The Irish Post - May 6, 2023

MUSICAL MILESTONE

The Dubliners’ song that helped bring Irish music to the world stage

See Page 14

WATERY BYWAYS

Gwen Wilkinson’s travels round Ireland by canoe

See Rí-Rá

BRISTOL CITY FC DISPLAYS TOXIC LOYALIST MESSAGE

Big screen appears to congratulate loyalist killer Michael Stone on Milltown massacre

BY GERARD DONAGHY

A MESSAGE congratulating loyalist killer Michael Stone for murdering three Catholics in the Milltown massacre was shown on the big screen at English Championship club Bristol City.

The message, which was phrased as a note of congratulations for a football victory, was displayed at the club’s Ashton Gate ground at half time during their defeat to Burnley last weekend.

The club has since apologised for the error, saying it will review its checking procedures to avoid a similar incident in future.

Images of the message on the big screen were shared on social media in the wake of City’s 2-1 home defeat

to champions Burnley.

It read: “Congratulations Michael Stone on beating Milltown 3-0 in the cup final – from dad!”

The innocuous-looking message was in fact a reference to Stone’s murder of three Catholics at Milltown Cemetery on March 16, 1988.

During the funeral of three IRA members shot in Gibraltar two weeks earlier, Stone attacked mourners with hand grenades.

As he fled the scene, a group of mourners gave chase, only for Stone to open fire on his pursuers with a pistol, killing Thomas McErlean, 20, John Murray, 26, and Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh, 30.

More than 60 people were injured in the attack.

Irishman killed fighting in Ukraine

BY MAL ROGERS

A MAN from Achill Island has been killed in Ukraine.

Finbar Cafferkey, who was in his 40s, died while fighting Russian forces, his family has told Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

Mr Cafferkey is understood to have travelled to the country to assist local forces.

A spokesman for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs said the department was aware of the case and was providing consular assistance.

Mr Cafferkey was killed while battling Russian forces near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, his family confirmed. He was serving as a military volunteer and had previous combat experience in the Syrian conflict. Friends said he was known to be an activist on environmental and human rights issues.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin expressed his sympathies to his family and said Mr Cafferkey was “obviously a young man of clear principles”.

On foot of this, the Russian embassy

In 1989, Stone was sentenced to life in prison for the murders, but was released in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

Following Saturday’s game, Bristol City said the display of the message was a ‘serious error’.

“Bristol City would like to sincerely apologise for any offence caused by a message displayed on the screen,” read a statement.

“We acknowledge that this was a serious error and the message that was sent into the club, one of many messages received and displayed on match days during the season, should never have got through our checking procedures.

“We will now review those processes and take every step to

issued a warning to the Irish government. In a statement headed ‘Embassy of Russia in Ireland’ it said: “Every loss of life is sad and regretful.

“We do not know who Finbar Cafferkey was, except that for whatever reason he was fighting in a foreign land.

“We do not know what his principles were. What we do know, though, is that in a very big way it is the Irish Government and media who bear responsibility for the death of Finbar Cafferkey.

“It has been the Government and media who have been promoting anti-Russian propaganda, distorting the truth about the conflict in Ukraine, misleading people like Finbar Cafferkey.

avoid something like this happening again.”

At his 1989 trial, Stone was also convicted of shooting three other Catholics prior to his attack at Milltown Cemetery.

Six years after his release, in November 2006, he attempted to enter Stormont armed with an array of weapons including a pistol, pipe bombs, a knife, axe and garrotte.

He was arrested and later found guilty of attempting to murder Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, despite his defence that the incident was a piece of performance art.

He was jailed for 16 years in December 2008 before being released on parole in 2021.

“Now they face the results of their own efforts,” it said. “We also do not know if Mr Martin’s remarks signify support for the Irish to take part in combat in Ukraine, but we do know that if that is the case, then Ireland would be the direct participant of the conflict with all the ensuing consequences.”

Former Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan tweeted that the message from the Russian Embassy was “threatening, intimidating and chilling”.

“These hostile remarks are unacceptable,” he said, adding that it was “beyond time” that the Russian ambassador Yury Filatov and “his crew were asked to leave our country”.

STORMONT 2006: Michael Stone at the time of his detention Picture: Getty Images

Escape from Sudan

BY MAL ROGERS

A JOINT Irish Defence Forces and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has been deployed to Djibouti and Cyprus to assist Irish citizens, residents and visa holders being evacuated to Cyprus from Sudan amid the evolving situation in the country.

One man who fled Sudan and is now safely back home in Derry has said he is thankful to be alive.

Brian McDaid, a teacher at an international school in Sudan, sheltered in a basement with his family in Khartoum. Fighting between the military and paramilitary groups continued with the sound of bombs, heavy gunfire and shelling getting ever closer to their shelter, according to the BBC

Mr McDaid, an Irish passport holder, was flown out of the country via neighbouring Djibouti with his family by the Spanish military.

EU countries are co-ordinating the evacuation for all EU citizens.

Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle’s The North West Today, Mr McDaid said when fighting broke out his family took refuge in their basement.

Mr McDaid said that being non-Sudanese, he became “very self-conscious” that there could be some resentment towards him from rival forces.

As an Irish passport holder, Mr McDaid said he got a call from Irish officials on Sunday morning advising him to go to the Spanish ambassador’s residence in Khartoum.

Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly moves out of Windsor estate

KING Charles has gifted the late Queen’s dresser Angela Kelly a new home to honour a promise made by his mother, reports the Mail on Sunday. Angela Kelly (65) a Catholic Liverpool woman, whose parents Thomas and Teresa emigrated from Ireland, was Queen Elizabeth’s dresser. She was brought up on a council estate in Liverpool where Thomas was a dock worker, and Teresa a nurse.

It was believed that Ms Kelly, 65, was promised lifelong accommodation by Queen Elizabeth. But within months of the Queen’s death, the dressmaker was asked to vacate her cottage on the Windsor estate, as first revealed in the Mail on Sunday She has been granted accommodation by the King for the rest of her life. A source close to the Palace said that Ms Kelly

had been given a new home, believed to be near Guiseley in Yorkshire. According to the MoS, King Charles has bought the property, which will revert to the Crown on her death. Despite her somewhat modest beginnings, Angela Kelly rose to become, not only

the Queen’s stylist, hairdresser, dressmaker and aide, but also a confidante. She was renowned among courtiers and the rest of the Queen’s staff as someone with ‘a forceful personality’. She was also known as AK47, and is believed to have been unpopular with some members of the royal family.

Ms Kelly was able to devote her life to the Queen as she was a divorcee – she has been divorced three times. In a ddition to dressing the Queen and offering her advice, Kelly also travelled with the Queen on her official trips both at home and abroad. She is believed to have advocated very strongly that the Queen wear green on her state visit to Ireland in 2011.

In a recent post on Instagram, Ms Kelly confirmed that she would be leaving the Windsor estate.

Irish to be heard at the coronation for first time

Words in the Irish language will be sung at the coronation of King Charles III

BY GERARD DONGHY

THE IRISH language will be spoken at the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday.

The ceremony to formally invest the monarch with regal powers takes place at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, April 6. Lambeth Palace, the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has now published the liturgy for the ceremony, which confirms Irish will feature in the event for the first time.

“I am delighted that the service will recognise and celebrate tradition, speaking to the great history of our nation, our customs, and those who came before us,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

“At the same time, the service contains new elements that reflect the diversity of our contemporary society.”

Among the new additions to the ceremony will be the use of Irish for one of the hymns.

Veni Creator will be sung in Irish, as well

as Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, while it will be preceded by a prayer in Welsh.

The Irish text of the hymn that will be used reads:

Go dtí dhíot gurb aithnid dúinn an tAthair Mhac, a Spioraid, a rún, Tú leoan Triúr i néinphearsa Creidimis ionaibh tré bhiotha na mbeatha.

While not a literal translation, the corresponding English text reads:

Teach us to know the Father, Son, And thee, of both, to be but One. That, through the ages all along, This may be our endless song.

The hymn has been used in coronations since the 14th century but this will be the first time it has been sung in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish.

In another historic gesture, Michael D. Higgins is expected to be a guest at the coronation, becoming the first Irish head of state to attend the crowning of a British monarch.

“We also do not know if Mr Martin’s remarks signify support for the Irish to take part in combat in Ukraine, but we do know that if that is the case, then Ireland would be the direct participant of the conflict with all the ensuing consequences.”

A threatening message from the Russian Embassy in Dublin, responding to remarks that Tánaiste Micheál Martin made with regards the death of Mayo man Finbar Cafferkey who was fighting alongside Ukraine forces.

“I am an Irish republican. I also recognise there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion. I am committed to being a First Minister for all, representing the whole community, building good relations between the people of these islands, and advancing peace and reconciliation through respectful and mature engagement.”

First Minister Designate Michelle O’Neill explaining why she is attending the coronation this Saturday.

“I look out on the ocean and, especially, I look out on to the Atlantic. You just think of Aisling out there, you know?”

John Butler, the father of Dr Aisling Butler who was one of the 228 people on board Air France flight 447 which came down in the Atlantic. Air France and Airbus were both found innocent of charges of involuntary manslaughter last week. Aisling’s body was never recovered.

“Bristol City would like to sincerely apologise for any offence caused by a message displayed on the screen.”

A statement from the football club which ran a ‘message’ from convicted loyalist killer Michael Stone on their big screen.

“If they had asked me, which they didn’t, I think that would have been interesting because you feel as if you could have got some points on the board.”

Former Republic football coach Martin O’Neill, revealing that he might have been persuaded to take over at Leicester City for a second stint.

Angela Kelly Picture: Getty Images

ON DUTY: Séamus the Irish Guards mascot along with troops from the regiment rehearsing for their part in the coronation Picture: Getty Images

Acquittal in air crash that killed three Irish doctors

Air France and Airbus are cleared of involuntary

manslaughter in relation to Flight 447 which plunged into the Atlantic in 2009 killing all aboard

BY MAL ROGERS

A FRENCH court has acquitted Air France and Airbus on charges of involuntary manslaughter over a crash in June 2009 which killed all 228 people on board.

Air France and aircraft maker Airbus faced the charges in the Paris Criminal Court.

The case related to Air France Flight 447, a scheduled service from Brazil to Paris in June 2009, in which an Airbus A330 plunged into the Atlantic.

Part of the evidence focused on pilot training, pilot error and a defective speed-monitoring probe called a pitot tube. The latter had malfunctioned, probably due to icing.

Three Irish women – Dr Aisling Butler (26) of Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, Dr Jane Deasy (27) from Dublin and Dr Eithne Walls, 28, from Ballygowan, Co. Down – were among the 228 people killed when the plane went down.

The three had studied medicine together in Trinity College Dublin and were returning from a holiday in Brazil.

The Airbus A330 has stalled during a storm, and the pilot and co-pilot were unable to correct the attitude of the plane during the storm. The nose came down and the crew were unable to correct the situation. The captain was initially not in the cockpit at the time – he was on a scheduled rest break.

But the French court in its ruling

said that even if errors had been committed by the pilots on duty, a causal link between them and the crash could not be proved.

“Looking at the science at the time, no criminal liability seems to me to be applicable,” one of the magistrates said, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV State prosecutors had taken the unusual step of admitting to the court that it was “impossible” to pin the blame on either company, BFMTV reported. However, pilot error was mentioned as a possible cause, although lawyers or Air France said that the full reasons for the crash will never be known.

David Learmount, an aviation expert and former Royal Air Force pilot, told Prime Time on RTÉ: “The plane had been travelling at a normal cruising altitude when the pilots became aware of tropical storms ahead. They knew how to avoid those,” he said, “but, all of a sudden, an external sensor got blocked by ice crystals.”

The plane then sent an alert to the pilots to inform them that the autopilot function had been switched off – to let them know that they were now in full control. “Their reaction to this situation was very surprising,” Mr Learmount said. “I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly why they reacted as they did, except that it was panic.”

Families of the victims sobbed when the verdict was given. They

appeared stunned, although some reacted with anger, with shouts being directed at the magistrates and the lawyers.

“That is the part of the decision that we cannot – we do not – know how to be satisfied by, because nothing in our world, in our age, can justify that 228 people took a flight leaving Rio for Paris and never landed,” David Koubbi, a lawyer representing some of the families of victims of the crash, told BFMTV after the court was adjourned.

The BBC reports that Danièle Lamy, the president of the association which represents the victims, said the families were “disgusted” that their long fight for justice had come to nothing.

“All that remains of these 14 years of waiting is despair, dismay and anger,” Ms Lamy said.

Air France and Airbus had always denied the charges, for which they were facing a maximum fine of €225,000 (£200,000; $247,000).

The court said there had been several acts of negligence by both companies, but that there was not enough certainty to hold Airbus and Air France liable for the crash.

“A probable causal link isn’t sufficient to characterise an offence,” the judge said in her statement before a packed courtroom.

Air France expressed “its deepest sympathy” to the relatives and Airbus reaffirmed its “total commitment (...) in terms of aviation safety”.

Michelle O’Neill confirms attendance at coronation

BY GERARD DONAGHY

SINN FÉIN’S Michelle O’Neill has revealed she has accepted an invitation to the coronation of King Charles III.

The party’s Vice-President has said she will attend the event along with colleague Alex Maskey, Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Ms O’Neill, the First Minister Designate following Sinn Féin’s success in the May 2022 Assembly Election, said she recognised the importance of the coronation.

“We are living in a time of great change,” she said.

“A time to respect our differing and equally legitimate aspirations, a time to firmly focus on the future and the opportunities that the next decade will bring.

“I am an Irish Republican. I also

recognise there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion.

“I am committed to being a First Minister for all, representing the whole community, building good relations between the people

of these islands, and advancing peace and reconciliation through respectful and mature engagement.

“Therefore, as First Minister Designate, I will join President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, international figures, church leaders, other party leaders and the Assembly Speaker Alex Maskey for the coronation in London.”

Sinn Féin became the largest party in the Assembly after last year’s elections but MLAs have been unable to take their seats due to the DUP’s refusal to form an Executive.

While the unionist party appeared to welcome Ms O’Neill’s landmark decision, it also accused Sinn Féin of trying to ‘remove every element of royalty’ from local councils.

“Michelle O’Neill’s attendance at the

All 12 crew members and 216 passengers on board were killed when the plane plunged from a height of 38,000ft (11,580m) in what was the worst incident in France’s long aviation history.

