Date 1911 (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Archive, Boston)
copyright expired (before 1923)
Gort Rural District Council
Archives Collection
1889 –– 1924
G01/10
‘That we …protest most emphatically against the libelous comedy “The Playboy of the
Western World”, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance. It is an extraordinary thing that any Christian much less an Irishman should so grossly libel his country, as to suggest that any Irish girl should be found wooing with no trace of modesty a man whose sole claim to affection is that he murdered his father. It is time that we should stop the children of this Union from partaking of the hospitality of Lady Gregory in the future, as a protest against her active participation and co-operation in the libeling of the Irish character’ (p449)
Author: The Burren and Beyond
B.A., M.A.(Archaeology); Regional Tour Guide; Dip. Radio Media Tech; H.Dip. Computer Science.
Yours, obediently – Agnes Bell
From the New York NY Herald, Friday, April 30, 1886 TRIPLE SHEET
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html
https://widgetworld3.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/yours-obediently-agnes-bell/
DISTRESS IN GALWAY
_____________________
A PITEOUS APPEAL IN AID OF THE RACK-RENTED TENANTRY
The dire distress and appalling destitution in the small town of Kinvara are vividly described by Lady Agnes Bell in the letter we publish below. That lady takes up the cause of the indigent and needy and gives a few of the most prominent cases of oppression and tyranny exercised on the unfortunate people by the landlords, and concludes her letter by a pathetic appeal for help, be it ever so modest in amount. The Rev. P. McDonagh, parish priest writing, says:- “Lady Agnes has already expended large sums of money in food and clothing and is still doing all in her power for the distressed of the country.”
The following is Lady Agnes Bell’s letter:-
Maryville House,
Kinvara,
County Galway,
Ireland,
April 15,1886
TO THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:-
Knowing well the sympathy and widespread feelings of charity that exist in New York for the poor and oppressed Irish tenantry, I now venture to make an earnest appeal to the readers of your estimable journal for the relief of some of the poorest poor of Kinvara.
The distress in this small town is appalling to a degree impossible to describe. Words are inadequate to properly express the sufferings endured by the rack-rented families, evictions taking place every day, and women and children being turned wholesale into the streets, without the least hope of ever being able to find shelter and food.
TYRANNIC EVICTIONS
One man, Thomas Finney, living near me, I saw the other day pay his rent at the rate of ₤1 an acre for land only worth 2s.6d..while he had only straw to lie upon and indian meal as food. One Patrick Donohoe was about to be turned out of his holding with a sick wife and two little girls in a state of starvation, only that I took his cabin and land myself and put him in again.. I could mention hundreds of such cases, but will not trespass upon your valuable space. Only a few weeks ago a family were evicted, and the landlord would not allow any of his tenants to give them shelter for the night. The woman’s own brother dare not take her in, although she was enceinte. The consequence was, in the morning her corpse was found in the snow with a new born babe dead in her arms.
SEND A QUARTER
In conclusion I would only beg and pray each and every one of your readers to send a trifle say twenty -five cents-to the following gentlemen, or to myself, to be fairly distributed amonng the distressed long suffering and patient inhabitants of Kinvara.
Yours, obediently.
AGNES BELL.
Subscriptions will be gratefully received by the Rev. P.McDonagh, parish priest, Clarenbridge county Galway and the Rev. P. Newell parish priest, Kinvara county Galway.
“The greatest wonder…” Lady Gregory
Photo: D.Johnston
The Catholic Press (NSW: 1885-1942) Thursday 22nd, July, 1926 Page 3
https://widgetworld3.wordpress.com/podcasts/
Excerpt of review titled Lady Gregory’s Note-book
An entertaining volume.
“The greatest wonder I ever saw was one time near Kinvara at a funeral. There came a car along the road and a lady on it having a plaid cloak, as was the fashion, and a big hat, and she kept her head down and never looked at the funeral at all. I wondered at her when I saw that, and I said to my brother it was a strange thing a lady to be coming past a funeral and not to look on at it at all. And who was on the car but O’Gorman Mahon, escaping from the Government, and dressed up as a lady! He drove to Father Arthur’s house in Kinvara and there was a boat waiting, and a cousin of my own in it, to bring him out to a ship and so he made his escape”.
Lady Gregory claims the right to praise “The Kiltartan History Book,” because as she says, “there is not in it one word of my own.” But she has contrived all the same to impart a share of her sly humour into almost every page.
