issue 27 volume 5 proudly serving celts in north america...

JIM KELLY, Ireland’s Ambassador to Canada, recently sat downwith The Celtic Connection to discuss Ireland’s current posi-tion in the Eurozone and its evolving relationship with Canada,in particular the new Consulate of Ireland which will open inVancouver this September. [Pages 10 & 11]

ISSUE 27 VOLUME 5 JULY/AUGUST 2018Proudly Serving Celts in North America Since 1991

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Win Free Ticketsor an Irish Breakfast Basket

• Win a pair (2) weekend passes to the Canmore Highland Games in beautifulCanmore, Alberta on September 1-2 (see page 3 for more info). Entry by July27. Mark your entry ‘Canmore’.• Win all the traditional fixin’s for a real Irish Breakfast in a basket from BlackPudding Imports in Langley. Check out their weekly sales on Facebook. (Seepage 7 for more info). Mark your entry Black Pudding. Entry by July 27. Markyour entry Irish Breakfast

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FAIRY LIGHTS by Margaret Tarrant [1888-1959]. Margaret wasborn in Battersea, a suburb of south London. She studied atthe Clapman School of Art and later at the Guildford School ofArt. In the 1920s, Tarrant helped to popularize fairies in a long-running series of titles on the theme such as ‘The Forest Fair-ies’, ‘The Pond Fairies’, and ‘The Twilight Fairies’.

By MAURA DE FREITAS

Momentsof bliss nowseem rare

but themagic isstill therefor thosewho seek

IDSUMMER, atime of reveryand enchant-ment when na-ture is ripe and

filled with abundance in an-ticipation of the coming har-vest.In the folklore of former centu-ries, midsummer was a timewhen fairies and their mischiefwere afoot. It is also a time ofromance and the supernatural...and wonderful memories.As a child, I remember lying in the longgrass on a warm summer’s day when Ilived on a farm in the country.My whole being was filled with peaceand contentment as I watched theclouds drift through the sky overhead.I was aware of the natural world aroundme alive with movement as it flour-

ished and buzzed with energy, whilethe intoxicating fragrances of summerfilled my senses.Those days seemed endless – time feltstill and a moment could be eternity.The troubles of the world seemed veryfar away then, but realities today bring

home the realization that time is fleet-ing and these moments of bliss are rare.But the magic is still there dear friends,and my wish for you this summer isthat you find it and savour that child-like wonder and enjoy the beauty ofthe season.

OVER half a million people are expected at Pope Francis’sMass in the Phoenix Park on August 26 – but gardaí say theywill be ready if a million turn up. It will be one of the biggestsecurity operations undertaken in Dublin for 30 years.

[Read more on page 13]

PAT HARTNETT, captain of theFraser Valley Gaels, was pre-sented with the Senior Men’strophy – Tom Butler Cup – byJohn O’Flynn at the WesternCanada GAA Championships inRegina in 2016. Read moreabout the GAA and this year’sChampionships to be held onthe weekend of August 4-5 onpages 18 & 19.

BREXIT CHAOS: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hasresigned following a contentious Tory Cabinet meeting over EUexit strategy on Friday, July 6. The news follows the resigna-tions of Brexit Secretary David Davis and his deputy Steve Baker.The announcements have plunged Prime Minister Theresa May’sgovernment into crisis. Jeremy Hunt, who had been serving ashealth secretary, will be the new foreign secretary. Davis wasreplaced by staunchly pro-Brexit lawmaker Dominic Raab. Pic-tured above (L-R): David Davis, Boris Johnson, Theresa May.

[Read more on page 9]

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JULY/AUGUST 2018PAGE 2 www.celtic-connection.com

THE CELTIC CONNECTIONISSUE 27 VOLUME 5 - Established in 1991

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Colleen Carpenter - Copy Editor • Thary Chhom - Ad ProductionDistribution: Arlyn Lingat • Allison Moore • Linda Robb • Frank Dudfieldin Surrey • Eifion Williams in Burnaby & Coquitlam • Laurie Lang in Coquitlam• Joanne Long in Mission • Bill Duncan in Maple Ridge • Deirdre O’Ruaricin White Rock • Nanci Spieker, Tina Bonfield and Heather Murphy in Seattle• Oliver Grealish in Edmonton.Published 7X per year. Unsolicited submissions welcome but will not be returned.Please retain a copy for your files. Contents copyright 2018 The Celtic Connection.Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the publisher but rather areflection of voices within the community. All correspondence must include a name,address and telephone number.

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By CYNTHIA WALLENTINEH E s u m m e rsolstice haspassed. At June21, the brightT

Unseen Change Tips the Balanceof Autumnal Days to Come

year begins to dim, evenas most celebrate the startof the summer. So it isthat change occurs quietlylong before it is apparentto the visible world.The signs of Lughnasadh, the matureyear, are apparent in ripening crops,restless seed, and a certain change inthe air that humans recognize as au-tumn.Sometimes it arrives in a glance overthe water, a scent on the breeze, a curl-ing leaf, or a slightly cooler momentduring the dog days. Though you wouldbe hard pressed to explain why, youknow that autumn, or something, iscoming.As it is with the seasons, so it is withthe senses. When pressed to the core,we live by intuition, by gut sense ofwho or what we can trust.Intuition is a mixey thing, it gets scram-bled into religion and fate, when a sud-den thought or feeling holds us backfrom a step, journey, or decision thatwould have otherwise proven difficultfrom which to recover.Depending on your narrative, you haveyour own stories as to why you inex-plicably avoided injury or worse.Sadly, on the list of tips passed aroundby experts to avoid active shooters isthe age-old admonition to “Trust yourgut instinct.”It is a horror that we have returned tosuch a barbaric age that each cell mustbe wakeful at all times in order to avoidwhat could be a slaughter at the super-market, school, or on a boulevard.A flash of intuition itself is a byproductof a process of which we know little.A pre-cognitive gift from the seamlessfunction of the body, brain, and per-haps something beyond both or not.

Meanwhile, those who remain rationalin the U.S., and those abroad, can onlywatch the signs.Children taken from parents, devas-tating policies enacted on a whim, in-sipid, childish name-calling from thehighest office.A looming trade war between Americaand Canada is born of the small-mindedignorance and powerlessness of a hand-ful of people who have the ability topush a deceitful agenda at the expenseof decency, thoughtfulness, and vision.Sniff the air, trust your gut, have andshow respect for others.If there is positive movement on thehorizon, it will come from those whoresist erosion of honesty, intelligence,and compassion when faced with threatto self and others.Like the autumn, change occurs longbefore it is visible in the physicalworld.We cannot see where this will go, butwe can sense it. We cast our vote withour own beliefs and behavior every sin-gle day.Take in the restless seed at harvest,plant it deep, and wait for spring.

•Cynthia Wallentine is based in theUnited States. She has been writingmythology and social commentary col-umns for The Celtic Connection since1993.

Because pattern recognition is a pri-mary function of the brain, it makesgood sense that a human, as a whole,has the capability to understand at agut level far more than literally meetsthe eye.We sometimes know enough to stepor move away, or take a different route,or simply not go there today. If notour lives, often intuition saves our san-ity.Since the advent of the Trump admin-istration, the receding superpower ofthe United States has become a maca-bre carnival.When a narcissist is at the helm of homeor country, the goal is chaos, simplyfor the sake of chaos.Whether civility in the U.S. can be re-stored when this bizarre episode isover remains a question.

Prayer for Refugeesand Migrants

WILDERNESS God, whose Son was a displaced person in Bethlehem, arefugee in Egypt, and had nowhere to lay his head in Galilee.Bless all who have nowhere to lay their head tonight, who find themselvesstrangers on earth, pilgrims to they know not where, facing rejection, closeddoors, suspicion and fear.Give them companions in their distress, hope in their wandering, and safelodging at their journey’s end.And make us a people of grace, wisdom and hospitality, who know that ourtrue identity is to be lost, until we find our eternal home in you.Through Christ, our rejected yet risen Lord. Amen.

– Archbishop Justin WelbySt. Martin in the Fields, London

Annie Lennox is the newchancellor of GlasgowCaledonian University

IN ADDITION to a successful music career, singer Annie Lennoxhas also worked to raise awareness of numerous humanitariancauses, particularly on behalf of women and children.

GLASGOW – Annie Lennox has beeninstalled as the first female chancellorof Glasgow Caledonian University.The singer-songwriter and social activ-ist said she was “humbled and awedbeyond measure” to be appointed tothe position at the university.She pledged to use her ceremonial lead-ership role to further the university’smission to promote the common goodduring a special ceremony at its Glas-gow campus on Monday, July 2.The Eurythmics star succeeds NobelPeace Prize winner ProfessorMuhammad Yunus in the role of chan-cellor.She said, “I am humbled and awed be-yond measure. I only wish my par-ents, grandparents and great grandpar-ents could be here today to witnessthis special occasion, as it would havefilled them with pride and disbelief,proving in some way that miracles cansometimes happen. After all, it’s withthanks to them that I am here in thefirst place.”The new chancellor said she has nodegree herself but could be describedas “an honorary graduate from theschool of life.”She added, “I come from a long line ofhard-working Scots from the times

when class boundaries, economic iden-tities and gender roles were very firmlyestablished.“Young women from working-classbackgrounds gaining university degreeswere as rare as kangaroos in the Ant-arctic.”Students and staff were joined by in-vited guests including Olympic rowerDame Katherine Grainger, singer-song-writer Midge Ure OBE and Scottishactor Martin Compston at the cer-emony.First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gave aspeech while Scotland’s Makar Dr.Jackie Kay, the nation’s official poet,read a specially-commissioned poemto commemorate the occasion.The singer has sold more than 83 mil-lion albums worldwide during a musi-cal career spanning four decades. Aswell as her time as part of Eurythmics,she has had a solo career and has beenrecognised with numerous musicalawards.She has also worked to raise aware-ness about the HIV/AIDS pandemicand received an OBE from the Queenin the New Year’s Honours list in 2011for her humanitarian work, recogniz-ing her contribution in raising aware-ness of the pandemic as it affectswomen and children.

JULY/AUGUST 2018 PAGE 3www.celtic-connection.com

NEW WESTMINSTER – Mark yourcalendar for the 7th annual RecoveryDay BC event happening at 6th Av-enue and 6th Street in New Westmin-ster, from 12-5 PM on Saturday, Sep-tember 8, 2018.Orchard Recovery Center is proud tohave been a part of a team that initi-ated the Recovery Day movement in2012, and continues to support themovement year after year.

Recovery Day: A Free Event toCelebrate Overcoming Addiction

Recovery Day BC is Canada’s largestmental health and addiction awarenessevent.

THE ENTERTAINMENTThis year’s event features a free con-cert with Matthew Good at 4 PM, aswell as other live music, a kids zone,over 90 mental health and addictioninformation booths, free McDonald’scoffee, free speaker presentations on

health care, a memorial exhibit, andmuch more.Whether you are in recovery from adrug or alcohol addiction, an ally tosomeone who is in recovery, lookingfor addiction recovery resources, oryou just think that sobriety is awe-some you’re invited! Everyone is wel-come to celebrate recovery.Now in its seventh year, Recovery DayBC is once again shutting down thestreets of New West for this substance-free, wicked-awesome and family-friendly event.Part music festival, part street party,and part educational event, RecoveryDay BC is a celebration, a rally, and atool to raise awareness for recoverywhile reducing the stigma of addiction.

THE GOALRecovery Day aims to celebrate recov-ery while remembering those lost dueto addiction. With over 10,000 peoplewho attended the 2017 event, organiz-ers want to bring awareness to Cana-dians in recovery from alcohol and drugaddictions.Alongside families, friends, and allies,their goal is to speak with one voice,to send a message that recovery is pos-sible.This gathering helps to change publicperception of what recovery from ad-diction looks like, and promote publicpolicy change across the country.On September 8, people in recoveryfrom addiction will join with friendsand family to build awareness, chal-lenge societal stigma, and celebrate therole that recovery plays in improvinglife for individuals, families, and com-munities.They firmly believe that recovery saveslives and they envision a world inwhich recovery from addiction is acommon, celebrated reality – a worldwhere individuals will not experienceshame when seeking help.Participants are passionate about shar-ing the faces, voices and stories of re-covery in hopes of inspiring and invit-ing others to join them on the reward-ing and diverse path to wholeness.This September, be present to standalongside thousands of others who areproud to be clean and sober from drugsand alcohol, as well as their allies.From humble roots in Vancouver, Re-covery Day has grown into a nationalphenomena with events taking placeall across the country. For more infor-mation, head to RecoveryDayBC.ca.

•The Orchard is an internationally ac-credited drug and alcohol treatmentcenter operating on Bowen Islandsince 2002, and provides a full com-plement of treatment options to build asolid foundation for recovery.

From residential primary care startingwith detox, to continuing care outpa-tient program in West Vancouver, aswell as family and alumni services,they provide ongoing support for a last-ing recovery.

The Orchard is committed to eradicat-ing the stigma of addiction and foster-ing a new, sustainable culture of re-covery. They build strong communi-ties of recovery that, in turn makemeaningful contributions to society asa whole. They are leaders in the grow-ing recovery advocacy movement inCanada and they celebrate recovery!

To learn more, visit online:OrchardRecovery.com.


BySTEVEEDGE

THE ROGUEFOLK CLUB

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer...filled with great festivals and lots of music!

VANCOUVER– It’s summerin westernCanada, and

that means it’s folk festi-val season with some ofthe finest musical eventson earth happening outhere in B.C. and Alberta.The Rogue hosted two bands fromthe impressive line-up of this year’sHarrison Festival of the Arts(www.harrisonfestival.com) thispast week – Laura Cortese & theDancecards and The StepCrew.On Thursday 12th, Martin Simpson,one of the finest guitar players on theplanet will grace the stage at St. JamesHall in Kitsilano before he heads overthe Strait of Georgia to appear atCourtenay’s Island Musicfest – alongwith some fine Celtic bands like TheFretless, and The StepCrew, andPEI’s remarkable singer Irish Mythen.(www.islandmusicfest.com).Arguably the finest acoustic guitaristin the U.K., and certainly one of thevery best players you’ll find anywhere,Martin Simpson’s latest CD, Trails &Tribulations, continues an ever-evolv-ing and increasingly impressive cata-logue of albums showcasing his mas-tery of traditional music from bothsides of the Atlantic.Martin grew up in England, first ab-sorbing the Blues and Folk records inhis older brother’s collection and thenembarking on a solo career as a teen-ager opening for bigger names at folkclubs all over the country.He later teamed up with the amazingtrad singer June Tabor and they re-leased a series of superb albums in the1970s and 1980s before Martin movedto the States.There he made several instrumentalalbums on Shanachie Records – ex-quisite renderings of trad ballads,where he built in all the power of thewords and the sentiment expressed –without vocals!He also made an instrumental albumof gospel tunes, and his mastery ofthe blues really came to the fore as hecontinued his sojourn from upstateNew York to Santa Cruz and then NewOrleans.He returned to England a few yearsago, where he married Roy Bailey’sdaughter Kit and they now live in Shef-field with their young daughter Molly.If anything he has become even moreprolific in his recorded output – andeven more impressive on guitar, banjo,and voice.His renditions of songs like Fair Annie,Lord Gregory, Spoonful, HeartbreakHotel, Reynardine, and Masters of Warare as powerful as any you’ll hear. Hisown songs like Never Any Good,Ridgeway, and Maps are equally memo-rable.If you love traditional music, blues,guitar, Dylan, banjo, Celtic music – orany or all of the above – you can’t gowrong with a Martin Simpson concert!Don’t miss this rare chance to hear himin town. For tickets and informationgo to www.roguefolk.com.Unfortunately, Island Musicfest runs

on the exact same weekend as the Van-couver Folk Festival in JerichoBeach Park (July 13 - 15).There’s not a great deal of Celtic musicthere, either, but don’t miss Irish song-writer Mick Flannery, and JaymeStone’s Folklife, featuring superbtrad singer Moira Smiley.You’ll also surely love the Cajun /Zydeco sounds of Louisiana’s SteveRiley & The Mamou Playboys (mypersonal favourite Cajun combo) andthe delicious Quebecois groove of LesPoules a Colin. (www.thefestival.bc.ca)The Mission Folk Festival runs July20 - 22 in Fraser River Heritage Park,80km east of town on Hwy 7. JamesKeelaghan, David Francey, GabrielDubreuil’s Early Spirit, Pharis &Jason Romero, Viper Central, andlocal Irish bard Brian O’Brien areamong the performers this year. Prettyimpressive line-up, I reckon!(www.missionfolkmusicfestival.ca)

Salmon Arm Roots & Blues roundsout the festival season August 16 - 19and that man Mr. Simpson will bethere, along with the likes of The Pa-perboys, and the wonderful Englishtrad duo Hannah Sanders and BenSavage. (www.rootsandblues.ca)Of course, all these festivals will fea-ture a lot more than just Celtic andtrad, so why not explore their websitesand venture out to witness the musicand the unique vibe of these mightyfine Canadian festivals!The Rogue holds a festival of its ownon Sunday, July 29.RogueFEST is a free musical eventwith a beer garden and food trucks onGranville Island’s new Chain & Forgeoutdoor stage.The event runs from noon to 6 PM,with Sue Malcolm’s Slow PitchJam, The Rocket Revellers, ViperCentral, and Van Django conjuringup some magical sounds in genres rang-ing from Bluegrass to Gypsy Jazz, andOld Time Stomp to Rockabilly!You can read more about this event,and take a look at our fall season onwww.roguefolk.com I think you’rereally going to love the music at St.James Hall this fall!

