Mallon, former leader of the SDLPand architect of Good Friday agreement, dies aged 83

BELFAST – Seamus Mallon,an architect of the Northern Ire-land peace process who servedas deputy first minister, passedaway on January 24, 2020 inCo. Armagh at the age of 83.During the 1960s, he became involvedin the civil rights movement, especiallyin his native Armagh.In 1979, when John Hume went frombeing deputy leader of the SDLP (un-der Gerry Fitt) to leader, Mallon be-came deputy leader.He was elected to the first power-shar-ing Assembly in 1973, and to theNorthern Ireland Constitutional Con-vention in 1975 representing Armagh.Between May and December 1982

SEAMUS MALLON leader of the SDLP and deputy first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly ispictured (third from left) on the front steps of Stormont Castle with (L-R) First Minister David Trimble,U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2000.

Mallon was appointed by the thenTaoiseach Charles Haughey to the Re-public's upper house, Seanad Éireann.Tributes from across the political spec-trum in Ireland and the UK poured inafter the SDLP announced that itsformer deputy leader had died.Mallon was a nationalist who desiredIrish unity but was a scathing critic ofrepublican violence.He described the 1998 Good Fridayagreement as “Sunningdale for slowlearners” – a withering rebuke to ex-tremists on both sides who broughtdown the 1973 Sunningdale agreementand extended the Troubles, costingthousands of lives.“Seamus Mallon was a force of na-ture,” Colum Eastwood, the SDLP’sleader, said in a statement.

“In the darkest days of conflict, whenhope was in short supply, Seamus rep-resented the fierce thirst for justice thatran through the SDLP and throughcommunities that had lost so much topolitical violence.”Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins,said Mallon possessed unsurpassedcourage, civility and fairness.“He was instrumental in bringing intobeing a meaningful discourse that her-alded a new possibility of civil rightswithin a shared island.”The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said,“History will remember Seamus as anarchitect of the Good Friday agree-ment, a committed peace builder and atireless champion of an inclusive Ire-land.”The former U.S. president Bill Clinton,

who was a key player in the GoodFriday agreement, hailed Mallon as a“hero of the peace process in North-ern Ireland” and “a profoundly goodman.”He said, “As his party’s chief negotia-tor in the talks leading to the GoodFriday agreement, he was respected byall parties for his intelligence and in-tegrity, his candour and convictions.”Lord Empey, the Ulster Unionist peer,lauded Mallon’s sense of humour andprinciples. “I don’t believe the GoodFriday process could have succeededwithout him.“He understood the practicalities andrealities of politics and government,something that some of his colleaguesfailed to appreciate ... I think all of ushave lost a champion of democracy andjustice today.”Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Feinleader, issued a short statement ex-pressing condolences to Mallon’s fam-ily and recalling his contribution to

Irish politics and the Good Fridayagreement.Born in Markethill, County Armagh,Mallon was a school principal who en-tered politics via the civil rights move-ment in the 1960s.As deputy leader of the SDLP from1979 to 2001 he served – and oftenclashed with – the party’s mercurial,towering leader, John Hume.After the Good Friday agreementMallon served until 2003 in the power-sharing administration at Stormontwith the unionist first minister DavidTrimble, another fraught but effectivepartnership.Last year with the journalist AndyPollak he published a book, A SharedHome Place, which warned against aunited Ireland unless and until at leasta substantial minority of Northern Ire-land’s Protestants were in favour – arebuke to nationalists who seek a unityreferendum decided by simple major-ity.

The Economist publicationsays Irish unification becoming likely

LONDON – The Economist says aUnited Ireland is becoming far morelikely and it is “time to start thinkingabout what it might mean.”The influential magazine,headquartered in London, says that therecent Irish election result, anger overBrexit both North and South, andquickly changing demographics inNorthern Ireland leading to a national-ist majority has suddenly brought theIrish Unity question to center stage.“Until today, however, unification hasnever been more than a Republican fan-tasy,” says the editorial published onFebruary 13.But Sinn Féin’s success in Ireland’srecent general election “is just the lat-est reason to think that a united Ire-land within a decade or so is a real –and growing – possibility.”Of course, the Irish election resultscome after discussions about Irish unitygalvanized during Brexit.“The north voted against [Brexit], butthe biggest unionist party and Englandvoted for. Nationalists were not theonly ones to be angered by the currenthome secretary, who suggested using

the threat of food shortages to softenup the south in the negotiations, heed-less of the famine in the 1840s whenall of Ireland was under British rule.“A change in demographics in North-ern Ireland can also be attributed tothe growing conversation that sur-rounds Irish unification.“Northern Ireland’s census in 2021 islikely to confirm that Catholics out-number Protestants for the first time.The republic has also become morewelcoming.“The influence of the Catholic churchhas faded dramatically and society hasbecome more liberal.“Over the past three decades, restric-tions on contraception have been liftedand gay marriage has been legalized.“All this explains why support forunification in Northern Ireland appearsto have risen in recent years. In somepolls, respondents show roughly equalsupport for it and the status quo.”The impact of Irish unification, TheEconomist says, would go far beyondthe physical island.“The Irish diaspora includes more than

20 million Americans. Parties to eth-nic conflicts across the world have longfound common cause with NorthernIreland’s Roman Catholics, who con-tend that the separation from the southis an illegitimate vestige of 500 yearsof incompetent and often callous domi-nation from London.”The editorial concludes, “The islandof Ireland needs a plan. The priorityshould be to work out how to makeunionists feel that they have a place ina new Ireland.“Work is needed on the nuts and boltsof unification – including how to, andindeed whether to, merge two healthsystems (one of which is free), thearmed forces and police services, andwhat to do about the north’s devolvedassembly.“Politicians from Britain and Irelandneed to start talking, too. The price ofending violence two decades ago wasfor Northern Ireland, the republic andBritain to jointly set out a politicalroute to a united Ireland.“If the people of the north and therepublic choose that path, the politi-cians must follow it.”


BELFAST – The new Secre-tary of State for Northern Ire-land Brandon Lewis has saidthat there will be no border be-tween Great Britain and North-ern Ireland.Speaking to reporters in Belfast, aheadof his meetings at Stormont House, hesaid that there would be no borderdown the Irish Sea after the Brexit tran-sition period.Lewis said, “The United Kingdom isgoing to be one area and all will be ableto benefit from our future global tradedeals.“I appreciate what Michel Barniersays, he’s a very good man trying todo a good job for the EU, but this isalso the man who said we couldn’topen the Withdrawal Agreement. Ourprime minister got that agreementopen, got a new agreement. We’ve gotit through parliament, we’ve left theEuropean Union.“And we’re going to build for a bettereconomy for the whole of the UnitedKingdom as one. We are absolutelyclear. As a UK government, we willnot be having a border down the IrishSea.”Meanwhile, EU sources confirmed thatthe UK can be brought to the Euro-pean Court of Justice if it fails to carryout checks and controls on goods go-ing from Great Britain to Northern Ire-land.Lewis was named new Secretary ofState for Northern Ireland by PrimeMinister Boris Johnson on February

DERRY – Police in NorthernIreland have charged a 52-year-old man in connection withthe murder of journalist LyraMcKee.Paul McIntyre has been chargedwith murder, although police saythey believe several people wereinvolved and they are still seeking“evidence to bring the gunman tojustice.”He was arrested on February 13 andhas also been charged with possessionof a firearm with intent to endangerlife, and professing to be a member ofa proscribed organisation.McKee was shot dead in Derry as sheobserved rioting on April 18, 2019.McKee’s killing caused widespreadshock in a region still scarred by dec-ades of violence known as the Trou-bles, in which more than 3,500 peopledied.She was an increasingly influential jour-nalist who had written powerfullyabout growing up gay in Northern Ire-

BELFAST – The UK’s depar-ture from the European Unionwas marked with parties andprotests in Northern Ireland onthe night of Friday, January 31.Pro-Brexit members of the public gath-ered at the front gates of ParliamentBuildings for a ‘Brexit Celebration’event at 11 PM, when the UK left theEU after 47 years of membership.DUP MLA Jim Wells was one of theorganisers of the event.He said, “My first vote as an 18-year-old was to vote to leave the EuropeanUnion in 1975. I never thought in mylife that I would see the opportunityto leave. Here we are 47 years laterand at last our nation is leaving theEuropean union.”Speeches and a countdown to the 11PM exit were held, marking what or-ganisers described as “the historicevent.”Meanwhile, the anti-Brexit protestsorganised by the Border Communi-ties Against Brexit group and SinnFein were held to mark the night.Protesters gathered at six locationsalong the border in counties Louth,Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Mona-ghan and Donegal. Around 200 peo-ple gathered a few miles from Newryto voice their opposition to Brexit.

SINN FEIN deputy leader Michelle O’Neill attends the unveilingof a Border Communities Against Brexit poster in Carrickcarnon.

Parties and protests as UKleaves the EU on January 31

DUP MLA Jim Wells joined Pro-Brexit members of the publicgather at the front gates of Parliament Buildings, Stormont inBelfast for a Brexit Celebration event.

