The Boys are Back in (Carrick) Town!

 

On the weekend before last there was a reunion of my 1975 Leaving Cert class from the Patrician High School in Carrickmacross, county Monaghan.
It was, as Thin Lizzy use to sing, a case of “The Boys are Back in Town”! For we had such great fun together and it really felt like it was only yesterday that we all left the High School for the very last time after completing our Leaving Cert exams.

After the Leaving Cert, our career paths went in many different directions including into farming, the trades (plumbing, electrics), medical, business, construction, army, priesthood, engineering, teaching, law and scientific research. Some stayed in Ireland, some emigrated. To me, in spite of Ireland being in the 1970s a very poor country with a large uneconomical small-farming base, there were better options being considered by young people, in the sense that we understood that not everyone needed to possess what was then a traditional largely 'lecture hall' based academic degree (without real world practical experiences) to secure a job. The mass exodus over the last few decades away from farming and the trades professions has created an unsustainable society where many individual citizens are also sadly dis-empowered unable to fix a leaking pipe, repair a tyre puncture or wire an electrical plug.

I was born and lived in Dublin until I was 12 years old where my dad worked on the CIE buses and my mom had a grocery store. In my final months at primary school, my parents decided to reclaim the rural life of their childhood and we moved to my mom’s home town of Carrickmacross. I was heartbroken, having to leave the up-tempo urban lifestyle and all my childhood friends to move to rural Ireland. Though I would have known county Monaghan well from visiting the country cousins for ‘working on the farm’ summer holidays, nevertheless it was a culture shock for me when the smells and sounds of cattle, pigs and farmyard poultry replaced the familiar sounds of seagulls, crashing waves and boats of the Irish Sea as well as the buses, trains, parks and busy shopping streets of our capital city. I expected that I would never settle down on ”the stony grey soils of Monaghan” (to quote local poet Patrick Kavanagh).

How wrong was I!
For within days of moving to Carrick and starting school, I felt so at home, adopted quickly and made friendships that would last a lifetime. Though we as a collective have met rarely over the decades, nevertheless when it does happen it is always joyful as we happily reminisce about the days of our youth. We all agreed last weekend at our reunion that we never had a bad day in the High School run by the Catholic religious order of the Patrician Brothers, who also operated the BISH in Galway city.
A lot of scandals have come to light since the mid 1990s about the clerical sexual and violent abuse in Ireland towards children and young people during the 20th century. Yet thankfully none of us had encountered this at the High School where the teaching staff (except maybe one or two!) were excellent educators and the Brothers operated what we would now view as a very liberal regime for its time. Furthermore the progressive Christian teachings of giving active respect to others of all backgrounds, especially those who were suffering and in need which we were taught then, I have tried to live by ever since.

“The Times they were a changing”
Impacted by the rise of a distinct ‘youth culture’ in music, fashion, beliefs and politics worldwide, we often looked, behaved and had values so different than that of our parents. A generation gap was opening up in this era. For it was the time of ‘flower power’, civil rights’ struggles, liberation movements and teenage rebellion. As a young idealistic lad, I believed the then Labour Party leader when he promised that Ireland in the 1970s would be socialist and that the old conservative clientelism politics would disappear for ever. The conflict and war in Northern Ireland was literally on our doorstep in Carrickmacross and some of us knew people actively involved.
We were probably the first generation in Ireland to be able to holiday on a tiny budget across the continent of Europe and further afield, travelling by boat and train (Inter Rail), and staying in hostels where we would meet, socialise and be influenced by teenagers from different cultures and nationalities.

It was a wonderful time to be young and to be in school! Our class produced the first regular school student newsletter, set up the first student representative council, introduced soccer into the school (the ‘ban’ by the GAA against soccer, rugby and hockey only officially ended in the early 1970s), and held the first all-out student strike/boycott. We were allowed to dress how we wanted (e.g. long hair, platform shoes or sneakers, paisley shirts and bell-bottom jeans), play basketball, volleyball, soccer as well as Gaelic sports, organise chess evenings after school hours and a weekly leisure afternoon with table tennis, pop/rock music and reading activities. Quiz tournaments regularly brought us through British Army checkpoints over the Border to schools in Armagh. ‘Hops’ (discos) were held in the local community hall organised with the convent girls where we danced to the Glam Rock sounds of T-Rex, Slade, Suzi Quadro, Sweet and Dave Bowie. We had the school's first ever ‘tuck shop’ that opened daily selling sweets and soda drinks. The school invited girls in for the first time (female students from the ‘Tech’ next door who would come to us for French and Maths and we would go to their school for metalwork and carpentry). Teenage boys and girls could met up for coffee or a ‘mineral’ (lemonade, orange) after school or in the evenings at the local café.

