MASS IN GAELIC - Seattle's Irish community Mass of Remembrance in the Gaelic language is Monday, October 27, 7:30pm, Seattle's St. Patrick's Church, 2702 Broadway Ave E (just off I-5 at Roanoke St). Mass booklets in English and Gaelic will be provided. This Mass commemorates all deceased members of Seattle's Irish community, and the names of those who passed away in the past 12 months are read out during the service. To submit names or for information, call 425-745-1263 or email GaelicMass@irishclub.org.
 

 

DOCUMENTARY FILM / MEETING - The Irish Heritage Club will show 60 minutes of the historical documentary film Mise Éire (I Am Ireland) on Sunday evening, November 16, at 6pm, at Assumption Church Hall, 6201 33rd Ave NE, Seattle. The film features archive cinematograph material of the 1916 Easter Rising, including footage of the Rebellion's leaders, Clarke, Pearse, Connolly, de Valera and Collins. Commentary is in Gaelic with subtitles in English. An IHC General Membership and Irish Week Meeting follows along with a Social Hour. Members and potential members are very welcome. For information, call 206-427-3027 or email info@irishclub.org.
 
CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS - Seattle's Irish Community Children's Christmas Party with Daidí na Nollag (Father Christmas), is 1-4pm Sunday, December 7, Maplewood Church Hall, 19523 84th Ave W (on 196th St), Edmonds. Everyone is invited to meet Daidí na Nollag when he arrives in his green robes at 2pm. To see photos from last year's party, visit www.irishclub.org. Please register (so there's a present for every child) by contacting Áine McDonald at 206-734-2633 or AineM@irishclub.org.
 
MOTHER'S CHRISTMAS - The 2009 Nollaig na mBan (or Mother's Christmas) Dinner will be on Sunday, January 11 at 6pm at Mick Kelly's Irish Pub and Restaurant, 435 SW 152nd St, Burien. For details and reservations, contact CandaceD@irishclub.org or 425-745-1263.

 

To Dennis O'Malley and Trisha Ruis who were married recently in Edmonds. Dennis's mother and father, Martin and Isabella O'Malley, are both from Co. Mayo.

EMIGRANT GRANT - Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs has announced grants totaling over $1.4 million to Irish Immigration centers in the United States, and that includes a grant of $2,500 to Seattle's Irish Immigrant Support Group. These organizations offer outreach and support to the Irish community at large and complement services normally provided by the Irish Embassy and Consulates.
 
DIVERSITY VISAS - Seattle's Irish Immigrant Support Group warns people to be cautious of websites or individuals charging fees to file applications for the Diversity Visa Lottery which begins October 2. Only websites with ".gov" in the address are government sites, and personal information should only be submitted on the official DV Lottery website. There is no charge to apply for the Diversity Visa.
 
IRISH-AMERICAN WINERIES - Irish Emigrants and their descendants from the 18th century onwards were to the forefront in developing the wine trade in the various countries of their adoption. The Irish Heritage Club website now provides a listing of Irish American Wineries.
 
NOTRE DAME - The Notre Dame Club of Greater Seattle has organized a golf tournament and other get-togethers for ND Alumni to coincide with the visit to Seattle on October 25 of the Fighting Irish to take on the Washington Huskies.

 

AS GAEILGE - The local conversational Irish-speaking group meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 7:30pm at Mosaic Coffee House in the Wallingford District. For information, contact asgaeilge@yahoogroups.com or james@banshee.com.
 
SCOTTISH GAELIC - Scottish Gaelic beginners start classes in November in Slighe nan Gaidheal's Zero to Gaelic program. For details, visit www.slighe.com/z2g.
 
VOTE - The deadline to register to vote in Washington is this coming Saturday, October 4. To register, update your address, verify your registration, etc., go to www.secstate.wa.gov.

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AREA CONCERTS / CÉILIS, ETC.

TONIGHT - Solas at The Triple Door, 216 Union, Seattle, this evening, Tuesday, September 30, 7:30pm. Not your parent's Irish band, Solas takes a unique approach to the Irish musical tradition. Their instrumental complement extends to guitars, banjo, bouzouki and keyboards and they often include more contemporary songs in their repertoire.
 
PIPERS' CLUB - This Saturday, October 4, the Irish Pipers Club holds a Fundraiser Concert at Conor Byrne's Pub, 5140 Ballard Ave NW, Ballard, with numerous uilleann pipers and other talented local musicians. If you like great traditional Irish music, this is for you.
 