Standing yards from the Irish border,Co. Armagh sheep farmer SeamusMcDonnell said that communitieshave been left in limbo by the uncer-tainty following the split.The anti-Brexit campaigner, who farmson both sides of the border, said manypeople in local communities wereagainst Brexit.He said, “We will be left in limbo herefor the next 11 months because wedon’t know if there will be a hard bor-der, soft border or no deal. No oneknows. I don’t think Boris Johnsonknows yet.“We are out of Europe and I think in afew months time it will totally takeeffect.“We may have a free-flowing bordernow but it (the end of the transitionperiod) will make a big change. Youhave a big dread and we don’t know ifwe will be able to continue what we’redoing.”Also attending the night’s protest wasStormont finance minister ConorMurphy.“This part of Ireland did not consentto Brexit, we voted significantly toremain within the EU and we are beingtaken out of the EU without consent,”the Sinn Fein representative said.“People are very fearful of all the con-sequences of this, we know we weren’t

in any way in consideration by theBritish Government or the people inBritain when they voted for Brexit.“There are a lot of concerns from peo-ple as to how this will unfold. Peoplein the government in the south (Re-public of Ireland) need to be very vigi-lant that the protocols that have beenagreed by the British Government arefollowed.“We do not want to see a hardening ofthe border.”The anti-Brexit campaigners also de-manded for Northern Ireland to con-tinue to have a voice in the EU afterthe UK leaves.In an earlier protest, Border Commu-nities Against Brexit activists unveileda new billboard declaring the “fightgoes on.”They urged the Irish Government andthe restored Stormont Executive topush for some form of continued rep-resentation in EU structures.It comes as the region’s three MEPsleave the European Parliament aheadof Brexit.Border Communities Against Brexitexpressed relief that a hard border withsecurity check points appeared to havebeen avoided but warned the processwas not over and there remained therisk of a damaging no-deal on trade.

New Northern Ireland Secretarydeclares no border between

Great Britain and NI

13. He had previously served as Min-ister of State for Security and Deputyfor EU Exit and No Deal Preparation.His appointment came after JulianSmith was sacked from the NorthernIreland Office as part of the primeminister’s cabinet reshuffle. He wasappointed in July 2019 and lasted 204days in the role.Smith took over from Karen Bradleywho was sacked by the new prime min-ister Boris Johnson after 562 days asNI secretary.He oversaw a talks process that led tothe Northern Ireland parties agreeing adeal to restore a power-sharing gov-ernment at Stormont last month. Hewas also praised for his role in helpinglegislation to provide compensation tohistorical abuse victims pass throughParliament.

BRANDON LEWIS was appointed new Secretary of State forNorthern Ireland by Boris Johnson on February 13 following theprime minister’s cabinet shuffle.

On his first visit to Belfast, Lewis metwith the Tanaiste Simon Coveney.It comes weeks after Coveney helpedsecure the New Decade, New Ap-proach deal to restore the NI Execu-tive.It was Coveney’s first visit to Belfastafter Fine Gael suffered huge losses inthe general election in the Republic.Lewis has refused to to say whetherthe government will introduce an am-nesty for British soldiers.During a visit to Derry, he said, "I amnot going into the detail at the moment,we will come forward as a governmentwith an outline of what we want to doin due course."Lewis also said Prime Minister BorisJohnson wanted to make sure there areno "vexatious claims about veterans."

land and the struggles of the genera-tion of “cease-fire babies” raised afterthe 1998 Good Friday peace accordthat ended three decades of sectarianviolence.Hundreds of people attended McKee’sfuneral, including the prime ministersof Britain and Ireland and political lead-ers from Northern Ireland’s Protestantand Catholic communities.Her death helped spur a successful ef-fort to get feuding politicians to reviveNorthern Ireland’s power-sharing gov-ernment, which had collapsed in 2017.Her funeral heard what many regardedas a public rebuke to politicians bythe presiding priest at her funeral, Fa-ther Martin Magill, who asked why ithad taken such a tragedy for them tocome together in united purpose.The cleric’s words were met with astanding ovation by the congregation.Fresh talks were called in the after-math, which were to go on to last overnine months until the newpowersharing Assembly was finallyrestored this year on January 11.

Man charged withLyra McKee murder

LYRA MCKEE was a re-spected young journalist andwriter who was shot dead inDerry as she observed riotingon April 18, 2019. Her deathcreated widespread condem-nation and outrage from me-dia and the public, politiciansof all parties, and religiousleaders.


Storm Dennis: ‘Ghost ship’ washed upin Cork after drifting unmanned

for almost 18 monthsBALLYCOTTON, Co. Cork –The ‘ghost ship’ which washedup on the Cork coast at theheight of Storm Dennis boastsa story bizarre enough to rivalthat of famous phantom shipsincluding the Flying Dutchmanand the Marie Celeste.Until it was driven onto rocks westof Ballycotton in east Cork on Sun-day, the 80 metre MV Alta had in-credibly floated abandoned andunmanned across the Atlantic foralmost 18 months – avoiding majorshipping lanes and amazing thosemariners who viewed the vesseldrifting silently on the horizon.The ship is the largest ‘ghost ship’ tohave been driven ashore by a storm inIreland for over a century.Two years ago MV Alta survived amajor engine breakdown that resultedin its 20 strong crew having to be res-cued by the U.S. Coast Guard – and, afew years earlier, had even survivedtwo attempted hijackings off Africa.One attempted hijacking was allegedto have involved pirates pretending tobe a security crew hired by the own-ers to protect the vessel.The ship was abandoned on October3, 2018 when the U.S. Coast Guardhad to stage a major rescue operationto assist the multi-national crew.The 20 sailors were successfullyevacuated from the MV Alta when thevessel was 1,400 nautical miles southeast of Bermuda. Amid confusion overthe ships owners and registration, itwas abandoned.For 17 months the freighter thendrifted as a ‘ghost ship’ across theAtlantic – somehow avoiding disaster

PHOTO: Irish Coast Guard/PA WireUNDATED Irish Coast Guard handout image of the abandonedcargo ship the MV Alta, that washed up on the coast of Co. Corkduring Storm Dennis over the weekend.

in busy shipping lanes in the process.On September 3, 2019, the crew of theRoyal Navy ice patrol ship, HMS Pro-tector were so intrigued by the vesselspotted on the horizon which ignoredits repeated communications that itwent to investigate.The MV Alta was by now in mid At-lantic and, despite having been aban-doned almost a year earlier, was stilldrifting serenely through Atlantic dol-drums and violent storms.The Royal Navy crew confirmed atclose range that the MV Alta wasunmanned – and were so intrigued bytheir find that they posted photos onsocial media and formally recordedtheir sighting with marine authorities.Despite global interest in the story, thefreighter vanished into the Atlanticmists and was presumed sunk until itsuddenly reappeared in Storm Dennison Sunday off the east Cork coast.

The combination of Storm Dennis’120kmh winds and the storm surgedrove it aground on rocks outsideBallycotton.Now stranded on razor-sharp rocksaround the headland from the famouseast Cork fishing village, MV Alta’sincredible journey is likely to end bythe ship being torn apart by futurestorms or being towed off the rocks tobe brought to port for scrapping.Cork Co. Council is liaising with theCoast Guard and the Commissioner ofWrecks to ensure this Irish ‘ghostship’ doesn’t leave a trail of pollutedfuel across east Cork beaches and fish-ing grounds.An individual claiming to represent theowner of the MV Alta has reportedlymade contact with the Revenue Com-missioner and a spokesperson said theReceiver of Wreck will be pursuing thematter further. Anyone who lays claimto the vessel has one year to establishtheir claim.

BELFAST – Despite optimistic pre-diction about the re-unification ofIreland, a new study of voters inNorthern Ireland reveals that lessthan a third of people would votefor a united Ireland if a border pollwas held tomorrow.The results are Northern Ireland’slargest general election face-to-facestudy ever carried out. Just over2,000 people were interviewedacross 18 constituencies betweenDecember 28 and February 11.A total of 29 percent would supportIrish unity but 52 percent would backremaining in the UK if a referendumwas held imminently.The key to nationalist success in aborder poll is winning over those whodefine themselves as ‘other’ and votefor Alliance, the Greens and smallerparties.Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) ofthose who define themselves as other– neither nationalist or unionist –would support remaining in the UKwith just 27 percent opting for Irishunity.

Just 29 percent in Northern Irelandwould vote for unity, major study reveals

The Liverpool University-led projectwas funded by the Economic and So-cial Research Council with interviewsconducted by Social Market Research.Asked to define national identity, Irishwas the most popular with 35 percentof voters choosing it to 34 percent say-ing they were British and 23 percentidentifying as Northern Irish.Asked to label themselves ideologi-cally, 28 percent chose ‘unionist’, 25percent ‘nationalist’ and 40 percentsaid neither.Despite the cash-for-ash scandal, sup-port for devolution was remarkably

high. The restoration of the Assemblyand Executive was backed by 81 per-cent of people with a minuscule mi-nority of two percent opposing it.On the border poll, if the ‘don’t knows’are removed from the overall result,the figures break down at 65/35 in fa-vour of maintaining Northern Ireland’scurrent constitutional position.Support for the Union was higheramong unionist voters than supportfor Irish unity was among nationalistvoters.Power-sharing with both unionists andnationalists in the Stormont executivegoverning together was also stronglyendorsed with 61 percent support andseven percent opposition.But deep divisions remain on an IrishLanguage Act with 36 percent of vot-ers supporting one and 32 percentopposed.Both DUP and UUP voters wereequally against the legislation with 74percent opposed while 82 percent ofSinn Fein and 77 percent of SDLP sup-porters were in favour. Alliance voterswere 32 percent in favour to 25 per-cent against.