The victims came from 33 different countries.

John Butler, the father of Dr Aisling Butler who owns a haulage firm and is a part-time farmer, was among those who gave moving impact statements to the court. He told RTÉ that because Aisling’s body has never been located has made it all the harder, however. “I look out on the ocean and, especially, I look out onto the Atlantic,” he said. “You just think of Aisling out there, you know?”

coronation is an improvement on previous refusals at similar such royal occasions, but needs to be communicated to rank and file Sinn Féin elected members,” he said.

“In many minority unionist councils Sinn Féin opposed unionist plans to mark the coronation.

“If Sinn Féin truly believes in building a shared future, then they should have no problem in supporting the Union Flag being raised on all public buildings to mark the coronation.

“Sinn Féin elected members have led a campaign in councils across Northern Ireland to remove every element of royalty and aspects of Britishness.

“This decision by Michelle O’Neill must be about more than a photograph, there needs to be a change of wider policy and attitude by Sinn Féin.”

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson will also attend the coronation which takes place this Saturday, May 6.

CORONATION BOUND: Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill

ON TRIAL: Air France CEO Anne Rigail arrives at court with her defence counsel (right) and French lawyer David Koubbi (left)

Picture: Getty Images

Pictures: Getty Images

Reaching for peace

the time frame but now politics is so much more attractive to republicans than violence that it is inconceivable that they would give the gun pre-eminence again.

The political deal that was made doesn’t even work as a form of government.

It did produce some instances of amity between republicans and unionists but it provided no route to the erosion of sectarian division. Rather, it institutionalised it.

The biggest healing was in the division within the Catholic community, not between that community and the Protestant community.

It is within the Catholic community that we see former killers widely respected, the idea generally accepted that the IRA campaign had been inevitable and was even productive.

Polling suggests that 7 out of 10 Catholics agree with Michelle O’Neill that there was ‘no alternative’. The Provos are endorsed retrospectively, largely by people who don’t even remember the Troubles

This development is disastrous for any effort to reconcile with the Protestant community which will never agree that the IRA campaign was necessary and ultimately for the good of us all.

There is a similar consolidation within the Protestant community, evident in that the DUP is now the largest party and that the UUP has been sidelined like the SDLP.

But there is no similar widespread endorsement of the loyalist paramilitary campaign within unionism.

Clearly there was some interaction between some unionists and loyalist paramilitaries, most evident during the 1974 Ulster Workers’ Council Strike, when Ian Paisley Snr sat with an organising committee that included the UVF, the UDA and Ulster Vanguard when some of them were planning the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

But the scale of unionist endorsement of terror is evidently much lower than that routinely expressed by nationalists, and cheered on by louts with pseudonyms on social media.

I voted for the Agreement.

MALACHIO’DOHERTY

WE should now come down now from the giddiness around the Agreement anniversary and acknowledge what little progress Northern Ireland has made as a society emerging from sectarian division.

A lot of superficial statements have been made.

It particularly grates on me when I hear people celebrate our ‘vote for peace’.

The suggestion in that phrase is that the majority of people in Northern Ireland chose to end the violence of the previous decades; that it was somehow their responsibility.

I doubt there was ever a moment in the previous decades in Northern

Ireland when there was anything remotely like a majority in favour of violence.

The referendum on the Good Friday Agreement was a vote for political structures with the attendant promise that the paramilitary groups would endorse it and maintain their ‘cessations’.

Bill Clinton speaks of how we had shown the whole world that identity differences could be made secondary to our common humanity. Well he was right in locating the source of division here in identity differences — these being much broader than the simple question of sovereignty — but he was wrong to say that we have overcome them.

The simple fact is that the peace was delivered by those who had denied it to us, the paramilitaries, and primarily by the Provisional IRA.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the Secretary of State, came under criticism

for commending the courage of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, but he had a point.

There were threats against Adams from within his own movement.

The IRA did split and the faction that held fast to the old way of doing things had a lot of weaponry, experience and murderous intent.

But the start of the peace process was Gerry Adams agreeing to lower the bar of his expectations and the IRA, at first trying to mix intimations of peaceful intent with strategic bombings, and then accepting the political route to Irish unity.

Adams’s greatest incentive to doing this was almost certainly the prospect of political growth for Sinn Féin. And this paid off.

In the 1990s I participated in debates which included a former republican internee at Garnerville RUC Training Centre. The republican quoted an IRA man saying, “Sure if it takes another 25 years to deliver a united Ireland without war, I’ll settle for that.”

He hasn’t got his united Ireland in

I was not given the option of voting for its distortion at St Andrews in 2007 into a system favouring the further consolidation of sectarian parties and the sidelining of the SDLP and the UUP.

What was lost there was a proper consideration of the divisions that existed within rather than between the big communal blocs.

Through the peace process, John Hume worked to bring the IRA into the fold of the larger, more moderate and more practical nationalist community and he succeeded. He brought the errant cousins and brothers home. But what was lost was clear distinction in that tradition between those who endorsed violence and those who rejected it.

But some divisions are worth preserving.

And the peace process and subsequent Agreement directed us away from a possible politics in which identity really was secondary to running the place for the good of all.

So there really isn’t much to be giddy about and there’s a lot more work to be done.

I doubt there was ever a moment in the previous decades in Northern Ireland when there was anything remotely like a majority in favour of violence

Despite the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the peace process remains work in progress

REBEL HEART: A Belfast mural depicting the Easter Rising Picture: Getty Images

Tree planted in honour of man who wrote guide for first Dáil

BY FIONA AUDLEY

PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has planted a tree at Áras an Uachtaráin in memory of the former Leader of the Irish Labour Party, Tom Johnson.

Mr Johnson, who was the author of the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil, served as the first leader of the opposition in the government of Ireland from 1922 to 1927.

The president planted the tree and unveiled a commemorative plaque dedicated to the historic politician – during an event held to mark the 50th anniversary of the Irish Labour History Society.

Born in Liverpool on May 17, 1872, Johnson died 60 years ago this year on January 17, 1963. A lifelong socialist and committed trade union activist, he was centrally involved in the anti-conscription movement in Ireland and the strike carried out in support of it in 1918, as well as the Strike Against Militarism, a one-day general strike called on the sixth anniversary of the 1916 Rising, on 23 April 1922, in an attempt to prevent the Civil War.

However Johnson may be best known as the

original author of the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil - one of three texts presented at the first public sitting of Dáil Éireann on January 21, 1919 and intended to lay out the social and economic principles which should guide the Irish Republic.

The tree planting took place ahead of May Day, with the Irish oak tree planted close to ‘The Plough and the Stars’ – a piece of public art unveiled by the President and Sabina Higgins in 2018 in commemoration of the 1913 Lockout, the Irish Citizen Army and its first secretary and historian, playwright Seán O’Casey.

Speaking at the event, President Higgins said: “This year we recall the transformative role in the trade union movement of this country played by Thomas Johnson, whose death occurred 60 years ago.

“Not only the Irish labour movement, but all who believe in parliamentary actions, are forever indebted to Tom Johnson and his advocacy of a peaceful alternative to the bloody conflicts that gripped the decades of our nation in its infancy.”

He explained: “The alternative path Johnson

Inside ESB Moneypoint

Learn more about the roles that are to helping to deliver energy security and transition Ireland to a net zero future

The country’s largest energy provider, ESB, has set an ambitious and bold course of action to help Ireland achieve its climate action targets by driving the transition to reliable, affordable, zero carbon energy.

Energy transition

ESB’s strategy, Driven to Make a Difference: Net Zero by 2040 sets out a clear roadmap to achieve net zero emissions. Net zero refers to a state in which the greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere are balanced by removal out of the atmosphere. ESB believes that to achieve a net zero integrated energy system in Ireland, four key elements need to be put in place – renewables, hydrogen production, hydrogen subsea storage and backup green hydrogen-fuelled electricity generation which produces zero carbon emissions.

The future at Moneypoint

ESB Moneypoint was built to provide Ireland with energy security in response to the oil crisis in the 1970s, however, its strategic role in Ireland’s energy sector is set to continue with ESB’s ambitious Green Atlantic @ Moneypoint multi-billion-euro investment programme. This will see the site transformed over the next decade into a green energy hub that mirrors the energy transition required globally as we address

the challenge of climate change. Phase one of Green Atlantic @ Moneypoint was completed last November with the construction of an innovative €50m sustainable system support facility. This technology, known as a synchronous compensator with flywheel, is the largest of its kind in the world. It provides a range of services to the electricity grid which would previously have been supplied by fossil fuel power stations and its operation will enable higher volumes of zero carbon renewables on the system.

New roles

Other phases of Green Atlantic @ Moneypoint include the development of a 1,400MW floating offshore wind farm that will be located off the coast of counties Clare and Kerry. Once complete, the wind farm will be capable of powering more than 1.6 million homes in Ireland. Subject to the appropriate consents being granted, the wind farm is expected to be in production within the next decade.

A centre for the construction and assembly of floating wind turbines

advocated was one in which the shared concerns and interests of everyone in Ireland had to be addressed and pursued, a reminder to us all that the pursuit of peace must always be prioritised over war and conflict, with all of its attendant bloody consequences and inter-generational transmissions.

“Let us all affirm our commitment to playing our part in the creation of a society that removes the obstacles standing between so many of our people and their full participation.

“Let us stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable, lowest paid and least protected workers in society as we battle a cost-of-living crisis. Let us defend their rights as the founders of the trade union movement, like Tom Johnson, did more than a century ago.”

Last week’s event was attended by members and supporters of the Irish labour movement past and present, including the President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Kevin Callinan, the General Secretary of SIPTU, Joe Cunningham, the leader of the Labour Party, Ivana Bacik, and former Labour Party leader Ruairí Quinn.

Last November, Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, welcomed ESB’s investment in a new €50 million synchronous compensator alongside ESB Moneypoint employees including Katie Wall, Electrical Team Lead

will also be created. A deep-water port already exists at Moneypoint, making it an ideal staging ground for the construction of the wind farm. There is also the significant investment in a green hydrogen production, storage and generation facility at the site towards the end of the decade. A clean, zero-carbon fuel, green hydrogen will be produced from renewable energy and used for power generation, heavy goods vehicles in the

transport sector and to help decarbonise a wide range of industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronics and cement manufacturing.

The local ESB Moneypoint team continues to grow in order to deliver on these plans to help the strategic energy security of Ireland as we, as a society, transition towards increased renewable energy – with Green Atlantic @ Moneypoint playing an important

part in this transformation.

Having recently recruited 12 electricians/fitters and eight new apprentices at the station, ESB is now recruiting key team roles ranging from experienced engineers to safety and chemical professionals.

n For more information and to apply or register your interest for these new roles, please visit www.esb.ie/careers

Sabina Higgins and President Michael D. Higgins pictured with the tree at Áras an Uachtaráin in memory of Tom Johnson

minutes with...

What are you up to?

I am enjoying a nice sunny evening in Dunlewey, Co. Donegal.

What’s on your smartphone at the minute?

I am listening to the great new album by Martin Hayes – Peggy’s Dream

If you hadn’t decided to follow music as a career, what other job would you have been good at?

Hard to say, something I am passionate about I suppose. When I was young I wanted to be a vet. I used to work in customer services and sales before becoming a professional musician in the early 1990s. I still say it was the best decision I ever made. I think it’s important to get out of bed in the morning and look forward to your day’s work. I am telling this to my teenage sons presently: work at something you’re passionate about.

Which piece of music always sends a shiver down your spine?

The Kesh Jig by The Bothy Band.

Which musician has most influenced you?

Joe Burke.

Have you a favourite all-time singer / band

The Bothy Band.

What’s your favourite film? Into The West

What is your favourite place in Ireland?

Half Moon Bay, Hazelwood, Sligo.

Which person do you most admire?

John Hume.

Which trait in others do you most admire?

Loyalty.

SHANE Mitchell is a founder member and accordion player with Sligo / Leitrim band Dervish.

They’ll be appearing at the London Irish Centre in London on Saturday, May 27

SHANE MITCHELL Darkness into Light, London

London charity walk makes strides from 200 participants to up to 1500 in just over a decade

What books are on your bedside table at the minute?

Lean in 15 by Joe Wicks.

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

An accordion made for me by an ex-prisoner who used to listen to our music in prison.

What’s best thing about where you live?

Sligo has loads of music and magical scenery.

. . . and the worst Negative local politics.

What’s the greatest lesson life has taught you?

Something my father said to me once: “If you’re in a hole keep digging.”

What do you believe in? Kindness and positivity.

What do you consider the greatest work of art?

The cathedral in Palma in Mallorca where I visit a lot.

Who are the greatest loves of your life?

My two sons Tiarnan and Lochrann, my partner Nuria, and my sister Finnuala.

A CHARITY walk that came to London 11 years ago has gone from just under 200 people walking with numbers of up to 1500 – with three walks.

Darkness into Light is a 5k walks that begins under cover of darkness at 4am at ends just as dawn breaks. It will take place across the world in the early hours of May 6.

The annual walk is the prime fundraiser for Irish suicide awareness charity Pieta House. The London walks also raise funds for Immigrant Counselling and Psychotherapy (icap) in London, a mental health charity serving the community in the UK for the last 27 years.

The first Cricklewood event in 2012, was the first walk to take place outside Ireland. It has since grown to become a worldwide event with walks taking place as far afield as Sydney and New York. Each event is organised by the Irish community in the host city.

Such was the success of the Cricklewood event a second

walk, on the ground of the London Irish rugby club’s training ground Hazelwood in West London was added to and this year a third walk will take place in Clapham Common.

The London event was brought to London eight years ago under the guidance of Tara Cronin as secretary of the Kerry Association London. The official launch took place at the Crown Hotel now under new management and was supported by Committee members, CICA Chair Mairead Liston and committee, Women’s Irish Network volunteers and representatives from the partner charity icap.

The Crown London Hotel and the Crown Pub are part of the fast-growing hospitality company, AG Hotels Group.

Chair of the DIL London Liam Kearney of Powerday said at the launch: “Registration is now open. We look forward to welcoming old friends and new to all three venues on May 6. This year we are delighted yet

again to partner with icap a UK leading based charity providing support to those that need counselling within our community. More people than ever before are relying on the lifesaving services that various charities provide to those in suicidal distress, those who are self-harming and those who have been bereaved by suicide. But there is hope.

