THE HANDSTAND
MAY 2005
irish news, comment
+arts update bottom
page:
1.Another short
installment on Inistioge History
from Billy Kirwan
Amongst the Tighe Papers, which are
housed in the PublicRecordOffice of Northern Ireland, is
a manuscript estimate for building an almshouse in the
village of Inistioge in 1788. There it is, a two-storey
building (in the photograph above) which sheltered seven
poor women supported by a weekly donation. Each woman had
two small rooms and sufficient subsistence. An eighth
appartment was appropriated for a small school for
girls.The house was built, nearly approximate to the plan
of an alms house at
Ross.(W.Tighe,Statistical Observations)
In Feb 1855 a fire broke out in
this building.There were three women living there at the
time, Mary Gorman,Susan Wills and Miss Hickey. The latter
and Susan Wills were rescued from the fire by Constable
Cunningham and Constable Doran. Alexander Hamilton
Col.Tighe's agent supervised the rescue supplying
refreshment "liberally". This building only
ceased to be an alms house as late as 1973, being
converted to private use. The stone inscription on the
building is still there,a few words taken from St Luke's
Gospel.The apartments of old had each a bedstead with a
straw ticken bag, and a blue serge quilt; a table, a
stool and a wheel for spinning flax or wool, provided by
Richard Tighe at the expense of Sarah and William
Tighe.Each woman received one shilling and
sevenpence-halfpenny weekly from Mrs. Tighe's steward and
three stone weights of potatoes. Two cows were kept at
Woodstock for their use and yearly fourstone weight of
wool was divided among them and the victuals of
four sheep.
2.Do not
miss Cathach Books,
Duke St., if visiting Dublin
Holding history in their hands
Excerpt IRISH TIMES 01/02/2005
Cathach Books is a haven of first editions and
signed copies. The owner explains to Eileen Battersby how
the past became his future
More than 500 years of human existence have passed since
the venerable folio I am looking at in a Dublin
antiquarian bookshop, was printed. The date of that
printing, in the infancy of the process, is 1493 - the
year after Christopher Columbus discovered America. Time
has left its traces on this ancient book. The original
vellum spine is battered, the boards are loose, damp
spots fleck the cover, a number of pages are missing, yet
it has survived with its magnificence intact.
The text, written half a millennium ago in Latin by a
German doctor, Hartman Schedel, accompanied by fabulous
illustrations, woodcuts, the work of Michael Wolgemut and
his then apprentice, the young Albrecht Dürer, along
with Wolgemut's business partner, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff,
charts the history of the world from creation up until
the end of the 15th century.
This is a first edition of the famous Nuremberg
Chronicle, the Liber Chronicarum, printed in that
pioneering German printing centre by Anton Koberger,
Dürer's godfather, for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian
Kammermeister. It is the first printed and illustrated
history of the world and is also the most illustrated
book of the 15th century. The chronicle was recently
purchased at auction by Cathach Books of Duke Street,
Dublin which consists of a family trio of antiquarian
book dealers; Éanna Mac Cuinneagáin, son David, and
daughter Aisling.
To hold this book is to hold history in your hand. It is
exciting and also slightly terrifying; it is to visit the
Middle Ages with its specific world view. The medieval
images include an early map of the world, as well as one
of Europe. The creation story and individual stories of
various saints are illustrated by the wood cuts. There is
even a three-page entry on Ireland, dominated by the
respective careers of saints Colum Cille, Patrick and
Brigid.
The book dealers, father, son and daughter, look on with
impressive composure, pleased with their successful bid
at auction for this book of books which they intend to
display, not sell on, as it is a book not held by any of
the major Irish libraries. The firm is well accustomed to
being in possession of rare and valuable texts such as
several first, early and signed editions of Oscar Wilde,
Yeats, Bram Stoker, Joyce, Beckett and, increasingly,
Kinsella, Heaney and Montague as well as McGahern and
Banville.
Cathach Books is well named, after the Cathach of Colum
Cille, the oldest surviving Irish illuminated manuscript,
dated circa AD600. The association with Colum Cille is
deliberate; Éanna Mac Cuinneagáin is most emphatically
a Donegal man and he describes the sixth-century saint as
one of Ireland's finest visionaries, alongside chronicler
Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, one of the masters of the Annals
of the Four Masters and the 19th-century scholar, John
O'Donovan. Cuinneagáin, is, with series editor,
archaeologist Michael Herity, currently republishing the
Ordnance Survey letters through their Four Masters
imprint. Kilkenny, the sixth volume in the letters
series, is the most recently published one.
1986 he was operating a small shop in the George' s
Street Arcade. In 1988 Eanna Mac Cuinneagain established
his Bookshop in Duke Street, where he established the
family firm in partnership with David and Aisling.
In 2000 he wrote a history of his family, for his family.
"You might like to have a look at it," he said.
It is a vivid, beautifully written chapter of Irish
social history. As well as giving his account of the
family history, and that of the building firm, the
booklet also contains a remarkable document, a statement
written by his father for the Military History Bureau. In
it, James Cunningham outlines his activities as a
gun-running member of the IRB (Irish Republican
Brotherhood) while working in England as a joiner in the
early 1920s .