Slainte!Steve

P.S. tune in to The Saturday EdgeOn Folk every Saturday from 8 AMto noon on CiTR FM 101.9 andwww.citr.ca to hear music by allthese performers as well as heaps ofnew releases – and old favourites too!

VIPER CENTRAL will feature at this year’s RogueFEST atGranville Island’s new Chain & Forge stage. This free outdoorevent runs from noon to 6 PM on Sunday, July 29.

MARTIN SIMPSON, one of thefinest guitar players on theplanet will grace the Roguestage at St. James Hall inKitsilano on Thursday, July 12.

Meanwhile over in Duncan B.C., Is-lands Folk Festival features the likesof B.C. stringband Aerialists, JamesKeelaghan, The Sweet Lowdown,and Oliver Swain. (www.islandsfolkfestival.ca)The Filberg Festival in Comox runsAugust 3-5 with Jim Byrnes, The Pa-perboys, and Tiller’s Folly among theperformers on their wonderful site.(www.filbergfestival.com)Over the mountains in Canmore, AB,they have one of the most friendly andmusically interactive festivals in thecountry – the Canmore Folk Festi-val takes place August 4-6 and theireclectic selection of musical guests in-cludes two brilliant duos from NovaScotia – Cassie & Maggie, and Dave

Gunning & J.P. Cormier .(www.canmorefolkfestival.com)The festival I rate as the finest in NorthAmerica – if not Earth! – the Edmon-ton Folk Music Festival, takes placein Gallagher Park August 9 -12. Co.Clare’s Sharon Shannon makes awelcome return this year, and anothergreat accordionist from just up the roadin Galway – Mairtin O’Connor –brings his fine trio along withGloaming vocalist Iarla O’Lionaird.Scotland’s Breabach, and Rura, andthe seemingly ubiquitous StepCrew,James Keelaghan, Jayme Stone’sFolklife, and Martin Simpson willadd more sumptuous trad music to theRolls Royce of folk festivals.(www.edmontonfolkfest.org)

SHARON SHANNON, the ex-traordinary Irish accordionistmakes a return to this year’sEdmonton Folk Music Festival,August 9-12.

Irish singer left fighting for life afterspider bite while on Australian tour

DUBLIN – Legendary Irishsinger Mary Coughlan said shewas left fighting for her life fol-lowing a spider bite while ontour in Australia.Coughlan was hospitalised for fivedays after being bitten during the sell-out tour. The vocalist said she noticeda bite on the end of her finger shortlyafter waking up in Alice Springs.“Over the next few days it turned intoa rash all over my body,” Coughlantold the Irish Sun on June 29. “I wentto a medical centre and they told me itwas most likely caused by a bite froma non-poisonous spider.”After being prescribed antihistamines,Coughlan said she pushed on to finishthe rest of her tour – but fell seriouslyill on her return to Ireland.“I thought I was dying. I was in hospi-tal for five days with what the doctorssaid was blood poisoning,” she said.But Coughlan said that her brush withdeath wasn’t the worst of it. Obvi-ously unsatisfied with its NorthernTerritory life, the creepy crawly hadaccompanied Coughlan on the journeyhome.“I got better but what freaked me outwas finding a spider had followed meall the way back from Australia,” shesaid.Coughlan said she found the uninvitedguest when unpacking her luggage fol-lowing her return home from hospital.

berra and Melbourne,” she said.“Now back home in Ireland, I couldsee a spider crawling out on to thefloor. We had no idea what sort of spi-der it was but my son-in-law killed it.It freaked me out that the spider thatbit me could have followed me homefrom Australia.“My daughter was sure it was the spi-der that did the damage but you can’tbe sure. It’s just a lesson to be carefulnot to bring back little bugs fromabroad.”

MARY COUGHLAN

“I had bought some Ugg boots for mygranddaughter in Sydney, and carriedthem around with me as I played Can-

DUBLIN – The long-planned U2 visitor attraction in the docklands area ofDublin City is set to become one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions.The visitor and exhibition space will house and display a range of the band’smemorabilia from their long-spanning career.The attraction is to be constructed on the site of their current recording andrehearsal studio where the band recorded many of their best known albums,including 1997’s Pop.It will include a revamp of the group’s original studio, which has been their basefor more than two decades, plus several exhibit areas, an auditorium and a café.There is already a permanent U2 exhibition at the Little Museum of Dublin onSt. Stephen’s Green but the capital has no public spaces or landmarks torecognize the band’s achievements.

U2 to develop visitor centrein Dublin’s docklands


By CATHOLINEBUTLER

Fear of Drinking release new album...almost 10 years after first recorded

VANCOUVER – Celtic/folk musicpartners Tim Readman and GerardKerr recently released their fourth al-bum entitled Live in Zurich.Readman is a musician, songwriter,producer and music journalist origi-nally from County Durham in England,while Gerard Kerr is from Southland,New Zealand.The two musicians met in Vancouverand formed Fear of Drinking in the1990s and made a name for themselveswhile touring across Canada, the U.S.,and beyond, playing folk clubs, nightspots and folk festivals.They recorded three albums which gar-nered considerable airplay and built asolid reputation for humour and har-mony with tales of coal and sheep, andlove gone wrong.The name came about when Tim andGerard each had day jobs and playedmusic at night. After their gig was fin-ished they would often joke about theirfear of drinking with their day job inmind. The name stuck.Interestingly, their new album Live inZurich was actually recorded duringtheir legendary 1999 European tour.So, you may ask why is the albumonly now being released in 2018?It’s an intriguing story and, initially, adevastating one for the duo.In a recent conversation, Tim explainshow it happened.“The main reason that we were in Eu-rope was to play a festival in Zurich.The show was recorded and afterwardswe spoke with Ueli Brunner, the soundengineer who promised to post thetape to us a bit later.”Unfortunately there was a communi-cation breakdown and after a long de-lay, Tim and Gerard finally learned theaudio file couldn’t be located.It was only later when it was discov-ered that the master tape was not lostat all – it had simply been misfiled inthe wrong folder.When the missing tape was finally re-ceived, they were delighted to discoverthat it was an excellent quality record-ing.Tim said, “We were over the moon anddecided to put it out in an album.”One poignant song on the new albumis Aftermath (The Mining Rant), writ-ten by Tim Readman. It recalls the1984 coal miners’ strike when the UKworkers tried to form a union.Readman spoke about that strike andhow it influenced his music saying,“the song was written after the min-ers’ strike in England and I emigratedin 1987.“I was inspired to write this because avery good friend of mine, who is awell-known English folk singer calledJez Lowe had released an album withsongs about the strike.“I’m from Durham where there werethree coal mines and it had a huge ef-fect on my family, friends and neigh-bours.“At that time, a lot of false news andmisinformation was being reported inthe papers about what really hap-pened. The song was actually takenfrom a lot of newspaper reports.“When the strike was over and all the

pits were closed down, you finallystarted to read more factual accountsabout what had really happened.“It was not economics as had been re-ported previously, the miners were es-sentially striking to make a living. Thegovernment at the time didn’t wantstrong unions.“Margaret Thatcher, who was then theprime minister of Britain, called theminers ‘the enemy within’ and made itsound like the miners were all crazyterrorists as opposed to people juststanding up for their rights.”As with a lot of folk songs, Readman’ssongs document real people and events,and help to keep their story alive.He also spoke about another track onthe album called, Flanagan, written byGerard Kerr.“Barney Flanagan was a very well-known publican who kept a bar inNew Zealand. He was an Irishman,who was a drinker, a gambler and awomanizer.“It tells the story about the last day ofhis life and nothing changes. He goesto the bar, starts gambling, and in themiddle of the card game passes away.“But, as portrayed in the song, he isvisited by the angel of death just as heis about to play the winning card.”Tim added, “This is pretty typical offolk songs, generally written about realpeople, and sometimes with just a bitembellishment.”The Seaham Song, written byReadman/Naomi Readman is anothertrack with some great, fast and furiousfiddling.Tom Neville and Victor Smith are bothexcellent fiddlers, really bending theelbow into the bow.There are nine tracks on Live in Zurichwith a mixture of traditional music andoriginal songs, and it’s a very good andlively listen.Although, officially retired off the roadin 2000, Tim and Gerard have sincereformed and now play the odd showwhenever the fancy takes them.You can catch Fear of Drinking in con-cert at the Mission Folk Music Festi-val from July 20-22.

VANCOUVER based musician,songwriter, producer and musicjournalist, Tim Readman isoriginally from County Durhamin England

DURHAM 1984 during the UKminers' strike.


WORK underway as Glasgow prepares to jointly hostthe 2018 European Championships in partnership withBerlin.

Hemochromatosis awareness raisedat this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival

ORONTO –Hemochromatosisawareness hasbroken through tothe fringe – the

fatal complications and diseases.Because early symptoms can be non-specific and attributed to many othercauses, hemochromatosis can be diffi-cult to diagnose until more extensivedamage has occurred. Even then,hemochromatosis is often overlookedas the root cause in a disease.Early symptoms can include fatigue,joint pain and impotence in men ormenstrual irregularities in women.Later complications can include typeII diabetes, heart disease, thyroid is-sues and cirrhosis.Diagnosing the disorder early is thekey to preventing complications.Treatment involves the drawing off ofblood, similar to a blood donation buton a more frequent basis.Briana joined several Facebookhemochromatosis groups to learn themedical terminology and casual wayspeople talk about the disorder.She worked with Janelle Hanna andChris Baker, the two actors who por-tray the siblings, helping them to wraptheir heads around the different com-binations of genetic inheritance of thedisorder.Prioritizing accuracy and respectful-ness to hemochromatosis sufferers andtheir families, Briana has high hopesthat she has been successful, but con-fided that she would love someone toapproach her after watching the playto let her know if she was off base.

When asked if during her research forthe play she worried that she wouldpotentially find something that wouldexpose her own genetic risk for a fatalcondition, Briana replied with an em-phatic “Yes!”Now that she is aware ofhemochromatosis and how it can af-fect those with a northern Europeanbackground, she keeps an eye out forthe warning signs in her own family.A brief description ofhemochromatosis with a link to theCanadian Hemochromatosis Society’swebsite www.toomuchiron.ca is in-cluded in the show’s program.Robert will certainly help raise theprofile of this under-diagnosed disor-der.“It is such a common condition, yetso under-recognized.“I was fascinated to discover that amission is currently underway to pro-mote awareness,” said Briana, “par-ticularly through the governments ofkey countries where people are mostat risk. It’s hard to believe somethingso prevalent can still be so unknown.”Receiving its world premiere at theToronto Fringe Festival, Robert is play-ing on site July 4-14 at St. George theMartyr, 197 John Street, Toronto,Ontario. Tickets are available atfringetoronto.com.

•[The Canadian Hemochromatosis So-ciety’s mission is to strengthen thewell-being of Canadians affected byiron overload through its programsdesigned to foster awareness andearly detection of hemochromatosis.You can support this mission with adonation to the CanadianHemochromatosis Society, 285 – 7000Minoru Blvd., Richmond, BC V6Y 3Z5.More information can be found atwww.toomuchiron.ca/celtic.]

PLAYWRIGHT Briana Brown delivers laughs and heart in hernew award-winning play Robert which examines identity andloss...with a set of bagpipes.

Glasgow 2018 European Championships

T

GLASGOW – A new era in world sport willget underway this summer as Glasgow andBerlin host the inaugural European Champion-ships from August 2-12, 2018.Glasgow and Scotland will host six sports (Aquatics,Cycling, Golf, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon) across12 venues in partnership with the city of Berlin whichwill host the Athletics.It is hoped the joint partnership will elevate the status ofEuropean Championships in each sport and attract a largecontinental audience.As part of the event Glasgow will host the EuropeanCycling Championships, including the Road Race and TimeTrial cycling events which provide an historic opportu-

nity to join the roaring crowds which will greet the bestriders from across the continent as they race past iconiccity sights.A total of 52 nations will take part in seven sports – thebiggest multisports event in the U.K. since the 2014 Com-monwealth Games.More than 3,000 athletes will travel to Scotland as part ofa total delegation of around 8,500 including officials andmedia.Another 1,500 athletes will compete at Berlin 2018 – ath-letics will be held at the Olympic Stadium, with road racesand race walking events held throughout the city.With a potential television audience of up to 1.3 billionacross Europe set to watch the action, Glasgow and Scot-land will again be in the spotlight during these free events.

Toronto Fringe Festival, that is.Hemochromatosis has a role inRobert, an new award-winning playwritten and co-directed by BrianaBrown, a 2014 Masters graduate increative writing at the Universityof British Columbia.A witty and graceful comedy, Robertdelivers laughs and heart while takingon difficult questions of identity, griefand loss....with a set of bagpipes.Briana Brown summarizes saying,“Kat and James are waiting for theirfather to die. Not exactly estranged,but certainly not close. The two strug-gle to make conversation until Jamesreveals the worst secret he possiblycould.”A key plot point of the story is thefather’s genetic condition, and Briana’sScottish background provides thespringboard for the story’s heritagecomponent highlighted by plaid, bag-pipes and Celtic genes.As she wrote the story, Briana real-ized she needed to name the heredi-tary condition that causes the demiseof the father.She searched for something that wasknown for its difficulty to be recog-nized by doctors and commonly mis-taken for other medical issues.After a month of what Briana de-scribes as “dating” a few different ge-netic conditions, she landed on theperfect fit: hereditaryhemochromatosis.“It was by chance, and slightly eeriehow perfectly it worked within thecontext of what I’d already written,”said Briana.Hereditary hemochromatosis is a dis-order most commonly seen in personsof Celtic and Northern European her-itage.Globally, the incidence of the disorderis highest in Ireland and Brittany(France). In Canada, the incidence inthe general population is approxi-mately one in 300.Hemochromatosis is a genetic meta-bolic disorder that causes the body toretain and store excessive amounts ofiron.Left untreated, the iron builds up in intissues and organs where it can cause anumber of debilitating and potentially

“It is such a commoncondition, yet so

under-recognized”


UK couple poisonedby Novichok nerve agent

LONDON – Two people foundunconscious in a UK town werepoisoned with the same nerveagent as ex-Russian spy SergeiSkripal and his daughter Yulia,police say.On Sunday, July 8 it was reported thatDawn Sturgess (44) has died follow-ing exposure to the nerve agentNovichok, bringing new urgency to thefour-month-old diplomatic standoff inwhich Britain has accused Russia ofsending the poison in a botched at-tempt to kill the former spy.Sturgess and her partner CharlieRowley (45) were found unconsciousat a house in Amesbury on Saturday,June 30.Authorities believe the couple was ex-posed to Novichok, a resilient and re-sistant military-grade nerve agent de-veloped by the Soviet Union in the1970s and 1980s.Novichok takes effect within minutes,blocking messages from the nerves tothe muscles causing bodily functionsto collapse.Charlie Rowley remains in a criticalcondition in hospital.Police say the most likely hypothesisis that this is leftover Novichok fromthe attack back in March.England’s chief medical officer, Sally

Davies, said, “I want to reassure thepublic that the risk to the general pub-lic remains low.”The revelation that two more peoplehave been exposed to the nerve agentNovichock has shocked people inSalisbury.Residents have experienced months ofdisruption and anxiety since the poi-soning of the Skripals in March. Nowmany are wondering whether, despitea clean-up operation, their city is safe.Russia has denied any involvement.In recent months, investigators havesaid little about the evidence they havegathered and they have named no sus-pects. And the Skripals recovered, al-lowing the crime to fall off the frontpages.Sturgess’s death is likely to changethat, forcing Britain to reassert its sus-picions just as Russia is enjoying aninternational spotlight as host of the2018 World Cup.“It becomes a murder, and it’s involv-ing a British national rather than aRussian national,” said James Nixey,head of the Russia and Eurasia pro-gram at Chatham House, a researchgroup in London. “It stiffens resolvewhere resolve was ebbing.”It also presents another urgent chal-lenge for the British authorities: Thecontamination, it appears, was morewidespread than initially thought.

