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Coordinator: Shirley Starke Route 2, Box 230 Valley City, ND 58072 701 - 845 - 2382 |
Newsletter of the Irish Special Interest Group of American Mensa Uimhir 79: Deireadh Fmhair/M na Nollag 1996 Opinions expressed are those of individual authors. Mensa as a whole has no opinions. |
A chairde,
This newsletter is #79; the last one was marked #77. You may ask, Where is #78? Well, your editor goofed and numbered two issues 77, so this is our 79th issue. Considering how many of these I've done, it's probably something in my favor that this hasn't happened before!!Roberts Rinehart Publishers (5455 Spine Rd., Mezzanine West, Boulder, CO 80301) sent me a copy of their 1997 Irish Calendar with photographs by Tom Kelly, and it is absolutely beautiful! They also sent a copy of their Fall 1996 catalog, which lists Irish books by Danny Morrison (of Sinn Fein), John B. Keane, and Tim Pat Coogan; Irish music and videos including the Riverdance video recommended by Pat Stevens in this issue; books on Irish history, political history, art and artists, etc.; and Celtic titles including one on birthsigns from the Celtic tree year. Among their gift books is one listing over 200 Irish family histories. This catalog is well worth sending for!
Yorkman Lowe of San Francisco Mensa would appreciate our help in finding music by these artists: Delia Murphy, Frank O'Donovan, Robert Irwin, and Angela Murphy. His address is 5514 Doyle #3, Emeryville, CA 94608-2593; phone (510)-601-9675; E-mail YLOWE@AOL.COM. Please help him if you can!
Doirse Dochais (P.O. Box 485, Ho Ho Kus, NJ 07463) is still putting out an interesting newsletter, available free (they ask for donations to their very worthy cause). I recommend it very highly to anyone with an interest in Northern Ireland. Athbhliain shona dhaoibh! (Happy New Year!)
Comhalta Nua
Bill Harrington (70 Main Blvd., Trenton, NJ 08618) writes, "Here's my check for the Irish SIG, which I saw listed in the October Mensa Bulletin. Ordinarily I don't get excited about Irish stuff, but tonight is the first meeting of a non-credit Irish language course at our county community college. An acquaintance who took the course recommended it, so I'm going to give it a try. Hence your SIG announcement is timely."The language is a door to the whole culture, and I'll bet you will be excited about all of it before you finish the course!
Steve Ferry (P.O. Box 73761, Davis, CA 95617).
Joe Devney (706 36th Ave., Oakland CA 94601).
Martha McLoughlin (217 Prospect Ave., Bldg. #1, Apt. #1-C, Crawford, NJ 07016)
Litreacha
Pat Stevens (110 N. Catherine, LaGrange, IL 60525) writes, "Get the Riverdance video - you'll love it!"John Hennessy (701 Montana, #525, El Paso, TX 79902) writes, "Howdy! Bless your heart. Thank you for that nice write-up in the newsletter stating my ongoing problem obtaining copies of my family coat of arms emblazoned on stuff. Paintings of said coat of arms are within my abilities to produce. Anything else has proven elusive.
"Allow me to introduce you to a friend of mine, Paddy O'SIGney. I can't send you a photo of him because as you know, him being a true leprechaun, his image will not register on film. Occasionally I try to sketch his likeness when he is visible. For this reason I am sending you a quick thumbnail sketch I made the other day in a nearby park after he had picked some of the park flowers to send to you. Unfortunately, when he vanished, so did the flowers. I believe it happened because a police officer showed up asking about a report someone was in the park picking flowers. This is, of course, absolute proof that I am not the only one who sees him. I used to worry about that a little.
"So in lieu of Paddy's flowers, I am enclosing a small donation to help out with SIG expenses. Please accept it with our compliments."
Sandra Messinger (547 Argyle Rd., Brooklyn, NY 11230) writes, "I want to tell you how well you are doing with the newsletter. It has become a wonderful forum, and you have begun more and more to help people - particularly with the advent of this new genealogy service which will be of such great help to many members of the SIG.
"As you know, the records of the Jews were destroyed in WWII. I'm sure many of us would have liked to know where we come from, but that is not possible. I am so happy to hear that the members of the SIG will have available to them this service."
It really saddened me, Sandra, to learn that your records were lost. The same day your letter arrived, I got an article by another member, Brendan McGuinness, claiming that the Irish are one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. It is very long, but I hope to condense it for the next issue. It may be some comfort that, though your more recent records were lost, your heritage is such that even some Irish would like to believe that they share it!
Tom Culhane (954-A Stuyvesant Ave., Union, NJ 07083) writes, "I am enclosing an article which should be of interest to your readers. I recently met with Minister Astaphan of St. Kitts concerning my proposal to erect a monument on the island to commemorate and pay homage to the souls of the 25,000 Irish who were sold there as slaves in the mid-1600's. Cromwell's horrific deeds have gone overlooked by many historians; hence this monument will serve as a visual reminder of the Irish plight under English control.
