Speedie's Blog

Mayo's Walking & Cycling Development Officer to Speak at Public Meeting on Greenways

2012-05-17T19:38:00.001Z

'Off the Beaten Track' Heritage Cycle Tour along a 'botharín' in rural Galway city

Anna O’Connor, Walking and Cycling Development Officer at Mayo County Council, will give a public lecture next week on her experiences of successfully fostering local authority and community co-operation in the roll out of a pedestrian and cycling trails network.
Her work has won considerable recognition for Mayo County Council in its efforts to establish the county as Ireland’s premier walking and cycling destination.


Volunteers Clearing a Botharín in Carrowbrowne that will form an important link in a new Galway Greenway

The local authority was the recipient of the Best Public Service Innovation Award 2012 at the recent ‘Irish Times InterTradeIreland Innovation Awards’, due in particular to the establishment of the 'Great Western Greenway', a 42km traffic-free walking and cycling facility connecting Westport and Achill Island in County Mayo. The facility is multifunctional and serves tourists, local recreational, school and work travel needs embracing users of all ages.
The talk will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday May 23rd in the Menlo Park Hotel. It is being hosted by the ‘Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park and environs’, ‘Castlegar Connect’ and Rosie Webb, senior official in Galway City Council responsible for designing the city’s new Greenways network.
For further information, contact Brendan Smith at speediecelt@gmail.com

Jordan's Island Galway city - starting point for new Greenways route

Exciting New Community-based 'Greenways' Network to Link the Castles of Galway City & County

2012-05-07T20:27:00.001Z

Repairing Old Bog Road, Carrowbrowne

University students, farmers, environmental campaigners, city residents, cycling advocates, heritage groups, local authority officials and politicians are joining forces to develop an ambitious network of ‘Greenways’ that will link up castles on the east side of Galway city with historical mansions and castles in the north and east of the county.

Shane Foran, Cllr Frank Fahy & Oisín Ó Nidh in Community Clean-Up, Carrowbrowne Bog

Community & Environmental Efforts Finally Bearing Fruit

After years of campaigning and activity, the combined efforts of the Friends of Galway's Forests, Castlegar Connect, the Terryland Forest Park committee, the Off the Beaten Track heritage cycle scheme, visionary local authority officials (Marie Mannion, Rosie Webb, Cathy Joyce, Sharon Carroll, Stephen Walsh) and one lone city councillor Frank Fahy are finally starting to bear fruit as Galway may yet benefit from a network of pedestrian and cycle trails to rival that of Kerry, Wicklow, Scotland and rural England.
Such an initiative could become be the most important eco initiative in Galway city for decades and will help in securing the future of the Terryland Forest Park and in supporting the growth of the community organic garden movement in the city.

Cloonacauneen Castle

Network of Greenways to Link Galway's Castles

Rosie Webb, Greenways Advocate at Galway City Council, on 'Off the Beaten Track' Heritage Cycle Tour to Menlo

It is envisaged that this exciting community-based initiative under the working title of Slí na gCaisleán (‘The Way of the Castles’), supported by both councils in Galway city and county, could give a whole new dimension to local tourism by providing a wonderful network of scenic pedestrian and cycling trails that will commence at Terryland Castle, continue on through the Terryland Forest Park to Castlegar Castle with one route branching off towards Menlo Castle. An alternative route will wind its way through Carrowbrowne Bog towards Cloonacauneen Castle.

Botharín, Ballybrit

This trail will connect into an old right of way that linked Castlegar Church to the Ballybrit Race Course. Known as the Castlegar Mass Path, it is presently been developed and maintained by residents in Parkmore and Ballybrit as well as the Castlegar Connect NGO. A mosaic of ancient ancient tracks known as botharíns exist all across the country that local people are finally becoming aware off once again after decades of non-use due to modern society's over reliance of cars and main roads.

Summer Garden Festival, Claregalway Castle

There are plans to develop links to Claregalway Castle, with further routes over time going into the heartlands of north and east Galway county.

Beautiful Countryside of Carrowbrowne

May 12th: Volunteers Needed for Repair Work on Old Bog Road in Carrowbrowne

An important step in making this ambitious city-county Greenway a reality will take place on Saturday May 12^th when volunteers will gather together at 11.30am beside the Carrowbrowne graveyard before commencing the re-surfacing and cleaning up of a lovely old bog road. This event is being coordinated by Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park and environs with city councillor Frank Fahy who has secured the support of local land-owners and has led similar clean-ups in the area over the last year. Participants include NUIG business students operating under the ‘CKI Alive’ programme as well as conservationists and local residents. The students are particularly interested in developing the community and tourism aspects of the Greenways. Everyone is welcomed to participate in this conservation work.

Michael Tiernan using a 'Grabber' traditional implement that he made himself to clean up a ditch in Carrowbrowne

Galway's Green Heroes

For the event, members of the Ballinfoile Cumann na bhFhear (Men’s Shed) under the guidance of Michael Tiernan are making replicas of special traditional implements ('grabbers) used in bogs in bygone days to remove vegetation and debris from water channels.

Anne McCabe in a cleaning operation to re-open the old Castlegar Mass Path

Different organisations are involved in different tasks at different stages along the route including Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest, Galway Civic Trust, Castlegar Connect, VEC, Cumann na bhFear and the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden. Within Galway City Council, we are supported by Cathy Joyce of the GTU and Stephen Walsh at City Parks whilst Rosie Webb is the senior official responsible for designing the city’s Greenways network.

Councillor Frank Fahy repairing a drystone wall in Carrowbrowne

Marie Mannion, in her capacity as Heritage Officer of Galway County Council and prime mover behind the ‘Golden Mile’ projects, is providing much needed inspiration, professional expertise and guidance. Plus of course the redoubtable Councillor Frank Fahy!

Old Bog Road, Carrowbrowne

May 20th: Launch of 'Off the Beaten Track' Cycle Heritage Route for Carrowbrowne

On Sunday May 20^th, an “Off the Beaten Track” heritage cycle tour will go through the enhanced Carrowbrowne Bog to celebrate the work of the volunteers on the previous weekend. Starting at 11am from the Centra Foodstore on Bóthar an Chóiste, it will include a stop-over for hostelry refreshments at Cloonacauneen Castle.

These trails will open up an oftentimes hidden side of Galway city to both tourist and locals alike who, by taking to the bike or by walking, will enjoy a fascinating landscape of ancient castles, hedgerows, farmlands natural beauty and rich biodiversity that commence only a few minutes from the hustle and bustle of the city’s streets.

For further information, contact speediecelt@gmail.com

See previous articles on
Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden - bringing healthy food & biodiversity to an urban area
Cumann an bhFear (Men's Shed) - a men's movement in Galway city that encourages men from all walks of life to help each other to learn and/or teach skills, particularly traditional Irish crafts and skills that can benefit themselves and the wider community.
Off the Beaten Track - guided heritage cycle tours through the picturesque rural landscapes of Galway city, landscapes that are unknown to the majority of the urban population.

Need for National Cans & Bottles Pay Back Scheme to Clean Up Our Forests & Parks

2012-04-30T22:20:00.000Z

The April clean-up by the Conservation Volunteers of the Terryland Forest Park in Galway city has exposed once again the wanton destruction being done to the Irish countryside and waterways by the high level of dumping of cans and bottles by outdoor drinkers.

There is a growing problem within Irish society due to binge drinking, particularly by young people which eventually has to be faced up to. This phenomena has escalated in the last two decade as a result of the easy access and availability of cheap alcohol.
In the interim, the problem of resulting litter can be tackled head-on by the introduction of a refundable charge on cans and bottles, something which the 'Friends of Galway Forests' NGO had campaigned on for years. (Click here)
We failed to convince the last Environment Minister and Green Party leader John Gormley to implement such an initiative. But we secured the agreement of Galway City Council last July, thanks to the support of Councillor Catherine Connolly, to introduce a pay-back scheme for cans.
Click here to read about this positive move by city council.

It is time now to re-activate the lobbying of government if we are to save our precious lakes, forests and rivers from disappearing under a layer of plastic and glass.
But in the short term, should we not organise a public 'Cash For Can Day' in June where we organise a huge mass clean-up and bring all the cans to the council recycling plant and use the monies collected to invest in trees for plantings in our civic parks and woodlands?
Finally, thanks to the volunteers who turned up on Saturday. Appreciated.

Eliminate Derelict Site Eyesores from Galway City

2012-04-26T17:34:00.000Z

Burnt-out House at Kirwan Roundabout, Galway city

As a community activist I abhor the way that property speculators have been allowed to destroy the physical and social fabric of neighbourhoods as well as the international image of Galway city.

It is time that residents groups across the city unite to put pressure on Galway City Council to start the process of prosecuting their owners, many of whom are prominent businesspeople.

There are many derelict sites both in the city centre and in the suburbs that are undermining the physical appearance of our city. In the lead up to the Volvo Ocean race, the process of eliminating such sites be started upon.
But more importantly than keeping up appearances for the benefit of tourism, it should be recognised that these properties are a cancer eating away at the character and spirit of urban neighbourhoods. One prime example is the large ruined house located at the busy Kirwan Roundabout. Shane Connolly and the other owners of this property have shown nothing but contempt to the local community since they purchased it a few years ago by allowing a once fine house to fall into ruination becoming in the process a magnet for illegal underage drinking and other forms of anti-social activity that has infuriated residents of nearby estates. It was not surprising to locals that this unoccupied house was set on fire last summer nor that a large garage shed on the lands burnt down a few months ago. It is a horrible eyesore. Local residents asked the council for this property to be classified as a derelict site as we were very surprised that it had not already had this designation.