An tOstán
Still-Life with a Skull
Date circa 1671
Tessé Museum
Wikipedia.org
AN tOSTAN Marbh
Story: Emer O’Donnell
Script Consultants: Dan Reel
Michael Doheny
Donal C. Hanlon
Emer O’Donnell
Cast:
Voice Over: Tiernan Boland
Male 1: Donal C. Hanlon
Male 2: Dawid Ciesielski
Woman: Emer O’Donnell
Night Porter: Dan Reel
Security Guard 1: Michael Doheny
Security Guard 2: Colm Dunne
Newsreader: Leo Lynch
SFX: Freesounds.org
Production: Dan Reel
Kinvara Harbour
Cresswell Archives
https://widgetworld3.wordpress.com/kinvara-pier/
KINVARA HARBOUR
The harbour at Kinvara embraces a small inlet of Galway Bay, containing its waters along the fringe of the village. When you round the bend at Seamount College it presents itself, postcard perfect. We used to swim there, even had competitions – the most notable being the Green Island swim – a race from the pier to the small patch of green outside the Doctor’s surgery (beside Seamount) and back again. A trophy for the winner and a sense of pride for all else who actually completed it!
Kinvara Harbour has history – aspects of which can be found among Hansard Papers, Commons Sittings question and answer sessions. Kinvara Harbour page on widgetworld3 contains excerpts from these papers:
PIERS AND HARBOURS (IRELAND)— KINVARRA HARBOUR.
HC Deb 24 November 1882 vol 275 cc15-6
Radio Feature – Horror – An Coiste Bodhar
AN COISTE BODHAR
Story: Script Emer O’Donnell
Script Consultants: James O’Malley
Michael Doheny
Donal C. Hanlon
Emer O’Donnell
Cast:
Barman: James O’Malley
Niall: Michael Doheny
Eamon: Ray McEnany
Man: Donal C. Hanlon
Woman: Emer O’Donnell
Production: Dawid Ciesielski
Recorded at Gort Media Centre Studios – thanks to Sinead, Peadar, Tom, Heather, Gerry and Kevin!
The Celtic Twilight
Nils Blommér (1816–1853)
Meadow Elves
Wikipedia.org[/captioi
https://widgetworld3.wordpress.com/things-that-go-bump-in-the-night/
It was one night,” he says, “after walking back from Kinvara and down
by the wood beyond I felt one coming beside me, and I could feel the
horse he was riding on and the way he lifted his legs, but they do not
make a sound like the hoofs of a horse. So I stopped and turned around
and said, very loud, ‘Be off!’ and he went and never troubled me after.
The Celtic Twilight (1902)
W. B. Yeats
Fly on the wall
If you could be a “fly on the wall” anywhere and at any time in history, where and when would you choose?
I would like to watch the creation of the ‘Venus of Laussel’. Also known as “Femme a la corne” this is a female image carved into the limestone entrance of a rockshelter in Marquay, Dordogne, southwestern France. It was blasted from its place decades ago and is now in the Musee d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux. The bas relief is about one and a half feet high and is roughly 25,000 years old.
The image shows a woman with her left hand is over her stomach, and her right holding a ‘horn’. The ‘horn’ (for want of a better description) has 13 notches carved in it. A ‘Y’ is carved on her thigh. The woman was coloured with red ochre.
A cache of stone tools were excavated at the base of this image while other bas-reliefs were found inside the shelter.
I have sooo many questions regarding this cave, these images, these tools. Oh to be a fly on the wall!!
Soundquake in the Square
Mixing console, 16 channels.
Rodrigo César
Wikipedia.org
Tune in to Soundquake in the Square – livestream radio from Gort, Co. Galway today 19th July, 2013 – 11am to 3 pm (GMT).
Daily Prompt – Fandom
As a gold medal winner in our local egg and spoon race sometime during the last millennium (aged 6) I feel I have the experience and authority to comment on sports. I think many have lost their shine. Once upon a time the spirit of competition included good sportsmanship, fair play, dignity, nobility, generosity, integrity, teamwork, co-operation, compromise. These attributes were displayed in victory and in defeat.
This does not seem to be the case anymore. In fact, when a sportsperson displays any or all of the above on the field, or in sporting competitions, he/she makes headlines. It is a sad indication of how little we expect and how much lower our standards have become. I’m going back to my egg and spoon.
The Burren and Beyond 