Novena to the BlessedVirgin Mary

Novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary(never known to fail). O most beautifulflower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine,splendour of Heaven, Blessed Motherof the Son of God. Immaculate Virgin,assist me in this my necessity. Thereare none that can withstand yourpower. O show me herein you are myMother, Mary, conceived without sin,pray for us who have recourse to thee(three times). Sweet Mother, I placethis cause in your hands (three times).Holy Spirit, you who solve all problems,light all roads so that I can attain mygoal. You gave me the Divine gift toforgive and forget all evil against me.This prayer must be said for threedays, even after the request is grantedand the favour received, it must bepublished.

– PMKJ, MJK, CC, CB, LMC, ST•

Novena to St. JosephHoly St Joseph, you were a man ofgreat hope and faith. You faced manydifficult times in your life, fleeing intoEgypt, caring and fearing for Mary andJesus, you lived like us today in un-certain times.Your strength came fromknowing that the power and faithful-ness of God would always be con-stant.

Fill us with the confidence that youhad in the Lord, Our God. Help us toknow that God is close to us, that Hewill deliver us from the trials and trou-bles we are now encountering.

May the light of the Lord give us hope.May it guide us every day of our livesand uniting our prayers with yours,may we be assured by the peace andjoy of the Lord, that will strengthen usin all our difficulties. Amen. Holy StJoseph, pray for us. – CB

Publication of each novena is $25 per issue

Travel advisory issuedfor Irish citizens

for Italy’s coronavirusaffected areas

Irish citizens have been advisedby the Department of ForeignAffairs not to travel to areas ofItaly affected by a coronavirusoutbreak.In revised travel advice issued onFebruary 24, the department notesthe increase in the number of con-firmed cases of coronavirus in Italy,and the restriction imposed by theItalian authorities in specific partsof the north of the country.The department says travellers, in or-der to ascertain whether their destina-tion in Italy is in an affected area,should consult the government websiteof the region in question or, if they arein Italy, call 1500.The advice follows news of six deathsin Italy and the first major travel re-strictions to be imposed in Europe.Northern Italy has seen more than50,000 people in a number of towns inthe Veneto and Lombardy regions quar-antined.Italian officials have cancelled sport-ing events, closed schools and busi-nesses and cut short the Venice carni-val. Italian officials have cancelledsporting events, closed schools andbusinesses and cut short the Venicecarnival.The chances of a coronavirus case oc-curring in Ireland have “significantlyincreased” in light of the Italian out-break with the State now preparing forthe likelihood that there “could wellbe a case in Ireland in the coming daysand weeks”, Minister for Health SimonHarris said.Harris’s comments followed a specialmeeting of the national public healthemergency team in relation to thespread of the virus in Europe.He said a number of his departmentofficials were taking part in Europeanlevel meetings while the national pub-lic health emergency team would meetagain shortly.Isolation facilities have been madeavailable by the HSE in all hospitals

while the necessary additional fund-ing will be provided if a case does oc-cur, he added.Reviews of mass gatherings are alsoset to take place in the coming days,particularly the Ireland-Italy Six Na-tions rugby match, which is scheduledto take place in Dublin’s Aviva sta-dium on March 7, the minister said.Asked whether there were plans tocancel St. Patrick’s Day events inMarch, Harris said all mass gatheringswere being kept under review but therewere no plans to cancel events yet.“The rugby game is something thatneeds considerable consideration,” hesaid. “This situation is evolving. Theweekend’s activities have shown thatthere is still an awful lot unknownabout the coronavirus and about thepath it might take.”In relation to possible airport screen-ings, Harris said public health doctorswere “working around the clock” onthe issue while Ireland was followingWorld Health Organisation and theEuropean Centre for Disease Preven-tion and Control (ECDC) and controlfor guidelines and advice.It’s important that the EU respondsto the health emergency in a “uniformway” to avoid mass confusion, saidHarris.“Any action Ireland takes will be basedon health evidence as opposed to be-ing seen to be doing something for thesake of doing something.”Meanwhile two Irish citizens have ar-rived at a quarantine block near Liver-pool in England after being evacuatedfrom the Diamond Princess cruise shipmoored off Japan. They were among agroup of 32 people – the rest of whomare British nationals – who arrived atthe centre on Saturday. Four of thegroup have tested positive forcoronavirus, according to British offi-cials.It is understood that a number of sec-ondary schools across Ireland have de-cided to cancel school trips to Italy inlight of the latest travel advice.

NOVENAS


VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Irish Sporting andSocial Club (ISSC) has been hard at work prepar-ing for the 2020 season.

and we play against each other, butsometimes the numbers aren’t thereand fair play we have the ladies foot-ballers who are always willing to makeup another team or do a sticks in thing.Actually we’re very lucky, we used tohave hurling and camogie days inRupert and we’d have mixed in withthe lads then, that used to be a greattime. But, an hour playing with thelads would toughen you up, but weused to play with under 16 but theselads aren’t under 16 at all!We had to play with the juniors! Sowe just kept ploughing along. It is hardbut when you love a sport, and whenyou love playing it, and when youhave the hurley in the hand, you justdon’t care where you play, or how youplay, or who you’re playing against,just once you’re out there and playingis the main thing at the end of day.[*Until this year with the establish-ment of Van Isles over in Victoria, Van-couver Island.]Tommy: Now that you’ve masteredcamogie you seem to have moved ontofootball. What happened that madeyou switch over and make footballyour new passion now? You won theSpring League and then you won inSan Diego, are you now in a ladies foot-ball club?Elmarie: Sorry, I’ve so many medalswith both sports I just can’t keeptrack! Ah yeah it’s gas. This year hasbeen a bit exceptional.We put a camogie together and we justcame out winners of every footballtournament and it was brilliant but Istill wanted to win a camogie cup butwe didn’t, but sure what can you do atthe end of the day! It just goes to showpeople just want to play, we just wantto be involved with a club, be out thereplaying the sport.We went up to San Diego in May andwe were just going in solely to playcamogie and sure Lorraine [Muckian]threw a message in the group and waslike ‘ah sure, will we play the football.You know more games, who cares ifwe play three games in one day!!’And everyone was like ‘yeah, yeah,yeah!’ I was like ‘you know I’m theoldest now and I’m going in the goalagain (hand up again!), okay we’ll doit if I play in goal again!’

And they were like tough El, you knowwe are playing the both! So down wewent and were playing 3/4 games, thesame 7/8 of us that was there . . . andyeah we came out winners of the foot-ball!We’ve also been telling our newestISSC members about our successes ofthe last year for ladies football, echo-ing captain Shauna Hilley’s praise forcontributing factors of good energy andmentorship in her Q&A with Tommy.

•Shauna Hilley

Tommy: Vancouver Championship,Western Canadian, North Americanvictories all to your name. Can youtell us what contributed to your suc-cess?Shauna: It was a very successful yearfor the ladies for sure. And to be hon-est when I was thinking that I was go-ing to be asked this question it wassimple, it was just really a combina-tion of really simple things. We hadjust a really positive energy within thecamp throughout the whole entire year.I don’t think any of us felt that wewere pressured in any way or any-thing like that it was just so positiveand we never felt if you did somethingwrong that someone would ever sayanything. Everything was always posi-tive and constructive in a good way.Obviously as well we have such a greatcombination again of, I call them, the“cord oldies,” the old people who havebeen here 3+ years (they’re the oldiesnow in my book).Then you had people “fresh off theboat,” and then we had another fewthat were only playing a year or so, sothey were all into wanting in the West-erns and North Americans.We were even joking at the end of theyear that for a whole ladies group of

all different types of personalities, wedidn’t have any spats or confronta-tions, so I think that was really goodas well.What contributed to that as well wasdefinitely the three lads that we hadon our team this year. They deserve ahand for putting up with all the ladiesthis year – Ronan, Owen and Oisin.Unfortunately we are losing Oisin thisyear, but we can only thank him foreverything that he’s done. Breaks myheart to lose a fellow Wicklow personbut that’s okay, there’ll just be morerivalry on the pitch so we wish St.Finians ladies the best of luck and can’twait to meet them on the pitch!Everyone was so dedicated through-out the year. Ronan who wasn’t actu-ally playing this year went to Seattle,Western Canadians and North Ameri-cans just to support us, so I don’t thinkit gets more dedication than that to befair.I would like to point out that I thinkwe had more competition this year,across the board with new teams.Fraser Valley Gaels was in their thirdyear this year and they had a reallystrong panel.The ladies that were at the Westerns,we had such a great competition againstthem and that lit the fire in their bellyto play even better and go to the NorthAmericans and win! So we reallywanted to win this year and a nicehappy camp!