Burnt-out House at Kirwan Roundabout, Galway city

It is well overdue for City Hall to start going after the wealthy absentee landlords of such properties, and classify them as derelict sites as they are mandated to do under the Derelict Sites Act 1990. This legislation requires local authorities to impose an annual 3% levy of the market value on all such properties. The considerable monies collected should be welcomed by the council as it could help fund essential public services in these times of budgetary cutbacks. Should the owners fail to pay, the authority is entitled under the Act to serve compulsory purchase orders. Their names should also be published in the media.

In many cases such properties were bought during the Celtic Tiger period by property speculators whose only interest was to maximise their profits by selling on the lands at considerable profits once the sites were increased in value by rezoning, road construction or securing multi-home development. Hence, as is evidenced across the city, once well maintained houses and gardens were deliberately allowed to become dilapidated by unscrupulous owners who were often part of the banking, political and developers’ old-boys network that bankrupt the country and ruined the lives and dreams of so many ordinary people.

The city manager and the Director of Planning have been written to requesting that the Kirwan Roundabout site and other properties be placed on a publicly-accessible Register of Derelict Sites that contains full details of owners and land valuations and that the required levies be collected as required within the Derelict Sites Act 1990. The benefits of such a strategy to the citizens of the city cannot be exaggerated both in terms of tourism and in enhancing the spirit of neighbourhoods. I have also asked Galway City Community Forum to bring the issue up at the relevant inter-sectoral Special Policy Committees and to monitor its implementation. Local councillor Frank Fahy has been very supportive of this stance.

Cyberbullying- A Growing Problem in Modern Society

2012-03-30T21:28:00.001Z

For the last few months, I seem to be providing workshops at least once, twice even three times a week to parents and teachers of Galway schools on the growing problem of Cyberbullying.
No longer is intimidation of children by their peers and others confined to the school playground or the street. The mobile phone & the Internet has brought this danger into the home and into the bedroom, areas once regarded as places of sanctuary.
Online Social Networks such as Facebook have been highly beneficial technologies to humankind. But their use particularly by children has oftentimes degenerated into these sites becoming sources of fear and harassment.
This phenomena began in the 1990s with mobile phone texting.

As Outreach Officer at DERI, I provide parents with guidelines on how to identify and to tackle cyberbullying. I actually recommend them to join Facebook and similar OSN's which in a small way acts as a positive deterrent to their own sons and daughters abusing these facilities. I also educate adults on protecting their children from Internet porn. But at the end of the day, I tell them what is needed first and foremost is good old-fashioned active parenting. There is no substitute for the latter.

Time to Strip Bertie Ahern & his fellow Political Lackeys of All Their Taxpayer-funded Pensions & Perks

2012-03-22T18:19:00.001Z

As holder of some of the most important offices of state, Bertie Ahern abused his powers as a democratically-elected politician for personal gain and that of his 'property speculator' friends of the 'FF Galway Tent'. But he was not the only one as the level of corruption was endemic in the 'body politic'. Time now to strip him, Padraig Flynn and their cohorts of all their taxpayer-funded pensions & perks. Time now to do likewise to those Ministers of the last government that sold our country to benefit so-called 'developers', greedy bankers and incompetent top civil servants.
These politicians are traitors. liars and thieves who betrayed the electorate of this country.

Read Irish Times article about the lies perpetrated by Ahern

The Non-Irish Origins of St. Patrick's Day & 'All Things Irish'!

2012-03-20T15:55:00.000Z

St. Patrick’s Day is Ireland’s national holiday and understandably St. Patrick himself is looked on as the personification of all that is Irish.
It is probably the only holiday specifically associated with one nation that is celebrated with gusto in countries across the globe, with prominent streets and buildings on so many continents being decked out in Emerald Isle Green.
Yet St. Patrick himself and so many of the traditions associated with the Festival have their origins far beyond our green shamrock shores.

So for instance:
1. St. Patrick- British & Roman!
St. Patrick himself was actually Romano-British, the son of a Roman official that was taken as a slave by Irish sea raiders probably from near Carlisle (at Hadrian’s Wall) in northern Britain in the early 5th century. Even his adopted name is not Gaelic, coming from the Latin term ‘Patricius' (noble).
Yet, as we say in Ireland, the invader/foreigner oftentimes becomes 'more Irish than the Irish themselves' (except for a few Northern Unionists!). Though sent as a prisoner to Ireland & forced to work as a slave looking after sheep in the mountains, Patrick decided to voluntarily return to Ireland as a Christian missionary years after his escape from captivity.

2. Guinness- Invented by Londoners & with some later support from the British Army!
'Guinness' was copied by Arthur Guinness from an 18th century London drink made out of roasted barley. The beer was known as ‘porter’ because it was originally popular with the porters (carriers) in Covent Garden. Arthur Guinness switched from producing the more common ale at his Dublin brewery. However Guinness was initially not well received with Dubliners because of the owner’s support for the British colonial regime and his opposition to the republican United Irishman during the rebellions of the late 1790s.
Guinness’ international reputation had also a lot to do with the British Army! In WW1, the high-energy consumption ‘porter’ breweries in mainland Britain were closed down by the government to concentrate the national energy resources on the armament production factories. However Guinness and the porter breweries in Ireland were allowed to stay open thus giving them a virtual trade monopoly in the then British Empire that stretched across five continents.

3. Irish Pub- Viking roots!
The 'Irish pub' was actually created by Viking invaders in the 9th century in their new slave-trading settlements of Dublin, Cork, Limerick etc. Common to all these Viking cities was the presence of a 'tavern' where Vikings, after grueling days or months spent fighting, raiding, pillaging or trading could come to enjoy the delights of beer, music and food served by gorgeous-looking Celtic wenches.
Over a thousand years later (in 1996), I returned the favour to our Viking brethren by managing the first Irish pub in Iceland- ‘The Dubliner’ in Reykjavik! (pubs were only legalized in that country in 1989)

4. 'St. Patrick's Day Festival Parade’ -an American invention!
It originated in the mid-18th century American cities of Boston and New York where it was created by Irish Americans longing for their homeland and an opportunity to promote their heritage. The first parade took place in New York on March 17th in 1762 when it was led by Irish soldiers serving in the British Army! By the 19th century, it had became a powerful expression of Irish nationalism and the struggle against British colonial rule in Ireland.

New York's Parade for Indian & Irish Independence
Interestingly, the New York Parade of 1920 took on a more cosmopolitan anti-imperial flavour as it became a huge demonstration for Indian as well as Irish independence with Indian republicans carrying large banners emblazoned with messages such as '315,000,000 of India with Ireland to the Last'and 'President De Valera's Message to India: Our cause is a common cause.'

5. Irish Whiskey -the essence of the Middle East!
The process of creating whiskey(from the Gaelic 'uisce beatha' = 'water of life') - 'distillation' was learnt from Coptic or Arab alchemists by studious Celtic monks. The former used it for medicinal purposes. However, we Irish soon saw its greater significance in the hospitality and entertainment sectors!

6. Sexy Irish Traditional Dancing- another American invention!
Traditional Irish step dancing only gained an international appeal in the 1990s thanks primarily to the efforts of an American, Michael Flatley.
This Irish-American from Chicago created the choreography for the 'Riverdance' show and, with fellow lead dancer Jean Butler, led the show to amazing success as the intermission act in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994. Irish step dancing has never looked back since and Riverdance has generated a myriad of successful offshoots. Not only that, but the dour unsmiling
Irish dancers of previous eras were transformed into vivacious high-kicking Irish cailíní and buachaillí in figure-hugging attire. Furthermore, modern Irish dance now unashamedly embraces elements from other cultures (Russia, Arabian) increasing its international appeal even further.
Michael Flatley portrayed all that was good and important about Irish-Americans. When Irish traditions were dying out in the Emerald Isle, it was they that for centuries nurtured and kept alive the flame of Celtic culture.

7. There is no such thing as Irish 'Craic'!
The term 'Craic' is looked on today as an Irish word denoting a quintessentially Irish form of fun (drink, music, amusing & friendly conversation).
In fact there was no such word in the Gaelic Language until the 1970s. It is actually an old English(!) word spelt 'crack' that meant in Elizabethan times 'to boast', 'to banter' or 'to tell a joke' as in the term 'to crack a joke'.

8. 'Irish Coffee'- invented for the benefit of American tourists suffering from the Irish weather!
On one cold evening in 1942 at a small windswept airport terminal on the west coast of Ireland, the local chef felt pity for the tired and freezing passengers who had just embarked from a seaplane that had to turn back from its trans Atlantic journey due to atrocious weather conditions.
Being Americans, he knew that they would enjoy a cup of hot coffee (not then much consumed by Irish people) topped with fresh cream. But because of the freezing conditions, he decided to spice it up with a shot of Irish whiskey. Legend has it that one of the passengers, remarking on the unusual taste of this drink asked, "Hey Buddy, is this Brazilian coffee?", to which the chef Joe Sheridan replied, 'No, that's Irish coffee'. And so, history was made!

9. Irish Songs-written by English, Americans, Scots & Australians!
Many of those great 'traditional Irish' ballad songs that are sung with such gusto every night by broken-hearted inebriated Galwegians or Dubliners in some Irish pub across the world were in fact written by English, Scotch, Australian or American!

