================================================

 The Information about Ireland Site Newsletter 
                  July 2010

The Newsletter for people interested in Ireland 
 Now received by over 50,000 people worldwide 
      https://www.ireland-information.com 
          https://www.irishnation.com
              Copyright (C) 2010  

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		IN THIS ISSUE

=== News Snaps from Ireland 
=== New free resources at the site
=== W.T. Cosgrave - a biography
=== My Finest Hour by Pat Watson
=== Ireland Tourist Tip: Camper-Van & Caravan Touring
=== Irish Festival & Clan Gathering Noticeboard
=== Gaelic Phrases of the Month
=== Monthly free competition result

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FOREWORD
========

The economic malaise continues in Ireland with the 
body politic well exercised in accusations and 
defence - business as usual then. There is now a 
general acceptance that although things are 
improving and that perhaps the bottom has been 
reached that any recovery will takes several 
years at the least. Let us press on then....

This months edition includes a biography of 
perhaps one of recent Ireland's least appreciated 
leaders: W. T. Cosgrave.

Michael

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NEWS SNAPS FROM IRELAND
=======================

HUGE TRANSPORT PROJECTS TO GO AHEAD

A revision of the national development plan has 
spared two major projects which will now go ahead 
despite the financial squeeze on government 
spending. The part-underground Metro-North scheme 
will eventually link Stephens Green in the very 
heart of Dublin City centre with Dublin airport 
and will be 18km long. The Dublin underground Dart 
scheme will also proceed and will involve the 
construction of several underground rail links in 
the city and will essentially link up the coastal 
Dart service with the inter-city railway service.

When completed these two huge projects will 
transform the transportation infrastructure of 
Dublin and are expected to greatly improve 
accessibility for the local citizenry, businesses 
and tourists alike.

BOTTOM REACHED IN IRISH PROPERTY CRASH?

The recent Permanent TSB and the ESRI house price 
survey has revealed that the value of Irish 
property has fallen back to 2002 levels. Despite 
evidence of actual price increases in certain 
sections of the market overall prices fell in the 
second quarter of this year by 1.7% which is the 
lowest quarterly fall since the bust began. Prices 
are down 6.4% in 2010 and 35% down from the peak 
reached in 2006. The average price of a house is 
now 201,364 euro compared to 311,078 euro in 2006. 

The human cost of these statistics is mounting. 
Repossessions by banks of houses from owners unable 
to pay mortgages are at an all-time high which has 
promoted the government to intervene. New 
legislation was introduced to allow further 
breathing space for mortgage-holders in arrears. 
Banks have also been prevented from moving 
clients who are on 'tracker mortgages' onto 
variable mortgages (more expensive) should they 
need to refinance.

Newspapers, radio and television are filled with 
accounts of people who bought apartments and 
houses for huge sums (perhaps 400,00 euro) and 
are now in negative equity as the value of their 
home has plummeted (often by half to 200,000 euro). 
To add to the despair of these home-owners they 
have had to watch on helplessly while the builder
who sold them their apartment for 400,000 euro 
slashes the purchase price of any remaining 
properties in the development in an attempt to 
recoup his investment.

Worse still is when an apartment or housing scheme 
is left only partly finished, with a scattering of 
occupiers living among a building site that is 
never likely to be finished. A program of 
widescale demolition of housing developments 
attached to rural towns is expected to be 
instigated as demand for these homes falls back 
to nil.

ICONIC DUBLIN STORE TAKEN OVER BY BANKS

Any visitor to Dublin city centre will be familiar 
with the famous Arnotts department store located 
on Henry Street. Together with Clerys and Roches 
Stores (now gone) the three stores were the 
absolute center of retailing at the O'Connell 
street part of Dublin city centre. Staff and 
shoppers alike were amazed to learn that the 
company has now been taken over by the banks who 
obviously fear that the 300M euro debts run up by 
Arnotts are in peril of not being repaid. Arnotts 
continues to be a profitable business but its 
ambitious scheme to develop a large part of its 
Henry Street store and to back onto Abbey street 
into a 'Northern Quarter' has severely damaged its 
bottom line. The banks plan to continue to operate 
Arnotts with a view to selling it once market 
conditions improve so there is still good hope 
that the 160-year-old store will survive.

ALEX 'HURRICANE' HIGGINS DIES

The death has occurred of former world snooker 
champion Alex Higgins who was aged 61 years. The 
mercurial Belfast man was as much famed for his 
prowess on the green baize as for his antics off 
the snooker table. He was twice world champion, 
in 1972 and 1982 and, along with Steve Davis, is 
credited with bringing the game of snooker into 
the modern era, transforming its image from that 
of the smoky back-street snooker halls to the 
very pinnacle of sporting fame during the 1980s. 
He had long suffered with alcoholism and drug 
abuse and was struggling with cancer. His legacy 
as a supreme showman and ridiculously talented 
player is assured both in the snooker fraternity 
and also the wider sporting world.