Carrick had its own cinema then that was showing the latest Hollywood blockbusters (Kung Fu movies with Bruce Lee, American Graffiti, Earthquake, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Last Picture Show, Poseidon Adventure, Soldier Blue, James Bond…). Happy Days!
At the Reunion on Friday in Markey's Carrickmacross we hosted a display of memorabilia from the 1970s- playing LPs on a record player from Neil Young, Horslips, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Diamond, Byrds, Dylan; viewing old school books such as Buntus Cainte, ‘Explorations’, ‘Soundings’ and Peig Sayers; as well as ‘Shoot’ soccer magazine and comics such as DC’s Superman, Marvel’s Avengers, TV21’s Captain Scarlett, Thunderbirds and Star Trek; and writing with chalk on a big blackboard. My favourite item though was the portable battery-powered cassette recorder. For it was myself that introduced this revolutionary music device to the school! We used it to often secretly (under the desk!) record the teachers in the classroom, record (illegally) music from BBC’s Thursday’s night’s Top of the Pops and from LPs onto blank tapes. We also joined an UK-based music library club where we monthly obtained on loan rock/pop albums on cassette that we recorded (illegally again!) before returning by post mail.
Sadly a number of our former classmates are no longer with us. So we paid quiet respect for Brendan L, Brian, Mark, Padraic, Paul and the others who have passed on.
The next morning we visited the old school with its prefab (which was our first year classroom) still standing to happily reminisce even more.
And then in the afternoon I travelled by train to Dublin with my brother Michael Smith and my son Shane to watch Leeds United play AC Milan at a capacity-filled (51,000!) Aviva stadium.

Leeds back in the top English league and playing against a top team from Italy- it was just like the old days!!!
Finally a big ‘Bualadh Bos’ to Peter Callan, Pierre Finnegan and Owen Finnegan for organising a memorable school reunion. Looking forward to the next one already!!

p.s I am on the far right of the top photo taken in our Biology Lab during our Leaving Cert year. We are all holding the lab's poor unfortunate plastic skeleton!
I am second on the right of the bottom photo taken at our reunion proudly wearing my 'Rod Stewart on Tour' teeshirt!

Journeying through a Hidden Ireland of picturesque landscapes & fascinating histories

 

Journeying through a Hidden Ireland of picturesque landscapes & fascinating histories

In an effort to introduce many of my university colleagues at DSI/Insight and my fellow volunteers at the Tuatha of Terryland Forest Park who may not be familiar with the rich heritage of Ireland, I organised for their benefit a series of summer excursions to parts of rural Galway that are ‘off the beaten track’. That is, destinations that are not on popular tourist trails.

Yet they are undoubtedly fascinating and beautiful places in my humble estimation.

 

The first excursion was on Saturday July 20th.

 

1. Our first stop was to the lovely wooded hill of Knockma, supposedly the birthplace of the legendary Queen Maeve of Connacht and where there are many pretty wooden sculptures of animals and mythological figures. Actually it was a lot busier than I expected with locals and people from nearby Tuam enjoying its walking hill trails.

 

2. Then it was onto Monivea Woods where we visited the neo-Gothic castle-like mausoleum with its ornate marble Christian chapel and eerie crypt. It was completed in 1900 to serve as the final resting place of the British diplomat Robert Percy Ffrench within the demesne of his Irish landed estate by his daughter Kathleen de Kindiakoff with monies provided from her mother's aristocratic family estates along the River Volga in Tsarist Russia.

 

3. From there we went to the nearby Eddie Ned’s pub for lunch. A fine hostelry, it is located in the in the picturesque little village of Monivea that still bears the characteristics of its linen industry and colonial plantation past.

 

4. Our next stop was to the historical Castle Ellen, the home of the amazing 89+ year old Michael Keaney who happily showed us around his historical mansion and secret gardens which were built in 1820. This historical house was the birthplace of Isabella Lambert, the mother of arch-Unionist Edward Carson, a member of the British Imperial war cabinet in World War 1 and one of the founders of Northern Ireland which led to the partition of Ireland in 1921.

 

5. Finally we visited the woods and walked the trails beside Woodlawn House (which sadly is not now publicly accessible). Originally built in the 1760s with its 26 bedrooms, walled garden, courtyard, gatehouse, gardener's house and artificial lake, it was the home of Baron (Lord) Ashdown and was one of the finest houses of the landed nobility during the British colonial period.

Shades of Early Science Fiction

What looks like a piece of equipment from a 1930s-1940s science fiction 'Flash Gordon' or 'Buck Rogers' film has taken up residency in the Computer & Communications Museum of Ireland located at the University of Galway and supported by my workplace of the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics.

Designed and made by Pat Murphy in 1987 as his final year project for the B.Tech in Education at Thomond College (University of Limerick), it is actually a computer desk housing a Commodore 64 microcomputer, monitor, tape deck and a library of cassettes. The 64 was then one of the world's top selling computers in the business, educational and domestic markets.
But this wooden unit is more than just a computer desk- it is a beautifully crafted structure combining practicality with artistic design which I am sure was inspired by early science fiction.
Pat is still teaching carpentry as part of Construction Studies in a Dublin secondary school.
Photo shows a very happy John Murphy (Pat's brother) standing beside this desk just after he got the computer, tape deck and monitor fully operational.
We thank Pat and John for loaning this exquisite piece of equipment to the museum.

'Nature without Borders'- North & South Ireland unite to Restore Native Ecosystems

In a fine example of cross-border cooperation to tackle the Biodiversity Crisis, the 'Friends of Little Woods' in Fermanagh and the Tuatha of Terryland Forest Park have partnered together to create native wildlife habitats.

We gave this all-island initiative the title of 'Nature without Borders' as an encouragement to others to follow suit and to recognise that only humans put in the artificial barriers that disconnects humans and the rest of nature from each other.

The initial contact between both volunteer groups and the subsequent monies received as a result of our application under the Community Climate Action Fund were only made possible thanks to the involvement, advice and encouragement of Tiarnan Mc Cusker, the hardworking and visionary Community Climate Officer at Galway City Council.