(Click on song title below to hear the song)

For instance Dirty Old Town (that many mistakenly believe refers to Dublin) was written by the (Scottish-) English socialist folk singer Ewan MacColl; From Clare to Here by English singer songwriter Ralph McTell; Willie McBride/Green Fields of France by Scottish Australian Eric Bogle; Danny Boy by English lawyer Fred Weatherly; My Wild Irish Rose and When Irish Eyes are Smiling by New York Broadway star Chauncey Olcott; and the late great Johnny Cash wrote Forty Shades of Green

10. Irish Traditional Music- reinvented by British Punks
It was a London-based Punk group of mixed English & Irish background that shook Irish music to its foundations and re-invented it for a modern Western youth audience. The anti-establishment Pogues, led by their brilliant lead singer and lyricist Shane MacGowan, that revitalised Irish music and brought vibrancy, youthfulness, relevancy and radical politics back into a staid Irish music scene.
Formed in 1982, the inventors of Celtic Punk fused traditional Irish folk with contemporary English punk and rock.
The name 'Pogues' comes from Pogue Mahone, the anglicisation of the Irish 'póg mo thóin,' meaning "kiss my ass".
As with Riverdance, their music was oftentimes condemned by the native Irish purists who preferred to keep Celtic culture in a sealed box untainted by outside forces.
Silly people! Like all cultures, Irish traditions are ever-changing, are constantly borrowing and being re-shaped by external influences.

11. The Irish Potato- Brought to Ireland from North America by English colonists
More than any other food item, the potato is associated with Ireland. Today it is a central element of Irish cuisine with a myriad of traditional recipes associated with this root crop, ranging from Boxty (Irish Potato Griddle Cakes), potato soup, Dublin Coddle to Colcannon. Particularly from the early 1800s, it became the staple diet of the Irish people. Because of its high nutritional value and its ability to be grown abundantly on poor soils, the majority of the impoverished native peasantry planted this vegetable on the miserable patches of lands left to them by their new lords and masters, the British ruling elite, who had conquered and colonised Ireland during the wars of the 16th-18th centuries, transforming the countryside in the process into grazing and tillage lands to provide livestock and grain for the British market. Over dependency on the potato in the 19th century sadly had dire consequences when potato blights led to mass starvation, death and emigration particularly in the Great Famine (an Gorta Mór = the Big Hunger) of the 1840s.

However the potato was introduced into Ireland only in the late 16th century from North America, probably by English soldier and adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh on his estates in county Waterford that had been awarded to him from lands seized from Irish rebels. Raleigh is mostly remembered today for popularising another crop from the the New World, namely tobacco. However his legacy in Ireland is somewhat different and will be forever associated with colonising Irish lands with English settlers and American spuds.

12. Claddagh Ring- African Origins of the Irish Symbol of Love
The Claddagh ring (Fáinne Chladaigh in Irish) is internationally renowned as a traditional Irish token of friendship, love, or marriage. It is called after the fishing village of Claddagh ('Cladach' = stony beach in Irish), now a suburb of Galway city on the west coast of Ireland.
Each element of this distinctive metal ring has symbolic meaning: the hands represents friendship, the crown loyalty, and the heart love. If the ring is placed on the right hand with the heart turned outwards, it means that the wearer is "unattached". When the heart is turned inwards, it is a sign that he or she is married or in a permanent relationship.

Many famous people have worn it including the British Queen Victoria, Hollywood actor Gabriel Byrne, film producer Walt Disney and US President Bill Clinton.
It has appeared in popular television programmes including Friends, and in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the character Angel (who was an Irishman in a previous life) presents Buffy with a Claddagh ring on her birthday saying “My people – before I was changed – they exchanged this as a sign of devotion. It’s a Claddagh ring. The hands represent friendship, the crown loyalty…and the heart….well you know…..wear it with the heart pointing towards you it means you belong to somebody."
All wore the ring in the belief that it is a authentic Love Symbol from ancient Ireland.
Yet its origins probably lie in North Africa, in the white slave trade practiced by the fierce Moorish pirates in what was then known as the Barbary (Barbarian) Coast.
According to legend Richard Joyce, from British occupied Ireland, was captured by Muslim pirates on a ship traveling to the slave plantations of British West Indies. Sold like many hundreds of thousands of captured Europeans in a slave market in Morocco or Algeria, he was bought by a kindly goldsmith from Algiers who taught him the skills of his trade during his 14 years of captivity.
Under a peace treaty during the reign of King William III, Richard was released along with all other British prisoners. In spite of being offered riches and a daughter in marriage by his former master. Richard returned to Galway. Equipped with his new metalwork skills and designs, he became a successful goldsmith. It is said that he presented the first Claddagh ring to a lover that had remained faithful to him during his long years in captivity.

13. Easter 1916 - Ireland's greatest rebellion against British Imperial Rule- Led by a Scotsman, an Englishman, an American and the English-born wife of A Polish Count
The Easter 1916 Rising is probably the most celebrated rebellion against British colonial rule in Ireland. Though it ended in failure, it was the catalyst for the larger scale guerrilla warfare campaign of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that commenced in January 1919 and became known as the War of Independence which led to the establishment of the Irish Free State and the end of British rule in 26 counties of the 32 counties of Ireland.
Yet interestingly, many of the rebel leaders were foreign-born, evidenced of the extent and influence of the Irish Diaspora. The chief planner of the rebellion, Tomas Clarke was born in the Isle of Wright, England; James Connolly the internationally renowned socialist and overall commander, was born in Edinburgh Scotland; Éamon DeValera, commandant of the Boland Mills unit, was born in New York to a Cuban father; Constance Georgine Markievicz (neé Gore Booth) second in command of the St. Stephen's Green rebel forces was born in London and married a Polish aristocrat Count Casimir Markievicz from what is now Ukraine. The father of Pádraig Pearse, the Commander in Chief of the overall rebellion and the person most associated with the Rising was from Birmingham.

14. Ireland's Picturesque Landscapes of Green Fields & Stone Walls - A Product of British Conquest & Colonisation

A rural landscape comprising a mosaic of little green fields and a network of drystone walls is the image that many foreigners have of Ireland and its ancient Celtic past and rural traditions. In fact the fields and walls were largely created by British colonists and merchants from the early seventeenth century onwards when, after the defeat of Gaelic clans, the huge forests that covered much of the country were cut down to provide fuel for the English ironworks, timber to build ships for the imperial navy, tillage and pasture lands for the production of crops and livestock for export to the English homelands.

A traditional Irish (honest!) Toast
In honour of the day itself, may I send you all an old and heartfelt Irish blessing:
"May your glass be ever full,
May the roof over your head be always strong,
And may you be in heaven
half an hour before the devil knows you're dead!"

Rediscovering its Green Grassroots - Galway city's "Féile Padraig" !

2012-03-11T22:09:00.000Z

Thanks to the vision and energies of this year's organiser Caroline McDonagh aided by artistic coordinator Jen Hesnan, the St. Patrick Day's Parade 2012 will have for the first time a distinctive eco-Green and Community ethos as well as an even stronger more flamboyant artistic dimension.

It will also include an increased traditional Gaelic cultural presence as expressed in dance, music and story, an element which had almost disappeared from the event over the last decade. (See previous article here). This was so disappointing as it was like having a Brazilian Mardi Gras carnival without including Salsa.

This Celtic ambiance will wonderfully complement the cosmopolitan mix of multi-ethnic traditions that will also be participating which will give due recognition to the population diversity of modern Ireland.

In advance of Saturday's parade, the stunning Notre Dame University Marching Band complete with their enthusiastic cheerleaders will be thrilling crowds in the city centre on Thursday March 15th. Known as 'The Fighting Irish', they are one of the very best football bands in the United States.

Over the last few months, Caroline has sent out the call to neighbourhood, resident, youth, community and environmental groups to participate in Ireland's National Day of Celebration.

The community of the Ballinfoile Mór locality has accepted her challenge and has four groups participating.
As well as having one the city's most colourful musical band on the parade, Scoil San Phroinsias will also feature the junior pupils dressed up as giant vegetables and fruits.

The fourth year students of Scoil Bhride Menlo will present a moving forest.

There will be a final meeting of volunteers at 7pm on Friday March 16th in the Cumann na bhFear premisses at Unit 1B in the Sandy Road Business Park to complete the floats and costumes for both the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden and the Cumann na bhFear (Men’s Shed Movement) for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Everyone is invited! It is important that supporters of both groups work together to ensure that we have a prominent role in these eco-community festivities .
Over the last year, the community-based activities of the garden and the Men’s Shed have served as role models for other neighborhoods and residents groups to emulate.

So let us continue to inspire others by having a good presence in the parade!

Hence, more than anything else, we need the maximum number of people marching in this parade. Imagine the sight of an army of urban gardeners dressed in straw hats armed with wheelbarrows, spades and rakes accompanied by a working Blacksmith's Forge (on a float), with locally-constructed bee hives and repaired farm implements being carried along by the Men’s Shed group walking and cycling together through the streets of Galway being watched by tens of thousands of Galwegians and visitors as well as millions across the world!!

So we are asking all lovers of local communities and the environment to make every effort to attend tomorrow’ meeting. Bring along friends and family and pass the word around!

The more participation we get the better for all!

Retro Video Games & Classic Science Fiction Comics Expo at NUI Galway To Celebrate 40th anniversary of Computer Gaming

2012-02-29T19:42:00.004Z

Panel in the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland, DERI, NUI Galway

A special event in NUI Galway on Friday will celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the birth of popular computer gaming when the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland, located in the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), will host a ‘Retro Games’ extravaganza.

Members of the general public are invited along to enjoy the wonders of classic games including Asteroids, Pacman, Space Invaders, Sonic the Hedgehog and Earthworm Jim on legendary consoles and computers such as the Sega Mega Drive, Nintendo, Atari, Amiga and the Commodore 64.

The sights and sounds on offer will capture the essence of the early days of computer gaming of the 1970s and 1980 which made a major contribution in the overall development of digital sound and graphics.

Of particular significance will be the showing of ‘Pong’, the first commercially successful video game, released in 1972 by a then new American company called Atari Inc. which was primarily responsible for the formation of the computer game and video arcade industries.

Attendees will also be introduced to the software coding that constitutes the games and will be able therefore to gain an insight into how digital technology actually works.