Earlier the book dealer, who is committed to local
history and republished T.C. McGinley's 1840s classic,
Cliff Scenery of South-Western Donegal, in 1999,
mentioned a further ambition: "I'd love to publish
the all the Ordnance Survey Place Name books." Of
those so far published, these texts had been typed out by
a team of women organised by the Republican activist
priest, Father Michael O'Flanagan in the 1920s. The books
in their current typed format run to more than 120
volumes so it would be quite a project. "It's very
important stuff," says Mac Cuinneagáin. "That
Father O'Flanagan was a great man, he knew the importance
of heritage."
3.if your
flight to usa this year suddenly backtracks:
31.000 names on
U.S.A no-flight list, and flights can be cancelled
internationally !!!
Sunday, Apr.
17, 2005
Air Safety
Extending
the No-Fly Zone
By BRIAN BENNETT
TIME magazine
The no-fly list created by U.S. authorities, which
singles out passengers who are potential terrorist
threats, is the target of frequent criticism that it's
incomplete and unreliable. But that hasn't stopped it
from expanding dramatically. Aviation sources say the
list has grown to more than 31,000, up from 19,000 last
September. And a little noticed incident on April 8,
involving a Dutch KLM 747 flight from Amsterdam to Mexico
City, may result in the list being used even more
aggressively. The plane was forbidden by American
authorities to enter U.S. airspace because the Department
of Homeland Security discovered after the flight had
taken off that two of its passengers were on the no-fly
list. According to government sources, the two were Saudi
men who had undergone pilot training with Sept. 11
hijacker Hani Hanjour. The flight was turned back and
landed in London, where the men were questioned by Dutch
authorities and allowed to go because they were not on
any Dutch watch list. Now, in the wake of the KLM
incident, the Transportation Security Administration is
seeking to expand the use of the no-fly list, proposing
that all foreign airlines—even those not flying to a
U.S. destination—check their manifests against the
list if they are flying over U.S. airspace. That has
already raised hackles. Some airline experts say it may
contravene international agreements and could cause major
disruptions in the coming summer travel season.
"This could open up the U.S. to retaliation,"
says a former transportation official. Overflight rights
are long established in international skies, he notes,
and restricting them "would be much more of a burden
for U.S. airlines, which fly over many more countries
than foreign airlines passing through U.S.
airspace." — With reporting by Sally B.
Donnelly and Timothy J. Burger
DOES THIS EXPLAIN THE SECURITY DELAYS IN DUBLIN AIRPORT
MID APRIL?If you are radio active and register on a radar
screen,you don't see George Bush ,you can be sure he is
hiding in a Bunker...........
4.VISITORS TO
WOODSTOCK, INISTIOGE, CO.KILKENNY CAN COMPARE THESE OLD PHOTOS
WITH WORK RE-CREATING VICTORIANA THAT f.a.s WORKERS AND
DISCIPLES OF THE RAKE AND SPADE ARE ACHIEVING.
The mansion wrecked by the Black and Tans and
subsequently burnt by the IRB is still a ruin.......
5. Line,
Form & Colour
Thursday 21 April - Sunday 8 May 2005
Newtownbarry House Gallery presents "Line, Form
& Colour", an exhibition of work by Alice Norton
and Clody Norton. The exhibition will present drawings
and paintings on paper which have been selected > by
Anya Von Gosseln. This is the first time the artists have
exhibited together in a two person exhibition.
Clody Norton was awarded both Graduate and Postgraduate
scholarships at the Byam Shaw School of Painting and has
exhibited at Eigse, Carlow, The Oireachtas Exhibition
2003 and has regularly exhibited in The Lismore Arts
Centre. Alice Norton is a painter and a designer who is a
graduate of NCAD. She has exhibited regularly at
Newtownbarry House Gallery. Both artists were selected
for Cill Rialaig Residencies in 2005.
Clody Norton has worked in a variety of media throughout
her career. "Line, Form & Colour" will
present work by the artist on paper using many different
media including charcoal, watercolour, crayon and
gouache. Norton's work is based on the figure and
landscape. These work's present the artist's response to
the natural world and the space that surrounds these
objects. "I like to feel the space, to find this
relationship between objects, to feel tension and
discover what is in front of me." Alice Norton's
work will include charcoal drawings based on her
observations in the Botanical Gardens in Glassnevin. The
artist bases her drawing and painting on organic forms
and explores colour and the movement of line.
>
> Admission free . Open Daily 12 - 6pm . Closed
Mondays . All Welcome
> For further information contact Newtownbarry House
Gallery. Invites to
> follow.
> 054 76383/054 77340
> www.newtownbarryhouse.com
ARTS UPDATE:
MOOT III – Shutdown : restart
In Cleeres Parliament street, Kilkenny @ 8pm Thursday May
26th
Admission Free
Also professional Development course in New Media and
Digital Technologies hosted by Anna Hill (
www.spacesynapse.com )
And John Gerrard ( www.johngerrard.net) on Thursday 26th
May 10 am –1pm at No. 72 John Street, admission
€ 15. For more info/booking contact the Arts Office
on 056 7794137 or email fiona.dwyer@kilkennycoco.ie
Louise Allen,Education Curator,Butler Gallery
The Castle,Kilkenny,Ireland
t 00 353 (0)56 7761106
f 00 353 (0)56 7770031