EDMONDS & KENT - Gaelic Storm, the group that played in the Titanic movie, perform Friday October 10 at 8pm at the Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave N - call 425-275-9595, and on Saturday, October 11 at the Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center, 10020 SE 256th St - call 253-856-5051.
 
OLYMPIA - Masterworks Choral Ensemble presents "Autumn: Celtic Connections" with fiddles and flutes, dancing and drums at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St SE, Olympia, on Saturday, October 11 at 7:30pm. Special guests include Fiddlehead and the Comerford Irish Dancers. For more information, call 360-491-3305.
 
DES MOINES - On Friday, October 17th, an Irish Hooley (Céili music and dance) will be held at the Des Moines Community Center, 20827 3rd Ave S, southwest of the airport. Doors open at 5pm for the potluck supper, jam session, dancing & more. No experience required, but do bring your beverage of choice. Suggested donation: $5 or $10 family. For information, contact mjhoiland@yahoo.com.
 
OCEAN SHORES - The 5th Annual Irish Music Festival in Ocean Shores on Washington's coast will be held from Thursday thru' Sunday, October 23 - 26, at the Galway Bay Irish Pub and features 10 Irish Bands from around the Pacific Northwest and Ireland. For all the details, visit Galway Bay Irish Pub.
 
KIRKLAND - The Keith Highlanders Pipe Band Annual Fall Concert Series will be at the Kirkland Performance Center from October 23-25 with special guests Jori Chisholm, Hanz Araki, the Marian Webb Highland Dancers and the Comerford Irish Dancers. Call 425-893-9900.
 
BOTHELL - Craicmore, who play contemporary traditional Celtic music, join with the Slieveloughane Irish Dancers for a concert at Bothell's Northshore Performing Arts Center on Sunday, November 16 at 2pm.
 
SET DANCING - The Seattle area's weekly Sunday evening (7 to 9pm) Set Dancing sessions have been moved to Mick Kelly's Irish Pub, 435 SW 152nd St, Burien, near the intersection of Hwy 509 & Hwy 518, west of the Airport. For information, call Jim Belcher at 425 402 8363.

RECIPROCAL PERMITS - A new Irish-US agreement will permit 5,000 US citizens to work and travel in Ireland for up to 12 months and 20,000 Irish citizens to similarly work and travel in the US. The Working Holiday Agreement applies only to those who are in post-secondary education or have recently graduated. Once the details are finalized, interested US citizens in the Western US can apply through the Irish Consulate in San Francisco.
 
ABBOT GENERAL - Dom Eamon Fitzgerald, the abbot of Mount Melleray Abbey in Co Waterford, has been elected Abbot General of the Cistercians (Order of the Strict Observance a/k/a Trappist Monks), the first Irishman so elected. There are 97 monasteries of Cistercian monks and 72 monasteries of Cistercian nuns in 47 different countries around the world, including five monasteries of Cistercian monks and one monastery of Cistercian nuns in Ireland.
 
'LIBERATOR' MOVING - During excavation for a new underground stop on Dublin's Rapid Transit System, the O'Connell monument will be temporarily moved from its location near the O'Connell Street Bridge. The granite and bronze monument was erected in 1882 to memorialize "The Liberator", Daniel O'Connell, and his success in achieving Catholic Emancipation in 1829. The monument still caries bullet holes from the 1916 Rising and the 1922 Civil War.
 
AN TRAONACH - The unique "crek crek" call of the Corncrake was once common in rural Ireland, but now the Corncrake is threatened with global extinction, the only Irish breeding bird so threatened. Corncrakes nest in tall grass during the spring and summer, but the mowing of meadows has caused a major decline in their number. Efforts are being made to solve the problem by paying farmers to cut later in the season thus giving chicks a chance to survive.
 
RECOVERED IDENTITIES - In 2000, a 71-year-old Irishman was found on a street in Britain suffering from acute amnesia, but his identity was only recently discovered when he appeared on a TV program about missing people. In the meantime in 2003, a badly decomposed body had been identified and buried by his family. The incident mirrored the case of Dubliner Jack McCoy who disappeared in Yakima in 1957. A body was later found and identified as him, but two months after his funeral, McCoy turned up at his daughter's house in Seattle to be reunited with his family. McCoy's story was memorialized by Kevin Moriarity in his play A Rose For Danny.
 
SEVENTYMILLION PROJECT - There are 70 million people around the world who claim Irish heritage or ancestry. If you are one of them, you're invited to tell the world about it at www.seventymillion.org.
 