There will also be displays of American and European 1960s science fiction comics and memorabilia including Star Trek, Thunderbirds, Green Lantern, Thor and the Avengers. Today's children can relate to many of these fictitious characters as they are making a welcome return to modern day cinema.

1960s Science Fiction Comics:

Influencing Social Change & Inspiring Scientific & Technology Innovation

Science Fiction has inspired generations of young people to invent future technologies from robotics to space stations.

This was particularly evident in the 1960s when manned space travel began with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to journey into outer space on 12^th April 1961. Before the decade had ended, mankind had landed on the Moon.

On July 20^th 1969, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto its surface from the Lunar module Eagle.

Space travel captured the imagination of youth and the 1960s witnessed an explosion of popular science fiction worldwide that embraced comics, films, television programmes and toys.

In the United States, Marvel and DC comics created a myriad of super–heroes that appealed to a young readership because of their exciting adventures across distant galaxies that promised an often benign future where interplanetary travel would become a characteristic of high tech societies.

For the first time, children read about civilisations where women as well as boys and girls particularly teenagers fought battles for truth and justice.

Females heroines such as Wonder Woman and teenagers such as Saturn Girl and the X-Men were as prominent in science fiction as adult males such as Iron Man and Hawkman.

For the first time, super-heroes did not have to have by definition the perfect physiques. A number of the genre had disabilities such as blindness (Daredevil) and heart defects (Iron Man).

There was a realisation too that mankind’s attitudes and technologies were endangering the health of the planet, the destruction of other species and of humanity itself. This environmental message features prominently in comics such as the Sub Mariner and in films such as the Planet of the Apes (1969) and Soylent Green (1973).

In recent years, there has been a remarkable rebirth in these classic super heroes thanks to CGI (Computer-generated imagery). Films such as Thor and Green Lantern were box-office successes in 2011 and this year sees the return of the Avengers.

The event takes places within National Engineers’ Week and is part of an exciting schedule of activities across Ireland designed to capture the imagination of youth and to demonstrate the benefits and challenges that careers in science and technology represents.

Galway city Coderdojo Club Promotes Father and Son Bonding

2012-02-26T23:25:00.003Z

One of the unexpected side benefits of the recently established and highly successful Galway city Coderdojo club, based at DERI and IT in NUI Galway, is the high level of fathers present that are obviously enjoying the quality learning time that they are spending with their children and most noticeably with their sons. There are of course many mothers and daughters in attendance. But I just can't help but be impressed with the amount of fathers that turn up every Saturday who are actively participating in their sons education and learning something new in the process, somethign taht I have notice dbefore on such a scale outside sporting activities.

Part of the rules of the club is that children younger than 12 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Furthermore, we recommend too that these adults should if possible not just sit around passively waiting for the classes to end but actively take part in the course.
The results of this policy have much better than we expected!

Galway City Coderdojo Goes From Strength to Strength
The club has 148 participants that come from as far away as Newport and Ballina in May, has a waiting list of c.30, and has already laid the foundations for two new clubs (Castlebar and Athenry).

Read previous article New Coder Dojo Hackers Club Reflects Galway’s Digital Vibrancy

Rare Artifact from the Inventor of the Mouse to go on public display in NUI Galway

2012-02-23T22:08:00.000Z

A rare specimen of a human-computer interface used by technology pioneer Douglas Engelbart in his legendary 1968 ‘Mother of all Demos’ presentation will go on public display at the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland located at the internationally renowned Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) of NUI Galway as part of National Engineers’ Week.

The five finger chorded keyset was used for the first time by one of the greatest of all modern inventors Douglas Engelbart at a presentation in the San Francisco Convention Centre on December 9^th 1968. It was a seminal moment in modern history as it introduced many of the key technologies of the Digital Age such as the computer mouse, video conferencing, word processing and hypertext. The keyset was used in combination with one of his other new inventions, a three-button mouse, to allow fast data entry and computer interactions.

The artifact Is on loan to the museum from Karl Flannery of the Galway-based Storm Technologies who received it from Engelbart in the mid-1980s whilst working in the USA.

At the time of the ‘Mother of all Demos’ in 1968, Doug Engelbart was working at the famous Stanford Research Institute located in Menlo Park California.

The keyset will go on public display at 3pm on Saturday March 3^rd as part of National Engineers Week and will form the centre piece of a fascinating collection of artefacts that represents significant milestones in the history of communications technology.

Bell Laboratories of New Jersey, probably the most influential research facility of modern times, has loaned to the museum for one more month replicas of the world’s first telephone and first transistor.

The telephone or ‘electrical speech machine’ was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.

The ‘transistor’ was developed in 1947 and became the building block of modern electronic devices. Bell Labs, owned by the Alcatel-Lucent corporation which is a partner of DERI, can list amongst its achievements the laser, synchronised sound and motion picture, the solar cell and the Telstar space satellite.

The museum also has a replica of the original Google server from 1998 that was constructed by Scoil Bhríde Menlo in conjunction with Cumann na bhFear in Ballinfoile. The company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, put together a server consisting of 10 hard disks of 4 gigabytes each, then the largest capacity drives available, encased in a cabinet covered with children’s Lego bricks.

This school was selected for this task as Google was founded in a garage in Menlo Park, California, so named in the 1850s by two Irish immigrants, Oliver and McGlynn, in honour of their Galway birthplace.

The Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland operates under a multi-sectoral board chaired by Dr. Chris Coughlan of Hewlett-Packard with representatives from Engineers’ Ireland, NUIG IT, GMIT, small businesses and Irish Diaspora groups as well as DERI.

St. Brigit & the Remarkable Status of Women in Celtic Ireland

2012-02-01T21:27:00.003Z

Today is the first day of Spring, the season of birth and re-birth that follows the harsh cold barren months of Winter. In Ireland, it is dedicated to a female, St. Brigit (or Bridget, Brigid, Bride), the country's most famous native born saint. Her name also has a strong affinity with a Celtic deity 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 distinctive St. Brigit Cross, made out of rushes today by children in schools across the country, is a symbol of Celtic Ireland as renowned as the Shamrock and its associations with St. Patrick.
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 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 wife Emer
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 800years.

An Irish Christmas

2012-01-31T23:55:00.001Z

Days and Nights in Galway & Monaghan, Christmas 2012

New Coder Dojo Hackers Club Reflects Galway’s Digital Vibrancy

2012-01-30T12:41:00.000Z

Back to the Future!

Over the last few years, Galway has undergone a remarkable digital renaissance that has brought back memories of the city in the 1980s when Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), then the world’s largest minicomputer manufacturing corporation, was exporting computers all across Europe from its factory in Ballybrit; when the first satellite link between Ireland and North America was established at the state telephone company’s HQ in Mervue; when parents were buying their first ever microcomputers such as the Sinclair ZX81 and Commodore Vic 20 in computer retail outlets that were springing up across the city so that their children could learn the new art of coding; when a few visionary young mathematics, business and physics teachers were introducing computers into the schools; when DEC had linked the city’s second level colleges through a computer network system;

Early 1980s: DEC Galway had computer links to 10 second-level schools

when recently qualified college graduates were establishing ‘software houses’ in little backwater offices; when small-to-medium companies en-masse were buying their first computers to run their accounts and send out letters; when the Ireland’s first Internet newsletter for worldwide readership was being distributed by DEC’s Liam Ferrie; when electronic courses at the Regional Technical College were filled to capacity; when Apple’s Macintosh Destktop Publishing system let to the appearance of regular low cost community newsletters across the suburbs; when new programming courses could not keep up with the demand from enthusiasts of all ages; and when students at Galway University (NUIG) were brought up before the authorities for accessing the college computer systems by circumventing its security system (what we now call ‘hacking’!).

12 yr old Harry Moran demonstrating his PizzaBot App to a spellbound audience during the

Galway Science & Technology Festival Exhibition

Once again a vibrant Digital ambiance is starting to permeate the schools, colleges, workplaces and streets of the city and county fueled by a volunteer army of largely young enthusiastic and selfless Internet activists the like of which exists nowhere else in Ireland.
However as with the recent establishment of the Ballinfoile Mór Cumann na bhFear/Men's Shed, it is about Irish people recapturing the ability to use their hands and intellect to make things again rather than just be the passive recipients of items imported from overseas.
We are beginning to move away from being a nation of digital users to a nation of digital creators.

The increasing roll-out of coding classes to schools provided by volunteers from the corporate sector, NUIG, GMIT and from concerned individuals; the annual hosting of a national children’s Lego Robotics competition; the IT summer camps at NUI Galway; the establishment of groups such as 091Labs, Camara and Coder Dojos; the high uptake by older peoples and other communities of Web Awareness courses; the massive crowds that attended events held during the Galway Science & Technology Festival (24,000+ at the Sunday Fair on NUIG campus); the existence at NUIG of world-renowned science research institutes such as DERI; the establishment of Ireland’s only Computer and Communications Museum (at DERI) and the presence of global technology leaders in the city such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, EA, Medtronic and IBM is radically changing the local landscape that in time could metamorphose into an innovative sustainable Knowledge economy and society providing a healthy future for Ireland that will benefit other countries across the planet.

As Community/Education Outreach Officer at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway, I am part of this process of change which involves some very exciting initiatives.

1. Launch of Galway City 'Coder Dojos' Club

Galway Coder Dojos first group of volunteers with founder Adrian Bannon on the extreme right

The city’s first Coder Dojo club will be launched next Saturday in DERI. The engine behind this initiative is young local lawyer Adrian Bannon supported by a merry band of enthusiasts including Padraic Hartley of 091Labs ‘hackerspace’ group and Michael Madden of IT NUI Galway. The new club will meet weekly in DERI before transferring in early April to the College of Engineering & Informatics located on the main campus. It will provide an opportunity for students, pupils, teachers and technology enthusiasts to meet like-minded peers in an informal social and learning environment where they will be educated in new skills particularly in coding and generate interesting ideas and discussions amongst themselves. It is anticipated that, over time, this pioneering club will led to the setting up of Coder Dojo clubs in schools across Galway city and county.

