St Brendan The Navigator Feast Day May 16th Ancient Order of Hibernians
St Brendan the Navigator Division Mecklenburg County Division # 2
ISSUE #1 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER VOLUME# 6
January 2014 Our next business meeting is on Tuesday, January 14th at 7:30 PM
Holy Spirit Parish Center , PAC Room 9
2014 Officers
Chaplain Father Matthew Codd President Ray FitzGerald Vice President Dick Seymour Secretary Tom Vaccaro Treasurer Chris O’Keefe Fin. Secretary Bill Murphy Standing Committee Joe Dougherty Marshall Walt Martin Sentinel Frank Fay Past President Joseph Dougherty
www.aohmeck2.org
"Meallan muilte dé go mall ach meallan siad go mion." God's mill may grind slowly, but it grinds finely .
President’s Message Brothers,
I hope all of you and your families had a very joyous Christmas holyday and holiday. With the arrival of 2014 all of us are now probably embarking on our annual New Year resolutions of dieting and exercising, which, if you’re like me, never seem to get off the ground.
For 2014, consider, from a Hibernian perspective, the ways you can put into practice some of the principles covered in the AOH’s Preamble to its National Constitution, http://www.aoh.com/pdf_docs/national_constitution/national_constitution_updated_102008.pdf, primarily: friendship, unity and true Christian charity as well as promoting Irish Culture. A few resolutions you may want to consider is to attend some more AOH meetings, participate in some of our activities, help with some of calls for manpower (e.g., selling tickets after Masses), being part of our semiannual stream cleaning effort, attending our annual Hibernian St. Patrick’s Day celebration or our socials and volunteering to be a member of one of our committees.
We had an excellent turn out and a good time at our joint Christmas social with the Sons of Erin Division and the Ladies of the Lough LAOH Divison. We are considering a more extensive 2014 party with families and a visit from Santa.
At our December meeting, we held the election of Officers for 2014, followed by their installation to their respective Office by North Carolina AOH State President (Bob Driscoll) and Secretary (Pat Tracey). I want to thank all those who served the Division during 2013, as well as those who volunteered and accepted the nomination for 2014.
The 2014 annual dues are now payable. Please bring $35 cash or check to our January meeting or contact our Financial Secretary, Bill Murphy ([email protected]), to coordinate the payment.
We are planning on having an Irish History Night at St. Mark sometime in February. More information will be forthcoming. As we enter 2014 let’s continue to recruit more members. Whenever you meet someone who has an Irish surname, the first question you should simply ask them is: “With a name like _____, why aren’t you a member of the Hibernians?” We meet in two of the surrounding parishes, St. Mark and Holy Spirit. It would be great to include St. Therese as well. There has to be hundreds of Catholic men of Irish heritage in the Lake Norman area that should be included in our membership. All it takes is a little effort and some nudging.
Our January meeting will be on Jan. 14th at 7:30pm at Holy Spirit Parish Center (PAC Room 9). We will start our meeting with a Shamrock Degree, where we will formally induct recently approved candidates into our ranks. If you know of anyone else who may be interested in joining our Division, let Joe Dougherty or myself know, so we can get the application process rolling and they can be inducted at the meeting. Becoming a member of our Shamrock Degree Team as a regular member (or even as a substitute) is another way of increasing your participation as a Hibernian. Since we keep making our Holy Spirit brothers go to some obscure place on the east side of the Catawba River for our socials, our January social will be tentatively be on Tuesday, Jan. 28th at Safari Miles Restaurant in Denver (located on Business 16 - we pass it on the way to Holy Spirit). We’ll discuss it further at our January meeting. I’d like to wish each of you and your families a healthy and happy 2014.
St. Brendan the Navigator, pray for us! Ray FitzGerald
“ Cuimhnigi ar na daoine ar thainig sibh”
“Remember the people from whom you came”
Deacon’s Corner
“Your life is either a celebration or a chore. The choice is yours.”
A priest friend of mine, expounding on the marvelous mercies of God, prayed fervently, We thank Thee, O Lord, that You coverest all our falling shorts.”
Question: Who was the greatest financier in the Bible? Answer: Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.
“If on any particular day we do nothing more than give a little joy to a neighbor, that day will not be wasted, for we have succeeded in giving comfort to an immortal soul.” - Contardo Ferrini
When things go well and the world is good to you, read Deuteronomy 8
When you are in trouble and things go wrong, read Psalm 27
When your faith is weakening, read Hebrews 11
When sins trouble you, read Psalm 51
When seeking forgiveness, read John 1:7-10
God Bless you! Deacon Ron
Connamara, County Galway Galway City, County Galway
January Birthdays
Andrew Smith Son of Brother Ray January 5th Mary Frances Haley Daughter of Brother Ron January 9th Kathleen Dougherty Daughter of Brother Joe January 15th Tom Martin Son of Brother Walt January 16th Katie Clancey Daughter of Brother Richard January 19th Conor McSweeney Son of Brother Sean January 27th Dolly O’Brian Wife of Brother Bob January 28th Bill Murphy Division Brother January 28nd
January Anniversaries
Bev & Ted Leahy January 30th
Irish America News
Irish Texans
Irish immigrants played a large part in early Texas history, largely because of a carrot-and-stick situation. The "stick" was the political and religious persecution they were suffering at home. The "carrot" was Texas itself: an area with enormous natural resources, but with a paucity of population – an area that was luring immigrants with cheap land in order to exploit those resources.
The Battle of Kinsale, Ireland, in 1602 began the Irish exodus from their homeland, for it ended with the English defeat of the Irish armies. For the next 320 years, the Irish were denied both education and political representation. The predominantly Catholic Irish were also persecuted for their religion by the Anglican English. After the passage of the Test Act in 1703, many of the same abuses were inflicted also upon the Presbyterian Irish.