“You can help keep these essential services available to those who need them most, especially during these uncertain times. By registering today to take part in the walk in any way could mean that one more call can be answered to someone in suicidal distress, one more person can get the help they need, when they need it, and one more family can be spared from the devastating heartbreak of suicide.”

 Registration for the London event can be made via this link: https://www. darknessintolight.ie

MAKING STRIDES: The Light into Darkness committee members Picture: Lucia Butler

Shane Mitchell

Dervish

Another dimension to the border issue

backdoor route for migrants to head to Britain?

Possibly, but here’s the irony.

It’s Ireland raising the question of migrants coming the other way.

Last month, Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that he was reviewing Irish border security to “make sure that people who shouldn’t get into the State aren’t able to get into State”.

Might the Tories reunite Ireland?

‘BACK my Brexit deal or face a united Ireland, Rishi Sunak tells DUP.’

A headline from the Sinn Féin newspaper, An Phoblacht?

Or perhaps the Morning Star?

Try The Daily Telegraph.

The Conservative Party’s bulletin board, no less.

The paper quotes Rishi Sunak addressing the recent Queens University conference on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

In a coded rebuke to the DUP, the Prime Minister said: “I urge you to work with us to get Stormont up and running again. That’s the right thing to do on its own terms, and I’m convinced it’s also the right thing to do for our Union.”

Subtle, as British prime ministers tend to be, but the real meaning was obvious: ‘Get the show back on the road – and keep it there – or all bets are off.”

His Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris, delivered a blunter message at the same conference.

“Real leadership,” he chastised, “is about knowing when to say yes, and having the courage to do so.”

The people of Northern Ireland had a right to expect better public services, economic prosperity and a brighter future for their children.

“The biggest threat to Northern Ireland’s place in the union is failing to deliver on these priorities,” he added.

The DUP’s refusal to re-enter the Northern Ireland Assembly and restore the Executive is causing domestic political problems for Rishi Sunak.

And he’s not happy.

His plan to get re-elected in 18-months-time revolves around developing a reputation for fixing problems and keeping his word.

Rishi the management consultant patiently unpicks a problem that has bedevilled less energetic minds.

That’s the image he wants to project at any rate.

He had hoped that pulling a few more concessions out of the European Commission might enable him to sell his Windsor Framework to recalcitrant unionists.

It worked with the British media, who were effusive about the end of the Brexit War. Job done. Move along.

But unionists were buying none of it.

The ‘Windsor Whitewash’ as Jim Allister, leader of the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice party dismissively refers to Sunak’s deal, is simply not palatable.

The DUP is already on-course to lose top place to Sinn Féin in next month’s local elections – for the second time in two years after last year’s assembly result.

They dare not climb in from the window ledge before then and accept the deal in case Allister shouts, ‘Betrayal!’

Believe, me, such paltry considerations will not be forgotten in Westminster.

THE boat people might sound like a 1960s English folk group, but they represent the biggest impediment to the Tories re-election in next year’s general election.

The arrival of tens of thousands of migrants on the shores of Kent each year is causing utter panic in the British government.

First, it makes a mockery of lusty Brexiteer claims to ‘take back control’ of Britain’s borders.

Second, there is simply nowhere to house them, with low-cost provincial hotels being pressed into service –causing no end of fury from voters who live nearby, many in target seats.

To meet growing demand, ministers promise to convert former army camps, or even to build special barges (reminiscent of how many Catholics were interned in Belfast Harbour in the 1970s).

The public mood in Britain is febrile, with immigration rocketing to near the top of voters’ concerns in opinion polls.

A controversial bill in parliament promises to address the problem and Rishi Sunak has made it one of the big five themes of his premiership.

And if he can’t deliver by the autumn party conference his jittery backbenchers, scared of losing their seats, might choose to cast Rishi into the sea instead.

Might Ireland now compound his problems?

Could the Common Travel Area (CTA) agreement, stemming from the time of partition – which provides for passport-free travel between Ireland and Britain – become a

To that end, he had met with the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) and the Border Management Unit of the Department of Justice to discuss growing concerns.

In particular, he said there has been an increase in people ‘coming from north to south, people coming from Britain or Northern Ireland into the Republic and seeking international protection here.’

Desperate, no doubt, to find a better life and escape Britain’s flatlining economy, collapsing public services and increasingly unstable political system.

With its galloping economy and progressive politics, it’s hardly surprising that it is Ireland that is now fast becoming the destination of choice.

How times change.

The Windsor Framework was the best deal that any British Prime Minister could have negotiated (a point Bill Clinton made at the same conference). Unionists have so lost touch with reality that they cannot see that.

More sympathetic to Irish Nationalism, there’s a casual assumption that it will take a future Labour government to call a referendum on Irish unity, as promised in the Good Friday Agreement.

Don’t be so sure.

My own hunch is that it will be the Tories who eventually preside over the creation of a united Ireland. The Tories have little affinity with the unionists these days – and their stock is dropping.

The willingness of the DUP to make Rishi Sunak’s re-election hopes that bit more uncertain just might rebound on them one day.

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

Last month, Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that he was reviewing Irish border security to “make sure that people who shouldn’t get into the State aren’t able to get into State

After Brexit, could the Common Travel Area be the next bunfight between Ireland and Britain?

KEVINMEAGHER

LIFELINE: RNLI boat landing at Dover with migrants aboard Picture: Getty Images

Manchester musicians play at Fréa charity fundraiser

A CHARITY concert in April featuring some of Manchester’s finest musicians was co-ordinated by Michael McGoldrick to help raise funds for Fréa and their charity partners.

Fréa is a partnership that brings together three independent charities whose work is firmly rooted within the Irish communities in the north of England: Irish Community Care (based in Liverpool delivering services across the Northwest), Irish Community Care Manchester, and Leeds Irish Health and Homes.

The charity fundraiser was held at the St Kentigans Irish Social Club in Manchester.

Ailish Heneghan performs with More Irish Matt Kelly, one half of Matt and Donal

Donal Scally

Conaill Durcan and Patrick Harvey

Mike McGoldrick and Dezi Donnelly

WORDS AND PICTURES BY CHRIS EGAN

Lynch extradition closer

BY MAL ROGERS

DR MIKE Lynch, the former CEO of Autonomy and an acknowledged tech innovator and entrepreneur, has lost his High Court appeal against extradition. He faces extradition to the US to face criminal fraud charges related to a business deal with Hewlett-Packard.

Lord Justice Lewis and Justice Julian Knowles wrote in their judgement: “We are unpersuaded there is anything in this ground of appeal. It follows that this application for permission to appeal is refused.”

Dr Lynch’s defence team had argued that the case should beheard in the UK as all the charges related to events that happened in the UK.

The case revolves round the £8billion sale of software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.

With no higher court available for further appeals in the UK, Dr Lynch is now considering taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

But extradition orders from the court are rare and usually focus on cases involving an imminent threat to life or ill-treatment.

Dr Lynch has denied any wrongdoing, but if found guilty in the US, he could face up to 20 years in jail.

Hewlett Packard’s lawyers allege that Dr Lynch misled the board of HP, and accuses him of “widespread and systematic false accounting”, with company revenues being falsely inflated.

Sushovan Hussain, Autonomy’s finance chief was sentenced to five

Famous Achill seafood restaurant for sale

years in prison for fraud in 2019. Hewlett-Packard bought Autonomy for $11 billion in 2011, but a year later it slashed the value of the Cambridge-based business by $8.8 billion, claiming that $5 billion of the write-down was due to fraud.

In November 2018 US prosecutors charged Dr Lynch with 14 counts of conspiracy and fraud and a further three counts were added in February, taking his potential jail time to 20 to 25 years.

Lynch’s future looks bleak as the UK courts have said they would pursue his conviction if he is not extradited. Lynch’s legal team had argued that he should be tried in a British court. However, the Serious Fraud Office has reserved the right to prosecute him if he is not extradited. After two High Court judges rejected his appeal, Lynch’s lawyers are considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. However, experts predict that it will be difficult to stop his extradition, and Lynch may ultimately face a US jury.

Michael Lynch is British-born to Irish parents. They moved from Carrick-on-Suir in Tipperary to Essex, where the young Mike was brought up. His mother was a nurse, his father a fireman. Michael was subsequently educated at Cambridge and gained a doctorate in electrical engineering.

Michael Lynch has been awarded an OBE for services to enterprise, and has served on the boards of both the British Library and the BBC

A RESTAURANT on Achill Island that has been in the same family for 60 years is now on the market.

The Chalet Seafood Restaurant in Keel on the west of Ireland island off the coast of Mayo has been in the Hassett family since 1963 but is now for sale by Frank Chambers auctioneer.

This restaurant is situated on 0.74 of an acre in Keel Village overlooking Keel Beach and the Minaun Cliffs. It’s famous for its seafood, lobster, salmon, mussels and a wide variety of fresh fish caught from the restaurant’s own trawler.

The restaurant consists of two spacious dining rooms with a nautical theme. The large dining room features the Wheelhouse Bar and Captain’s Table on the upper deck which seats over 50 people.

The Currach lounge and dining room – with open fireplace –overlooks the panoramic views of the Minaun Cliffs and Keel Bay and seats over 35 people. The building has two commercial units, one self-contained with external entrance and one off the reception area, presently leased to Achill Tourism. Also on site, is a very lucrative crazy golf course.

Achill island with its blue flag beaches, its scenery, culture and traditional music has been brought further to the attention of the public through The Banshees of Inisherin

The area is steeped in history – just over two miles up the road is Corrymore House, one time home of Captain Charles Boycott, a British land agent who gave the English language a new word –thanks to his ostracisation by the local community here in the 19th century.

If you’ve always fancied owning a restaurant on the Wild Atlantic Way – this could be your chance.

Titanic plan sells for £195k

A PLAN of the Titanic used during the inquiry into the sinking of the ship in 1912 has sold at auction for

£195,000

The 32ft (9.7m) cross-section plan was bought by a UK buyer at auction on Saturday, April 22. Often called ‘the Holy Grail’ of Titanic memorabilia, the plan was drawn by Harland and Wolff designers specifically to be used at the inquiry into the sinking of the Belfast-made boat. Andrew Aldridge of Henry Aldridge & Son, is widely regarded as the leading authority in the world in the valuation of Titanic artefacts. Prior to the auction he told The Irish Post: “The Titanic plan is probably the most valuable piece of Titanic memorabilia

now in existence. It was handdrawn by one of the Harland and Wolff designers Cecil Allen in order that the witnesses who gave evidence at the inquiry could pinpoint activities on the boat after the ship’s collision with the iceberg. It was on display at Titanic Belfast for ten years, so millions of people have seen it.”

The (10m) cross-section plan, mounted on linen, was

commissioned by the British Board of Trade to assist in the 36-day hearing. The inquiry was held in London by the British Wreck Commissioner on behalf of the British Board of Trade.

The plan was almost thrown out when Cunard, which had amalgamated the White Star Line, had a clear-out of its offices. However, according to Titanic Belfast, by chance, Norman Kerr, a bookseller specialising in transportation related subjects, was driving past in a taxi at the time and spotted what was going on and saved the plan, along with other Titanic memorabilia.

An accommodation plan for RMS Titanic went for £60,000 at the auction.

The hand drawn plan of RMS Titanic used at the official inquiry into the sinking of the ship sold at auction in Devizes, Wiltshire in April

[It] is probably the most valuable piece of Titanic memorabilia now in existence

A WESTERLY RESTAURANT: The Chalet on Achill Island and, inset left, the maritime influenced inetrior

Plane message calling for sacking not appreciated

per hour of flying time.

Stardust inquest

Pictured leaving the first day of the inquest into the deaths of 48 peolpe in 1981 are family members of some of the victims. The long-awaited inquest into the tragedy finally got underway last week in Dublin.

State of Castlebar Peace Park an ‘affront’ to the dead

MAYO County Council has been accused of insulting the memory of Mayo soldiers who sacrificed their lives in global conflicts.

The Mayo News reports that subsidence issues at the Mayo Peace Park in Castlebar has resulted in separations appearing in memorial walls, according to councillor Ger Deere, who says the situation is an “affront to the brave Mayo men and women who fought and died on foreign fields”.

The Peace Park attracts thousands of visitors annually. It commemorates Irish service men and women who served and

died in the major conflicts of the past century and has more than 1,200 names inscribed on black marble walls.

Cllr Deere told The Mayo News: “Chairman of the Peace Park, Michael Feeney has now informed Mayo County Council officials and the local councillors that several planned events will have to be cancelled for safety reasons if the matter is not resolved quickly.”

GAA clubs across Co. Down have condemned the flying of a banner calling for the sacking of the county secretary Sean Og McAteer.

An aeroplane was flown around Pairc Esler in Newry during Down’s defeat of Donegal in the Ulster Championship quarter final, reports the Belfast Telegraph

The banner is understood to have cost approximately £600 plus close to £200

Following Down GAA’s condemnation of the stunt, clubs all over the county issued statements in support of the long-standing secretary.

Dromara GAC issued a statement that they wanted “to pass on our disgust at the events”. They added: “These actions are not the actions of anyone who could call themselves a Gael. Everyone at Dromara GAC completely condemns this and we offer our support to Sean Og and Down GAA at this time.”

Jail sentence for manslaughter after altercation

LIMERICK man Nathan O’Neill, who left a nightclub following a fight, armed himself with a knife and then stabbed his victim five times when another row broke out, has been jailed for nine years.

The Limerick Leader reports that Mr Justice Paul Burns handed down the nine year sentence to the accused. O’Neill has previous convictions for making a threat to kill and for possession of a knife.

Imposing sentence Mr Justice Burns said that it was clear from statements made by Mr Higgins’s mother, partner and sister that the deceased was “much loved and his death has had a

profound impact”.

O’Neill had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Jamie Higgins in Shannon, Co. Clare in the early hours of March 18, 2018.

A jury acquitted him of murder and found him guilty of manslaughter last December following his second trial. He also pleaded guilty to causing serious harm to Michael Shannon.

The judge set the headline sentence for the manslaughter offence at 14 years but after taking into account O’Neill’s early guilty plea, cooperation with

gardaí, and genuine remorse, he reduced that to ten years with the final 12 months suspended for three years.

