Moira Ní Ghallachoir Presentation on Donegal Adventure and Cultural Travel

Event:

Monday, June 1, 2015 7 pm
MOIRA NÍ GHALLACHOIR
Capital District Celtic Cultural Association (Celtic Hall)
430 New Karner Road, Albany (Colonie), NY

If you are interested in Irish culture or in nature and adventure travel, this is the event for you!

Donegal is an area of immense natural beauty with a low population density and generally low economic activity. I think there are parallels with the Catskills and the Adirondacks. Moira has formed a company which combines deep connections to the culture of Donegal with experiences in the wild areas.

Moira Ní Ghallachoir will be in the Albany, NY, area to give a free 30 minute presentation (light refreshments to follow) which is open to the general public and to answer questions about her organization on Monday, June 1st 2015 at 7 PM at Celtic Hall.

Want to know more about MNG Cultural Tours?

Moira's says:

We at WWW.MNG.IE are a bilingual company, working to develop and promote tourism in Donegal, Ireland with emphasis on the Gaeltacht (Gaelic speaking region).

Associating the term “World Class” when describing Donegal is partly what inspired me to start MNG – an enterprise that combines our outstanding natural resources with local services to create remarkable & highly memorable experiences. In an area with little infrastructure, MNG is a solution. Our mission is to provide bilingual adventure holidays and cultural tours that are personalized and infused with the unique, local & authentic Gaelic culture. Additionally, we seek to develop Donegal, in particular West Donegal into a thriving tourism destination.

What is the Capital District Celtic Cultural Association (CDCCA)?

The mission of the Capital District Celtic Cultural Association (CDCCA) is to support and preserve the Celtic culture throughout the Capital District of New York State.

Call (518) 250-5890 if you have a question.
http://celtichall.org/

New Gate In Interface Wall In Belfast, Northern Ireland

Did you know the installation of a new gate in Belfast, Northern Ireland is very important?

Let's start with some basics.

Do you know Belfast is a divided City?

Most people outside Ireland who are old enough can associate the phrase, "The Troubles" with the conflict in Ireland, and mostly in Northern Ireland.

What many people around the world do not know is that in Belfast and Derry there are walls to separate those perceived as in favor of Ireland being a republic independent of Britain (Nationalists/Republicans) who mostly are members of the Roman Catholic branch of the Christian religion from those perceived as in favor of Ireland remaining in the United Kingdom (Unionists/Loyalists) who are mostly members of the Protestant branch of the Christian religion.

The communities are separated by 21 miles of walls in Belfast. These walls, which some have dubbed interface walls, are seriously impenetrable concrete, steel, and razor wire monstrosities with limited gates which are mostly closed at night.  The interface walls work from two respects.  They complicate matters for those who wish to riot or otherwise hurl insults and missiles at what they perceive to be the other side.  On the other hand, those who are more concerned with being harmed, than with doing harm, feel safer knowing the walls are there. These non-aggressors think they are safer than if the walls and gates did not exist.

The negative side effects are numerous.  Among them are the lack of interaction of the two communities. Most of the neighborhoods are not specifically mixed and have been either side of the interface walls for two generations. Approximately 91 percent of the primary schools are religiously affiliated. As a result the children play different sports and thus have no cause to mix even in athletic competition.

Of course, church attendance is segregated.  However, some vanguards of peace and understanding have made a point of crossing that line by intentionally attending the services and gatherings of their opposite faith and by forming friendships which crossed the line.

While historically segregated, workplaces have been subjected to a series of laws and monitoring so that integration of the two communities is strongest at places of employment.

However, in regard to the darker and more hidden side of the conflict, in 2012/13 there were 411 cases of individuals and families who informed the Northern Ireland Housing Executive that they were homeless because they had been intimidated into leaving their properties.  This is probably the tip of an even larger iceburg because the individual or family must name any paramilitary groups involved in their intimidation and the police must agree.


Now comes this development where a new gate was installed in the interface wall at Workman Avenue near the Springfield Road.  Here is a view of the former gate:

Here is a view of the new gate under construction:

The gate is see through and everything else about it is the result of cross-community consultations.  The community selected the brown color.  The community members asked for decorative golden balls on the top of the tines so that it would look more like the gate to a formal garden.

Sometimes change comes in increments.  While this gate might not seem like enough change to some, it is a vast change to those who live there.  And it came about with consultation with the people who live there.

Now the two sides can see into the other neighborhood and that change might make it easier to realize the people who live on the other side are neighbors.

Here is a link to an article in Belfast Live where you can see the completed gate:

http://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/barrier-sectarian-interface-replaced-less-8969840#ICID=sharebar_twitter

Christmas Links:  Enjoy!

The Secrets of Irelands Ancient Celtic Christmas Customs

Fairy Tale of New York - yah, it's gritty

Irish Christmas with Melanie Murphy | Collabmas Day 2

The Warrior Carty: an Irish Christmas Story

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Latest Blog Post:
New Gate in Interface Wall in Belfast

Update on Irish Advent Calendar in Irish (Gaeilge) and English (Bearla)

There is an online Irish Advent Calendar here: 

http://www.facebook.com/IrishAdvent

Story behind this Irish Advent Calendar:

Thanks mostly to my wife, we have enjoyed reading an Advent Calendar every year leading up to Christmas.

Several years ago I got the idea to make an Advent Calendar in Irish. As often happens, I never got around to do anything with the idea.

Yet, I didn't forget the idea.

