Category Archives: History

Is deal to acquire Aer Lingus about to take off?

There’s been a lot of attention lately to the possible sale of Irish airlines Aer Lingues to International Consolidated Airlines Group, or IAG.

At issue is whether the Republic of Ireland sells its 25.1 percent share of the airline, best know for the iconic green shamrock on the tail wing. IAG has said it wants state approval for the deal.

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“There is, however, another scenario: IAG could still pick up the remaining 74.9 percent of the airline,” The Irish Times reported 7 February. “The institutional shareholders are said to be happy with the price, while many of the retail shareholders stand to gain handsomely.”

The proposed deal is said to be worth 1.36 billion euro ($1.5 billion).

Doubts about whether IAG keeps current employment rates at the airline and maintains popular routes to England’s Heathrow are making Irish politicians nervous ahead of 2016 elections. “If IAG are going to do something they have to do it very quickly if the entrenched positions people have been forced to take are to be unwound,” a senior government source told Reuters.

Herald.ie notes that although Aer Lingus is technically no longer the national airline, “the average Irishman and woman has an extraordinary attachment to it.” The editorial continues:

Aer Lingus was one of the first success stories of the fledgling Irish state. It remains a source of national pride and identity. Despite the proliferation in recent times of budget airlines, many of us still prefer to fly with our one-time national carrier – as Aer Lingus passenger numbers indicate.

Aer Lingus was founded by the Irish government in 1936 to provide air services between Ireland and the UK, according to this company history. The first transatlantic service to New York began in 1958.

The name Aer Lingus translates as “Air Fleet” from the Irish word for “long,” as meaning a “ship.” Here’s a four-part history produced for the airline’s 75th anniversary in 2011. Each segment runs seven minutes: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; and Part 4.

And here’s more history from the Historical Aviation Society of Ireland, compiled five years before the 75th anniversary.

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In other aviation news, Icelandic budget airline WOW announced new routes between Dublin and Boston and Washington, D.C., with stops in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital. Flights begin in October and will take 12 to 13 hours, including the stopover.

The D.C. flights will use Baltimore-Washington Airport, not Dulles or Reagan. Depending on traffic and mode of transportation, that’s about 45 minutes to 90 minutes from the heart of D.C.

Old stage coach route in Kerry transformed into hike trails

I came across this feature about the transformation of an early 19th century stage coach route through historic villages and sites in County Kerry into new 8-day and 11-day self-guided hikes.

This History Ireland piece gives extensive background about the Charles Bianconi coach system that revolutionized public transport throughout Ireland. And more about the system from The Irish Story.

Bianconi’s cars, Bians as they were popularly called, had by 1857 opened up Ireland –  opened it to trade, and a novelty, to tourists. …[T]he cars were all but totally safe. Bianconi and his cars were so popular that they could travel anywhere in Ireland, by day or night, in troubled times or peaceful ones, without molestation.

Finally, Irish Central recently posted this photo feature about “the Kingdom that is Kerry.”

Debate heats up over separation of church, state and schools

Debate in Ireland is heating up about the role of religion in managing school admissions. The Humanist Association of Ireland is calling for a ban on baptism certificates or other proof of a child’s religious affiliation.

Brian Whiteside, an official with the secularist group, told The Irish Times:

There is a new reality that has to be addressed. One third of couples are getting married in non-religious ceremonies. It’s reasonable to ask what sort of schools they want for their children.

The HAI says it “promotes the ideals and values of Humanism, working for people who choose to live an ethical life without religion.” The organization has made strong inroads in Ireland’s marriage ceremony business, as the Irish Independent reported last summer.

About 257,000 of 4.5 million living in the Republic in 2011, or just under 6 percent, said they had no religion. Catholics remained the majority at about 85 percent, according to the Central Statistics Office, and the church controls about 90 percent of Ireland’s primary schools.

The schools debate is more than just the usual separation of church and state struggle. It also brings full circle a vision for the Irish education system that began in the first half of the 19th century, long before independence.

Historian Diarmaid Ferriter writes this opinion column in the Times about Thomas Davis, a Young Irelander, poet and journalist, who argued for a state-endowed secular system of third-level education based on national colleges. Davis believed a “mixed education” was a vital component of an inclusive form of nationality in Ireland.

The Irish in Pittsburgh, circa 1930

In 1930, U.S. Census enumerators recorded for the first time whether Irish immigrants hailed from the Irish Free State or Northern Ireland. A decade had passed since the island’s partition during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War. In America, the Great Depression was barely two years old, and the Irish here were still transitioning from a mostly downtrodden people to among the most successful immigrant groups to ever reach these shores.

Many tens of thousands of these Irish immigrants populated the American cities of Boston, Chicago and Pittsburgh. In 1930, my grandparents and their four children (two more came later), plus other relatives from Kerry, were among those being counted in the Pennsylvania city.

