Dusty

Today (16 April 1939) is the birthday of Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien OBE whose father Gerard Anthony O'Brien (a tax accountant) hailed from Co. Clare and her mother Catherine Ryle from Co. Kerry, Ireland. Born in Hampstead, She grew up in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and went to St Anne's Convent School, Little Ealing Lane, Northfields, West London. 

She began her singing career in a 'Girl Group' called the Lana Sisters during the late 1950s. The Lana Sisters never managed to get a chart hit though they were familiar performers to British TV viewers. They probably came closest with a version of 'Seven Little Girls' which they made with Al Saxon who took the male vocals. Her first taste of real success came when she teamed up with her brother Tom Springfield (Dion O'Brien) and his friend Tim Field. Together they formed the 'Springfields' who produced a blend of 'folk' and pop that audiences were ready for at the beginning of the 1960s.

She died in Henley on Thames on the 2^nd March 1999. Her funeral service was attended by hundreds of fans and people from the music business, including Elvis Costello, Lulu, and the Pet Shop Boys.  A marker dedicated to her memory was placed in the church graveyard of the ancient parish church of St Mary the Virgin. Some of her ashes were buried at Henley, while the rest were scattered by her brother, Tom Springfield (Dion O’Brien), at the Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland.

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/cliffs-of-moher.html

Each year her fans gather in Henley to celebrate "Dusty Day" on the closest Sunday to her birthday (16 April) and an annual Dusty Day fundraiser is held in London with the proceeds going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Hospital.

http://dustyday.co.uk/  

Respect and love to Dusty Springfield.

Forgive us for the Tories!

The Tory Party: defending the rich and attacking the poor since 1678. Put please forgive us Irish for we are responsible for them – even the term Tory comes from the Gaelic word for a Highwayman or Robber!



The word derives from the Middle Irish word tóraiche; modern Irish tóraí: outlaw, robber, from the Irish word tóir, meaning "pursuit", since outlaws were "pursued men". It was originally used to refer to an Irish outlaw and later applied to Confederates or Royalists in arms. The term was thus originally a term of abuse, "an Irish rebel", before being adopted as a political label in the same way as Whig.

Historically, the term Tory has been applied in various ways to supporters of the British monarchy. The term was applied particularly to the isolated bands of guerrillas resisting Cromwell's nine-month 1649–1650 campaign in Ireland, who were allied with Royalists through treaty with the Confederate Irish Parliament, signed at Kilkenny in January 1649.


Mobbing the Tories - print from a 1921 history of the United States

No Irish Need Apply

People forget the discrimination which the Irish, along with other immigrants, suffered even in recent times in Britain and America. It was not uncommon to see signs in boarding houses after the Second World War in England like the one below saying “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs.” My Father in Law worked as a Painter / Decorator in the UK after the war and often remembers the dangerous jobs given to Irish and Polish workers on building sites, quarries and factories in the days when safety precautions were non-existent and no protective equipment was issued. He lost the sight of one eye when it was punctured by a sliver of metal when he was using a grinder without goggles. A friend of his was killed by a train while working on the tracks outside Paddington Station, London. His wife was informed by a note left in their letterbox by the Transport Police and she was never paid compensation as she was told it “was his own fault.” When my Father in Law and his colleagues went looking for “digs” when starting a new job he used to have to hang back and let his English friends do the talking, if a landlady heard an Irish accent they wouldn’t get accommodation.

In more recent times the discrimination has been more subtle with Masonic networks, cabals of Evangelical Christians and others looking for similar types as they are made of the “right stuff.” Indeed the sectarian discrimination against Irish Catholics continues with snide articles about “backward attitudes” as witness the guff written about Opus Dei member Ruth Kelly when she was a government Minister. It is hard to think such patronising guff would be written about another minority in the UK without provoking an outcry. The latest engine of discrimination is the ludicrous and self validating equality industry with its shadow quotas for “Visible Ethnic Minorities” which is perpetuating the same syndrome with manager’s icentivised to appoint the “right people” to meet arbitrary ethnic targets. Another factor in the UK is “security clearance” which is used to discriminate against Irish people in government jobs – for instance up to 4 years ago “Irish nationals” were not invited to Buckingham Palace garden parties on “security grounds.” If this is the discrimination we know about what else is there paddling furiously below the surface?


An "Irish Monkey" - from Punch Magazine - an example of an I.V.E.M *?

Similarly in America during the period of peak immigration after the Famine and early in the 20th Century Irish people were forced into jobs that demanded many hours of hard physical labour with very little pay. Irish immigrants often entered the workforce at the bottom of the occupational ladder and took on the menial and dangerous jobs that were often avoided by other workers. Many Irish women became servants or domestic workers.

Americans disdained this type of work, fit only for servants, the common sentiment was: "Let Negroes be servants, and if not Negroes, let Irishmen fill their place...” Many Irish men laboured in coal mines and built railroads and canals. Railroad construction was so dangerous that it was said that there was an Irishman buried under every tie.


1960's England - “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs”

Well in a strange role reversal after the boom of the Celtic Tiger we are seeing again the 'NO Irish need apply' - the signs are already going up on building sites abroad in a throwback to the grim days of the last century according to a report in the Irish Independent. But this time they are starting to appear in Poland as that country takes its revenge for the way in which some unscrupulous Irish contractors treated their countrymen during the years of the Celtic Tiger.

According to Trade union official Michael Kilcoyne - also president of the Consumers Association of Ireland - said it had recently been brought to his attention that the 'No Irish' signs had appeared on a couple of Polish building sites where workers were being sought. Mr Kilcoyne said: "The reality is that our international reputation as employers has been sullied. Many foreign people, who have worked here, especially during our boom years, have had bad experiences.