A year later, maybe more, I mentioned my idea to Pastor Jim and I think to my own pastor, Pastor Karyl. Later, Pastor Karyl, gave me an Advent Calendar that is basically like a trifold card.  I think it's the one that has a baby angel with halo and wings, standing by one lamb and holding another lamb, on the cover. Inside there are conifers behind a scene of animals and cute kids surrounding the baby Jesus in a manger.  There are little doors with animals or sprigs of holly on the doors.  The doors are numbered 1 to 24 and under each opened paper door is a little more of the story in words. Yah, it's very much on the cute side.

How un-tech, eh? A story that unfolds (pun intended) day by day for almost a month.

You might not get the idea until you see the little ones really enjoy opening the doors by number. Hey, at a certain age, this is a big achievement!  

I hope to reach that age again.

In September 2012, I started to translate the calendar's phrases and I wrote my version of the Irish right on the card next to each door.

This created some high emotion when my wife thought I was marking up our family Advent Calendar. Hopefully the two calendars are the same, or I owe my wife a new Advent Calendar . . . in English. I still haven't found the second Advent Calendar card. Hmmm.

Still I knew my translations were pitiful.

Roslyn, Nancy and Jonathan from my online Irish class agreed to help me correct my translations.  I thank them for all their thoughts and hard work.

At about the time the group translation was about to kick off, the thought occurred to me that I wanted to have the English version and Irish version displayed day by day. If I posted or put this Advent Calendar out there, I'd be infringing on the copyright for the version written in English.

I went on a personal crash course on the Advent story, reading different versions of the New Testament Bible and other writings on the Internet.  All this so I could write an original version in English of Advent for use as a calendar.

I learned that the donkey, which everyone is certain is in the story, that Mary rode on from Nazareth to Bethlehem, is not mentioned in the Bible.  Most scholars and others think it makes sense given Mary's advanced stage of pregnancy and the distance, but it's unstated in the Bible.

I also learned there is no inn keeper mentioned.  The statement in the Bible is that there was no room at the inn.  And the Greek word for "inn" might mean "guest room in the back." Some people think that Joseph's whole family was back home for the census, like a government imposed family reunion, and Joseph and Mary came late, so they got to sleep in the room where animals also slept. Either way, Jesus was wrapped and placed in a manger, right?

Speaking of the census, there was a problem with the Greek word for census as it could be translated as "tax."  That and a Jewish scholar thought the purpose of the census was so that a tax could be levied.  A fair number of versions of the Bible say Joseph was going to be Bethlehem to be taxed, don't you know, while most scholars today agree the trip was for a census.  

I feel bad about, that for space reasons and presumably to keep the story devoid of downers and violence, the Advent story in these calendars generally avoids the side plots with Elizabeth bearing John the Baptist and King Herod having all the children in Bethlehem killed.  Still, the good part is that as an adult, that leaves those parts to be discovered and to enrich appreciation of all the characters and the story.

Roslyn helped me polish the Irish translations of this final version and I owe her great thanks.

Ideas that have been proffered to me or have occurred to me:

1. The Facebook version could have art along with the story. Vicki gave a couple of images of her artwork to use. Thanks Vicki! 

If anyone else has original artwork or images to add, please contact me at the e-address below!

2. Frieda said cloth Advent Calendars used to be made in the Pawling Avenue Methodist Church in Troy, New York, USA.  She suggested there could be an Irish Advent Calendar wall hanging.  The wonderful and talented sewers at the Pawling Avenue United Methodist Church sewed several of these and one was gifted to the day care center in the Forthspring Community Center on Springfield Road in Belfast, Ireland.

3. Make this calendar an instrument of peace and reconciliation among the Irish by making the daily messages in three languages: English, Irish (Gaeilge), and Scottish Gaelic. I think the inclusion of all three languages would be very symbolic of the peace that is possible if all the sides of the Irish conflict cooperate. Anyone know of someone fluent in Scottish Gaelic who could help with this project?

4. Possibly this multiple language version could be a book with each page representing a day and having illustrations.

5. A bigger dream would be to make Advent Calendar's in multiple languages wherever there are conflicts between different cultures around the world to spread the message of peace.

So much for my Irish Advent Calendar saga.  If you have an idea of how to spread the Irish Advent Calendar or Advent Calendars elsewhere, leave a comment to this blog, or contact me at shamrockroad(at symbol here)gmail.com .

Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas or a merry whatever holiday you celebrate to praise and respect God.

Rod / Ruairí

Review of "101 Things You Didn't Know about Irish History"

Writing this review of the non-fiction paperback titled, "101 Things You Didn't Know about Irish History," written by Ryan Hackney and Amy Hackney Blackwell, is a challenge.

If I tried to entice readers of this blog with the entertaining facts from the book, I'd be having to say, "Spoiler Alert" all the time.

Still, it is a book you should read.

Before I read the book, I knew some parts of Irish history, but I probably knew "enough to be dangerous," as the saying goes, because I could conflate causes and effects and confuse places and times. So as not to mess it up, I tried not to talk about things I wasn't sure of, and that was most of Ireland's history.

Now, I'm not an expert from reading this book.  One book could never do that. However, I have a better appreciation of the history of Ireland and a handy reference book so I can find the right slot when I'm asked in the future to focus upon any part of Irish history.

I admire that the book deals with the sectarian divides that rend Ireland, especially in Northern Ireland, with even handed explanations and a plethora of facts. Maybe the authors' American perspectives have served them well. Maybe the authors are removed enough from the present day conflicts to sort through all the conflicting Irish viewpoints and stay neutral. Whatever the cause, the result is refreshing.

