KEEP THIS NEWSLETTER ALIVE!       Shop Online at https://www.irishnation.com |
|||
ORDER TODAY - RECEIVE BY THURSDAY/FRIDAY WITH FREE FEDEX DELIVERY |
A very Merry Christmas from Ireland to all of our readers. This months newsletter certainly has a festive feel to it with our 'Irish Christmas Traditions' article and a reminisce from author Marie O'Byrne. Until the new year, Nollaig Shona duit (Happy Christmas to you!) Michael |
IRELAND IS TENTH BEST EDUCATED COUNTRY IN OECD One of the many consequences of the 'Celtic Tiger' economic boom in Ireland during the late nineties and early part of the new century was that there was a lot of investment in education. A recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measured the extent to which the population of a country held a college or college equivalent degree. Between the years 2000 and 2010 the percentage of people with a higher level qualification in Ireland almost doubled, increasing at an annualized average rate of 7.3% – an amazing increase by any standard and this is despite recent cut-backs in the education sector. By 2010 Over 37% of the population had a higher level qualification, compared to 51% in Canada, 46% in Israel, 42% in the USA and 38% in the UK. Ireland ranked in tenth place in the list of OECD countries, with the USA fourth and the UK in seventh placed.   Comment on this Irish News Story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=167#respond IRELAND IS TWELFTH BEST COUNTRY TO BE BORN IN DURING 2013 A survey released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has revealed the best countries in the world to be born in during 2013. The results mirror a recent OECD 'Better Life Index' which listed Ireland as the fifteenth happiest country in which to live. That survey placed Ireland behind Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Australia, Canada and Sweden while the US placed twelfth and the UK fourteenth. It is no great surprise that the Scandinavian countries once again dominate the EIU list but it is Switzerland that tops the list on this occasion. Canada and Australia also placed highly in both surveys. The EIU survey examined peoples attitudes to their lives, crime rates, employment rates and earnings as well as health and quality of family life. It has been noted that the top ten countries were for the most part smaller economies and were not part of any monetary union (such as the Eurozone). The EIU best countries to be born in during 2013: 1 Switzerland 2 Australia 3 Norway 4 Sweden 5 Denmark 6 Singapore 7 New Zealand 8 Netherlands 9 Canada 10 Hong Kong 11 Finland 12 Ireland 16 USA   Comment on this Irish News Story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=173#respond IRELAND RANKED 25TH MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY IN 2012 The Berlin based watchdog 'Transparency International' has released its latest report regarding national public sector corruption. The new study uses metrics such as the independence and efficiency of the state judicial system as well as the effectiveness of oversight of public spending to compile the list. According to the latest results Ireland has fallen from 19th place last year to 25th place in 2012. The study measures the perception of corruption, given that most corrupt dealings are secret or never detected. Of the 176 countries that were analyzed Greece ranked in 94th place, the worst of any EU country. Widescale corruption and tax evasion continue to compound the problems of this bankrupt country, already reeling from years of austerity and facing into perhaps decades more. New Zealand, Denmark and Finland were ranked as the least corrupt countries. It is perhaps no coincidence that these three countries are also among the top countries to be born in according to a recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan were listed as the most corrupt countries. The US was ranked in 19th place with Germany in 13th, Britain and Japan in 17th place, and France in 22nd. With China in 80th place and Russia in 133rd place the report clearly cites the need for sustained political action in order for a country to improve its perception of corruptness. Italy in 72nd place, Bulgaria in 75th, and Romania in 66th place demonstrates the problems facing those EU countries and especially so in the light of the current plans to install a new European-wide banking supervisor.   Comment on this Irish News Story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=236#respond SIXTH SUCCESSIVE AUSTERITY BUDGET MAY BE THE FINAL STRAW The annual budget announced by the Irish Government has been received with a greater degree of anger and protest than previous announcements. This is the sixth successive austerity budget that Irish Governments have enacted. All have been unpopular but this latest budget may represent a tipping point. Already reeling from years of tax hikes and cuts in services the Irish public had elected Fine Gael and the Labour Party on the basis that a new direction would be taken. A very different direction from that followed by the previous Fianna Fail administration. It is not that the Irish people expected a sudden end to the financial pain that the country has endured – far from it. But they were entitled to expect that Fine Gael and Labour would not simply continue to enact Fianna Fail's policies. These were the very policies that caused Fianna Fail to be trounced so convincingly at the last general election. Fine Gael promised a new direction while Labour promised to protect the less well-off and vulnerable. These latest budget announcements have clearly made a lie of those promises. Cuts to child benefit, a new property tax, increases in social insurance payments, cuts to services to pensioners! 