The Irish Post - June 3, 2023

LEADING LIGHTS

BY JAMIE PYATT IN CAPE TOWN, FOR THE IRISH POST

DOUBLE murder suspect Ruth Lawrence was escorted back to Ireland from South Africa by Interpol officers last week after being extradited to stand trial in Dublin following nine years on the run.

Fugitive Lawrence, 42, had been lying low since the brutal killings of two men Anthony Keegan and Eoin O’Connor, described as lifelong friends, in Co. Cavan in 2014.

Last week, Lawrence was handed over by Interpol to Irish detectives at Johannesburg airport. They had flown out to bring her back to Dublin where she was charged and brought before magistrates.

Lawrence and fellow murder suspect and ex-lover Neville van der Westhuizen, 40, fled to his native South Africa shortly after the killings, where both worked as tattoo artists.

They split in 2015 but Lawrence’s luck ran out in October last year when South African police acting on an Interpol warrant got a tip off and arrested her at a bungalow in Bloemfontein, Free State province.

Last Wednesday she was driven

BUNCRANA ROCK STAR

REMEMBERING THE REBELS

by Interpol officers to the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg where she was led onto a British Airways Airbus A380-800 for the flight to London Heathrow.

After the 11-hour journey landing at 5.30am the prime suspect and her guards took a connecting flight landing at 9am in Dublin. She was taken straight to the Dublin gardaí HQ where she was interviewed then charged.

A special sitting of a court was held on Thursday evening last, where the charges of murdering pals Eoin O’Connor, 32, and Anthony Keegan, 33, in 2014, were read out and Lawrence was remanded in custody.

The families of both murdered men had been informed by gardaí that Lawrence was in their custody and was making the 6000-mile overnight journey to finally face justice.

Lawrence has already spent seven months behind bars locked up in what has been described as “a hellhole holding cell at a Bloemfontein police station” and even

own expense ignoring the chance to fight extradition.

A visitor to her at a grim holding cell in Bloemfontein said: “She’s bearing up well all things considered but the food and conditions are atrocious and she said she just wants to get back and face whatever is coming.

“To speed things up she even offered to pay for her own flight back to Dublin. She has offered no resistance and signed all the paperwork and said she is fed up with running and looking over her shoulder” she said.

Lawrence and lover Neville van der Westhuizen, 40, did a moonlight flit from Dublin in April 2014 after two men known to them were shot in the head either in their rented cottage or in a field just outside.

A butcher fishing in a nearby lake recognised the smell of rotting flesh and called the police who

searched the island and found a shallow grave.

The bodies of the two friends were found buried and shortly afterwards an Interpol arrest warrant was issued for Lawrence and van der Westhuizen. An all ports and airports alert was put out for them, but they evaded arrest.

Extradition began when Lawrence was arrested in a dawn raid on October 4 last year by the elite South African police squad The Hawks at a suburban bungalow in Bloemfontein.

A spokesman for the South African Department of Justice Mr Chrispin Phiri confirmed: “The Minister Mr Ronald Lamola approved her extradition and approved the Irish police to travel to South Africa to collect her.

“Her co-accused Neville van der Westhuizen is currently serving 15 years in South Africa for an offence of culpable homicide which is not linked in any way to the Irish allegations but will serve his sentence first.

“When he has completed his sentence in a Durban jail then the Interpol extradition case against him can be heard,” he said.

It has been alleged that Lawrence and van der Westhuizen owed debts running into five figures to a Dublin drug gang and when two men went to collect it they were both shot dead and the lovers fled Ireland.

South African Police are thought to have driven Lawrence in handcuffs and leg shackles 250 miles from the Bansvlei holding cells in Bloemfontein to Johannesburg where she was handed over to waiting Irish detectives.

Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night celebrates his 80th birthday

EXTRADITED: Ruth Lawrence being escorted out of South Africa Picture: Jamie Pyatt Inset, left: Ruth Lawrence Picture: Courtesy of Hawks – South African Police Service

Mia the cheetah heads from Cork to Belfast THIS WEEK they said...

A FEMALE cheetah called Mia, has arrived from Fota Wildlife Park in Cork to Belfast zoo’s new specially designed ‘Cheetah lookout’ habitat.

Mia is a northern cheetah subspecies, which is considered endangered by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There are currently fewer than 800 left in the wild with populations of cheetah coming under greater threat of extinction each year. Cheetah populations are in decline due to human-wildlife conflict, hunting, habitat loss and retaliatory killings by competing predators.

Mia will be two years old in August and should already be mature enough to have cubs. Belfast Zoo plans for a new cheetah male to arrive sometime over the summer with the hopes of breeding the pair.

The Troubles on display at the Imperial War Museum

“Belfast Zoo is continuing our commitment to conservation and participation in the European Breeding Programme. The arrival of Mia is a great way to educate the public about the collaborative work that zoos do as part of EAZA breeding programmes, and we are delighted to add Mia to our animal collection,” Alyn Cairns, Zoo manager, said.

Northern Ireland: Living With the Troubles is an exhibition which has just opened at the Imperial War Museum in London. A statement from the museum states that the meticulously and far reaching exhibition “invites visitors to further their understanding of the Troubles through the multiple perspectives of individuals affected by the conflict”.

The exhibition comprises four installations, housed in fairly small display rooms, which revisit decisive events in the Troubles from different, often conflicting, perspectives.

Craig Murray, the lead curator, spent four years compiling the museum’s first exhibition dedicated to the conflict.

The exhibition has videos, grainy black and white footage, posters, soundtracks from the time – and wire mesh security cages that were a familiar sight outside pubs, shops and hotels during the height of the troubles.

The exhibition tries to steer as impartial a path as possible giving voice to republicans, loyalists – even those with no particular political view; a group very limited in number, certainly, but one that did exist.

But the message at the end of the display is firmly one that says that the peace process is work in progress. The film montage ranges from the ‘peace walls’ in Belfast (as numerous and as high as they were at the height of the Troubles), fortified PSNI stations, and a Stormont which currently remains stalled.

Nonetheless this exhibition is an honest attempt to portray a very complex place, and a very complicated history. It will fascinate everyone from the casual observer to those who were brought up in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland: Living With the Troubles is at the Imperial War Museum, London, until January 7, 2024

Historic flag purchased by Royal Navy museum

Tipperary explorer Henry Kellett’s sledge flag to be put on display

BY GERARD DONAGHY

A SLEDGE flag that once belonged to explorer Henry Kellett from Tipperary, has been bought by the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

In March, the museum launched a bid to raise £120,000 to buy the flag to ensure it stayed in Britain rather than fall into the hands of a private collector.

The flag was owned by Vice-Admiral Kellett from Clonacody Co. Tipperary and was flown during his 1852 expedition to find the lost ships of Captain John Franklin – HMS Erebus and HMS Terror.

Featuring details representing his Irish heritage, Kellett’s flag is now set to go on display at various

locations, including Belfast.

“The Kelly family have always contended that all of the other components of the State – including Ministry of Defence and the Security Services – have important issues to address and questions to answer resulting from the death of Patsy Kelly.”

Solicitor Adrian O’Kane of Patrick Fahy & Co. Solicitors acting for the family of Patsy Kelly murdered 50years ago at the height of the Troubles.

“Extending safe routes for people to reach the UK, tackling the backlog of asylum claims so that they receive a fair and timely hearing, and cooperating with other nations to collectively fulfil our obligations under the Refugee Convention, are all necessary steps towards a more humane and effective system.”

Bishop Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

“I believe there are some heinous crimes for which people are not receiving long enough sentences. I’ve been working on a policy around minimum tariffs, which means if you do carry out a heinous crime like a murder or child sex abuse that a judge can set a minimum tariff before you can be eligible for parole.”

Irish Minister for Justice Simon Harris speaking on RTÉ

“Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Kellett’s sledge flag and Franklin’s expedition represent courage and fortitude in the face of adversity – core elements of our national identity that echo through our history,” said Professor Dominic Tweddle, Director General of the NMRN. “They also reflect the British and global obsession with finding and navigating the Northwest Passage, as well as the Royal Navy’s role in expedition and exploration from Captain Cook to Darwin and HMS Beagle, to HMS Challenger in 1872, and

history,” said Professor Dominic Tweddle, NMRN. “They also reflect contin-

uing today with HMS Protector – the ice patrol ship in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere.”

The sledge flag was made from silk in a rich green colour with an Irish harp embroidered in golden thread, all to reflect Captain Kellett’s Irish heritage.

If you’re Irish, come into the parlour – if not, clear off Page 13

colour has

Over the years, the green colour has faded due to exposure to

The flag is currently being assessed team for treatwhich it will three

The flag is currently being assessed by the NMRN’s conservation team for treatment, after which it will go on display at three of the museum’s regional sites in Hartlepool, Portsmouth and Belfast.

Last year, a case hearing by the Reviewing Committee of the Arts Council of England to decide if the flag was of national importance heard that Kellett was ‘a proud Irishman at a time when there was prejudice’.

The British Government introduced a temporary export bar on the flag in September 2022 to allow time for a British gallery or institution to acquire it.

The NMRN managed to secure the flag thanks to grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund.

Their campaign was backed by celebrity supporters Michael Palin and broadcaster Dan Snow.

“We met up recently and I thought that that since both of us have written ‘Irish in London’ books it would work as a collaboration, with music as well. Aesthetically we are very different, but it’s an overlapping subject, just with different approaches.”

Writer Timothy O’Grady about his show in the IIC in Hammersmith on Saturday, along with Patrick McCabe “I don’t even know what retirement means. I definitely don’t feel like it’s time for me to retire. It will happen one day in the future, but now my sights are set on securing a rematch with Chantelle.”

Boxer Katie Taylor refuting all talk of her retiring in the wake of her defeat by Englishwoman Chantelle Cameron

Waterford FC owner Andy Pilley convicted of fraud

CHECK POINT: Everyday life in the North in the 1970s Picture: Olivier Dumay via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Kellett Picture: Public domain

TOP CAT: Mia making herself at home in Belfast Picture: Belfast Zoo

Assassination plan on Queen Elizabeth revealed by FBI

According to FBI documents just released Queen Elizabeth II faced a potential threat of assassination during a 1983 visit to the US

BY MAL ROGERS

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) files released last week reveal that Queen Elizabeth II faced a potential assassination attempt when she visited the US in 1983. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were making an official visit to the west coast, and their itinerary included San Francisco, and national parks in California.

The documents, which are available to view on the FBI website The Vault, detail threats, which were treated as credible, during her visit to the US. 1983 was a particularly bad year from the Troubles, with tensions running very high

A month before the scheduled visit a police officer with the San Francisco Police Department received a phone call from a man he’d met at an Irish pub in the city.

The man said he was determined to carry out the attack in revenge for his daughter who had been killed by a rubber bullet in Northern Ireland.

The document, which has the

[The caller said] he was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge... or would attempt to kill [her] when she visited Yosemite National Park

name of the officer redacted, says:

“[Un-named officer] is a regular patron and well acquainted with [redacted] of the Douvre [probably Dovre] Club... which has a popular reputation as a ‘Republican bar’ that is frequented by sympathisers of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA)”

In the phone call the man told the officer that “he was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some

object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the Royal Yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park”.

Because of the threats the Secret Service closed all walkways when the yacht neared, and took other unspecified security measures. The document doesn’t outline what security measures were taken at Yosemite.

The Queen made several visits to the US, and the FBI and Secret

Service were always alert to threats and potential assassination attempts – many of which were regarded as credible. The FBI and the American Secret Service were well aware that the IRA had killed Lord Louis Mountbatten.

In the FBI files now available on The Vault, the Birmingham Six case is mentioned in reference to a Royal visit. In the briefing document it says: “From a review of a letter to the editor printed in the Philadelphia Irish Newspaper titled ‘Irish

Edition’... an article stated [that] anto-British feeling are running high as a result of well publicised injustices inflicted on the Birmingham Six by the corrupt English judicial system, and the recent rash of brutal murders of unarmed Irish nationalists in the Six Counties by loyalist death squads.”

The FBI document went on to say that the statements could be viewed as inflammatory, but contained “no threats against the President or the Queen”.

Crime boss from Offaly has money and property confiscated

Former haulage firm owner, a drug trafficking and money laundering crime boss told to hand over £630k

CO. OFFALY man Thomas Maher, aged 42, of Wiltshire Close, Warrington, a former haulage firm owner who organised the movement of drugs and cash between Europe, Ireland and the UK has been ordered to pay over £630,000 (€722k) to the UK exchequer from his organised crime assets.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) obtained evidence as part of Operation Venetic that showed he operated a transportation network spanning Europe, moving drugs into the UK and Ireland and the profits in the other direction.

Maher, from Clara in Co. Offaly was sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison in December 2020.

Maher had bragged about being involved in organised crime for over 20 years. He lived a luxurious, flamboyant lifestyle spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on cars, holidays and jewellery.

In their investigation, the UK law enforcement agency used evidence from the encrypted global communications service EncroChat.

In one exchange of messages with a criminal associate he bragged that he had been involved in organised crime for more than 20 years.

On May 22 a judge at Liverpool Crown Court made a confiscation order for £629,159.15, including Maher’s house in Warrington, cars, lorries, jewellery, a number of high value watches, artwork and gold ingots bought in Dubai. He has three months to pay or faces an extra six years in jail.

The NCA’s Head of Asset Denial, Rob Burgess, said: “This significant result demonstrates the agency’s ability to recover criminal assets, and prevent criminals from benefitting from their wrongdoing. Thomas Maher was a career criminal who was trusted by some of Europe’s biggest crime groups to move their drugs and money.

“The confiscation order will ensure money he made will be returned to the public purse to fund further efforts to protect the public from organised crime.”

Maher was initially arrested as part of

the investigation into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a lorry in Purfleet in October 2019.

The tractor unit involved had at one point been owned by Maher, and was still registered in his wife’s name even after it was sold.

Maher was released with no further action taken by Essex Police, but an NCA financial investigation revealed that despite being on less than minimum wage for tax purposes, they lived a life of luxury

During a lengthy surveillance operation NCA officers watched Maher meet with criminal associates at hotels and in public spaces in the northwest of England to organise the trafficking of cocaine from the Netherlands to the UK and Ireland.

As well as drugs, Maher also helped to facilitate the movement of large sums of cash, charging a commission for his involvement.

NCA officers arrested Maher in June 2020 at his home in Warrington, after being alerted to the fact that he might abscond.

He was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court in December 2020 after pleading guilty to importing class A drugs and money laundering.

ASSASSINATION SITE: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge Picture: Frank Schulenburg via Wikimedia

OFFALY MAN: Thomas Maher Picture: Courtesy of The National Crime Agency

Off-loading the North is wishful thinking by many

The position of Northern Ireland in the union has long been a subject of debate – one that runs from an English caller to a radio phone-in last month who assured Stephen Nolan that most people in Britain wanted to be shot of the place, to Westminster politicians in the recent past who wanted to divest themselves of the six troubled counties

IN the past 50 years, two former British prime ministers have tried to push for a united Ireland and two others have urged the repartitioning of Northern Ireland in order to pacify the region.

The united Irelanders were Harold Wilson and Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

Wilson, when in opposition in 1972, the worst year of the Troubles, came up with the idea that Britain should give 15 years notice of intent to withdraw and work to achieve peaceful unification within that time frame.

Had he held his resolve and got that idea through when he next led a government, Ireland might have been united by 1988.

He didn’t stick with the plan, presumably realising that it was not possible to implement it.

Alec Douglas-Home was foreign and Commonwealth secretary that year. Ted Heath, the prime minister, had decided to prorogue the Northern Ireland parliament led by Brian Faulkner and start negotiations towards a new constitutional arrangement involving power sharing and an input from the Irish government. This would be the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973, very like the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, but then brought down by loyalist protest.

Douglas-Home (intriguingly pronounced ‘Hume’) wrote to Heath to try to persuade him that the only viable way forward was to declare that it was now British government policy to work for a united Ireland. He thought that if this was made plain then people in Northern Ireland would have to deal realistically with the challenge to make it work.

Heath also came under pressure from the Irish government to do the same.

I think, like Heath, successive British governments would have loved to offload Northern Ireland and there has been a stronger sense of that since Brexit. There is a feeling that Northern Ireland, as Douglas-Home said, is not British in the way that Scotland and Wales are.

Any move towards independence by Scotland is strongly challenged. It would likely be the same with Wales, but if Northern Ireland wanted to leave the UK tomorrow, one suspects

There is a feeling that Northern Ireland, as Douglas-Home said, is not British in the way that Scotland and Wales are. Any move towards independence by Scotland is strongly challenged. It would likely be the same with Wales, but if Northern Ireland wanted to leave the UK tomorrow, one suspects there would be considerable enthusiasm for the idea in Britain

there would be considerable enthusiasm for the idea in Britain.