The coverage of topics is wide and not just about battles and dates. The important persons are all included. However, the common people and a wide range of institutions are related as well. The times discussed vary from the end of the most recent ice age up to the present time at the book's writing (the book's copyright is 2007, and is noted to have been abridged or adapted from the Everything Irish History Book copyrighted 2004 by the same two authors).

The format of the book is helpful.  There are 101 labeled segments or chapters in 236 pages, so the average is a little over 2 pages per segment.  The pages are on the small side, but the fonts are clear.  Reading a segment can definitely be fit into the small spaces of a busy person's day.  Still, the flow of the topics builds, so those who want to read a lot at once won't feel slighted.

There are almost no illustrations.  I think they could have added a particular illustration: a timeline to graphically illustrate the topics discussed in the segments.

My wife says I'm such and engineer, but personally I find the use of bulleted or numbered lists is relatively sparse. The bulleted list on Oliver Cromwell is a devastating indictment.  More use of these lists may have helped organize and relate thoughts.

The mention of the Irish language (Gaeilge) throughout and the inclusion of a very small Primer of the Irish language (and another of Irish Proverbs and Blessings), will help explain to the uninitiated that Ireland has another language from English and a long cultural history.

I would have been okay with a longer book if it expanded he discussion of the Troubles, the peace process, and the modern Irish politics.  Or maybe these authors would do that in a new book?

My final observation is that the entire book, although non-fiction, does show that the authors did inherit the Irish knack for story telling, and there are some doozies they tell. Whether you read it under a fluorescent light in a hotel room or near the glow from a peat fire, enjoy the stories of a real country coming to grips with the past and the future.

A Review of "O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare"

On the surface "O Come Ye Back to Ireland:  Our First Year in County Clare" is a book about a married couple moving from New York City to a small farm in the west of Ireland. But on a deeper level it's about the changes in relationships that result from a life changing decision.

At first, the differences in the new place swell in importance. The driving on the "wrong" side of the road. The accents and local expressions.

Then the wetness, the unrelenting wetness slowly drives them crazy.

Slowly, the initial shyness and subsequent openness of their new Irish friends begins to reward their patience.

Still, the missed conveniences and special worlds in New York nag Christine and Niall. The lost excitement of densely populated New York gnaws at them. The variety and ease of food, in the metropolitan center they used to live in, is sorely missed.

Some images of Ireland, formed before they crossed the Atlantic, might not materialize.

Will Niall bond with the land? Could it start with the backbreaking work of cutting, drying, and collecting turf to burn through the long dark winter? Even with expert help, the task appears hopeless to achieve. 

Will Christine always be grinding out the existence that rural life demands? Can she catch up and get ahead enough to produce art strongly connected to the land and its people?

All these quandaries are told in the organic weave of unflinchingly truthful stories.  

Stories are the root core of memoir, but the stories in this book relate the surprises, the connections, the struggles, the disappointments, and the breakthroughs that are as stirring as any great fiction.

If you have an interest in the real Ireland, not just the tourist attractions, you will enjoy this book.

If you may have little or no interest in Ireland, think on this - from the lessons of people of different cultures relating, experiencing the lows and highs of emotion, and finding grace in the face of vast change, you will enjoy this book.
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"O Come Ye Back to Ireland: Our First Year in County Clare" Paperback,
 233 pages, a memoir by Niall Williams, Christine Breen

 

Look for it at your local used or new book store! My store for new books in the USA is Market Block Books.

 

Other reviews? Goodreads

 

 

 

Ties Between Ireland and America Formed In World War II

I think many Americans tend to think of Ireland in the 19th century as when America and Ireland were most connected because so many Irish came to America in that century.

Perhaps the connections have been forming and reforming as long as America has had European settlement.

Another connection came to light when I had the opportunity to read two copies of articles which were printed in the  area newspapers for Middleboro, Massachusetts, USA.

The articles describe that Alton Logan of Center Street, Middleboro became a celebrity in Carrickfergus, Ireland.  Alton Logan was stationed at Prospect Camp in Carrickfergus in 1942 as an American GI. The Methodist Church ran a canteen at which Alton formed many friendships.  The strength of those friendships was so great that Alton kept in touch by writing to the friends for decades.

After being away for twenty years he revisited Carrickfergus.  That's when he heard there was a plan to build a new church hall.  Alton was so committed to his friends that upon his return to America, he started raising funds among the American GIs he knew had been stationed there.  He gave talks, accompanied by slides and films, to general audiences and raised even more money.

The Methodist Church in Carrickfergus was so appreciative of the funds he sent them, they didn't forget.  Whenever he went back for a visit he was treated as an old friend.  They told him the hall belonged to him as much as any member of the local congregation.

Officials and notables of the Carrickfergus would turn out to greet him.  On one trip with his brother Harold Logan he met with the Mayor and Councillor Sam Murphy, Deputy Mayor and Councillor Charles Johnston, village administrator Geoffrey Gordon, and Methodist Minister David McCune, all of Carrickfergus.

The Church also held a get together to show their appreciation.

And like old friends everywhere they would tease him.  Once he asked for his old room in the Dobbins Inn in Carrickfergus and was told it was reserved already.  When he got there from America, it turned out it had been reserved for him!

Alto Logan was consistently a contributor throughout his life. When age and heart disease started to take their toll, he knit mittens for the children of Middleboro.