Chris Hillcox of the Friends of Little Woods last weekend generously hosted a delegation from the Tuatha to take part in conservation activities (making bird boxes & setting up a Wildlife Observation Post) as part of the programme to develop a wet woodland in the Clogher Valley area of county Fermanagh.

It is hoped that this long-term rewilding project will provide a suitable habitat to facilitate a gradual migration of flora and fauna across the locality that are traditionally native to the area including endangered species such as pine marten and red squirrel.

 

Photo shows (L-R) Tobias, Mike and Ruth from the Tuatha with Chris of the Friends of Little Woods at the bog site in Clabby county Fermanagh.

Families in action at the Terryland Forest Park 'Plantathon 2025'

A mother (Caitriona) and daughter, a father (Kevin) and son- two families united by a common cause of rewilding Galway city.
A great crowd of volunteers on a beautiful Saturday undertook important and wonderful conservation work in Terryland Forest Park as they planted a heritage orchard, a hedgerow and a woods adjacent to our developing wetlands.
So a big thank you to the 80 volunteers of all ages that continued a 25 year tradition of planting trees in Terryland Forest Parks.
Superstars everyone!

Giving a New Lease of Life to a Fallen Tree

I was glad to recently join the students of the highly active Botany Society of the University of Galway who, under the chairpersonship of the dynamic Katie Hennessy, undertook in association with the University Buildings and Grounds section a large scale planting of trees in woods along the banks of the Corrib River.

Sadly, as was the case nationwide, many large mature trees on the campus were victims of Storm Éowyn and the tree planting was to replace some of those that had fallen.

But sometimes, from something bad comes something good.

The Buildings and Ground staff kindly donated to the Tuatha two large cross sections of tree trunks, one of which will be put on permanent display on the exterior of An Nead HQ to be used as a learning aid for school children and others visiting the park. The accompanying plaque will tell the story of Storm Éowyn and the Climate Crisis but also the counting of rings will reveal the age of the tree when it was alive. So the fallen tree will have a new lease of life as part of our Outdoor Classroom.

Photo shows Seanín and Katie from the University of Galway's Botany Society holding one of the donated tree cross sections.

Finally a reminder to join us next Saturday's (March 29th) for a Community Tree Plantathon to celebrate 25 years since the first planting took place in Terryland Forest Park.
Register at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/1284820375329?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Galway Lads Completed the Barcelona Marathon for UNICEF Ireland’s GAZA Crisis Appeal.

 

Thanks to the generosity of so many people, my son Dáire and his three friends-Conor Breathnach, Ruadhán Durkin and Seán MacUidhlinn- raised €2500 in their BARCELONA MARATHON run on Sunday last for the worthy cause of UNICEF Ireland’s GAZA Crisis Appeal.

St. Brigid's Day - a sign of the remarkable status of Women in early Celtic Ireland

Today is the second year that there is a public holiday in Ireland to celebrate a female. 

Though this year it falls on the third day of February, the holiday is associated with February 1st which is the first day of Spring in the Celtic calendar, the season of birth and re-birth that follows the cold barren months of Winter. In Ireland, it is known as Lá Fhéile Bríde as it is dedicated to a female, St. Brigit (or Bridget, Brigid, Bride), the country's most famous native born saint. Children in schools across the country mark the occasion by making a distinctive traditional four armed cross woven out of reeds that is named after the saint. Her name also has a strong affinity with a Celtic goddess associated with fertility and symbolised by 'fire', the element that offered humankind protection from the natural deadly forces of winter.

Brigit is second only in the Irish saints' calendar to St. Patrick who was born in Roman Britain.

The fact that Brigit was female is quite significant as the early Celtic Church in Ireland was unique in contemporary Christian Europe in giving considerable recognition to the role of women. Irish society was not as patriarchal as their Roman, Greek or Germanic neighbours. According to the historian Dáibhí Ó Cróinín in his book 'Early Medieval Ireland', a woman could divorce her husband for a variety of reasons (including if he failed to satisfy her sexual needs!), could own and inherit property and was treated as an individual in her own right with inherent protections under Celtic law. Women fought on the battlefield as warriors until this was banned by the church.

Celtic female influence extended as far as Iceland....
Even outside Ireland, the influence of Irish women at this time (5-7th century) was felt- St. Ives in Cornwall is called after an Irish female saint (a.k.a. Eva or Aoife), St.Grimonia & St. Proba lived in France (Gaul) in the 4th century, St. Dardaloch in Pavia, Itay (c.300ad) and the nunnery in Austria made famous in the film and musical 'The Sound of Music' was probably founded by an Irish female missionary (Erintrude). In Iceland the hero of one of the great Icelandic Sagas is the Irish female slave Melkorka, a stong willed woman who refused to be coerced by humiliation, rape and brutality. In fact it has been noted by some that the status of women in Iceland (where I lived for a number of years), which was higher than in contemporary Scandinavian societies, possibly owed its origins to the impact exerted by the high number of Irish women living amongst the country's early Viking settlements- they were brought to the country as slaves and wives from the Viking towns of Ireland. It has been said that it was their influence that persuaded many of their pagan husbands to vote in favour of the country's adoption of Christianity at the famous 'Althingi' (parliament) of 1000AD.