In his excellent Townland of Origin website/blog, Joe Buggy recently posted about a set of maps from the National Historic Geographical Information System showing the 1930 distribution of first and second generation Irish immigrants in these three cities. As Buggy notes:

There can sometimes be ambiguity as to whether a first generation immigrant is the foreign-born person who immigrated or their native-born children. Social science researchers and demographers mostly refer to the first generation as those who are foreign-born and immigrated to the U.S.

The three NHGIS maps are below, and under that is a map of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. My grandparents settled in Hazelwood, shown in dark blue inside the deep bend of the Monongahela River (at bottom) from the area extending to the 5 position of a clock face. There, up to 30 percent of the residents were Irish, and the percentage reached up to 60 percent in the adjoining Greenfield section.

Map 1930 NHGIS

 

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Aspects of the Famine in north Kerry, 1845 – 1852

Continuing the Famine theme of the previous post, I’ve been reading and studying a new book: “Teampall Bán: Aspects of the Famine in north Kerry,” by John D. Pierse. As regular readers of this blog know, this part of Ireland is where my maternal grandmother and grandfather emigrated from (1912 and 1913, respectively) and is of great interest to me.

“The graveyard which has come to symbolize the Famine for the north Kerry and Listowel areas is undoubtedly Teampall Bán, located on the outskirts of the town off the Ballybunion Road, just beyond the old Lartigue railway overbridge,” Pierse writes in his Preface.

Back, left and front, right, of the book.

Back, left and front, right, of the book.

The Kerryman reports:

Seven years in the making, “Aspects of the Famine” focuses on the Listowel Union area comprised of the baronies of Iraghticonnor and Clanmaurice – encompassing pretty much all of rural Kerry north of Tralee. John along with his son Maurice, historian Kay Moloney Caball (My Kerry Ancestors), researcher Martina Flynn and former Institute of Advanced Studies Professor Pádraig de Brún painstakingly analysed as many records as they could find pertaining to the Listowel Workhouse, where so many perished, Listowel Presentation Convent and much else.

The book is to have its formal launch on 22 January in Listowel and will benefit the local Tidy Towns organization. For book orders contact Mary Hanlon at maryehanlon@hotmail.com.

Sultan’s aid to Famine Ireland: new telling of an old tale

In 1847 a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire provided relief to Ireland during the Great Hunger, An Gorta Mor. That the ruler sent money appears beyond dispute. Whether he also directed shiploads of food to the Irish port of Drogheda, County Louth, is more of a mystery.

Freelance writer Tom Verde has produced a well-researched telling of this old tale in the Jan./Feb. 2015 issue of AramcoWorld magazine, which is dedicated to Arabic and Islamic cultures.

Whatever the truth, this chapter in the history of “The Great Hunger” has nonetheless been immortalized in paint and in stone, and may yet be made into a feature film—should the ambitions of Turkish producer Omer Sarikaya be fulfilled. Yet, at its heart lies the undisputed fact of a generous gesture on the part of an Ottoman ruler toward a people to whom he owed nothing but the mercy required of him by faith and personal character.

Here’s a link to the full story.

Former Irish President Mary McAleese was criticized for believing too much of the story during her 2010 visit to Turkey. Verde reports the proposed movie, in the works since 2012, will be released later this year.

The nearly 170-year-old story appears to have gained new popularity in the age of the Internet, as well as increased attention to the relations between Islam and the West.

There were nearly 50,000 Muslims living in Ireland in April 2011, “a sharp rise on five years previously,” the Central Statistics Office reported in October 2012.  From 1991 to 2011, the number of Muslims increased from just 0.1 to 1.1 per cent of the total population.

Is Dublin’s Georgian heritage at risk?

The Irish Times begins the new year with several stories about how Dublin’s Georgian heritage is threatened by degradation and development.

Dereliction has become “endemic” in the north Georgian core of the city, according to Independent Senator David Norris. O’Connell Street and the surrounding Georgian and Victoria district are slipping into ever greater degradation with derelict historic buildings, a build-up of household rubbish and inappropriate infill developments on the site of former Georgian houses, the Times reports.

The Georgian period stretched through the reigns of four King Georges from 1714 to 1830. The style of buildings in the period derived from Palladian Architecture.

Dublin image from Panoramio.

Dublin image from Panoramio.

A sidebar in the Times package details the 1757 creation of the Wide Streets Commission, which was “responsible for creating the grand Georgian boulevards of the capital and for turning it from an east-west to a north-south orientated city though the development of new bridges.”

Here’s a link to the Irish Georgian Society. And another blog about the period from Dublin by Lamplight.

Best of the Blog, 2014

This is my second annual “Best of the Blog,” a look at some of the most important news stories, historical anniversaries and personal favorite posts of the past year. The posts are not numbered to avoid the appearance of rank. They follow below this “Happy Christmas from Ireland” video, produced by Dublin documentary filmmaker Cathal Kenna. It features views from each of the Irish island’s 32 counties. Enjoy!