2. Scratch Programming Courses in Galway Primary Schools

Children displaying their Scratch project to their fellow classmates

Computer Science is unfortunately not a subject in the Irish schools system which is symptomatic of a systematic failure by successive governments who have failed to grasp the serious damage that its absence from the educational curricula is doing to the country’s future.

Since early 2011, I have campaigned and organised cross-sectoral groups to lobby ministers on this issue and will soon be part of a delegation to meet Seán Sherlock T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for Research and Innovation, on this issue.

Over the last year, I have enjoyed teaching Scratch programming in primary schools in Galway and Mayo, complementing the excellent work being spearheaded by LERO nationwide It has been personally very rewarding for me to see the practical effects of this initiative through the creation of an array of fascinating computer animation projects by the young participants.

DERI is now collaborating with Hewlett Packard, GMIT and the Galway Education Centre to ensure that even more schools can benefit from mentor-assisted classroom computer programming courses. The project will be known as HP Headstart. On behalf of DERI, I will be acting as project coordinator and over the next few weeks I will be teaching Scratch to the DERI, HP and GMIT mentors. Tuition will be held in participating schools and consist of one-hour classes over a period of six weeks.

3. Galway city’s only After-School Computer Club

DERI's Michael Kerrin teaching Python at St. Mary's Computer Club

Last year, Laura Dragan and Pierre Ludwick from DERI provided an after-schools C++ programming course to students at St. Mary’s College. This after-school club, the only one of its kind in Galway, was very well received and it continues this year with DERI’s Michael Kerrin teaching Python.

4. ‘Bullding a Mobile App’ Workshop

DERI’s Caoilfhionn Lane will provide a workshop on ‘How to Build A Mobile App’ at 7pm on Tuesday February 28^th in DERI. Open to the general public, the aim of this workshop is to show beginner or non-programmers how to create a simple phone app using Eclipse and the Android SDK. They would learn how to install the Android SDK and the Android Phone Emulator and explore a sample game, ’Lunar Landing’.

5. Retro Games Night, March 2^nd, Computer Museum

SuperFrog on the Amiga (World's first multi-media computer)

A Retro Gaming Night will be held at 7pm on Friday March 2^nd in the DERI-based Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland.
The event will allow visitors to play classic games such as Sonic the Hegehog, Donkey King, Pacman, Asteroids, Space Invaders and Super Frog on an array of vintage microcomputers & consoles (late 1970s-mid1990s) that include Atari, Sega Mega Drive, Playstation 1, Nintendo Gameboy, Amiga & Commodore 64.

6. Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland

Visitors interacting with the Museum's artifacts

The facility, established by and presently housed in DERI, is officially recognised as the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland and has become part of a Galway science trail.

It has a cross-sectoral Board that draws its membership from HP, GMIT, NUIG, Engineers Ireland, small businesses as well as DERI (Mike Turley, Lukasz and myself).

Its primary aim is to introduce visitors to the rich communications technology heritage of Ireland and of the world and to inspire young people towards innovation, science and engineering.

For National Engineers Week (Feb 27 – March 2^nd), I am augmenting the present collection of artefacts with some exciting new additions including one of the finger controlled keysets that was invented and used by Douglas Engelbart in his legendary ‘Mother of all Demos’ (1968) that is on loan from Karl Flannery of Storm Technology, as well as a library of 1960s Science Fiction comics, films and toys that inspired children of that era to create so many of the technologies we use today.

7. Visits to Schools & Student Tours of DERI

Post-primary students visiting the DERI science institute at Galway University (NUIG)

Second-level schools will visit our institute during National Engineers Week (Feb 27 – March 2 and DERI personnel will travel out to at least one school during this period.

These tours and visits will give students the opportunity to meet with DERI researchers and find out about the work and the exciting leading edge products, processes and services being created at DERI.

They are also part of a larger network of tours that cover four other world-class science institute specialsing in research varying from climate change, to biomedical to optics.

'Knitting in the Classroom' - Giving A New Lease of Life to a Traditional Craft

2012-01-16T20:04:00.003Z

One of my personal highlights of 2011 was in convincing Lawrencestown National School to exhibit at the Galway Science and Technology Science Festival Exhibition. Nothing special about that one might say as I annually coordinate the involvement of schools into this one day fair that is the highlight of a 2 week festival which this year took place in Galway University (NUIG) attracting over 24,000 visitors representing the largest crowd ever to appear on campus.

But what was different about this school was that they were demonstrating something that many people might feel has absolutely nothing to do with science or technology, namely the ancient handicraft of Knitting.

Yet this popular misconception could not be further from the truth. For mathematics is at the core of this traditional craft that produces fabric from a strand of yarn or thread.

Whilst working in the school during the course of the year, teaching the basic concepts of engineering using K’NEX, I noticed that the pupils of both sexes would sometimes take up knitting during lunchtime if it was raining outside. The classrooms also a fine display of woollen animals and objects.

I was intrigued!

The children told me that it was due to the pioneering efforts of teacher Davina Daly that the children were learning the joys and creativity of knitting. Rather than just buying ready-made toys, clothing and gifts as most children have done for the last few decades, these boys and girls were making their very own scarves, rockets and animals out of fabricating yarn with each item that they produced stamped with their own unique style and individuality.

Over the next few months, I noticed too that a few other schools were also doing likewise, once again due to the initiative of individual teachers.

Daire's window display of 'wooly monsters' at Halloween

'Knitting with Granny'

Then in September I found my own 11 year old son Dáire starting to take up knitting with a passion as a result of a new national educational scheme known as Knitting with Granny, whereby older women were being brought into the classrooms to show young people how to knit. Dáire created an ever-growing menagerie of animals that began to populate the whole house. I was hooked!

More Wooly Monsters!

Not only are primary schools reviving and giving a whole new lease of life to a very important aspect of the country’s heritage, stitching is introducing these young people to a practical understanding and usage of mathematics via the counting of stitches, the calculation of gauge (that is the number of stitches and rows required to knit a 10cm square for a particular yarn), the creating of patterns and the quantification of yarn required.

Some of Dáire's Christmas knitted Santa Claus and helpers

The Makers

As with my work in helping to introduce computer programming into primary and post-primary education sector, Knitting in schools is part of a vision of educating our people to once again become designers and makers of practical things rather than just users and recipients of items manufactured outside Ireland. It will help our national move from a having a culture of dependency to a culture of creativity.

According to Davina, “The knitting craze started in our school two years ago when Evelyn Reidy a friend of my mother's dressmaking instructor Mary passed away. Evelyn's daughter gave Mary all her knitting needles and wool. Mary passed all the knitting materials on to my mum and then to me. I didn't want the wool to go to waste so I brought it to school. The children from second to sixth class took and used whatever wool they needed.
Jean Greenhowe has a fabulous collection of knitting booklets for irresistible dolls and toys http://www.jeangreenhowe.com/booklets.html. I have bought a number of them - The Scarecrow Family, Little Gift Dolls, Knitted Clowns, Jiffyknits, Knitted Animals, Christmas Special and Christmas Treasures. The children have knitted various items from these booklets. Some of the children buy knitting magazines. Another mom gave her son a magazine that had knitting pattern for boys in it. There was a pattern of a rocket, a dinosaur and a turtle. Some of the children knitted them.

The first stitch the children learn is the Garter stitch (AKA plain stitch). Every row is knit. Once the children have mastered this stitch they learn how to cast on and off stitches. They knit simple hairbands (sweatbands for boys) and wrist bands to practise this stitch. Then they learn the Stocking stitch (aka purl stitch - knit on the right side, purl on the wrong side).
After this they learn how to read patterns. As the patterns get more and more complicated they learn more and more knitting techniques: inc = increase stitches, dec = decrease stitches, psso = pass slip stitch over and so on.

They've knitted dogs, owls, turtles, bears, scarves, penguins, santas and snowmen.
One boy knitted Mrs Claus for his grandmother (finished height 36 cm).
At Christmas the children knitted Christmas trees, Christmas stockings, candy canes, garland rings to hang on their Christmas trees. At Easter they knitted chickens. One girl knitted a rattler for her baby brother and another knitted Binky the Golfing Clown with the help of his Granny.”

Wooly Science

The school exhibited their Knitting project during the Galway Science and Technology Festival Fair that was held in NUI Galway on November 27th and was visited by over 24,000 people. With the theme of Wooly Science, their stand was one of the most popular as visitors were enthralled to see a line of children knitting away whilst explaining the mathematic basis of this ancient handcraft.

Christmas Truce 1914: A Flickering of Humanity in a Brutal Imperial War

2011-12-30T13:02:00.000Z

I watched this thought-provoking and emotive French film Joyeux Noel (Merry Xmas) over Christmas. More than any other movie I have seen in recent times, it portrays the true message of Christmas, namely 'Peace on Earth and Goodwill To All Men'.

It was so beautiful to hear in the film the haunting sounds of the Celtic bagpipes. But so sad to know that so many of the men enjoying the friendships that sprung up between the soldiery of the opposing armies during that Christmas Week would be dead within weeks.
So May I wish all readers and their friends and families a joyful festive holiday and a progressive 2012.

Christmas Truce 1914

Along the Western Front on Christmas Eve 1914, soldiers from German, Scottish, English & French regiments organised unofficial ceasefires. Troops ventured into No Man's Land to exchange gifts, play football, sing songs together & bury their dead. Generals on both sides were outraged & ensured that no such large scale fraternization ever happened again by ordering shelling during subsequent Christmases. In an insane brutal war, there were already 3.5million casualties by then; another 32million would die before the war ended.