This independent-minded spirit must have left a lasting legacy as Icelandic women were amongst the most successful in securing equal rights for women's during the course of the 20th century.

Female Celtic Warriors

Celtic mythology provides ample evidence of the power of women in pre-Christian Ireland. The country itself -Éire ('Ire(land)' in English)- is named after a goddess; the names of most of the great rivers with their life-giving waters are associated with nymphs, goddesses and female animals; the Celtic God of War (Morrigan)- the most masculine of activities- is female. Some of the most powerful Celtic rulers were women such as Queen Maeve and Queen Boadicea. (Bó = Cow in Irish) 

The fiercest and most macho hero in Celtic mythology is 'Cuchulainn'. Yet he was actually totally female-dominated(!):

• trained in martial arts and weaponry by Scathach

• first defeated in battle by Aoife

• protected by the War Goddess Morrigan

• kept on the 'straight and narrow' (most of the time!) by his strong-willed wifeEmer

• nursed back to health from near fatal battle wounds by his mistress Niamh

• and killed by the army of Queen Maeve.

High Status of Brigit in Celtic Church & pagan associations 
Brigit was also a powerful Celtic goddess of fertility associated with the birth of animals and symbolised by fire. Hence her links with one of the four great pagan festivals of the seasons- the Spring Festival of 'Imbolc' which occurs in February and the time of 'lambing'.It is therefore quite possible that St. Brigit was originally a high priestess of the pagan goddess Brigit who converted along with her female followers to Christianity during the time of St. Patrick.

According to legend St. Brigit was the daughter of Dubhthach, an Irish chief, and one of his 'Picttish' (from modern Scotland) slaves. She was made a bishop by St. Mel (whom the actor Mel Gibson was named after) and founded one of the most famous Irish monasteries beside an Oak tree on the plains of Magh Liffe thereafter known as 'Cill Dara' or Kildare- 'the Church of the Oak Tree'.In the Celtic pagan religion, trees were considered sacred, none more so than oak trees which were prime locations for spiritual worship.The monastery also was the repository of a 'holy flame', another clue to its possible pagan origins as a temple of Druid priestesses in a sacred woodland. It also has striking similarities to the story of the 'Vestal Virgins' of Ancient Rome whose primary task was to maintain the sacred fire of Vesta, the goddess of the 'hearth'.Under Bridget's leadership as Abbess and bishop, Cill Dara became a great place of spiritual learning and of the arts/crafts particularly metal work and illumination. For centuries thereafter, each succeeding Abbess of Kildare took the name of 'Brigit' and was regarded as a person of immense stature thoughout Ireland with the monastery being second only to Armagh in its ecclesiastical importance.

Rape of Brigit & decline in the status of Women in Irish society 
But over time, the importance of women in society was reduced as Viking raids, wars and the growing influence of the patrician 'male only' Vatican took its toll. The death knell came in 1132 when it seems troops of the King of Leinster Dermot MacMurrough sacked the monastery, raped the abbess Brigit, carried her off and forcibly had her married to one of his followers. As is the case throughout the history of humanity, 'rape' is used as the ultimate weapon against female independence and the physical symbol of man's power over womankind. McMurrough is the same man who invited the British Normans to Ireland to aid him in his wars; they of course soon decided to conquer the country for themselves staying in the process for over 800 years

 

The King of the Forest has fallen

Devastating news! 😢😢😢. Tuatha volunteer John Sinnott and myself are just back from reviewing the damage caused to the Terryland Forest Park by Storm Éowyn. Lots of trees damaged and uprooted as a result.

Worse news of all is what happened overnight in the ‘Oak Grove’ planted on March 12th 2000 to serve as the symbolic centrepiece of Ireland’s first and largest urban native community woodland. Last month volunteers joyously started to lay the foundations of a mystical and scientific giant Fairy Ring in a circle around this oak tree to serve as an eclectic forest Outdoor Classroom (photo) that was agreed with Galway City Council to be the location for the official 25th birthday celebrations of Terryland Forest Park.

We expected this tree to last many hundreds of years serving humanity and biodiversity throughout its long life.

Sadly early this morning, it was a victim of the storm of the century (photo).

I am heartbroken 😢

But now we as members of the forest park volunteer group have to be brave and assess what can be done.

Maybe we can use some of the wood of the most famous tree in the park to not only to be a home for biodiversity as 'deadwood', but also to make a series of wooden sculptures to be placed along a new heritage trail? We will be contacting the parks management of Galway City Council to review the situation and come up with a plan.

But sadly we know that in the years ahead such storms are going to be become more frequent as a result of the unstable weather caused by the mam-made global Climate Crisis.

We as volunteers, cognizant of health and safety procedures, will tomorrow be picking up litter blown into the park by the storm and clearing paths of fallen branches.

Foraging: Discovering the Culinary & Medicinal Plants og Terryland Forest Park

Biodiversity Week in Galway city opened with a fully booked-out guided tour of Terryland Forest Park by medical herbalist and master tea-blender Jorg Muller.

This man is an unbelievable fount of knowledge on the food and medicinal value of plantlife. With each step he took along the guided walk through the forest, Jorg showed participants the value of so many common Irish plants that we see everyday during the summer months. All of us were amazed and delighted at the enormous benefits revealed to us of ribwort plantain, herb robert, hawthorn, cleavers, horsetail and so much more.