•Michael Sweeney

It’s not just the ladies that areproactively pre-season prepping. Ourfootball lads are hosting their registra-tion night on Friday, February 28 atTap and Barrel, Olympic Village.This will be an opportunity for any-one interested in joining as well as ex-

isting members to get all the informa-tion for the upcoming season and howwe can prepare following the successof 2019.Why should you attend this event?Pure perseverance as Michael Sweeneyshared in his Q&A.Tommy: Football has changed and isstill growing in Vancouver. I thinkthat’s safe to say, and the level of com-petitiveness and standards have goneup a lot in the last few years. How doyou think we compare with the U.S.now, compared to maybe five yearsago?Michael: This is my third year play-ing, when I first came the ISSC hadjust the mass group of numbers. FraserValley were just getting going and withSt. Finians now there’s four clubs andobviously then there’s three ladiesfootball clubs as well.So, yeah, the standard has risen and Ithink anyone that was at the Vancou-ver final this year could see that.I had friends that were over visiting atthe time and they couldn’t get overthe standard of play and the level thatit’s got to now.I suppose with the standard of theU.S., they throw a lot of money withplayers, you’ve got the likes of yourDiarmuid Connollys coming over forgreat money and we don’t have that,but I think in a lot of ways we’re bet-ter off for not having that approach.I think the lads [JP Ryan’s] and theladies have shown that just hard workand just work off the field in terms ofrecruitment.There’s a lot more people coming toVancouver now, a lot of Irish, there’s abigger diaspora of people coming, soin terms of how we compete with theU.S. on the club basis I think we beatthem hands down.When they can throw money at it,which personally I don’t know if that’sthe right way, if that’s what the GAAis about, I don’t think so, I think it’smore of a gratis kind of thing.Yeah, the standard’s grown like crazy.Even if you look at the Vancouver fi-nal on our team alone, we’ve got somany guys that played county, seniorcounty, under 21s, county minor.Fraser Valley were the same, they hada ton of boys as well, Eire Og too. Sothe standard has grown so it’s onlygoing to be a matter of time beforewe’re beating those American teams atthe higher level, and so it’s just goingto grow as the numbers keep cominghere.Tommy: Winning the Western Cana-dians this year was a sweet victoryafter the loss in the final last year. Whatdid you do to prepare this year thatwas different from other years?Michael: Yeah, last year the WesternCanadians were on here in Vancouver,and I’d say we were the hot favouritesto win.It was kind of a freakish weekend, Ithink in the space of 10 minutes wehad like five guys injured, it was nuts!Oisin did his leg the first minute, wehad lads breaking fingers left, right andcentre!Then we went out in the final, and fairplay to Fraser Valley, they beat us.But that was a tough pill to take, espe-cially at home.

Ireland’s national games thriving in Vancouverwith the ISSC standing out from the crowd

By GRÁINNE Mc DERMOTTPRO/Irish Language

& Culture rep

We’ve already had a huge turn outat the induction events we hostedat the beginning of the year withindividual social meetings for foot-ball and camogie at the end of Janu-ary and a club-wide open night atthe beginning of February.February was right down to businesswith an open house on Saturday, Feb-ruary 1, where we hosted a skills dem-onstration to people who had neverplayed before, extending GAA sportsto the wider community of Irish, Eng-lish, Scottish, Canadian, Australian andSpanish.Shauna Hilley exhibited all the basicsof football, while Amy Beecher dem-onstrated camogie. We had definitelypeaked their interest as we doubled thenumbers on the first day of our annualskills academy on Tuesday, February11 than we had last year.Some of the women have played be-fore but we had a lot of rookies whichis amazing to see. We have been busyfilling them with stories of our uniqueclub, especially as our camogie womenended up winning more trophies infootball than camogie!!

•Elmarie Cronin

Those of you who were lucky enoughto be at our 45th anniversary dinnerdance back in November, would haveheard emcee Tommy Bourke’s Q&Asession with camogie co-founderElmarie Cronin.Tommy: You’re involved in setting upthe camogie team for the club, how hasthe team developed and progressedsince it was set up and what helpedyou along the way?Elmarie: Well I do have to give somecredit to the hurling team, they havebeen behind us the whole way through.It took us a bit of time to get noticefrom the board, especially when I camealong nine years ago there wasn’t evena camogie team.So myself and Rita Ritchie had a vi-sion, we had never played ladies foot-ball before and we had to start playingit because there was no camogie team.I remember being up on the field andsomeone goes ‘will anyone go in goals?’and I was like ‘yeah I will!’ And thereI remained until we formed a camogieteam!!I think there were four of us one Sun-day morning in Strathcona and we justbuilt it from there in 2011 and thankGod when 2015 came along we wereable to put a team into the NorthAmericans and we just haven’t lookedback since.But it all comes back to getting ourclub behind us, getting the committeebehind us, getting sponsors behind usand only for them we wouldn’t bewhere we are today.Tommy: You’re the only camogie clubin western Canada*. What are the chal-lenges in that and what do you do toget people more involved in camogie?Elmarie: Yeah, people ask me all thetime ‘who do you play against?’ andI’m like ‘Seattle are our localteam’*...in another country.Calgary is the other team, but they’rea bit far distance away. But we try,

PHOTO: Operio PhotographyFOOTBALL CAPTAIN Shauna Hilley demonstrated all the basicsof Gaelic football at the Open House hosted by the ISSC on Satur-day, February 1,

PHOTO: Operio PhotographyCAMOGIE TRAILBLAZERSElmarie Cronin and Rita Ritchie.

[Continued next page...]


[Continued from page 26]

This year I think what was differentwas we went up with probably theleast numbers.It was the first time we’ve ever wentup as underdogs in something, and weweren’t too worried about who wasgoing because we knew that the guyswho were going were going to give eve-rything.On the day, especially the final, thelads were nervous, I was nervous aswell, after losing the year before andFraser Valley was going for the threein a row as well.I think on the day guys were commit-ted, guys were just focused on thatweekend and just getting the job done.On the day of the final as well ourforwards were absolutely unbelievable,like Jeff Sheridan, Carl Martin, DanNea.For us it was an important victory,there were a lot of guys that hadn’tactually won a Western, guys that hadbeen here for a long time but hadn’twon.Even Mick O’Shea was there on thesideline and he was wearing a top thatwas about four sizes too small for him-self and shorts six sizes too small forhimself, to show how much it meantfor lads like that.No it was a great victory. Afterwardsyou act like you would when you’re12 again, jumping around and stuff.It did mean that much for us for thatparticular reason. And just going backto your question, what was differentwas we knew we were underdogs, andwe just had to give it everything wehad and it just worked out well for usthat weekend.

•On the topic of “20x20 – she can’t seeit, she can’t be it,” the ladies had in-spiring words of encouragement.Tommy: 20x20 is an all-inclusivemovement to shift Ireland’s culturalperception of women’s sport by 2020.

PHOTO: Operio PhotographyCAMOGIE women at the ISSC Open House demonstrating theirskills to people who had never played before, extending GAA sportsto the wider community.

Do you think things have changed herein GAA in Vancouver/the ISSC withregards to women’s sports and theirinput and roles in the club?Shauna: 100 percent! For anyonethat doesn’t know the 20x20 initiativehas three basic goals: They want toincrease ladies participation by 20percent, be it referees, players and onthe administrative role; 20 percentmore media across Ireland for wom-en’s sports; and 20 percent more at-tendance.On the administrative role, this is ac-tually I can say for a lot of ladies isreally personal in the sense of havingsuch a strong base on the executivecommittee for the ladies.For the past three years we’ve had awoman chairperson, Mev [MariaEviston] in the past and now Blá[Bláithín Noone], and we have all theother roles such as secretary which arefilled by women, so that has definitelybeen an instrument in and havinggreater participation on everythingthroughout all of the codes.They are pretty much like role modelsfor a lot of people because if we don’thave them then women in the sportmay potentially die out. So we haveto make sure that there’s always goingto be women on the board for sure.Elmarie: Shauna’s 100 percent right,I would agree. I know I keep sayingnine years ago it was a very differentISSC. I sat around a table of mostlymen fighting for this camogie team.It was hard but I’m at the stage nowthat if one more camogie person goeson the board, oh my God, because Ineed them out playing and attendingtraining and not attending meetings!

•Of the ISSC Committee roles, five thenine positions are currently held bywomen:

Chairperson – Bláithín NooneVice-Chairperson – Aisling Slevin

Secretary – Anne BuckleyTreasurer – Aoife O’Connor

PRO/Irish Language & Culturerep – Gráinne Mc Dermott

As well as player reps Shauna Hilleyand Michelle O Connor (football) andAmy Beecher and Laura Dwan(camogie).Let’s not forget Lorraine Muckian,who works tirelessly in refereeing,training and development, is now vicechairperson for Canada GAA. Alsoformer chairperson Maria Eviston isPRO for Western Canada GAA.Looking to play ladies or mens foot-ball or camogie, please contact usthrough our Facebook or Instagrampage @isscvancouver or [email protected].

“It was kind of afreakish weekend,I think in the space

of 10 minutes we hadlike five guys injured,

it was nuts!”

