by Cathal Liam
As some are want to say, “Top of the mornin’ to ya.”
Just back from Chicago to watch Andy Rooney’s final bit on 60 Minutes last night. Maybe you saw it too. The end of another era. Seeing him on the telly Sunday evenings, spouting his own brand of gruff, no-nonsense commentaries, he’s become an American institution. Now, as he signed off for the last time, my heart ached. I imagined how he must have felt.
Though he’d given up on writing his scripts and columns on his 1920 Underwood manual typewriter, resorting lately to a word processor, Andy still thinks of himself as a TV writer who, for thirty-three years, has read what he’s written on 60 Minutes. Still full of his old wit and razzmatazz, Rooney maintains the writer’s job is to tell the truth… to put into words what others think and experience.
To him the world is full of so many interesting happenings; he had no trouble finding material for his 1,097 weekly CBS segments over the years. I feel the same way. Though I’m certainly not in his class, I too think of myself as a writer, eager to pick from Ireland’s world of events and interesting goings-on. So as the Ohio Irish American News nears its fifth-year anniversary, I sit down to write my 59th column to you, hoping it will amuse and inform you as ninety-two-year-old Andy Rooney has entertained me these past years.
Meeting many of you this summer at Irish festivals around the Midwest, I was struck by how many are taking ancestral research seriously. Besides the databases developed by the Ellis Island immigration search service, the Mormon Church & Ancestry.com, among others, Ireland’s 1901 & 1911 census data is now viewable on-line free of charge.
Speaking of ancestry, I was in Skibbereen, just recently, visiting their fine heritage centre housed in the Old Gasworks building on Upper Bridge Street. Besides providing a comprehensive explanation of how the Great Famine impacted the local population and its environs, one of the very worst effected areas in Ireland, they offer a fine genealogy service, as most Irish counties do now. They ask you to contact them, if you will be in the area seeking help, or to write via email: www.skibbheritage.com. [Telephone from the US: 011.353.28.40900 or fax 011.353.28.40957. Within Ireland, the number is 028.40900.]
Other sources at the centre include copies of Griffith’s Valuation Index, the first Irish property ownership records from 1848-1866, and the Tithe Applotments books from 1823-1837. [Also see on-line.] Additionally, they have a Catholic record database of baptisms and marriages for some West Cork parishes.
Now, back in the States, I recently read an interestingly humorous commentary by Jan Freeman in the Boston Globe. Entitled “If the pants fit,” Ms. Freeman’s curiosity with ‘English’ words struck a concordant note with me. In her introduction she quotes Samuel Butler’s poem, Psalm of Montreal. “Thou callest trousers ‘pants,’ whereas I call them ‘trousers.’/ Therefore thou art in hell-fire and may the Lord pity thee!”
She goes on to say, “Today we’ve toned down the hyperbole a bit, but British and American speakers still enjoy grousing about each other’s odd language—especially when it threatens to infect the homeland’s idiom. In England, they complain about cookies supplanting biscuits and visitors who ask, ‘Can I get a coffee?’ instead of ‘May I have…?’ In the United states, we whine over went missing and gobsmacked.”
Freeman then writes in detail about the differences between pants (underpants to the English and Irish) and trousers. Ah well, as our own G. B. Shaw once observed, “England and America… two countries divided by a common language.”
By the time you’re reading this Ireland will have a new president, its 9th. The election took place on Thursday, 27 October with only eligible Irish citizens residing in the Republic entitled to cast votes.
For your information or maybe to just satisfy your curiosity our past presidents were Douglas Hyde (1938-1945), Seán T. O’Kelly (1945-1959), Éamon de Valera (1959-1973), Erskine Childers (1973-1974, died in office), Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (1974-1976, resigned), Patrick Hillery (1976-1990), Mary Robinson (1990-1997, resigned) & Mary McAleese (1997-2011).
Typically, political parties champion a single candidate but more than one independent may run. This year seven ran for the new seven-year elected span with the option of running again for another second seven-year term. Fine Gael, the party currently in power, advanced Gay Mitchell. Labour nominated Michael D. Higgins.
The biggest bombshell to disrupt what was generally considered a mild-mannered affair was Sinn Féin’s nomination of Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, as its candidate. Irish citizens residing in Northern Ireland are NOT eligible to vote in this presidential election, a definite bone of political contention.
Rosemary Scallon, David Norris, Mary Davis & Seán Gallagher ran as independents, while Fianna Fáil, the party which has long held a strangle-hold on the president’s office, declined to proffer a candidate. Though largely a ceremonial position, the Irish president or Uachtarán an hÉireann does exercise some powers with absolute discretion. The official residence of the president is Áras an Uachtaráin [House of the President] located in Phoenix Park situated in northwest Dublin.
So with autumn fast advancing and thoughts of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year not far behind, I bid you a fond farewell. My thanks to all of you who took a moment to speak with me at some festival, be it near or far, and for your comments about this newspaper and your support of my writing. My thanks also to the Fallon family, Pat & Kay; Patrick & Tim, who so kindly allowed me to repeatedly share their Irish Imports vendor space this summer. God bless them and all of you too… keep well and remember your dearly departed on All Souls’ Day, Cathal
[My latest book, Fear Not The Storm, The Story of Tom Cullen, An Irish Revolutionary, is now available on-line or from your favourite bookseller.]
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