EASY PICKINGS AMONG THE RUBBISH DRY UP

Pensioner John Putt has been picking up litter in 
his home town of Moville in County Donegal daily 
for the last three years. Asserting that it keeps
him fit the 72-year-old is the very model of 
public service and was even able to scoop up as 
much as ten or twenty euro from the pavement while 
on his daily duty. His biggest daily haul was 86 
euro but those days are gone now. 'Yesterday I 
found one cent!' he remarked ruefully.

Voice your opinion on these news issues here:

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==============================
NEW FREE RESOURCES AT THE SITE
==============================

IRELAND HOUSE-SWAP LISTING

We are working on the online program to allow you 
to freely add and view details of other people who 
are interested in this service.

You can add your home-swap details to our new free 
listing service at:

https://www.ireland-information.com/irelandhouseswap.htm

IRISH HOLIDAY AND TOURIST BOARD

Post a question about holidaying in Ireland 
and we guarantee an answer will be posted on 
the board.

https://www.ireland-information.com/irishholidays-irishtourist/irishtouristboard.html

NEW COATS OF ARMS ADDED TO THE GALLERY:

The following 5 coats of arms images and family
history details have been added to the Gallery:

G: Gallen, Gaynor
N: Neary
P: Pigott, Pumphrey

View the Gallery here:

http://www.irishsurnames.com/coatsofarms/gm.htm

THE PERFECT WEDDING, ANNIVERSARY OR BIRTHDAY GIFT!
We now have over 100,000 worldwide names available.
Get the Coat of Arms Print, Claddagh Ring,
Screensaver, Watch, T-Shirt Transfer or Clock for
your name at:

https://www.irishnation.com/familycrestgifts.htm



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Visit: 
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where you can get great Irish gifts, prints, 
claddagh jewellery, engraved glassware and 
much more.

Anne MacDonald ordered a family crest plaque:

 Hello, Michael,

 Received my plaque, carefully wrapped, 
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 Sincerely, Anne MacDonald

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==========================

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W.T. COSGRAVE - CHAMPION OF THE FREE STATE
==========================================

W. T. Cosgrave was born in Dublin 1880. He joined 
the Irish Volunteers in 1913, fought in Dublin 
in the 1916 Easter Rising, and was captured and 
condemned to death by the English. His sentence 
was commuted to life in prison but he was released 
and promptly won a parliamentary seat in a 1917 
by-election for Sinn Fein. He repeated this 
success in the 1918 General election. 

January 21st 1919 is one of the most important 
dates in Irish history as it was on that day that 
Sinn Fein gathered in the Mansion House in Dublin 
city centre and formed an 'Assembly of Ireland, 
a parliament, which declared Ireland a republic 
and independent from English rule. Cosgrave was 
appointed by deValera as Minister for Local 
Government in the now hunted government with the 
job of organising non-cooperation with the British 
authorities and establishing an alternative system 
of government.

The ensuing war of Independence ended with the 
1921 Treaty and the subsequent split within the 
nationalist movement. On one side were those 
who followed deValera who refused to recognise 
the partition of Ireland and the abandonment of 
Ulster to the northern loyalists. On the other 
side was those who supported Michael Collins who 
viewed the Treaty as a stepping stone to full 
independence. A bloody civil war ensued 
culminating in the death of Collins and the 
defeat of the deValera faction by the Free State 
army. Cosgrave sided with Collins in opposing 
deValera and assumed the leadership of the Free 
State upon Collins death. He was now formally 
the President of the Executive Council of the 
Irish Free State.

In 1923 he founded the pro-Treaty party Cumann 
na nGaedheal. He was regarded as being effective 
and efficient rather than flamboyant or 
charismatic. He oversaw the formal establishment 
of the structures of the state during this most 
turbulent and crucial time in Irish history. 
Many new European countries that formed in the 
aftermath of the first world war shifted into 
dicatatorship or even fascism. Cosgrave was 
determined that Ireland should remain wholly 
democratic. Nevertheless he oversaw a government 
that ruthlessly executed without trial many of 
his political and military opponents. 

His determination to maintain the Free State as 
a democratic institution is perhaps best 
demonstrated by his overseeing of the peaceful 
transition of power to deValera in 1932 after 
the new Fianna Fail party had won the general 
election of 1932. This was a pivotal moment in
Irish history. The same soldiers and politicians 
who has created a Free State after winning the 
bitter Civil war only a few short years earlier 
now peacefully handed the reins of power over to 
the same people they had been fighting. It is to 
Cosgrave's credit that he did not entertain the 
rumblings of a military coup that circulated 
among the army at the time.

Cumann na nGaedheal was eventually transformed 
into Fine Gael in 1933 with Cosgrave assuming 
leadership of the party in 1935, remaining in 
that role until 1944 when he retired. He died in 
1965 and was awarded the honour of a State funeral 
by his former nemesis Eamon deValera.

It can be argued that the Free State managed by 
Cosgrave was far more secular than the 
Cathiolic-church dominated republic led by 
deValera in later years. His establishment of 
the framework of nationhood during his tenure 
in charge was later acknowledged by deValera but 
is perhaps not as well regarded or acknowledged
by recent generations.