The court heard that the defendant and deceased knew one another and shortly after O’Neill arrived there was an “altercation” involving pushing and shoving and an allegation that a punch was thrown. Tensions remained high, the detective said, and the defendant left the club with another person but came back about 55 minutes later. He later told the gardaí that after leaving the club he took a knife from a car and put it in his pocket for his protection.

Takeaway worker guilty of assault in slapping incident

A WORKER at a takeaway in Cork city has been found guilty of assault after slapping a female customer inside the restaurant.

Cork Beo reports that Judge Marian O’Leary sentenced 24-year-old Sherzad Shafi to 30 hours of voluntary work over 10 weeks and ordered him to pay €300 into the poor box.

Defending barrister, Brian Leahy BL said that Mr Shafi is a recognised refugee with no prior convictions who at the end of this year will be eligible to apply for citizenship. He said that a conviction would cause “severe problems for that,

way out of proportion to what happened on the night in question”.

Garda Sergeant Tom McCarthy told the court Mr Shafi was working at the restaurant at the time of the incident.

The female customer told the court that she had been socialising with friends in a bar in the city before they went to Speedos takeaway

The victim said that while her friends were ordering food, she went upstairs to the toilets. She said that Mr Shafi left from behind the counter and followed her and “slapped my behind.”

Judge O’Leary found Mr Shafi guilty of Section 2 assault under the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act.

Poached salmon resulted in increased fines

DONEGAL Circuit Court has upheld the conviction of Liam Whyte of Ardara for having 13 untagged salmon found in a car.

The Donegal Democrat reports that Inland Fisheries welcomed the decision which saw a suspended prison sentenced waived but fines more than doubled. Prosecution costs were also significantly increased.

Liam Whyte was convicted of two breaches of fisheries legislation in relation to an illegal fishing incident in 2017.

Inland Fisheries Ireland welcomed the ruling. Dr

DONEGAL

Milton Matthews, Director of the North Western River Basin District Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) said: “Any salmon killed in excess of the quota identified for any particular salmon fishery directly impacts on the long-term sustainability of that salmon fishery.”

The case was first heard in Glenties District Court on February 27, 2019. Whyte was convicted and fined €1,300 for possession of the salmon and was ordered to pay costs of €750.

In light of previous convictions the court imposed a sentence of three months imprisonment which was suspended for two years, on condition that there be no further convictions under the Fisheries Acts during that time. Whyte appealed the ruling to Donegal Circuit Court and the case was heard on March 14, 2023.

As the defendant had not come to the attention of the courts in the intervening period the court waived the three months suspended sentence. The convictions on breaches in fisheries legislation were upheld.

LIMERICK

CORK

Picture: Rolling News.ie

MALROGERS Hard news the easy way

Long distance travel

“SOMETIMES I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering,” said Arthur C Clarke.

But it seems we might be closer to finding out. NASA say that aliens could contact Earth by 2029, because they have a probe that’s travelling through deep space, 27 light years away.

COMPOSER Roger

Doyle has just released a second volume of works inspired by Joyce’s Finnegans Wake called Finnegans Wake – Suite of Affections. In this musical project a number of actors read extracts from the book which Doyle’s music accompanies them – the actors include them Olwen Fouéré, Aidan Gillen, Barry McGovern and Vyvienne Long

Doyle has described the book as a ‘dark mystery’ and it is certainly one of the most enigmatic books in the English language. The plot of Finnegans Wake is based ostensibly on a hod-carrier who fell off his ladder.

Finnegans Wake – the facts, as far as this column can determine them:

AGE: 84 (as of this year)

FEATURES: Playing with language, puns, wordplay, and allusions to mythology, literature, history, and the Phoenix Park.

NOT FEATURED: Conventional narrative structures, clarity, coherence.

STORYLINE: There isn’t one as such, but it is loosely based on an Irish American ballad called Finnegan’s Wake about a building labourer who, having imbibed too liberally, fell from his ladder, bumped his head and was presumed dead. He is laid out, and a waking is duly begun. During the festivities, spilled whiskey touches Tim’s lips – at which

point he rises again. This of course meant resurrection to Joyce, with Tim Finnegan taking on a messianic image – or something like that.

STYLE: Bewilderingly comprehensive. The book romps through stream of consciousness, idiosyncratic language, invented words – the while blending

TYPICAL QUOTE IN THE WAKE (and often misspelled): “bababadalgharaghtakam minarronnkonnbronnton nerronntuonnthunntrovarr hounawnskawntoohoo hoordenenthurnuk!” This is something to do with the fall of Adam and Eve. As you’ve probably guessed.

RELEVANCE TO SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT: Not a lot really. Except that the smallest particle to be detected by physicists is called the ‘quark’. The sub-atomic particle was named by Murray Gell-Mann, a James Joyce aficionado who took the term from the phrase “Three quarks for Muster Mark” in Finnegans Wake.

Gogarty believed the book to be a joke played by Joyce on the literary community. He referred to it as “the most colossal leg-pulls in literature since Macpherson’s Ossian. But it’s reputation has steadily grown, and in particular the section of the book to be most praised has been Anna Livia Plurabelle which is widely recognized as one of the most beautiful prose-poems in English.

 The discs, Finnegans Wake: Suite of Affections, volumes 1 and 2 available to purchase from https:// rogerdoyle1.bandcamp.com

You can find out all about it at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, www.visitnasa.com

They’ve just announced their new tariffs. At the Kennedy Center, its $45 per day. This includes the Kennedy Space Center Bus Tour – and don’t roll your eyes. The is the same bus journey that takes astronauts to the launch pad. There are loads of other exhibits, films, presentations. If you want to go on the Astronaut Training experience, that costs a few dollars more.

You’ll also see the building from where astronomers keep an eye on planets such as Kepler-452b (sometimes quoted to be an Earth 2.0 or Earth’s Cousin based on its very similar characteristics. It has thus been declared by NASA, in that building you’ve just passed in the bus, a Kepler Object of Interest

The planet, is about 1,400 light years from Earth, is in the habitable zone and has a year that lasts 385 days.

It means that plants which grow on our planet could survive there quite easily and thrive, and probably indicates that Kepler-452b school holidays are likely to be a few weeks longer than on Earth.

What will YOU be doing

standard English with neologisms, portmanteau words, Irish mannerisms and puns in multiple languages.

ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS QUOTES: “A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.” So if your SatNav fails in the vicinity of Howth Head, as long as you’ve a copy of Finnegans Wake, you should be OK. Although, to be fair, most of the Wake’s Dublin references are to the Phoenix Park. One estimate puts the number of references to the Park at around 300

THEMES: More or less a guide to Dublin. Joyce himself said: “I want to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book.”

GRAMMATICAL MYSTERY: The lack of an apostrophe in ‘Finnegans’. Joyce of course, never let on why he left the apostrophe out. “It’s all explained in the text,” he would say. There is a clue, right enough: “One great part of every human existence is passed in a state which cannot be rendered sensible by the use of wideawake language, cutanddry grammar and goahead plot.”

REPUTATION: One of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. But across the literati, opinion is divided. Former friend Oliver

TO BOLDLY GO: The NASA experience (space flight

The voice of the Irish in Britain since 1970 Sinn Féin at the coronation

YOU don’t have to go back too many decades to reach a time when the voices of Sinn Féin politicians were not allowed to be heard on British airwaves. Margaret Thatcher wanted to deny Sinn Féin representatives the “oxygen of publicity”, so actors spoke their words.

How well this tactic worked can be judged against the background of the current political situation in Ireland. President of Sinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald will quite probably be the next Taoiseach, and Vice President Michelle O’Neill is already destined to become the First Minister of the Northern Assembly.

Michelle O’Neill, along with Alex Maskey, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, will also attend the coronation this Saturday, May 6.

The pair accepted the invitation from King Charles to attend. A frequent visitor to Ireland north and south, reconciliation is a theme close to the heart of the monarch.

Nonetheless, Sinn Féin having a presence at the coronation is an extraordinary turn around in events.

Michelle O’Neill (née Doris) is from a dyed-in-the-wool republican background. On the death of her father Brendan Doris, a one time Provisional IRA prisoner, the then deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness paid tribute to her family. He called them “well-known and respected republicans who have played a significant role in the republican struggle for many years”.

Alex Maskey, similarly comes from a staunch republican background having been interned twice in the 1970s.

Many have now made the point that if Sinn Féin deem it acceptable to attend the coronation, surely it is time to abolish the abstentionist policy that stops Sinn Féin’s seven MPs from taking up their seats in Westminster. At the moment, with the Tories having such an overwhelming majority this doesn’t particularly matter in terms of a voting influence, but after the next British general election those seven votes could make a difference.

But Sinn Féin’s thinking is probably dictated by a far bigger prize than votes at the House of Commons — a united Ireland with their party in government, with a Sinn Féin Taoiseach. If the party is in government north and south of the border, the narrative over unification changes dramatically. The party would be in power in an area under British jurisdiction, but also in power in a sovereign independent EU state with consequent access to international influence – a situation denied to every single other political party in the UK.

At that point, having a say in the British parliament would be, quite frankly, unimportant to them.

Pope Francis – a force for good

IN your article of April 15 you reported that President Michael D Higgins wrote to Pope Francis to commend him for rejecting a 15th century doctrine which fuelled colonialism across the globe.

I was greatly heartened by this and was once again proud to be both Irish and proud to be a Catholic. Catholicism gave the great colonial powers of Europe – the Spanish, the Portuguese and the French the legitimacy to plunder and oppress peoples across the globe. And basically they showed the likes of the British and the Dutch how to do it.

The Catholic Church has, quite rightly, had opprobrium heaped on it mainly because of sex abuse cases relating to the clergy.

So at least Pope Francis’s stand against colonialism is to be welcomed.

I think Pope Francis will become one of the most revered popes in recent history. He stands up for the central tenets of Catholicism, but he is not fixated on the power and authority of the Church like some of his predecessors, and like many of his cardinals.

In an interview with an Argentinian television station he said that it is necessary to fight for peace because war is a tragedy that destroys us. And he concluded by reiterating that if people stopped producing weapons even for a year, it would end world hunger.

Sadly, I fear that his words will not be taken to heart, but at least he is out there showing that the Church believes in decency,

justice and peace.

President Higgins is likewise to be congratulated. He is a shining example of what a politician should be like – cultured, civilised, interested in the arts (he is a fine poet) and always a great spokesman for equal rights in every sphere. He is a worthy successor to our previous presidents who also did much to enhance the reputation of Ireland, Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson.

Nuala Reilly Banbury

Loco heroes – calling the dispora

WE are reaching out to the Irish diaspora the hopes of connecting with people who have emigrated from Co. Cavan, especially Belturbet, to collect memories related to Belturbet and the Belturbet railway station.

We would love to hear your memories for our upcoming project, Cavan Calling 2023. Our voluntary-run restored museum is eager to share and preserve your stories. Please help us reach out to more people by sharing our email bhrmuseum@gmail. com

The #CavanCalling homecoming festival will take place in County Cavan from July 27-30, 2023. The global Cavan family is being invited to come home for a celebration of Cavan, its people, culture, history, and landscape. On-street concerts, exhibitions, culinary events, music, song, dance to celebrate

the great Ulster county.

Belturbet Heritage Railway Station

Belturbet Heritage Railway CLG Railway Road, Belturbet, Co. Cavan

Lamenting long wave closure

THE closure of 252 LW giving two weeks notice is disgusting. The public should look behind what has been done and not just accept it without question.

RTÉ don’t seem to realise there was a transition plan that has been ignored. They merely say the closure was inevitable.

Well if we all had that mindset, then the RTÉs of this world would be able to ride roughshod over everything. Like politicians who think that like know best. And when challenged and won’t answer any questions – I think the word is ‘stonewalling’.

My hands-on experience, going years back at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann is that RTÉ always think they know best and so they tried to take over.

With regards long wave, a reply received from the Ministry of the of Arts, Gaeltacht was just a cop out. It said: “Decisions regarding the use of technology are in regard to LW 252 are an operational matter for RTÉ.”

This is wrong. RTÉ is a semi-state body – the government does have a say. If not then it should be privatised.

But any mention of that brings cries of dissent, and, “Oh no you

can’t do that.”

Well I say you can’t have it both ways – so behave responsibly.

Pete Fawcett

PRO Save 252 LW

Long time listener to long wave

I AM writing to share my disappointment on the news that RTÉ Radio One will no longer be available on long wave radio.

I am a long-term listener, and being able to tune in daily has been an important link to home for me. I don’t understand why the Irish government have taken the decision they have to end the availability for the Irish community in Britain to listen on the radio.

I’m of a generation that cannot listen to the radio on the internet, so to me it is as if the station no longer exists. I know I speak for many of my friends, also Irish immigrants to Britain, when I say that we are sorely disappointed.

Surely it can’t have cost that much to keep it running. To make matters worse, access to LW 252 ended while President Joe Biden was visiting Ireland, and when the whole country seemed to be celebrating the achievements of the Irish diaspora. After all the support our generation gave to people back home down the years, I cannot help but feel insulted and let down. As my father always used to say: “Eaten bread is soon forgotten.”

Mary Doyle Burnage, Manchester

SINGING OUT OF THE SAME HYMN BOOK: Pope Francis meets altar boys in St Peter’s Square Picture: Getty Images

88 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 4BY.

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EDITORIAL

Editor: Mal Rogers

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The bitter hierarchy of emigration

THERE is an unavoidable synchronicity about the timing of RTÉ’s decision to close its long wave radio broadcast serving those in Britain. The announcement was made more or less around the time that we were feting the Irishness of yet another President of the USA.

Joe Biden’s famine era ancestors are, it seems, worth celebrating but the thousands and thousands who went to Britain far more recently are not worth broadcasting to.

JOEHORGAN

Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper. The Irish Post is published every Wednesday by Color Company (TM) Ltd.

The newspaper seeks to provide the Irish in Britain with comprehensive news coverage of Irish issues from Ireland and Britain, sports news and reviews, a weekly entertainment guide, reader feedback and features of interest to the Irish in Britain.

©2009 ISSN No. 0959-3748. The Irish Post Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publishers. Newsagent distribution and printing by Trinity Mirror Printing Limited whose registered office is at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AP.

As The Irish Times put it: “For RTÉ, the service used by an unknown number of listeners in the Irish community in Britain, the sums required to maintain it crept past the point of logic and affordability as long ago as 2014. To keep the long wave service on air would be unreasonable.”