The leaders of the main warring nations dressed up the conflict as the 'War To End All Wars', a struggle for peace and liberty when in reality they were only concerned about expanding their empires.
For example the war resulted in the victorious French and British dividing up the Middle East between them. In the process, they created an artificial country known as Iraq to unite under British control the oilfields of Kurdistan in the north with the oilfields around Basra in the south. The consequences of such a decision lie with us today.

Irish Nationalists Join War To Enslave Nations
The Irish nationalists under Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party allowed themselves under the pretext of 'Freedom of Small Nations' (Belgium) to support an imperial war that denied freedom and democracy to so many. Nearly 50,000 members of the Irish divisions of the British military died fighting in a conflict that entrapped even more Africans, Arabs, Kurds, Chinese, Polynesians within the empires of France, Italy, Japan and Britain.

The Irish rebels were aware of this deception by the British. We Serve Neither King nor Kaiser was the motto of the Irish Citizens Army as they joined with the Irish Volunteers in Easter 1916 to overthrow British rule in Ireland.
So I cannot join with those historians of today that are trying to rewrite history and to glorify the deeds of the Irish regiments of the British Army. These Irish men, during the 19th and early 20th century, were a key component of a brutal military occupation force in countries such as South Africa, Sudan, Kenya, Afghanistan, India, Ceylon, Burma and China. Ironically, the Catholic Irish soldiery, as with the Indian and African members of this army, were despised by their military English officers and superiors who viewed them as primitive and stupid peoples.

Madness of War: Blackadder - Last Scene (Over the Top)

The last episode of Ben Elton's brilliant Blackadder series poignantly sums up the madness of the generals and politicians of the Allies and Central Powers (click image above).
Though I have major disagreements with the democratic deficit within the structures of today's European Union, nevertheless I recognise that it has ended the slaughter that used to characterise the relationships between nations and peoples of the continent of Europe.

Warhorse - Slaughter of the Animals in the service of Humanity

As Steven Spielberg's latest film Warhorse shows, animals suffered the most during this human conflict. Vast areas of forests and other main areas of wildlife habitats were totally obliterated by shell and fire. At least 485,000 horses serving with the British forces were killed and millions more died in the armies of the Ottoman, British, French, Russian, Austrian, Bulgarian, Rumanian and Serbian. Sadly the history of 'civilization' is a history of the enslavement and destruction of so many other denizens of Earth by humanity in the pursuit of pleasure, torture and self-indulgence.

Creative Communities in Ballinfoile Mór, Galway city

2011-12-29T18:34:00.003Z

Residents from across the Ballinfoile Mór, Castlelawn, Ballindooley and Bóthar na Choiste areas are asked to attend a Community Night at 7pm on Thursday January 12th in the Menlo Park Hotel when a number of grassroots organizations will be undertaking a recruitment drive as well as showcasing services and projects provided by local volunteers.

Community & Environmental Volunteerism in Ballinfoile Mór

The Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden, Cumann na bhFear (Men’s Shed) and the recently established Terryland Forest Conservation Volunteers will be collectively promoting a wide array of skills that they presently can offer residents as well as advertising others that they need voluntary expertise on.

Over the last year, members have offered courses or mentoring on metalwork, organic gardening, mural painting, cycle maintenance, hedgerow planting, scarecrow construction, nature studies, heritage awareness, computing, cooking, drystone walling and woodturning. But assistance is required in other areas such as basket weaving, plumbing, orienteering and wildlife pond construction.

The Makers - The (Almost) Lost Art of 'Making Things'

We are endeavouring to help people from all backgrounds and of all ages to once again rediscover the ability and enjoyment of ‘making things’. It is about moving away from being primarily a nation of consumers to being once again creators of everyday items and produce.

Furniture Restoration

Another fundamental principle of ours is that the skills taught or the expertise provided are feed into projects that directly benefit the wider local community.

The contributions of these groups and that of others such as the Castlegar Boreen Festival have breathed new life into the locality, tapped into the often hidden talents of individuals, awakened interest in local heritage and biodiversity and in the process imbued many inhabitants with a proud sense of purpose and of place.

Drystone Walling in the Organic Garden

This type of creative community volunteerism is a modern urban version of the Irish rural tradition of ‘Meitheal’.

The herculean efforts of committed volunteers are helping to transform Ballinfoile Mór and engendering a sense of neighbourliness.

Harvest Day in the Community Organic Garden

Ballinfoile Community Organic Garden: Local Food Produce & Wildlife-friendly

In the organic garden, residents have built wooden hurdle fences, gravel paths, drystone walls, native hedgerows, a large clay pizza oven, a ‘bug hotel’, a kitchen and an outdoor stage; planted herbs, vegetables and fruit trees; organized gardening courses and harvest festivals. Schools and youth groups have undertaken art programmes such as making scarecrows, painting murals as well as organising nature activities.

In the last year, the garden has been bestowed with the Galway City Mayoral Community Award and was runner up in the national Pride of Place Award.

Hand Prints of Children & Adults Painters Decorate the Door of the Garden's Kitchen

Men's Shed Movement Arrives in Galway city

Michael McDonnell welding at Cumann na bhFear, Ballinfoile

The recently established Cumann na bhFear (Irish = Men's Club) Ballinfoile Mór is modeled on the international Men's Shed Movement that originated in Australia a number of years ago. Taking its name and theme from the idea of the male of the household working on his hobbies in the garden shed, the Ballinfoile branch provides a friendly meeting place for men of all ages to try out new things and work on meaningful tasks at their own pace. There is a strong emphasis on projects that have an environmental and social value and that keep alive traditional Irish crafts and skills from metalworking to woodturning.

Blacksmith's forge at Cumann na bhFear

The local members built a blacksmith’s forge, purchased an array of tools including a wooden lathe, restored old furniture and farm equipment, provide classes in a range of skills from woodturning to panel-beating, organise monthly cycle repair workshops for all ages and serve as a venue for the manufacture of props and set designs for youth theatre groups and facilitate rehearsals for young musicians.

Farming Implements: - Before Restoration

Farming Implements: - After Restoration

Galway City Council leased to the group an excellent two story premises (complete with workshops, meeting room, kitchen, toilets and offices) in the Sandy Road Business Park.

Community-planted Silver Birch trees in Terryland Forest

Conservation Volunteers for Terryland Forest Park

The new Conservation Volunteers group for the Terryland Forest Park will be involved in tree planting, boundary structure repairs, path maintenance, nature tours, biodiversity enhancement and community clean-ups.
The volunteers want to return the park to the principles of its founders when they established the park in the late 1990s in order to create a large urban woodland populated by native Irish trees that functions both as a Wildlife corridor and a People's Park. By creating a forest in an urban setting, it was to serve as the Lungs of the City, encourage citizens to reconnect to Nature and act as a sanctuary to indigenous flora and fauna at a time when across the planet, commercial farming, habitat fragmentation, deforestation, pollution, road construction, urban sprawl and the resulting global warming is leading to a mass extinction of species.

Household Waste dumped in Forest Park

Community initiatives in Castlegar include some wonderful heritage signage along the old rural bótharin network.

Heritage Signage in Castlegar

Tracks 'n' Trails across rural Galway City

The Friends of the Galway Forest coordinate regular community clean-up of the city's parks, undertake heritage cycle tours on the east side of the city and will be working with other NGOs such as Castlegar Connect to develop a series of greenways linking the castles of Tirellan, Castlegar, Menlo and Clooncauneen.

In September the group collaborated with Councillor Frank Fahy and local land-owners in starting the clean-up of an old bog road near Carrowbrowne that will act as a vital link in this pioneering trail. This particular botharín has been destroyed by organised criminal dumping of a vast quantity of fridges, cookers and furniture that has contaminated the environment and ecology of the area.

Constructing a Greenway near Carrowbrowne. Michael Tiernan holds a traditional 'grappler' used in times past to clear water-logged ditches of debris

At the Community event, Councillor Fahy will also outline proposals on heritage enhancement whilst Rosie Webb, senior executive architect at Galway City Council, will showcase a series of maps produced by the architectural students of the University of Limerick that provide information, analysis, plans and guidelines on the regeneration of the Terryland Forest Park as an important cultural and amenity facility as well as a primary wildlife habitat.

Beautiful rural landscape of Castlegar

The current recession caused by the greed and gambling antics of an oligarchy of bankers, property speculators and certain politicians has dashed the dreams and expectations of so many ordinary people. It has led to mass unemployment, high emigration, an increase in criminality, the closure of many community partnerships and an upsurge of depression amongst so many.

Making a 'Bug Hotel' Ballinfoile Mór Community Garden

But becoming involved in pro-active neighbourhood schemes can empower citizens and foster a sense of belonging and of personal value to a community.

Volunteerism is the gel that binds people together in a positive manner, particularly in times of economic and social stress.

Community Tree Planting in Terryland Forest Park

You Can Make A Difference!

Together We Can Make Ballinfoile Mór A Wonderful Place to Live In!

So Get Involved, Sign Up for a Local Volunteer Group & Attend Our Celebration of Community Initiatives at 7pm on January 12th in the Menlo Park Hotel

The High Price of Materialism

2011-12-10T19:59:00.000Z

Great Video on the dangers of a world that is being dominated by commercial consumerism.

It should be a wake up call to what really matters in life. We have to recognise that the world does not revolve around ourselves, that we are part of a bigger picture, that we belong to a community and to a planet both of which are in a delicate state of being due to a society that promotes self-promotion and greed at the expense of intrinsic values. For it is only in giving to other humans and to the Earth can we truly feel that our few years of existence is worthwhile. This principle underpins every science course I teach, every technology I promote, every environmental, political, social and community campaign that I get involved in.