3.5 Billion euro in cuts and tax hikes were announced which will result in just about every family being hit by an average of at least an extra 1000 euro annually. The important word in that last sentence is 'extra'. The property tax alone will take hundreds from every household on top of the other taxes. 'You cannot tax your way out of a recession' is a tenet that clearly the current Government does not agree with. It is just impossible to quantify the amount of cash that is being taken out of the Irish economy, both in terms of actual currency and in terms of consumer and investor confidence, at precisely the time when that economy needs to be stimulated. It seems that Fine Gael are playing a long game. Get the pain over with now. Take the hit and hope things turn around in the next couple of years before the next election. If all fails then blame the last Fianna Fail Government for getting us into this mess. If the economy turns the corner and things improve then they can claim the credit. Pretty cynical stuff. And what of the Labour Party – the protector of the vulnerable. By introducing a property tax in Ireland they have likely provided Sinn Fein with the final nail to pound into their coffin. The property tax will be an annual tax and it is almost certain to be one of the big issues that may even decide the next general election. Labour look certain to be decimated. Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein can offer to scrap the tax if they are installed in power – that would be a sure vote-grabber. Pretty cynical stuff. The next few days and weeks will show if the Irish people still have some fight left. Is this really a tipping point or have the Irish simply given up and succumbed to the weight of recession and austerity? And cynicism.   Comment on this Irish News Story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=240#respond TROUBLE CONTINUES IN ULSTER OVER FLAG RESTRICTIONS The decision by Belfast City Council to restrict the number of days that the British Union Jack flag can be flown above Belfast City Hall from 365 days to 17 has been greeted with an escalating amount of violent protest in Belfast and beyond. At least 27 police officers have so far been injured in the violence that has followed several protests by loyalists who oppose the decision. Bricks and petrol bombs have been thrown at security forces, cars burned and death threats made to Councillors. Despite appeals by the North’s First Minister Peter Robinson,himself a loyalist, for the violence to cease, it has been reported that loyalist paramilitary influence may be driving the protests. The violence has coincided with the visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who was warmly greeted by both Peter Robinson and his Sinn Fein counterpart Martin McGuinness. The former first-lady and her husband Bill Clinton were pivotal figures in the fledgling peace process and became the first US President and first-lady to visit the province in 1995.   Comment on this Irish News Story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=255#respond IRISH AMONG THE BUSIEST TEXTERS AS WORLD MARKS TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY The twentieth anniversary of the first ever text message being sent has now passed. It is a mere two decades since UK engineer Neil Papworth sent his 'Merry Christmas' message to a colleague. It is hard to imagine that the telecom companies knew what would follow. Hundreds of Billions of messages later and the Irish are among the most prodigious texters in the world, sending over a billion messages every month in 2012 so far. It is an astonishing statistic that the Irish send an average of at least 142 message per person every month. So the next time you are on a bus or train and the person next to you is contorting their fingers and thumbs as if their life depends on it or... ...the next time you are at the theatre or cinema only to hear the unmistakable drone of a mobile phone or... ...the next time you read some text speak (lol omg lmho l8r, etc. etc.) and despair then... ...you will know who started it all. Thanks Neil   Comment on this Irish News Story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=223#respond |
KEEP THIS NEWSLETTER ALIVE! Free Mount with ALL Family Crest Prints, Framed or Unframed Order from Here |
Ireland, like most countries, has a number of
Christmas traditions that are all of its own. Many
of these customs have their root in the time when
the Gaelic culture and religion of the country
were being suppressed and it is perhaps because of
this they have survived into modern times.