There is, of course, a debate around finance and technology involved in this but I can’t help but argue that this is really about something else.

Or, at the very least, it is symbolic of something else.

There is political and strategic kudos in our endless

Some people left and some people didn’t. Some people had to leave and some people didn’t. It is not a coincidence that there have been in Ireland’s political dynasties in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael

courting of US presidents. There is economic and business cleverness in embracing the huge Irish American diaspora. But Birmingham, Manchester, Coventry, Hackney and Kilburn have never quite had the same status, have they? They don’t have any of the romance or the glamour. Let

us be honest here. Emigrating to America was an achievement in itself. In all its sadness it was still a victory of sorts. Emigrating to Britain was a defeat, the act of those who had lost. This is not the fault of our American cousins, this is simply reflective of the Irish psyche. We will embrace whole heartedly an American whose ancestors emigrated in the 1850s but can’t afford to broadcast to those who went to Britain in the 1950s.

There has always been a hierarchy where Irish emigration was concerned. There was, of course, the invisible Irish hierarchy of class. Some people left and some people didn’t. Some people had to leave and some people didn’t. It is not a coincidence that there have been in Ireland’s history political dynasties in both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Families connected to the operation of power in this

country who weren’t marred by emigration but instead took up positions of hereditary influence. The Lenihans, for example, the Coveneys. The departing Late Late Show host Ryan Turbridy, privately educated at one of our most exclusive schools, is from a family enmeshed in the power brokers who founded this State.

I’m not sure emigration, at least one where there is no other option, has ever been a feature of Turbridy’s life. Again nothing on him personally, just the way emigration here has worked.

Then there was the hierarchy of departure. Going to America, to the shining city on the hill, was a part of Irish romanticism, however much there were broken hearts in reality. Going to Birmingham or Coventry, Leeds or London was an act of desperation. A reminder that Ireland had failed so much it had to turn to those we had kicked out to take us in.

So turning off the long wave broadcast to the UK isn’t just about finance and technology however much the smug lines of an Irish Times columnist might

suggest. The cultural significance is unavoidable. That generation of the 1950s, abandoned to emigration so that others could stay at home, was never valued in Irish life. It was forgotten and written out even as it’s money came home and kept the country afloat. What this country owes that generation is incalculable even as it makes it clear it doesn’t even owe it an easy way of hearing what we here are saying.

The forgotten generation is now just not worth the money. It doesn’t, you see, make any sense. Just as it didn’t make any sense to invest in a generation that was only ever fit for the boat. We have never offered them much and we are hardly likely to start now. We know the value of a lot of things in this country. We sure as hell know the value of an American president over a Mayo pensioner in Manchester or a Cork pensioner in Coventry. We don’t really though, much to our societal shame, know a lot about what things are worth.

n Joe Horgan tweets at @JoeHorganwriter

An intoxicating piece of music

MAL ROGERS looks at the significance of the song Seven Drunken Nights which entered the British charts this week in 1967

THE Dubliners were always destined to rise to the very top of the musical ladder; always destined to become a seminal band in the evolution and popularisation of Irish music. They had two of the most distinctive singers folk music has ever produced in Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew, alongside the innovative instrumental duo Barney McKenna and John Sheahan.

The Dubliners didn’t actually form – they sort of blew together, and in the process did the unthinkable almost by accident. They brought guitar, fiddle and banjo together in a ballad group for the first time with Barney McKenna’s virtuosity on the tenor banjo guaranteeing its position in Irish music evermore, and moved Dublin street songs into the traditional canon. They accordingly inspired a generation of musicians from all parts of Ireland, Britain and beyond.

Their musical prowess would have seen them emerge as brand leaders in Irish music no matter what, but their success with Seven Drunken Nights certainly gave them a leg up.

In case you’re hazy about the plotline of the song, it tells the story of a gullible drunkard returning home night after night to see new evidence of his wife’s lover, only to be given increasingly implausible explanations.

The Dubliners circa 1963, right, and the original single, left

This week in 1967 the song entered the British Top Ten. Appearances on British television – including Top of the Pops – followed, and the band went on to become pioneers of the ballad boom that swept Ireland and Britain. Soon the rest of Europe and North America would also fall under the spell of The Dubliners.

The success of Seven Drunken Nights was partly due to their recording label Major Minor Records, founded and owned by Belfast man Phil Solomon. He was also a co-director of Radio Caroline, the pirate radio stationfounded in 1964 by Aodogán Ronan O’Rahilly from Dublin.

The ship, built in Greenore, Co.

A date with history

What happened on this day...

DEATH OF A CARDINAL

IN 1977 Father Tomás Ó Fiaich became the 112th successor to St. Patrick as Primate of All Ireland, the first man in more than a century to fill St. Patrick’s seat without already being a bishop. He ascended to the See of Armagh when the Troubles in the North were at their worst, and it’s fair to say he never saw eye to eye with the British prime minister of the time Margaret Thatcher.

The cardinal described her visit to UDR men in Armagh, who were then facing charges related to the shooting of

Catholics, as ‘disgusting’. Although he made many pronouncements appealing for peace and eschewing violence, he was widely

Louth, had begun broadcasting off the Essex coast initially to circumvent the record companies’ control of popular music broadcasting in the UK and the BBC’s radio broadcasting monopoly.

The Dubliners’ Seven Drunken Nights was soon getting maximum radio time alongside the likes of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. The song brought Irish music to an audience that in the 1960s that was completely unaware of the treasure trove of songs, reels, jigs, ballads etc that lay just across the Irish Sea. But of course with many songs that have the longevity of Seven Drunken Nights, the exact geographic origins of the song are hard to pinpoint. The

Dubliners’ version is a variation of the Scottish version Our Good Man (or Hame Came our Gudeman in the vernacular), catalogued by American folklorist Francis Child in the 19th century – he traced it back to the 1770s. This appearance in the Child Ballads collection was the first published version of the song, although oral iterations probably existed across Europe before that.

A London version of the song called The Merry Cuckold and the Kid Wife also existed in the 18th century.

In Ireland, the song was collected by Joe Heaney, a sean nós singer from Connemara. It’s not clear where he first encountered the song. Heaney spent time in Scotland and England

Saturday, May 6:

1820 – Birth of explorer Robert O’Hara in St. Cleran’s, Co. Galway. 1967 – Seven Drunken Nights by the Dubliners enters the British Top Ten.

Sunday, May 7:

during the 1940s and 1950s, labouring on building sites. He also performed with legendary piper Willie Clancy, along with many other musicians in London.

Heaney returned to Dublin in the early 1960s and took up residence in O’Donoghue’s pub in Merrion Row –where the Dubliners were also playing at the nightly sessions. The song entered their repertoire, and henceforth in almost every Irish ballad band’s play list ever since. There’s even a stage show called Seven Nights Drunk – The Story of the Dubliners which is currently on a British tour. This week, May 7, the production is being staged at Kings Theatre, Glasgow.

1990 – Death of Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, Primate of All Ireland, in Lourdes.

Tuesday, May 9: 1932 – Éamon de Valera is elected Taoiseach.

perceived as being pro-republican, leading to his nicknames ‘the Vicar General of Sinn Féin’ and even more scurrilously ‘the Carmelite with the Armalite.’

Cardinal Ó Fiaich died in 1990 of a heart attack in Lourdes. One of the great conspiracy theories at the time is that he was murdered in France by agents of MI5, clearing the way for the more (perceived) moderate Bishop Cahal Daly of Belfast (nickname ‘Cardinal SDLP’). A heart congesting drug (curare), it is suggested, was added to Cardinal Ó Fiaich’s food.

1689 – James II arrives from exile in France and addresses the Irish Parliament, thus sowing the seeds of the subsequent Battle of the Boyne.

1915 – The sinking of Cunard liner Lusitania off the Old Head of Kinsale.

Monday, May 8

1597 – Execution of Fiach MacHugh O’Byrne.

1945 – VE Day is marked in Dublin by small disturbances throughout the city which quickly turn into major disorder.

1958 – Ardmore Studios opened by the Minister for Industry and Commerce Seán Lemass.

Wednesday, May 10:

1785 – Part of Tullamore town centre is destroyed by a wayward balloon. This is recognised as the world’s first aviation disaster.

1925 – Birth of Danny Blanchflower. Winner of 56 caps, he died in 1993 aged 68.

Thursday, May 11:

1966 – The Republic of Ireland applies to join the Common Market, which eventually became the European Union.

Friday, May 12:

1916 – Execution of James Connolly in Kilmainham gaol.

MUSICAL MASTERPIECE:

Bishops Kevin McNamara and Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich in 1983

Regal musicians on tour

GRAINNE CONROY looks at the career of The High Kings on the eve of their British gigs in June

IT’S a simple enough formula: you take some of the finest ballads in the world, don’t do anything too fancy with them, get four consummate musicians to sing them, and you have one resounding success.

Of course, it’s not quite as straightforward as all that. The band are trying to bring a whole generation of young people into the genre. People who maybe have never have heard of The Black Velvet Band, but who identify with it when it’s done in a contemporary way, and with lots of energy. People love what they are doing to ‘the old music’; bringing a new take on traditional Irish ballads to audiences across the generations.

The energy thing is of course crucial to the success of The High Kings. They never appear in concert without giving a hundred per cent plus, with not only a high octane show, but with a genuine rapport with their audience.

The High Kings are Finbarr Clancy, Darren Holden, Brian Dunphy and newest member Paul O’ Brien. The band formed in June 2007 when Brian, Darren, Finbarr and former member Martin Furey were asked to join a brand-new Irish ballad group by David Kavanagh after he had noticed a gap in the market for a band specialising in traditional Irish music.

It didn’t take long during their first studio rehearsal for them to realise that the way their

individual voices blended together meant that they were onto something special.

The High Kings play 13 instruments between them, creating the unique sound and atmosphere that they still showcase to this day. This was confirmed when their self-titled debut album reached number 2 on the world Billboard Music chart. In March 2009 The High Kings played 5 consecutive sold out shows to a packed audience in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre.

By 2011 the band had outgrown the venues they had been previously playing and had to start playing larger venues not only in Ireland but also in America and across Europe. Many fans became regular faces as they effectively followed the band on their sold-out tours many crossing oceans and borders throughout the world just to see their favourite band perform live.

In 2012 the High Kings performed for

President Obama in Moneygall, a gig which led to a personal invitation from the president to perform at the 2012 White House St Patrick’s Day celebration.

They flew directly from London where they had already been the headline act for the Lord Mayor of London’s St Patrick’s Day concert. In 2015 The High Kings were invited to the Pentagon as guests of General Martin Dempsey, who is the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff. They performed alongside the US Marine Corps band marking another special occasion for the band.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Irish Rugby anthem Ireland’s Call the band were asked by the original composer Phil Coulter to record their own version which was subsequently included in the TV3 documentary.

Irish music has been through many evolutions, seen many developments, in its long history. Even over just the last 60 years our native music has seen much innovation and imagination that has taken it onto the world stage – from the Dubliners through Planxty and the Pogues to Riverdance. But at its heart it remains a simple folk music, with its roots in Irish communities everywhere. The High Kings have taken the music to a new audience, having pulled off a difficult trick – by breathing new life into the old music, preserving its integrity, but all the while pushing its boundaries.

Gwen Wilkinson explores Ireland’s inland waterways in her new book The Waters and the Wild Pages 16-17

Brian Dunphy

Finbar Clancy

Darren Holden

O’Brien

THE ROAD: The High Kings

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

A voyage into the heart of Ireland

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

The

Waters and the Wild – the trials and tranquilities of a journey on Ireland’s inland waterways by Gwen Wilkinson takes the reader on a contemplative journey, not just through the verdant landscape and tranquil waterways of Ireland, but also into its history and culture. The author categorises her journey as an ‘immram’ – a class of Old Irish tales concerning a hero’s sea journey to the Otherworld

SINCE early childhood, Gwen Wilkinson has been exploring waterways, from canal and river journeys on board her parents’ barge to transatlantic crossings on ocean racing yachts.

An award- winning professional artist and ecologist, she lives in the foothills of the Blackstairs Mountains in South Country Carlow.

In 2019, Gwen Wilkinson set herself the challenge of building a canoe and paddling it the length of Ireland, along a network of inland waterways. She set out from the shores of Lough Erne in Fermanagh and navigated a 400 km journey to the tidal waters of the River Barrow in Co. Waterford.

The book The Waters and the Wild is the result of this epic voyage and journey.

wild camping

More than just a travelogue, The Waters and the Wild explores the interwoven histories of the people and wildlife that shaped Gwen’s journey. As the adventure unfolds, she also shines a light on pioneering women who have left their mark on Ireland’s landscape – both natural and cultural.

From wild camping on deserted islands to drifting on lakes in the company of restless lapwings, this book invites the reader to share an intense engagement with the natural world. The charming text is accompanied by the author’s own striking lino and woodcut prints, beautiful and though-provoking interpretations of the flora and fauna she observed on her travels.

Gwen Wilkinson paddled to explore, searching for inspiration and a desire to learn more about the island we inhabit, and she was met with experiences rich and illuminating, far beyond her expectations.

From

on deserted islands to drifting on lakes... this book invites the reader to share an intense engagement with the natural world

Gwen with Minnow moored up

Extracts from The Waters and the Wild

‘I ran away with a sailor when I had just finished a degree at university. Hungry for adventure and impatient to escape the confines of life on a small island, I set off to travel the length and breadth of the world’s great oceans. For most of my twenties I worked and lived on racing yachts. Sailing on the high seas was an addictive way of life – exotic and exciting, with a whiff of danger. Oceancrossing on a boat powered by sail alone is physically and mentally challenging. Concepts of space and time took on a new import. The longest voyage I ever made at sea beyond the sight of land was thirty-eight days. The experience was immersive in the extreme. On those journeys I realised how possible it was to experience remoteness and wildness.’

‘The canoe was the one constant throughout, carrying me with grace and stamina across lakes, down rivers, along canals and up shallow rills. She turned heads wherever we went. People quickly appreciated her classical looks and elegant lines. I travelled sometimes in the company of others, family and friends who joined me for short stretches, but for the most part I journeyed alone.’