"The evidence of this is in the number of cases taken before the Labour Relations Commission over the last year or two in respect of unpaid wages or holiday money that was not paid. Ireland's name as a good place to work has been badly damaged by such contractors who held onto the money of their workers."

Mr Kilcoyne, who is a SIPTU trade union official in the west, revealed that he had personally won 14 such cases in Galway, while he believed there were hundreds, if not thousands, of similar awards made countrywide against employers and in favour of non-national workers who had been short-changed.



Maybe it is time to dust off the lyrics of an old Music Hall song celebrating these NINA (No Irish Need Apply) signs which was originally popularised in English Music Halls before being exported to America.

“I'm a dacint boy, just landed from the town of Ballyfad;
I want a situation: yis, I want it mighty bad.
I saw a place advartised. It's the thing for me, says I;
But the dirty spalpeen ended with: No Irish need apply.
Whoo! says I; but that's an insult—though to get the place I'll try.
So, I wint to see the blaggar with: No Irish need apply.
I started off to find the house, I got it mighty soon;
There I found the ould chap saited: he was reading the TRIBUNE.
I tould him what I came for, whin he in a rage did fly:
No! says he, you are a Paddy, and no Irish need apply!”

NO IRISH NEED APPLY. (1862)

Written by JOHN F. POOLE, and sung, with immense success, by the great Comic-Vocalist of the age, TONY PASTOR.

* I.V.E.M. = Invisible Ethnic Minority!

Hill of Tara

The Hill Of Tara

TaraWatch is calling on the public, around the world, to make submissions to an advisory group that has been set up by the Irish Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, to review the current list of potential UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ireland, known as the Tentative List (of potential nominees as World Heritage Sites).

The Irish Government is currently building the M3 motorway through the heart of the archaeological complex associated with the Hill of Tara, in County Meath, at the same time that it is proposing to nominate Tara to Ireland’s Tentative List. We are asking members of the public to sign our petition and to make submissions, before Friday, January 30th, 2009.

Email your submission to worldheritagetentativelist@environ.ie

Our position is that:

- The Hill of Tara complex qualifies for World Heritage status as a natural and cultural landscape of outstanding universal value, due to its unique cultural significance, and the extent of the surviving remains. Tara covers a much larger area than that the 100 acres of State-owned land on the summit of the Hill, which currently delimits the ‘national monument’. The M3 passes through the middle of the area to be protected.

- The entire Tara archaeological complex and cultural/natural landscape should be declared a World Heritage site. Expert bodies such as the World Monuments Fund, the Heritage Council, have recognised Tara consists of the entire Hill of Tara along with the Tara / Skryne valley, as well as the defensive forts that encircle the hill, including national monuments such as the defensive forts of Rath Lugh (to the east), Rath Miles (to the north) and Ringlestown Rath (to the west), and have called for the re-routing of the M3.

-The M3 motorway, due to open in 2010, should be re-routed outside of the Tara complex, before the site is given UNESCO World Heritage Protection. It would be a breach of the World Heritage Convention for UNESCO to inscribe the site, with the M3 passing through it. This is confirmed by the fact that Tara was placed on the World Monuments Fund, 2008-2010 List of 100 Most Endangered Sites

For more information please visit http://www.tarawatch.org/?p=780


View of Skyrne Hill and Church from The Hill Of Tara at St Patrick's statue


Background on why Tara is so special.

The Hill of Tara (Irish Teamhair na Rí, "Hill of the Kings"), located near the River Boyne, is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath, Leinster, Ireland. It contains a number of ancient monuments, and, according to tradition, was the seat of Árd Rí na hÉireann, or the High King of Ireland. Current scholarship based on the research conducted by the Discovery Programme, indicates that Tara was not a true seat of Kingship, but a sacral site associated with Indo-European Kingship rituals.

In Irish mythology it is said to be the sacred place of the Gods and a door way to other worlds. From atop Tara one can see half of the counties in Ireland and other sacred sites like Newgrange and further north the Hill of Slane where Saint Patrick lit his Pascal fire just prior to coming to Tara to confront the ancient pagan religions at their most powerful spot. There are many, many monuments and earthen structures on Tara dating as far back as 2500B.C. along with over 30 visible monuments and even more that have not been discovered.

A grave was found near the hill that is supposedly that of King Lóegaire, who was said to be the last pagan king of Ireland. During the rebellion of 1798, United Irishmen formed a camp on the hill but were attacked and defeated by British troops on 26 May 1798 and the Lia Fáil was moved to mark the graves of the 400 rebels who died on the hill that day. In 1843, the Irish Member of Parliament Daniel O'Connell hosted a peaceful political demonstration on Hill of Tara in favour of repeal of the Act of Union which drew over 750,000 people, which indicates the enduring importance of the Hill of Tara.


Proposed Road

It is also under attack to be ripped and torn in a most sacrilegious manner by those who have no respect for such things and are blinded by greed with tainted hearts filled will corruption. A privately funded toll road is planned to run right through the Tara Hill Valley desecrating the bones of our ancient ancestors and forever scaring the heart of Tara.

This road is needed to be sure, but an alternate route could easily be instigated around the valley saving Tara and protecting it for future generations. However, the National Road Authorities will have nothing to do with this alternate route and plan to go ahead with the original destructive route.

A Gaelic Irish Joke

A Paddy walking through a field sees a man drinking water from a pool with his hand.

The Paddy shouts "Na ol an t-uisce, ta sé lan de chac bo" (Don't drink the water, it's full of cowshit.)

The man shouts back "I'm English, speak English, I don't understand you".

The Paddy shouts back "Use both hands, you'll get more in."