The walk was an eyeopener, truly a wonderful voyage of discovery.

But we recognised too that nature's food larder is not just for humankind, but also to be shared with the rest of Nature. 

 

Finally thanks to Paula Kearney, the brilliant hardworking Biodiversity Officer of Galway City Council, who organised the visit of Jorg Muller to Terryland Forest Park.

 

A 113 year history of School Cycling in Galway along a combined Greenway and Blueway!

At the request of my good friend Reg Turner, on Monday I acted as tour guide for a National Bike Week looped heritage cycle by the Transition Year students and teachers of Coláiste Iognáid (the Jes) that started at Woodquay, went through Terryland, onto Coolough and to Menlo Castle before returning to the centre of Galway city.

In spite of the heavy rainfall I really enjoyed it and from the feedback I got thankfully so did the students and teachers.
I gave the participants details on the fascinating history of the area with rock and flora features dating back millions of years before the arrival of the Dinosaurs; its archeological finds from the Iron Age; its buildings from the Norman, Jacobean, Cromwellian, Williamite and Victorian periods; its abandoned pre-Famine village and roads; its wonderful 19th century engineering works; its stories of Anglo Irish gentry shenanigans, native Irish resistance, and clerical power; its living farming traditions, Gaelic culture and Burrenesque landscapes; and on the environmental importance of Terryland Forest Park with the potential of the locality becoming the green and blue hub of international importance.

But the school has a proud tradition of cycling excursions to this locality going back 113 years.
Photo on the left was taken of the Jes students, teachers and myself on Monday with Menlo Castle in the background.
Photo on the right was taken in 1911 of Jes students on a school cycle excursion with the Menlo Castle once again in the background! It was originally a faded black and white image. Inspired by my renowned University of Galway colleague and friend John Breslin, I am presently colourising this and many other photos for my Irish BEO work project at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. Once I started to colourise it, I noticed that there were four boys at the back holding oars and standing in boats. So I feel that this group of Jes students cycled up to Dangan (on the site of the former Galway city to Clifden railway line and the future Connemara Greenwway) before rowing across the River Corrib in boats to the grounds of Menlo Castle to continue their bike journey back to the Jes College on Sea Road in Galway city!
So these students were laying the groundwork for a combined Greenway and a Blueway over 100 years ago!!

If you want to experience the delights of this locality and beyond, why not join my 7 Galway Castles Heritage Cycle Tour taking place this Sunday. Register at Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sli-na-gcaislean-aka-the-seven-galway-castles-heritage-cycle-trail-tickets-880079550627?aff=oddtdtcreator

Remembering Mom & Dad on Mother’s Day.

Last Sunday was my dad’s anniversary, today is Mother’s Day. So it is a good time for me to remember and to say a prayer in thanks and appreciation to both my dearly departed and much missed parents. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.

When my dad Paddy Smith and my mom Bridget Agnew got engaged, they had this photo taken as a memento to a very special time in their lives. Dad was 21 years old, Mom was 19 years old,
Mom was born in Monaghan, my Dad in Offaly. They both met in Dublin at a dance club on Parnell Square not far from Drumcondra where my mom’s family had a grocery shop beside Croke Park. My dad was a bus conductor with Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ).

Throughout their lives, they like so many of their era strived to be good people with good values, taught their children to respect others, to love God, to practice a strong Christian (though not servile) faith and to work hard in order to earn an honest wage but to always realise that money was not everything and there were more important things in life.
Dad exemplified these values. Likewise with Mom who was for much of her early adult life one of a rare breed, a business woman in an overwhelmingly male-dominated retail sector.
But the Ireland they were born into and grew up in was a different country than today. It was poor, patriarchal, socially repressive in many ways, its economy rural centric characterised by small subsistence family farming with our biggest export being our young people. Both my parents endured difficult teenage years and came from families that suffered for awhile as a consequence of years of revolutionary struggle and being on the losing side at the end of the Irish Civil War.
But it was not all doom and gloom in this Irish society. For it possessed a strong local community ethos; crime was almost non-existent; most products could be recycled, repaired and reused; raw materials were sourced locally; children immersed themselves in Nature almost daily; and young people regularly went to sports matches, played music, danced, fell in love and got married; and many families took annual holidays or enjoyed weekend excursions to seaside resorts.

I consider myself so fortunate as a child to have had wonderful family summer holidays enjoying the amusements, beaches and candy floss of the seaside tourist towns of Bundoran, Bangor and Tramore; experiencing exciting working holidays with the 'country' cousins in Carrickmacross and Cloghan amongst the pastures, hayfields and bogs; picnics in the countryside; helping on my dad's garden allotment and working daily behind the counter in the family shop. My parents always allowed me to earn my own pocket money and to spend it on DC, Marvel and Thunderbirds/Stingray comics (I was always a big science fiction fan!), Action Men and Airfix aeroplane models.
Whilst physical (corporeal) punishment was all too commonly practiced by adults against children in families and in schools in those days, I cannot ever remember being slapped or beaten by Mom or Dad for misbehaving even though I was a strong-willed often argumentative child not afraid to express opinions that were contrary to those of my parents.