‘Like all good voyage tales, mine took me to deserted islands and wondrous shores. Along the way I encountered realms once inhabited by Celtic deities, mythical monsters and supernatural beings. As the adventure unfolded, I learned about the lives of historic female icons such as Maura Laverty, Jane W. Shackleton, Mary Ward and Lady Harriet Kavanagh, women who have left their mark on Ireland’s landscape. Most of all it was the wildlife, above and beneath the water, which became a subject of endless fascination and motivation for me.’

‘Lough Ree, ‘the Lake of Kings’, represents a milestone in my canoe voyage, a halfway point in my immram. Since I first set out along the River Erne, 250 kilometres has slipped beneath Minnow’s keel. The lough has a forbidding reputation; its mercurial waters can change from fair to foul in the blink of an eye. Small boats, open ones in particular, can be caught off guard when the lough bares its teeth. An inconvenient wind will conjure steep breaking waves with short troughs in between. Ree has exacted a heavy price down through the years, prompting the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to open a fully equipped and manned lifeboat station at Coosan Point in 2012. It happens to be one of the busiest stations in the country.’

UNDERWAY: Gwen paddles along a quiet backwater

 The Waters and The Wild by Gwen Wilkinson is published by Merrion Press.

Little Egret (left) and Moorhens (above, right) by Gwen Wilkinson

John Lynch releases new album

JOHN Lynch is a renowned folk songwriter as well as a natural born storyteller. Years of harnessing his craft has found itself shaped into his new single Guardians, based on the coastal village of Ringsend, home to the chimney towers that anyone who has taken the ferry into Dublin Port will instantly recognise.

Working closely with Larry Hogan (John Spillane, KILA) of Dublin Studio Hub, John has crafted his own style in meshing together Irish folk with a contemporary twist.

The single was released at the end of April; a new catalogue of original songs dealing with historical and current themes is set for release this June, on his new six-track EP 1922

Lynch delves deep into the history of his city, almost looking at it through a reflection of his own, as if he and the city are as one, exploring life’s cyclical nature through song.

On the song Guardians, John says of the

chimneys: “Every time I leave Dublin Port either by boat or plane they are always in the landscape and remind me of two bouncers or guardians watching and protecting all of the travelers to and from the Dublin Bay region. The south wall pier and pool beg lighthouse that extend on from the ESB chimneys also feature in the song as a favourite walk for Dubliners but also an acknowledgement to the rich history of the lighthouses to safely bring mariners into the port of Dublin.”

Since then, the last 18 months have been anything but quiet. He continued to gather momentum by selling out the Sugar Club, as well as selling out his UK dates. Previously, John shared the bill with the likes of Christy Moore, Jerry Fish, Mary Coughlan and more, which reflects the level of talent he possesses.

2023 is looking to continue this trend with a string of single s, his new EP and further live dates and festival appearances.

A pivotal figure in Irish music

SIMON Mayor is one of the world’s leading mandolinists as well as a fine fiddle player, guitarist and composer.

His latest album Carolan focuses on the great Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan, often referred to as simply Carolan. Born in Nobber, Meath in 1670 — at the very end of the harp era — O’Carolan was a pivotal figure of the harping fraternity, and in Irish music in general. His genius attracted

musicians from all over Europe to Ireland, breathing new life into the old tradition. Many musicologists believe that the ornamentations and decorations which are one of the glories of Irish traditional music as we know it today owes as much to the baroque influence of 18th century European musicians and composers as it does to indigenous Celtic forms.

Simon Mayor has now taken 14 of O’Carolan’s better known compositions and given them new

settings. He is helped in this project by Hilary James (basses and vocals) and Florence Petit (violoncello).

Mayor says of the music: “I remember well the first time I heard the music of the Irish harper and composer Turlough O’Carolan. It would have been 1973 and the Irish group Planxty were playing at Reading University Folk Club. As a student haunt, it was one I vastly preferred to the lecture hall or seminar;

I remember well the first time I heard the music of the Irish harper and composer Turlough O’Carolan... [Planxty] played a couple of Carolan pieces, and I was immediately captivated by the strength and grandness of the melodies

smallpox at the age of eighteen caused an intriguing twist to his legacy. Unable to notate his own music, those who did failed to record the harmonies he must have used, given that he played a polyphonic instrument, the harp. It was an unfortunate omission for anyone wishing to recreate his music with absolute historical accuracy. For me, this was never a strong desire, not least because I don’t play the harp! On the contrary, the ‘bare bones’, ‘melody only’ approach of his archivists had always proved alluring in itself. I wasn’t bound by the perceived constraints that hang over the music of more meticulously documented composers.

“Because the task of archiving Carolan wasn’t undertaken to any large degree until some years after his death, some have argued that it would be impossible to notate so much music from memory, but this is not true. Those who play traditional music, and in particular those of us who have not been through music college, are usually blessed with well-developed musical ears (helped in my own case by a father who taught me to sing in tonic sol-fa as a child). The trad musician can easily memorise tens or even hundreds of tunes.

with stayed arrangements solo

social thought of the 18th century was never as exciting as this.

“But let’s not digress. Planxty had been booked by Hilary James, who —  no coincidence here – features on this recording. The band played a couple of Carolan pieces, and I was immediately captivated by the strength and grandness of the melodies. I subsequently became intimately acquainted with their first album and lost count of the times I heard their versions of Si Bheag Si Mhor and Planxty Irwin.

“Carolan’s loss of sight through

“Carolan stayed with me over the years. I gradually wrote numerous arrangements of his pieces for solo guitar, as well as duets, trios and quartets, mostly for the residential mandolin workshops I regularly host. While these all formed a basis for the music on this album, I decided to go beyond simple harmonisation by varying tempos, incorporating changes of key and mode, and using the harmonic sequences as a basis for extemporisation. With multi-track recording I was able to build arrangements using the instruments I play: guitar, violin, viola, and all sizes of the mandolin family, with splendiferous assistance from Florence Petit’s ‘cello and Hilary James’ basses and cameo vocals.”

Carolan is an imaginative project by one of the world’s top mandolinists SIMON MAYOR

Here he discusses why Meath harpist Turlough

O’Carolan has been such an influence on him

Portrait of Turlough Carolan  by J.C. Trimball

Russian

John Lynch Picture: Ben Kelly

FIDDLER OF LONDON FINAL

Fiddlers from across the globe competed for the title, which is a tribute to the late Justin Whelehan

THE Fiddler of London title has gone to Ademar O’Connor of Co. Offaly.

The Children of Lir perpetual trophy for what is now a global event was presented to Ademar by the main sponsor of the event Noel Sainsbury of Archers Financial Services Ltd at a gala event at The Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith in April.

The judge was internationally respected fiddler and violinist Zoë Conway from Co. Louth and MC for the evening was Gino Lupari from Four Men and a Dog.

Ademar now becomes The Fiddler in Residence for the Irish Community for 2023/4 and will perform at high profile events across London and will be invited by the Irish ambassador in Britain, Martin Fraser to perform at the Irish Embassy in London. The young fiddler will also now feature in a primetime spot at the AllIreland Fleadh in August held in Mullingar.

The journey to the final began last December. Interest in the title encompassed a wide range of age groups as well as an extensive geographical spread. Competitors were asked to upload their entries to the Fiddler of London website by mid-January 2023. Video submissions came from all over the world from Japan to Alaska. Zoë Conway, had a challenging job whittling the list down to the ten finalists.

In her address Eilish Byrne-Whelehan, the director of the Fiddler of London commented that the Fiddler of London is not just a music competition. “It is,” she said,

competition and reach more people of different genres.

“On a personal note, as the director of the project, I am truly thrilled at how well the competition continues to be received in its third year. It continues to be an uplifting project to work on and still brings the children & I positivity and direction.”

Prior to the gala final taking place the winner of the title Up and Coming Fiddler of London 2023 was announced. This was awarded to Dara Morley from Co. Mayo. She was invited to attend the final to be presented with his award, and perform on the night.

The winner of the Fiddler of London 2023 Diaspora Award was also announced as Skyler Kelsey from Alaska, USA. Skyler made the journey from Alaska to be presented with his award and perform.

Both Dara and Skyler were presented with their awards from Sponsors of the competition, Alan Morgan and Lorraine Kelly.

 www.fiddleroflondon.co.uk

The Fiddler of London 2023 Finalists:

Orla Corrigan - Monaghan

Seanna Donohoe – Longford

Neil Kennedy – Donegal

Ademar O’Connor – Offaly

Ailbhin Stewart – Galway (living in Poland)

Irene Vioque Gonzalez – Spain

Rachel Isherwood - London

WINNING WAYS: Ademar O’Connor

Alan Morgan of McArthur Morgan, one of the sponsors, pictured with Skyler Kelsey

Lorraine Kelly and Dara Morley

Noel Sainsbury, Ademar O’Connor, Zoë Conway

Green light for Blue Lights series

THE BBC has confirmed a second series of new hit police drama Blue Lights

Set in Belfast, the drama series explores the reality of life for police officers working in the PSNI.

The first series, which focused on three police recruits who faced the pressure of criminal gangs and divided communities, proved a hit with audiences on BBC One and iPlayer

Directed by Gilles Bannier, co-created and written by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, co-created and co-produced by Louise Gallagher of Gallagher Films, and co-created and produced by Stephen Wright of Two Cities Television, the series launched on both platforms last month.

It received five-star reviews, while viewing figures for the first episode currently stand at 6.4million.

So popular has the show been, that the BBC has already commissioned series two, which remains set in Belfast and will begin filming over the summer.

“Blue Lights has been a breakout hit and so many of our viewers have taken the rookies to their hearts which is down to the fantastic cast and Declan and Adam’s vision,” Lindsay Salt, Director of Drama BBC, said.

“We can’t wait to have it back on BBC One and iPlayer for a second series,” she added.

The BBC confirmed this week that the drama will return for a second six-episode series.

A right royal do

HOWL at the Moon Irish pub in Hoxton will be holding an alternative Coronation party on May 6. The Cork-O-Nation day will not have international dignitaries in attendance, but there will be craic aplenty

— and it’s all in a good cause. Funds raised on the day will go to the two charities icap and Pieta. These are Irish charities, one based over in Ireland and one based in London — they do vital work supporting Irish mental health and suicide prevention.

A charity run will take place on the morning of the May 6, after which the runners will head for Howl at the Moon.

Howling balloons

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.

Among those set to reprise their roles in are Siân Brooke, Martin McCann, Katherine Devlin, Nathan Braniff, Joanne Crawford, Andi Osho, and Hannah McClean.

Stephen Wright, Executive Producer of Blue Lights and Creative Director and Joint CEO of Two Cities TV said: “We are thrilled by the audience response to the show.

CROSSWORD

Clues Across

Belfast is a vibrant, dynamic and complex place and we have a wealth of stories yet to come from our characters. We can’t wait to bring these to the fans.”

Filming on series two begins in Belfast this summer, with further casting to be announced.

Fiona Audley

Clues Down

1. One on one, from one promontory to another? (4,2,4)

6. Church benches. (4)

10. Traditional cinema worker or attendant at a wedding. (5)

11. Might Damon peer at such a walk? (9)

12. The tidiest kind of sea tent. (7)

15. Room or space near the roof. (5)

17. Indigo plant or dye. (4)

18. Leave out. (4)

19. Part of the jacket goes ape between two learners. (5)

21. Would this poetic skill thwart a grey aim? (7)

23. Ben is about to become a famous playwright. (5)

24. Small, green, non-flowering plant. (4)

25. Ireland’s largest bird. (4)

26. Take hold of. (5)

28. Vehicles using a road at a given time. (7)

33. Unbiased. (9)

34. Common wild flower. (5)

35. It’s a horse of a different colour! (4)

36. Historic Irish social justice organization. (4,6)

1. Sixty minutes. (4)

2. This sport may make one itch least. (9)

3. Such cards tell your fortune, thanks to rubbish. (5)

4. Aspirations. (5)

5. A short colonel is useful at Bridge. (4)

7. Precise. (5)

8. Flabbergasted by the lack of an oration. (10)

9. Lawfully. (7)

13. Dutch type of cheese. (4)

14. Brown Lad just touches the circle. (7)

16. Pugilistic jewellery? (6,4)

20. Supplying. (9)

21. The popular steeple can motivate. (7)

22. Roster. (4)

27. Plenty of crushed maple. (5)

29. Reigned. (5)

30. Type of sweet. (5)

31. This Italian city’s principal attraction is inclined to attract tourists! (4)

32. Rely, perhaps on finding a stringed instrument. (4)

The rookies in the BBC hit cop show set in Belfast will return for a second tour of duty, with filming beginning over the summer on location in Belfast

ROOKIES TOGETHER: Blue Lights follows the fortunes of novice PSNI officers

Picture: Courtesy of BBC

The lowdown on a low-lying place

Cavan is gearing up for a global festival

THE Cavan Calling homecoming festival will take place in County Cavan from July 26-30.

Cavan is inviting the global Cavan family home for a celebration of the county, its people, culture, history, music and landscape. Festivities will include on-street concerts, exhibitions, culinary events, music, song, dance and much more.

Beginning on Wednesday July 26 there’s a series of events entitled In Anxious Expectation – a two day symposium and consideration of migration and “the search for the elusive ancestor”. This includes a two-day ancestry conference and series of workshops hosted by Cavan Genealogy.

Talks include Mary Sullivan with ‘In Anxious Expectation Aspects of Emigration from County Cavan’, Arthur Sullivan with ‘A Parish Far From Home: The GAA Abroad’ and Dr. Patrick Fitzgerald with ‘Thinking about Human Migration’.

Music at the festival runs from a concert by the Boomtown Rats, including Bob Geldof, traditional music concerts, and of course céilí and country & Irish sessions.

Cavan has never been a muchvisited place – it’s an area called Ireland’s Hidden Heartland. Even today, with visitor numbers increasing, you’ll pretty much have the run of the place from Ballyjamesduff to Crossdoney without being upset by too many other visitors.

Cavan is a low-lying sort of place – the word comes from An Cabhán,

Ballyconnell has a footnote in Ulster history – the first GAA club in the province was founded [there] in 1885

the Hollow – so loughs, rivers, streams and bogland surround you on all sides. Today you can sail by barge or cruiser along the Ballinamore-Ballymaconnell canal, finally linking up with the Shannon. The Shannon rises in Co. Cavan. The Shannon Pot is a natural spring

located in the Cuilcagh Lakelands Geopark. This notable nook — several crannies are nearby – is a glistening, beautifully oval shaped pool. This pool is largely agreed to be the source of the Shannon’; there are a few other candidates, but the Shannon Pot has tradition on it s side, plus quite a bit of magic. It’s situated on the Cavan Way, a long-distance walking route that starts in Blacklion and ends in Dowra.