Manchester City bannedfrom Champions League sendingshockwaves through football fans

Manchester City has beenbanned from the ChampionsLeague for the next two sea-sons for ‘serious breaches’ ofUEFA’s financial fair play regu-lations.The move sent shockwavesthrough football and may now seequestions raised over their domes-tic success.The reigning English champions werefound to have circumvented FFP rulesbetween 2012 and 2016 and have beenfined £25 million.Serious questions may now be askedby the Premier League, with sourcessuggesting they may impose a pointsdeduction.Manchester City won their first titlein 2012 and their second in 2014, bothwithin the time period UEFA adjudi-cated upon.However, the Premier League may welldecide to wait for the outcome of anappeal Manchester City have vowedto launch before deciding whether totake action of their own.Questions may also be raised over thefuture of manager Pep Guardiola, hisplayers and potential signings.City say they will appeal against thedecision at the earliest opportunity viathe Court of Arbitration for Sport.They accused UEFA of “initiating,prosecuting and judging” the case andsay they are not surprised at the out-come.UEFA launched a probe after docu-ments published by the German maga-zine Der Spiegel suggested the club hadfalsely inflated sponsorship deals withfirms linked to their Abu Dhabi own-ership.City have won four Premier Leaguetitles since being taken over by SheikhMansour, a member of the Abu Dhabiroyal family, in 2008.

THE REIGNING English champions were found to have circum-vented FFP rules between 2012 and 2016 and have been fined£25 million and banned from the UEFA Champions League Fi-nal.

A UEFA statement said, “The Adjudi-catory Chamber has imposed discipli-nary measures on Manchester CityFootball Club directing that it shall beexcluded from participation in UEFAclub competitions in the next two sea-sons (ie. the 2020/21 and 2021/22 sea-sons) and pay a fine of EU30million.”City reacted furiously to the develop-ment and say they will appeal to theCourt of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).The club have made no secret of their

desire to win European football’s topprize, the Champions League, for thefirst time and manager Pep Guardiolaadmitted last year that his tenure islikely to be judged on whether he suc-ceeds in the competition or not, de-spite having already won two leaguecrowns.The Premier League champions faceReal Madrid in the last 16 of this sea-son’s competition with the first legtaking place at the Bernabeu on Feb-ruary 26.

Is there anorganisation

anywherecomparableto the GAA?

Run almost totally on a voluntarybasis, the Gaelic Athletic Associa-tion reaches into practically everycommunity on the island of Irelandand with a success no other institu-tion does.It is the only one of those threegreat pillars of nationalist Ireland –itself, the Catholic Church andFianna Fáil – to continue thrivinguninhibited at home and abroad asthe third decade of the 21st centurybeckons.A huge source of the GAA’sstrength is attachment and loyaltyto the local club, of which there areover 2,200 in all 32 counties of Ire-land. There are a further 462 clubsabroad, “wherever green is worn,”– 83 in the UK; 71 throughout Eu-rope; 132 in the U.S.; 19 in Canada;64 in Australia; and, 22 in the Mid-dle and Far East.


SEATTLE IRISH NEWS

ByJOHN

KEANE

PASSINGS• Mary Gaskin (93), mother of Seattle’sAlan Gaskin, died in Co. Louth Janu-ary 30;

• Angela Cummins, a native of Co.Louth, died in Mukilteo January 16;

• Sister Elizabeth Linnane CSJP (94),a native of Co. Kerry, died in BellevueJanuary 11;

• Maureen Nielsen (94), a native of Co.Derry, died in Kennewick January 8;

• Allan Carson (91), a native of Bel-fast, died in Seattle January 4;

• John O’Sullivan (90), a native of Co.Kerry, died in Tacoma December 29;

• George Bradshaw (87), husband ofCo. Leitrim native Celine, died inEdmonds November 26;

• Eithna Love (93), a native of Co.Down, died in Olympia November 26;

• Isabel Beegle (76), a native of Co.Down, died in Everett November 13;

• Madge Peterson (93), a native of Co.Armagh, died in Seattle November 9;

• Julianne Carty (67), a native of Dub-lin, died in Ridgefield November 29;

• Barney Gallagher (93), a native ofCo. Donegal, died in Puyallup Decem-ber 3;

• John Majeska, husband of Úna andbrother-in-law of Martin O’Malley, bothnatives of Co. Mayo, died in EdmondsNovember 18;

• Father Kieran Heneghan (95), brotherof Seattle’s Father Jarlath Heneghan,died in Co. Meath September 22;

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílse – May their faithful souls rest at

God’s right hand•

SEAN-NÓS FESTIVAL – The 13th an-nual Sean-Nós Northwest TraditionalIrish Festival at Evergreen State Col-lege in Olympia is Saturday and Sun-day, April 4-5.

Two full days of workshops andclasses on traditional Irish singing,dancing, language, music, and culture.Registration at seannos.org.

GAELS GAA – The Emerald City Cupfor men’s Gaelic football is named forthe late Frank Shriane, one of theclub’s founding members.

The Gaels’ new committee membersfor 2020 are: Chair - Joseph Lavy;Vice chair - Oisín Desmond Keely;Registrar - Tom Va; Treasurer - RyanClapp; Secretary - Bridgett Vechey.

IRISH HUSKY – Sophie O’Sullivan, arunner who has competed internation-ally for Ireland, is a UW Husky Track &Field recruit in its 2020 class.

Her mother, Sonia, a native of Cork,was one of Ireland’s greatest everathletes. She set a world record in the2,000-meters in 1994, won gold in the5,000 meters at the 1995 World Cham-pionships, and a silver medal in the5,000 meters at the 2000 OlympicGames.

SOUNDER SIGNING – A recent SeattleSounders signing is Shane O’Neill, anative of Middleton, Co. Cork.

Shane has played six MLS seasonssince his rookie debut in 2012, the pasttwo at Orlando City SC.

Shane’s father, Colm O’Neill, was astar Gaelic football player in Irelandand played with Cork from 1984 until1991 during which Cork played in three

All-Ireland Finals.

CCE PUGET SOUND – The PugetSound Branch of Comhaltas CeoltóiríÉireann (CCE) is affiliated with the in-ternational CCE organization, the pri-mary Irish organization dedicated to thepromotion of the music, dance, song,and language of Ireland.

In the Seattle area, CCE’s holds monthlyIrish set-dances at the Wilde RoverPub in Kirkland and Shawn O’Donnell’sin Fremont. Details atCCEPugetSound.org.

ZAPPONE DEFEATED – Among thosemembers of the Dáil (the Irish parlia-ment) who lost their seat in the recentIrish general election was Seattle-bornKatherine Zappone, the outgoing IrishGovernment Minister for Children andYouth Affairs.

Katherine was first elected to the Dáilas an Independent in 2014, the sameyear she came back to Seattle to beGrand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s DayParade.

EMERALD EVENING – The Seattle

FORMER President of Ireland President Mary Robinson was inSeattle on Friday, February 14 where she addressed a group onclimate change and signed her new book, Climate Justice: Hope,Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future.

IRISH CONSUL GENERAL Robert O’Driscoll, Mary Shriane,Maureen Keane, Mary Robinson, John Keane, and Jean Roth onFebruary 14 following an address by the former Irish President atK&L Gates in Downtown Seattle.

THE IRISH HERITAGE CLUB Board of Directors recently met toorganize Irish Week 2020 in Seattle. (L-R) [Back row] DavidJacobsen, Brendan Shriane, Janet Mount, Heather Murphy, RalphKosche, Caron McMahon, and Seán Bailey. [Front row] JohnKeane, Jane Sepede, Jean Roth, Nanci Spieker, and CorbinJohnson.

FORMER President of Ireland President Mary Robinson signs hernew book for Jane Sepede following a talk she gave in Seattle onthe climate crisis.

Police Pipes & Drums host their Emer-ald Evening 2020 on Saturday, April 4at the SPAA Pavilion, 11030 E MarginalWay S, Tukwila.

The event to raise funds for the SPDPipe band starts at 4:30 PM. Cocktailhour, program 5:45 PM, followed by abuffet dinner, hosted beer and winebar, dessert dash, whiskey tasting bar,live auction, etc., as well as perform-ances by the Seattle Police Pipes &Drums with dancing afterwards! Tick-ets $40 at (253) 237-2811.

MISCELLANEOUS• For information on the next Irish BookClub meeting, [email protected].

• The Cascadia Irish Music Week isJuly 20-25 at The Evergreen State Col-lege, Olympia, Irish music classesbased on your instrument and skill level.More info and registration atceolcascadia.org.

• Best wishes to Seattle’s Randal Bayson his new album of Irish fiddle tunes,UP THE WEST, available atupthewest.com.

• Congratulations to Seattle’s Irish glassartist, Paul Stokes, whose “1845:Momento Mori” Irish Famine exhibit willbe displayed later this year at the IrishFamine Museum in Roscommon andalso at Johnstown Castle in Wexford.

• Irish musician Andy Cooney hosts a7-day cruise to Alaska leaving SeattleMay 31 - details [email protected].