At the time Douglas-Home wrote his letter to Heath, Northern Ireland was the only devolved region of the UK so the contrast with Scotland and Wales was stronger.

Two other prime ministers, while in office, came up with an alternative idea, not that Northern Ireland should be handed over to the Republic but that it should be partitioned so that the Protestant unionists could have a safe majority in a smaller territory and the Catholic nationalists could be governed from Dublin.

This idea was dispensed with even more quickly than the idea of dumping the lot, but the rationale at the heart of the opposition to the idea was probably much the same.

A country cannot simply divest itself of a section of its population and abandon responsibility for it.

The civil servants called on to evaluate the repartitioning proposal painted for Heath the appalling picture of Catholics being put out of their homes – for no other reason that they were Catholic and presumed thereby to be Irish nationalists – and then taken in trucks to transit camps near the border, on territory to be ceded to the Irish.

This was never going to happen.

The Good Friday Agreement establishes that the future of Northern Ireland in the Union or as part of a united Ireland is dependent on the will of the majority of people living there but realistically it was never possible to simply expel people from the United Kingdom against their will.

Indeed you might argue that allowing a referendum with a one vote majority to decide the issue makes it easier than it could have been before that, for unionists have,

in effect, agreed to go quietly when that day arrives.

This question of how Britain can be shot of us came up on radio and television debates on the BBC, chaired by Stephen Nolan after a caller, Mary from Nottingham, said that the British people should be able to vote to kick Northern Ireland out of the UK.

What? Deprive nearly two million people of the NHS and all public services in the hopes that the Irish Republic will take them in?

It’s a ghastly idea but ditching Northern Ireland has already been considered at the very highest levels of the British government.

And while the tweeting republicans all loved the idea and saw it as evidence that Britain wants rid of us and will one day get her way they didn’t see the full implications of Britain’s plain inability to do that.

These are that Northern Ireland is not, as they claim, a colony. For a country can leave its colonies, as Britain left India, and disregard the chaos that follows.

Heath and Thatcher, Wilson and Douglas-Home, did briefly mistake Northern Ireland for a colony that could be dumped or divided as they chose. They quickly found that it wasn’t and that they had to live with that fact.

MALACHI

Increase in trade of stolen cats between Ireland and Britain

BY NICK BRAMHILL

OWNERS of pedigree cats have been warned to be on their guard, amidst a surge in the number of felines being stolen from Irish homes, before being sold on in Britain.

Gangs of cat-nappers are increasingly targeting exotic breeds, some of which can be sold on for as much as £2,500 on the black market.

Robert Kenny, a certified pet detective who divides his time between his native Ireland and the UK, said pedigree cats are an easier target in Ireland than across the water because they are less likely to be microchipped.

He also said that feline breeds like Siamese, Ragdolls, Bengals and Persians are top of the gangs’ hit list because they can be sold on for huge profits.

“Over the last year the number of cases involving stolen cats I’ve worked on has gone up by about 35 per cent,” he said.

“It’s become a massive business, with gangs selling on top-end breeds for big money. For example, breeds like Egyptian Maus can fetch as much as £2,500 on the black market.”

Kenny, who runs the Happy Tails Detective agency, recovers as many as seven out of 10 cats that are either stolen or go missing.

But he admits that tracking down lifted felines is harder in Ireland, because pet owners are less likely to have cameras in their homes, whilst there are far more unregistered animals here – making it easier for gangs to steal and re-sell them.

He continued: “It’s heartbreaking for people to lose a pet in this way and families can often be broken apart after having their pet stolen. But owners need to be more vigilant, and to be aware that cats tend to be lifted at night and from houses which have no camera equipment.

“It’s often the case that animals that are stolen in Ireland are stolen to order from illegal breeding

Fresh inquest appeal rejected

BY GERARD DONAGHY

THE family of Patsy Kelly, who was murdered during the height of the Troubles almost 50 years ago, have said it is ‘appalling’ that the Attorney General has rejected calls for a fresh inquest into his death.

Dame Brenda King’s decision comes a month after a Police Ombudsman’s report said the family had been let down by a ‘wholly inadequate investigation’ and also found evidence of collusive behaviour.

Sinn Féin have called the Attorney General’s decision ‘deeply concerning’ while the family are to apply for a judicial review.

Mr Kelly, an independent nationalist councillor on Omagh District Council, was kidnapped on his way home from work in Trillick, Co. Tyrone on July 25, 1974.

of the British army.

However, in a statement, they said the Attorney General’s refusal left them ‘with no option but to now apply for a judicial review into this decision’.

It added: “Given what we now know in regard to the wide-scale collusion across multiple agencies of the British State, it is simply appalling and incomprehensible that a fresh inquest has been denied.”

The family’s solicitor, Adrian O’Kane of Patrick Fahy & Co. Solicitors, said a new inquest was the only suitable course of action.

“The Police Ombudsman, by definition, is confined to examination of issues relating to the conduct of the RUC/PSNI,” said Mr O’Kane.

centres in the UK. So they are quickly shipped over, often from Belfast.”

The top pet tracker, who uses DNA forensics, infra-red, hi-tech search cameras and bionic ear listening devices in his day-to-day work, said cases involving missing or stolen dogs continue to form the bulk of his cases.

And Kenny – who once successfully tracked down Hollywood star Sandra Bullock’s missing Staffordshire pitbull – admitted that gangs also find it easier to steal canines in Ireland than over in the UK.

He added: “There’s far more CCTV around in the UK both in people’s homes and out in public areas, which makes it more difficult for gangs to steal dogs. Also, Ireland is more rural, which makes it harder for the authorities to police.

“The UK has stricter regulations on breeding, while Ireland, sadly, is still the puppy farm capital of Europe.”

The body of the 35-year-old was recovered from Lough Eyes near Lisbellaw, Co. Ferm-anagh on August 10, 1974. Mr Kelly, a married father of four, had been shot six times.

The original inquest into his murder delivered an open verdict.

The recent Police Ombudsman’s report claimed Special Branch were aware of an active UVF unit in the area and that a number of the unit’s members were linked to Mr Kelly’s murder.

The report added that intelligence showed ‘the UVF unit was assisted in their activities by a number of identified RUC and UDR members’. The Kelly family hoped the Ombudsman’s report, which focussed on the police investigation, would lead to a fresh inquest in order to scrutinise the UDR, a regiment

“The Kelly family have always contended that all of the other components of the State – including Ministry of Defence and the Security Services –have important issues to address and questions to answer resulting from the death of Patsy Kelly.

“These can only be properly and fully addressed in a fresh inquest.”

Sinn Féin’s Órfhlaith Begley echoed Mr O’Kane’s comments as she backed the family’s application for a judicial review.

“It’s deeply concerning that the Attorney General has refused to hold a fresh inquest into the murder of independent councillor Patsy Kelly,” said the West Tyrone MP.

“Given the damning findings of the Police Ombudsman’s report into how Patsy was abducted and killed, the levels of cover-up and collusion involved, and the RUC’s failure to properly investigate this brutal murder, it is clear that a fresh inquest is needed.”

From Kiltimagh to Kirklees

Mayo-born Irishman has been sworn in as the new mayor for a West Yorkshire borough

BY FIONA AUDLEY

CAHAL Burke has been elevated to the position of Mayor of Kirklees for 2023/24, following a ceremony which took place at Huddersfield Town Hall.

Mr Burke, a Liberal Democrat councillor for the Lindley Ward, begins his term this week and has enlisted the help of his daughter Sinead who will stand beside him as Mayoress.

Also in attendance at the mayor-making ceremony, which took place last week, was Ireland’s Consul General for the North of England, Sarah Mangan and Vice Consul Carina O’Brien.

Following the event, Ireland’s Consul General for the North of England shared their support for the appointment, with a tweet stating:

Born in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo, Mr Burke has lived in the Colne Valley Constituency for over 25 years,

“From Dublin back to West Yorkshire and the election of Irish-born Cahal Burke as Mayor of Kirklees.

“It was an honour for [our] Consul General and Vice Consul to be present at the mayor-making ceremony today”.

Born in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo, Mr Burke has lived in the Colne Valley Constituency for over 25 years, with most of that time

spent living in the Lindley Ward.

He describes himself as “a proud father and a very active member of the community”.

Having studied computing at the University of Huddersfield, he went on to complete teacher training before working at several colleges and schools around the West Yorkshire region.

An active Liberal Democrat Party member and campaigner for many years, Mr Burke was first elected as a Kirklees Councillor for Lindley Ward in May 2010 after which he became a full time councillor.

He now combines his role as a local councillor with a parttime position at a local college.

Mr Burke will be supported in his mayoral duties for the year ahead by the new Deputy Mayor of Kirklees, Councillor Nosheen Dad.

with most of that time spent living in the Lindley Ward

NEWLY APPOINTED: Mayor Cllr Cahal Burke pictured with Ireland’s Consul General for the North of England, Sarah Mangan and Vice Consul Carina O’Brien Picture: Courtesy of Consulate General of Ireland

Egyptian Maus Picture: Liz West via Wikimedia

minutes with...

DEREK Murphy is an actor and comedian from Cork, now living in London.

He will be hosting a new Irish cabaret show at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith London on June 9, called The Cab @ ICC.

Derek answers our questions...

DEREK MURPHY

IFGB anniversary

Retired trustee Seamus honoured as the Ireland Funds Great Britain marks 35-year anniversary

BY FIONA AUDLEY

A CELEBRATORY dinner has been held at the Irish Embassy in London to mark the 35th anniversary of the foundation of The Ireland Funds Great Britain (IFGB).

Donors and friends of the philanthropic organisation came together to mark its milestone on May 17, at a dinner hosted by Irish Ambassador to Britain Martin Fraser and his wife Deirdre.

The IFGB enjoy an annual dinner at the Embassy, somethingwhich has become a much-anticipated event in its calendar.

For 2023 guests were welcomed by Ambassador Fraser, before Katie Jemmett, Executive Director of IFGB, gave a short address.

Ms Jemmett spoke of the impact the organisation had made in its 35 years and the “millions of pounds” it has given to help hundreds of organisations and tens of thousands of people across Britain and Ireland.

Which performer has most influenced you?

I’m very lucky to regularly work with a lot of very talented performers who constantly inspire and influence me. My partner – drag star Orla Nothin’ – is phenomenal, and one of my best friends Edyta Budnik who’s currently smashing it in Ted Lasso. I’m in constant awe at how amazing they are.

Which piece of theatre totally moves you?

I’m currently performing in a play called Happy Hour written by the brilliant Andy Walker. It’s a very moving piece of theatre telling the story of one woman’s struggles with alcohol and the demons that come with it. Andy truly has put his heart on the stage and it’s amazing to see.

If you were told showbiz types were no longer welcome in London, where would you go?

Straight to New York! Maybe with a brief stopover at Disneyworld.

Who would act you in a film about your life?

Can I play myself?

Who would you like to act in a biopic about another famous person?

I’m constantly told I remind people of Graham Norton, so Graham – if the movie’s in the works, call me!

When you receive your Oscar, which one person will you thank? Santa...

Where are you from in Ireland, and

what are your roots?

I’m from Cork City and my family still live there so I still spend a lot of time there even though I now live in London.

Tell us a quick one-liner...

What’s brown and sticky? A brown stick.

Do you have a favourite place in Ireland?

I LOVE Schull in West Cork. It’s one of my favourite places on earth and I’ve luckily called it a second home growing up.

What would be your motto?

I’m old enough to know that I’m too young to know a thing.

What books are on your bedside table at the minute?

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell and The Number one Ladies detective agency.

In terms of inanimate objects, what is your most precious possession?

My passport.

What’s the best thing about where you live?

There’s always something happening. ...and the worst?

There’s ALWAYS something happening.

Which is your favourite gig to perform at?

I grew up in the theatre so I feel very at home there and I love it!.

Who/what is the greatest love of your life?

Currently, at MoMo. He’s a seven-year-old rescue and I’m in love!

A copy of IFGB’s latest impact report was also given to guests, which details the impact of the funding delivered by IFGB in the last year, thanks to the support of its donors.

In 2022 the not-for-profit organisation supported more than 50 organisations with funding totalling £550,000.

During the event IFGB honoured retiring trustee Seamus McGarry, who steps down from the Board of IFGB after 34 years.

Mr McGarry was presented

with a letter of thanks from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and a first edition copy of Seamus Heaney’s District & Circle “in honour of his lifetime of service to Ireland and the Irish diaspora”.

Established in 1977, The Ireland Funds is a global philanthropic network and grantmaking organisation. It has chapters in 12 countries and has raised over £450million globally to date, which has supported more than 3,200 different organisations.

Repairing a patriot’s gravestone

BY MAL ROGERS

TIPPERARY man James Hogan, now based in London, believes fervently that those who gave so much to achieve Irish independence should be remembered and honoured. But he believes that the women who played a part in the struggle should be equally remembered and honored.

James, who is a committed animal welfare campaigner supporting animal welfare projects in Britain and overseas in countries as far afield as Afghanistan and Russia, told The Irish Post: “It was only in recent years that I learned of the contribution made by Mary and Lizzie Burns to the cause of Irish independence when I read the biography of Eleanor Marx by Rachel Holmes.

“Frank McGuinness also wrote a play about the sisters that was staged by the RSC in 1989.”

For those who have heard of them, it is their association with Friedrich Engels and the Marx family that is remembered.

In Manchester, Engels met Mary Burns, a young Irish woman with radical opinions.

They began a relationship that lasted 20 years until her death in 1863 of heart disease. Burns guided Engels through Manchester and Salford, showing him the worst districts for his research. After Mary’s death her sister Lydia (Lizzie) eventually became Engels’ partner.

But James Hogan makes the point that in reality, Mary and Lizzie were activists in their own right, as well as having significant influence on the thinking of Engels. This was especially true as regards his attitude towards the Irish – both Mary and Lizzie were dedicated republicans – leading to Engels making two visits to Ireland, first in 1856 with Mary and later in 1869 with Lizzie and the young Eleanor Marx, a visit, along with her friendship with Lizzie, that made Eleanor an active supporter of the Irish nationalist cause.

Both Lizzie and her sister showed Engels the actual conditions of the factory employees in Britain. On Lizzie’s death in 1878 Engels wrote: “My wife was a real child of the Irish proletariat and her passionate devotion

to the class in which she was born was worth much more to me –and helped me more in times of stress –than all the elegance of an educated, artistic middle-class bluestocking.”

James Hogan has been intrigued by the story since reading the Eleanor Marx biography by Rachel Holmes. “This is what first alerted me to Lizzie’s burial place in St. Mary’s cemetery in Kensal Green, just 15 minutes walk from where I live. Mary is buried in Manchester but it has not proved possible to identify where her grave is located.

“In any event, I feel strongly that Lizzie should not be forgotten so I have now created a GoFundMe page to pay for her gravestone’s restoration.

“The necessary bureaucratic procedures have now been completed in order to carry out the restoration so all that remains is to raise the funds.”

 If you would like to contribute to this fund, go to www.gofundme.com/tohonour-the-memory-of-anirish-patriot

Derek Murphy, left with Orla Nothin’

Seamus McGarry, second from left, was honoured during the event, hosted by Irish Ambassador Martin Fraser (pictured far left)

Picture: Noel Mullen

Bishop McAleenan adds his support for more humane asylum system

BY CATRIONA GRAY

BISHOP Paul McAleenan, Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has added his support to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments in The Times and reiterates that Britain needs a more effective and humane asylum system.

“The Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments in The Times embody our belief as Christians, that all human persons are made in the image and likeness of God. As such, refugee policy must prioritise the dignity of everyone who is driven from their homeland. The current system, under which people risk their lives making

dangerous journeys and languish for months or years waiting for their claims to be heard, fails to do this.

As reported in the Independent Catholic News, Bishop McAleenan said: “Extending safe routes for people to reach the UK, tackling the backlog of asylum claims so that they receive a fair and timely hearing, and cooperating with other nations to collectively fulfil our obligations under the Refugee Convention, are all necessary steps towards a more humane and effective system. At the same time, it is essential to avoid practices that violate people’s dignity, such as immigration detention, in particular rejecting any return to the routine detention of children.

“Archbishop Welby’s call to support international development also echoes the message of Pope Francis, ahead of this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, reminding us that have a responsibility to help others flourish in their homelands and work with the international community to overcome challenges such as conflict and poverty that force people to flee in search of a better life.”