President Trump Will ReportedlyMeet with Queen Elizabeth in July

DONALD TRUMP will visit the UK this month for the first timesince being elected. Human rights groups have vowed to pro-test against the visit.

LONDON – Donald Trump will re-portedly meet with Queen Elizabethduring his controversial visit to theUK this month.The trip will take place on Friday the13th – after Trump stops off in Brus-sels for a summit of NATO leaders.According to reports, the U.S. presi-dent will not receive the full fanfare ofa state visit on the one-day trip.Trump will likely visit the Britishmonarch at Windsor Castle and willalso meet with Prime Minister TheresaMay while in the country.Downing Street has insisted the invi-tation for a full state visit still stands,but there is no timetable for it to takeplace.Back in January, Trump canceled a tripto the United Kingdom amid threatsof protest. He tweeted that the reasonwas because he was unhappy that theU.S. embassy was moving.Trump claimed displeasure at BarackObama having sold the previouspremises in Mayfair for “peanuts” andbuilding a 1.2 billion dollar replace-ment. The sale of the building wassigned off when George W. Bush wasstill in the White House and was re-portedly made for security reasons.Human rights groups have vowed toprotest against the visit. Amnesty In-ternational UK’s director, Kate Allen,said, “When Donald Trump arrives onthese shores, we and thousands of oursupporters will very definitely be mak-ing our voices heard.“Since moving into the White House,Mr. Trump has shown an impatiencebordering on intolerance toward peace-ful protests, the media and even thedemocratic process itself.”The Liberal Democrat deputy leader,Jo Swinson, said her party would pro-test against Trump’s visit. “It is ouropportunity to stand in solidarity withall the people he has abused and deni-grated,” she said.The visit was initially announced inJanuary of 2017 during Theresa May’svisit to the White House, when sheextended an invitation to PresidentDonald Trump and the first lady.“I have today been able to convey hermajesty the Queen’s hope PresidentTrump and the first lady would pay astate visit to the United Kingdom laterthis year, and I’m delighted the presi-dent accepted that invitation,” Maysaid at the time.The notion of Trump meeting with theQueen immediately prompted a peti-tion to block the visit. It has since gar-nered nearly 1.9 million signatures.“Donald Trump’s well documentedmisogyny and vulgarity disqualifieshim from being received by Her Maj-esty the Queen or the Prince of Wales,”reads the document.The controversy was compounded bydeeply unpopular statements Trumpmade on Twitter, following the terror-ist attack at London Bridge, aboutMayor Sadiq Khan.There are plans to fly a giant inflatablefigure depicting Donald Trump as ababy over London during his visit. Theplan was given the green light by MayorKhan.Campaigners raised almost £18,000 forthe helium-filled six-metre high figure,which they said reflects Trump's char-acter as an “angry baby with a fragileego and tiny hands.”

THE REVELATION that two more people have been exposed tothe nerve agent Novichok has shocked people in Salisbury, Eng-land. The couple, Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley, were foundunconscious on June 30. In March ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripaland his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the same nerve agent.


ByHARRY

McGRATH

The Scottish Dilemma:England or ABE for the World CupEDINBURGH – The firstWorld Cup that I watchedwhen I lived in Vancouver wasMexico ’86. Both Scotland andCanada were in it, though notfor long.Canada, as those of a certain vintagewill remember, lost all three groupsgames without scoring a goal. Scotlandscored one goal, lost two games, drewone and was sent homewards to thinkagain as quickly as Canada.Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20 but itdidn’t strike me at the time that itwould be a wee while before I againhad two teams to support in the sameworld cup.Scotland qualified in 1990 and 1998and defeats by Costa Rica in the formerand Morocco in the latter helped en-sure the same outcome as 1986.Canada, as any long suffering Cana-dian soccer fan will tell you, have nowgone 22 years without gracing the fi-nals of the world’s premier tournament.This brings us neatly to Russia 2018and who to support in the absence ofone’s choix du coeur.As sure as night follows day, Scotland’sfailure to qualify for the world cup fi-nals will itself be followed by a debateabout whether or not the Scots shouldsupport England.This year is no exception and the de-bate may even have provided a littlemore heat than usual when the Scot-land Office decided to fly the Englishflag over its premises in London toshow support for manager GarethSouthgate and his team.The debate is neatly divided betweenthe rational and the visceral. The ra-tional side centres, to some extent, onthe character and personality of man-ager Southgate himself.He recently described his team in theseterms, “We have a chance to affectsomething bigger than ourselves.“We’re a team with our diversity andyouth that represents modern Englandand in England we’ve spent a bit oftime being lost as to what our identityis and I think as a team we representthat modern identity and hopefullypeople can connect with us.”Southgate has the most ethnically di-verse squad ever to represent Englandat the world cup and his celebration ofits diversity is a breath of fresh aircompared to some of the narrativesthat accompanied Brexit.His young players interview well andseem to take their cues from the man-ager when dealing with the public de-mands that are placed upon them.They also, incidentally, play a styleof football which is easy on the eyecompared to some of the Englandteams of the recent past.Yet Southgate and his team notwith-standing, I found myself letting out aninvoluntary “Yes” when Tunisia scoredagainst England in their first game.And friends who watched it in the pubtell me that there was much whoopingand dancing around by people wearingABE (Anyone But England) t-shirts.One possible explanation is that thisis a reaction to some English commen-tators who are quick to engage in na-tional stereotyping and are never farfrom a “cheating foreigner” calumny.

Perhaps the insufferable commentatorsare just a handy excuse for not sup-porting England, but I prefer it to thevarious “Scotland jealous and paro-chial” explanations that get bandiedaround.As often happens, the most concisetake was to be found on Twitter. Oneperson tweeted “I don’t support Eng-land because I’m not [expletive de-leted] English.”Meanwhile in Canada the obligation

to support the giant southern neigh-bour, muted at the best of times, wasremoved entirely by the failure of theUnited States to qualify and there’ssome hope for the future via the pros-pect of Canada co-hosting World Cup2026 with Mexico and the U.S.The 2026 finals will be expanded from32 to 48 teams and FIFA is to decidenext year which of the hosts will getautomatic qualification. If it decides infavour of all three, then Canada’s shipwill have come in 40 years after it quali-fied for Mexico.We’re a long way from the 1930 to1954 era when Canada didn’t even en-ter the tournament and the 1962 WorldCup in Chile when the Canadian Soc-cer Association withdrew the teambefore the initial qualifying rounds.It forfeited the $250 entrance fee onthe grounds that the Canadian teamwas unlikely to beat both Mexico andthe U.S. to qualify and, even if it did,the CSA couldn’t afford the trip toSouth America for the finals.Contrast this with the so-called “blankcheque” arrangement for 2026 whichput paid to Vancouver’s chances ofbecoming a host city.An optimist might point out that wehave skipped over Qatar 2022 wherethe dark blue of Scotland and the redof Canada may yet swelter in the Al-Bhayt or Ahmed bin Ali stadiums.I wouldn’t hang my hat on it though.Scotland and Canada in the same finalsin anything other than curling remainsa distant prospect. 2026 it is. Or neveragain.

GLASGOW School of Art’s famous Mackintosh building will bepartially demolished after fire guts it for a second time on Fri-day, June 15. The building was still under restoration followinga smaller blazer four years ago.

‘Heartbreaking’: Fireguts Glasgow School

of Art for second timeGLASGOW – The Glasgow Schoolof Art has been devastated by ahuge fire. Flames tore through thefamous Mackintosh building whileit was undergoing a major restora-tion, only four years after parts ofthe building were destroyed by asmaller blaze.The building now appears to have beengutted by the fire and had its roof andupper floors destroyed.Glasgow City Council has confirmedparts of the building need to be de-molished after surveys found the struc-ture had moved more than previouslythought.Firefighters were unable to enter thebuilding because of fears its wallsmight collapse. More than 120 fire-fighters and 20 appliances were calledto tackle the blaze, which began lateon Friday, June 15 and spread to aneighbouring music venue, the O2ABC.

Residents said the heat was so intenseit could be felt several streets away,with chunks of blazing timber and de-bris raining down on neighbouringstreets.Police evacuated 27 people fromnearby properties as a precaution, butthere were no reported casualties.The building was designed by the artnouveau architect and designer CharlesRennie Mackintosh, whose designsextended to the smallest detail, includ-ing its furniture, lamps and glass in-lays.Its most famous feature was its library,which housed many rare and archivalmaterials as well as original furnitureand fittings, and was gutted by the2014 fire.The city celebrated the 150th anniver-sary of Mackintosh’s birth just a weekearlier, when one of his other famousbuildings, the Willow Tea Roomsnearby, reopened after a refurbishment.

RESIDENTS said the heat was so intense it could be felt sev-eral streets away, with chunks of blazing timber and debris rain-ing down on neighbouring streets.

England reachesWorld Cup semi-final for

the first time since Italia 90SWEDEN 0 - 2 ENGLAND

ENGLAND has reached theWorld Cup semi-final for thefirst time since Italia 90 as HarryMaguire and Dele Alli struckeither side of the interval to beatSweden on July 7 in Samara,Russia.Gareth Southgate's side will nowface Croatia in Moscow's LuzhnikiStadium on Wednesday, July 11after overcoming a stubborn Swe-den challenge in this quarter-final,with help from a magnificent dis-play by goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.Maguire, outstanding once more, brokethe deadlock on the half-hour whenanother England set-piece bore fruit -Leicester City's powerful defenderflashing a header past Sweden keeperRobin Olsen from Ashley Young's cor-ner.Everton keeper Pickford then snuffedout Sweden's hopes of recovery witha superb save from Marcus Berg, be-fore England sealed their victory after58 minutes when Alli headed in JesseLingard's cross at the far post.Pickford denied Viktor Claesson andthen Berg one more time to secure hisfirst World Cup clean sheet as Eng-land closed out this landmark win withsomething to spare.

Southgate and his England players re-peated the scenes from the dramaticpenalty shootout win over Colombiaas they celebrated in front of joyoussupporters at the final whistle - onestep closer to history and with expec-tation levels raised once more as theystand one game away from football'sgreatest occasion.The Three Lions are in the last fourfor only the third time. They went onto win their home tournament in 1966but lost to West Germany on penal-ties in 1990.But the peculiar way this World Cuphas shaped up means they will nowplay the team ranked 20th in the worldfor a place in the final - against eitherBelgium or France.England boss Gareth Southgate said,"We knew it was going to be such adifferent game from the other night, tocome back having had extra-time andpenalties, with the emotions of it tolift ourselves through a completelydifferent test."I can't speak highly enough of thewhole squad and whole group of staffbecause it is so united in there."The level of work has been great andtheir commitment to each other, youdon't get through with just 11 players.They are all top people and are thereason we are in the semi-final just asmuch as any other."


Storm Clouds Over Europe as EULeaders Meet in Brussels

THERESA MAY arrives at theEuropean Council summit inBrussels on Thursday, June 28.

LONDON – As European Unionleaders prepared to meet in Brus-sels for the last time this year, threemajor items dominated the agenda:Brexit, defense and migration.Advance preparations, however, havehardly gone to plan.British Prime Minister Theresa Mayarrived in the Belgian capital reelingfrom a parliamentary defeat on Brexit,just as her European counterparts wereset to back moving on to the secondphase of Brexit negotiations.The British parliament voted in favorof an amendment that gives it the rightto approve or reject any Brexit dealreached by the government.Tensions surrounding the EU’s migra-tion scheme also boiled to the surfaceagain on the eve of the summit, withEuropean Council President DonaldTusk criticizing mandatory relocationas “ineffective” and “highly divisive.”While his comments were denouncedas “anti-European,” the scheme hasbeen far from successful.Of the 160,000 migrants planned to berelocated, only 32,000 have found anew home. Meanwhile, Hungary, Po-land, Slovakia and the Czech Republichave fiercely opposed the plan fromthe start and have repeatedly refusedto accept asylum seekers.According to reports, the four coun-tries, which together make up theVisegrad group, said they were pre-pared to commit around 35 million euro

for physical customs checks wherepossible.The government has now deemed bothoptions practically or politicallyundeliverable.But May must sell her plans to herBrexiteer backbenchers too and someare nervous that she is watering downher intentions.Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Torybackbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg saysthe PM risks a revolt if the type ofBrexit she promised is not delivered.He and other members of the 60-stronggroup of Eurosceptic Tory MPs heleads, known as the European Re-search Group (ERG), would reject adeal that did not amount to a cleanbreak with the EU.A deal which restricts the UK’s abil-ity to make trade agreements with othernations or control migration could notbe accepted, he said.Downing Street announced that it hasnow produced a third model for han-

dling customs after the UK leaves theEU.Details of the new plan have not beenrevealed publicly but senior ministerswill discuss it at Chequers, the primeminister’s country retreat, on Friday,July 6. Theresa May hopes to resolvecabinet splits on the shape of Brexit atthis cabinet meeting.She has said the UK will then publisha White Paper setting out “in moredetail what strong partnership theUnited Kingdom wants to see with theEuropean Union in the future.”

($41 million) towards beefing up theEU’s border protection scheme, insteadof taking in migrants.Tusk also issued a “last call” for theUK to agree on its position on Brexit,saying the “most difficult” issues wereunresolved and “quick progress” wasneeded if agreement was to be reachedby the next meeting in October.The UK is due to leave the EU onMarch 29, 2019, and negotiations aretaking place on what their future rela-tionship will look like.The government had talked publiclyabout two potential customs options.One, a customs partnership, wouldmean the UK applies the EU’s owntariffs and rules of origin to all goodsarriving in the country, intended forthe EU.The other, known as maximum facili-tation or max-fac, aimed to employnew technology to remove the need

Distressingscenes atGrenfellPublicInquiry

LONDON – A woman collapsed out-side the Grenfell Tower public inquiry,others were seen burying their faces intheir hands and people flooded fromthe room in tears, as footage of the firewas shown without warning.The devastating blaze killed 72 peo-ple and destroyed the 24-storeyGrenfell Tower, a residential towerblock in North Kensington, London,England, on June 14, 2017.The inquiry was ordered by PrimeMinister Theresa May on the day fol-lowing the fire.The first two weeks of the inquiry, ledby retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick, were given over to hearing trib-utes from relatives of those who died.The film had formed part of a com-memoration to the Choucair family,three generations of whom died in thefire.Many affected were seen burying theirfaces in their hands and people floodedfrom the room in tears.Inquiry staff were supposed to notifythose in attendance, including manysurvivors and bereaved relatives, be-fore images of the tower appeared.Instead, phone camera footage flashedon both screens at the MillenniumGloucester Hotel, South Kensington,showing flames engulfing the block.Acknowledging his failure to warn sur-vivors about the shocking imagery,Bernard Richmond QC said, “I’m sorrythat the warning that should have beenput out didn’t get put out.”It was later learned that someone hadhit a switch by accident to cause thevideo to run.The dramatic development came to-wards the end of a second emotionalday at the inquiry when 13 victimswere commemorated: Debbie Lamprell,Maria del Pilar Burton, Rania Ibrahim,her daughters Fethia and Hania,Khadija Saye, Mary Mendy and thesix members of the Choucair family.Hesham Rahman was also due to behonoured.Survivors have told the inquiry of theiranger at the fire brigade’s advice to stayinside, which discouraged many fami-lies from fleeing the flames and smoke.In later testimony, one of the first fire-fighters to enter the Grenfell Towerinferno broke down in tears as videofootage of his arrival at the flat of ori-gin was played to the inquiry.Charles Batterbee, a crew manager atNorth Kensington fire station, was oneof two officers tasked with extinguish-ing a kitchen fire on the fourth floor ofthe block.The firefighter was led from the roomby an usher, wiping his eyes as hewalked while the inquiry was paused.He is the second firefighter to becomedistressed while recounting the nightof the blaze at the hearing.Earlier, Michael Dowden, the watchmanager who was in charge of the op-erational response for the first hour ofthe blaze, wept after seeing footage ofthe burning tower.