FORMER Irish Taoiseach EndaKenny will be in Seattle to serveas Grand Marshal of the St.Patrick’s Day Parade on Satur-day, March 14

SEATTLE’S new ArchbishopPaul Etienne will be the homilistand presider at the Irish Com-munity’s St. Patrick’s Day Massat St. Patrick’s Church on Fri-day, March 13.

OFFALY NATIVE Jim Cummins,an invaluable member ofSeattle’s Irish community, willserve as Honorary Grand Mar-shal of Seattle’s St. Patrick’sDay Parade on March 14.

GALWAY MAYOR MikeCubbard will be in Seattle to par-ticipate in Irish Week 2020 andto march in the St. Patrick’s DayParade on Saturday, March 14.


2020 SEATTLE IRISH WEEK EVENTSFull Details at IrishWeek.org

Special Irish WeekPresentations

• Joanne McFall, with Cré Crafts (Créis the Irish word for clay) in Ireland,will conduct Celtic ceramics demon-strations on both days of the festival.

• Celtic Life & Heritage will presentworkshops both days on how to ig-nite your child’s learning with presen-tations on Irish History, an Irish cardgame, and a video journey through Ire-land.

• At the festival, a Lego artist will rec-reate the historic Rock of Cashel us-ing Lego bricks, including the grounds,graves and the wall, all on a greenLego hill!

• Dr. Tyrone Bowes, a biotechnologistand genealogist with Irish Origenes inGalway, will describe how to use thelatest technology and DNA results todecipher clues to your Irish ancestralorigins.

PARADE GRAND MARSHAL – EndaKenny became Ireland’s taoiseach in2011 just as Ireland was trying to re-cover from the economic downturncaused by the housing crisis.

He stepped down as taoiseach in 2017after Ireland’s economic recovery waswell underway.

First elected to the Dáil (Irish Parlia-ment) in 1975, he was the longest serv-ing Dáil member when he declined torun for re-election in the recent IrishGeneral Election.

In 2013 he was the first servingtaoiseach to pay an official visit toSeattle.

We are delighted and honored to havethe former taoiseach as our 2020 St.Patrick’s Day Parade Grand Marshal.

HONORARY GRAND MARSHAL – JimCummins, a native of Co. Offaly, haslived in Kennewick with his wife Eloisefor the past 44 years.

He retired in 1995 as Warden at theWalla Walla Penitentiary after 25 yearswith the Washington State Departmentof Corrections.

Jim helped found the Irish ImmigrantSupport Group in Seattle in 2001 andserved as chair for 15 years.

He served for six years as NationalTreasurer of the Coalition of Irish Im-migration Centers around the U.S. andstill helps organize our senior lunch-eons.

Jim is an invaluable member of theSeattle area Irish community and we’redelighted to have him as HonoraryGrand Marshal of this year’s parade.

GALWAY MAYOR – Mike Cubbard be-came mayor of Galway City this pastJune, the first time he was elected toserve as the city’s first citizen.

With nearly six years of political expe-rience, he is an independent voice onthe City Council not belonging to anypolitical party.

He is visiting Seattle for the first timeand with him are his wife Karen, andtheir three young boys.

We wish them all a sincere Céad MíleFáilte (One Hundred Thousand Wel-comes) as they visit Galway’s sistercity of Seattle.

Honorary Grand Marshal. Reserva-tions required to (253) 237-2811.

PARADE HIGHLIGHTS – In Seattle’sSt. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 14,there will be at least seven participat-ing bands including the Seattle Fire-fighters Pipe Band, the Seattle PolicePipe Band and the Navy Band North-west.

They will join about 60 unicyclists fromWhittier Elementary School, the Key-stone Kops, Irish Wolfhounds, IrishTerriers, Kerry Blues, the Seafair Pi-rates, the Seafair Clowns, and manyother groups.

The Ride-the-Ducks Boat will againserve as a Shamrock Shuttle to carryseniors who are unable to walk theparade route (seat reservations at(253) 2371-2811).

All are welcome to walk with theirfavorite group or behind their Irish Pro-vincial Banner. Parade starts at 12:30PM, find all the details at irishweek.org.

FESTIVAL DETAILS – Admission isFREE to all Irish Festival activities onboth Saturday and Sunday, March 14and 15 at the Seattle Center.

The festival features non-stop Irishmusic, singing and dancing, boothsselling Irish and Celtic products, work-shops, lectures, cultural displays, chil-dren’s contests and activities, includ-ing contests to find the kid with the‘Smilingest Irish Eyes’ and the ‘MostIrish Looking Face’. The festival runsnoon to 6 PM on Saturday, and 10 AMto 6 PM on Sunday.

IRELAND TICKETS RAFFLE – On theafternoon of Sunday, March 15 at theIrish Festival at the Seattle Center, therewill be a raffle for two round trip tick-ets direct from Seattle to Dublin on AerLingus.

Tickets at $5 each can only be pur-chased in person from an Irish Herit-age Club and ONLY 1,000 TICKETSCAN BE SOLD.

So pick up your tickets at any of theIrish Week events or at the Irish Herit-age Club booth during the Irish Festi-val.

The special drawing is on the festi-val’s main stage at 5:30 PM, Sunday,March 15, and you do not have to bepresent to win. Ádh mór – Good luck!!

OTHER EVENTS – Other events of IrishWeek include the St. Patrick’s Day Masson Friday morning, March 13, at 10 amat St. Patrick’s Church, celebrated bySeattle’s new Archbishop PaulEtienne.

Then that afternoon at 5 PM, the Pi-rates Landing of St. Patrick will be heldat south Lake Union, near MOHAI, fol-lowed at 7 PM by the Painting of theGreen Stripe on 4th Avenue. All eventsare free and kids are very welcome.Information at irishweek.org.

DERVISH – Irish band Dervish per-forms at Seattle’s Neptune Theatre,1303 NE 45th Street, at 8 PM on March17, St. Patrick’s Day. Dervish includessix of Ireland’s finest traditional musi-cians. Tickets at EventBrite.

PROGRAM OF EVENTS

SATURDAY, MARCH 7· 2020 Irish Soda Bread Contest

FRIDAY, MARCH 13• St. Patrick’s Day Mass• Mayor’s Proclamation Lunch-

eon• Pirates Landing of St. Patrick• Green Stripe Laying on 4th Ave

SATURDAY, MARCH 14• Irish Flag-Raising• 2020 St. Patrick’s Day Parade• Irish Festival Seattle

SUNDAY, MARCH 15• St. Patrick’s Day Dash• Irish Festival Seattle• Matt Talbot Dinner

SATURDAY, MARCH 21• Irish Genealogy Seminar:

“Putting The Gene Back IntoGenealogy”

• Seattle Gaels Field Day

MAYOR’S LUNCHEON – Seattle MayorJenny Durkan and Galway Mayor MikeCubbard will join Grand Marshal EndaKenny at the Mayor’s Irish Week Proc-lamation Luncheon at noon on Friday,March 13, at the Ninety, 406 OccidentalAvenue S., Seattle.

Proclamations of Irish Week 2020 willbe issued and their parade sashes willbe presented to the Grand Marshal and

Galway will celebrate 2020European City of Culture withover 1,900 events across 154projects in collaboration withlocal, national, European andinternational artists and culturalorganisations, in villages,towns, on islands.Some of the highlights include:• Wild Atlantic Women for Women’sDay, on March 7-8, featuring authorMargaret Atwood and Derry Girl ac-tor Siobhán McSweeney, sunrise per-formance and exhibition inspired bycourt testimonies of domestic abuse.• Sruth na Teanga, Branar’s immersivetheatre about the evolution of the Irishlanguage, in Galway’s former airportbuilding.• The Connemara landscape illuminatedin an epic spectacle called SavageBeauty by Finnish light artist KariKola from March 14-17.• The acclaimed Druid Theatre willtake 20th-century Irish one-act playsto local communities across the countyfrom May to July.• An epic telling of Gilgamesh byMacnas, written by Marina Carr anddesigned by Julian Crouch will runApril, June, November, and Decem-ber.

Galway: European Capitalof Culture 2020

Sadly, the opening ceremony of Gal-way 2020, which was due to take placeon the evening of Saturday, February8 was cancelled due to bad weather.Organisers said they were “extremelydisappointed” to announce the cancel-lation due to the severe national weatherwarnings.“In the interests of the safety of thepublic the weather warnings currentlyin place mean that it has been deemedunsafe to go ahead.”Thousands had been expected to at-tend the official launch of the event tomark Galway’s year as European Capi-tal of Culture. Capacity for the freeevent was 28,000, with scope to in-crease to 45,000.“We are saddened for the communitycast, our volunteers and the whole teamwho have worked so hard during thelast weeks and months,” said a spokes-person.“Today’s event would have marked thefinale of what has been a hugely suc-cessful week-long series of events on

the Fire Tour of lighting ceremoniesthat have lit up towns across thecounty.”A large-scale fire-lit themed openingceremony had been planned at SouthPark in the city’s Claddagh.President Michael D Higgins, alongwith other Irish poets, artists and mu-sicians, was due to take part in a “fireand flame” opening devised by a localteam and Wonder Works, a UK eventscompany which has worked on Olym-pic ceremonies.More than 500 locals, including com-munity groups, choirs, chanters anddrummers were due to have been in-volved.This designed to be the culmination ofsmaller fire ceremonies in Clifden,Spiddal, Tuam, Ballinasloe, Portumnaand Athenry.Six hand-carved steel “town spheres”were due to arrive at South Park, joinedby the city’s sphere, transforming intogiant glowing orbs, lighting up the head-land. In the bay, Galway hooker fish-ing boats were due to be lit up.The full programme of events is avail-able at galway2020.ie/en/programme

•NOTE: Galway is the Sister City ofSeattle, WA, and this year the Mayorof Galway will be a special guest inSeattle during Irish Week 2020 inSeattle on March 13, 14 and 15.