On Mother’s Day, I pay homage to my mom for being a feisty inspirational woman who overcame the most severe difficulties as a young teenage girl to successfully run a small business and raise a family; to my maternal grandmother Mary Ward who as the only daughter in her family spent much of early adult years feeding, clothing and supporting her 7 brothers many of whom were often ‘on the run’ as IRA volunteers during the War of Independence and the Civil War; and to my maternal great-grandmother Eliza Eccles who spent over 2 years in Armagh Prison for resisting Anglo-Irish landlord oppression during the Land Wars.
I am proud that these women in my family’s lineage kept alive the feminist ideals of a Celtic Pagan and early Christian Ireland where women often held prominent leadership roles exemplified by the fact that our country is the only country in the world (the island of St. Lucia does not count as it was named by invaders not the indigenous peoples!) called after a female.
Beir bua!

2004-2023: My son Dáire's 19 year journey in Education.

 

In September 2004, a happy and excited four old boy started his first day in primary school (photo on left).

Dáire's eight years at Scoil San Phroinsias (Tirellan) was followed by six years at Coláiste Iognáid (the Jes), four years at the NUIG/University of Galway and finally one year at the University of Barcelona where he completed this summer an MSc in Medical Science.

All of these educational institutions served him well and he learned a lot from some fine motivational teachers and lecturers.

His life-long love of wildlife especially marine life, inspired by his fascination with and volunteering at Galway Atlantaquaria with its great staff and management (thanks Liam Twoney, Noirin, Neil, Pete, Colette & Kevin), meant I thought for a long time that he would pursue a career in marine biology or veterinary science.

But that was not to be and his journey in education will mean he will be helping in some form to save the lives of people rather than animals. 

So well done Dáire! In an era of destructive wars and a climate crisis, it is so important that our youth take the decision to help their fellow humans and the rest of nature, both professionally and as volunteers.

The photo on the left shows Dáire on his first day to school accompanied by his older brother Shane (who started secondary school in St. Mary's College on the same day!) and his mom Cepta (p.s. I was there too- I was the photographer!). The image on the right shows Dáire in his graduation robes with Cepta this summer in Barcelona, standing in front of the one of the great man-made wonders of the world, namely the Basílica de la Sagrada Família ('Holy Family').

It is appropriate that both photos show Dáire with his mom. For Cepta has been his (& indeed that of our other son Shane) rock throughout his life, always there to help and guide him from birth to adulthood. So I extend a big 'bualadh bos' to my lovely wife Cepta!

Hopefully too the designer of the awesome Sagrada Família, the renowned Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, will also serve as a positive influence for Dáire into the future. For his passions were so benign and are now needed more than ever in today's troubled world, namely a deep love of Nature, a need to 'green' the built environment, a practitioner of innovation, a Christian humanitarian and a proponent of indigenous culture (in his case the language, art, and history of Catalonia).

Christmas in Terryland Forest Park- the Agony and the Ecstasy

After spending an early St. Stephen's Day morning gathering up rubbish left behind in Terryland Forest Park by selfish uncaring anti-social elements, one could be forgiven for questioning (even for one brief moment) why so many of us give so much of our lives cleaning up the detritus of others that don't seem to care one iota as well as constantly fighting against a political system that time and time again puts obstacles in the way of protecting and enhancing the natural environment.

Then in answer to that eternal question, I had a Eureka moment. Looking onto the river, I saw two beautiful swans appear out of the mist. The whole magical scene of mist-covered waters, slowly swaying rushes, tall trees and majestic fowl reminded me of why we do what we do.

So a happy festive season to every environmental and community campaigner and volunteer across the world. Keep up the great work- you are making a difference.

The BEO project - Connecting Rural Communities to their past.

I recently enjoyed the warm friendly atmosphere of an old style local rural community night in Coldwood National School near Craugwell county Galway.

There was lots of home-baked scones, cakes and teas served by volunteers as grandparents and parents of the present generation of pupils came back to the school of their childhood days to reminisce and tell stories of life long ago recorded on the night by children for a series of podcasts for the 150 year celebrations of this fine educational institution.

As part of Insight's BEO online local heritage project, I was there to help in the collection of photographs from times past brought in by the older attendees and the identification of those in these images.

To support this process I enlarged and colourised in advance a lot of old images associated with Coldwood as well as bringing along multiple familiar artifacts from Ireland in days gone by such as a wooden school desk complete with inkwell, blotting paper, erasure and 1960s/1970s school books; a milk churn; a transistor radio, a Sony Walkman cassette player, photo slides and vinyl record albums.

The effort was worth it as the photos on display helped reconnect families across the decades. Paddy Cahill(on the top left in photo montage), standing beside his son, points to his dad in a 1910 photo that he had never seen before, whilst Paddy Rooney (on the top right) points to himself in a 1950 photo.

By the end of the night, most of the people in the sample photographs on display were identified as great grandparents, grandparents, parents and themselves by the attendees present.

The interesting and often unique materials collected over the last few years under the BEO online digital local heritage project, supported throughout by the Galway County Heritage Office, will be unveiled at a big celebratory launch next March in the Galway Education Centre. 

Details to follow at the end of January.

Upstairs, Downstairs – the Inside Story of an Irish ‘Big House’

One of the most enjoyable nights that I have experienced for manys the long year took place recently when it seemed the whole community of Fohenagh and environs, complimented by heritage enthusiasts, politicians and dignitaries, came together to celebrate and to give due recognition to my good friend Frank Gavin for the launch of his excellent book entitled “The Dillons of Clonbrock, a History”.