Bishop McAleenan (71), from Belfast, trained as a priest in Co. Tipperary. He is the Auxiliary Bishop for Westminster and is the Lead Bishop for Migrants and Refugees for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

Northern Ireland is inching towards the exit door

KEVINMEAGHER

“THE depiction of the council election results by parts of the media is distorted,” intoned the staunchly unionist Belfast News Letter a few days after the vote in Northern Ireland.

“There has been great excitement about the success of Sinn Féin as if it represents some sort of watershed,” it added. Move along, nothing to see.

But there is something to see, that’s the problem for unionists.

This was a watershed election.

In Belfast, once the citadel of unionist power, nationalists – Sinn Féin and the SDLP – now lead the unionist parties by 27-17.

Places like Lisburn, Antrim, Newtonabbey and east Derry – unionist heartlands – now have Sinn Féin councillors.

But there was a much bigger significance.

For the first time ever, the combined number of votes for pro-Irish unity parties –Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Aontú and People Before Profit – beat the combined pro-UK parties: the DUP, Ulster Unionists and Traditional Unionist Voice: 41.5 per cent versus 38.1 per cent.

Nothing will ever be the same again in Northern Ireland.

At the very least, Sinn Féin, with superior political organising, can turn out its voters, that much is clear.

But that’s only half the story.

The electoral waters are lapping at the feet of unionists, but they refuse to acknowledge political reality.

Well, they pretend to.

They can see what’s happening as clearly as anyone else. Northern Ireland is edging towards the exit door.

At risk, in the next few years, of being voted out of existence by its own people.

That’s why the DUP’s Ian Paisley has a Bill in Parliament to try and retrofit the Good Friday Agreement, requiring a ‘supermajority’ for any vote on Irish unity.

Instead of a simple 50 per cent+1 to enact constitutional change, he wants a requirement of 60 per cent.

It won’t get anywhere.

Not least because it would require a complete rewriting of the agreement – a total non-starter.

But the essential truth is that Downing Street just isn’t interested.

Frankly, there will be an audible sigh of relief in Westminster if it looks like Northern Ireland will be voted out of existence in the next few years.

No, the local election results mean we are now in a new phase.

It’s no longer a question of might there be a united Ireland, at some stage, far, far down the road.

It’s now a question of when, not if.

But this election might also have been the first when the changing demographic make-up of Northern Ireland – lots more younger Catholics and older Protestants – has made itself known.

Sinn Féin was up 7.7 per cent. Even if the party cannibalised the electoral support of the SDLP and even the Greens, it still doesn’t account for such a dramatic surge in support.

But put all that to one side.

Northern Ireland will keep changing, regardless of a border poll on Irish unity.

A younger, more vibrant and optimistic Catholic-nationalist community will never again settle for second-class status, like their parents and grandparents were expected to.

You only need to stroll along the Falls Road in West Belfast to see that.

It is unmistakably Irish.

As, increasingly, is the rest of Northern Ireland.

There is a casual self-confidence to Northern nationalists these days.

The former Labour MP, Kate Hoey – now a hardline Brexiteer and DUP, well, dupe –complained a few months ago that the professional class in Northern Ireland is now “dominated by those of a nationalist persuasion”.

It was a disgraceful sentiment, ignoring the fact that Catholic-nationalists have worked hard for what they have.

Especially as they faced so many unfair

advantages, the receiving end of unionists’ abuse of power for decades.

The plain fact of the matter is that, whether there is a united Ireland anytime soon, Northern Ireland is becoming more Irish by the day.

At the same time, Unionism is declining, not just in numbers – evidenced in this election –but culturally too.

Here’s an example.

In May 2022, after two years of lockdown, 25,000 members of the Loyal Orders marched to commemorate the late Queen’s Jubilee.

Another 60,000 were said to line the route from Stormont to Belfast City Centre.

This, after a two-year, Covid-inspired hiatus.

It was a brilliant opportunity to show the strength of support for the Union, on behalf of the unionist community.

The News Letter said 125,000 – marchers and watchers – took part.

Is that a lot of people? Well, let me put it this way.

A day later, in the nearest English city to Belfast, another street procession took place. Liverpool Football Club, having lost to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League, were welcomed home by an estimated 500,000 fans.

This in a place where footballing rivalries mean that half the city’s is actively disinterested in the Red’s fortunes. Four times more people turned out: Let that be a benchmark.

Unionists simply don’t have the numbers to dictate terms any longer.

The simple fact of the matter is that every election from this point onwards will be a proxy for the eventual referendum on Irish unity.

n Kevin Meagher is author of A United Ireland: Why Unification is Inevitable and How it Will Come About and What A Bloody Awful Country: Northern Ireland’s Century of Division

SUPPORTIVE: Bishop McAleenan PIcture: Courtesy of the Diocese of Westminster

Nationalists in the ascendancy PIcture: Wikimedia

Golfing for the Irish arts

IN May, Irish Heritage held their annual fund-raising golf tournament.

Irish Heritage, a registered charity, was established in London in 1974. It promotes education and appreciation of the arts, particularly those of Irish and AngloIrish music, arts, literature and drama of all genres and traditions to the benefit of the community. The organisation has four ongoing programmes: collaborations with like-minded organisations, education including bursaries, events, and outreach and community activity.

Denis Tracy Joe Murphy, Gyu Lee

Lee Nicol, David Walsh, Leon O’Connor, Marty Creighton

Moj Fitzmaurice, Adelaide Keegan-Kirby, and Nuala Galazka

Mick Summers, Dermot Wilson, Gerry Lavelle, Raymond O’Hagan, Gerry Keaney

Tommy O’Flaherty (MC), Gyu Lee (overall golf winner), Tom Scanlon – Chair of Irish Heritage trustees)

Georgina Cassidy and tenor Michael Bell, both irish Heritage Bursary winners

Airlines fined over incorrect documentation

1,010 people arrived to the end of April without correct documentation, according to Ireland’s Department of Justice.

Airlines have been hit with 175 fines in the first quarter of this year for failing to carry out proper documentation checks on passengers flying into this country.

It is a carrier’s responsibility, either airline or ferry company, to verify if a passenger has a legal right to enter the country.

Some of those travelling on insufficient or incorrect documentation originated their journey in Britain.

RTÉ reports that Oonagh McPhilips, Secretary General of the Department of Justice, said that €462,000 was paid in that period, an average of €2,640 per infringement.

Ms McPhilips did not have details of which airlines were fined. “The world is certainly moving a lot more than it did in 2021 and 2022.”

Despite the huge increase in traffic

since the lockdown, the number of people arriving into the country without correct documentation has fallen significantly in the first part of this year.

Doncha O’Sullivan, Deputy Secretary at the Department of Justice, said that 1,010 people had arrived to the end of April without correct documentation, which is “reduction of about 40 per cent so far this year”.

Some 4,968 people arrived without documentation, or with incorrect papers, in Ireland during 2022.

Follow the beam

Do you fancy being a member of the beam team? That is, an owner of a lighthouse on Ireland’s west coast. MAL ROGERS reports

the hiking. You’ll also likely meet

CLARE Island, Mayo.

“Malin to Irish Sea, six to seven, occasional gale eight, rain, good...”

Yes, you don’t visit Ireland’s islands specifically for their sun-drenched beaches. It’s no exactly a rendition of “Oh island in the sun,” more a case of “Oh island occasionally in the sun”

But when the Atlantic performs its riotous party piece and transforms Ireland’s coast into a seething gigantic jacuzzi (without the heat, of course) the view from any of the thousands of isles – like a necklace Ireland’s coast – is truly magnificent.

And you could buy a piece of property that arguably gives you one of the best views – Clare Island Lighthouse perched on the craggy cliffs watching over Achill Island, Westport and beyond. Stand on your tiptoes and you can see Newfoundland.

The beacon which helped guide boats for almost 200 years along the snarling coast of Co. Mayo, overlooking Clew Bay, is on the market.

And the agents in charge of the sale, Sherry Fitzgerald, has dropped significantly from €4.8million to €2.9million. Even a guest appearance in The Banshees

of Inisherin seen a buyer emerge as yet.

The beam part of the lighthouse is now defunct –electronic navigational aids, sat nav and whatnots have superseded many lighthouses – so the complex has been used as a guest-house. The current owners say: “After 12 lovely years of hospitality our lighthouse is now for sale. To enjoy the last season with our guests we will continue operating the business until end of September 2023.”

The price includes the main lighthouse tower which has been renovated to include three en suite bedrooms. There are five outhouses which also act as guestrooms.

Clare Island, Clew Bay, has a population of some 200 people. Its dramatic setting, steep hills and plunging coastlines make it an ideal destination for the adventurous hill walker or climber – the island’s highest point is Knockmore, 1,520ft. Many of the guests who have stayed at the Lighthouse in the past have come for

positive of the heavy weather that rolls in from the Atlantic, with “Storm Watching” weekends But if you do get some sunny weather with the weather, however, and you’re not of a mind to walk too far, Clare Island boasts several safe, sandy beaches.

The Cistercian abbey on the island, the 16th century St Bridget’s, is said to be the last resting place of the famous pirate queen Grace O’Malley. The massive tower castle of Granuaille broods over the harbour – and was used until recently as a coastguard station. She probably would have approved.

LACKING DETAILS: Oonagh McPhilips Picture: RollingNews.ie

Clare Island Lighthouse, overlooking Clew Bay

A ROOM WITH A VIEW: Inside the lighthouse

Cliffhanger — the view looking northwest

Delicate work

Irish military specialists in Engineer Specialist Search & Clearance (ESSC), mine countermeasures, de-mining and unexploded ordnance (UXO) disposal have just returned from Cyprus where they were training the Ukrainian Armed Forces in search, counter-mine and counter-munition and UXO disposal techniques.

Bridge over Galway waters

GALWAY

THE new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge in Galway was officially opened to the public at the end of May.

The Connacht Tribune reports that work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022 before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.

The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge would remove existing conflicts

between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.

The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year. One name that has been in t he mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.

Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.

GAA row in East Belfast BELFAST

SPORTS facilities in east Belfast targeted in a recent security alert are being modified to include both a full GAA games pitch and a soccer pitch – despite claims that the site is being “reconfigured” solely for GAA use.

Anne Smyth, a TUV unsuccessful candidate in the recent council elections, claimed on social media shortly before the poll that playing fields in Castlereagh are being

converted for GAA use only “and three well established football teams have been told to find other accommodation for their sport”.

But a spokesperson from Belfast City Council has since confirmed that the site is being reconfigured to create one soccer pitch and one GAA pitch. They said: “The committee agreed that East Belfast GAA should be granted use of Henry Jones Playing Fields… They also agreed that soccer bookings which were no longer able to be accommodated due to this change should be switched to alternative council facilities in the east of the city.”

Pensioner assaulted during asylum protest

AN alleged assault on a man in his 70s occurred during another protest against asylum seeker accommodation in Clare, reports the Irish Examiner.

The attack happened at a vacant five-bedroom luxury property at Scool near Corofin. The local community became aware that the property is destined to house international protection applicants. According to the Irish Examiner, the victim suffered facial injuries after being struck by what’s believed to have been a torch after two members of the protest group refused to allow him to approach the larger protest group outside

the house. It is believed on seeing the protest as he was passing, he stopped his car and approached the protestors in an effort to intercede

The elderly man, who is a local, was subsequently taken to University Hospital Limerick for treatment.

Gardaí confirmed that they

are continuing to make enquiries.

“A man in his 70s is currently receiving treatment at University Hospital Limerick for injuries which are not believed to be life-threatening. Enquiries are ongoing,” a spokesman said.

To date, a formal complaint from the victim has not been lodged with gardaí.

This latest protest in Clare – there have been a number – was organised after locals learned that the property was being prepared to house up to 40 international protection applicants.

Theresa O’Donohoe, a member of Clare Solidarity Network, told RTÉ: “We believe most people in Clare are compassionate and want to help those fleeing persecution and war.

“Unfortunately, their voices have been drowned out and intimidated by those seeking to block asylum seekers from coming to the area.”

Charges in respect of false tachograph readings

TYRONE

TEN men are to stand trial on charges relating to a fraud allegedly involving local company Michael Doherty Haulage Limited and the tampering of tachograph recordings.

The Ulster Herald reports that directors Michael Francis Doherty (43) from Omagh and Patrick Douglas Doherty (54) from Newtownstewart are jointly charged with nine counts of fraud by false representation, and single counts each of encouraging fraud by false representation and entering into an arrangement to acquire criminal property.

The case, which involves several drivers as well, is focused on tachograph recordings. Untrue readings indicated

falsely that a vehicle was at rest when in fact it was still being used for business. The criminal property charge relates to the alleged receipt of revenue by Michael Doherty Haulage Ltd for deliveries by the company’s drivers.

Eight drivers are each charged with acquiring criminal property, namely payment for delivery work carried out for Michael Doherty Haulage Limited and dishonestly making untrue or misleading representations in respect of the tachograph recordings.

All accused appeared before Dungannon Crown Court where each pleaded not guilty. Judge Richard Greene KC adjourned the case until later in June when a trial date will be set.

The accused were remanded on continuing bail.

Guilty of threatening behaviour on bus

GARDAÍ had to be called to deal with a man who was drunk and causing a disturbance on a bus in Portlaoise reports the Laois Nationalist

When they tried to speak to the individual, he told them to f**k off, he had paid for his ticket, and he wasn’t getting off. The man was then arrested.

Portlaoise District Court heard the details of the cae when the 33-year-old pleaded guilty to being intoxicated in public and engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour

on the bus at the Togher Roundabout in Portlaoise in April.

Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby told the court that when the man sobered up in the garda cell in Portlaoise, “he was okay”.

Defending solicitor Philip Meagher said that his client, who had no previous convictions, had brought a letter of apology to court.

He said that, on the day in question, his client had been

visiting a friend, who had brought home a bottle of duty-free spirits. The pair started drinking and ended up drunk.

Mr Meagher told the court that his client had got on the bus and subsequently fell asleep.

When he woke up, he became agitated and abused the gardaí.

Judge Andrew Cody convicted the defendant of engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, fined him €250 and took the other matter into consideration.

LAOIS

CLARE

Picture: Courtesy of Irish Defence Forces

On the right track

THE French government has formally banned short-haul flights – that is those less than two-and-a-half hours – where a rail alternative exists.

The ban rules out most flights between Paris and France’s main cities.

Fiestas, siestas, food – and jokes

VALENCIA, renowned as the birthplace of paella, has been announced as the host of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 awards. I’m hoping to go along, so I’ll take my 50 best restaurant jokes. Obviously I’m not going to give them all away prior to the event, but they include humour of the very highest calibre, including:

RESTAURANT JOKE 1:

Popped into a restaurant and the maître d’ said, “Can I take you to your seat, sir?” I said, “Cheers mate,” and jumped on his back.

RESTAURANT JOKE 2:

WAIT STAFF: Room for dessert, sir?

ME: [Flashback to my room at home where I hide all my desserts] *Nervous laugh* “Haha, I don’t have one of those.”

RESTAURANT JOKE 3:

WAIT PERSON (on her hunkers): Hey guys! I’m your wait person JoJo. Let me tell you about The Specials. They are an English two tone ska revival band . . .

RESTAURANT JOKE 4: Me: Sorry, my son spilled the water. Waiter: No problem, I’ll get you a new one. Me: [grabbing his arm] Make sure this one likes sports.

OK, you get the picture. I’ll probably have to translate them all into Spanish, so I’ll need a lot of relaxation afterwards. Luckily Valencia has plenty of opportunity for that.

The city’s magnificent Mediterranean seafront looks out towards Ibiza and Majorca, and behind it lie the lands of

Catalonia, Aragon and Castilla la Mancha.

Spain’s greatest national hero El Cid had his finest hour here after vanquishing the Moorish invaders in the 11th century. Subsequently Charlton Heston brought Valencia to a worldwide audience in the epic film in 1961.

El Cid is not the only legend here. Just as compelling is the story of the Holy Grail, housed in the city’s Gothic cathedral where it was, according to local gossip, placed in 1437. The Grail, used by Jesus at the Last Supper, was apparently sent to Rome from Jerusalem by St Peter. When the Romans ordered the confiscation of all

Nearly rocket science

“THE most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries is not ‘Eureka’ but “Hang on, that’s a bit funny”. That’s a paraphrasing of Isaac Asimov famous, utterance, and is one that Irish scientist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell will be very familiar with.

The Co. Armagh woman who discovered radio pulsars, will celebrate her 80th birthday in July. She is a Quaker, the one religion that you can safely make jokes about without fear of retribution. A Quaker car-bomber is

unlikely to pay you a visit. But I’m not going to , because Dame Burnell is an exceptional woman. She discovered the first pulsar – a momentous event – but was overlooked for the Nobel prize for physics in 1967. Instead her boss, a man of course, took the main prize, leading to the award being called, understandably, the “No Bell” that year.