Victims remembered on30th anniversary of

the Piper Alpha disasterABERDEEN – A service was held inAberdeen on July 6 in memory of the167 men who died in the Piper Alphaoffshore disaster.The names of 167 men who lost theirlives 30 years ago were read aloud at aspecial memorial service held at thePiper Alpha Memorial Garden inHazlehead Park. It was attended bytheir relatives and friends along withpoliticians and representatives fromthe oil and gas sector.The ceremony marks three decadessince explosions ripped apart the oilinstallation off Aberdeen in the world’sworst offshore industry catastrophe.On that night, there were more than220 men on board Piper Alpha, withmost in the accommodation section andmore than 60 working on the nightshift.Shortly before 10 PM, there was a gasleak on the North Sea platform. A se-ries of explosions followed and, min-utes later, it was engulfed in a fireball.By the time the rescue helicopters ar-rived, flames were reaching 300 feetand could be seen from 70 miles away.The smoke and fire made evacuationby helicopter or lifeboat impossible,and many people gathered in the ac-commodation area.Remaining there meant certain death.With the platform ablaze and explod-ing, some men jumped 175 feet intothe North Sea. Others plunged fromlower levels or clambered down ropesand hoses before plummeting into the

water. There were only 62 survivorsthat night in what remains the world’sworst offshore disaster.Lord Provost of Aberdeen BarneyCrockett, who laid a wreath, said, “Theshocking events of that night 30 yearsago are imprinted on the Aberdeenmemory forever.“We will never forget that 167 mendied in the Piper Alpha tragedy, whichis why it is so important that the Cityof Aberdeen and industry come to-gether for this Act of Remembrance.“We want to let those affected, par-ticularly the families, know that westand shoulder-to-shoulder with themand that our thoughts are with themnow and forever.”

PIPER ALPHA was a North Seaoil production platform operatedby Occidental Petroleum (Cal-edonia) Ltd. The platform be-gan production in 1976, first asan oil platform and then laterconverted to gas production. Itwas destroyed in an explosionon July 6, 1988.

BREAKING NEWS: British ForeignSecretary Boris Johnston has re-signed his position shortly follow-ing the resignations of Brexit Sec-retary David Davis and his deputySteve Baker. Davis says the dealagreed by Tory ministers at Cheq-uers means the UK is unlikely toleave the customs union and thesingle market when it leaves theEU on March 29, 2019.


to Canada.Since then there have been remarkable changes both at home inIreland and on the international stage. The result has been enor-mous social and political upheaval, leading to both optimism forthe future and deep concern and confusion in many quarters.On a local level, two exciting developments have been the signingof the CETA agreement between Canada and the European Union,and the announcement by Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairsand Trade of a new Irish Consulate planned for western Canada.The new Consulate, to be located in Vancouver, will be the first expansion ofIreland’s residential diplomatic mission in Canada since the opening of the IrishEmbassy in Ottawa in 1939.Ambassador Kelly was in Vancouver recently and he sat down with The CelticConnection to discuss Ireland’s current position in the Eurozone and its evolv-ing relationship with Canada.

Interview by Maura De Freitas

New Vancouver Consulate will be the first expansionof Irish diplomatic presence in Canada since 1939

CC: When we last met you had justrecently arrived in Ottawa. Sincethen we have witnessed a time ofgreat change both at home andabroad.JK: Yes, that’s absolutely right Maura.As you say, I was here about sixmonths at that stage and one of thethings that we spoke about at the timewas the bi-lateral relationship betweenIreland and Canada.The piece that I felt was absent was alevel of intensive political and diplo-matic engagement between the twocountries that reflects the extent of thehistoric links of the diaspora and thestrong people-to-people links in par-ticular.What I found at that stage was thatthere had not been a visit by an IrishGovernment minister to Canada for 18months and similarly no visits by Ca-nadian ministers to Ireland.That seemed to me to be veryunreflective extent of the connections,so one of the things I prioritized wasto work with the various chambers andagencies, along with the community,to help to generate a closer level ofpolitical engagement here in Canadaand at home with the people in Dub-lin.Since then, we’ve had a really trans-formed situation. In 14 months, we’vehad 14 members of the Irish Govern-ment here after a period when thereweren’t any.We’ve had two visits by successiveTaoisigh – Enda Kenny and LeoVaradkar – we had Prime MinisterTrudeau in Ireland in between, we’vehad three ministerial trade missions,we’ve had Canadian ministers and par-liamentarians visit Ireland as well.So, the political and diplomatic rela-tionship now much more fairly reflectsthe reality of the level of connectionsthere are between the two countries.And there are a couple of factors thathave helped push that change.CC: CETA being one of those factors?[The Comprehensive Economic andTrade Agreement known as CETA is afree-trade agreement between Canada,the European Union and its memberstates.]

JK: Yes, CETA has been a key elementof it.CETA was a long time in the making –eight years – and the opportunities thatit provides in terms of abolishing tar-iffs – almost all tariffs – opening pro-curement markets between Ireland andCanada – including at the municipaland provincial level – easing barriersto doing business in terms of recogni-tion of qualifications, in terms of al-lowing people to take temporarypostings to explore possibilities, haveall made Ireland and Canada a muchmore attractive proposition to eachother in terms of doing business.We’re seeing that playing out now inpractice. There has been a real increasein the level of interest from Ireland intrying to get into the Canadian mar-ket, also as a gateway to North Americagenerally.For those reasons and others, there hasalso been an increase in the level ofinvestment from Canada in Ireland aswell.CC: Another development is the firstofficial Irish Consulate in Canada tobe established here in Vancouver. Thatannouncement was made in 2017 bythe Tánaiste, Simon Coveney.JK: Yes, this will be the first expan-sion of our diplomatic footprint inCanada since the embassy first openedin 1939, so it’s a major developmentfrom that point of view.It reflects both developments inCanada and the government’s approachmore generally, so in a broader sensethe government under the newTaoiseach Leo Varadkar is very com-mitted to the idea of increasing Ire-land’s global footprint.Not just diplomats, but in terms ofagencies dealing with trade and invest-ment and tourism. Increasing Ireland’slevel of engagement on the groundacross the world where we have thesemarkets, where there are tremendousopportunities.I think that reflects a changing interna-tional situation such as what’s goingon with Brexit, NAFTA (North Ameri-can Free Trade Agreement) – changesin the world that mean we really haveto reach out for more like-minded part-ners.

IRISH AMBASSADOR Jim Kelly presenting a donation from the Irish Abroad Unit to Lar Quigley,the president of the new Irish Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Vancouver Chapter. [For moreinformation about ICCCVan, visit their website at www.icccvan.ca.]

Canada, of course, is a great exampleof a like-minded partner with a veryoutward-looking view of the world.CC: Hence the new IDA office in To-ronto [Ireland’s inward investmentpromotion agency].JK: Exactly. So, one of two key partsof that are coming to Vancouver now.Canada is obviously a huge countryand when we opened an embassy herein the late 1930s it was a differentplace, and we essentially still have thesame staffing levels in Ottawa.This is now a time when our connec-tions and requirements to have serviceto help those connections flourish aremuch greater.Having a Consulate with a residentialpresence in the west is a really impor-tant part of that. The reality is, as youknow, that we are five hours flying timeaway from here in Ottawa.I try to get out here as often as I canand I think what is going on in the westis enormously important to us in manyways and we recognize that, but thereis no substitute for having some sortof a residential presence as well.To be honest, from the moment that Itook up the job, even before I cameout here, we were discussing the ideaof trying to do that at some point.Thankfully, the taoiseach and the gov-ernment have seized the opportunitysince so many government ministershave come out and seen it for them-selves, including our own ministerSimon Coveney when he came out inMarch of last year.They get the opportunities that arethere, and opening an IDA office aswell which will be in Toronto beforethe end of the year will be another keypart of that.So, those are two elements of our on-going strategy in Canada: To have aresidential presence in the west to helpservice the increasing needs of thegrowing Irish community in Vancou-ver, in British Columbia, and beyond;and to help leverage the growing tradeand economic opportunities underCETA and also under Brexit as well.CC: We’ll come back to Brexit but be-fore we finish you mentioned FrankFlood will be the new Irish consularrepresentative here in Vancouver. Can

you tell me a bit about his background?JK: Yes, Frank is currently our am-bassador to Estonia based in Tallinn.He’s a very experienced diplomat. He’sbeen in the Department of ForeignAffairs and Trade since the mid-1990s,and he has served in a number of dif-ferent areas and locations.For example, he served several termsin the secretariat in Belfast, he workedwith Irish Aid, and worked for theUnited Nations Development programin Africa as well. He also served as ourvice-consul in Boston.So he has a very rounded experiencecovering across all sorts of areas interms of dealing with Northern Ireland,dealing with trade, dealing with aid, andI think a very experienced and knowl-edgeable diplomat, and I think he willbe a real contributor to the Irish com-munity here in Vancouver as well.He is very much looking forward tohis new posting.CC: Can you give me an idea when hewill be arriving?JK: Well the plan for the Consulate isthat he will arrive in September withhis wife Orla and the aim will be to setup, initially of course because you arestarting from scratch, a temporarypremises that will allow them to beginoperating straight away.That will probably be for about thefirst year with the aim to getting a per-manent office in place by the summerof 2019.It does mean that he will be up andrunning from September of this year,so we are very much looking forwardto that.CC: Hopefully this will now take a bitof pressure off staff at the embassy inOttawa but we’re always very pleasedto see you here in Vancouver.JK: Well, I’ve been here for a coupleof days now. I was here to launch thenew local chapter of Ireland CanadaChamber of Commerce.It was a great turnout in a very nicelocation, a very promising start for theChamber, and a very diverse groupfrom a number of different sectors.I sense a real enthusiasm and a realenergy about the idea of an Irish Cham-ber that will work to build networksfor people here but also to help sup-

port what the agencies are trying to doon the trade and investment side.So, they will be great allies for the con-sul when he comes here and he, in turn,I know will be very keen to supportwhat they want to do.Similarly, I spoke to Àine Coady whois setting up the new Vancouver IrishFilm Festival with her team as well.So, that’s something very exciting onthe cultural side and obviously culturaldiplomacy and promotion of Irish cul-ture is something that is very impor-tant to us given how important thefilm industry and digital media is herein Vancouver and B.C.I think that’s great timing and I thinkthere is a great appetite in the Irishcommunity and beyond for an IrishFilm Festival in Vancouver.CC: It’s an exciting time for the Irishcommunity here in Vancouver with anew wave of young, dynamic and highlyeducated Irish arrivals.JK: It’s very interesting. When youcome here it’s very tangible. Evenspeaking with other trade missions,and I’ve seen a couple of them today,they too are well aware of the increasedpresence of younger Irish people inthe city in a whole range of differentareas.As you say, they are very competent,they’re highly educated, they’re ex-tremely keen to do well.What I find interesting is another rea-son why the Consulate is so badlyneeded, is that the conventional storyhas been people come here when thingsare bad at home on the economic side.But in actual fact the economy in Ire-land is very strong and has been forthree or four years, and people arecontinuing to come because it is a factthat many young people want the op-portunity to live in different environ-ments, in different cultures, for a cou-ple of years, sometimes they will staylonger, but they are interested in thatopportunity.There are so many young people herealready that it has reached a criticalmass that most people looking at go-ing abroad at that age in Ireland knowsomebody here in Vancouver or in To-ronto, and we see in both those cities

[Continued next page]

ANCOUVER – When we first met JimKelly in the autumn of 2016, he had onlyrecently arrived in Canada to take up hisnew position as Ambassador of IrelandV


[Continued from page 10]

the numbers continuing to grow quitestrongly at a time when the economyis performing strongly in Ireland.CC: I’m glad to hear that the economyis doing well in Ireland because it is atime of some uncertainty, particularlyin light of Brexit. You mentioned ear-lier about the confusion surroundingBritain’s exit of the European Union.JK: I suppose the first thing to say inrelation to the economy, for the ben-efit of your readers, is that after somevery difficult years, through the finan-cial crisis and beyond, we’ve had quitea turnaround.The Irish economy is the fastest grow-ing economy in the Eurozone for thepast four years, so that’s a very seri-ous and sustained recovery and I’msure people who have visited homewill have seen for themselves howthings have changed quite dramaticallyin recent years.It is encouraging that the economy hascontinued to grow strongly even withthe shadow of Brexit looming over it.Brexit is a very serious challenge to usin many ways in Ireland, in particularin relation to the border which hasobviously become frictionless and ef-fectively quite invisible in the periodsince the signing of the Good FridayAgreement [April 1998], and the endof the conflict that took place backthen.When you cross the border now, youreally only know it when your mobilephone beeps and the provider changes.That’s a real signal of just how intan-gible the border really is.Nobody in Ireland, and indeed in fair-ness, nobody in terms of the govern-ment in London or Brussels, or any-where else wants to see that returnedto where it was for political reasons,for economic reasons, and psychologi-cal reasons.But the challenge of course is that theUK, having decided to leave the Euro-pean Union presents really seriousproblems in terms of what the futurerelationship will be and what will theimplications be at the border.The [Irish] Government’s response tothis has been to address four concernsthat we have.The first is in relation to the peaceprocess and the border.The second is in relation to theeconomy more generally and trade withthe UK which obviously continues tobe very important for us, although itis obviously a lot less concentratedthan it would have been historically.When we joined the European Union,more than half of Ireland’s exportswould still have gone to the UK at thatpoint, now it’s more like 14 or 15 per-cent.