The venue was Gullane’s Hotel in Ballinasloe and the large attendance and its makeup was a reflection of the high esteem and respect that Frank is held in across east Galway and beyond. Amongst the participants were Senator Aisling Dolan; Galway County Cathaoirleach Liam Carroll; Martin Mac Oirealla, a highly enthusiastic ‘heritage in schools’ educator; Joe Mannion, another local historian par excellence; and the 87 year old Michéal Keaney, owner of the historical Castle Ellen (birthplace of the mother of Edward Carson, the founder of Northern Ireland) and the finest engineer that Galway City Council ever has had.

Master of ceremonies for the event was the brilliant Christy Cunniffe, one of Ireland’s best known community archaeologists. Special guest speakers were Marie Mannion, the country’s hardest working and much admired local authority heritage officer; and Professor Terence Dooley the distinguished historical writer and Director of the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

I myself was honoured to be asked by Frank to also be a guest speak at the launch, to write the foreword for the publication and to enhance and colourise an old black and white photo taken of Clonbrock House circa 1904 that formed the cover of the book.

I was especially and personally honoured as both sides of my family fought on the republican side during the Irish Civil War, whose forces were sadly responsible for the burning down of many of the gentry mansions across the country, seeing them as symbols of centuries of colonial oppression.

I have known and admired Frank since 2008 when we first collaborated in helping the children of Fohenagh National School, under the guidance of the much loved principal at the time, Anne Burke, to undertake research studies and field trips on the history of the Clonbrock estate. The extraordinary series of podcasts and videos made with the school and the local community during 2008 and 2009 will be relaunched on March 6th 2024 at a special event in the Galway Education Centre to commemorate the BEO online heritage archives project and the Fionn Primary School Science 2002-2005 initiative.

The best tribute that I can give Frank here on the importance of his work is to repeat the foreword that I wrote in the book:

“There have been multiple books written about the Anglo-Irish gentry and their great estates which dominated and shaped the Irish countryside for centuries. Many more will follow in the years ahead. But this book is different. For the author is able to give a personal perspective from within the walls of the demesne as he himself was part of this ‘Upstairs and Downstairs’ world in its twilight years.

Frank Gavin worked as a gardener in the Clonbrock estate when Ethel Louisa Dillon, daughter of the fourth Baron Clonbrock who was one of the largest landowners in Ireland, was still alive. She was a debutante in Victorian London society at a time when it was said that the sun never set on a British Empire that covered almost a quarter of the world’s landmass. Frank provides some fascinating information on the Clonbrock estate during its heyday in the 19th century when the third and fourth barons, along with the latter’s extraordinary wife Lady Augusta Caroline Dillon, were exceptional in this era for being highly progressive pioneering residential Anglo-Irish landlords who practiced mixed farming; planted woods; constructed heated glasshouses (growing exotic fruits such as grapes and peaches), a forge, a sawmill, a butchery, a photographic house and a sophisticated piped water system for the estate; set up a poultry co-operative and established four schools in the locality for the children of their tenant farmers.

But Frank is at his best when he provides the names, photographs and the stories of the people who worked alongside him in Clonbrock and whose families had often done so for many generations before. He moves the spotlight along from the imperial landed class towards the farmhands and house servants that were the essence of these estates and whose descendants still live locally.

This is local history at its most authentic, when it is done by someone who has lived and experienced the subject matter at first hand.”

Helping parents to become aware of Cyberbullying and what to include in Internet Safety guidelines for themselves and their children.

In my role as Education and Public Engagement Manager at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, I am spending up to three nights a week since last month talking to parents in schools on Internet Safety and what needs to be done to increase their children's awareness and their protection against the dangers of cyberbullying, racism, misogyny, fake news, and related issues.

On Monday I was with the parents of Gort Community College (photo), last night it was at Scoil Shéamais Naofa, Bunscoil Bhearna, and tonight it is in Galway Educate Together Secondary School.

During the daytimes I am working with the children of these same schools.

With both groups I always start with highlighting the benefits of web technologies, provide a factual but quirky insight into the history of communications technologies since the early 1900s, and the inspiring prominent role of young people in their development before going into the 'dark side'.

It is most rewarding work and something that I have been doing since 2005.

Graduation Day- The End of an Era for our son, for his university and for his parents

Cepta and myself were very proud parents when we stood beside our youngest son Dáire a few days ago as he graduated from his university.

 

He was one of the final class of students to graduate from the National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway). From yesterday it will be known as the University of Galway/Ollscoil na Gaillimhe.

 

His graduation represents the end of an era for Dáire as he leaves Ireland in a few weeks to commence a postgraduate degree in bio medicine (human biology) in Barcelona. Like his older brother, he has been a gift from heaven to Cepta and myself over the last twenty two years. A cycling, field sports and travel enthusiast; a keep-fit advocate; a lover of aquatic life (thanks to Galway Atlantaquaria); a conscientious student; a kind person who surrounded himself at university by a group of very loyal good friends whom he has known from his early days in Coláiste Iognáid. We earnestly hope and pray that he will soon enter a new and exciting phase of his life by starting a long and successful career in hands-on bio science, a sector that will allow him to work with others to use new technologies to improve the health of people everywhere. 

 

It seems like only yesterday that Dáire was starting his first day in primary school (Scoil San Phroinsias). It was the same month that our oldest son Shane finished up in the same school to start his secondary education at St. Mary’s College. But it was 2004. How time flies!