ByMAURA

DE FREITAS

Lá Fhéile Bríde: Celebrating the Creativity of Women:Vancouver joined a growing cultural movement in 2020

ROM the blue skies that opened the dayfollowing torrential rainstorms the nightbefore, it felt like such an auspicious be-ginning to St. Brigid’s Day.F

With the support of the Consu-late General of Ireland, Van-couver, the first festival to hon-our Ireland’s patron saint ofwomen was held at SimonFraser University HarbourCentre in downtown Vancou-ver on Saturday, February 1,2020.The event was a collaboration betweenthe Irish Benevolent Society of B.C.,the Irish Women’s Network of B.C.,and Simon Fraser University.Lá Fhéile Bríde: Celebrating the Crea-tivity of Women is part of a growingannual celebration of Irish womenaround the world.It began three years ago and has ex-panded to connect women from Lon-don to Warsaw to Washington withevents celebrating the talent and crea-tivity of Irish women with art exhib-its, music, poetry, dance.It is always people coming together tocreate a sacred space that sets the toneand that deep sense of community andkinship was felt by many present atthe event in Vancouver. There wassuch warmth and openness in sharingso many experiences and issues whichhave touched all our lives.This was particularly evident in theworkshops and discussion groups. Icannot say enough about the wonder-ful women who brought their ownunique experience, strength and insightto each session.One of the most popular groups wasLegends and Mythology of Brigidwhich featured Philomena Jordan, anIrish storyteller who captured the spiritof the day with her wonderful bodhránand ability to skillfully weave a tale.This panel, moderated by CassandraSteiner, consisted of Dr. SiobhánMcElduff, PhD Classics, Universityof British Columbia; writer CynthiaWallentine; and Reverend MarniePeterson with St. Brigid’s Ministry,Christ Church Cathedral.Another standing-room only sessionfocused on Mental Health & the IrishDiaspora and covered such issues aspsychological well-being, addictionand suicide prevention from a wom-an’s perspective.This group consisted of SusieNewman, a substance abuse therapistwith the Orchard Recovery Centre; Dr.Máire Durnin, a medical doctor whospecializes in addiction medicine; AmyO’Sullivan with Darkness Into Light,a suicide prevention movement; andCathy Murphy, the executive directorof the Eamonn O’Loghlin Irish Cana-dian Immigration Centre in Toronto.Another insightful session was a read-ing of Letters from Home led by SFUprofessor Dara Culhane. This was a90-minute readers theatre performanceby five local women who read aloudfrom their letters to and from home.The letters covered a wide range ofexperiences and in the course of ad-vance preparation the group partici-pants formed a close bond. Plans are

now underway to continue the read-ings with an ever-growing group ofwomen joining the readings.For more information, anyone inter-ested is invited to contact DaraCulhane directly for more details at:[email protected] the tradition of weaving St.Brigid’s crosses is so deeply ingrainedin Irish culture it is not surprising thatthe workshop led by Irish/Canadianartist Deirdre Keohane was so wellattended.In fact, that space which also servedas a hospitality area literally buzzedwith energy as participants gatheredto weave their own St. Brigid’s crosswhile a Pop-Up Illumination wasscreened in the background.This was part of the HerStory move-ment where women are photographedalongside a projected image of a womanwho has inspired their own lives.Over 17 local women participated inthe project this year and these imagescan be viewed online on the website:www.brigidfestivalvancouver.com.Deirdre Keohane is also the artist whopainted the magnificent image of St.Brigid which was a centrepiece displayat the festival.Her artwork is internationally recog-

nized with one of her works presentedsome years ago to the President of Ire-land, Michael D Higgins.Finally, one of the most remarkableevents happened just a few weeks priorto the festival when keynote speakerAilbhe Smyth was forced to cancel dueto ill health. Her participation had beeneagerly anticipated so it was quite adisappointment and a bit stressful tofind someone who could possibly stepin as a replacement and fill that void.It seemed near miraculous when Dr.Anglela Byrne, who is now with theCulture Unit of the Department ofForeign Affairs, Ireland, agreed on suchshort notice to re-organize her busyschedule and travel from Dublin....andwe could not have found a more per-fect guest speaker given her back-ground.As former Historian-in-Residence atEPIC, Ireland’s museum of emigration,Angela was the curator for ‘Blazing ATrail’ which was exhibited for the firsttime in Canada at the St. Brigid’s DayFestival in Vancouver this year.Dr. Byrne’s address that evening wasfocused on the women featured onthose panels. Her talk brought theirstruggles and achievements to life,helping us to understand in much moredepth how those brave and pioneeringwomen helped to open a door for somany of us to follow our own path.I want to extend a huge note of appre-ciation to the Department of ForeignAffairs, Ireland, for supporting theexhibit and facilitating Dr. Byrne’spresence in Vancouver.On the morning of the event, a flurryof messages of encouragement and goodwishes were received from far andwide, but it was the following fromAilbhe which was most poignant.She wrote: “I’m thinking of you onthe day of your great festival and I’msure it will be beautiful and brilliant,and only wish I could be there withyou. Beannachtai La Fheile Bride toyou all – May Brigid’s strength, pas-sion, leadership and creative powerlight up Vancouver!”The evening was brought to a closefollowing Dr. Byrne’s presentationwith a reception, hospitality and thesounds of Irish traditional music ledby an all-women group of talentedmusicians. What a wonderful way toend an eventful day.Finally, I would be remiss if I did notmention our admiration and gratitudeto Macealach McBride for her crea-tion of the beautiful website whichhelped to bring Lá Fhéile Bríde Van-couver 2020 alive for so many.Sadly for us, Macealach has returnedto her home in Co. Donegal but herwork in Vancouver remains online asan inspiration for those who might stepforward to assist in the year ahead. Itcan be viewed online at:www.brigidfestivalvancouver.com.Special thanks to everyone who sup-ported Lá Fhéile Bríde 2020 Vancou-ver ~ particularly Jennifer Bourke withthe Consulate General of Vancouver;Eilis Courtney with the Irish Wom-en’s Network of B.C.; Willeen Keoughwith Simon Fraser University; DaraCulhane with Simon Fraser University;to all our volunteers; to all our spon-sors who helped make the event pos-sible; and finally, to everyone whocame out and graced us with your pres-ence.

LETTERS FROM HOME led by Simon Fraser University professorDara Culhane was a 90-minute readers theatre performance byfive local women who read aloud from their letters to and fromhome. This group is continuing so watch for more updates on read-ings in the near future.

FRANK FLOOD, Dara Culhane, Syexwaliya (the indigenouselder who offered the Territorial Welcome) Jennifer Bourke, MauraDe Freitas, and Dr. Angela Byrne following the evening presen-tation at the St. Brigid’s Day Festival on February 1, 2020.

A RECEPTION followed the evening presentation with a talentedgroup of all-women traditional session musicians providing thewonderful background music.

A TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS with the Irish Women’s Network ofB.C. welcomed participants to the event and directed partici-pants to their respective workshops and rooms.

DEIRDRE KEOHANE is thetalented artist behind the beau-tiful artwork of St. Brigid on dis-play at the festival.

THE EVENING event openedwith a procession of womenbearing light accompanied byevocative background music.


VANCOUVER – DarknessInto Light is an annual runstarted in Dublin’s PhoenixPark in 2009 to bring aware-ness and support for mental ill-ness and suicide prevention.There were about 400 yellow-cladwalkers that fateful morning, allhuddled together in the blacknessand the cold, standing behind thestarting line.Who would have guessed that littleevent called Darkness Into Light wouldbecome the symbol of hope, the cel-ebration of life that it is today?And Darkness into Light is abouthope. It is about letting people knowthey are not alone.It has grown from a small movementof several hundred to thousands aroundthe world now walking the darknessinto the light so they can share theirstories and inspire others.The Vancouver Darkness Into Lightwalk has become part of that move-ment with all proceeds raised going tocharity to support mental health andsuicide prevention.Friends and families of all ages (includ-ing pets) are welcome to join the walkon Saturday, May 9, to show solidar-ity and support for all those livingwith mental health issues.This wonderfully unique 5K walk willonce again start at 4:15 AM at BurnabyLake. Last year 474 people attendedthe Vancouver event and raisedCAD$32,474.The walk starts and finishes atBurnaby Lake Rugby Club, 3760Sperling Avenue in Burnaby.This year will be bigger and better thanbefore, so make sure that you remem-ber the date and invite your friendsand colleagues to this incredible event.In Vancouver, if you’re struggling, orknow someone that is, please reach outto The Kettle Society who can con-nect you with the excellent local men-tal health resources.Also, Crisis Centre BC is available forimmediate support. If you or some-one you know is having thoughts ofsuicide, call 1-800-784-2433 (1-800-SUICIDE).