So, it’s much less concentration, butit’s still an important market, particu-larly for small and medium enterprises,and in agriculture for example. Ad-dressing that is very important to thegovernment.The preservation then of the commontravel area, allowing Irish and Britishcitizens to move freely between thetwo countries has also been a key con-cern and that, we are quite happy now,will be preserved with whatever fu-ture agreement comes up.And the last is the whole question ofthe union which is perhaps self-evi-dent, but it is important to note that itis our future as well.It is very important to note that, atthis time of uncertainty with Brexitlooming, what has actually happenedis that all the polling indicates that un-precedented large percentage of Irishpeople are now in favour of our Euro-pean membership.Whereas historically it would havebeen between 60-70 percent, the mostrecent survey about two weeks agoshows that 92 percent of Irish peoplebelieve that Ireland’s EU membershipis essential for us and is part of ourfuture.That’s very encouraging because itshows that there is a real clarity thatgoes beyond the government or politi-cal opinion per se.It encompasses a very broad nationalconsensus which means that the gov-ernment is in a position to act withreal authority in terms of managing ourposition with regard to Brexit, withregard to the border issue, and withregard to trade and so forth.Also, just to stay on the border issue,what the government has done andwhat our negotiators have done work-ing as part of the EU has been to se-cure a political agreement to what’scalled the ‘backstop’.So, if there is no agreement in terms ofresolving a frictionless border in a fu-ture UK/EU trade arrangement, thatthere will be a ‘backstop’ that ensuresthe provisions of the single market ofthe customs union that relate to areascovered by the Good Friday Agree-ment in terms of north/south coopera-tion, that they will continue to be inplace.There will be alignment for those ar-eas, so that is part of the political agree-ment around the withdrawal of the UK.These are complicated issues that arestill being worked through in manyways but politically that has beenagreed and the challenge now is, if youlike, to turn that into a legal withdrawalagreement.That is where the discussions and thedebates are now taking place.Our view in Ireland and the Irish Gov-ernment’s view is that we would pre-

fer, of course, if the UK would neverleave the European Union, but theyhave decided to do so, as is their rightby the referendum, we would ideallylike to see them remain in the singlemarket – the customs union – whichwould ensure that there would be noadditional impediments in relation tothe border.The taoiseach is on record for sayingthat the limits of the future British re-lationship with the union are those setby Britain’s own red lines, so it’s re-ally up to them to decide if you likewhat sort of relationship it is theywant.You will see from following the Brit-ish media, the international media, thatthere are a great deal of contradictionswithin their position in terms of whatthey actually want and a great deal ofinternal political debate going on withinthe British Government, the Britishparliament, and until such time it isreally clear what it is they want, it isvery difficult to say where the futurerelationship will end.What we can say with certainty is thatthe Irish Government is completelycommitted to ensure no return to ahard border and the ‘backstop’ will bean important part of that if it is thecase no agreement is reached.CC: Ireland has also recently under-gone significant social upheaval interms of the role of women and thechurch, particularly in light of the re-cent referendum to repeal the eighthamendment to the country’s constitu-tion, allowing the government to over-haul an abortion law which has beenamong the most restrictive in Europe.JK: It is very interesting. It is a periodof enormous social change if you like

in Ireland, I think both the referendumlast weekend and the marriage equal-ity referendum in particular in 2015illustrated how much things havechanged and how quickly.As you say, the issue that was putbefore the people last weekend is avery complex and emotive issue.The debate that took place – which Ifollowed from a distance here – was avery emotional one about which peo-ple care a great deal about on eitherside and which was very passionatelydebated.What was interesting was that in theend these decisions are for the peopleand the people rendered a very clearverdict which in effect reversed almostprecisely the result of the 1983 refer-endum.I suppose this is an illustration – and Ioffer this with no comment on it oneway or the other – of just how muchthings have changed in Ireland.So, I can imagine for people who havebeen away from Ireland for a very longperiod it may have come as quite asurprise – it probably came as quite asurprise to people in Ireland to anextent, given that most of the pollingsuggested that it would be quite close.But, the people having rendered theirverdict, the government will move tolegislate on the basis that they indi-cated prior to the referendum.CC: One last question with regard toissues encountered by Irish peoplewishing to return home after livingabroad for a period of time. CrosscareMigrant Project recently released a re-port on some of the difficulties encoun-tered by people who wish to return.JK: You do hear stories of issues aboutpeople who wish to reintegrate, issuesaround car insurance, around healthinsurance, driver’s licenses, and soforth. There are real complexities there.One of the things that our ministry,

working with Crosscare and others, islooking at is identifying what the keyimpediments are and how to addressthem. So there is a certain amount ofwork ongoing on the research side toget a clear sense of the hierarchy ofwhat the difficulties are.And then I suppose it will then be upto the government to identify how canyou resolve some of those.It is work that will probably take sometime as it will involve different policyareas and different ministries, but Isuppose what is encouraging – or atleast what I hope is encouraging forpeople – is that there is an increasedunderstanding and awareness of thesedifficulties now and the need to try toresolve them.Some will be resolved more easily thanothers but it is certainly well under-stood now within the Irish Abroadunit, which is the section within ourministry which deals with these issues,that supporting when they are abroadis one side of the coin, but also sup-porting them in their efforts to returnand reintegrate is the other side of thecoin.More attention than before is now be-ing given to that working with organi-zations such as Crosscare. So the gov-ernment is working to try to find waysto address those issues.

[The Embassy of Ireland in Canadais located at Suite 1105, 130 AlbertStreet in Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5G4.For more information, call (613)233-6281, or visit their website at:www.d fa . i e / i r i sh -embassy /canada. More details on the newIrish Consulate in Vancouver willfollow in the September/Octoberissue of The Celtic Connection.]

TEAM VIRFF at Vancity Theatre on June 16 for the launch of the Vancouver Irish Film Festivalwith the screening of The Drummer & The Keeper. (L-R) Áine Wanderer Geoghegan, PadraicCoffey, Bernard Sloan, Emma Ní Nualláin, Karen Bracken, Sascha Seyschab, Karen Downey,Áine Coady, Laura Brunnock, Marguerite Butler, Teresa Toolan and Cathal Dunphy. [To learnmore about the Vancouver Irish Film Festival, e-mail Áine Coady at: [email protected],or online at: www.virff.org.]


New Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerceformally launched in Vancouver in May

By MIKEY SMYTHVANCOUVER – AmbassadorJim Kelly was in Vancouver onMonday, May 28 to formallylaunch the sixth and newest Ire-land-Canada Chamber ofCommerce.In attendance to welcome the new Ire-land-Canada Chamber of CommerceVancouver (ICCCVan) was a room fullof leading Irish figures and profession-als from across the Irish business com-munity in Vancouver.Guests were welcomed upon arrivalwith live trad music and were latertreated to a magnificent sunset on the28th floor of the downtown offices ofMcKinsey & Company, who gener-ously sponsored and hosted the event.Ambassador Kelly and the Irish Em-bassy in Ottawa also showed theirsupport and commitment to the newChamber by presenting a donation tothe Chamber on the night.As president of the newly formedICCCVan, Lar Quigley welcomedguests and outlined the vision and mis-

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Mark MontgomeryICCCVAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS and volunteers with Ambassador Jim Kelly at the launch ofthe new chamber in Vancouver on May 28.

Similar to its sister Irish Chambers inMontreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmon-ton and Calgary, the new Vancouverchapter intends to host several net-working events throughout the year.It will serve as a support service tothose who are looking to connect withlike-minded professionals to advancetheir careers or business, whatever sec-tor that may be.In his opening remarks to guests, Am-bassador Kelly provided an update onthe new Irish Consulate that is plannedto open in Vancouver in September.The ambassador noted the fact that

both the new diplomatic Consulate andChamber in Vancouver launching in2018 is a clear indication of the grow-ing Irish community in Vancouver.This is in fact the second iteration ofthe Irish Chamber of Commerce forVancouver, which originally ceasedoperating in the early 1990s.The backstory for the establishmentof the new Chamber is indeed a reflec-tion of the new Irish demographic thathas arrived in British Columbia post-2008 recession.Founded by a handful of 30-some-thing-year-olds in early 2017, and of-

ficially incorporated on October 2,2017, the ICCCVan founding membersrecognised the lack of support for sen-ior Irish professionals in Vancouverand sought to address this.With a large influx of highly educatedand skilled Irish people making themove to Vancouver, B.C. over recentyears, it is no surprise to see a gather-ing of accomplished, senior profession-als coming together to establishICCCVan once again.ICCCVan’s mission statement there-fore is simple, to support and connectIrish business owners and profession-als across the province from across allsectors.Indeed, the professional backgroundsof the board of directors of ICCCVanis an example of how the Irishworkforce have established themselvesacross this city – tech, entrepreneur,law, finance, events, and energy.ICCCVan will host its next event andnetworking opportunity for membersin September/October 2018, to coin-cide with the arrival of the new Irishdiplomatic Consulate for westernCanada.The chamber is now actively reachingout to the Irish community across theprovince and encourages Irish peopleacross all sectors to sign up toICCCVan’s mailing list to receive thelatest news and event notificationsfrom the Chamber.

•[If you would like to learn more aboutICCCVan or become a member to availof its membership benefits, visit theirwebsite at www.icccvan.ca.]

TREVOR CARROLL, Lara Chibuk, and Lar Quigley at theICCCVan reception.

RACHEL QUINN, Siobhan O’Connell and Eilis Courtney repre-senting the Irish Women’s Network of B.C. were among theguests at the launch of the new ICCCVan.

ICCCVAN Chairperson Keith Martin addressing guests at thenew Chamber’s inaugural event.

DUBLIN – Apple has ditched plansto build an 850 million euro ($1 bil-lion) data center in Ireland becauseof delays in the approval processthat have stalled the project formore than three years.

Apple announced plans in February2015 to build the facility in the ruralwestern town of Athenry to take ad-vantage of green energy sourcesnearby, but a series of planning ap-peals, chiefly from two individuals,delayed its approval.Ireland’s High Court ruled in Octoberthat the data center could proceed, dis-missing the appellants who then tooktheir case to the country’s SupremeCourt.“Despite our best efforts, delays inthe approval process have forced usto make other plans and we will notbe able to move forward with the datacentre,” Apple said in a statementahead of the Supreme Court headingin May.“While disappointing, this setback willnot dampen our enthusiasm for futureprojects in Ireland as our business con-tinues to grow,” the company said, cit-ing plans to expand its European head-quarters in County Cork where it em-ploys over 6,000 people.Ireland relies on foreign multinationalcompanies like Apple for the creationof one in every 10 jobs across theeconomy and sees major investmentssuch as data centers as a means of se-curing their presence in the country.

Apple scraps $1 billionIrish data center over planning delays

The government is in the process ofamending its planning laws to includedata centers as strategic infrastructure,thus allowing them to get through the

planning process much more quickly.A similar Apple center announced atthe same time in Denmark was due tobegin operations last year and Appleannounced in July that it would buildits second EU data center there.“There is no disputing that Apple’sdecision is very disappointing, par-ticularly for Athenry and the west ofIreland,” Ireland’s Minister for Busi-ness and Enterprise HeatherHumphreys said in a statement.“The government did everything itcould to support this investment.These delays have, if nothing else,underlined our need to make the State’splanning and legal processes more ef-ficient.”

Irish construction firmshiring amid growth

DUBLIN – Ireland's construction firms have continued hiring amid a strongpace of growth in the sector.The latest Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index stood at 58.4in June. While that compared to a stronger 61.8 reading in May, any figure over50 represents expansion - any reading below that indicates contraction.Simon Barry, chief economist for the Republic of Ireland at Ulster Bank, saidthe May figure was "extremely elevated".He said that the reading for June "is still very much a level which signalsongoing rapid gains in activity"."The latest results, as well as anecdotes from survey respondents, continue tohighlight that housing and commercial remain areas of particular strength withinthe sector, albeit that there was some cooling of growth momentum in Junefrom the exceptionally rapid rates recorded in May," said Barry.

sion statement of the new Chamber,“ICCCVan has been created to sup-port and connect Irish professionalsin Vancouver.”


Pilgrims face tight securityto see Pope in Phoenix Park

DUBLIN – Pilgrims planning to at-tend a Mass celebrated by Pope Francisin Dublin’s Phoenix Park will face atwo kilometer traffic exclusion zone,strict security vetting and a potentialwait of up to five hours to exit thepark afterwards.The Phoenix Park event – expected toprove one of the highlights of the Pa-pal visit on August 25-26 – is beingstrictly limited to 600,000 people forhealth and safety reasons.It will mean one of the biggest secu-rity operations undertaken in Dublinfor 30 years.The authorities face a complex task tocordon off the park to traffic whileproviding suitable transport links,given the large number of elderly andinfirm people expected to attend.It is expected that one-in-five of thoseattending the event at 3 PM on Sun-day, August 26 will be aged over 50years.One official acknowledged that “this(demographic) poses its own logisticalchallenges.”Special transport arrangements are alsobeing examined for the disabled, the illand the elderly who plan to attend thePhoenix Park ceremony. However, the

POPE John Paul II at the Phoenix Park during his visit to Ire-land in 1979. Upon arrival, the Pope kissed the ground as hedisembarked. Afterwards he flew by helicopter to the PhoenixPark where he celebrated Mass for 1,250,000 people, one thirdof the population of the Republic of Ireland.

bulk of the 600,000 people attendingwill be expected to walk up to twokilometers to the event.Park access will be restricted for sev-eral days before the papal event to al-low for erection of stages and supportfacilities.Upwards of 5,000 emergency servicespersonnel will be on duty for the event.A strict air exclusion zone will also bein place for the ceremony.

The first and only previous papal visitto Ireland took place in September1979, when over 2.5 million peopleattended events in Dublin, Drogheda,Clonmacnoise, Galway, Knock, Lim-erick, and Maynooth.It was one of John Paul’s first foreignvisits as Pope, who had been electedin October 1978. The visit marked thecentenary of the reputed apparitionsat the Shrine of Knock in August 1879.

A delightful and thought provoking book offersa spiritual dialogue between generations

WONDROUS LIFE:A Grandfather and GrandsonJourney Through Life Together,to Share and DiscoverWhat Lies BeyondBy Pat CashISBN 978-0-9784807-3-8

By CATHOLINE BUTLERIrish-born, 82-year-old retiree, PatCash believes that the key to re-tirement is to keep moving and notsit watching television but get in-volved in something you like to do.Cash has heeded his own advice anddone just that in writing books andplays.He and his family divide their time liv-ing part-time in Arizona and SouthDelta, British Columbia.Cash wrote and produced two one-actplays entitled, Leabeg and Rathrobin,that he entered in playwriting contestsin Casa Grande, Arizona. It was afterwriting these plays that he decided tobegin writing books.He recently published his fourth bookentitled Wondrous Life, a faith-baseddialogue between a grandfather andgrandson about prayer, good and evil,and eternity.The grandfather answers the grand-son’s faith-based questions from thetime he starts elementary schoolthrough high school to university, andfinally the real world.The conversation continues up untilthe grandfather’s last days, as he ex-plains to his grandson why he doesnot fear death but looks forward withexcitement to his next chapter in eter-nity.As a former volunteer Parish ReligiousEducation Program teacher (PREP), Ifelt Wondrous Life, would be an excel-lent tool for PREP teachers since many

of the questions students ask are an-swered in this book right from gradeone to seven.Speaking about the grandfather in thebook, Cash said, “the grandfather islike myself, Irish background andCatholic.”Books also written by Pat include:How to Organize Successful CharityGolf Tournaments; MINDS...An Irish-man’s Memoirs of the 40s, 50s and60s; ABC Why Stop at G...Imaginativeaccounts of the origin of music illus-trated with examples of the relation-ship between music and math.Pat is well-known in the Vancouverarea and some years ago he, and a groupof like-minded Irish, got together withthe express purpose of raising fundsto build an Irish Centre.“Unfortunately,” Cash said, “that ideafell apart and we had to give all themoney back but as a result I met a lotof people and many have become life-long friends.“I have always liked meeting peopleand I have always been involved in onething or another.”

Before retirement, Cash was an ITsystems specialist who spent his work-ing life in the mining, engineering andconstruction industries and consultedon IT for the Archdiocese of Vancou-ver over the years.He has given presentations in Arizonaand South Delta to other seniors abouthow to publish books themselves andleave something behind, a legacy. Howto write their memoirs or write sto-ries.Wondrous Life is available onlinethrough Amazon, Kindle, and ISSUU.

PHOTO: Courtesy of BC CatholicPAT CASH is pictured aboveholding a copy of his bookWondrous Life.

Novena to the BlessedVirgin Mary

Novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary(never known to fail). O most beautifulflower of Mount Carmel, fruitful vine,splendour of Heaven, Blessed Motherof the Son of God. Immaculate Virgin,assist me in this my necessity. Thereare none that can withstand your power.O show me herein you are my Mother,Mary, conceived without sin, pray for uswho have recourse to thee (three times).Sweet Mother, I place this cause in yourhands (three times). Holy Spirit, youwho solve all problems, light all roadsso that I can attain my goal. You gaveme the Divine gift to forgive and forgetall evil against me. This prayer must besaid for three days, even after therequest is granted and the favourreceived, it must be published.– PMK, MJK, CC, CB, CLF, KLKSK, BC

•Novena to St. Joseph

Oh glorious St. Joseph, thou hast powerto render possible even things whichare considered impossible, come to ouraid in our present trouble and distress.Take this important and difficult affairunder thy particular protection, that itmay end happily. (Name your request.)O dear St. Joseph, all our confidence isin thee, let it not be said that we wouldinvoke thee in vain and since thou artso powerful with Jesus and Mary, showthat thy goodness equals thy power.Amen. St. Joseph, friend of the sacredheart, pray for us. [For favour received.]