Lúnasa

will be appearing at

Celtic Hall, Colonie, NY USA

Thursday, March 13, 2014

7 PM

"Lúnasa are internationally acknowledged as being the finest Irish instrumental band of recent times."

"...  the blend of intelligence, innovation, virtuosity, and passion has brought them to the forefront of Celtic music."

Contact Celtic Hall at (518) 250-5890 for tickets at a discount or pay full price at the door.

Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner

Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner

Saturday, March 15, 2014

4:30 PM to 6:30 PM

520 Pawling Ave., Troy, NY 12180 USA

Use the side entrance on

Woodlawn Ave.

Adults $10
Kids 6-12 $5
5 and Under - Free
Eat in or Take Out

Menu:
Corned beef and cabbage
Potatoes
Irish soda bread
Dessert
Beverages.

Tickets are available at the door or call the Pawling Avenue United Methodist Church at
518-273-6859

In Honor of St. Patrick's Day

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh!

Plastic Cups are an Instrument? Watch - Amhrán na gCupán in Irish

Fun video of Irish school children performing the Cup Song (Amhrán na gCupán) using simple plastic cups and the floor and singing the original song "Cups (You're Gonna Miss Me)" translated into the Irish language (also referred to as Gaelic):

Cups (You're Gonna Miss me) in Irish (Gaelic)

So you say, "What are all those Irish words?"

That can be found at: Amhrán na gCupán

I'm still a beginner at Irish, but I think I see some differences between the Irish translation and the English version.

The Irish title (Amhrán na gCupán) looks like it would be translated "Song of Cup" in English. Said another way, "Cup Song". The Irish is more descriptive by saying the work is a song but the English title probably assumes the context of using the title would show it's a song.

The fourth line of the first verse is, "mbeidh tú liom?" which is short for, "you will be with me?" Kinda different from, "what'dya say?" I like how they both are contractions, are informal, and the meanings come very close.

The end of the fourth line of the second verse ends with "mo aoibh" which means "my smile." That doesn't match the end of that line in the English version, which says "my hair."

But keep looking and you'll see the end of the next and fifth line of that verse ends with "'chuile thaobh" which means "all sides." That's pretty close to the word "everywhere" which ends that line in the English version.

You wonder why go to that trouble to use different words?

With the Irish line endings, the lines rhyme. They both end with sounds that rhyme with the English word "eve." I am thinking the line about "all sides" is the idiom for "everywhere" in that sense, and then the translators needed a rhyming word for the previous line.

Pretty clever, eh?

A change for apparently similar reasons is made at the fourth and fifth lines of the last verse:

... ag caint   which translates as, "talking," and,
... ag seinnt   which translates as, "playing," as in music or a musical instrument.

These compare to these line endings:

... my walk
... my talk

in English.

Am I suggesting you or anyone be upset about this?

No.  Translating in general is tough because you just can't change each and every word to a translated word and have the meaning work.  And in a song, especially one with a staccato rhythm, fitting the translation into the beat is extremely tough.

I am at the point I expect all translations of songs to be different than in the original language.

In this case, I like the Irish version and I think it preserves the sense of the English version very well.

So, if you haven't already, go to the Irish version, click play, and enjoy!

Cups (You're Gonna Miss me) in Irish (Gaelic)

LiDAR Finds New Passage Mound

A passage tomb was found in an important area with related passage tombs.

In a first for Ireland, the newly discovered passage tomb was found without digging, using a technique known as LiDAR.

LiDAR uses laser light to reflect or backscatter from the surface of the earth. Using the extremely precise measurements of distance, very high resolution, detailed images can be created. The name LiDAR comes from combining the words "light" and "radar." The images look to me as if the sun were setting at just the right angle to light the bumps and ripples of the earth from the side.

Passage tombs are large mounds with stone covered straight passageways which are aligned with celestial events such as the sunrise on one of the solstices. Many have ping etched large stones with fascinating designs or white rocks whose source is many miles away. The exact function of these mounds is a mystery, but they required a tremendous investment of time by a large number of people when Ireland was occupied by hunter-gatherer people fairly sparsely dispersed.

This new site is being cited as evidence that the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Site is a larger complex. This makes the proposed bypass on the N2 road even more controversial.

Impact of New Discovery on N2 Bypass

Newly Discovered Passage Tomb at Newgrange

Vincent Salafia: Cultural Heritage to Constitutional Protection of Heritage

In the last blog entry, Vincent had just described some of the positive aspects of the campaigns over preservation of heritage.

Question: Will cultural tourism catch on?

I think there will be more cultural tourism rather than straight economic tourism. I do see a lot of potential now in the people who have been turned on abroad and those here at home as well. I think the local population up in Meath realizes more now that they do have something of value that they didn’t fully appreciate before. I was talking to someone who loves fairies, like Tinkerbell. There is a Florida Fairy Festival every year. So I was thinking, why don’t they have a Fairy Festival on the Hill of Tara every year?  It would bring large crowds. People would have fun outside. People would bring their kids. I think you will see more utilization of these sites and the sites will come to life.

Question: Is changing the Constitution feasible in Ireland?

As to the Constitution, there is a Constitutional Convention set up to review the constitution. When the present government officials were running for office, their parties, Labor and Fine Gael came in and said there was going to be a Constitutional Convention. That process is beginning. The terms of reference are quite narrow and many are cynical about it. But none the less, there is a period over the next year to raise issues. There should be constitutional protections put in place to protect heritage and the environment, and for our culture, really.