The personal enjoyment is in giving knowledge that enriches or empowers the lives of others, and to realise that so many others all around me also giving their time, energies and resources to do likewise.

That puts a smile on my face every time!

Enjoy the video!

Nature is the 99%, too - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

2011-12-03T22:42:00.000Z

Nature is the 99%, too - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

The 1% that control the politics and economies of so many countries are not only destroying the lives of 99% of the human populations in their immoral quest for power & profits but also the other 99% of species of planet Earth.

We must save our fellow creatures and in so doing save mankind from destroying itself. Science shows that all species are interdependent and part of Nature.

First Telephone, Transistor and Google Storage Device replicas On Show at Galway Science Exhibition

2011-11-30T22:12:00.001Z

A press release that was published in the current edition of Galway City Tribune:

A unique series of exhibits were unveiled at the remarkable and highly successful Galway Science and Technology Festival Exhibition that took place in NUI Galway (Galway university) on Sunday last.

Visitors to the Computer Museum exhibit at the Galway Science & Technology Festival

Replicas of some of the most important inventions in the history of modern communications were displayed in the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland which was re-located to the main campus for the event.

Replica of Google Server at Scoil Bhríde Mionloch stand

“Three recently arrived artifacts represent significant milestones in the history of communications technology,” according to Brendan Smith Outreach Officer of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway.

First Telephone

Replica of Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone on display at the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland

in DERI, NUI Galway

“The telephone or ‘electrical speech machine’ was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. He later founded what became known as Bell Laboratories, probably the most influential research facility of modern times, which can list amongst its achievements the laser, synchronised sound and motion picture, the solar cell and the Telstar space satellite. Today it is a part of the Alcatel-Lucent corporation, an industrial partner of DERI.

First Transistor Comes to Galway

One of their engineers Toby Joyce originally from Clifden, arranged for the transfer from Bell Labs in New Jersey to Galway of not only a replica of the first telephone but also that of probably their greatest invention, namely the ‘transistor’ that was developed in 1947 and became the basic building block of modern electronic devices.

Replica of first transistor

“DERI has passed on these fascinating artifacts to the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland that operates under a multi-sectoral board chaired by Dr. Chris Coughlan of Hewlett-Packard with representatives from Engineers’ Ireland, NUIG, GMIT, small businesses and Irish Diaspora groups as well as DERI.

Google- the Galway & Irish Connection

“The museum will also play host to a very intriguing exhibit being constructed by Scoil Bhríde Menlo (Mionloch) and Cumann na bhFear in Ballinfoile. It is a model of the Google original storage device from 1996 . The company’s founders put together a server consisting of 10 hard disks of 4 gigabytes each, then the largest capacity drives available, encased in a cabinet covered with children’s Lego bricks.

It is appropriate that this school is undertaking this task as Google was founded in a garage in Menlo Park, California, so named in the 1850s by two Irish immigrants, Oliver and McGlynn, in honour of their Galway birthplace.

Our institute has had a close working relationship with Scoil Bhríde as we have provided laptops on loan for the last four years to all their pupils in fifth and sixth year classes in an effort to promote eLearning education."

The Cumann na bhFear (Irish for "Men's Club") is a recently formed group in Ballinfoile Mór that is modeled on the Men's Shed movement that originated in Australia. Two of its founding members, Michael McDonnell and Michael Tiernan, helped construct the metal stacking unit (above), secured many of the old hard disks and made an exact copy of the 'clouded' perspex panels used as the sides of the original Google server by cutting out sections from a shower door!

Michael McDonnell and Michael Tiernan cutting panels out of an old Shower Door

Halloween - Another significent contribution to World Culture by the Irish & Celtic peoples!

2011-10-31T19:38:00.002Z

Halloween's Pagan Celtic Roots

Today Halloween is joyously celebrated by children across the Western world.There is a popular misconception though that Halloween is a modern American invention. Not so. Like so many other things that have brought great happiness to humanity for millennia, its roots lay firmly in the culture of the Irish Celts!
(Photo- my son Dáire & 'friend'!)

Yet it has to be said that the Americans, in their child-friendly re-packaging of this ancient pagan festival, have destroyed many of the fine traditions that were once such an integral part of the festivities. For instance our Celtic custom of placing human skulls with candles at entrances to domestic dwellings in order to ward off evil spirits has been replaced by lights in hollowed-out pumpkins! Likewise the visits of children dressed up in ghoulish and macabre fancy dress going door-to-door looking for gifts of sweets and fruits is a poor substitute for the former visits of the ghosts of our ancestors who used to drop in once a year on October 31st for a nice meal with their living relatives (we would prepare a place for them at the dinner table).
It was said too that live captives were placed in wicker cages above huge bonfires and burnt alive (as portrayed in the classic British 1970s cult film “The Wicker Man”). But such horror stories were originally spun by those nasty Romans when they were at war with the Celts. So it was probably nothing more than malicious enemy propaganda. After all, what do you take us Celts for? Barbarians?!

As with so many other religious festivals, Halloween has become so commercialised by 'Americanised' popular culture that its true origins and religious aspects have long since being forgotten.
So here is the true story of 'Féile na Marbh' (Festival of the Dead'):

Christianisation of 'Samhain'
Yet modern-day Americans were not the first people to re-brand the festival. In the middle ages the Catholic Church created the Christian festival of 'All Hallows Eve' or 'All Souls Day' when people were asked to remember and pray for their dead family members.
This event was superimposed onto the ancient pagan Celtic festival of 'Samhain' which marked the end of the summer season characterised by heat & light and the coming of the dark cold barren winter months.

Celtic Festivals
Typical of many agricultural societies, the Celts had four major annual festivals based on the cyclical differences experienced in the changing seasons of nature and their corresponding weather patterns. The other three were 'Imbolc' (spring) 'Bealtane' (summer), 'Lugnasa' (autumn). The latter was associated with harvest time.

Bon(e)Fires
Samhain was a time when food was hoarded as people prepared for the cold season when no plants grew. While many domestic animals such as cattle were brought indoors for the winter, others were slaughtered and most of their meat salted for storage whilst the remainder was cooked for the big feast. As with all Irish festivals, communal bonfires were lit as people gathered together at warm fires to socialise and to give thanks to the deities. Bones of the slaughtered animals were thrown into the fire as symbolic gifts to the gods, an action which give rise to the term ' bone fires' or 'bonfires'. Embers from this sacred fire were taken by local people to their households to light their own domestic fires.

Antecedents to the Pumpkin & 'Trick or Treat'
But Samhain was also a time when creatures from the supernatural world could enter into the world of mortals. 'Fairies' (Irish='Sidhe' as in ‘Banshee’/‘female fairy’) and the spirits of the dead would walk the earth. Many of these beings were benevolent and the spirits of dead ancestors; so families laid out extra food and set aside a table space for their ghostly visitors. This metaphorised into the custom of today's children dressing up as demons and witches & calling to the neighbours' houses to receive presents.
But there were spirits that came on the night of Samhain that were malevolent. Candles were placed in skulls at the entrance to dwellings as light was feared by these dark foreboding creatures. This protection against evil became transformed in modern times into the positioning of hollowed-out turnips and later pumpkins with carved out faces and internal candles at windows and doorways.
Centuries-old party games of trying to eat an apple lying in a basin of water ('bobbing') or dangling on a string tied to a ceiling ('snapping') are still popular festive past-times with Irish children.

The apple is probably the most common edible fruit in Ireland. It was also strongly associated with the spirit world and the fairies (sidhe). In the Arthurian legends, the mystical island of Avalon is where King Arthur obtains his magical sword Excalibur and where he is taken at the end of his life by the Lady of the Lake and her female fairy companions (banshee). Avalon comes from the Welsh word afal or Irish aball.

Fortune Telling at Halloween
Central to the Irish Halloween is the eating of a fruit bread known as 'Barmbrack' from the Gaelic term 'Báirín Breac' (speckled or spotted top). It is still a popular festive food today.
Various symbolic pieces were placed in the dough before it was baked such as a ring, a pea and a stick. When an item was found in the slice when it was being eaten, it told of the future that awaited the recipient. For instance, the 'ring' signified marriage within a year; a 'stick' represented a bad or violent marriage; the 'coin', wealth and a 'pea', a long wait before marriage.

Irish Export Halloween to North America
The Irish emigrants of the nineteenth century introduced Halloween and its rituals to America. Within a few decades, the festival was transformed into the fun and games event of today.

Significant Irish Contributions to World Culture:
No. 7642- 'Dracula'
Considering our national passion of asking the dead to resurrect themselves & drop into the house for a late night meal & party, it should come as no surprise that the world's most well known vampire Count Dracula was the creation of an Irishman, the novelist Bram Stoker in 1887.
His inspiration though was Carmilla, a book about a lesbian vampire created naturally enough(!) by another well known Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu.

Finally, the name Halloween comes from a mix old English and Irish with Hallows meaning holy and een from the the Irish 'ín' meaning little signifying the night before the big or main event of All Hallows Day which took place in the Christian calander on November 1st. Alternatively een could be a version of Eve as in Christmas Eve.

(Photos from Macnas Halloween youth parade in Ballinfoile, Galway City)

Michael D. ABÚ!!

2011-10-29T18:12:00.003Z

What a Great Day for the True Community Values of the Irish People!
A Warrior that has fought many battles in the name of Justice, Liberty, Equality & Fraternity has today won an historic victory against the mass forces of greed and elitism.

Have a look at my articles below to know what Michael D Higgins represents to so many of us

Michael D Higgins - the Conscience of the Nation

What has Michael D Ever Done for Ireland and the Irish People?

Michael D Higgins: The Great Advocate of International HUman Rights in the History of Dáil Éireann

Michael D. Higgins - An Irish Legend!