Publication of a novenais $25 monthly


THE VIEW FROMIRELAND

ByMAURICEFITZPATRICK

I

Bordering on a Meltdown:‘If your destination is Northern Ireland

within the UK, I wouldn’t start here’

F the Irish bordercould speak for it-self, what would it

say?Would it start with a preamblealong the lines that it is sorry forall the problems it has caused?It might add that it never meant to doany harm and hoped that when it in-serted itself in Ireland (then just emerg-ing from an acrimonious civil war) itcould do some good?It would certainly mount the defensethat it was sent by England.There has been enough misunderstand-ing about the border without any fur-ther speculation, which would be mis-interpreted and used against it.Fortunately, a Banksy style anony-mous Twitter account, @BorderIrish,has in fact given voice to the Irish bor-der in which the border becomes clearas day.Taking the trouble to set up and main-tain a Twitter account on Brexit’s im-pact on the border may well consti-tute more effort and planning than theBritish Government has expended sofar in relation to the sole land frontierit will have with the European Unionwhen it leaves.In any case, the Twitter handle has hadsome cracking results.There are some brilliant formulationsabout the border: “I’m an a priori apo-ria”; “The new manager says ‘we’releaving the Premier League. It’s pro-tectionist. We’re going to play in aPremier League’, he says. The crowdchants,’You don’t know what you’redoing’.”The border, if it had a conscious exist-ence, could not but be a political ani-mal. Still, it might blush at quite howmuch political negotiation currentlyorbits it.On these subjects, @BorderIrish,strikes an indignant tone: “I currently:– hold together two countries that wereonce in military conflict – am porousenough to allow two clashing identi-ties to live in peace – allow extensivefree movement of goods and people –am as beautiful as the setting sun. Sodon’t tell me I could be smart.”The border, as presented in@BorderIrish, sounds a good dealsmarter than some of the politicianswho have pronounced on it, and whoare now rudderless in obstreperouswaters.This showed above all when the min-ister “in charge” of the UK exiting theEuropean Union came up with a whop-per of a solution to all our problems in

late May: David Davis does not wantto move the border, nor does he wantto remove the border – he wants towiden it.His vision is a form of a demilitarizedzone between Ireland – North andSouth – a 10 mile border zone.Someone needs to inform Davis wherethe border lies in Ireland in parts thereis hardly a few miles between the bor-der and the Atlantic Ocean or the IrishSea.Widening it would involve a form ofland reclaim that has not happenedsince the construction of the greatdikes of Holland began in 1000 AD.It is time that Davis got that pencil offhis ear and started to sketch out plans.Doubtless Davis has thought thisthrough already and has incorporatedit into his Brexit policy.But the latest news is that Davis isapparently considering resigning fromhis post. So we may not have a wideborder after all.The EU heads of government will meetas part of the European Council at theend of June to discuss Brexit.In advance of the summit, the IrishMinister for Foreign Affairs, SimonCoveney, on June 2 demanded that theBritish Government produce a writ-ten description of its plan for Brexit,and for the Irish border.He said, “In the next two weeks, weneed to see written proposals. It needsto happen two weeks from the sum-mit.”That this demand emanated from Dub-lin was unfortunate as it was alwaysmore likely to stoke the ire of the Brit-ish than to achieve its objectives. Itfeeds into an absurd perspective thatDublin’s policies in relation to Brexitare purely opportunistic.Sure enough, Britain’s Foreign Secre-

tary, Boris Johnson, seemed to see itthat way.In leaked remarks, Johnson had this tosay to his prime minister, TheresaMay, about the Irish border on June 6:“It’s so small and there are so few firmsthat actually use that border regularly,it’s just beyond belief that we’re al-lowing the tail to wag the dog in thisway.“We’re allowing the whole of ouragenda to be dictated by this folly.You’ve got to face the fact there maynow be a meltdown.”Johnson’s speech ended in extollinghow well Donald Trump would han-dle the debacle, if he were in charge ofBritain (enough said).This jolt happened to Theresa Mayjust before she flew to Quebec for theG7 Summit, presumably to give worldleaders a progress report on Brexit.A recent poll among Northern Irishvoters showed that 42 percent of peo-ple supported leaving the UK and join-ing a United Ireland. A further 13 per-cent were undecided.The Northern Ireland Act (1998) pro-vides that if the majority of people inNorthern Ireland vote to join a UnitedIreland, then that constitutional changeis guaranteed.As Brexit negotiators reel from onecalamity to the next, the momentumof Northern Ireland exiting the UK andbecoming part of Ireland/ EU growsmore and more pronounced.And what is the position of the Demo-cratic Unionist Party, the sole repre-sentation of the Northern Ireland elec-torate in the British House of Com-mons, on this momentum?They remain gung-ho for Brexit.As a United Irelander might say to adiehard Unionist: “If your destinationis Northern Ireland within the UK, Iwouldn’t start here.”

“It’s so small and there are so few firms that actually use thatborder regularly, it’s just beyond belief that we’re allowing thetail to wag the dog in this way.” – Boris Johnson

Hard Brexit could forceDutch firm Philips to quit UK

AMSTERDAM – Dutch electronics firm Philips has warned it may shiftproduction out of Britain in the event of a hard Brexit, saying it was“deeply concerned about competitiveness” of its operations there.The Amsterdam-based group employs about 1,500 people in Britain, mostnotably at its factory at Glemsford in Suffolk making baby care productsfor export.Philips is the latest company in a chorus of major industrial players –which also includes Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and Airbus – to warn aboutthe negative impact of an acrimonious split between the UK and EU.

Brexit chaos:PSNI chief claims

‘no-one in charge’ ofborder preparations

BELFAST – Northern Ireland’s policechief George Hamilton has revealed thelevel of chaos surrounding prepara-tions for the border in Ireland afterBrexit, claiming that no-one is incharge.Hamilton told MPs there was no “go-to coordinator” who was “actually tak-ing responsibility” for the project – ashe warned of the risk from organizedcrime and dissident terrorists.The chief constable revealed he had yetto submit a business case for how tobolster border policing because he was“trying to find a mechanism and anaudience” for doing so.“We feel like we are in the dark aroundall of this – we don’t have that go-tocoordinator to assist with us, to tell uswhat the requirement is,” Hamiltonsaid.The evidence was described as “verytroubling” by Sylvia Hermon, an inde-pendent Northern Ireland MP – whilethe DUP’s Ian Paisley said it “soundslike a shambles.”Hamilton also revealed he had yet to

PSNI chief George Hamilton.

have a meeting with Theresa Mayabout the Brexit threat to the border –and that he had not met her at all sincelast October.“There are so many issues to be dealtwith, in such a short period of time,that things are not getting the atten-tion they require,” he told the Com-mons Northern Ireland committee.And he added, “The clock is ticking –time is running out.”The prime minister’s lack of attentionto the crucial issue was attacked byLady Hermon, who described it as “ex-traordinary.”“She was the home secretary for sixyears. She is well aware – above manyin the cabinet – of the delicacy and thedifficulties that the PSNI is going toface, whether it’s a soft or a hardBrexit.”Confirming the renewed terrorist threatfrom a harder border, Hamilton said,“The new IRA themselves have comeout saying that – they have talkedabout Brexit being an opportunity forthem. That would be our assessment.”The EU had demanded progress on theIrish border controversy by the EUleaders’ summit June 25 to July 3 –but none is now expected to be madebefore the autumn.The issue is caught up in cabinet disa-greements over future customs ar-rangements, which the prime ministerhopes to settle at a Chequers “awayday” on July 6.She has promised “no physical infra-structure”, but anti-EU Tories have de-manded the UK plough ahead withpulling out of the EU single marketand customs union – leaving the ques-tion of future border checks to Dublinto decide.

DUBLIN – The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference will takeplace for the first time in over a decade. It will be held in London onJuly 25.The last meeting of the conference took place in 2007, ahead of devolutionbeing restored in March of that year.Established under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, the BIIGC focuseson bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland.There have been calls for it to be convened amid the continuing uncertaintyposed by Brexit and the lack of the Executive and Assembly in the North whichfell apart in a row over a renewable heat incentive scheme.The Irish Government will be represented at the meeting by Foreign AffairsMinister Simon Coveney and Irish Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan.The Conservative Government will be represented by David Lidington MPand Secretary of State Karen Bradley.The conference is set to discuss the effective operation of the Good FridayAgreement institutions and north-south security cooperation.The tánaiste said, “We look forward to this meeting of the British-Irish Inter-governmental Conference in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement.“Both governments as co-guarantors of the Agreement are fully committed toworking together to achieve the earliest operation of the devolved institutions,and to working together for the mutual benefit of all of the peoples of theseislands.”The meeting follows on from a one-on-one meeting between Taoiseach LeoVaradkar and British Prime Minister Theresa May on the margins of the Euro-pean Council meeting in Brussels.

British-Irish intergovernmentalgroup to meet amid ongoingstalemate in North of Ireland


EDMONTON – The Irish Centre in Edmonton recently hosted a Paint Nitefundraiser in memory of one of their own members, Madonna Nixon.The fundraiser was for a very worthy cause, and the Nixon family – Anita,Chris and Kimberly – expressed a deep appreciation and a heartfelt thank youto the Irish Centre for hosting it.Madonna loved to paint and she was an Irish dancer for many years until abrain tumour forced her to stop and eventually took her from her loved ones atthe tender age of 26.The fundraiser which was held on Friday, May 11 with 71 people who showedtheir artistry while paying tribute to Madonna, helped raise $1,065 for theBrain Tumour Foundation of Canada.The Irish Centre was a very fitting venue for the fundraiser as it was one ofMadonna’s favorite places.

A fitting tribute to acherished member of

Edmonton Irish Centre

Warm and dynamic Irish cluboffers a warm welcome in

the Surrey/White Rock area

IRISH CLUB OF WHITE ROCK

MADONNA NIXON (second from right) with her sister Kimberly,Chris and her mother Anita Nixon. The photo was taken at the2013 Spring Sprint in Edmonton to benefit the Brain TumourFoundation of Canada. Madonna passed away that October.

MEMBERS of the Irish Centre in Edmonton raised over $1,000for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada in memory of Ma-donna Nixon.

THIS IMAGE was picked bythe Nixon family for the PaintNite fundraiser at the Edmon-ton Irish Centre to benefit theBrain Tumour Foundation ofCanada in memory of Madonnawho loved flowers.

FRIENDS gathered for a night of fun at the Irish Centre in Ed-monton where a Paint Nite fundraiser was held on the night ofFriday, May 11.

WHITE ROCK – Summer has finallyarrived, so there’s no excuse for notcoming to visit White Rock.Located just a short distance east ofVancouver, White Rock has a largeIrish community and a wonderful Irishclub which extends a very warm wel-come to both visitors and newcomersalike.There is something happening eachmonth with the Irish Club of WhiteRock.In May a social was held at the ArtfulDodger pub in Langley to hear HappyHour, a Maple Ridge-based band whoplay Celtic inspired music.A large crowd from the Irish Club at-tended and were well entertained verylate into the evening – an excellentnight was had by all.The Irish Club held another pub socialat Sawbucks in White Rock in June tohear another favourite – Pat Chesselland his band.There was a big turn out from the IrishClub and the club extends many thanksto Pat Chessell and his band members,especially Andrea Taylor who playedseveral solo pieces – she is incredible.Everyone had a wonderful night.In July, the Irish Club will host itsannual summer picnic on Sunday, July22 at Redwood Park, 17900 - 20 Av-enue in Surrey starting at 2 PM. Ad-mission is $10 for adults and $20 forfamilies and includes hamburgers, sau-sages, salads, etc.Everyone is advised to bring their owndrinks and lawn chairs along with sun-screen as it is expected to be a veryhot day. Games and music are plannedfor children and adults and if you planto attend, please e-mail organizers toconfirm at:[email protected] Irish Club is also a strong sup-porter of the Fraser Valley Gaels foot-ball club which will host this year’sWestern Canadian Championship atBurnaby Lake Rugby Club on theAugust long weekend.The Irish Club will provide volunteersand support to Fraser Valley Gaelswith this event.Recently, Irish Club of White Rockpresident Sharon Woods and JamesWoods attended the Fraser ValleyGaels’ fundraiser and pub quiz andmade a $500 donation on behalf of theIrish Club of White Rock.If you plan to visit White Rock, thereis always a gathering every morning atapproximately 10 AM at TimHorton’s on 152nd Street/17th Av-enue, with a lively discussion on worldevents and events happening in Ire-land. Always a welcome at the table.Irish Club of White Rock has been avibrant part of White Rock for over30 years, it has a long history here. Ifyou are new to White Rock/Surrey,the club extends a very warm welcomeand invites you to come out to theirnext event.

•For more information, contact presi-dent Sharon Woods (Galway) (604)338-3553, or secretary DeirdreO’Ruairc (Dublin) (604) 803-0773.Check out and put a like or share theirfacebook page, or [email protected].

SHARON WOODS (centre), president of the Irish Club of WhiteRock, with members of the Fraser Valley Gaels (L-R) Denisand Sinead Ryan and Vincent Crowley.

THE IRISH CLUB of White Rock are proud supporters of theFraser Valley Gaels football club who will host this year’s West-ern Canadian Championship at Burnaby Lake Rugby Club onthe August long weekend. Members recently presented theGaels with a cheque for $500 to support their fundraiser. Pic-tured above (L-R): Killian Foley, Denis Ryan, Adam Moore, Jamesand Sharon Woods, and Paddy Hartnett.

JAKI GRAY, Evelyn Schober, Janette Watson, Mary Fynes andMaureen Phillips enjoying a pub social evening with the IrishClub of White Rock.

CHARLOTTE MARRUJO, Jo Devine, Kristine Simpson andSinead Ryan enjoying a night out with the Irish Club of WhiteRock.


SEATTLE IRISH NEWS

ByJOHN

KEANE

PASSINGS• Jerry O’Leary (88), a native of Cork,died in Edmonds on June 24;• Joan Furlong (95), a native of Dublin,died in Bellingham on June 23;• Tom Meehan (79), a longtime mem-ber of the Irish Heritage Club, died inArlington June 9;• Calvin Springer, Jr. (72), a native ofBelfast, died in Vaughan, south ofBremerton, May 24;• Maggie McSweeney Cornell (82), anative of England who grew up partlyin Ireland, died in Seattle on April 22;

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a h-anam dílisMay their faithful soulsrest at God’s right hand

IRISH COMMUNITY PICNIC –Seattle’s Irish Community Picnic isSunday, July 16, from 2-5 PM (notelater start time) at Lake SammamishState Park in Issaquah (exit # 15 off I-90).

Games and fun for the entire family,admission is free and all are welcome.Free hot dogs and hamburgers will beprovided but bring your own bever-ages and a dessert to be shared.

There’s a covered picnic area andseveral BBQ grills if you bring char-coal.

The games start at 3 PM with tug-o-war, sack-races, water balloon toss,etc. More details at (253) 237-2811.

IRISH BASEBALL – Irish Night at theSeattle Mariners is Tuesday, July 25,7:10 PM vs. the San Francisco Giantsat Seattle’s Safeco Field.

Get there early to watch the TaraAcademy Irish Dancers and theSeattle Police Pipes and Drums per-form in center field about 30 minutesbefore the game, while the ceremo-nial First Pitch will be thrown out byIrish Consul General Robert O’Driscoll.

Reduced price tickets ($34 & $44) areavailable at mariners.com/Irish andthey include a free Irish Heritage NightMariners Cap.

There will also be a drawing for R/Ttickets to fly from Seattle to Dublin onAer Lingus. For more details, call (253)237-2811.

CEOL CASCADIA CONCERT – Theannual Ceol Cascadia Teachers’ Con-cert will be Saturday, August 11 at 8PM at Wedgwood PresbyterianChurch, 8008 35th Avenue NE, Seattle.