"A calamity of this magnitude has been too long overlooked. A good bit of political courage is being shown by Minister Astaphan as many of the influential residents of St. Kitts are of English descent and naturally less prone to consider history from anything other than an English point of view.
"As the small nation of St. Kitts has shown me the willingness to accurately commemorate this period of Irish history, I am hoping that fellow members of the Irish diaspora and the Irish themselves will take advantage of this opportunity. I am just now organizing this effort, and the land grant by St. Kitts as well as all monies donated are strictly for the erection of the 'St. Kitts Irish Slavery Monument.'"
ST. KITTS IRISH SLAVERY MONUMENT IN THE WORKS! by Tom Culhane
St. Kitts is one of those places vacationers dream about: beautiful unspoiled beaches on both the Caribbean and Atlantic sides of the island, luxury accommodations with all the amenities, tropical beauty preserved from overdevelopment by the strictest environmental laws in the Caribbean. However, there is a bit of history of the island which until recently has gone overlooked by virtually all visitors: that involving the unfortunate circumstances of the Irish people during Cromwell's reign in the mid 1600's.
St. Kitts was at the time the jewel of England's possessions in the New World as its shipping hub and largest sugar producer, and 25,000 Irish men and women were shipped there by Cromwell as slaves to work on the sugar plantations. Never before exposed to tropical heat, sun, and insects, and torn from whatever was left of their families after Cromwell's army had ravaged the country, the Irish fared poorly as slave laborers.
English shipping of Irish slaves to the New World earlier in the 1600's has been documented in many works. By 1650, during Cromwell's unfathomable reign of terror in Ireland, the numbers of Irish sent into slavery were unlike anything previously experienced. In 1641 Ireland had had a population of 1,466,000, but by 1652 the population was decreased to 616,000. According to Sir William Petty, 850,000 were wasted by the sword, plague, famine, and banishment during the Confederation War, 1641-1652. By the end of the war, estimates vary from 80,000 to 130,000 Irish men, women, and children captured for sale as slaves to labor in England's expanding empire.
The English were quite proud of these accomplishments, as can be noted in Prendergast, "Thurloe's State Papers" (pub. London 1742): "In clearing he ground for the adventurers and soldiers, it was a measure beneficial to Ireland, which was thus relieved of a population which might trouble the planters; it was a benefit to the people removed, who might thus be made English and Christian; it was a great benefit to the West Indies sugar planters, who desired men and boys for their bondsmen, and the women and Irish girls to solace them."
Many of the 25,000 Irish slaves on St. Kitts died from tropical heat, disease, or overwork. Any Irish caught trying to escape were branded on the forehead with the letters FT, for fugitive traitor. Others were whipped, hung by their hands and set on fire, or beaten over the head until bloody for anything the English considered provocation. Over 150 Irish slaves were caught practicing Catholicism and were shipped to the tiny, uninhabitable Crab Island to die of starvation. Of the Irish who managed to stay alive and their descendants, many were eventually shipped from the West Indies sugar plantations to the new English settlements in South Carolina.
It is this moving human interest story that compelled the current Minister of St. Kitts, the Honorable G. A. Dwyer Astaphan, to meet with Tom Culhane of Union, New Jersey and discuss his proposal to erect a suitable monument on the island in memory of the Irish slaves. By respectfully honoring their memory near the site where the Irish were unloaded to be put up for sale, it is hoped that the souls of those departed will be remembered and this dark period of Irish history not be allowed to pass from the collective consciousness of people today and in the future.
Minister Astaphan recently introduced legislation before the St. Kitts Parliament to grant a suitable parcel of land for the monument. Culhane envisions a base of Connamara marble with a bronze statue and possibly a fountain, surrounded by four plaques representing the provinces of Ireland, and four sets of steps around the base representing the 32 counties. It is hoped that $250,000 can be raised to cover all costs in this non-profit venture.
Artists are invited to submit early renditions of a sculpture, with a committee including St Kitts residents to select the winning design. Donors, corporate or private, are invited to contact Tom Culhane at 954 Stuyvesant Ave., Union, NJ 07083.
(Hard copy sent by Michael Greaney - De Courcy, Part II)
Not available in on line issue
Jeff is a mental health professional who is writing a book about "the emotional importance for Irish Americans of making a return trip to Ireland at least once in a lifetime." Jeff writes, "I believe that visiting Ireland, for Irish Americans, is not a 'vacation' but rather a major life cycle event."
Jeff has asked us for a $200 grant, which of course we can't give him (our dues just barely pay newsletter costs), but I'm sure he would be grateful for anything you would want to tell him about your experiences related to his topic. His address is 2116 Acton #3, Berkeley, CA 94702, phone (510)-848-8869.
We have also received information about a "Petition for Peace" in Northern Ireland, which is being circulated this summer in the United States. To learn more about what you can do to circulate or help organize it, please contact Greg Crossey (412-429-1713; fax 412-429-6412).