 

For Cepta and myself his graduation brings to an end our involvement as parents in Irish education which began 26 years ago. 

 

So the day was one of great happiness but also tinged with a little sadness and a few tears.

 

I could not let the day pass though without taking a photo of Dáire sitting one last time in a Galway university lecture hall (and one in which I also sat as a student fadó fadó!); a photo of him using his student card to enter the campus library one final time and a photo of him joyously throwing into the air his graduation hat in the oldest part of our esteemed campus which dates back to the 1840s. Appropriately it was in the same decade that our university first opened as Queens Collage Galway that my maternal great grandfather Thomas Agnew became the only member of his family to survive the Irish Famine (An Gorta Mór). The rest of his brothers, sisters and parents it seems died from starvation and execution. He alone survived. As with many other Irish families, hunger, eviction and imprisonment at the hands of absentee landlords, the British judiciary and military is part of our history. But that is a tale for another day. Suffice to say that Dáire’s graduation is in my mind a thank you and a tribute to so many of our ancestors who experienced so much pain, death and destruction so that future generations of Irish men and women of all creeds and none could have a better life, one based on dignity, respect, justice and hope.

Finally I have to compliment Dáire for celebrating his graduation by taking part in a 80km charity cycle to the Electric Picnic.

Little Schools are the Heartbeat of Rural Ireland & the Foundations for its Revitalisation

 

COVID cut me off from what is one of the most enjoyable blessful elements of my work at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics NUI Galway, namely the opportunity to travel to every corner of Galway county and city in order to teach different aspects of technology in the schools that function as the heartbeat of their local communities.

This is particularly true of the little schools of rural Galway, which serve as the vibrant hub of their villages and parishes. The photo shows Creggs, one of these great primary schools located in the idyllic village that gives it its name and in which I spent a most enjoyable day last week teaching coding to the senior classes (being teaching there since 2006!).

In this period of rural decline it has been these learning institutions that have kept alive local traditions, such as making St. Bridget Crosses on February 1st; decorations and floats for St. Patrick’s Day; planting trees for Tree Week; painting festive eggs at Easter; and playing the songs and reciting the myths and legends of the locality in times past. As Irish people have abandoned farming (for work in the big city) and the great social gatherings that was the weekly Sunday only a few decades ago, it is the school that maintains a sense of ‘community spirit’ by bringing together the grannies, parents, cousins and neighbours of the pupils to enjoy concerts at Christmas, fancy dress parties at Samhain/Halloween, heritage nights, charity fundraising and group cycles. It is also the children of the school that are the life blood of the parish sports and youth clubs.

But these schools have been suffering for many decades due to creeping urbanisation. Fifty years ago Ireland's social and economic life revolved around an agricultural system based on the small family farm and rural towns were vibrant places serving their farming hinterland. Today too many of these country towns look like ghost towns with lines of abandoned and boarded up premises; the small family farm has lost its national economic centrality and the mosaic of fields of colourful wildflower meadows, barley, rye, oats, potatoes, cabbages and apple/damson/pear/orchards have all but disappeared from the landscape.

Depopulation in rural Ireland has led to many school closures including some that I worked in such as Corgary, Carnageehy and Woodlawn in east Galway. The car-based transport infrastructure assists this trend as it encourages some parents living in an increasingly suburban-orientated Irish countryside to understandably take children to schools near where they work in the big towns and cities.

But I now see the seeds for a resurgence in rural Ireland based on the principles of the Circular Economy characterised by mixed organic farming; the return of grain, vegetable and fruit growing in fields surrounded by hedgerows or drystone walls; a revitalisation of indigenous crafts and arts, the establishment of wildlife sanctuaries which includes deciduous forests, a network of interlinked greenways, an increased state committment towards public transport, an increased emphasis on renewable energies (wind, water, biomass), and a hospitality trade focused on sourcing locally grown foodstuffs.

The COVID lockdown has opened our eyes to the endless opportunities available with a proper broadband infrastructure allowing many to work long distance be if from homes or from the shared space of small town innovative digital hubs (some are set up already in what was until recently boarded up shops and pubs). Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss as well as the consequences of the destructive Russian invasion of Ukraine have shown us the crucial need to use local solutions to solve global crises. Sustainable jobs exist in nature guardianship, Outdoor Learning, Outdoor leisure (hiking, rowing, cycling etc), energy production, farming at so many levels, electronic repair/recycling/upcycling, biomedical manufacturing, education, crafts, arts, culture, scientific/technology research and green tourism. 3D printing, using safe recyclable materials, will mean the return of the 'cottage industry' to rural Ireland.

So it is crucial that the little country schools are now nurtured and kept open during this period of transition.

I have happily worked in these schools (and their second level ‘big brothers’) since 2002 teaching a range of science and technology courses (coding, film production, photo editing/enhancing, heritage, environmental science, data science, Citizen Science and Internet Safety) as well as offering teachers and children the opportunity to attend sessions at my university workplace to learn from my younger research colleagues, to visit my beloved computer museum as well as to exhibit at the annual Galway Science and Technology Festival Fair.

Hopefully soon I will have re-established the school circuit that I had in the years before COVID not only in the city but in so many villages and parishes in the county stretching from Inishbofin off the coast of Connemara to Tiernascragh near the River Shanno