The concert will feature the instruc-tors from the previous week’s IrishMusic Camp in Olympia and will include:Randal Bays, Manus McGuire, andNathan Gourley (fiddle); Patsy Hanly(flute); Angelina Carberry (tenor banjo,tenor guitar, and mandolin); JosephineMarsh (button accordion); Liam O’Brien(anglo concertina); Frank Kilkelly (gui-tar); and Mairead Casey (dance).

Visit Brown Paper Tickets (/event/3500206), or cascadiairish.org.

GAA REPORT – The Seattle Gaelscontinue their preparations for partici-pation in the North American GAA Fi-nals in Philadelphia on the Labor Dayweekend, August 31-September 2.

On June 9, they hosted a very suc-cessful Emerald City Cup tournamentin Seattle with teams participating fromOregon, Montana, Canada, and Seattlefor games of camogie, hurling, and

men’s and women’s Gaelic football.More details at SeattleGaels.com.

WYOMING GAA – The Cascade YouthGaelic Games, a program of Seattle’sIrish Heritage Club, is partnering withthe University of Wyoming to includeGaelic football within the university’scurriculum for their student PE teachercandidates.

The university, located in Laramie atan elevation of 7,220 feet (1.3 miles)above sea level, intends to make it agraduation requirement that their stu-dent teachers plan and perform a threeweek Gaelic football unit in their mid-dle school and high school practicumassignments.

This will mean that about 45 new PEteachers every year will head off intotheir working careers with solid ex-perience incorporating football intotheir PE units.

Wyoming might be on the way to be-coming the U.S.’s next hotbed of home-grown Gaelic football talent.

IRISH JOBS – Amazon Web Services(AWS), a subsidiary of Seattle’s onlinegiant Amazon, will create 1,000 jobsin Ireland over the next two years atthe firm’s current Dublin sites inBlanchardstown, Tallaght, the citycenter, and north Co. Dublin.

AWS offers cloud services spanningcomputer power, database storageand content delivery.

Among the jobs are engineers for soft-ware development, network develop-ment engineers, data centers, systemsand support; solutions architects, se-curity and big data specialists, devel-opment operations engineers, andtechnical management positions.

FREE MEDICAL CARE – Seattle/KingCounty Clinic is a volunteer-driven freeclinic for people in need that occursfor four days each year in KeyArenaat Seattle Center.

Tickets are distributed each day on afirst-come, first-served basis, for peo-ple seeking dental, vision and/or medi-cal care.

The next clinic will be September 20-23 and all are welcome.

The clinic is targeted at people whostruggle to access or affordhealthcare.

The only requirement to receive serv-ice is that a person waits their turn inline to get a free admission ticket atthe beginning of each clinic day.

For additional information, visitwww.seattlecenter.org/patients

or call (206) 684-7200.

IRISH ‘MERCER GIRLS’ – 154 yearsago, on May 17, 1864, to increase thesupply of teachers and women and tohelp balance the gender ratio, the first‘Mercer Girls’ – women who had beenrecruited by Asa Mercer in Massachu-setts – arrived in frontier Seattle fol-lowing a five-month journey by ship to

A PIPER led a Knights of Columbus Honor Guard and four priests in a procession followingMass at St. Patrick Cemetery on Memorial Day. Participants laid a wreath on the grave of a U.S.Army veteran while The Last Post was played by a trumpeter.

(L-R) MAURA BARNES, Caron McMahon, John Keane (rear), Frank Gill, Nanci Spieker and KayMcKenna are pictured above cleaning up the kitchen after the Irish seniors luncheon on June 23.

MARY SHRIANE, Kathy Burns and Betty Egan enjoying IrishDay at the Races at Emerald Downs on July 1.

CAROLINE LEE, president ofthe Irish Network, and ConorLyne, Irish Network technologyofficer, were Honorary Stewardsof the Irish Network SeattlePurse at Irish Day at the Raceson July 1. They are picturedabove in the paddock beforethe race.

Panama, by train across the Isthmusof Panama, and by ship again to Seattle.

Among the first group of 11 coming toSeattle were two Irish women, SarahJane Gallagher and Ann Murphy.

Nineteen-year-old Sarah brought withher a portable organ and ended up asthe first music teacher at the Territo-rial University of Washington, now theUniversity of Washington.

In 1865, she married widower Tho-mas Russell, and their son Georgelater became Seattle’s Postmaster.

After Thomas’s death in 1882, Sarahoperated the Russell Hotel, the onlyhotel to survive the Great Seattle Fireof 1889.

Sarah died in 1897 and is buried nextto her husband at Seattle’s Lake Viewcemetery.

MISCELLANEOUS• Ceol Cascadia Irish Music Week is atthe Evergreen State College in Olym-pia August 5-11. Visitcascadiairish.org;

• City Councilor Niall McNelis is the newmayor of Seattle’s Sister City of Gal-way, succeeding Pearce Flannery, theGalway Mayor who visited Seattle thispast March;

• Best wishes to Flanagan’s Craft Pubin downtown Puyallup, managed (andpartly owned) by Dubliner KarlAshmore.


(L-R) MARY SHRIANE, Kathleen Byrne (visiting from Carlow)and John Keane pictured at the Irish seniors summer luncheon.

(L-R) MAURA BARNES, DavidMcCourt and BernadetteNoonan pictured at the Irishseniors summer luncheon.

MANUS MCGUIRE, an Irish fid-dle player from Co. Sligo andone of the instructors at theIrish Music Camp in Olympia,wi l l perform at the CeolCascadia Teachers Concert inSeattle on Saturday, August 11

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAYwishes to Daisy Jacobsen. Sheis pictured above with her fa-ther David Jacobsen (Irish Her-itage Club president) on June26.

TOM KEEFE of Seattle is pic-tured above in Galway outsidethe shop owned by the newGalway Mayor Niall McNeliswhich has a wall mural show-ing a signpost to Seattle.

SecondTrump pick

for U.S.Ambassador

to Irelanddrops out

DUBLIN – A report in the Irish Timesindicates that the Department of For-eign Affairs does not expect an Ameri-can ambassador will be sent to Irelandthis year after a second wealthy DonaldTrump supporter who was tipped totake the job dropped out.Ireland has had no American ambassa-dor since U.S. President Trump dis-missed all Barack Obama’s politicalappointees, including Kevin O’Malleyin Dublin, after his inauguration aspresident in January 2017.Simon Coveney, the foreign affairsminister, had expected Trump to an-nounce last St. Patrick’s Day that hewas appointing Edward Crawford(80), an Ohio billionaire with Corkroots, but the announcement failed tomaterialize after the dismissal of RexTillerson as secretary of state inMarch.Crawford, who raised funds forTrump’s election campaign and whosebusinesses include tool manufacturefor military, aeronautics and commer-cial industries, is no longer being men-tioned in Washington as the next am-bassador.No new name has been floated sinceMike Pompeo replaced Tillerson assecretary of state.Trump’s first choice as Irish ambassa-dor was Brian Burns (82), a Floridabusinessman whose forebears emi-grated from Kerry. He withdrew fromconsideration for the post in June 2017citing health reasons.Coveney and his officials have repeat-edly raised concerns about the Irishvacancy with the U.S. administrationand with Reece Smyth, the chargéd’affaires in the Dublin embassy whowas appointed deputy chief of mis-sion in September 2016.Of the 50 European countries Irelandalong with Luxembourg, Switzerland,Hungary and Belgium are the remain-ing countries without an ambassadorsince Trump was elected.

PHOTO: U.S. State DepartmentTHE Chancery Building at the Embassy of the United States ofAmerica in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Irish Government uses star powerin bid for UN Security Council seat

NEW YORK – Ireland formallylaunched a charm offensive in NewYork City in a bid for a seat on theUnited Nations Security Council. Thegovernment is hoping to secure a two-year term on the council in 2021.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and TánaisteSimon Coveney arrived on July 1 topush the case for Ireland which facescompetition from Norway and Canadafor the solitary seat.Outside UN headquarters, thetaoiseach laid a wreath to commemo-rate Irish peacekeepers who lost theirlives while on UN service, and an Irishexhibition area was erected with vari-ous tents and stalls to showcase Irishfood, culture and music.Bono, along with former presidentMary Robinson and the taoiseach ad-dressed crowds from the stage duringthe afternoon, while UN ambassadorswere invited to a U2 concert in Madi-son Square Garden in the evening.

Ireland won two-year rotating termson the Security Council in 1962, 1981and 2001.Winning a seat on the UN SecurityCouncil forms part of the government’s‘Global Ireland 2025’ initiative, a planlaunched in recent weeks to increaseIreland’s global footprint.The government wants to expand dip-lomatic links with new embassiesaround the world. It also hopes to boostexport markets and tourism.The plan states that Ireland will pro-

mote its values of peace, humanity,equality and justice through the cam-paign for election to the UN SecurityCouncil, adding that “if successful, thiswill place Ireland at the heart of UNdecision-making on matters of vitalimportance, including internationalpeace, security and development.”The United Nations Security Councilis frequently criticized for being inef-fective. Permanent members like theU.S. and Russia can simply use a vetoif they don’t like the resolution beingdiscussed.

JULY/AUGUST 2018PAGE 18 www.celtic-connection.comIRISH SPORTING & SOCIAL CLUB

VANCOUVER – The Irish Sportingand Social Club of Vancouver has beenrunning a Gaelic Games program foryouth for nearly 10 years.The youth program focuses on twokey aspects: One is the summer GaelicGames Camps for the families in thecommunity, which allow children fromthree to 18 years to try out and playhurling and Gaelic football.Secondly, the program reaches out toschools, allowing children from differ-ent backgrounds to play these uniquesports.In that time, the ISSC Youth Develop-ment team of volunteers has reachedout to nearly 6,000 secondary and pri-mary students in the Lower Mainlandof British Columbia.As Irish people abroad, it is always athrill to see kids with different accents,different ethnicities and from manydiverse cultures playing our games.At Clayton Heights Secondary Schoolin Surrey, B.C., recently, Tara Philipsand Ronan Deane of the ISSC werefacilitating matches on the field, andgrade 11s and 12s (16-18 year olds)were contesting keenly in a match.It was great to watch the kids puttingthe skills they had learned into prac-tice in a match-setting.Suddenly, a police officer in full uni-form and equipped with all his polic-ing paraphernalia entered the fray.When the ISSC referee asked the of-ficer if there was a problem, Consta-

Who knew Canada’sworld-renowned

Mounties are alsogreat footballers?

VANCOUVER – After a com-petitive start to the season withthe ISSC Spring League therewas no rest for the wicked!On May 18, eighty ISSC players, bothmen and women, traveled to Victoriato participate in a mini GAA Leaguewithin the Highland Games.What else would one want to do onthe long weekend only play some com-petitive football and hurling against ourrivals Fraser Valley Gaels. This wasthe first year that Fraser Valley Gaelsattended the games.The games took place on the Saturdayof the long weekend, with the finalson the Sunday.The sun was splitting the stones forthe entire weekend, but all teams andplayers played with great skill anddetermination to win the silverware.JP Ryan’s hurlers brought two teamsover: Downtown and Kitsilano.Despite being teammates, there wasno holding them back from showingthe spectators their raw talents with aslitor.Both teams reached the final after de-feating Fraser Valley Gaels hurlers.The men battled out in the final onSunday morning with Kitsilano win-ning the lovely glass trophy.Unfortunately, the men’s football wasnot as lucky this time.They fought till the end in the extremeheat, but Fraser Valley Gaels robbedthe silverware in the last few minutes.The rivalry continues!The ISSC ladies footballers broughtover two very strong teams who playedagainst themselves and the Fraser Val-ley Gaels’ new ladies team on the Sat-urday.This Victoria trip was a huge successfor all players involved and it provedto be a fantastic bonding trip, not onlyfor the teammates but also for the rivalclubs.

Vancouver GAA Summer Seasonunderway with lots of friendly rivalry

ISSC LADIES FOOTBALL teams who travelled to Victoria, B.C. on the May long-weekend (May19-20, 2018).

JP RYAN’S HURLERS – Downtown and Kitsilano teams in Victoria, B.C. for the mini GAAleague on the May long-weekend.

ISSC GAELIC football team in Victoria, B.C. for the mini GAAleague on May 19-20.

June kicked off the start of the firstever sanctioned Vancouver SummerLeague.The league consists of the three foot-ball teams in Vancouver: ISSC, FraserValley Gaels and Éire Óg.JP Ryan’s hurling and camogie teamsare playing games amongst themselvesas challenge and practice games.Ladies football is formed of ISSC andFraser Valley Gaels junior teams.Round one took place in sunny Surreyon Sunday, June 17, hoisted by ÉireÓg.

ROUND 1 RESULTSSenior Men’s Football

ISSC 1-11 – Fraser Valley Gaels 1-11Senior Men’s Football

ISSC Celts 2-13 – Éire Óg 0-14Women’s Junior challenge game

ISSC 0-12 – Fraser Valley Gaels 0-5Fantastic games of hurling and camogiewere displayed by the JP Ryan’s teams.Two great challenging and skillfulgames.The youth of the ISSC came to showoff their developing skills and howthey are the real up-and-coming starsof the ISSC.Our youth programme started on June5 with training twice a week and mini-games days coincided with the Sum-mer League.The Youth Programme will run right

up until August 12.If you are interested in getting yourchild involved in the wonderful worldof GAA and the ISSC or would likefurther information, please e-mail:[email protected].

YOUTH SCHEDULETraining: July 10, 31, August 7 –

Clark Park @ 6:30 PMGames: July 14 – Bridgeview Park

Surrey @ 10 AMAugust 12 – Cresent Park @ 10am

For updates on training days, timesand venues for all codes, visit the ISSCFacebook page at: www.facebook.com/isscvancouver. Likewise, for all up-dates and upcoming events, see online:www.isscvancouver.com.If you have any questions or queriesabout the Vancouver Irish Sporting andSocial Club, e-mail:[email protected]. All newmembers are welcome to join through-out the season.

SEASON SCHEDULE 2018July 14 – Vancouver

Summer League:Round 3- Hosted by ISSC;

August 5-6 – Western CanadianChampionship in Vancouver hosted

by Fraser Valley Gaels;August 12 – Vancouver Summer

League: Semi Finals;August 19 – Vancouver Summer

League: Finals;August 31 – North American

Championship in Philadelphia.

By AISLINN RICE

RCMP Constable Constable John Yamashita (centre) is pic-tured above with Ronan Deane and Tara Philips with the ISSCYouth program.

ble John Yamashita calmly asked if hecould join in. And he did.I never thought I would say thesewords, but the Royal CanadianMounted Police (RCMP), the worldrenowned Mounties, are great football-ers.Not only did Constable John competegamely, but as a man trying Gaelic foot-ball for the first time, he made an in-credible ‘block down’ to save an al-most certain goal.Later, Constable Yamashita returnedwithout all his gear and participated inanother match with a grade 12 leader-ship class.During the school year, the SurreyRCMP Youth Unit works closely withits school and community partners toincrease positive youth-police engage-ment in one of the largest school dis-tricts in the Province of British Co-lumbia.It was a pleasure for the ISSC and theGAA to have been a party to this veryunique interaction between a Canadianschool and its local law enforcement.The club will play Gaelic Games onSaturday, July 14 (10 AM) atBridgeview Park in Surrey, B.C. Besure to drop by and check it out. Younever know who you might see play-ing.For more information about the ISSCYouth Development Program, e-mail:[email protected], oronline at: www.isscvancouver.com.

CONSTABLE Yamashita participated in a recent training matchat Clayton Heights Secondary School in Surrey, B.C.


T WAS January 1959 when Patrick McNabbmade the journey west to Limerick.A recent philosophy graduate of University College Dub-lin, McNabb had been sent to Limerick by Muintir na

FRASER VALLEY GAELS

Western Canada GAA Championshipscoming to the banks of Burnaby Lake in 2018

By COLM O’FLAHERTY

“The English concept of sport arises out of a secure social structure,gradually built up during centuries of peace.

The Irish concept arises out of an insecure social structure,the development of which has been uneven and progress made

through successive outbreaks of violence.It is the difference between a pleasant form

of social intercourse and a psychological need.”– Patrick McNabb, Limerick Rural Survey,

Third Interim Report: Social Structure, Tipperary, 1962, p. 50.