In Robin Ince’s book on science The Importance of Being Interested, the writer and comedian relates his meeting with her and the importance of her discovery.

“Pulsars are spherical, compact, highly magnetized and rapidly rotating neutron stars. They are formed when a massive star collapses. They appear to blink at a regular rhythm and were briefly called LGMs, or Little Green Man signals, as the regularity of the signal led to brief conjecture that this could be communication from intelligent life.

“Seven years later this discovery would lead to a Nobel Prize, though Jocelyn was not one of the recipients, and whilst many have considered her being overlooked as deeply unjust, she seems unruffled. She told me the disadvantage of getting a Nobel Prize is that they stop

church property the pope gave the sacred chalice to St Lawrence, a Spaniard, and the bowl was brought to Valencia Cathedral. There it still lies – an object of veneration, and, of course, debate, as to its authenticity. In 1982, Pope John Paul II visited the cathedral and became the first Pope to celebrate mass with the (alleged) Holy Grail in 1,724 years.

The Holy Grail has long had a grip on the collective imagination. In 2004 Viz comic ran a letter from someone who had found the Holy Grail while on holiday in Spain. They wanted to know if it was safe to put it in the dishwasher.

giving you other prizes, so she would have missed out on all those possible award dinners that have followed.

Critics have described the latest measures as “symbolic bans”.

Laurent Donceel, interim head of industry group Airlines for Europe (A4E), told the AFP news agency that “banning these trips will only have minimal effects” on CO2 output.

The law does specify that train services on the same route must be frequent, timely and well-connected enough to meet the needs of passengers who would otherwise travel by air – and able to absorb the increase in passenger numbers.

This will be surely viewed with optimism by airlines operating in Britain, where the rail service – if my experience is anything to go by – is not frequent, overcrowded and unreliable.

The other presenter

HUGE congratulations to Co. Down man Patrick Kielty for landing the Late Late gig.

I just hope that he has better success than the only other Co. Down person to host the show.

Frank Hall, from Newry in Co. Down, would have made a fine subject himself for interview on the show.

Largely forgotten now, Frank presented the show in 1964 when Gay Byrne took a short sabbatical. Had he been any good at the job, Gay Byrne might not have returned, and the gig would have been his.

But in fact Frank made a bit of a hames of being a presenter and interviewer, and Byrne came back to replace him.

Nonetheless, success in other fields didn’t elude Frank Hall and in 1978, he was appointed Ireland’s national film censor. During his regime he was known for the strict application of Irish censorship and his defence of family values. Films banned by his office included Monty Python’s Life of Brian, which he described as “offensive to Christians and to Jews as well, because it made them appear a terrible load of gobshites”.

Despite his espousal of family values, he had a long affair with an RTÉ colleague, Frankie Byrne, no relation to Gay. Hall died in 1995, but he was not forgotten. In 2006, RTÉ screened Dear Frankie which gave details of the affair.

“To show how little women scientists were valued back in the 1960s (and for many decades

thereafter), Ince tells the story of a press conference held to discuss the topic. “Despite her being the first observer of the pulsars,” writes Ince “the press concentrated on the older, tweedier male scientists in the room. Jocelyn recalls that she was only asked one question: a tabloid newspaper wished to know, ‘Are you taller than Princess Margaret?’”

By the way, to end on a cheery note: Dame Burnell believes that the end of the world could come through an encounter with a dark comet. The ensuing famine due to the sun being blocked would herald the appearance of the Choir Invisible. By and by, no crops, no food.

PAPAL VISIT: Pope Benedict visits Valencia Cathedral in 2006 Picture: Getty Images

HONOURS CEREMONY: Anne Wojcicki, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, and Priscilla Chan at the 2019 Breakthrough Prize Picture: Getty Images

The voice of the Irish in Britain since 1970 Bishop’s move the correct one

The Catholic Church is a diminished institution in Ireland compared to former times, its hold on the country dramatically different to what it was in the past. But there is another dimension to the complex story of the Church, which in recent years has been bedevilled by some of its clergy across three continents committing the most horrible crimes, So, for some people it is difficult to remember that the Church has often been a force for good: helping to bind communities together during hard times, standing up against totalitarian states, defending human rights.

Belfast man Bishop Paul McAleenan, Auxiliary Bishop for Westminster, has long been at the forefront of protecting the rights of the world’s more marginalised people.

Last week he said that the current refugee system, under which many risk their lives making dangerous journeys only to languish for months or years waiting for their claims to be heard, fails to afford a humane or effective arrangement.

Bishop McAleenan should be supported in his campaign to change this state of affairs, and force Britain to fulfil its obligation under the Refugee Convention. It is the moral, human and correct way to treat refugees.

The Mayo mayor in Yorkshire

Cahal Burke from Kiltimagh, a Liberal Democrat councillor, has become Mayor of the West Yorkshire town of Kirklees.

Mr Burke, who has lived in the Colne Valley constituency for over twenty five years, was nominated by fellow Lindley Lib Dem councillor Anthony Smith who said: “Cahal is the epitome of a public servant and politician who aspires to office for all the right reasons... In the Lindley ward, everyone knows someone who has been helped by Cllr Burke.”

Mr Burke is a further example of a member of our community, the Irish in Britain, not just integrating into the local community but making a truly positive input into that community.

The Irish Post sends its congratulations to Mayor Cahal Burke.

Rock on, Danny!

Danny Hutton from Donegal, took another route out of Ireland – different in many respects from that of Cahal Burke who has become Mayor of Kirklees.

Danny left Ireland aged five with his mother, bound for Boston. But as a teenager he returned to Ireland, busking in Belfast and Donegal before heading for California. There he helped found the rock band Three Dog Night.

This year, at the age of 80, Danny Hutton is now touring the US with his band. We wish him a happy 80th birthday, and, as they say in his native Ulster: “Keep ‘er lit, Danny!”

The

The

The NATO membership question

A SOLDIER of the P18 Gotland Regiment is pictured donning camouflage during a field exercise near Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland. Home Guard troops regularly stage exercises which coincide with military manoeuvres across Sweden and Finland. Sweden is now gradually being integrated into NATO’s structures. As an invitee country, it participates in all aspects of NATO activities.

Finland has formally become a NATO ally.

I WAS very interested in Catriona Gray’s article last week in The Irish Post (“Naval chiefs meet in Cork to discuss increased maritime threat”) which outlined the agenda of the members of the EU and NATO – mainly to confront the threat of Russia.

As outlined in Catriona’s article, there have been several incursions or near-incursions into Irish waters, and she painted an even ore frightening scenario of Ireland’s IT Infrastructure being attacked.

There really can be no further justification for Ireland not joining NATO.

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an intergovernmental military alliance established in 1949 – coincidentally the same year that Ireland became a republic.

Its primary purpose then as now, is to promote collective defence and security among its member states. NATO members commit to mutual defence in the event of an armed attack, and they collaborate on various security issues, military exercises, and intelligence sharing. While NATO has played a significant role in shaping the post-World War II security architecture, Ireland has chosen not to become a member.

This decision stems from a combination of historical, political, and neutral foreign policy considerations. Up until now it probably seemed a reasonable decision, particularly as Ireland was in good company with Finland and Sweden, also EU states, not joining NATO

Ireland’s decision not to join NATO can be traced back to its historical relationship with

Britain – but of course now it has a mutual defence treaty with Britain.

The fraught historical background has influenced Ireland’s foreign policy approach, emphasizing its neutrality and non-alignment. Ireland has traditionally sought to maintain a neutral stance and avoid military alliances that could be perceived as aligning with one side of a conflict. But of course that has all changed now, and both the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Foreign Minister have all said that Ireland is inextricably and politically linked to the policies of the West, and democratic nations, not totalitarian ones.

Joining NATO could potentially complicate Ireland’s role as an honest broker and mediator in both international affairs, and in relation to Northern Ireland. The Ireland’s neutrality has helped foster a sense of trust and impartiality among all parties involved in the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.

Furthermore, Ireland’s decision not to join NATO also reflects its commitment to a broader concept of security. Rather than relying solely on military power, Ireland has focused on diplomatic engagement, participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions, and fostering cooperation within the European Union. Ireland’s participation in EU defence initiatives, such as the Common Security and Defense Policy, allows it to contribute to European security while maintaining its neutrality.

But is that enough, with the threat that we are now faced with? Ireland’s spending on

defence is paltry, even compared to other neutral states, never mind aligned countries. NATO membership would provide Ireland with additional security guarantees and access to a strong collective defence framework. In an increasingly uncertain global environment, Ireland could benefit from the deterrence and security assurances offered by NATO.

I know opponents argue that joining NATO could undermine Ireland’s long-standing commitment to neutrality and its role in promoting peaceful conflict resolution. They contend that NATO’s involvement in military interventions and conflicts around the world may not align with Ireland’s foreign policy principles. They also highlight the potential financial burdens associated with NATO membership, as member states are expected to pay up to contribute to defence spending.

In my opinion not of those arguments remotely stands up in the new, increasingly threatening world.

Certainly the decision on whether Ireland should join NATO is a complex one that requires careful consideration of Ireland’s historical context, foreign policy objectives, and national interests. It would require a thorough and inclusive national debate, taking into account the views of various stakeholders, including political leaders, security experts, and of course the Irish public. As far as I know, according to the recent polls, public opinion in Ireland is pretty evenly balanced on the question of neutrality, which of course is inextricably linked to

membership of NATO.

But I fervently hope the meeting in Cork last week brought the reality of joining NATO a step closer.

Aengus Gilliland (from Co. Louth) Carmarthen

Newfoundland – no surprise that it’s Irish

I ENJOYED your article about Newfoundland and how a very distinguished team of academics and scientists have a found that a substantial proportion of the population have Irish and British DNA.

Well, knock me down with a feather time!

You only have to go there and hear the inhabitants talking. They most definitely don’t sound Canadian, or American Not quite Irish – they sound exactly like some emigrants from Ireland to Britain who have stayed for decades and now have that hybrid English-Irish accent.

But their music is totally Irish – mostly country & Irish. It’s identical.

I worked there in the 1990s, a lot in the fishing boats round St John’s. But that industry fell off quite dramatically, and then the oil fields opened up.

I probably would have stayed, it’s a lovely place and the people are among the friendliest I’ve met anywhere. But for family reasons I had to return to Ireland, to Roscrea, and so then I came to London.

But your article brought back many memories!

Sean McKnight Croydon

Picture: Getty Images

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COMMENT&OPINION

If you’re Irish, come into the parlour – if not, clear off

IDON’T know the place, Inch, Co. Clare. I don’t know any of the people in Inch, Co. Clare.

But I do know their actions in blocking access roads, in and out of a hotel housing asylum seekers, were bigoted and based on prejudice.

There is no other explanation. Indeed, the assertion by some that they were doing so with the best interests of the refugees at heart was nothing if not offensive, as it assumed a level of gullibility and stupidity amongst the rest of us that would have been stratospheric. They did not behave as they did out of concern for those displaced men.

They behaved as they did because they did not want those men there. Even though, as is clearly evident in the middle of our government sanctioned housing crisis, the accommodation would only ever be a short term solution. The rancid guff about women in the area not being safe is deeply ironic seeing as a legally found sex offender, Donald Trump, was recently greeted on his arrival in Co. Clare with pipers and a red carpet.

The Irish far right keep pushing a phrase about military-age, unvetted males. It is racism dressed up in a nonsensical phrase. The danger begins when local communities are influenced by it; when they fall for it. Because it is a concoction of words based on hate and fear of the foreigner. For instance, no one in this townland I live in is vetted. I don’t know the fine details of their backgrounds. I wouldn’t expect to have the right to.

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My nearest neighbours, down the lane, could well have people staying overnight and I would not expect to be told about them. I would not imagine it ever legitimate to block their driveway and count and check their visitors.

I don’t expect to be able to inspect the people who might buy a house around here. I can’t imagine how anyone expects to be able to do that. And the insistence that the particular area in Clare cannot house these people, is in the back of beyond, and totally unsuitable for any kind of visitor, seems more than a little odd seeing as the property they are being housed in is a hotel.

Striking, too, was the response of a number of

JOEHORGAN

The Irish far right keep pushing a phrase about military-age, unvetted males. It is racism dressed up in a nonsensical phrase. The danger begins when local communities are influenced by it; when they fall for it

political representatives from across the parties who bemoaned the position the locals had been put in. That they hadn’t been consulted. That their actions were, in some way, justified. It seems so odd how the lives of ordinary people, of working people, are ignored until they behave in a vile way and then, suddenly, they need to be ‘understood.’ County Clare, for God’s sake, a county synonymous with emigration. Are we to believe that the people of Clare don’t understand the necessity of going across the sea to find a

new life? How could that even be possible? And for all those who disseminate nonsense about the Irish going away and doing this and doing that. About the Irish being different than other immigrants. Take it from someone directly reared in and by the immigrant Irish. Someone directly from the immigrant Irish. We were just like all the other immigrants. We were good and we were bad. And plenty of English people resented us and told stories about us that had no bearing on the truth. All the old stories of prejudice and bigotry. All the little minds and all their big hatreds.

Meanwhile the gardaí have openly declared they have a policy of non confrontation when it comes to the far right or actions like those in Inch, Co. Clare. They will not be drawn into confrontation the

gardaí say because that is what the far right want. How bizarre that is. Especially as up the road in Mayo, not so long ago, they were using batons against protestors on a road objecting to a Shell pipeline. Is there a policy of selective policing on the west coast of Ireland?

In the town nearest here I’d guess there’s a good few people staying in hotels as I write this. I don’t know who any of them are or where they’re from. Does anyone really think I have the right to know? Or is it different because they’re mostly white and probably not poor?

It’s not that far from Clare to here but if I were from anywhere near there, near Inch, I’d hang my head with shame.

 Joe Horgan tweets at @JoeHorganwriter

HOTEL HAVEN: A refuge for international protection applicants in Co. Clare Picture: RollingNews.ie

A Spanish tragedy

GERARD CASSINI considers the implications of one of the most significant maritime battles in European history

HISTORIANS and maritime experts from across Europe arrived in Sligo last week to discuss the implications and heritage of the Spanish Armada. Three ships of the Spanish fleet foundered off Streedagh Beach near Grange in September 1588.

Events in the English Channel –followed by events in the North Sea and the Atlantic – had huge consequences for Ireland. Not least, the defeat of the Spanish Armada ensured a Protestant monarchy in England, and that had somewhat far-reaching effects.

Gerard Cassini tries to get to the bottom of the events of 435 years ago...

The Armada is seen as a key event in the history of these islands and Europe in general. Why so? Well, a win for the Spaniards would have undoubtedly led to the overthrow of Elizabeth I of England. (She’s the one whose avowed wish was to pacify Ulster, although to be fair to her she was probably the last British monarch who could converse in Irish, albeit at a basic level.)

So a mixed bag then? I mean, Ulster is just about pacified if you don’t include the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol; on the other hand, I suppose we’re not doing this questionnaire in Irish or Spanish, so presumably something must have gone horribly wrong...

From the Spanish point of view, yes; it certainly weakened the country’s

influence in Europe. And it all began with King Philip of Spain’s resolve to overthrow Europe’s strongest Protestant leader, Elizabeth I. At one stage Philip even considered an attack on Ireland – the English, I need hardly remind you, were ensconced in most of Ireland by that stage.

Would certainly have been interesting if the Spanish had attacked Ireland and won. Indeed. Es correcto, Señor.

A date with history

What happened on this day...

Saturday, June 3:

Haha. I see what you’ve done there. So I suppose, Dublin city centre wouldn’t be crammed with of young, chattering Spanish people in Ireland eager to learn English. Whatever. But in the end the Spanish decided to hit England. Accordingly it was decided that the Armada would sail to Flanders to transport an army across the Channel to England. The Spanish boats duly anchored outside Gravelines, but, while awaiting further instructions, were driven out by an English fire ship attack. The Armada managed to regroup and withdraw north. The wind changed abruptly – spelling ultimate disaster for the Spanish. In fact, the commander of the Spanish fleet, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, is reported to have sent a message to King Philip asking him if he was sure God had blessed the venture.

And had he?

Well, that’s anybody’s guess. But Drake, fresh from his bowling, along with the other leader of the navy, Lord Charles Howard, chased the Spanish fleet up the English Channel. The Armada then decided to return to Spain, sailing around Scotland and Ireland. Sadly for the Spanish there were few nice soft day in ‘the Wesht’ Storms engulfed the fleet with more than 24 vessels wrecked. Elizabeth I had coins minted that read: “God breathed and they were scattered.”

