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Slaney News
ENNiSCOrTHY EYE a column by Joseph Doyle
MarcoNi’S eNNiScorthy coNNectioN
Annie Jameson
Annie Jameson was the daughter of Andrew Jameson of Daphne Castle, Enniscorthy, and granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of whiskey distillers Jameson & Sons, and the mother of the founder of radio – Guglielmo Marconi.
7 January 2014
www.slaneynews.com
Although the young Marconi would have spent some of his childhood in Enniscorthy he is not in fact from Enniscorthy but we’ll still claim him as one of our own! In 1895 inventor Guglielmo Marconi built the equipment and transmitted electrical signals through the air from one end of his house to the other and then from the house to the garden. These experiments were in effect the dawn of practical wireless telegraphy or radio. Following the successes of his experiments at home Marconi became obsessed with the idea of sending messages across the Atlantic. He built a transmitter 100 times more powerful than any previous station at Poldhu on the south west tip of England and in November 1901 installed a receiving station at St John’s in Newfoundland. On December 12th 1901 he received signals from across the ocean. Marconi was acclaimed
by outstanding scientists including Thomas Edison. Marconi’s radio was the first to demonstrate workable wireless signal radio communication. It would not be until Lee de Forest invented the audion vacuum tube for amplification in the early 1900s that audio was used in conjunction with radio. Marconi’s work consisted of slashes and dots like morse code and government navies used the new wireless radio. At first the earliest users included the Japanese navy scouting the Russian navy during the Russo-Japanese war in 1905. Radio was also on board the Titanic in 1912 to communicate with rescue ships in the north Atlantic. Marconi was born in Bologna in Italy on April 25th 1874. His father was Italian and his mother Scots Irish born in Enniscorthy. He was educated first in Bologna then in Florence. He went to technical school in Leghorn where he studied physics.
Guglielmo Marconi
Marconi received many honours including the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics in 1909. He was sent as a delegate to the peace conference in Paris in 1919 in which capacity he signed the peace treaties with Austria and Bulgaria. Guglielmo Marconi died in July 1937. – Joseph Doyle
rathNure PaNto – beSt ever SNOW WHiTE AND THE 7 WiTCHES – JACK FrOST BiTES BACK The story begins in fairyland – well it’s pantomime folks! Oh yes it is! The story kicks off at the fairytale Oscars where some very famous faces are winning awards in their various categories. When Santa and Snow White win the most popular awards two people ain’t happy at all – the Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland. Well yea and rightly so. Skip a few pages, back in the North Pole Santa is showing off his awards. Jack, one of Santa’s elves, makes his second mistake in the factory by mixing up the presents. Santa banishes him. Jack and Alice are turned nastily into the Wicked Witch and Jack Frost. With Christmas in trouble and Snow White in danger she goes to college to hide and the intricate story takes off from there. This pantomime was a great show with a wicked twist at the end – the villain turned out to be the Scarecrow. Well
you’d be a villain too if your brains were in a bucket. I must say Niamh Murphy was excellent as the narator Dorothy with her sexy southern accent why being from Kansas and all. She played the part very well. As some parts were played by alternative actors on different nights, I can’t speak for the cast I didn’t see but by all accounts I heard the other Dorothy was also excellent. On the night I was there Niamh was brilliant – her diction was first class and she kept her southern accent throughout the whole story. As for her onstage colleagues all were excellent including the Tin Man, the Lion and the Scarecrow. John Reilly was excellent as Barbie but, John, please next year be Widow Twankey, Barbie is too ott for me! Guys, it was the best pantomime you did in all the years out there in Rathnure. Fair play. Roll on the next show guys, well done. – Joseph Doyle
coNgratulatioNS… coNgratulatioNS… … Birthday apologies to Aanisah Whelan who is 5. Sinead Wall recently celeberated her 41st birthday with a party which was arranged for her by her family and friends. Sinead is the “baby” of the well known Wall family of Barrack Street. Among the family members to help Sinead celebrate her big night was her mother Nancy and her brothers Niall and David, sisters Eithne, Mary and Annette. Music was provided by Brian Robb. B ro t h e r s M i c h e a l a n d Eamonn sent their best wishes. Matty Butler is the big 40 and celebrates his birthday with
a party in The Bailey later this month. Matty is a brosett so expect plenty of bros music and 80s tunes. Music on the night is by DJ Cameron who is Matty’s son. Happy 3oth birthday to Emma Louise Kehoe who was 30 on the 6th of January. Congrats to Jake O’Neal who had his birthday on 6th January. Triple 21sts. Before Christmas three best friends combined their coming of age with a party in The Bailey. The three best friends for life celebrated with family and friends. The three key to the door recipients were Saoirse Kehoe, Alva Murphy and
Aoife Mackin. This was also a going away party for one of the trio – Saoirse Kehoe who is heading to America to study. Bon voyage. Coursing king wins another trophy: Billy Kehoe added another trophy to his cabinet as Carraig Tobin Lady won the Wexford coursing finals in Codds of Woodlands on St Stephen’s Day. Billy Kehoe is the Alex Ferguson or the Brian Cody of the dog world. Well done. Wedding bells for Colm O’Gorman and Sara Nolan who were married recently in St Aidan’s Cathedral and the reception was in the Riverside Park Hotel.
Mark and Orla Doyle were married on New Year’s Eve with the wedding reception in the Riverside Park Hotel. John Tyrell and Roseanne Sinnott were married in the Brandon House Hotel on New Year’s Eve. This was a blacktie wedding. John is well known on the hurling pitch as he lines out for the Rapps and is better known as “Muckers”. Congrats to all. Please note that if we make any mistakes in this newspaper we will gladly correct them in our following issue. If you have a birthday wish or wedding or would like a mention please email Joe at doyleduffry@gmail.com. – Joseph Doyle
Some of the young and talented Rathnure Panto cast
Jack froSt iS Not a Nice little fellow
This year’s version of the incredibly successful Hope and Dream 10 takes place on April 13th. In 2013, €114,470 was raised for the benefit of the Hope
Cancer Support Centre and the Share a Dream Foundation. This brings the event total to an amazing €242,732. Hope and Dream 10, 2014, will be run to raise funds for
Hope Cancer Support Centre and the Wexford Branch of Console, the National Suicide Charity. So if you’re feeling lazy after Christmas decide now
to do something positive and enter the Hope and Dream 10. Remember you can decide on the distance – 10 miles or 10km. E n t e r a t w w w. h o p e a n d dream10.com. n
OLD MAN WiNTEr AND M O T H E r N AT U r E i N CAHOOTS Rathnure Pantomime Society might have dreamed up Jack Frost as a mystical figure and he may well be a mischevious, coldhearted villain but he is real and he is at present terrorising America with his cold breath wreaking havoc by bringing the Canadian winter to America. He’s already been to Boston and
New York and Chicago is on lock down. And Old Man Winter is planning to bring Jack Frost back here to Europe – it’s coming folks so expect Old Man Winter and Jack Frost to come knocking soon. But after the recent spell of heavy rain and flood alerts, let’s hope Old Man Winter will be relatively kind to Enniscorthy and Co. Wexford over the coming months. – Joseph Doyle