ITire, an ecclesiastical organisation devoted to rural affairs, in or-der to contribute to the Limerick Rural Survey, a government-funded study of the issues facing Irish rural life during an era ofsocial and economic change.After a year spent compiling researchand conducting interviews amongst thepeople of eastern County Limerick,McNabb’s findings were published aspart of the Limerick Rural Survey, inthe form of fascinating sociological re-ports, taking in everything from thestructures of farm families and ruralcommunities, to the dancehall culture,as well as the above account of Limer-ick hurling.Despite being enlivened by such col-ourful insights, the essay was for themost part a chronicle of a dying soci-ety, a society that was crumbling un-der the pressures of poverty, classprejudice, and emigration; a societythat was eroding across the waves.Although a lot has changed sinceMcNabb’s findings were first pub-lished, emigration has retained a promi-nent, though perhaps not so ominous,presence in Irish society.In many cases, the reasons that youngpeople choose to leave the countryhave remained the same, whether it bethe prospect of more attractive jobsabroad or purely a sense of adventure. Of course, some of the push factorshave changed.McNabb reported that many youngwomen left Limerick due to a lack ofeligible farmers.Although no exact statistics are at handfor the current generation of Irishémigrées, it is doubtful that too manybegan their Canadian journey bythrowing down the personals sectionof the Farmers Journal and decidingthere and then to forsake the prospectof road frontage for the promise ofwestern Canada’s wide-open spaces.It is doubtful too that, when prospec-tive emigrants are considering theirmove abroad, the opportunity to playGAA in a foreign country figures toohighly as a motivating factor.And for those who do choose to playour native games on foreign soil, thequestion “Why am I doing this?” isone that crops up at least once duringthe season.Sometimes it arises when you’re justin the door from work, throwing yourfootball boots and a sullen banana intoyour gear bag, before heading back outinto the rain.Other times, you find yourself askingthis question on a bright summer’s day,when all of your friends are at the

beach, but you’re crammed into a car,heading out to a rugby pitch in thesuburbs.It can be a difficult question to answerat times, although McNabb’s idea of a“psychological need” perhaps helps toexplain why we do it; others might sim-ply argue that it is, perhaps, psycho-logical help that we need.Whatever the case, there will be a gath-ering of Gaels by the banks of BurnabyLake this year, when the sun stretchesits long rays upon the first weekendof August.Hundreds of Irish expats will congre-gate at the Burnaby Lake Sports Com-plex for the 2018 Western CanadianGAA Championships, which will fea-ture competitions in ladies and men’sGaelic football, hurling, and camogie,as well as food, drink, and entertain-ment for all who gather.Five clubs from four cities will be com-peting for sporting honours this year.Making the trek across the RockyMountains will be the Calgary Chief-tains and Edmonton Wolfe Tones, bothhoping to bring trophies and glory backto the province of Alberta.They will face a strong challenge inVancouver, whose GAA scene has ex-perienced a boom of sorts in the lastdecade.Three clubs from the city and its envi-rons will be taking part this year, withÉire Óg, who played their first gamesearlier in the spring, making their tour-nament debut.They will be joined by the city’s old-est active GAA club, the Irish Sport-ing and Social Club of Vancouver, alongwith the hosts of this year’s tourna-ment, Fraser Valley Gaels.This will be the 14th edition of theWestern Canadian Championships,and it will be the first time that FraserValley Gaels perform the role of hosts.

BackgroundThe club was still in its infancy whenit first participated in the Champion-ships in 2014; it was so young, that infact the team took to the field in a bor-rowed set of Ukraine soccer jerseys,their own kit having failed to material-ize on time.The club had only been formed earlierin the year under the initiative of formerDerry Senior goalkeeper EoinMcCloskey, who was aided by fellow

THE FRASER VALLEY GAELS have firmly established themselves just a few short years afterthe club was first established in 2014. In September 2017 the team [pictured above] won theUSGAA Intermediate Football Championship at the GAA Treasure Island Field in San Francisco.

founding members Vinny Crowley,Peter Agnew, Ian Corrigan, and DenisRyan.The first training sessions took placeat Sullivan Heights, a community parklocated at the intersection of 144 Streetand 64 Avenue in Surrey, in the springof 2014.Each session lasted for 30 minutes,Ryan recalls, “followed by six canseach in the car park.”Denis doesn’t say what was in thecans. Whatever it was, it seemed tocontain the recipe for success, as theteam won the Junior Men’s Footballtitle that year.This year’s teams are driven by a newgeneration of players, but Fraser Val-ley Gaels remains a club at heart; pastplayers, along with their wives andchildren, generously lend their timeand support, while founding memberssuch as Vinny Crowley and DenisRyan regularly drop by at training tooffer their wealth of tactical knowl-edge and gnomic wisdom.Today’s teams also honour the tradi-tions and standards set by the 2014side.This year, in addition to the rigoroustraining being undertaken, the exper-tise of the club’s nutritionist RonanMonaghan has been brought on board.“Beer is good for the bones,” Ronanadvises. “It’s full of silicon. So drinkplenty for a good recovery.”The club, in conjunction with WillieDonnellan of Donnellan’s Irish Pub onGranville Street, has ensured thatplenty of beer will be available at theweekend, so that participants willhave the opportunity to test Ronan’sresearch findings.This year’s championships are notonly significant for the Valley becauseof their role as hosts, but also becausethe club will be fielding a ladies teamin the tournament for the first time.Although only recently formed, theladies side will be hoping to continuethe competitive form that they’vemaintained since their establishment in2017.Meanwhile, the Valley’s men’s team

will be contesting the Senior Footballcompetition as defending champions,having won the Tom Butler Cup forthe first time in 2016.It was a title that we hoped to defendlast summer, and we all still wish thatwe could have done so.As the tournament approached in July,the team had been preparing for thejourney to Calgary when news of atragedy came through.

The loss of David GavinThere was no option but to call off the2017 Western Canadian Champion-ships, although a number of those whomade the trip to Calgary that weekendplayed games in his honour, andDavid’s life was later remembered in acompetition played in his name inSalmon Arm, B.C., in October of lastyear.There is no upside to a tragedy likethis, but it does remind us to savourwhat good moments in life we are luckyenough to enjoy.These moments can come and go, of-ten without noticing; the poet JeanToomer remarked that life “bends joyand pain, beauty and ugliness, in sucha way that no one may isolate them.” And it is true that we cannot isolatethese moments, only witness and mar-vel as they skim and shimmer acrossour lives, passing lightly on a summer’sevening with our friends, or on a rainyevening on some far-off rugby pitch inthe suburbs, or on any evening in a carpark with six cans each.

THE LOSS of David Gavin in2017 was felt not only amongsthis family and friends in Mayoand Vancouver, but across theIrish community at large.

These moments come as the bloodrushes through our veins in a test ofour courage and skill, our wit and ourfight, and as we appreciate the samequalities in others. They come as we relish the vibrancyof a culture that can lie crumbling inthe fields of east County Limerick,only to thrive more than half a cen-tury later on the shores of the PacificOcean, standing with the same strengthand beauty as the glistening mountainsthat rise above.And when you ask yourself whyyou’re doing it, any of those momentsshould provide a good enough answer.

Fight star McGregor sayshe regrets New York melee

NEW YORK – Mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor has told of his regretfor a backstage melee at a New York arena, and is in plea negotiations to resolvecharges in the case.The incident took place on April 6 at a media event to publicize a series of UFCfights at a Brooklyn arena. He is charged with three counts of assault and onecount of criminal after a video of the fracas at Brooklyn’s Barclay Center wentviral.After a brief court appearance on June 14, the 29-year-old Irish fighter and hisco-defendant Cian Cowley remain free on bail. They are due back in court July26. “I regret my actions that led me here today,” McGregor said outside courtafterwards. “I understand the seriousness of this matter and I’m hopeful to getit resolved soon.”


POSTCARD FROMPROVENCE

ByELFANJONES

By EIFION WILLIAMS

Sunshine, fields of lavender,wonderful wines, and sumptuousmeals makes Provence a magnet

GR E E T I N G Sfrom Gordeswhich is a pic-turesque village

in the South of France.Nominated as one of the pretti-est villages in the country, thehoney coloured stone housesare reminiscent of the Cotswoldarea of England but without therain.If you saw the film A Good Year, star-ring Russel Crowe and MarianneCotillard then you can picture the areabecause this is where it was filmed.Although just a hamlet, the weeklymarket attracts large numbers and de-servedly.Apart from all the local food on sale,many of the stalls offer products hand-made by the artisans in the area, whichis such a pleasant change from the massproduced tat that one finds in marketsaround the world these days.Sunshine , fields of lavender, wonder-ful wines, a million varieties of cheese,fresh fruit and vegetables, from localproducers, and a relaxed way of lifemakes it a magnet for the British.Consequently, most local people arebilingual, or at least do not look at youwith disdain when you strangle theirlanguage in an attempt to communi-cate.The French and the English are verysimilar in that respect – they both ex-pect the world to speak their languageand if you don’t...then you must bean idiot.Many years ago I was working in Parisand was enjoying a tipple in the hotelbar when a lady from Chicago an-nounced to the barman, in a strongAmerican accent, that it was her firsttrip to Europe and she was in lovewith Paris.Then she added, “it is really incred-ible, have you noticed that just every-body here can speak French, even thelittle children.”When I finished choking on my beer Ileft wondering if the Parisian barmanwould suddenly not be able to speakEnglish or just kill her.

My wife and I left the UK 10 days agoand drove from London to Folkestone.We drove the car onto the train androde through the channel tunnel intoFrance.The first stop was Troyes which forsome French reason is pronounced“Twrah”.

A beautiful place and is a perfect ex-ample of how a medieval town wouldlook in the Twenty-First Century.An inner city of Tudor-style buildingshousing modern shops, offices, barsand restaurants. It is absolutely charm-ing and you would be forgiven forthinking that you had wandered onto afilm set.The next morning we headed souththrough the Champagne area stoppingonly to sample and buy from a vine-yard in Colombey-les-Deux-Egliseswhere Charles De Gaulle lived.Just before the village is a monumentto De Gaulle comprising of an impos-ing 141-foot high Cross of Lorraine,which is a heraldic cross consisting ofa vertical line crossed by two shorterhorizontal bars.It was the symbol of the Free Frenchforces led by De Gaulle during the Sec-ond World War.After one of many disagreements withDe Gaulle, Winston Churchill is re-ported as saying that everyone has across to bear and his was the Cross ofLorraine.Having just Champagne for breakfastis perhaps not the best preparation fora 300-mile drive, but it gave me thecourage to face the maniacs on theFrench motorways.Second stop was Dijon, the home ofmustard, the start of the Burgundywine trail and capital of the Burgundyregion.An attractive city, but 20 miles fur-ther south is Beaune which is filledwith wine shops, delicatessens, andlittle boutiques as well as the famousmedieval hospital, a beautiful,unmissable tourist destination.Between the two towns are many ofthe villages that give their names toFrance’s famous wines, and one isGevrey Chambertin where we stoppedfor breakfast.On entering a small cafe, I again thoughtwe were on a film set.Three old men were standing around ahigh table drinking wine. Locals werewalking in with baguettes under theirarms and ordering coffees, and two ofthem were wearing typical Frenchstriped t-shirts.All that was missing was an accordionplayer with a beret and a woman doingthe Can-Can.A pleasant visit to a vineyard later wewere on our way to Orange which ofcourse is not pronounced Orange butmore like a growl.We were now truly in the South ofFrance, not the trendy part like Niceor Cannes, but the more scruffy part,less touristy but it boasts the mostintact Roman theatre in Europe whichis still in use.It was built in the First Century A.Dand regularly used for operas and con-certs.This was our final stop before drivingto a luxury villa that our friends haverented outside Gordes.As I sit here by the heated pool nib-bling on a grape and sipping from aflute of De Gaulle’s Champagne, Ifancy a week here will be no hardship.

Best wishesElfan

TROYES is a picture-postcard little town located on the Seineriver about 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast of Paris. Thisarea is known as the Champagne region of Northern France.

THE CROSS OF LORRAINElocated in the little town ofColombey-les-Deux-Eglises inChampagne-Ardenne in Franceis dedicated to General deGaulle and the main historicalevents that marked his life.

PICTURED [LEFT] Paul Robeson [1898-1976] was an Ameri-can bass-baritone who became famous both for his cultural ac-complishments and for his political activism. He was a powerfulcampaigner against racial segregation in the United States anda strong supporter of unions and the working class. [RIGHT]Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel will star in a musical biopicdepicting the life of Paul Robeson who is remembered in Walesfor his support of the striking Welsh miners in 1929.

Major Welsh festivalsto be held in Cardiff

and Washington, D.C.VANCOUVER – The VancouverWelsh Society has no major eventsplanned for the summer but as in pastyears several members will be attend-ing popular Welsh Festivals in NorthAmerica and Wales.A few plan to attend the annual RoyalNational Eisteddfod of Wales, to beheld this year in Cardiff, August 3-11.In addition to the traditional ceremo-nies of the Crowning and Chairing ofthe Bard, there will be some additionalhighlights this year to celebrate Walesand the Nation’s capital.An innovative event will be Carnifal yMor (Sea Carnival) whose aim, accord-ing to the organizers, will be “to cel-ebrate the energy, strength and diver-sity of Welsh cultural life in the capi-tal city, across the country and itslinks across the world.”The carnival will begin at 10:30 on theevening of Saturday, August 4 at theWelsh Millennium Centre.The colourful singing and dancing pro-cession will then proceed to CardiffBay, ending up at the Wales NationalParliament Building where large screenswill display the diversity of the peo-ple who have contributed to buildingthe modern Cardiff.On the evening of Friday and Satur-day, August 3 and 4, Sir Bryn Terfelwill star in a musical biopic depictingthe life of African-American stage andfilm actor Paul Robeson.The production is entitled, in Welsh:Hwn yw fy Mrawd: Paul Robeson –Arwr I Gymru, Arwr I’r Byd (This ismy Brother: Paul Robeson – Hero toWales, Hero to the World).Paul Robeson possessed a beautifulrich bass-baritone voice and was amajor international star during the firsthalf of the 20th century.He also gained a law degree from Co-lumbia University and was an ac-claimed athlete, having played brieflyin the NFL.Above all, he was a powerful cam-paigner against racial segregation in theUnited States and a strong supporterof unions and the working class.While on a visit to London in 1929Robeson met some striking Welsh min-ers and joined them in a protest march.For the rest of his life he maintained astrong bond with the Welsh, especiallythe South Wales miners.His left-wing views and campaigns

against racism led to his being black-listed in the U.S. by the House Un-American Activities Committee dur-ing the McCarthy years of the 1950s.The Saturday night performance inCardiff will be 60 years to the day sincePaul Robeson addressed the NationalEisteddfod for the last time in EbbwVale, where he shared a platform withAneurin Bevan, founder of the Na-tional Health Service.Some Welsh Society members will alsobe attending the North American Fes-tival of Wales (NAFOW) in Washing-ton D.C. with events being held bothin the city of Washington and acrossthe Potomac in Alexandria, Virginia.The festival is hosted by the Washing-ton D.C. Welsh Society and is partlysponsored by the Women’s WelshClubs of America.The main event at the festival will bethe traditional National Gymanfa Ganubut visitors will also enjoy a wide se-lection of concerts, seminars, exhibi-tions and informal gatherings, includ-ing spontaneous evening singing ses-sions.A big attraction at the festival will bethe tours to historic locations aroundWashington and Northern Virginia.In addition to a tour of the city ofWashington itself, there will also be avisit to the Fredericksburg andChancellorsville Civil War battlefields,which will include information onWelsh-American participation in theCivil War. Another tour will visitGeorge Washington’s home at MountVernon and a cruise on the Potomac.The NAFOW event is held in a differ-ent location every year and attractsvisitors from Welsh societies acrossNorth America. Several Vancouver Welsh Societymembers have been actively involvedin NAFOW over the years and are look-ing forward to another opportunity toparticipate in an event that bringsWelsh expats and descendants togetherto celebrate Welsh culture and tradi-tions.

issue 27 volume 5 proudly serving celts in north america...

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