The Shannon Pot has been a significant landmark in Irish mythology and history for centuries, and it is believed with connections to the Druids and the Salmon of Knowledge.

According to Irish mythology, the Salmon of Knowledge was a magical creature that lived in the River Shannon, and of course perhaps still does.

The salmon gained its knowledge by eating the nine hazelnuts that fell into the well of wisdom, and anyone who ate the salmon would gain all of its knowledge. The legend goes that the great Celtic hero Fionn Mac

Cumhail caught the Salmon of Knowledge and ate it, thus gaining all of its knowledge and becoming the wisest man in Ireland. Probably not realizing that nobody likes a wise guy, even if they are from Cavan.

The Druids, the ancient Celtic priests and what-nots are believed to have used the waters of the Shannon Pot for their rituals and ceremonies. This corner of Cavan was considered to be a sacred site for the Druids, and it was believed that the spirits of the dead could be heard there on certain nights. Pop along at night yourself and see if you can spot any hanky panky going on.

Belturbet is your best bet if you’re interested in watery things – either fishing, boating, cruising or merely dandering along the water’s edge. This is where the Ulster Canal originally started.

If the history of transport on the island is what moves you, so to speak, pay a visit to Belturbet station which served the Northern Railway and Narrow gauge Cavan and Leitrim Railway, operating from 1885 until 1959.

The station now houses an exhibition displaying these odds and ends, Heath Robinson-esque in their complexity. Enthralling, and not just to railway anoraks.

Nearby, about six miles away, the town of Ballyconnell has a footnote in Ulster history – the first GAA club in the province was founded in Ballyconnell in 1885 and named ‘Ballyconnell Joe Biggars’ in honour of the then MP for West Cavan, Irish nationalist Joseph Biggar. It subsequently changed its name to Ballyconnell First Ulsters.

If underground international travel is your thing, you’ll scarcely do better than Cavan and its neighbouring county, Fermanagh. The Marble Arch Caves make up a mesmerising world of rivers, waterfalls, winding underground passages and lofty subterranean chambers

– so exquisite they have UNESCO status.

Spectacular walkways allow access to the caves where seeping acid water, lime and carbon dioxide have interacted since the Ice Age to produce chambers of silent beauty. Powerful, brilliant lighting reveals huge caverns and shimmering white terraces in all their undisturbed splendour.

This limestone extravaganza is also the very first UNESCO site that straddles an international border –because the caves, no respecter of the Treaty that partitioned Ireland, extend into Co. Cavan. You’re still in Ulster, of course, just under (literally) a separate international jurisdiction. Strictly speaking, under the Westminster Framework, border controls could well start at a customs post underground here in the Marble Arch Caves.

 www.thisiscavan.ie / fb.com/ thisiscavan

Where to stay

Slieve Russell Hotel Golf & Country Club

The Slieve Russell Hotel just outside the town of Ballyconnell represents top drawer digs, with golf and country club attached. Set in 300 acres, including 50 acres of lakes, this is a mini-lake district all on its own – plus of course the Slieve Russell has all the other things you’d expect from top digs: swimming pool, saunas, steamroom, jacuzzi, fitness suite, tennis, squash, snooker etc. It has a top grade restaurant too – it’s the sort of place where you can eat, drink and be very merry.

in July. But MAL ROGERS reckons that it can offer everything from boating to magic

FORE! The 9th hole at the Slieve Russell course Picture: Getty Images

LOW-LYING: Lough Oughter

Waterside adventures in Wexford

PERFECTLY located on the banks of the River Slaney in Wexford is a hotel that offers a view quite unmatched by any other.

Nestled comfortably along the point where the water widens to join the Irish Sea, the Ferrycarrig Hotel is flanked by sweeping vistas of the Slaney estuary and the plants and wildlife that call it home.

One of the highlights of Ireland’s Ancient East, county Wexford is famed for many things – from its delicious local strawberries to its iconic Hook Lighthouse.

It is known in Ireland as the ‘Model County’, as it was traditionally deemed to have set a good example for the rest of the country.

Griffin Group, takes little over an hour and a half to reach by car from Dublin Airport. And we found it waiting in all its sun-shimmering waterside glory upon our arrival. The setting alone is a good enough reason to visit this hotel, with its proximity to the water and the rustic Irish outdoors an awesome sight to be greeted with when pulling up in your car.

So comfortable were we that it would have been easy to hole up in our hotel bubble for the duration of our stay. But the pull of Wexford drew us out – and there were plenty of sights to be seen...

And its position along the nation’s relatively sunny southeastern coast makes it a popular spot for holidaymakers from across the island and further afield at any time of year, but particularly in the spring and summer months.

The key to a truly great holiday, however, is finding the perfect hotel as your base.

And whether you are after rest and relaxation or adventure and activity the Ferrycarrig Hotel is up there with the best of them – as we found out on our recent family break at the picturesque spot.

The four-star offering, which is part of the

But there was so much more to enjoy inside too.

Travelling with three young people, aged from four to seven years old, leisure facilities are a must on any hotel break. And it is not always easy to find a hotel in Ireland that can provide a pool as well as all the other amenities needed for a fruitful and enjoyable stay for all.

But the Ferrycarrig has that and more, with a vast, child-friendly, heated indoor pool open all day every day, as well as an adults-only jacuzzi, sauna and steam room.

There is a decent gym too and a range of luxurious treatments available at their Riverwood Spa also – so that was everyone in our family sorted in terms of on-site leisure activities.

The popular Wexford spot also boasts delightful food and drinks options via its Dry

Edited by Mal Rogers

BASE CAMP: The luxurious bedroom and heated indoor pool of the Ferrycarrig Hotel

The luxuriously comfortable Ferrycarrig Hotel offers the perfect base for exploring the Model County, writes FIONA AUDLEY

PICTURESQUE: The Ferrycarrig Hotel set among awe-inspiring scenery

Dock Bar and Reeds Restaurant. Both are perfectly situated within the building so that guests can enjoy those stunning views of the Slaney wherever they choose to dine – so whether you are enjoying the hotel’s hearty breakfast offering, treating yourself to afternoon tea or sampling the more formal, and very tasty, dinner experience at Reeds, you can keep an eye on the delightful views and enchanting Irish wildlife as it goes about its business nearby.

With good old Irish hospitality in abundance among the ever-helpful Ferrycarrig staff, it didn’t take us long to settle into our temporary new home.

Bedrooms offered the perfect mix of luxury and comfort – as well as more of those inspiring river views.

So comfortable were we that it would have been easy to hole up in our hotel bubble for the duration of our stay.

But the pull of Wexford drew us out – and there were plenty of sights to be seen, which made for the perfect family holiday.

Here are our top five things to do as a family in Wexford, with the Ferrycarrig Hotel as your base…

1. Hook Lighthouse

ence when on our holidays.

They were delighted with our trip to Wexford’s Secret Valley Wildlife Park, which has over 40 species of animals, including lemurs, capuchin monkeys, meerkats and alpacas. There were plenty of friendly staff on hand to talk about the animals and they also provided opportunities to handle some of the smaller ones.

Our children enjoyed holding a rabbit, a rat and a snake during our visit – the latter two are not my cup of tea at all, but each to their own.

And after a decent stint exploring the animals outdoors there is an ample indoor playroom for your little people to burn off any energy they still have left while you warm up with a coffee and cake.

Just a stone’s throw from the Ferrycarrig Hotel is the Irish National Heritage Park.

Now this open-air activity centre documenting Ireland’s history is well worth a visit.

First opened in the summer of 1987, as an outdoor museum, it tells the story of human settlement in Ireland from the Mesolithic period right up to the Norman Invasion in 1169.

Situated in 40 acres of reclaimed marshland on the banks of the River Slaney, it showcases 16 reconstructed historic sites, each built using the materials and skills of the period.

The main theme of the park is Ireland’s archaeological heritage and it’s a unique experience that offers something for everyone –whatever your age.

4. Min Ryan Park

No good family holiday is complete without a visit to a decent playground – and Wexford has one of the best that we’ve come across on our regular visits to Ireland.

Min Ryan Park is vast and full of exciting activities for children.

It is named after Mary Josephine (Min) Ryan, who was from a prosperous family who farmed at Tomcoole, near Taghmon in Co. Wexford.

Min was founder member of Cumann na mBan, the Irish republican women’s paramilitary organisation formed in Dublin in 1914, and she and several of her 11 brothers and sisters were active in the Easter Rising.

The park named in her honour

comes with a huge playground, full of modern facilities – from a sandpit to slides, zip wires and much more.

But it also boasts a vast green space which features a picnic area, dog park, memorial garden, walking track, water features, multi-use events area, play spaces, wildflower meadows and art displays.

So you can expect to stay longer here than any ‘playground’ you’ve visited yet, and you’ll be grateful for it too.

5. Visit Enniscorthy

There are many great Wexford towns that are easily accessible from Ferrycarrig, but Enniscorthy has got to be one of the nicest and is perfect for a day trip.

It is the second largest town in

Wexford and one of its most popular features within it is Enniscorthy Castle.

The imposing Norman stronghold dates back to 1205 and over the years it has been home to Norman knights, English armies, Irish rebels and prisoners and local merchant families.

Today, it is open to the public to explore everything from the dungeon to its battlements at the top of the castle, where stunning views of Enniscorthy town and the surrounding countryside await. An enticing building for children and adults, offering a slice of Irish history in a beautiful setting.

Located at Hook Head at the tip of the Hook Peninsula, Hook Lighthouse is the oldest intact operational lighthouse in the world.

Voted one of Ireland’s favourite attractions, it’s a must-see for anyone visiting Wexford.

Purpose built 800 years ago by Knight William Marshal, the awesome black and white striped building looms large yet welcoming from its dominant position on the edge of the county.

A fabulous experience for children and adults alike, you can step back in time and enjoy a guided tour of the lighthouse or simply enjoy the wonder of it from the grounds outside.

Don’t forget to stop in the café, where you can enjoy a hearty lunch while watching the waves crash against the rocks outside – or partake in some children’s craft before you leave.

2. Secret Valley Wildlife Park

Our children love to see animals up close and personal – so we always seek out a farm or wildlife experi-



For further information or to book your stay at the Ferrycarrig Hotel visit: www.ferrycarrighotel.

IMPOSING: Enniscorthy Castle, Co. Wexford

3. Irish National Heritage Park

ACTIVITY CENTRE: Irish National Heritage Park, Co. Wexford

Hook Lighthouse

PROPERTY

Keel, Achill Island, Co. Mayo F28 HK81

Completely rebuilt and refurbished in 1993,

The Chalet has been a thriving seafood restaurant for sixty years.

Situated on the Wild Atlantic Way, this restaurant has high footfall and is famous for its seafood, caught from their own trawler.

The property is approximately 3,360 square feet in area, fully equipped, furnished and in turnkey condition, and offers a unique opportunity to any potential purchaser to continue a very successful business, with the added attraction of additional commercial value from a well maintained crazy golf course and two retail/office units.

The restaurant consists of two spacious dining rooms: the large dining room featuring the Wheelhouse Bar and Captain’s Table on the upper deck which seats over 50 people; and the Currach lounge/dining room with open fireplace and sea views that seats over 35 people.

The Chalet Seafood Restaurant is been sold as a going concern to include all furniture, fittings and equipment and consists of the following: Reception area; craft shop; retail/office unit with direct street access; two spacious dining rooms; toilets – ladies, gents and disabled; state-of-the-art, fully equipped catering kitchen with two large cold rooms, drinks cabinet, office, staff toilet and emergency exit door to the rear garden. There is also a large basement with electricity supply, which is used for storage.

The building has double glazed PVC windows and doors throughout; a surround sound music system; tiled roof; and timber flooring. There is oil- fired central heating; gas for cooking; and mains water / electricity / sewerage are all connected to the property.

Viewing strictly by appointment – for futher details, contact:

(Hons) & MMCEPI

legacy to be lasting peace in Ireland”

“I

TURIN, CO. CAVAN, IRELAND, AB2 N7T3

– a ve-bedroomed, detached dwelling house, situated in one acre of ground. e property is within walking distance of picturesque Lough Sheelin – popular with anglers, and the prestigious lakeside Crover House Hotel with its golf course and helicopter pad. PRICE: In excess of £400,000.

For further details, contact Mary Farrell on: m.farrell519@btinternet.com  Mobile: 44 07900577789

Tested and bested – Ireland go down 0-2 to Sri Lanka

to hit a century across all three formats after Kevin O’Brien’s feat in 2018.

But unlike the first Test, the pitch barely showed any signs of slowing down as the Irish bowlers endured another tough outing.

Kusal Mendis, who top-scored with 245, and Nishan Madushka, playing just his third Test, blasted maiden double centuries in a record stand of 268. Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews, too, posted centuries to swell the total to an insurmountable 704-3 in 151 overs, a further reminder of how little the pitch offered.

But Ireland’s fielders were also culpable for dropping catches and letting the batters loose.

Requiring to bat the final day out to salvage a draw, the best possible result for the visitors with 212 runs in arrears, only Harry Tector stood tall with a 189-ball vigil for a careerbest 85. Balbirnie’s 46 was the only other effort to pass 19.

Ramesh Mendis bagged his first five-wicket haul of the series and Jayasuriya picked seven for the match to become the fastest spinner to bag 50 Test wickets in just his seventh match to bowl out Ireland for 202 in the 78th over.

The innings-and-10 run victory was Sri Lanka’s 100th win in Tests.

“Mentally the last three weeks have been draining, but we’ve really enjoyed it,” Balbrinie said.

Test matches are still the best format in my opinion and the group have loved the challenges. We were in amongst it for large parts of the games and we can take positives from that.”

“We’re not too down in the change-room about this result,” he said. “If we were being hyper-critical, we could have had more runs in the first innings, because that was the best time to bat. But to have two first-time centurions - these are big moments for them. We are disappointed we didn’t get a draw but we played good cricket.”

IRELAND stumbled to a 0-2 Test series loss against a dominant Sri Lankan side in Galle but came away with plenty of experience and positives to draw on.