People abroad have the right to have these things protected as part of their own culture. This would not just protect Irish citizens, but all people of Irish decent. That’s why it’s important for those of Irish decent to express those opinions, especially during the coming year.  I’ll try to get clear ideas and explanation up on the Internet and into print so that people can demand their constitutional and human rights.

“We the undersigned were outraged about what happened at Tara and what was proposed at Slane without due consideration. We want to be sure as Irish people that this is never going to happen again. Let’s put the necessary protections into the constitution, once and for all.”

Maybe a petition like that could happen in the coming months.

Vincent Salafia: Benefits of Archaeology to Achievements

In the prior blog entry, Vincent had just described how the lure of money and employment had turned many archaeologists against heritage preservation.

Question: Can the public be educated and turned on to what the benefits of studying archaeology are?

I think the public have been turned on. There have been various surveys performed by the Heritage Council over the years starting back around 2000. Every year there was public concern for protection of heritage and protection of the environment. It wasn’t that the public didn’t care so much. It was more that the authorities didn’t care so much because they were so hell bent on perpetuating this model of modernism, economic development, and real estate.  They saw that as their meal ticket. It wasn’t the public that was the problem. It was the government. One can say the people were electing the government, but they were electing them for different reasons than cultural heritage. Ultimately, the public bought into the economic thing as well.

Now that we are in the post crisis mode here, there is a realization by both the government and the public that we should be taking better care of our tourist attractions. Again there is this idea we could get some money out of these sites. This idea of “the Gathering” now, which was launched by the government on January 1^st of this year to bring all the Irish home, if you will. There are some cynical views of this as well. An American actor came out and said this is a big joke. You are just fleecing these people. All you want is a few quid out of them after ignoring them for years. Thousands of Irish people died on the streets in London and nothing was done. Even when Irish people did come back to Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years, those people weren’t eligible for social services. They were told you are not an Irish resident, or an EU resident. They were told they were not eligible to student grants or unemployment.  You really weren’t welcome at all. That’s all changing and the Irish authorities are anxious to get any Irish American or any Irish Australian to come back.

There is a different view over here, but I’m still a bit cynical about it. The first economic cuts (in the Great Recession) were in the area of environment and heritage. A lot of the cultural centers and historical centers have shut down.

I suppose on the bright side, not just the government sponsored destruction of heritage, the private sector was doing a lot of damage too. At least, that’s all come to a halt if you will. The impact to the atmosphere leading to climate change has been reduced.  There are some positives. Unfortunately, traffic on the M3 is way, way down and we’re having to pay the investors, this Spanish company, now direct payments. Millions and millions of euros are being paid to keep the M3 going.

One of the real positive things that came out of this, even though it’s been a tough haul, has been to meet people like you and many others. I met great people along the way. I didn’t do any of this alone. It was inspiring to see the international support that we got from all around the world, in particular the US. Lots of people said this is just wrong. So many people were willing to do something about it. That made it a success. Even though the M3 went ahead where it shouldn’t have, and it was heart breaking to see it go ahead, ultimately you have to say to yourself that campaigning is to make an issue out of something, to put it into the public mind, and to give the public an opportunity to express their opinions about it. Clearly, the public had been ignored up until then. We showed quite clearly that the majority of people were against the selected route. We can rest and say we did our best.

Vincent Salafia: Sustainable Development to Archaeologists

In the prior blog entry, Vincent had just explained his PhD thesis will put forward the concept that sustainable development should be constitutionalized here in Ireland.

Question: What would sustainable development accomplish?

There would be a constitutional implementation of social rights, economic rights, and environmental rights. Hopefully, that constitutional equation would prevent these types of things from happening again.

You and I had worked on the economic issues having to do with the toll roads on the M3 (I had contributed some economic analyses which showed the questions the government should have asked about the deal before it was struck). Maybe in hind sight the economic issues were a lot more important than people realized in the course of the campaigning where everybody was so focused on the heritage end of things that the economic issues didn’t lend themselves so easily to protesting and people getting excited. There were no grounds to go in and make economic complaints back then. People need to be given their economic rights to say that public money needs to be spent in a rational way.

I am trying to pull everything together that I’ve been involved in over the last ten years or so. It is really a formula and I am trying to get it into a few articles or a book.

Question: Is there a recognition among politicians and other decision makers that the economics of a road should be a factor? Should the government shoulder all the risk? Ireland is paying foreign investors for a road, the M3, that is underutilized.

On the M3, they didn’t tell the public if it was going to be a toll road. They said it could be a toll road. They got the contract in the public/private partnership to build the road. However, one of the complaints was made that the traffic numbers didn’t add up, they didn’t justify this road in the first place. With all these motorways going north, it was pretty clear that was correct. They realized it would be a looser for any company getting involved, and they wouldn’t be able to charge enough tolls to make it pay for itself. So what the government did without telling anyone was they went out to the EU and got special permission from the European Commission to allow them to sign a shadow tolling clause into the contract. Normally they wouldn’t be able to do that, because it would be seen as impermissible state aid under the European Union economic rules.

They were given permission to do this in the instance of the M3. Also the Liber Tunnel was the only other road they got permission to do this. They said this road was so necessary there was no alternative to building this road. They said they probably wouldn’t need the tolls anyway because things were growing at such a rapid rate here in Ireland, there would be enough traffic to support the road. They created the impression this shadow toll clause would never be used.

No sooner had they signed that contract than things started to fall apart in the economic realm. Now it’s seen to be one of the worst economic decisions ever. Going all the way back to 2000, the roads program in Ireland was supposed to cost 5 billion euros. We can’t get an exact figure from the government as to how much the roads cost, but we figure they have cost somewhere in the region of 30 to 35 billion. So you see how much money disappeared into the ether.  Now we can see a lot of these roads weren’t necessary at all.

