THE HANDSTAND

june 2005

news from inistioge, and art exhibitions in kilkenny

Newfoundland police were in County Wexford last week as guests of the Carrickbyrne Pike Group. The fourteen officers made no arrests!

Here simply to make friends and take a look around the national 1798 centre and dine at The Horse and Hound in Ballinaboola. The links between Wexford and the east coast of Canada date back to activities in the Atlantic of the eighteenth century fishing fleets on the cod banks off the shore of Newfoundland. While most of the fishermen were English, the boats routinely took provisions aboard in New Ross (the nearest seaboard to Inistioge) or Waterford. Many people from these areas made the trip across the ocean. About two-thirds of the population of Newfoundland claim to have Irish roots, with names such as Furlong, Devereux and Murphy all commonplace.

Official contacts were made around the time of the bicentenary of the 1798 Rebellion, because the Canadians too staged a rising against British Rule around the same time. The pikers went to Newfoundland a couple of years ago and the police delegation was delighted to make the return trip last week. They were led by a man called Mahoney and brought surnames among them such as Browne, Bradley, O'Shea and Carroll. Garda Superintendant Pat Delaney was among those who showed them around. Welcomed at the '98 Centre by Councillor Keith Doyle their itinerary then took them to some of the places most strongly associated with the turbulent events of the United Irishmen's struggle: Vinegar Hill, the Three Rocks Carrigbyrne and Sweetman's. In Ballinaboola they were entertained by the musicians and dancers of the Celtic Roots traditional group in Bree. The Pike Group choir, conducted by Bernie Murray Ryan, also took the stage to perform "Let Me Fish off Cape St.Mary". The visitors were greatly moved by the 35 strong choir's rendition of the Newfoundland Anthem.

Bernie Murray Ryan said "I have no doubt in the world that the links between Wexford and Newfoundland will be kept alive." Forty of his group members are keen to travel to the Festival of the Sea in Canada next year.

(So there now !- those of you in Inistioge who have records of family members in Newfoundland had better get up and going! J.B.Editor)

DAVID BEATTIE

re.mapped
County Hall, John Street, Kilkenny
Monday 30th May - Thursday 21st July
Gallery opens Monday-Friday 9.00-1.pm; 2.00-5.00. Admission Free

elements

Louise Allen
Watergate Theatre, Parliament Street, Kilkenny
20th May - 15th July
tel: 056 7761674 fax: 056 7751780

The Blue Flower.... a poem by Josette Tierney

Light blue, petals
Laced, intertwined,
Connected to the yellow core.
Petals, like human beings
Connected to the core.
Delicate, individual, joined to one,
Veins of life threaded through you
Shaking even in the heat of the sun;
Do not fear.
The beauty of each petal will fill the world,
Soft, colourful, shaped in your way.
Velvet precious petals created by the God of all.

photos: Foggy morning early Spring and Birches by the Bridge, Inistioge.