Amazing that such a huge force was so easily defeated, all the same?

Tuesday, June 6:

It really was down to the weather. The Spanish were much better disciplined than the British, many of whom — including Drake — were basically licensed pirates, or privateers. But for an unlucky wind, believe me, we would be feeding the pigeons today in La Plaza de Trafalgár, and there’s a good chance our passports might say ‘Irlanda’.

So the Spanish weren’t defeated by a superior maritime force?

Nope. And neither is it true that the commander of the Armada was ill-equipped for the job — it’s a myth that he had never fought at sea, and suffered chronically from sea-sickness. On the other hand perhaps, the Spanish should have done a bit better, despite the weather. After all, on board were 30,000 troops, 25,000 guns, an A-Z of London, and lots of goodies for the Irish.

Eh?

Sorry. Only joking about the A-Z. But if Irish legend is to be believed, loads of other swag was stowed aboard. The fact that so many Spanish ships

1800 – Ordination of the first priests at Maynooth College.

1913 – Birth in Dublin of Patrick Campbell, author and broadcaster.

1898 – Birth of Dame Ninette de Valois, Wicklow born founder of the Royal Ballet.

Wednesday, June 7:

foundered on Irish shores has been implicated in the presence, in Ireland, of: world-beating thoroughbreds, the dark colouring of so many Irish people, handball (our game is strikingly similar to the Spanish pelota vasca), fuchsia, Celtic design, to say nothing of the concept of mañana. So, any other implications for Ireland?

Here and there. The Girona Treasure — currently residing in the Ulster Museum in Belfast — was gathered from the part of the Armada that was ship-wrecked off the north coast of the Six Counties, as it wasn’t called back then. More specifically, Dunluce Castle, the northerly redoubt of Sorley Boy O’Donnell and later to feature in Game of Thrones and on a Led Zeppelin album cover, was refurbished on the strength of plundered Spanish swag. Nobody up there expected the Spanish Armada, but the gold came in very handy.

Well, thank you very much indeed. !De nada!

PATRICK BRONTË

1836 – Death of Dr Barry O’Meara, for a time Napoleon’s personal physician.

Sunday, June 4:

1651 – The Siege of Limerick begins.

1820 – Death of Henry Grattan, leader of the Patriot Party.

Monday, June 5:

1798 – Battle of New Ross.

1868 – Birth in Edinburgh of James Connolly.

1880 – Birth in Dublin of William Thomas Cosgrave, the first President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State (in 1922).

1916 – Death of Listowel man Horatio Herbert Kitchener, later Lord Kitchener of “Your country needs you fame.” (See poster, left)

1861 – Death of Patrick Brontë from Ballynaskeagh, Co. Down, father of Emily, Charlotte, Anne and Branwell.

Thursday, June 8:

1931 – The first ever civil airport in the Republic opens at Finglas.

1985 – Barry McGuigan becomes World Featherweight Championship beating Eusebia Pedrosa.

Friday, June 9:

1953 – Cinema owners in Dublin unanimously decide not to show the film of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in London. There are fears that any such screening would lead to widespread damage to the cinemas.

PATRICK Brontë, father of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë as well as three other children, was born on St. Patrick’s Day 1777 in Emdale Cottage, Drumgooland. His family was originally from Dundalk, Co. Louth and called Prunty or Ó Pronntaigh. Despite being the son of a mixed (Catholic / Protestant) marriage, local Presbyterian and Anglican clergymen of the locality realised his great literary talent and helped get him to St John’s College, Cambridge. Subsequently he became vicar of Haworth, Yorkshire, where he regaled his illustrious offspring with tall tales and folklore from the land of his birth. All the Brontë sisters’ novels owe something to their father’s memories of his home in Co. Down. Patrick outlived his wife Maria Branwell by 40 years, by which time all of their six children had died as well.

SPANISH TARGET: Elizabeth I – nobody expected the Spanish Armada

The route of the Spanish Armada

Poster by Alfred Leete

Actor T.P. McKenna’s special gift to the Irish in Britain, as recalled by his son Stephen

See Pages 16-17

A night of music and words at the ICC in Hammersmith

The Irish Cultural Centre will be hosting a night of contemporary literature and traditional music this Saturday, June 3. ANNE FLAHERTY gives the background to this unique show

THE story of Irish emigration to London, is the theme of a unique event at the Irish Cultural Centre, featuring two top authors, Patrick McCabe and Timothy O’Grady, along with music from leading musicians and images from award-winning photographer Steve Pyke.

The Big Smoke, at the Irish Cultural Centre, Black’s Road, Hammersmith, will take place on June 3, 2023, and has been described as “both a lament and a celebration of the history of the Irish in London.”

Chicago-born writer Timothy

O’Grady, whose award-winning lyric novel I Could Read The Sky was first published 25 years ago, will read from his work, and Monaghanbased Patrick McCabe (Butcher Boy, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1992 ) will read from his most recent novel, Poguemahone

They will be joined on stage by musicians Michael McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly and singer Cathy Jordan, along with singer/songwriter and whistler, Larry Beau. The photographs by Steve Pyke, which were an integral part of I Could Read The Sky, will also feature as a backdrop.

The London premiere of the show follows appearances by both writers at the Hay Festival, and in Manchester.

I Could Read The Sky tells the moving story of an old man who emigrated to London from the West of Ireland. At the end of his life, in the 1950s, he is lying alone, recalling his childhood and the fields of the family farm, the memory juxtaposed with his later life amongst the building sites and factories of England. It explores themes of loss, dislocation, and yearning, with the title referring to the list of things he enumerates in his mind....

Things I Could Do. I could mend nets. Thatch a roof. Build stairs. Make a basket from reeds. Splint the leg of a cow. Cut turf. Build a wall. Go three rounds with Joe in the ring

Things I Could Do. I could mend nets. Thatch a roof. Build stairs. Make a basket from reeds. Splint the leg of a cow. Cut turf. Build a wall. Go three rounds with Joe in the ring Da put up in the barn. I could dance sets. Read the sky

Timothy O’Grady

Da put up in the barn. I could dance sets. Read the sky.

O’Grady had been asked by a London publisher to write the text for a sequence of photographs taken by Steve Pyke from his travels in Ireland. For some time he struggled to find the right balance between image and text , not wanting to merely write captions to the photographs.

He was eventually to turn it into a narrative sequence of an old man’s memory, inspired by two decades of living amongst the Irish community in London and hearing their stories. It won the Encore Award for Best

Second Novel of 1997. (His novel Motherland won the David Higham award for the best first novel in 1989.)

Later, Mark Knopfler wrote a song, Mighty Man, inspired by the book. Following publication of I Could Read The Sky, Timothy O’Grady received several letters from people who wrote of how emigration had personally touched their lives.

“People wrote to me who were the children of emigrants and whose parents had died and they’d never learned about their experience of emigration, it wasn’t talked about. They said things like ‘you’ve given my father back to me’, and for a writer, knowing that something you did makes this connection, it’s wonderful.”

The 1950s saw the peak in Irish emigration, and by 1971, the Irish-born population in Britain numbered nearly one million people.

While the experience of those now emigrating from Ireland to London has completely changed, Timothy believes the stories of the older generation continue to have resonance.

“It’s something that’s still in the psyche, it pushes a button, there’s some distress in it, and the experience of those who went to the UK is very different to those who went to the US and Australia. Music is also a very important part of the story, emigration to the UK also gave birth to things that are still fascinating to people of Irish descent, musicians such as Elvis Costello or Johnny Rotten or Shane McGowan.”

When O’Grady was aged twentytwo he became part of the migrant experience himself, travelling to Ireland and living on an island off the north-west coast.

Patrick Mc Cabe’s novel Poguemahone tells the story of Dan Fogarty, an Irishman living in England, who is looking after his sister Una, now seventy and suffering from dementia in a care

home in Margate. From Dan’s anarchic account, we gradually piece together the story of the Fogarty family, and how the parents came to be exiled from a small Irish village and end up living the hard immigrant life in England. It’s been described as “a wild free verse monologue, steeped in music and folklore” with much of the drama reconstructing the world of 1970s Kilburn and Soho.

McCabe is one of Ireland’s best known novelists. His novels The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto were made into films by Neil Jordan.

“The show is in two halves,| explains Timothy, “with me reading from I Could Read The Sky in the first half and Patrick reading from

Poguemahone, in the second half, with the music and images complementing the readings. In my view he’s just the best reader of his own work I have ever seen, I first met Patrick back in 1991 at the Irish Centre in Camden, at an Irish book fair and at that stage The Butcher Boy had not yet been published. “We met up recently and I thought that that since both of us have written ‘Irish in London’ books , it would work as a collaboration, with music as well. Aesthetically we are very different, but it’s an overlapping subject, just with different approaches.”

 Tickets: £20/£18; doors 7.30pm for the start of the show at 8pm.

LEADING AUTHOR: Patrick McCabe

Irish radio in your area...

BEDFORDSHIRE

 Jim Carway presents Luton Irish Live on Diverse 102.8FM and online every Tuesday evening 6-8pm. Contact Jim on 07977 063233.

BRADFORD

 Joe Sheeran presents Echoes of Ireland on Bradford Community Broadcasting 106.6FM every Sunday at noon. The programme is repeated on Mondays at 9am and Wednesdays at noon and is online at www.bcbradio.co.uk.

BRIGHTON

 Brighton and Hove weekly Irish radio airs live on Mondays from 8pm on Radio Reverb, 97.2 FM, DAB and online.

COVENTRY

 Hands Across the Waters on Hillz FM. Broadcasting live every Monday and Thursday 1pm-2pm and the best of Irish & Country every Sunday 1pm-2pm. You can tune in locally on 98.6fm or catch us online at www.hillzfm.co.uk

 Join The Four Country Road Show with Colm Nugent and Michael Gallagher every Tuesday 9-10pm and Sunday 2-4pm. Broadcasting live in Coventry from the studios of Radio Plus 101.5fm and online around the world on www.radioplus.org.uk playing the very best in Irish and Country music, news, guests and more.

GLASGOW

 Celtic Music Radio on 1530AM and www.celticmusicradio.net

featuring Paddy Callaghan’s Trad with Pad every Tuesday from 6-7pm.

HERTFORDSHIRE

 Radio Verulam 92.6FM and online at www.radioverulam.com

featuring The Emerald Hour with Kathy Weston, Lydia El-Khouri and Shane every Thursday from 7-8pm, and John Devine’s Traditional Irish Music Show, featuring Joe Giltrap, every Monday from 7-9pm (available on the website for seven days after broadcast)

 John Devine, Monday evenings from 7-9pm on Radio Verulam in West Hertfordshire 92.6FM or through the internet at www. radioverulam.com. Facebook www.facebook.com/rvirishmusic.

LONDON/SOUTH-EAST

 Johnny Jameson hosts Ireland’s Eye on Resonance 104.4FM every third Wednesday of every month, 8-9pm and repeated the following morning at 10pm.

 Emily Horgan, Pippa T and Róisín O Rourke broadcasting What’s the Craic? every Tuesday from 7-8pm on West London’s ONFM 101.4.

 Johno’s Irish Hour, ONFM 101.4, every Saturday morning from 10-11am with presenter John O’Sullivan. Anything and everything Irish including traditional Irish music, news and sport.

MANCHESTER

 Out and About in Manchester with Martin Logan, Wednesdays 7-9pm on 96.9FM.

 The Irish Connection Show with John Lowry on Wythenshawe 97.2FM, Saturday from 10am to noon. www.wfmradio.org.

MIDLANDS

 Bob Brolly’s Irish Show, Sundays 4-7pm on BBC Radio WM 95.6FM and DAB Radio.

NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE

 Jim Bennett, Fiona Clelland and Tommy McClements present NE1 Irish from 5-7pm every Wednesday on 102.5FM or www.ne1fm.net. Text NE1 + message to 60300. Contact 0191 261 0384.

OXFORD/BERKSHIRE

 BBC Radio Oxford/BBC Radio Berkshire hosts Henry Wymbs’ Irish Eye, Sundays from 2pm on 95.4FM | 104.1FM.

ONLINE

 Gerry Byrne’s Irish Radio: www.irishradio.org 24/7 non-stop Irish Music. Live weekdays 1-3pm; Saturdays & Sundays 11am-1pm. Podcasts uploaded to website immediately after shows are transmitted. Requests welcome to: gerry@irishradio.org. For music, arts, charity sector, commerce and current affairs interviews search YouTube Irish Radio with Gerry Byrne.

 Mid West Radio, the home of Irish music, chat, news, culture and gossip 24 hours a day! www.midwestradio.ie

 RTÉ Radio operates four primary national stations — RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm, RTÉ lyric fm and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta — and seven exclusively digital stations — RTÉ Radio 1 Xtra, RTÉ Choice, RTÉ Pulse, RTÉ Chill, RTÉ Gold, RTÉ 2XM and RTÉ Junior, available online.

 Alan O’Leary of Copperplate presents two hours of Irish traditional and folk music every Sunday at 8-9.30pm (repeated Wednesday 8-90pm) on www.liveireland.com — 24/7 live Irish trad and folk. It can also be heard 24/7 on Mixcloud, Soundcloud and Podomatic.

 All Folked Up – a folk show with an Irish influence – is broadcast on the third Thursday of the month on sarumradio.com at 7pm.

 Irish Country Music Radio (Limerick) – Broadcasting live and recorded programmes 24 hours a day covering a broad spectrum of Irish music: www.irishcountrymusicradio.com.

THE IRISH IN THE UK TV SHOW www.theirishintheuktv.com

Join Martin each week as he meets the community around the UK with an Irish connection

Every Thursday evening at 7.30pm

Repeated Sat at 8.30pm and Tues at 1pm

Sky 186 Freesat 161

Martin Logan 07808 573142 martinloganmanchester@gmail.com

Sponsored by

An Irishman abroad

As London’s Cinema Museum prepares to celebrate the career of the acclaimed Irish actor T.P. McKenna, his son STEPHEN MCKENNA recalls how his talent brought a special pride to the Irish in Britain

ICOULD dazzle you with my father’s 160 credits on the Internet Movie Database, or the hundred-plus stage roles he played from Dublin and London, to Paris and New York, but actually, I consider one of his great roles was a roving ambassador for his homeland. He virtually parachuted into London as a fullyfledged star, in 1963, instantly making his mark, as one critic put it, ‘with his raven black hair, aquiline features and ever probing eyes’.

Small wonder that a succession of sinister evils awaited him as he became a TV villain of choice. Tailor-made, it seemed, for the exciting new dramas of the era including Dangerman, The Avengers and The Saint Hardly a week passed by when he wasn’t appearing in the corner of someone’s living room on what was becoming known as the box. Always with a pistol in his grip, trained on the likes of Patrick McGoohan, Diana Rigg, or Roger Moore.

Even, one time, a young Donald Sutherland.

OUT AND ABOUT MANCHESTER RADIO SHOW

96.9 ALL FM Wednesday, 7-9PM with MARTIN

LOGAN

T: 0161 248 6767 | M: 07706 682622

E: outandaboutmanchesterradio@yahoo.co.uk

This was a considerable step up for an Irish actor when too many fine talents had to resign themselves to playing one stock Irish character after another. Either throwing up witticisms from a ditch, or as querulous drunks wanting to debate the merits of Joyce at throwing-out time.

Even when Milo O’Shea got to play a high-flying Tony O’Reilly type in Hugh Leonard’s Me Mammy, he was beholden to the trope of a tyrannical Irish mammy clutching her rosary beads and constantly entreating the wardrobe of saints’ statues she kept. Was there no escaping the cliché of Old Mother Reilly at all?