It’s gone from one extreme to the other. Back then, they were building roads everywhere, and now, there is no road building at all. There isn’t much sense in asking the present government what they think of building roads, they haven’t had much opportunity to think about that. Of course, with the troika breathing down their necks, they are not going to be making any radical decisions. The biggest decision was seen to be the withdrawal of the 500 million from the northern end of the M2/A5 road, the Dublin to Derry road. It’s going to be a while before they propose to build new roads. They don’t really need many.  Even though they were supposed to get these new roads done by 2005, they did manage to get most of them by 2008 or 2009.

That is really the end of road building for the time being, and ironically, that also is the end of a lot of archaeology jobs as well.

People want to point a finger at what happened over here. Certainly the archaeologists deserve their share of the blame. They weren’t all bad, of course. The guy at Carrickmines, Dr. Mark Clinton was good. We did have some archaeologists working for us behind the scenes, but for the most part they were willing to go and dig up anything. It could have been Cú Chulainn’s tomb. In fact they would have been dying to get in there.  There was just no stopping those guys. Ethics appeared to go out the window. I’m not sure how sorry I am to see a lot of them out of work now.

Vincent Salafia: Teaching to Making Sustainable Development Constitutional

In the last blog entry, Vincent had just begun explaining how he started teaching at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Question: How did things go after you taught that first class?

Then they offered me a second class in planning and risk assessment, which is a bit more specific and more into the area of impact assessment. I was nervous teaching my first class up there, never having teaching experience. It was at the end of this first class I was teaching that this Slane Bypass issue sprang up. I was able to use the issue as a class project which showed how these things work in the real world. It worked out really well in both directions. Some of the students got involved in some of the campaign issues and certainly some of their research and work came in handy. I think they enjoyed having the opportunity to deal with some real world issues. I sort of carried on that tradition. The north-south connection and the larger issues to do with the road made it an ideal topic to deal with because, when I first went up to Queens University, of the 30 students, 15 would have been from the south and 15 would have been from the north. It was a good coming together type of issue.  Although the southern end of that road has come to a grinding halt as a result of the An Bord Planela decision, and the south also withdrew the 500 million euro commitment to building the northern end, the northern authorities have pushed ahead with the A5 upgrade up there. A group of local residents I’ve had into my class at Queens called the A5 Alternative Alliance just went into court before Christmas 2012 and initiated judicial review with the high court for the planning approval of the A5 up there.  Everybody is waiting to see what will happen to that up there with the north.

Question: What is your next act?

During the course of all this, I had to ask myself some of the bigger questions such as why am I doing all this stuff? What does it all mean? What is the bigger picture here?

During the course of my studies along with campaigning, I learned more about this concept of sustainable development and how it fits in with indigenous rights and indigenous culture, which are obviously Brehon law concepts, and how it fits in with environmental protection and heritage protection. I also learned to look at where does economics come into this?

Sustainable development is a way that ties it all together in a positive way.

During these earlier campaigns, we were operating in this property bubble and development frenzy that ended up collapsing here in Ireland, quite dramatically, and showing we had been the absolute definition of unsustainable development here in Ireland.

What I’ve done in terms of academia is I enrolled in a PhD program in Trinity College. I enrolled about three years ago and I’m working on it right now. I got a bit distracted but I’m back on the case. I’ve come up with a theory. My thesis will be that sustainable development should be constitutionalized here in Ireland.

Vincent Salafia: Victory on Slane Bypass, Then Teaching

In the last blog entry, Vincent had just described how the court asked for more information on from the NRA and the Meath County Council.

Question:What decision did the court reach:

Of course months later, which was last year, the decision came down that the planning authorities had refused permission for the Slane bypass. 

That was nice end to the whole odyssey, having had such heartbreaking, I suppose, defeats at both Carrickmines and at Tara, along the way.

Question: Did the recession help with the decision?

You would have to wonder. From a legal perspective, it shouldn’t have had any effect on the planning authorities’ decision because economic issues usually are outside the planning concerns. However, the main issue they determined was that the authorities had not looked at all of the alternatives. One of the alternatives that had been proposed, and indeed was promised to be delivered, was a ban on HGVs in the village. Funding had been taken away from the bypass because of economic issues and they were going to put in this HGV ban because the locals had been calling for 20 years for either a bypass or a HGV ban. In 2007, 2008 when things were already getting bad economically, Fine Fail announced that they were going to go ahead with the bypass and the locals were delighted. Then six months or a year later, the NRA announced that they didn’t have the money. The government said they would do the HGV ban. Minister Noel Dempsey, the local TD, who was also the Minister for Transport promised they would put in this HGV ban. But they didn’t do that and then after the visit by the Taoiseach, all of a sudden there was funding for the bypass. So this went back and forth. At the end of the day no effort was made.

What actually happened was the County Council came out with this outrageous report saying an HGV ban actually couldn’t be implemented in the village. They said they would be sued if they put it in there and that it would be impossible to implement. They even said it would affect international trade. This was all brought up in the course of the hearing. I think the planning authorities saw what was going on there, that this was public money being used not only to get votes, but even the design was so grandiose. Engineers who worked on the National Development Plan saying this is gold plated infrastructure and it should be a much further scaled down version.