•For more information and updates onthe May 9 Darkness Into Light walk atBurnaby Lake, follow on Facebook:Darkness into Light Vancouver.

Darkness Into Light: A symbolof hope and a celebration of life

IT’S A POWERFUL image.Hundreds of people holding alight walking together throughthe darkness into the dawn.Darkness Into Light started inIreland in 2009 to bring aware-ness and support for mentalillness and suicide preventionand it has now grown into aninternational movement ofthousands. Join the walk inVancouver on May 9, 2020.

THE LEGENDS AND MYTHOLOGY of Brigid panel moderatedby Cassandra Steiner, consisted of (L-R) Reverend MarniePeterson with St. Brigid’s Ministry, Christ Church Cathedral,Dr. Siobhán McElduff, PhD Classics, University of British Co-lumbia; writer Cynthia Wallentine; and storyteller PhilomenaJordan.

THE MENTAL HEALTH panel consisted of consisted of SusieNewman, a substance abuse therapist with the Orchard Recov-ery Centre; Dr. Máire Durnin, a medical doctor who specializesin addiction medicine; Amy O’Sullivan with Darkness Into Light,a suicide prevention movement; and Cathy Murphy, the execu-tive director of the Eamonn O’Loghlin Irish Canadian Immigra-tion Centre in Toronto.

WHILE in Vancouver, Dr. Angela Byrne, pictured centre, visitedthe site of the future Ireland Canada Monument and met withcommittee members. It was Brendan Flynn the Chair of theSociety who recommended Angela as a speaker for the BrigidFestival. Pictured above (L-R) Susan Chamberlain, PatriciaJarvis, Teresa McDonnell, Claire Fox, Dr. Anglela Byrne, MaryHatch, Catherine Flynn, Macealeach McBride.

UNDER the watchful eye of Irish/Canadian artist Deirdre Keohaneparticipants enjoyed the Brigid cross-weaving workshop. In thebackground a slide show of participants with the HerStory Pop-Up Illumination can be seen in the background. These imagescan be viewed online at: www.brigidfestivalvancouver.com.


VANCOUVER – In a won-derful festive prelude, ‘An IrishChristmas’ was held on Sun-day, December 22 to help raisefunds for worthwhile causes inour community.The night was a fabulous success whilealso helping to bring the warmth ofthe season to those who might be farfrom home and missing friends andfamily.It was made possible through the sup-port of a great line-up of local sessionmusicians; Brian and Chandra, ownersof the Wolf & Hound restaurant; theConsulate General of Ireland, Vancou-ver; the Irish Women’s Network ofB.C.; and The Celtic Connection news-paper.Many families and groups appearedto enjoy the roast beef Sunday dinnerand take part in the evening’s eventswhich included an Irish music session,a 50/50 draw, prize raffles, and a si-lent auction for a lovely limited edi-tion fine art print of St. Brigid by Irish/Canadian artist Deirdre Keohane.On behalf of the Irish Benevolent So-ciety of B.C., Maura De Freitas wel-comed the full capacity crowd andvolunteers to the session and she de-scribed the purpose and program forthe St. Brigid’s Day Festival to illumi-nate and to celebrate the creativity ofwomen.The session players included: MaryBrunner, Michael Burnyeat, CraigMcGregor, Eilis Courtney, RickMcDougall, Blake Williams, CatherineCraig, Angela Brady, Sal Gallagher, JaneMcEwen, and Pedro Lopes.During some breaks in the music, raf-fle numbers were drawn to awardprizes. Special thank you to both TheCeltic Connection and the Celtic Treas-ure Chest retail store in Dunbar forthe beautiful prize gift baskets filledwith Christmas goodies from home.There was a special moment of silencethroughout the restaurant to recognizethe loss five years earlier of youngChristine Flynn and to reflect that sheis remembered, she is deeply missed,and she will not be forgotten.As the session tunes and songs startedagain, it was a great privilege to haveCatherine Flynn join the session withher amazing banjo playing.Gifted fiddler Mary Brunner notedthat “the camaraderie of the musicianswas evident so with the tunes on a roll

VANCOUVER The annualIrish seniors’ holiday luncheonis always an eagerly anticipatedevent and each year over 100guests gather at the HiltonMetrotown Hotel in Burnaby toenjoy the festive spirit.Hosted by the Irish Women’s Networkand organized by Aideen Clery, theluncheon is always a wonderful op-portunity to connect with old friends,enjoy a delicious meal, share stories,and have the craic.Special guests at this year’s event wasthe Irish Consul General Frank Floodand his wife Orla Ní Bhroithe.In a lovely gesture, the Consul Gen-eral acknowledged several key commu-nity members for their commitmentsand contributions to Irish culture.The presentation of a framed letter toTony and Gwen McCamley of theIrish Heritage Society, which has nowbeen dissolved, was particularly poign-ant. It read as follows:Dear Tony and Gwen McCamleyOn behalf of the office of the Consu-late General of Ireland in Vancouverand the Irish community, I would liketo acknowledge and sincerely thankyou for the great work that you haveboth carried out on Ireland’s behalf inBritish Columbia.For over sixteen years you weregreatly involved and led the work ofCeltic Heritage Society and subse-quently the Irish Heritage Society sup-porting the local Irish community.During this time with Tony as presi-dent and Gwen as treasurer you alsosuccessfully brought forward fully de-veloped plans to build an Irish Cul-tural Centre in Langley at very signifi-cant personal cost.While no stone was left unturned, with-out the necessary support at that timefor this excellent initiative, the Centrewas not eventually established. How-ever, under your guidance and sup-port, the Irish Heritage Society con-tinued to make a significant contribu-tion to the welfare of the Irish com-munity in the Greater Vancouver areauntil its activities ended in 2018.This letter is in recognition of yourgreat acts of kindness, thoughtfulness,generosity and support which you havegiven as leaders of the Irish commu-nity in British Columbia.Wishing you both every success andhappiness,Le gach dea-ghuí

A festive gathering withthoughtful presentations

An Irish Christmas Celebration:A Wonderful Festive Season Prelude

and with the contributions of the otherpeople involved everything came to-gether so well.”Then, one of those unplanned and un-rehearsed magical surprises occurredwhen Sal mentioned she had a friendin from Dublin who might be able tocontribute a song.A quick chat occurred and suddenlyDesmond Cooper, a baritone fromDublin, stepped up to the microphoneand sang a beautiful rendition of TheWexford Carol to great applause!The acoustic session music drewyoung children and parents to jumpup and dance. Many thanks to all thevolunteers, the restaurant owners andstaff, the session musicians, the com-

munity groups and generous custom-ers who added to the spirit of theevening.It was thanks to everyone that over$1,400 was raised toward the Irish Be-nevolent Society of B.C. to supportthe St. Brigid’s Day Festival on Feb-ruary 1, 2020.Brian and Chandra observed, “It wasan evening of music, dance, and craic,all for a good cause. As Helen Kellersaid, ‘Alone we can do so little; to-gether we can do so much’. Thank youall!”As the evening ended far too soon formany, departing guests and volunteersalike were overheard saying, “Let’s dothis again next year!”

DEIRDRE Keohane donated aprint of her artwork which wasraffled to help raise funds forthe Brigid Festival. She is pic-tured above making St. Brigid’scrosses which were sold at theevent.

A talented group of 12 musicians donated their time to bring thewarmth of the season to An Irish Christmas and help raise fundsto benefit the Irish Benevolent Society of B.C. and the St. Brigid’sDay Festival.

A HUGE THANK YOU to the great volunteers who came outand worked so hard selling raffle tickets to benefit the St. Brigid’sDay Festival. The huge array of prizes and gift baskets werethanks to the Wolf & Hound, the Celtic Treasure Chest and TheCeltic Connection.

THE SESSION PLAYERS included: Mary Brunner, MichaelBurnyeat, Craig McGregor, Eilis Courteney, Rick McDougall,Blake Williams, Catherine Craig, Angela Brady, Sal Gallagher,Jane McEwen, and Pedro Lopes. They were later joined byCatherine Flynn and finally, Desmond Cooper, a baritone fromDublin stepped up to the microphone for a beautiful rendition ofThe Wexford Carol. A great night was enjoyed by all!

IRISH CONSUL GENERAL Frank Flood presented Gwen andTony McCamley a framed letter of acknowledgement for theirwork and dedication in supporting the Irish community throughthe Irish Heritage Society of Canada.

AIDEEN CLERY with the IrishWomen’s Network of B.C. wasrecognized for her ongoing workorganizing the annual Irish sen-iors luncheon.

EILIS COURTNEY, president ofthe IWN was thanked for herextensive work on behalf of theIrish community, including theIrish Mapping Project in 2019and launching the new website:irishinbc.ca

BRENDAN FLYNN was ac-knowledged for his dedicationand work with the Irish Monu-ment Project which reachednew milestones in 2019.

issue 29 volume 2 march/april 2020 proudly serving celts ... · johnson, the steeldrivers, and...

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