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==========================

==============
MY FINEST HOUR
by Pat Watson
==============

In the nineteen-forties cutting the turf was one 
of the most important tasks of the year for most 
families. Without turf there would be no cooking 
or heating in the homes of Ireland. Considerable 
planning went into the week on the bog as this 
usually involved all hands, that is the entire 
family, from the baby in the horses collar to the 
daddy on the 'slane'. In between were the little 
girls for looking after the fire, the cooking and 
the baby, the middle boy for catching the sods 
and filling the barrows, the older boy and the 
mother for wheeling the barrow loads out the bog. 
The bogs were divided in stripes about fifty 
yards wide so there were several families within 
sight of each other. Whatever anybody did, 
everyone knew.

In the Shannon valley, Roscommon, Westmeath, 
Offaly, when the 'slanesman' threw up the sods 
a boy caught them and placed them on the barrow 
in well ordered symmetric double rows. Each row 
had twelve sods and weighed nearly a hundred 
weight. Barrow-men usually complained if more 
than two rows were loaded on the barrow, as the 
terrain was rough with clumps of caoibh and 
heather. In other parts of the country, the 
'slanesman' just threw the sods up on the bank 
and somebody loaded the barrow with a pitchfork 
in a somewhat higgledy-piggledy fashion. This 
was how we found things east of the Sliabh Bloom 
Mountains near Mountrath at the end of the 
forties.

My uncle had bought a farm there and come April 
he employed a barrow-man and brought me as the 
turf catcher. When I started catching the sods, 
work ceased on every bank and a crowd gathered. 
'Could I try that?' said a much older boy but 
the sods slipped from his grasp. You could not 
be up to the Connaught men, was the general 
consensus. 

This was my finest hour. Imagine a ten-year-old 
boy being the envy of the whole bog. 
Could things ever get better?


'My Finest Hour ' 
is one of sixty lyrical yarns from 
'Original Irish Stories' by Pat Watson, 
Creagh, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Ireland. 
First published in May 2006.
Visit: 
http://www.myirishstories.com
or you can email the author here:
pjwatson@utvinternet.com

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=========================

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IRELAND TOURIST TIP: CAMPER-VAN & CARAVAN TOURING
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You wont see many Winnebagos cruising the roads 
of Ireland and perhaps that is just as well 
considering the small scale not just of the 
country but of the secondary and regional roads. 
The inter-city roads are greatly improved in 
recent years which have allowed for a great 
increase in the popularity of camper-van and 
caravan touring. The Irish Caravan & Camping 
Council operate a very useful website with links 
to all of the major camping van parks. The site 
also lists businesses who specialise in hiring 
out camper vans and equipment.

http://www.camping-ireland.ie

So now you can tour the country without having 
to keep to a hotel schedule!

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IRISH FESTIVAL & CLAN GATHERING NOTICEBOARD
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OTTAWA CELEBRATES ANGLO-CELTIC ROOTS
------------------------------------ 
Ireland (north and south) is the focus of the 
16th annual conference of the British Isles 
Family History Society of Greater Ottawa 
(BIFHSGO), and includes some presentations 
marking 2010 Year of the British Home Child. 
The three day genealogy conference (10-12 Sep.) 
in Ottawa, Canada's beautiful capital, offers: 
lectures by experts, educational events, access 
to experienced researchers and data bases, 
and a marketplace of related products and 
services. 

Visit for more: http://www.bifhsgo.ca 

If you have an Irish festival or 
event or a clan gathering notice 
you would like included in the 
newsletter do contact us:


https://www.ireland-information.com/aboutus.htm
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GAELIC PHRASES OF THE MONTH
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PHRASE: 		Ta se a haon/do/tri a chlog
PRONOUNCED:	taw shay a hane/doh/tree ah clug
MEANING:		It is one/two/three o'clock

PHRASE: 		Ta se a ceithir/cuig/se a chlog
PRONOUNCED:	taw shay a kerr-ihh/koo-igg/shay a clug
MEANING:		It is four/five/six o'clock

PHRASE: 		Ta se a seacht/ocht/naoi a chlog
PRONOUNCED:	taw shay shocked/ucked/knee a clug
MEANING:		It is seven/eight/nine o'clock

PHRASE: 		Ta se a deich/aon deag/do deag a chlog
PRONOUNCED:	taw shay deh/ain djug/doh djug
MEANING:		It is ten/eleven/twelve o'clock

View the archive of phrases here:

https://www.ireland-information.com/irishphrases.htm

=======================
JULY COMPETITION RESULT
=======================

The winner was: duval.patrick3@wanadoo.fr
who will receive the following: 

A Single Family Crest Print (decorative) 
(US$19.99 value)

Send us an email to claim your print, and well 
done! Remember that all subscribers to this 
newsletter are automatically entered into the 
competition every time. 

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I hope that you have enjoyed this issue.

Until next month, 

Michael Green,
Editor,
The Information about Ireland Site.

https://www.ireland-information.com

Click here to contact us