The decision came back they hadn’t looked enough at alternatives. There was obviously a route to the west. The economic issues probably played a part but I think An Bord Plenala saw how they had been taken for a ride by the Council and the engineers at Brú na Bóinne. The same thing had happened at Tara. I think they saw that at Tara and they realized at both situations that they hadn’t been given all the information. They hadn’t been apprised of the full information on heritage. The proposers had assumed the authorities didn’t care. I think by the time of the Slane bypass they wanted to make up for past bad decisions, as well.

Question: Where does your teaching tie in to your development?

This is my fourth year teaching at Queens University at Belfast. Just before the Slane bypass issue appeared, I had received an email from the Irish law list, one of their usual emails, and it mentioned that Queens University was looking for someone to teach a class in environmental legislation. Because I’d been in a tough situation in Ireland where my Juris Doctorate degree from the United States is not recognized here in Ireland, I haven’t been able to go into the Four Courts and get registered as a barrister. I realized my best chance here was to take the academic route. To be honest, I was never anxious to be a litigator my whole life and I liked the idea of more of an academic approach to things. So I was delighted when I saw this opportunity because I figured this was something I would be fully qualified for. There aren’t a lot of openings for environmental law here in Ireland. I went up for the interview at the Management School at Queens. They hired me pretty much on the spot which was great.
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Vincent Salafia: Brú na Bóinne Achieves Progress

In the prior blog post, Vincent had just gotten to the point of explaining the need for a safer road in Slane.

Question: Why did they want to build this road around Slane though? Aren’t there other high capacity roads nearby?

They had built the M1 motorway as part of this huge, grand motorway scheme that was introduced in Ireland by the National Development Plan back in 2000. Unfortunately, in hindsight, when I took a look at that scheme, there had been huge damage done to the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site. They hadn’t even included the Brú na Bóinne site in the Environmental Statement, even though a motorway was planned to actually go through the buffer zone of the World Heritage Site. There wasn’t awareness back then in the communities and in society of the idea of protecting heritage. There were no protest groups.

This M2 is the third major motorway going out of Dublin and was on the other side of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site from the M1.

What was happening in Slane was there were tolls on that M1 motorway, so a lot of the big lorries were avoiding the tolls by going back onto the old road. There were counted to be 1,400 HGVs , they call them Heavy Good Vehicles in Ireland, a day going down through the village of Slane. Bad accidents were happening and it was a dangerous place. I think everyone was in agreement that something had to be done. It was unfortunate though to have the design affecting the World Heritage Site. But you have to remember these were the same engineers and the same County Council who built the other motorway on the other side of Slane and who built the M3 motorway affecting Tara. We were all very familiar with each other.  The same experts, the same archaeologists for the NRA (National Roads Agency), even going back to Carrickmines, we were all old soldiers at this stage.

There was huge support for the bypass in Slane. We had sympathy at the Hill of Tara with local community groups. This time, I was public enemy number one in Slane.  There was a silent minority of people who were concerned about the World Heritage Group, but everyone in Slane was scared to raise their head in Slane to make that point. They all knew they would be crucified. 

It was a different type of a campaign in Slane which was more legally based with people participating in the public process. The beauty of it was, unlike Carrickmines where the public process had already ended at the point where we went into court, and unlike at Tara where a lot of the public campaigners there hadn’t had a chance to participate, at Slane we were in early. We got a lot of good arguments in and used a lot of the ammunition that we’d built up over the years particularly with UNESCO, who had met with us over the Tara issue, when they were over looking at an incinerator proposal which was also close to the Brú na Bóinne site. 

We got very good submissions in. It looked very good when the authorities came back after a couple of months and asked for more information to be submitted by the NRA and the Meath County Council. They indicated they didn’t feel there was enough information submitted about the archaeological information or consideration of alternatives. That was the first good sign that things were going well for us there.
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Interview of Vincent Salafia: Hill of Tara to Brú na Bóinne

In the prior blog post, Vincent had brought the story to the Hill of Tara and how a wooden henge called Lismullin had seemed to be significant enough to at least delay the construction of the M3 road. Would the European Union act to protect such an important heritage site?

Question: What happened with the complaints to the European Union?

What happened was the legal process here required the Minister to make a decision to approve for the demolition of the Lismullin site. The EU wrote to Ireland saying they believed this decision was in breach of EU law, that the discovery of the site should have triggered a new environmental impact assessment and that work should cease. However, the Irish authorities ignored the European Union and went ahead and destroyed the site. The European Union didn’t feel strongly enough about it at the time to go into court and seek an injunction to stop it. No intervener here succeeded in getting before a court to stop it. Nothing stopped it.  Sadly, the EU did actually succeed in its legal challenge to the authorization given by Dick Roche, the Minister for the Environment, but it was too late to do any good. His decision to order the bulldozing of Lismullin was found to be in breach of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive by the European Court of Justice.

The M3 road opened in 2008.

It wasn’t too long after that the proposal to build the Slane bypass came up.

I read in the paper in 2009 there was an advertisement in the paper which included a map showing where they were going to upgrade the road from Dublin to Derry. The M3 motorway was replacing the N3 road up to Derry. Approximately seven miles to the east was the N2 road which they were going to make the M2 motorway.  There were going to be all these motorways going north out of Dublin. When I saw the ad in the paper, I was horrified for a number of reasons:

a.    It was way too close to Newgrange and the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site.

b.    Also I was horrified of the prospect of a third major campaign which caused me to say to myself, “I can’t do any more of this.”

