Notes from Dermot

The GAA Club finals were played yesterday. In hurling Portumna defeated DE La Salle2 - 24 to 1 – 8. In the football Kilmacud Crokes defeatedCrossmacglenn 1 - 9 to 0 – 7.The rugby Six Nations decider games take place next weekend. Results from last weekend were Ireland 22 points Scotland 15,England 34 France 10, and Italy 15 Wales 21. After four rounds of matches Ireland have 8, Wales 6, England 4,France 4, Scotland 2 and Italy 0.Ireland play Wales in their final match on Saturday at 5.30 pm Irish time
Eddie Browne from England telephoned last evening. Eddie has been to Ireland a number of times seeking information on his family tree. He is particularly interested in the Coughlan Family from Clonascragh. Hewas delighted to get a phone-call from a Peter Kennedy from South America who had read of Eddie’s search on this site some months ago.Peter is living in South America and had information on the Coughlan Family for Eddie. Eddie did not have a phone number or e-mail forPeter so on Eddie’s behalf ‘thank you Peter for contacting Eddie andindeed for reading this web.Eddie is still searching for a copy of Brendan Ryan’s book titled ’A Land By The River Of God’ which has a lot of information on the Coughlan Family.
The actress Ana Manahan has died at the age of 84 years and was laidto rest in her native Waterford. I heard on the radio that playwright John B Keane wrote the play Big Maggie for the late Ana. May she restin peace.
Cheltenham Races took place last week and Irish horses won nine racesin all. Irish jockey Ruby Walshe had a great four days riding sevenwinners in total. Heard today that somebody has been running a very successful advertisement that says Unwanted Horses Wanted. There appears to be a surplus of horses in the country and in other countries horse meat is very popular.
Some recent visitors. Two American girls on a sight seeing trip with Paddy Wagon stopped by.One girl told me that she was in university in Chicago but was fromPennsylvania Her companion was also attending the university and theywere sharing an apartment. When I asked what State she was from shetold me that since coming to Ireland she was almost ashamed to saythat she was from Romania. Last week Gary and Kelly Brown stopped by. Both are nurses and afterfinishing their rota of night duty, they drove to the CincinnatiAirport and flew to Dublin. There they hired a car and were on theirway to Galway having stopped off in Clonmacnois. Driving on the lefthand side was scary and they lost their way in Dublin. It was theirfirst visit to Ireland and had no Irish family roots. A friend thatwas coming to Dublin for the Saint Patrick’s Day persuaded them tocome along.Today 18th March four Americans arrived in Shannonbridge also from Ohio. One lady told Mick that her name was Perry and her people camefrom this area about three or four steps back. They saw the Perry Mill linen print in the bar and decided that they were heading for the mill at Belmont.
John the brother was telling me that he was reading a book called Connemara . Listening To The Wind. He told me that Shannonbridge was mentioned in it and there was a story of an engineer named Illiad thatworked on the bridge. I think he is mixing up his Greek writers as it was probably Thoms Omer who was working on the canal system in the mid1700’s. A friend of John’s Marie O Gorman was telling John that she reads theShannonbridge website. Recently she was on holiday in Florida and noticed that the weekly church offering came to $50,000 each weekcompared to*00 Euros in Shannonbridge/Clonfinlough for a good week. Padraig Turley and his wife were in Shannonbridge on a visit lastweek. Padraig told us that his uncle Joe Claffey was 33 years dead. Say a prayer for him. Padraig was in London recently and visited theRoyal Victoria Museum. While putting in a swivel bridge and lock gates and Lockhouse at Shannonbridge in the 1800’s the OPW in London who were in charge of the work used journeymen painters to paint a picture of the work completed. The painting in the Royal Victoria was painted in 1876 and was such a work. Padraig purchased a copy of the painting and it now hangs in his home in Dublin. Recently I heard that the OPW,( office of public works) has a displayof various Irish marble in their head-office in Dublin located onSaint Stephen’s Green. Among the Kilkenny and Galway and Dublin etcstands a display of Clononey Marble. Seems it was quarried nearClononey Castle in the early 1800’s. Padraig Turley knows about it andI feel he will be visiting OPW on Stephen’s Green.
Came across a stamp today in memory of Louis Braille. I did not check if it was Irish.
On the pub family tree. JJ Killeen bought the pub from Willie Price.Wilsons owned it before that. Mrs Wilson was an Aunt to Willie Price.Before that Andersons and before that Corrigan Family were the owners.Three of the Corrigan boys were killed at the battle of Aughrim in1698 in the William and James battle. This information was given bythe late Mick Coughlan, Garryduff and one of his grand-uncles toldhim. This grand-uncle was a hedge school master.
Banagher had two Saint Patrick Parades last Sunday. The first was a Boat Parade and some 50 boats took part. Afterwards there was an excellent parade in the town. School-children had been busy on Saturday decorating the pavements. One of the prizes on offer was for the best dressed Saint Patrick from a boat in the Boat Parade. The winner was Tony Buggy.
The death occurred last week of Brendan Coulter, Cavan. For many years Brendan acted as Honorary Secretary to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland.May he rest in peace.
The weather has been good this past week or more and the forecast is also good. A few anglers were in action and five double figure pike were caught mostly on dead bait. Birds are enjoying the weather and gardens are like the Concert Hall at times. Mick found an elaborately made birds-nest in the garden atthe weekend. Are birds union members? This morning at 9.45 there were no birds on the bird feeders in the back yard. Ten minutes later tenbirds arrived to start work.