But somehow T.P. McKenna managed to side-step all of that, also finding a counterpoint to his screen

AWARD-WINNER: T.P. McKenna receiving his Irish Post Award from the then Ambassador Dr Eamonn Kennedy

T.P. McKenna as featured in his Spotlight profile

Picture: Courtesy of the McKenna archive

villainy in the single-play strands Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play. Here he was making an impression as a serious actor of depth and nuance, his presence on a cast-list marking it out as recommended viewing. Television hadn’t consumed him entirely, mind. He was after all, first and foremost, a stage actor, and now free of the limited repertoire of the Abbey Theatre, he could set about expanding his credits in admired productions of Shakespeare, Shaw, and Chekov, under the direction of such luminaries as Lindsay Anderson, Jonathan Miller and Harold Pinter. This was the point at which the prefix of classical actor was being added to his name, the latest in a distinguished line of Irish theatrical exports following on from Cyril Cusack, Jack MacGowran and Siobhan McKenna before him. In no time at all he’d come a long way from the one-street town, Mullagh, of his Cavan childhood. And yet, there was no dilution of his Irish identity.

we’d find out about it first when our mother arrived home with the Evening Press

One editor despatched a reporter to track him down on location in Turkey, arriving in the best scoop tradition, just in time for an earthquake; but then again, why wouldn’t they? Hadn’t they been keeping tabs on him since he became a household name, as Brian Kennedy in Ireland’s first soap, The Kennedys of Castleross

With that level of interest, there was also a growing sense of ownership about him. One of our own they’d say, proudly, and from the waitresses at Wynn’s Hotel to the taxi drivers at the ranks on O’Connell Street, he’d be greeted with the same cheery familiarity, ‘ah, howwayee, T.P.’

He even fronted a commercial for

to his table with a ‘There you are, T.P.’ It was an expression of kinship that he’d also find amongst the Irish in Britain, and it instilled in him a deep sense of responsibility. Especially amongst the darkest days, while terrible atrocities were being committed and any positive sign of representation was clung to like it was gold.

So, whenever the phone went and it was someone asking him to support a fundraiser, or a charity event, the response was a ready yes.

By the 1970s, after a decade of commuting and the added strain of a year-long run in the West End, T.P. McKenna was all but permanently away, and he took the reluctant decision to move the family across to London, for good.

There was nothing for it, with five young children that knew him better via a cathode-ray tube than in the flesh, and not forgetting our dear mother, Mrs. T.P. McKenna, greeted all over with sympathetic smiles as if she was widowed. No matter that we tried to set off to our new home with an optimistic step, it was a cruel time to become migrants, instantly downgraded on arrival. We weren’t just immigrants, but Irish immigrants, with the lingering NINA connotations that implied. Easily and casually derided for our assumed dim wittedness , and that was just from the neighbours’ children.

At least we had the solace of what we’d now call a safe space in our new school, a North London Catholic comprehensive with the head, a Galway man, and his deputy from Mayo, plus the parents, more than two-thirds of them, the émigrés of

the 1960s. The men who’d built the motorways, and the women who’d staffed the hospitals, now with families of their own, settled and establishing London Irish roots.

We discovered then how our father was a great source of pride to that generation, even if having a daddy on the telly was quite the mixed blessing. The morning after he’d starred in The Sweeney we were the heroes of the playground, but then along would come some terrible ‘B’ movie he’d made. Particularly one called The Beast in the Cellar. It mattered not a ha’pworth of difference that he was a detective quizzing Beryl Reid and Dame Flora Robson, for weeks afterwards we were chased home with repeated cries of, “Ha ha ha, your daddy was the beast in the cellar!!!”

But for all the ribbing, we knew there’d be the nights when he’d be on the television in one of his classical roles and a father would point him out to the their children … ‘you see that fella, now - that’s the famous actor, T.P. McKenna, and he comes from the same place as me, and he’s up there, holding his own with the best of them, the actor lordies, and all. You see, we can’t be as bad a lot as all that’. One of my most vivid memories of that time was seeing him at an Irish Embassy reception, its Belgravia ballroom crammed with Cabinet ministers and prominent backbenchers. There to be wooed to an Irish point of view, over the emollient of freshly poured draught Guinness.

There were also the key members of the Fleet Street commentariat and it was fascinating

to watch our father engage them. “Now, I saw you on Newsnight the other week and what you were saying – you have it quite wrong.” There’d never be a row. He had too much charm and tact for that, but he knew his history well, and it was obvious when he’d have them on the spot as they’d back off with a haughty laugh. “Ha, ha ha, T.P. That’s the problem with you chaps. Your memories are far too long. Ha ha!”

Not that actors get to be agents of change, and it’s important to remember that. That’s not their job, and it’s not what we expect of them. Mostly, the actor’s function is to help occupy our nights at the theatre, or before the TV, and besides, there are others far more suited to the task.

Still, whenever I pass the Irish Embassy and remember those encounters, I like to think about how he might have helped make a difference. It’s not the kind of credit you’ll find on the Internet Movie Database.

So, don’t go looking for T.P. McKenna, starring in An Irishman Abroad, but I’ll always remember it as one of his finest roles.

 The Cinema Museum:

As Seen on TV — celebration of the career of the acclaimed Irish actor in an evening of memories and archive extracts introduced by Stephen McKenna is on June 17 at 7.30pm.

The Cinema Museum, 2 Dugard Way (off Renfrew Road), London SE11 4TH UK; Tel. 0207 840 2200; www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/ 2023/t-p-mckenna-as-seen-on-tv/

the 1960s. The men who’d built the motorways, and the women who’d staffed the hospitals, now with

Cusack, Jack MacGowran and

IN REHEARSAL: T.P. McKenna Picture: Courtesy of the McKenna archive

sense that he was

T.P. McKenna in London

Picture: Liam White / courtesy of the McKenna family

THE OTHER DONEGAL DANNY SUPERSTAR

MAL ROGERS considers the career of Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night who, at the age of 80, has embarked on a North American tour with his band

THEY must put something in the porridge up there in Donegal. Often called one of the three best things about Ulster (the other two being Cavan and Monaghan), Co. Donegal seems to run a conveyor belt of musical talent.

Rory Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, not far from Bridie Gallagher, no relation. Then there’s Altan, Clannad, Enya, Tommy Peoples and of course Daniel O’Donnell.

But one who can boast global fame on a par with those other illustrious artists is Danny Hutton. The man from Buncrana may not be as familiar a name as some of his fellow Donegal-born, but he co-founded Three Dog Night in 1967. The band had 21 Billboard Top 40 hits between 1969 and 1975, with three hitting number one, and overall sales exceeding 60million. The group became one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, earning gold records for singles and albums.

Three Dog Night were a great hippie rock pop outfit whose splendid hair almost matched their flawless harmonies. With a bit more groove and instrumental heft they’d have been the Doobie Brothers. But you’d have been happy to be at their gigs, even if you didn’t remember it.

And you’d definitely have heard their songs – Mama Told Me (Not To Come)

The band thrived on tight, arrangements of well-selected songs, delivered by its trio of singers who had a gift for melody, harmony and showbiz delivery.

Three Dog Night perhaps never reached the stratospheric heights of other Californian outfits such as The Byrds, the Beach Boys or The Eagles, mainly because – although Danny Hutton started out as a songwriter – the band’s hits were all cover versions.

The name Three Dog Night comes from a practice attributed to indigenous Australians of sleeping with dogs for warmth; a three-dog night is when a third dog is used on exceptionally cold nights. Over their 56-year career there have of course been personnel changes

Three Dog Night somewhat disintegrated in 1976 with Hutton’s departure, but re-formed in 1981. In 1985 Chuck Negron was dismissed after a relapse into hard drug use, something he eventually

rehabilitated from, but never returned to the band. He chronicled his longtime battle with heroin addiction – and a religion-based recovery – in an autobiography titled Three Dog Nightmare

One of the other three founding members Cory Wells, continued performing with the band until his death in 2015.

Now 80, Hutton has embarked on a Three Dog Night North American tour, with Timothy Hutton, his son, playing bass.

Buncrana beginnings

The story of Danny Hutton’s life is almost as colourful as a Three Dog Night concert.

Born in Donegal, Danny’s parents separated early in the marriage. His mother upped sticks and emigrated with the young Danny, then aged five, along with his older brother and sister, to Boston.

His mother began running a rooming house near the waterfront in Back Bay, so young Danny met many other emigrants. Like any port Boston was a melting pot for musicians – which suited Danny well, as he was already immersed in music. All his aunts and uncles – spread across two continents from Buncrana to Boston – were into music at some level. “Yeah, every month or so in Boston all the aunts and uncles would have what they called a Big Night. Everybody did a turn – said a poem, tap-danced, played an instrument, sang a song. So it was in my bones. My mom played the mandolin, Uncle Bill played a dozen

instruments including the accordion instruments, Uncle Eddie played the flute, Auntie Mary played the harmonica. And she could dance while she was doing it.”

But soon his mother decided that Boston wasn’t the ideal place to bring up her kids, so they boarded a train, and with very little money, headed for California. His mother worked as a waitress in Los Angeles, and Danny attended a Catholic school off Hollywood Boulevard.

By the time he was in his teens Danny Hutton had taken up the guitar.

He had some classical guitar lessons, but never took them too seriously.

On leaving high school, he headed for Paris, London, Liverpool, Belfast and eventually back to his hometown of Buncrana.

“I went and took a ferry to Belfast from Liverpool and bought a guitar in a shop in Belfast. I bicycled to my hometown of Buncrana and that’s when I really started to play the guitar,” he said. “I just got more and more into it.”

Hutton returned to Los Angeles and got his foot in the door of the music business as a songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist for Hanna-Barbera Records.

It was through connections here that Three Dog Night emerged Today, Danny Hutton lives in Laurel Canyon, California, in a house once owned by Alice Cooper. He counts Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Elton John among his longtime

THREE DOG NIGHT: Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron, and Cory Wells Picture: NBC / public domain

friends.

, (the of well-selected songs, delivered by its trio Dog Danny Hutton started out as a songwriter – the band’s practice attributed to for warmth; a third nights. changes

after a relapse into hard drug use,

DOGGED: Danny Hutton in 2017, who is now embarking on a US tour, aged 80 Picture: Getty Images

New series for Whitmore

A new documentary series will see Irish TV presenter Laura Whitmore return to her journalistic roots to delve into some controversial topics. FIONA AUDLEY reports

ANEW ITVX series titled Laura Whitmore Investigates will air over three episodes in July.

For the series the former model, who worked as a broadcast journalist before moving into presenting roles, tackles a series of controversial issues and taboo topics.

An ITVX spokesperson said: “In this brand-new series viewers will see a new side of Laura as she travels within the UK and further afield to delve into subjects that fascinate her and have an impact on our lives.”

Whitmore’s new series is among the first tranche of factual commissions for ITV’s new free streaming service, ITVX, which was launched in November 2022.

Commissioned by ITV’s Factual Entertainment department, ITV’s Controller of Factual, Jo Clinton Davis explained: “We’re excited about the opportunity ITVX presents for us and with our commissioning we want to broaden the palette of factual in very different and surprising ways.

“Documentary box sets with directorial ambition, on a diverse range of subjects, lead our developing slate; alongside series from new factual talent, including Laura Whitmore Investigates, which we are delighted to announce.”

She added: “This is just the beginning of a range of new opportunities as the world of Factual opens up on ITVX, with much more to come.”

The first two investigations in Whitmore’s series will be produced by Rumpus Media, with Fintan Maguire as executive producer.

The ‘cruel rumours’ that Christy Dignam has died

THE daughter of Christy Dignam has told how she has been left sickened by “cruel” posts on social media which falsely stated that her father had died.

Kiera Dignam is helping to look after her father Christy, 62, in his Finglas home, as the Aslan singer continues to receive palliative care for cancer.

However, she has been forced to clarify a number of social media posts, after people outside her family circle issued incorrect updates that her father had died.

She also urged genuine fans and friends of the brave Aslan frontman to ignore any future updates on social media relating to her father’s health, unless it is issued by either her or her family.

In an appeal on Facebook, she wrote:  ‘Can people please stop sharing and posting that my Dad has passed away, this is not true!

‘Until an update on anything comes from myself and my family please ignore.’

She added: ‘This is a tough enough time and cruel to have to be put in a position to have to clear something like this up.’

Christy was diagnosed with two rare blood cancers - amyloidosis and multiple myeloma - over 10 years ago.

The Aslan star subsequently spent some time in a hospice, after which his family released a statement back in January this year, revealing he was receiving palliative care.

In a poignant interview in recent weeks, the ailing Crazy World hitmaker described himself as being “on the conveyor belt up to heaven”.

Nick Bramhill

Actor Ray Stevenson dies

IRISH actor Ray Stevenson has died, aged, 58, while filming in Italy.

The star passed away on Sunday, May 21 while filming the new movie Cassino in Ischia, just four days before his 59th birthday.

His publicist has confirmed his death, although no further details have been shared.

In a social medial post Stevenson’s Viewpoint PR agency stated: “We mourn the passing of Viewpoint client and friend, Ray Stevenson.”

Tributes have been paid to the actor, who was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland to an Irish mother and a father who was a pilot in the Royal Air force.

He moved to England with his family when he was eight.

They settled in Newcastle and he went on to attend the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, from which he graduated at the age of 29.

Over the years Stevenson built a successful acting career across television, theatre and film, which included roles in the 2011 Marvel film Thor as well as the hit television series Dexter

He is also due to appear in the upcoming Star Wars series for television, Ahsoka, in which he plays the Dark Jedi Baylan Skoll.

Among those paying tribute to the late star was fellow actor and former co-star in the BBC series Rome, James Purefoy.

“So sad to hear the news that Ray Stevenson, our Pullo in Rome, has passed away,” Purefoy wrote in a social media post.

“A brilliant, gutsy, larger-than-life actor who filled every part he played right up to the brim. My thoughts are with his family, his lovely wife Betta and their beautiful kids. What a loss.”

Fiona Audley

Ray Stevenson Picture: Getty Images

Laura Whitmore

Picture: Getty Images

DUBLIN HERO: Christy Dignam in 2016

Picture: Getty Images

London, Dublin and Brighton in charcoal

FIONA AUDLEY has a look at a new collection of sketches which render scenes of cities in Britain and Ireland in charcoal

STRIKING scenes of some of the world’s most beautiful cities have been captured in charcoal by one of Ireland’s leading landscape artists.

Dublin-based Gerard Byrne is currently exhibiting a collection of forty-five large scale charcoal drawings on canvas of urban scenes in Dublin, Paris, London, Brighton and Hove and Singapore.

The exhibition, titled Charcoalogy,

is an initiative of the National Gallery of Ireland which aims to encourage creativity and celebrate the tradition of draughtsmanship.

Byrne’s latest collection features architectural scenes of cities where the artist himself has lived and worked in recent years.

“Believing that beauty is to be found in the everyday, Byrne looks to his surroundings for inspiration, being attracted by the complexity and form of architecture,” a spokesperson for the Gerard Byrne Studio explains of the collection.

“His drawings pay homage to the architectural heritage of the Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, and Regency areas so emblematic of Dublin, London, and Brighton and Hove: ornate mouldings, bay windows, elaborate, arched doorways and gable-end chimneys.”

They added: “For centuries, drawing was fundamental to the production of art and design, a

method of metamorphosis which brought artistic vision to life.

“Yet, in an era of increasingly digitised art, conceptual drawing and visualisation, draughtsmanship is in danger of becoming the skill of a bygone generation.

“Considered a modern impressionist, Gerard Byrne’s creative process embodies the expertise of his artistic forebears, beginning with a freehand charcoal sketch drawn directly onto the canvas.”

While known primarily for his finished oil paintings, Byrne sometimes chooses to leave a sketch as it is, “in its loose, expressive, monochromatic form”.

“Once playfully called ‘stop paintings’, in that they are halfway between creative conception and finished oil painting, these drawings offer not only a glimpse into Byrne’s artistic practice, but an insight into his artist’s eye,” his spokesperson explained.

Byrne’s Charcoalogy pieces were all sketched in person, on site and without the aid of prints or photos.

n Charcoalogy is open for viewing at the Gerard Byrne Studio in Dublin until June 17

CROSSWORD

Clues Across

1. But - if I were to follow, that would be asbominable! (3)

3. Forensic evidence that is transmitted digitally. (11)

8. Type of brush or sponge. (6)

9. Might Dave loan Parnell’s estate? (8)

10. Water-dwelling mammal. (5)

11. Reverie. (5)

13. Velocity. (5)

15. The real rug could be normal. (7)

16. The animation of a wagon with nothing on. (7)

20. Dwelling. (5)

21. Scour, brush thoroughly. (5)

23. Carla is disorientated here in Offaly. (5)

24. Give Bond a run around this town in Donegal. (8)

25. Place in a crypt. (6)

26. Beautiful place in Wicklow that makes for a golden laugh. (11)

27. Perform a role in a play or film. (3)

Sudoku requires no calculation or arithmetic skills. It is a game of placing numbers in squares using very simple rules of logic and deduction. It can be played by children and adults. Simply fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. However each number can appear only once on each row, column and 3x3 box. Answer next week.