I waited over Christmas and coming into the New Year. I waited to see if An Taise, locals, or anyone would kick up to get a campaign going.  The period for public consultation was rapidly coming to an end.  With two weeks to go, basically, nobody had said diddly. After I had built up a lot of Facebook contacts and email contacts, I decided to launch a campaign off the back of that.

I started a Facebook group called Save Newgrange and sent out a lot of invitations. Within a week we had over 10,000 members on our Facebook group. We had a lot of petition signatures and a lot of submissions got made before the deadline. That was the objective – in the space of that two weeks, to get a lot of objections in and we succeeded.

There were public hearings that were held once the deadline was closed. That particular situation was similar but very different in a lot of ways to the other campaigns.  In Slane, which is a village very near Newgrange, the overall N2 road that was being upgraded was part of this much larger project to connect Dublin with Donegal and build the longest motorway in Irish history. The motorway would pass up through Slane and up to the border where it would meet up with the A5 road up there. Indeed the Irish government (in the Republic of Ireland in the south of Ireland) had committed 500 million euros to the A5 (in Northern Ireland).

This was done under the North-South Peace Agreement, the Good Friday agreement as a way of building better connections between the North and the South. This was another sacred cow for both governments, North and South. Of course, this had been conceived without any Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), which has a broader take than an EIA, which only looks at projects. An SEA looks at plans and indeed policies, sometimes.

While I was doing this campaigning, I had gone back to university here in Ireland. I’d done a Master’s in law, in European law, so I had some training in Environmental Impact Assessment and SEA. That came in very handy in the Slane situation.

The situation in Slane was unique. I had been up in Slane to see the Rolling Stones when I was about 13 years old. From that and other visits, I knew the village very well. It’s got this very old rickety stone bridge that crosses the river Boyne. The existing road, I’d be the first to admit is a very dangerous road.

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Interview of Vincent Salafia: Carrickmines Castle Campaign to Hill of Tara Campaign

In the prior blog post, Vincent Salafia had recounted how he came to live in Ireland. He had just got to the point of telling how he became involved with those trying to preserve the Carrickmine Castle and that he and his supporters won a Supreme Court injunction which held up further construction of the road.

Question: I know the injunction didn’t hold in the long run. What happened?

     That injunction lasted for about a year. Those trying to continue building the road came along with a different legal assault and won a second injunction. Then the government changed the whole national monuments act which included a special provision to put the motorway through the Carrickmines Castle site. A third Supreme Court case was taken, arguing that provision in the act was unconstitutional. There is a constitutional responsibility on the part of government to protect heritage.  In fact, it was established that there was such a constitutional imperative for the first time in Irish history and in fact for the first time in world history that this constitutional imperative did exist. It was said the constitutional imperative did not apply in this particular instance for some technical reason.

     Just around the time that was all coming to a head, we had been hearing about this proposal to build a similar motorway up on the Hill of Tara. I had gotten involved in a couple of disputes with this organization known as An Taisce. Generally a good organization, but the person in charge, him and I had some disputes. They wanted to take over all the legal action and I held it should be carried out by the group that had put the case together.

     To cut a long story short, I said I’m going to head up to Tara, and start up a campaign there. You guys can finish off Carrickmines.

     I went up to Tara in 2003. There had been various local groups who had been participating in the public process where an environmental impact assessment was done.  There was the Meath Archaeological Historical Society, the Meath Road Action Group, various local resident groups. We started having meetings. The Columban Fathers have a big training institution there, right in view of the Hill of Tara. We started having meetings there in the big old buildings. I used to travel up every week at these meetings.

     The residents were reluctant to take a law suit. After about a year of putting on different events and not being able to persuade the politicians to change their mind, I left the group then and went on my own to the High Court to seek an injunction to stop them from doing the test trenching for the motorway.  The judicial review was of the ministers’ decision to grant permission for the test trenching. The archaeological experts had already discovered a huge number of archaeological sites along the pathway of the motorway and a lot of different archaeologists and historians had protested, saying a lot of these sites should be left in situ, rather than being excavated and being preserved by record.

     What happened then, ironically was my case got held up while they awaited the Supreme Court judgment on Carrickmines case determining the constitutionality of the  National Monuments Act. It became a long drawn out process. This went on for years really. In approximately 2004/2005 I went to court. It was 2007 before the case came before full hearing. I lost in the High Court. A really nasty decision, it was. I really got abused by the judge and it was really disheartening because he was clearly quite biased against stopping the motorway proposal.

     My appeal was trending toward the Supreme Court, when An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, came along. My case had really gotten messed up. The judge had tied it up so tightly in knots, I think it was impossible to win in the Supreme Court. At that point, it was an effort to hold them off as long as possible until something else happened. An Taisce came along and said they’d take the case forward if I agreed to drop mine. I did so, however this gave the authorities the opportunity to sign the contract with the construction company. An Taisce waited too long to go into court so there was a window there for the authorities to get the contract signed and get work underway. There was no injunction in place.  When An Taisce did get into court, they were run out within a day or two and that legal process was all over.

     There were movements in Europe to stop aspects of the construction.   When they started excavating for the road, this new site called Lismullin popped up. It was a previously undetected, unrecorded site which was a huge wooden henge (A henge is a group of standing columns found to be arranged according to the local astronomical events. Stone Henge in England is probably one of the most famous henge). We had experts fly in from the US. Dr. Ron Hicks from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, was our main protagonist. He helped us do a petition to the world monument fund to place Lismullin on the hundred most endangered sites in the world. We were successful in that and Archaeological magazine came along and said Lismullin was one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in the year 2007.


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