2011-10-26T22:51:00.003Z

In the last day of campaigning, Michael D. Higgins visited Galway university where he gave a rousing but dignified speech to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters that included myself.
He has served the people of Ireland and the world so well for over 40 yrs. The country will benefit from a progressive, humane, intelligent, erudite visionary who has worked at all levels of society and is brimming with energy.
Whoever designed the Celtic motiff poster that has accompanied the campaign should be awarded a medal. Truly stunning, the painting portrays Michael as an ancient Celtic chieftain accompanied by two Irish wolfhounds and surrounded by his people as they congregate on a hill overlooking a wooden stockaded fort. Beautiful!!!!

Click here for Michael D Higgins: Conscience of the Nation

Click here for a short video of Michael D's through the years

A Vote for Gallagher is a Vote for a Discredited Establishment that Robbed Our Country & Our Children's Futures

2011-10-25T19:19:00.000Z

Cracking Presidential Debate on Frontline last night!
Martin McGuinness played a blinder exposing Sean Gallagher as representing the worse excesses of FF cronyism. Organising political party fundraisers with a €5,000 entry fee in return for an 'audience' with the Taioseach/Prime Minster of the country (are meeting with the leader of Ireland only available to the wealthy?), going to a wealthy business person's home to collect a monied envelope, receiving a huge director's loan (to avoid tax) & admitting he was an admirer of the unpatriotic tax exile Denis O'Brien who was condemning by a judicial review as having corrupted the Irish political system.
Combined with the fact that Gallagher was a member of the FF National Executive, refused to condemn the last government for their incompetency and a big property owner with a business customer base amongst big builders shows he was part of the FF-property speculator-financial elite that siphoned off our taxes over many decades to fund their rich lifestyles, who bankrupt the country, who destroyed so many of our livelihoods and whose 'old boys network' policies led to a mass emigration of our brightest and best.

He certainly was not an ordinary honest decent rank and file member of the party as he has tried to portray so many times.

If he gets elected, it will be a victory for a discredited immoral 'me-fein' establishment.

A Vote for Gallagher is a vote for Those that Stole Our Hard-Earned Monies & Robbed Us & Our Children of a Future!

What has Michael D Higgins Ever Done for Ireland & the Irish People?

2011-10-23T18:15:00.000Z

Helping to Liberate Irish Women from Servitude and Discrimination

In the early 1970s, women were treated in Ireland as second-class citizens by the state and as the servants to men by the Catholic Church.

Married women were barred from working in the Civil Service; divorce and the sale of contraceptives were illegal; women got paid less than men for doing the same job; children’s allowances were paid only to fathers; barring orders did not exist to protect wives from violent husbands; wives could not legally refuse to have sex with their partners; women had no legal rights to a share of the family home.

For young women in education and work, there were even problems trying to obtain bank loans. Unlike their male counterparts, the banks were hesitant about providing loans to female students as it was felt that soon after leaving college, they would get married and lose the ability to repay by becoming house-bound wives with no independent incomes.

Michael D Higgins was at the forefront of all the major campaigns to secure equality for women. He was one of the very few members of the Oireachtas that stood by these issues of women’s rights from the 1970s onwards. As with Noel Brown a few decades previously, he earned the wrath of conservative and religious mainstream society at the time, condemned as someone that wanted to under the family values. This was particularly evident in the Divorce referendum campaign of 1985. Yet he never backed down in spite of the verbal and written tirades hurled at him.

Condoms for All

At the height of the Aids epidemic in1992, I was part of a nationwide campaign known as CondomSense that wanted to liberalise the sale of condoms. We saw such contraceptives as offering greater protection for women from unwanted pregnancies and STDs. At this time, these pieces of rubber could only be purchased with a doctor’s prescription from a pharmacy for ‘bona fides’ family purposes. I was the only publican in Galway city that decided to openly defy this law by installing condom vending machines. I was prosecuted by the state and a jail sentence hung over me as I was brought through the courts system. However by the summer, the government caved in and introduced a Health Amendment Act that allowed the sale of condoms outside of pharmacies and without a prescription (though not in vending machines).

Yet again, Michael D Higgins was the only Galway TD that stood with us.

Children’s Rights: Ending Illegitimacy

In 1984, Michael D Higgins and Mary Robinson put forward the bill that removed the label of 'illegitimacy' from children of unmarried parents.

He was helping to put into law the committment given by the Irish rebels in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic of 1916 in "cherishing all of the children of the nation equally"

Towards a Cleaner Safe Environment

In 2000, I was one of the leaders of a large scale community movement known as Galway for a Safe Environment(GSE) that wanted to introduce a pro-recycling waste collection system and to stop the installation of a municipal waste incinerator. Over 22,000 people supported the campaign which was successful in stopping the incinerator being built and in having Galway city become the first local authority in Ireland to implement a domestic bin collection system based on recycling and composting.

Once more, Michael D was the only Galway member of the Oireachtas that stood with us from the beginning. Though others such as Fine Gael’s Pauric McCormack did later come on board.

Defender of Biodiversity

As Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Michael D signed on behalf of the Irish government in 1997 the EU Habitats Directive that requires member states to maintain or restore favourable conservation status for certain habitats and species.

Monvea Bog, Co. Galway

Of particular importance were the Irish bogs which account for 10% of the world’s total. This Habitat Directive was and is vital to protect the small number of bogs that are classified as Natural Heritage Areas. Peatlands possess unique biodiversity as well as being important areas for flood prevention, water quality and as critical storage areas for carbon, up to 57,402 tonnes of carbon per year (EPA BOGLAND project).

Michael D became one of the few Irish government ministers ever to enact legislation to protect endangered wildlife and their habitats and to reverse the millennia old destruction and exploitation by mankind of the planet’s natural heritage.

Today we have private turf-cutters condemning Michael D for what he did in 1997. They have little respect for the long-term consequences of their actions to life on Earth. As co owner (i.e. guardian) of a bog and as a son of man whose family lived and worked on the great Bog of Allen for generations, I wholeheartedly congratulate Michael D for his actions.

The Fianna Fáil government in 1999 allowed people affected by the ban to have 10 year period of grace. Sadly continued turf cutting was and is not compatible with the conservation of these sites and rare intact raised bog has decreased in area by over 35% in the last decade. The major cause of the loss and degradation of this priority habitat type is domestic peat cutting.

Eco-Tourism, Inverin Bog. Co. Galway

Giving Respect and Recognition to the Irish Language,
Arts and Culture

When Michael D Higgins became the first minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in 1993, the state finally recognised arts as a fundamental part of the life of a citizen, and gave it a status similar to the right to education, to work, to health, to justice and to housing.

Michael D did not just get a seat at the cabinet table in 1993. He demanded and secured the establishment of a new state office that finally gave due respect to something that was recognised outside the country and in ancient Ireland as being synonymous with the Irish people- a love of music, literature and art in all its forms but was until his ministry often viewed as a luxury and something for the privileged few.

By setting up a nationwide network of arts centres, galleries, libraries and theatres, he returned the arts to the common people and made it part of the fabric of so many communities across Ireland.

A Community Arts Halloween parade in Ballinfoile, Galway city

As Minister, he expanded the Irish film industry from a small sector generating 11million pounds into an internationally recognised industry that was worth 186 million by the time he left office.

Michael D is of course a renowned artist in his own right. In September 1990, Salmon Publishing launched his first book of poetry. Entitled ‘The Betrayal’, I am proud to say that I was its official sponsor and listed as such on the inside cover.

Stimulating an Irish Language Revival

Michael D established TG4, Ireland’s first Irish language television station thereby reinvigorating our native tongue and giving work and pride to so many people that wish to use Gaelic in their everyday lives.

Rediscovering Ireland’s Inland Waterways

Over the course of the 20^th century, Irish canals became increasingly ignored by the state as rail, road and air took over as the main arteries of transportation. Our canals and inland waterways fell into disuse, were abandoned and largely forgotten. A major achievement whilst he was Minster was to reverse this trend and allow Ireland’s inland waterways to become major opportunities for sustainable national and local tourism. He began connecting the waterways with the result that Ireland today has over 1000 kilometres of navigable waterways, providing employment and tourism in localities across the country.

Encouraging Youthful Creativity & Imagination

Michael D has always being more than just a career politician. He is multi-faceted in nature and has taken on many roles throughout his life- factory worker, lecturer, poet, socialist, humanitarian, journalist…

But all of these different elements have been united by a common egalitarian vision of the world. His talks and writings express a humanistic vision of life.

He ended political censorship by the state when he abolished Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act that denied Sinn Féin and other political parties the right to be interviewed and to be heard in the media.

Whilst a radical student leader at UCG, I was enthralled by his lectures that questioned the injustices of the world past and present and held out a vision of a better tomorrow. He supported our student union campaigns to make ‘Education a Right not A Privilege’ and to question social injustices in all its form whether it was in apartheid South Africa, Catholic Ireland, US-backed dictatorships or in Stalinist Eastern Europe. He encouraged these issues to be raised within the university halls and walls. During the 1980s, he brought progressive politics into mainstream youth culture by writing an incisive regular column in the weekly Hot Press magazine, the staple diet for rock music enthusiasts.

He has a deep affinity with creativity and imagination in science and engineering as much as in the arts.

Over the last decade I have dedicated a lot of my time endeavouring to ensure that technology can benefit all sectors of society. Michael D consistently supported this social inclusion approach and would always make himself available to attend and officiate at events that I was organising related to neighbourhoods, asylum seekers, older peoples, open data and so much more.

Michael D. Higgins in 2007 at the launch of the community website by the residents of the Eglinton Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centre, Salthil Galway city

Please view my Previous Articles on Micheal D Higgins:

Ireland's Greatest ever Advocate of International Human Rights in the History of Dáil Éireann
Michael D. Higgins: Conscience of the Nation

Vote Michael D. Higgins for President of Ireland