PRESIDENTIAL ANCESTORS - All the major party candidates for US President and Vice-President have Irish ancestors. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's mother's maiden name was Sheeran whose ancestors emigrated from Ireland in the mid 1800s, although from where in Ireland is not clear. Senator Joe Biden hails from the Finnegans who left Co. Louth just before the Great Famine. He regularly speaks of his Irish Catholic upbringing in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Senators Obama and McCain also have clear links to Ireland in their backgrounds.
 
IRISH ENVOY - Senator John McCain addressed an Irish-American Presidential Forum in Scranton on September 22 and committed to appointing a special envoy to Ireland if elected. McCain was the first Republican Presidential candidate to ever to address the Forum which is held every four years to invite presidential candidates to outline their positions on Irish affairs.
 
DEMOCRATIC OUTREACH - At the Democratic Convention in Denver, Irish American Democrats hosted a lunch to celebrate Barack Obama's joint Kenyan and Irish heritage. Attending were several Irish and Kenyan government ministers and politicians, the Irish and Kenyan Ambassadors to the US, former Irish President Mary Robinson, and European Union Ambassador and former Irish Taoiseach John Bruton.
 
SHINTY CHAMPS - A bit of Celtic sporting history was made recently in the highlands of Scotland when the Tír Conaill Harps women's Gaelic Football and Camogie club in Glasgow won the Women's Camanachd Cup Final, the Scottish game of Shinty's most prestigious women's competition. Lack of local Gaelic Football and Camogie competition led the Harps to take up Shinty and they are now a major force in the game.

 

·         A film about the 1981 IRA hunger strike in the Maze prison won the Discovery award at the Toronto Film Festival. "Hunger" also won the Camera d'Ór at Cannes this year
·         A sculpture was unveiled this past weekend commemorating balloonist Richard Crosbie who in 1785 flew in a balloon across Dublin watched by a crowd of more than 20,000 who had paid admission to watch him take off. 
·         According to the Belfast Newsletter, the number of recruits from the Republic of Ireland joining the British army has doubled in the last year, and Irish citizens now comprise 10.5% of recruits.
·         Britain's Irish-born Minister for Transport, Ruth Kelly from Co. Tyrone, is resigning her ministerial position to spend more time with her four children.
·         Dublin is the best poker-playing city in Europe, according to the game's biggest-selling magazine, Bluff Europe.
·         Gardaí (Police) in Ireland are now authorized to impose on-the-spot fines ranging from $140 to over $200 on anyone caught being drunk or disorderly in public.
·         Great Britain is Ireland's biggest trade partner and is also home to 690,000 Irish-born people.
·         Household electricity meters in Ireland will be replaced by "smart meters" which allow customers to shut down electricity at peak times when power is most expensive.
·         In 2007, the average work week in Ireland was 38.9 hours although the collectively agreed working time average was 37 hours.
·         In 2011, the Republic of Ireland will play Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in a Celtic Nations soccer tournament at Dublin's redeveloped Lansdowne Road.
·         Ireland is the 16th least corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International's (TI) annual Corruption Perceptions Index. The TI survey ranks 180 countries according to perceived levels of public sector corruption.
·         Ireland's Catholic Church has a new website with details and contact information for all 26 dioceses, etc., as well as other links of interest to both Catholics and genealogists.
·         Zoom Airlines, the lowbudget airline flying from Vancouver to Belfast, has ceased operating.
·         Some 200 poets, artists and calligraphers from Ireland and Scotland have collaborated in the publication of An Leabhear Mor - The Great Book of Gaelic. Published in Scotland and now in Ireland, it is considered to be a 21st-century Book of Kells.
·         The first pensions were introduced in Britain and Ireland on August 1st, 1908. Anyone over 70 with an annual income under £20 received an annual pension of 5 shillings. £20 today equals $36 and 5 shillings equals 45¢.
·         The international Polar Year is being marked with two limited edition silver proof and gold proof coins to recognize the achievements of the Irish-born Antarctic explorers Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean.
·         The life cycle of birds and plants in Ireland is changing as spring temperatures increase, with migrating birds arriving up to a week earlier than 35 years ago.
·         The new 17-story Elysian tower in Cork is the tallest building in Ireland at 233 feet. For comparison, Seattle's 76-story Columbia Tower is 937 feet tall.
·         The partial remains of a prehistoric young person have been uncovered during an archaeological dig in the Burren, Co Clare, along with part of a stone axe and other flints and artefacts leading experts to believe the bones date from 2500-2000 BC.
·         Under EU rules, Ireland and the UK reimburse each other for the cost of providing healthcare to each other's tourists, workers, pensioners and their dependants.
·          When Co. Tyrone won the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championship, Northern Ireland's sports minister, a Democratic Unionist, congratulated the team for winning an "international event".

IRISH PROVERB