Clues Down

1. Base journalism deserves a cowardly cupboard. (6,5)

2. Running at moderate speed. (8)

3. Panache. (5)

4. A moving mass of ice. (7)

5. Yearned. (5)

6. Seems like I take a long time with the reflections. (6)

7. Definite article in grammar. (3)

12. Crazily lob mutton at a town in Westmeath. (5,6)

13. Swiping cut. (5)

14. Sir Francis gets the bird. (5)

17. OK - it’s an Americans state. (8)

18. Is a place in Mexico or Colorado that Doug ran around? (7)

19. Mindless state. (6)

22. A group of chicks. (5)

23. Type of shell. (5)

24. Note, there’s silver in the sack. (3)

Gerard Byrne drawing outside Mansion House, Dublin Picture: Richie Stokes

Some Like it Hot: Botanic Gardens Glasnevin by Gerard Byrne

For centuries, drawing was fundamental to the production of art and design...

Strokestown Park House – an Irish time capsule

BY GRAINNE CONROY

CONSERVATION works are completed at Strokestown Park House in Co. Roscommon and a new guided House Tour has now been launched.

In 2022, following a €5 million investment, the new and reimagined National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park, Roscommon opened its doors, and now conservation works have been completed at Strokestown Park House and the newly curated guided tours of the Palladian mansion are taking place.

Strokestown Park’s ‘Big House’ is one of the few of these houses in Ireland to retain all of its original features.

When the last resident Olive Pakenham-Mahon sold the property just a few decades ago in 1979, her family had owned it for over 300 years.

Each generation had left its mark on this great house, and each layer they left has a story to tell.

The re-vitalised one-hour guided house tour offers an insight into the lives of those who lived there and its fascinating history.

Highlights include the library, drawing room, and dining room, plus a visit to a very unique galleried kitchen – which is the last of its type in the country. It also features newly refurbished rooms including a nursery room, kitchen parlour and darkroom. Visitors will be able

to witness restoration

to witness ongoing “conservation in action” and completed restoration works on the house.

the new guided tour of Strokestown

National Famine Museum

In addition to the new guided tour of Strokestown Park House, visitors of all ages can take in the new state-of-the-art National Famine Museum

Commemorating the 1798 Rebellion

BY FIONA AUDLEY

PIVOTAL battles which took place during the 1798 Irish rebellion against British rule will be reenacted this summer.

The 225th anniversary of the uprising by the Society of United Irishmen will be marked through a series of events being held in Wexford – where the rising, which ultimately failed, saw most of its successes.

Organised by Wexford County Council, Rebellion 225 will feature public talks, guided walks and a summer school as well as reenactments of some of the historic battles which took place during the rebellion.

Founded by Theobald Wolfe Tone in October 1791, with branches in

which tells story of the time. The museum now gives an compelling manner and explores the parallel

which tells the complete story of the Great Famine for the first time.

The museum now gives an account of the Great Famine in a compelling manner and explores the parallel lives of Strokestown Park’s aristocratic landlords and

Dublin and Belfast, the Society of United Irishmen hoped to pave a peaceful path to garner more independence and democracy for Ireland, which was then under British rule.

But their peaceful progress was stalled following the outbreak of war between Britain and Revolutionary France in 1793.

When the British Government realised the United Irishmen sympathised with the revolution, the organisation was banned and a crackdown on its membership saw Wolfe Tone driven into exile in America.

Forced to operate underground, the United Irishmen now sought to break all ties with Britain to create a fully independent Irish republic.

Their 1798 rebellion was planned with this in mind and, while it was ultimately unsuccessful, much of the ground gained by the rebels during the battle was won in county Wexford.

their tenants during this period. Visitors have an immersive experience as the museum takes local and national stories from this tragic period in Ireland’s past and brings them dramatically to life.

 For further details on Strokestown Park and The National Famine Museum see www.strokestownpark.ie .

Significant battles took place across the county at Oulart Hill, the Three Rocks, Wexford, New Ross, Carrigbyrne and Vinegar Hill, some of which will be reenacted in the weeks ahead.

Despite their ultimate defeat, the uprising, which lasted from May 27 to June 21, remains widely deemed as a significant moment in Irish history and the nation’s battle for independence.

Cathaoirleach of Wexford County Council, Councillor George Lawlor said: “This summer marks the 225th anniversary of a pivotal period in Ireland and in particular Wexford’s history.

“This series of commemorations gives us time to reflect on that history through events which will share the story of the historic rebellion launched by the United Irishmen as they attempted to overthrow British Crown rule and establish the Irish Republic.”

After a €5million makeover, Strokestown Park tells the story of Ireland, local and national – along with the historic, the tragic and the uplifting

RENOVATED: Strokestown Park, above, and its kitchens, far left; LEFT: History graphically portrayed at Strokestown

Edited by Mal Rogers

A Swiss adventure

MARIA BOYLE visits Lucerne and beyond

STUNNING mountains and lakes, clean air in the shadow of the Alps, and some of the world’s most famous retreats focused on wellness and relaxation.

For the optimum wellbeing weekend, the ideal starting spot is the city of Lucerne. Located in the centre of Switzerland, it sits at the foot of the Alps, along the River Reuss and on the edge of Lake Lucerne.

Lucerne has long been the ‘go to’ wellbeing destination ever since Queen Victoria visited in 1868 and spent five weeks there.

The old part of the city is car-free and its cobbled streets are lined with independent shops and fresco-adorned historic houses – a fascinating place to wander around.

We chose to stay overnight in the newly opened Lubo boutique hostel, a historic 18th-century building located in the mediaeval part of Lucerne. Billed as a fully automated, digital hotel (basically this means online check-in and mobile keys), its 41 spacious and immaculate rooms are spread over six floors and make for a comfortable stay. Rokko café adjoins the hotel and serves great coffee, breakfasts and, as the day progresses, Bao Buns and high-end cocktails.

With just 24 hours to take in the sights, we enjoyed a walking tour of the city, visiting Kornmarkt, the mediaeval square with its town hall

and tower, the Saturday market stalls, and also the city’s beautiful Jesuit church, built in the 1660sSwitzerland’s first baroque sacred building.

The tour took us across Lucerne’s famous 17th century Chapel Bridge, the largest wooden covered bridge in Europe. It contains paintings that depict Lucerne’s history.

After a quick stop at the city’s oldest chocolate shop – Au Cachet: la maison du chocolat - we headed uphill and walked along the old city walls, built in the 14th century.

Lucerne has plenty of great eating and drinking spots from pavement cafes and bars to Michelin star establishments. During our stay we enjoyed aperitifs at Die Storchen in the old part of the city, great Italian food at Bacio della Mamma and Spanish tapas and paella at Bolero

located in the livelier part of the city which comes alive at night.

DAY TWO: Time to head to the mountains

Mineralbad & Spa Rigi Kaltbad is one of Switzerland’s oldest mineral baths. We took the boat to Vitznau and then jumped on to Mount Rigi Railway for a scenic ride uphill to the spa.

The baths – designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta – have been a destination for wellness for some 600 years when the first bath chapel was built in 1545.

They are a popular destination for both residents and visitors given the spa includes indoor and outdoor pools with whirlpools, massage jets, a crystal spa, steam room and sauna. You can follow this with a tasty

Swissair flies from London to Zurich. One-way fares start from £76 to Zurich swiss.com

The all-in-one Swiss Travel Pass which can be used on the train, bus and boat network. Prices start from £186 for a three-day second-class ticket mystsnet.com.

Mineralbad & Spa Rigi Kaltbad .rigi.ch/en/ attractions/mineral-bathsspa-rigi-kaltbad-ccd58c3bd4

Adults CHF 38.00 and children CHF 17.00

Bürgenstock Hotel & Alpine Spa Lake and mountain view deluxe room from CHF 1,400 includes breakfast and access to the spa. Day packages for the Alpine Spa start from CHF 270 per person – includes return boat from Lucerne and funicular to Bürgenstock. https://burgenstockresort. com/en

The Lubo Prices from CHF 120 to 250 CHF for a double room per night (depending on the season) www.the-lubo. ch/en/

For more information on Lucerne luzern.com/en and Switzerland MySwitzerland. com

lunch at Rugistübli, located right next to the spa.

For the ultimate spa experience, it has to be the five star Bürgenstock Hotel & Alpine Spa (burgenstockresort.com/en)

The luxurious retreat is the epitome of understated elegance, set on a forested ridge 500 metres above Lake Lucerne, with panoramic views that have really have the wow factor.

Bürgenstock has a rich history: the historic hotel was built in 1873 and was a magnet for the European rich and famous including Hollywood stars given its idyllic location.

In the Bürgenstock Hotel there are 102 rooms and suites, all have the wow factor – with the best views guaranteed.

As well as its three championship tennis courts, bike paths and walking trails, the 152.8m Hammetschwand lift (the highest exterior lift in Europe), a nine-hole golf course, 69-seater cinema, kids’ club, the hotel has an award-winning Alpine spa which lays claim to be Switzerland’s largest spa – all 10,000 square metres of it.

This offers the ultimate spa experience, spread over three floors, with its five pools including an outdoor infinity pool which is cantilevered over the property to make you feel as if you are floating, offering perfect views of Mount Pilatus, Mount Rigi and Lake Lucerne.

The spa also has 13 luxurious treatment rooms staffed by highly experienced therapists. I opted for

an hour-long KOS Paris Full Body Invigorating Massage that consisted of delicately scented oils applied to the skin as the therapist performed a series of stretching movements to release stress and tension through soft kneading motions. Bliss.

Bürgenstock has a choice of ten restaurants and bars offering a range of eating and dining options. For lunch, we enjoyed a delicious vegan-friendly vitality salad followed by pan-seared sea bass with vialone nano risotto, saffron beurre blanc and wild broccoli during lunch at The Lakeside Bar & Cigar Lounge. The lounge has floor to ceiling windows spanning six metres, offering huge views of Lake Lucerne and the mountains.

Another foodie highlight was dinner at Spices. Housed in a glass box, suspended 450 metres above the lake, the restaurant offers an excellent choice of Asian cuisine, bringing authentic cooking and fabulous flavours from Japan, Thailand, India and China, perfect for the resort’s international clientele. We opted for the Chef’s Menu and every dish was exceptional and service matched perfectly.

A weekend in Lucerne delivers on the wellbeing stakes – with a chance to enjoy fresh air, take in the truly incredible views, be at one with nature, and relax and feel rejuvenated. With its vast choice of wellness offerings, visitors can experience wellbeing at both ends of the budget and feel like they have turned back the clock every minute spent in Lucerne.

SWISS VISTA: Bürgenstock Hotel & Alpine Spa

The town by the lough

BY CATRIONA GRAY

ENNISKILLEN, from the Irish: Inis Ceithleann meaning “Kathleen’s Island”, is located almost exactly in the centre of Co. Fermanagh on the natural island which separates the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne.

Enniskillen Castle, on the edge of the lough, was first built in the 15th century and has played a key role in the town ever since. The castle holds two museums: the Fermanagh County Museum explores the county’s traditional rural life and local crafts; the Inniskillings Museum covers the military history of the region, displaying memorabilia dating back to the 17th century.

Enniskillen Castle was the former headquarters of two famous regiments, the Inniskilling Dragoons (or Dragoon Guards) and the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. By the way, ‘Inniskilling’ is not some bad pun with regards the main occupation of soldiers; it is merely an older misconstruction on the original Irish name Inis Ceithleann.

The regiment’s influence has (possibly) been felt on the other side of the Atlantic – it has been argued that the US national anthem The Star Spangled Banner is derived from an Inniskilling marching tune, perhaps originally written by O’Carolan.

The museum tells stories of campaigns the soldiers have been involved in, from the jungles of Malaya –º to, well, fighting with the Fermanagh locals.

Castle quest

They have plenty of castles in this part of Ireland. You can take the Castle to Castle 5km cycle to Castle Coole, on the outskirts of the town. Even the most laid back tourist is likely to find themselves gasping at the riches of

Castle Coole. One of Ireland’s great neo-classical houses and the former family home of the Earls of Belmore, it is simply exquisite. If you only visit one stately home per year, this has to be very high on your short list. Inside, the opulence of the Regency interior with its rich decoration and furniture wall have you reeling.

A visit below stairs (servant’s tunnel, laundry, stable yard, butler’s quarters) will give you some idea of how a Big House functioned.

Downtown

Back in the town there’s plenty to see. Like The Buttermarket, a collection of 16 studios, galleries, shops and cafés in the heart of Enniskillen. Don’t miss Headhunters Barber Shop and Railway Museum, one of the few places in these islands where you can see one of the largest collections of railway memorabilia and get a trim at the same time.

(Railway Museum & Headhunters’ Barber Shop, 5 Darling Street, Enniskillen, wwwheadhuntersmuseum.com)

The steeples quote

Winston Churchill probably uttered the most famous words ever about Fermanagh and its neighbouring county. In 1922 he told the House of Commons “The whole map of Europe has changed, but as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again.”

He was, of course, not referring to the architectural shortcomings of southwest Ulster, rather the intractable religio-political struggle which at one time seemed beyond solution

One hundred and one years after Winston’s words, it is not just the map of Europe that has changed, but the whole world. And remarkably, the area Winston referred to is at peace. Indeed, to wax lyrical for a moment, you could say that it is an oasis of tranquility, a refuge of peace in an increasingly fraught world.

The steeples as mentioned by Winston Churchill are still here, dominating the town. Dreary on a wet autumn day, perhaps, but impressive nonetheless. St MacCartan’s, aka Enniskillen Cathedral, is visible from just about everywhere in town. Inside, the old colours of the Enniskillen regiments are on show. The amount of military memorabilia in all of the Church of Ireland’s cathedrals in the Six Counties is quite astounding.

Almost opposite St MacCartans is St Michael’s Catholic Church, built in the French Gothic style. The steeples continue with the Methodist Church in Darling Street, the Presbyterian Church in East Bridge Street and the

Convent Chapel in Belmore Street.

Drinking and dining

Enniskillen is well supplied with pubs, with some of the oldest drinking establishments in Ireland jostling for space among the steeples. Blakes of The Hollow (Church Street) is renowned for a perfect pint. One of the most famous pubs in the locality (and beyond), it has been frequented by writers, poets and, of course, the ordinary thirsty folk of Fermanagh. The author John McGahern, said: “I have been going to Blakes of The Hollow for close to 20 years and think of it as one of the happiest and most beautiful bars in the whole of Ireland.” The people at HBO who made Game of Thrones obviously agreed – their ‘Door of Thrones’ is in fact a door here in this Enniskillen pub.

Magee’s Spirit Store (21 East Bridge Street) is renowned as a music pub. Local man Neil Hannon, of Divine Comedy regards it as his favourite pub, and it’s not difficult to see why – it’s friendly, comfortable, full of locals, and while resolutely traditional, somewhat incongruously offers some superb New York cocktails.

The Horseshoe and Saddlers (66 Belmore Street, Enniskillen) has a solid reputation for good Guinness and fine restaurant upstairs.

MacNean House & Restaurant Main Street, is technically speaking in another international jurisdiction. McNean’s is nonetheless included here because it would be a travesty to come this far and not visit one of Ireland’s finest restaurants. It’s a 20 minute drive from Fermanagh.

Playtime

Fermanagh Lakeland Forum has all manner of facilities: swimming pools, soft play areas, sports hall (badminton, squash) plus a huge variety of water sports. The centre is situated on the shores of Lough Erne.

The complex is open to everyone – holidaymakers, locals, sportspeople and water activity enthusiasts.

Blakes of the Hollow, Enniskillen Picture: Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland

Enniskillen, the county seat of Fermanagh, is an oasis of tranquility and relaxation

Erne Water Taxi, Enniskillen Picture: Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland

B. Movers

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Neither The Irish Post or its employees can be held responsible for the failure of advertisers to meet any of their responsibilities.

GERTRUDE O’CONNOR

It is with great sadness that the family announce that Gertrude passed away on 29th April 2023, aged 89 years at North Middlesex Hospital.

Loving wife of the late Mr Richard O’Connor, devoted mum to Bernadette, Liam, Thomas and Carmel, and much-loved nan to Victoria, Daniel, Ryan and Jack.

Gertrude will be sadly missed by all her family and friends. Funeral Service to take place at St Edmund’s RC Church on Friday 9th June at 12pm. Family flowers only please Donations if desired can be sent directly to the British Heart Foundation. All enquiries to:

Pepper and Phillips, High St, Hoddesdon Tel. 01992 447171

Tenth Anniversary

l May 31, 2023 l

ANNE CLIFFORD (neé Rooney)

native of Glencar, Co. Sligo

Passed away on Friday, May 31, 2013. She is remembered fondly by her children Margaret, Bernadette, Tim and Siobhan, and all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Also remembering Anne’s son Peter, who sadly passed away in December 2017.