And now, here are the stories:

  • One of the biggest stories of the year in Ireland involved protests over water charges. As Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole wrote, “If the Irish are finally catching the mood of anti-austerity anger that has been rolling across much of the European Union, it may be a case not so much of the straw that broke the camel’s back as the drop that caused the dam to burst.” … Less controversial, the Irish postal system is also bracing for modernization in 2015.
  • On a personal note, my wife and I moved to Washington, D.C. this year, which allowed me to get more active in Irish news and history. I’ve met some great people and enjoyed numerous events as a member of Irish Network DC. … My book, “His Last Trip: An Irish American Story,” found a home at the Carnegie Library and the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh; the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pa.; the Archives of Irish America in New York; and the County Kerry Library in Tralee. … A version of the story about my grandfather Willie Diggin also was published by History Ireland.
  • I came across two new books about County Kerry: “Forging a Kingdom: The GAA in Kerry 1884-1934” by Richard McElligott; and “The Kerry Girls: Emigration and the Earl Grey Scheme” by Kay Maloney Caball.
  • 2014 was the centennial of gun running operations at Larne (Ulster Volunteers) and Howth (Irish Volunteers), as well as the start of the Great War. … It also marked the 100th anniversary of the passage and suspension of Home Rule in Ireland. … October was the 90th anniversary of the closing of the Lartigue monorail in Kerry. … This year also was the 20th anniversary of the historic 1994 IRA ceasefire.
  • This year’s scandals included reporting (and misreporting) about infant and child deaths, illegal adoptions and vaccine trials at Catholic-run mother-and-baby homes in the early-to-middle 20th century. … Gerry Adams spent a few nights in custody about the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville, a widow wrongly suspected of informing against the IRA. He also faced criticism about how he handled, or mishandled, allegations of rape by members of the IRA.
  • Organizers of St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York and Boston may have banned gays from marching for the last time in 2014. It now appears a gay veterans group will march in Boston and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan has welcomed gays in New York for 2015. … The 55th annual Rose of Tralee winner Maria Walsh revealed she was lesbian the day after being crowned. It wasn’t a big deal.
  • Ian Paisley, “the ultimate Orangeman,” died at 88. … Albert Reynold, a former Irish prime minister active in the Northern Ireland peace process, died at 81.
  • After a record-setting 18-month gap, the Obama administration finally nominated (and the Senate approved) St. Louis trial lawyer Kevin O’Malley as Ambassador to Ireland. … Former Senator Gary Hart was named U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, helping with a year-end deal in the province. … Kerry T.D. Jimmy Deenihan has been named Ireland’s first Minister of State for the Diaspora. … Emigration continued to be a major concern in Ireland, and some wondered if those who have left the country should be able to participate in elections back home.
  • Kerry won the All-Ireland Championship.

Ireland’s Catholic Church records to go online summer 2015

Great news for genealogists and historians who can’t get to Ireland: the National Library of Ireland is digitizing all Catholic Church records in Ireland. They will be available by summer 2015, for free.

“The records are considered the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 Census.  Dating from the 1740s to the 1880s, they cover 1,091 parishes throughout Ireland, and consist primarily of baptismal and marriage records,” NLI said in a statement.

The National Diaspora Programme, Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO), has welcomed making the resources available online without charge, IrishCentral reported. Another article in Crux was brought to my attention by the lovely Angie Drobnic Holan.

A man, his camera and over 200 Kerry cemeteries

What started as a hobby turned into a job and became an obsession.

Now Tralee resident Joe Maher has created a website filled with headstone images from more than 200 County Kerry cemeteries, representing more than 130,000 dearly departed since the 1770s.

Joe Maher. Image from Irish Mirror.

Joe Maher. Image from Irish Mirror.

“The idea came to me when I started my family tree in 2008 and hit many dead ends,” Maher, no pun intended, writes in the About page of his website, www.kerryburials.com. He started the job in May 2013 and just finished up last month.

“I took more than 50,000 pictures and I did things like clear away ivy and fill in faded lettering with white chalk to make sure I got the right shot,” Maher told the Irish Mirror. “The photographs need to be properly indexed, which could take four or five years and money I don’t have.”

Kay Caball of the always excellent My Kerry Ancestors website and blog also wrote a post about Maher. Both sites contain useful links for genealogists and history buffs with an interest in Kerry.

Maher’s photo collection includes the Celtic cross and burial marker of my maternal relatives, the Diggin family of Lahardane townland on Knockanore Hill, just outside Ballybunion. Thirteen members of the family are buried at Kilehenney Cemetery on the Sandhill Road, near the entrance of the Ballybunion Golf Club.

Now Maher is beginning to photograph and index headstones from County Cork. Support his efforts with a donation if you can.