THE CANDLE IN THE WINDOW The placing of a lighted candle in the window of a house on Christmas eve is still practised today. It has a number of purposes but primarily it was a symbol of welcome to Mary and Joseph as they travelled looking for shelter. The candle also indicated a safe place for priests to perform mass as, during Penal Times this was not allowed. A further element of the tradition is that the candle should be lit by the youngest member of the household and only be extinguished by a girl bearing the name 'Mary'. THE LADEN TABLE After evening meal on Christmas eve the kitchen table was again set and on it were placed a loaf of bread filled with caraway seeds and raisins, a pitcher of milk and a large lit candle. The door to the house was left unlatched so that Mary and Joseph, or any wandering traveller, could avail of the welcome. THE WREN BOY PROCESSION During Penal Times there was once a plot in a village against the local soldiers. They were surrounded and were about to be ambushed when a group of wrens pecked on their drums and awakened the soldiers. The plot failed and the wren became known as 'The Devil's bird'. On St. Stephens day a procession takes place where a pole with a holly bush is carried from house to house and families dress up in old clothes and with blackened faces or in straw costumes. In olden times an actual wren would be killed and placed on top of the pole. This custom has to a large degree disappeared but the tradition of visiting from house to house on St. Stephens Day has survived and is very much part of Christmas. Modern day parades also take place in Dingle and Sandymount in Dublin. DECORATIONS: The placing of a ring of Holly on doors originated in Ireland as Holly was one of the main plants that flourished at Christmas time and which gave the poor ample means with which to decorate their dwellings. All decorations are traditionally taken down on Little Christmas (January 6th.) and it is considered to be bad luck to take them down beforehand. TRADITIONAL GAELIC SALUTATION The Gaelic greeting for 'Merry Christmas' is: 'Nollaig Shona Duit' ......which is pronounced as 'null-ig hun-a dwit'. HAPPY CHRISTMAS! |
========================== TERROR 1974 by Michael Collins ========================== There was laughter in the car. The vehicle sped up the main road from Dublin to Belfast. And there was laughter in the car. They were on a mission. Pat and Mick. Yes, Pat and Mick, even though it sounds like the start of a thousand crude music-hall jokes. They had an appointment in Belfast. Pat was the literary dreamer from the far West of Ireland. Mick was third-generation English-born Irish, catapulted back from the land of his birth to the land of his worthless grandfather. Unlike many using the road, Pat and Mick were well educated, the one young and still a university student, the other older and already with two degrees under his belt. Pat was fluent in Irish and English, Mick in English and French, the latter thanks to a long period spent in mainland Europe where he had experienced close at hand the terror tactics of the OAS in Paris in the sixties. Neither was a member of any political party; both were nonetheless deeply engaged in politics – the war in Vietnam, the troubles in Northern Ireland. Pat, garrulous Pat with an infinite store of literary anecdotes and quotes, an infinite store of tales about real situations – Pat babbled on and punctuated his stories with muffled giggles at his own creativity. Mick, somewhat quieter but also quite capable of shooting his mouth off, preserved silence on this occasion. Pat was in his own country, had an Irish accent and a common name. Mick was in foreign territory, perhaps enemy territory, had a pronounced English accent and a suspect name, a name from the past that haunted many a nervous man in this land.   Read the rest of this story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=146 |
=========================================== MEMORIES OF AN IRISH CHRISTMAS by Marie O'Byrne =========================================== 'Hurry today love, there's a lot that needs to get done. We have to catch the early bus into Bray to pick up the turkey!' My mother spoke fast and very excitedly as she handed me the empty milk pail. It was early in the morning on Christmas Eve. I put on my wool coat and hat, grabbed the milk pail and ran out the door. I was about twelve years old. Running across the fields to the Massey Farm, I could see the small footprints I made in the frosty morning grass, and I could feel the hard ground beneath my feet. My breath felt bitter cold in the thick veil of foggy dew that was rising slowly from the ground all around me. Not a sound could be heard from the robins or the sparrows this morning – the air was far too cold for any birdsong. The handle from the metal pail left red marks on my bare hands and I ran as fast as I could to stay warm until I reached the old milk parlor. I dropped off the empty pail, picked up the full one, and walked carefully back home across the fields making sure I did not spill any milk along the way. I knew my mother would know, somehow she always knew if I had spilled any of the milk. She had her purse out and her list ready. At the top of the list were the turkey and the ham, then the brussels sprouts and the carrots and parsnips. The turkey had been on order at the butcher's shop for weeks, but she liked to have it in her hands early on Christmas Eve as she had to make sure there was enough stuffing prepared to feed our large family of thirteen and Aunt Peggy. After we had picked up the turkey and the ham and the vegetables and a big box of Christmas crackers we headed back down the busy street towards the bus stop, both of us with our arms full of shopping bags. On the journey home as I chomped on a bar of Dairy Milk Chocolate, she chatted away to me in nervous anticipation of the big day ahead, It was like she was running through in her mind all the preparations that needed to be done. 'I'll make the stuffing once I get in, and you and Pauline can peel all the potatoes and vegetables and put them in pots of water on the stove top. The cake and the pudding are ready and Dad has the whiskey and the Guinness. Angela will whip up the cream tomorrow so it will be nice and fresh and then we'll be all set' she went on, sometimes repeating herself. 'Do you think it will snow for Christmas Day, Ma?' I asked her again. ‘Well, it sure feels like it love, it's certainly cold enough but we'll have to wait and see' she replied matter of factly. The Christmas tree was already up and decorated. My brothers had collected plenty of holly and firewood from the local forest and the fireplace mantle had been decorated festively with lots of red berried holly and red candles. The holly was also placed on top of all the picture frames throughout the house. I remember walking to Midnight Mass with my family. Over the road we all went and up the hill to St. Killians as the familiar church bells rang out across the dark, cold village. It was the one night of the year I was never afraid to be out in the dark.   Read the rest of this story at the Ireland Blog at:   https://www.ireland-information.com/blog/?p=261 |