After being beaten by seven wickets by Bangladesh in Chattogram earlier this month, the Andrew Balbirnie-led side fell to an innings defeat in both matches in their firstever Test tour to Sri Lanka.

The result was hardly surprising, as it was in Bangladesh, without so much as a practice match to offset the inexperience of having played no cricket in the country in over a decade.

The two sides battled in unrelenting April heat with temperatures into the 30s and high humidity playing its part.

In the series opener, the hosts won the toss and opted to bat first on a flat pitch that eventually eased out for spinners to strut their stuff. It couldn’t have gone any better for Dimuth Karunaratne’s side.

Sri Lanka posted a mammoth first-innings total of 591/6 with as many as four batters recording a century. Karunaratne laid the platform with 179, a six-hour vigil, backed up by Kusal Mendis’ 140. Together the duo stitched a 291-run stand to finish the day on 386-4.

Sadeera Samarawickrama, returning to the Test team after a six-year absence, brought up his maiden ton and Dinesh Chandimal, too, made an unbeaten 102 to deepen the Irish woes with a commanding 183-run partnership to ensure there were enough runs on the board.

Off-spinner Andy McBrine, who picked up the country’s best Test figures of 6-118 a Test earlier, toiled hard for 40 overs with just a wicket to show for his efforts and as did seamer Mark Adair, left-arm spinner George Dockrell and leg-spinner Ben White. Curtis Campher bagged two.

In response, left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya registered his

career-best haul of 7-52 to spin out the visitors for 143 in under 53 overs. Quite how incompetent the Irish batters were was summed up by the fact that Lorcan Tucker’s 45 would go on to be the highest score by an Irish batter across both innings. If once wasn’t enough, their frail technique against spin was once again laid bare after being asked to follow on trailing by 448 runs.

At one point, there was a real threat of being bowled out twice in one day after being reduced to 40-5 in the second dig but Campher and Harry Tector’s 60-run stand did well to delay the inevitable onto the third day. The batters failed to resist for long as the hosts wrapped an innings-and-280 run win, shortly after tea, led by off-spinner Ramesh Mendis’ four-fer and Jayasuriya completing his ten-wicket haul.

An early finish provided an opportunity for Ireland to fine tune their skills and acclimatise to the conditions. It also ensured that despite

another loss in the second Test, the manner of it wasn’t as listless as the first.

For the first time in six Tests, the side managed to take the game deep into the fifth day, aided partly by the weather, and finished on top for the best part of the first two days.

For it to happen, Balbirnie inserted his batters on a pitch that mimicked the one in the first Test providing little encouragement for the bowlers in the first innings.

While the captain missed out on his maiden Test century, a paddle sweep off Mendis inducing a top edge to first slip on 95, Curtis Campher and the returning Paul Stirling scored theirs on a historic day to post Ireland’s highest total of 492 in 145.3 overs.

If Campher’s 111 was more sedate, laced with 15 fours and two sixes, Stirling overcame a cramp to post an aggressive 103 which featured nine fours and four sixes. In the process, he became only the second Irishman

“We are very young in our Test career, so you have to take these little wins. It’s the first time we’ve played five full days. I know there was a bit of rain around, but we got into the middle session on the fifth day, still believing we could get a draw.”

While the batters did improve, the gulf in the performance of the spinners was concerning. Sri Lanka’s spinners took 28 wickets across the two Tests as compared to Ireland’s four.

“We’re brought up in Ireland where the wickets favour seam bowling,” Balbirnie said. “It’s so different here, as hot as it is, and the Kookaburra ball doesn’t do a lot, particularly when it goes soft. You have high-class batters who are amazing in these conditions.

“The guys tried their hardest out there. Can’t fault them at all. I know they were 704 for 3, but whenever I gave someone the ball, they had no hesitation. They just kept running in.”

The Test side is still looking for its maiden win in the format but another stern challenge awaits as they take on third-ranked England at Lord’s for a four-day Test match from June 1.

The Ireland cricket team lose their series to Sri Lanka and now anticipate third world-ranked England at Lords in June. MALHAR HATHI reports

BATTLING BATSMAN: Harry Tector of Ireland in action against Sri Lanka Picture: Getty Images

Basketball Ireland cock-a-hoop about plans for expansion Collins signs to London Irish

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

BASKETBALL Ireland has released its 5 Year Strategic Plan 2023-2027, which lays out the organisation’s growth targets for the sport.

Among its ambitions is to increase the numbers of registered players, referees, table officials and coaches by more than a third, while growing the amount of clubs island-wide by 24 per cent, to 260.

There are also plans to redevelop and modernise the National Basketball Arena during the lifespan of the Strategic Plan.

Basketball Ireland CEO, John Feehan, said: “This 5 Year Strategic Plan spells out the direction of travel basketball is going.

“It’s an exciting time for the sport and we need to keep that positive momentum going. Upping standards on and off the court is central to this, including best-in-practice corporate governance, increasing commercial revenue, continuing to raise basketball’s profile through traditional media and our own channels and improving the quality and access level of facilities.

“Working alongside our clubs, committees, players, officials and volunteers, we can achieve all that we have set out in this Strategic Plan.”

Basketball Ireland chairperson, Paul McDevitt, added: “Basketball in Ireland has seen tremendous growth over the last number of years and central to this are the dedicated volunteers around the country, with whom we consulted when bringing this Strategic Plan to fruition.

“It is there to support those people, to ensure the sport in Ireland reaches its full potential.

“While basketball is fortunate to have an equal gender split when it comes to participation, this Strategic Plan outlines the desire to increase the number of women in leadership roles, as part of our ‘Women In Basketball’ strategy.

“We have 79 different nationalities represented among our playing membership and we want to engage more people from diverse communities and provide opportunities to get involved. These are just a few of the things that are key to the continued progress of basketball in Ireland.”

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

LONDON Irish have announced the signing of Tom Collins from fellow Gallagher Premiership Club Northampton Saints ahead of the 2023/24 season.

The versatile back, adept on either wing and at full-back, will link up with the Exiles this offseason and join Declan Kidney’s project after a decade of involvement with Saints’ first team.

Collins turned out for Northampton on 144 occasions and registered 48 tries, an impressive scoring record that has seen him amass 240 club points.

The Northampton Academy product and former England age-grade representative was part of the 2013 Under-20 Six Nations winning side, with Collins going on to win the Premiership Breakthrough Player of the Year the following year.

Collins said: “I’ll always be grateful to Northampton, it’s the Club I have grown up supporting and was lucky enough to play for, but I felt my time was coming to an end and a new opportunity was on the horizon,” Collins commented.

“Irish reached out and I was really encouraged by the project the Club is working under with Declan [Kidney]

Leicester City could have re-signed O’Neill

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

FOLLOWING Antrim man Brendan Rodgers’ sacking last month, Martin O’Neill has revealed he had some interest in the vacant Leicester City job.

The former Republic of Ireland manager previously enjoyed a successful five-year spell with the Foxes from 1995-2000, winning two league cup titles and reaching another final.

He later went on to achieve further success at Celtic and Aston Villa before becoming Ireland boss in 2013, a role he held for five years.

Although he had a brief stint with Nottingham Forrest in 2019, O’Neill has been without a job since then.

Despite not having been in contact with Leicester, he acknowledges that he would

have been tempted to take the role on a short-term basis had he been approached. However, the

job ultimately went to former Norwich boss Dean Smith. “If they had asked me, which

and Les [Kiss], I feel like it will be a great fit for me.

I’m proud to now call myself an Exile and can’t wait to link up with the boys at Hazelwood.”

The 28-year-old made his debut for Saints in their successful 2013/14 campaign, scoring a try in a Challenge Cup semi-final against Harlequins en route to the historic league and European trophy double.

Collins would go on to play an important role in Saints 2018/19 Premiership Rugby Cup win, and this season, the back has scored seven times for Phil Dowson’s men.

His tries include two braces against Sale Sharks and Harlequins respectively, whilst also appearing against Irish in this year’s Gallagher Premiership and Premiership Rugby Cup.

London Irish Director of Rugby Declan Kidney spoke of his satisfaction in securing Collins’ talents for the next few seasons.

“I’d like to welcome Tom to London Irish, he has shown in his time with Northampton what a capable player he is and having him as our player now is a great privilege.

“We are really excited to be welcoming in a player of Tom’s calibre and we are all confident he will become a valuable member of our squad at Irish.”

GAA ban for spectator who racially abused Lee Chin

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

THE spectator who racially abused Wexford captain Lee Chin during the county’s challenge game against Tipperary in Carrick-on-Suir this month has been given a 48-week suspension by the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee.

they didn’t, I think that would have been interesting because you feel as if you could have got some points on the board,” said O’Neill at a media conference to promote Viaplay TV’s coverage of the Scottish Cup semi-final between Celtic and Rangers

“I’m not saying it would have been a long-term thing. I would have thought about it anyway. And since Roy Hodgson is now 114 and Neil Warnock is 112, I think I am quite young!

“But, listen, I have not been proactive in any aspect of that and I’m actually kind of semi-enjoying myself.”

Just last month, the former boss also was asked if he had held talks with Leicester about a possible return, O’Neill told talkSPORT when pushed on the question: “The answer is no, there wasn’t any contact.”

The incident occurred during a heated moment among players towards the end of the second half which led referee John Keenan to abandon the game.

The punishment was based on video evidence and the referee’s report, and it has been reported that the person, who is a member of the GAA, has since apologised to Chin in a letter.

The incident has been widely condemned by both Tipperary and Wexford, as well as the Gaelic Players Association.

At Congress in February, delegates voted to upgrade any act of racism, sectarianism or anti-inclusion/diversity nature on an official or opponent to a Category VI charge.

The individual has been charged accordingly, but it is believed that the suspension may be reduced to 24 weeks if they complete an appropriate course of training or education, which is available online.

SLAM DUNK COMING UP: Dayna Finn of Ireland in action during the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023

Former Republic manager Martin O’Neill says a return to Leicester City as coach would have been interesting – but he was never approached

DEMANDING DUO: Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane during their coaching duties at Nottingham Forest Picture: Getty Images

Picture: Getty Images

Ferguson settles in at Brighton

Controversy continues over Crokes v Glen

GAA’s CCCC to play the game again. Crokes went to the Central Appeals Committee to appeal against the replay and were finally awarded the win after a long drawn-out battle.

A statement from the GAA stated that ‘no deliberate action and that no fault was attributed to Kilmacud Crokes for the situation they found themselves in’.

IRISH INTERNATIONAL:

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

BRIGHTON & Hove Albion manager

Roberto De Zerbi has said that he will do all he can to help Ireland’s Evan Ferguson become one of the ‘strongest strikers in Europe’ after the Brighton star signed a new deal at the Amex last week

The 18-year-old had a number of interested parties vying for his services, but Ferguson has signed a new contract at Brighton that runs until 2028.

The forward has had a stellar Premier League season, scoring nine goals in all competitions, including four in the Premier League. He also scored his first goal for the Republic of Ireland in March in a friendly against Latvia.

Head coach De Zerbi said, “Evan’s contract extension is great news. He trains and plays like a senior player with many years of experience and has become an important member of the squad.

“The aim is to help him become one of the strongest strikers in Europe.”

Ferguson had his own words to say about his new deal and his injury status: “I feel alright, it’s just a small issue. I felt good in that game [against Chelsea], and once I get back in, I should be able to get back into the swing of things quickly.

“I think I’ve done well so far under the new head coach. At the start, it took time to get used to him, but since we got back to playing after the World Cup, I’ve had my chance and he’s trusted me.

“He just tells me there’s no pressure, just to carry on working hard and doing my thing.

“It’s been good to be involved in the first team, although the last few months have gone very quickly. It’s been good to get some goals and assists in the Premier League.”

BY CONOR O’DONOGHUE

DERRY’S Conor Glass thinks that the All-Ireland Club SFC final between Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) and Glen (Derry), which ended in controversial circumstances this year, should have been replayed.

Crokes won the game 1-11 to 1-9 and secured the Andy Merrigan Cup. However, this wasn’t the end of it.

The game was left mired in controversy as it was found that Kilmacud finished the game with 16 players, one more than the standard 15.

With Glen looking to score in the dying seconds in the Croke Park final in January, Kilmacud made two substitutions.

But video showed Dara Mullin, one of the players substituted off, defending his goal line as Glen prepared to take a 45.

And 17 Kilmacud players appeared on the pitch during the last play as Paul Mannion slowly walked towards the dugout area after being substituted.

An official objection was sent by Glen to the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC).

Soon after, a replay had been ordered by

Glass, who played for Glen that day, was speaking at an event at Croke Park and went on to say that he wanted to replay the game, but as time went on, the eagerness started to wane. “I wanted the replay.

“When I was on the bus on the way home, I wanted the replay, 100%, and the rest of the team was like that,” said Glass at the RS Recruitment GAA World Games launch at Croke Park.

“The management was like that, the whole club was like that, but the more it dragged on, the more it started to fade off. Emmett Bradley was getting married three weeks later, boys had holidays planned, so the longer it went on, the less emotional I was about it, and I was happy enough to move on then. But 10 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours after the game, albeit I was drinking, but I wanted a replay.”

Despite this, Glass also admitted that any sort of medal won by Crokes or Glen would have been ‘tarnished’ going forward.

“They broke the rules. The rules are there for a reason, and if you break them and we’re entitled to a replay, so be it,” he added.

“If they had beaten us the second day, we would have accepted that as well, but the rules are there for a reason.” And while accepting that had they won a rematch, the All-Ireland medal would be devalued, he says that that is the case with Kilmacud’s victory in any event.

“Well, it’s tarnished now. There’s an asterisk over it either way. So if we had won it, we would have accepted it, but it would have been tarnished. There would have been an asterisk either way,” he said. “Everyone was let down by the manner in which the GAA handled the affair. It was emotionally taxing alright. It wasn’t ideal circumstances for both teams. Everyone probably thinks that we were harshly done by, but the whole circumstance, Kilmacud suffered from it, and we did.

“Any of the teams weren’t going to win from it. The GAA probably should have come out, whether it be 24 hours after it, and said what the result of the game’s going to be and what’s the way forward. The way it dragged on wasn’t ideal.”

Evan Ferguson

It was the game that never was – a rematch between Kilmacud Crokes (Dublin) and Glen (Derry), leaving a controversy that rumbles on

DERRY STAR: Conor Glass Picture: Getty Images