SPORT

Waterford FC owner Andy Pilley convicted of fraud

Businessman Pilley found guilty and remanded into custody

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

ANDY Pilley (52), the owner of Waterford FC and Fleetwood Town, will be sentenced next month after being convicted on four counts of fraud in Britain. Pilley took charge of Waterford last August.

Following his conviction on counts of fraudulent trading, fraud by false representation, and involvement in the acquisition, retention, use, or control of the proceeds of fraudulently mis-sold energy contracts, Andy Pilley was remanded in custody.

Pilley was found guilty of two counts of running a business with the intention of defrauding creditors, one count of false representation and one count of being concerned with the retention of criminal property.

Three other people were also convicted.

A hearing took place at Preston Crown Court last week, where he was informed that his sentencing would

occur on July 3. The judge warned him to expect a significant custodial sentence.

National Trading Standards has disclosed further details regarding the offences committed. The fraud scheme revolved around a network of interconnected companies that deceived unsuspecting small businesses across the UK into entering long-term energy contracts between 2014 and 2016.

The League of Ireland First Division team, Waterford FC, issued a statement to reassure their supporters that the club will continue to operate as usual and that there will be no risk to its future. Waterford’s statement read: “Waterford Football Club would like to reassure supporters the club will continue to operate as normal and there will be no risk to the future of the club.

“The club’s senior management team and directors have been planning for a number of months for the event of a verdict of this nature.

“A meeting of the club’s management

has taken place this morning [Saturday, May 20] and plans are already in operation to ensure it’s business as usual. We’d like to reassure supporters that charges are solely brought against Andy Pilley and not Waterford Football Club, Fleetwood Town Football Club, or any of the businesses attached to the group.

“An announcement regarding the next step will be made in due course.”

Pilley is also the owner of Fleetwood Town in the English Football League. The club released their own statement last week around the matter. It read: “Fleetwood Town would like to reassure supporters the club will continue to operate as normal and there will be no risk to the future of the club.

“Charges are solely brought against Andy Pilley and not Fleetwood Town Football Club or any of the businesses attached to the group. Talks have already taken place with the EFL and an announcement regarding the next step will be made in due course.

Ireland women to make Aviva debut

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

THE Ireland women’s national team will play at the Aviva Stadium for the first time on Saturday, September 23.

Following talks between the Football Association of Ireland, the Irish Football Association and UEFA, the opening game of the 2023-24 UEFA Women’s Nations League against Northern Ireland will kick off at 13:00. After being drawn into Group B1 in League B, alongside Northern Ireland, Hungary and Albania, Vera Pauw’s team were originally set to start the new competition on Friday, September 22.

FAI CEO Jonathan Hill said: “We are extremely proud to be able to announce the first-ever Ireland Women’s National Team game at our national stadium, the Aviva Stadium, with what will be the first game for the team after their return from the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“Football for women and girls has clearly moved a significant way forward in the last three years, much of it driven by the inspirational performance by Vera Pauw and the team but also on the back of our equal pay agreement in 2021 and the hard work of thousands of coaches and volunteers the length and breadth of the country who are inspiring women’s football to new highs. We are all very excited that another glass ceiling has been removed.”

Ireland WNT Manager Vera Pauw said: “It is fantastic to know that our players will get to play in such an iconic stadium – one of the best in the world! Playing in the national stadium is another big jump forward for our team and we encourage our supporters to come out to get behind the team.

“We have had outstanding support in recent years in Tallaght Stadium – who we remain extremely grateful to –but we always said that if the right opportunity to play in the Aviva Stadium came along then we would look at it. This is that right opportunity and we want to have a record

attendance to cheer the team on in their first game after the World Cup.

“On behalf of the players and staff, I’d like to thank everyone at the FAI who has made this happen. Playing this game in the Aviva Stadium can be a game-changer for women and girls’ football in Ireland.”

Ticket details will be confirmed in due course, while WNT Season Tickets will be valid for this fixture.

Dan Sheehan is Players’ Player of the Season

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

DAN Sheehan, the Leinster hooker, has been recognised as the Player’s Player of the Season for the 2022/23 BKT United Rugby Championship. The award is based on a ballot where the captains and vice-captains of the league’s teams cast their votes.

Sheehan, a Dublin native, has scored eight tries for Leinster this year and also scored in Ireland’s Grand Slam 29-16 bonuspoint victory over a 14-man England side in March. His try tally for the year totaled 14 times in 24 games for both province and country this season.

Leinster’s URC title bid was ended by Munster in the semi-finals, and a week later, Leinster were defeated in the Champions Cup final by La Rochelle. Sheehan scored two tries in the defeat

suffered at the hands of Ronan O’Gara’s side.

The 24-year-old was also nominated within the URC’s Dream Team and was also nominated in the Men’s XV and Men’s Young Player of the Year categories previously.

URC AWARDS 2022/23 WINNERS

Top Try Scorer: Tom Stewart (Ulster)

Tackle Machine: John Hodnett (Munster)

Turnover King: Thomas Young (Cardiff Rugby)

Try of the Season: Joaquin

Riera (Benetton Rugby – Treviso, Italy)

Gilbert Golden Boot: Johan

Goosen (Vodacom Bulls – South Africa)

Ironman: Quan Horn (Emirates Lions – South Africa)

BKT Coach of the Season: Franco Smith (Glasgow Warriors)

AWAITING SENTENCING: Andy Pilley Picture: Getty Images

POWERFUL DEFENDER: Katie McCabe Picture: Getty Images

Warwickshire fend off gutsy Herts

All-Britain Football Championship, Semi-final

WARWICKSHIRE      2-10  (16)  HERTFORDSHIRE    0-09  (9)

BY ANTHONY MCLAUGHLIN AT PÁIRC NA HÉIREANN, BIRMINGHAM

FOR a sixth successive All-Britain Championship, Warwickshire will contest the final game.

Last Sunday’s victory over a determined Hertfordshire outfit means Charlie O’Donnell’s side earns an immediate opportunity to try and wrestle back the Sam Maguire lost to London in 2022. The only team to go unbeaten so far in the 2023 edition was pushed to the limit before Louis Monaghan’s late goal ultimately ended the contest.

Despite what proved a seven-point defeat, there were plenty of positives for Hertfordshire to take back down the motorway in what has been a season of progression for this developing panel of players, one that they will aim to build on next season after securing promotion to Group A in 2024. Indeed, when Warwickshire were reduced to fourteen midway through the second-half after goalkeeper James Connolly was sent to the side for ten

minutes, Hertfordshire trailed by just the three points with momentum starting to build. Yet they were unable to create that vital goal scoring opportunity as Warwickshire’s shape held firm, the home side defiantly redoubtable at the right time to secure their passage.

A bright start from Warwickshire was encapsulated by Jack Keogh’s scoring spree, two scores from play preceding the Roger Casement’s forward shimmying through the Hertfordshire defence to roll the ball beyond Diarmuid McGowan and over the

goal line. Points from Ryan Barker and Piers McGlynn were reward for Hertfordshire’s forward application but they were almost caught out on the right when Jack Ferron raced through free on goal only to loop the ball wide of target. Further scores from Paddy Kilkenny and Eoghan O’Sullivan were negated by a McGlynn brace (one free) which Hertfordshire followed up with another point from play just before half-time, the buoyant visitors heading to the side line just two points behind.

The teams traded scores at the start of the second period before Warwickshire stretched back out to a four-point lead through O’Sullivan and Joel Powney (free) but when Connolly was caught for a trip during a Hertfordshire attack, Conal Dowling took up residence between the sticks with his team a man light. With Warwickshire weathering those ten minutes well, substitutes Ryan Flanagan and Monaghan secured the game and progression to the final, the St. Brendan’s forward last man in a sweeping counter-attack slamming a shot beyond McGowan.

Last weekend’s Northern Games proved another success for Lancashire GAA both on and off the field at Broughton Park, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham returned to endorse his support for the event which saw competition involving over one thousand children from both Britain and Ireland. Manchester’s St.

Peter’s lifted silverware at Under-15 and Under-13 levels in the boy’s competition, alongside JFK Leeds who lifted the Under-17 Cup defeating a Cú Chulainn’s community team from Ulster. In the girl’s competition there was success for Dunedin Connolly’s at Under-16 level while Birmingham’s John Mitchel’s enjoyed double success at Under-14 and Under-12 levels.

This Saturday sees the return of the Coley Folan Memorial Tournament hosted by Sean McDermott’s, in what is the tenth anniversary of the event. It’s set to be a huge occasion with underage representation of clubs from both Britain and Ireland, the festivities get underway on Saturday morning at 9.30am at the Land Rover Sports & Social Club in Solihull (postcode B92 9LN).

Teams:

WARWICKSHIRE: J Connolly; C Maguire, N McGovern, J Chapman; P Kilkenny (0-1), M Mannion, S Doyle; M McGettrick, S Dirrane; E O’Sullivan (0-2), J Keogh (1-5), N Gilbride; J Ferron, C Dowling, J Powney (0-1, 1f). Subs: R Flanagan (0-1, for Ferron 38); L Gilbride (for Maguire 44); M McAleer (for McGettrick 48); L Monaghan (1-0, for O’Sullivan 55).

HERTFORDSHIRE: D McGowan; O Murphy, B Egan, P Kilpatrick; D Gallagher, F Ginty, L Duffy; S McMonagle, J McGee; J Colgan (0-3, 1f), J Maguire, P McGlynn (0-5, 1f); A Jarvis, C Carney, R Barker (0-1). Subs:   Referee: N. Mulvenna

Rafter rallies London to another All-Britain decider

All-Britain Football Championship, Semi-final  LONDON               2-18  (24)  LANCASHIRE       1-15  (18)

BY ANTHONY MCLAUGHLIN AT PÁIRC NA HÉIREANN, BIRMINGHAM

STEPHEN Lynch’s All-Britain Champions will return to defend their provincial title in just over a fortnight’s time, seeing off a determined Lancashire challenge last Sunday in Birmingham. London will return to Páirc na hÉireann to take on Warwickshire in the third instalment of a rivalry that’s seen both counties claim one title apiece to date. Both teams met in Watford in the early stages of this competition with Warwickshire emerging worthy victors but since then London have chalked up backto-back victories on the road against a Lancashire team that for large periods in the semi-final looked to be firmly in the hunt. Alfie McNulty’s goal midway through the secondhalf proved a real stinger for Lancashire though, chasing down a fourpoint deficit from half-time Conor Milligan’s re-shuffled pack looked to be gaining momentum until the St

Claret’s man struck from a tight angle on the left. It meant Lancashire had to roll the dice in the final quarter, a challenge London were able to absorb and ultimately prevail over.

The boot of Sean Micheál

O’Connor propelled Lancashire into the lead early on before London struck a purple patch to turn the tide. Tighe Barry reduced the arrears to one before star forward Shay Rafter grabbed his third score of the half and the Tara man could have found the net with his fourth score but instead drilled a closerange effort over the Lancashire crossbar. Barry popped over a second from play before Rafter raced in again from the right only to slice his shot wide of the far post.

O’Connor hit back for Lancashire but then moments before the interval London made their incision count as yet again a move down the right instigated by Rafter presented a waiting Connor Spinks with the easiest of taps into the net.

The Parnell’s man struck his sides first point of the second-half but Lancashire noticeably improved with Ryan Devine scoring off a mark before reacting the quickest to the breaking ball, the St Brendan’s man instinctively booting the ball into

the net. London rallied with McNulty and Rafter scores but Lancashire continued to press as O’Connor tapped over two more close range frees while his fellow John Mitchel’s man James McDade was only denied a goal chance thanks to a last-ditch defensive intervention.

Yet just when Lancashire were starting to show promise London hit what proved their crucial second

goal from McNulty. Kiefer Morgan came off the bench to point for Lancashire before O’Connor scored from another free but London kept their buffer thanks to two scores from Spinks (one free) and another Rafter point who was omnipresent for his side. Lancashire tried to create goal chances in the final moments but could only muster one half-chance that was firmly blocked

away for a forty-five as London absorbed what was thrown at them. It’s a victory that confirms both London’s third successive All-Britain Final and a return to the All-Ireland Junior Championship in July. They’ve been on the road since Round One and while the rocky road to Dublin in the All-Ireland awaits, attentions now focus on trying to defend their All-Britain title on a path well worn.

Teams:

LONDON: F Beckles; E Reilly, P O’Connor, S McGoldrick; M Tierney (0-1), A McNulty (1-1), R O’Connell; R Lennon, R Forde; C Griffin (0-1), S Rafter (0-7), T Barry (0-2); R Kearney, C Spinks (1-5, 4f), R McCready.

Subs: C Houlihan (for McGoldrick 40); S O’Halloran (for Kearney 48); J Murphy (0-1, for McCready 52); C Cronin (for O’Connell 56).

LANCASHIRE: M Walsh; O Kirk, N Murray, B McGilligan; C Chada, J Mullan (0-1), J McDade; E Meaney, C Ryan; M O’Hanlon, O Kirk (0-2), SM O’Connor (0-9, 6f); R Devlin (1-2), J Dobbin, K Jackson. Subs: K Morgan (0-1, Chada 38); C Connolly (for Meaney 38).

Referee: M. Hanley

MAKING GROUND: Kiefer Morgan on the ball for Lancashire

DETERMINED RUN: Jack Keogh of Warwickshire rounds Peter Kilpatrick

Croke Park unlikely for any Taylor Cameron rematch

LADIES’ FIRST

The Ireland women’s national soccer team will make their debut at Aviva Stadium in September

Page 26 Contact

All-Britain competition scheduled for July

GAA event for clubs and schools will take place in Ruislip and Greenford

PROMOTER Eddie Hearn has hinted that the chances of Katie Taylor v Chantelle Cameron rematch at Croke Park is unlikely.

Taylor and Cameron competed for the Super Lightweight title, and it was Cameron, from Northampton, who emerged victorious.

Cameron displayed a more aggressive approach throughout the 10-round contest, securing a majority decision win (95-95, 96-94, 96-94) and retained all her titles. This defeat marked Taylor’s first since the 2016 Olympics.

There has been talk of a rematch taking place, but Cameron has stated that it will be on her terms.

A venue that has been touted as a possible rematch destination is Croke Park in Dublin. After talks between the GAA and Matchroom, Dublin’s 3Arena was chosen as the venue for the May 20 fight.

Speaking on Ariel Helwani’s YouTube channel, Hearn suggested that Dublin’s docklands venue would be a far more likely choice for a rematch.

Hearn also went on to admit that a defeat in the rematch for Taylor at the age of 37 could mean retirement for the boxing superstar.

“You lose again, it could be retirement. Back-to-back defeats at this stage in your career... For Katie, you’ve got the Serrano fight there, but right now the Serrano fight is right at the back of her mind.

“All she’s thinking about is Chantelle Cameron and revenge. Beat Chantelle Cameron and you have Serrano and all these other fights.

“Lose to Chantelle Cameron, you could maybe come back down and rematch Serrano at 135, but you’re coming off two defeats.”

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

THIS year, the annual All-Britain Competition will take place from July 6-9 at two venues in London.

Entering its 11th year, the tournament is a festival of Gaelic Games for clubs and schools in Britain.

The event that catered from U7 to U17 is scheduled for Tír Chonaill Gaels in Greenford and McGovern Park, Ruislip this coming July.

Over 100 volunteers from all over Britain will assist with the running of the event and due to their hard work, Ruislip is being added as a second venue for the 2023 event.

It is testament to the efforts of GAA’s organisers that the event continues to grow year on year. The diversity of the games is very refreshing to see

Britain GAA’s Head of Games Development and Operations, Stephen Lavery said: “Expanding to the two venue format is a huge logistical feat, but one the ABC

committee have been working hard on since October of last year,” he explains.

“This year there are going to be roughly 700 games across the two venues over the four days. It is a pretty phenomenal achievement, really.”

The ABC committee have been meeting since October last year to begin planning for this year’s event.

The event will be sponsored by The Irish Post, ESB, and O’Neills again this year Commenting on the continued partnership, The Irish Post said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring the ABC’s this year in its 11th year.

“Last year’s turnout after a delay with Covid was something very special.

“It was great to see so many old and new faces enjoy our national games once again, and this year should be no different

‘It is testament to the efforts of GAA’s organisers that the event continues to grow year on year. The diversity of the games is very refreshing to see and long may it continue.

‘We know that this year’s event will be extra special. If the weather is anything like it has been for so many years before, we should be in for a treat.

TROPHY HAUL: The ABCs – so successful in 2022 – is continuing to grow in its 11th year

CAMERON ATTACKS: Chantelle Cameron, left, and Katie Taylor at DUblin’s 3Arena

Picture: Getty Images