Time after time the Irish attempted to overthrow English domination; time after time they were defeated. Each defeat generated a new wave of emigration – first to France, Spain and Austria, later to New Spain and Texas. The Potato Famine in the 1840s, when Irish livestock and grain were shipped to England while the Irish starved, created an even larger tide of Irish immigration to all parts of the United States.
One of the first sons of the Emerald Isle who played a part in early Texas history was Hugh O'Connor, born in Dublin in 1734. He was one of those who escaped to Spain, and later, as Hugo Oconór, he served as the Spanish governor of Texas from 1767 to 1770.
Many Irish-born Spanish subjects were counted in the censuses in Nacogdoches during the late 1700s. Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred in the early 1820s included a number of Irish-born colonists.
Two pairs of Irish empresarios founded colonies in coastal Texas in 1828. John McMullen and James McGloin honored the Irish saint when they established the San Patricio Colony south of San Antonio; James Power and James Hewetson contracted to create the Refugio Colony on the Gulf Coast. The two colonies were settled mainly by Irish, but also by Mexicans and other nationalities.
At least 87 Irish-surnamed individuals settled in the Peters Colony, which included much of present-day north-central Texas, in the 1840s.
The Irish participated in all phases of Texas' war of independence against Mexico. Among those who died defending the Alamo in March 1836 were 12 who were Irish-born, while an additional 14 bore Irish surnames. About 100 Irish-born soldiers participated in the Battle of San Jacinto – about one-seventh of the total force of Texans in that conflict. Some of the Irish came to Texas with the U.S. Army during the War with Mexico, many serving as sutlers and teamsters. So many settled near the Alamo in San Antonio, the area became known as Irish Flat. Some remained in the army, while others were artisans, merchants and politicians. Other Irish came to Texas later to work on the railroads.
The 1850 census in Texas listed 1,403 Irish; by 1860, there were 3,480. Is it any wonder that today there are Irish celebrations all over the state?
St. Patrick, the absent honoree, is a figure of controversy. In fact, there is so much conflicting information about the 4th century holy man that some scholars believe that there may have been two men named Patrick.
The St. Patrick legend states that he was born in Britain, perhaps Wales, in A.D. 390. He was captured by pirates at the age of 16 and was taken to Ireland, where he tended sheep for six years. He made his way back to his native land. Later he received religious training, was ordained a bishop and returned to Ireland about A.D. 435.
Some Irish records give the date of his death about A.D. 461, while others give it as about A.D. 492, at which time he would have been 102 years of age, if his date of birth is accurate. Thomas F. O'Rahilly, writing for the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, postulates that there were two saints with the same name: Palladius, ordained by Pope Celestine in 431 as the first bishop of Ireland, had a second name, Patricius, by which he was known to the Irish. He lived until 462 and was immediately succeeded by Patrick the Briton, who died in 492. This would account for the fact that the works attributed to the legendary saint were too immense to have been accomplished by a single person.
Another scholar, James Carney, hypothesizes that after Palladius failed in his mission, one Patrick was ordained the first bishop of Ireland in 432. The "real" Patrick came to Ireland in 457, succeeded the first Patrick in 462, and worked until his death in 492. With sketchy documentation, later generations may have lumped the accomplishments of the two men together into one Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
The Irish Born that fell at the Alamo
SMITH BAILEY
JOSEPH M. HAWKINS
JAMES NOWLAN
SAMUEL BURNS
WILLIAM D. JACKSON
JACKSON C. RUSK
ANDREW DUVALT
EDWARD MCCAFFERTY
BURKE TRAMELL
ROBERT EVANS
JAMES MCGEE
WILLIAM B. WARD
ROBERT MCKINNEY
Cities & Towns of Ireland
Dun Laoghaire, Ireland
Dún Laoghaire, the older anglicisation of which, Dunleary, is also sometimes found) is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland. It is about 12km (7.5 miles) south of Dublin city centre. Dún Laoghaire is the county town of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown county and formerly a major port of entry from Great Britain. From 1821 to 1920 it was named Kingstown. The town's name means "fort of Laoghaire". This refers to Lóegaire mac Néill (modern spelling: Laoghaire Mac Néill), a 5th-century High King of Ireland, who chose the site as a sea base from which to carry out raids on Britain and Gaul. Traces of fortifications from that time have been found on the coast, and some of the stone is kept in the Maritime Museum. The name is sometimes unofficially spelt in modern Irish orthography as Dún Laoire or Dún Laoighre. In rare cases, the old anglicized spelling Dunleary is seen. The present town of Dún Laoghaire dates from the 1820s. An earlier Dún Laoghaire village was located around the area where "The Purty Kitchen" pub is now located (sometimes mapped as "Old Dunleary"). Dún Laoghaire had a coffee house, and a small cove, both of which are shown on a number of old maps, and it may have had a salt mine (Salthill is close by). At that time, the area on which the town is currently located was a craggy, rocky pasture area with some quarries.
Around 1800, some maps show the commencement of a small town centre along what is now Cumberland St, close to the junction with York Road. The events of the night of 18/19 November 1807 was to lead eventually to the transformation of the area. On that night, the troopships, the Prince of Wales, and the Rochdale, both of which had departed from Dublin, were driven on the rocks between Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire with the combined loss of over 400 lives. This disaster gave new impetus to an existing campaign for a new harbor to be constructed near Dublin. By 1816, the legislation was passed authorising the construction of what is now called the "West Pier". The lines of the current town centre including George's Street and most adjoining streets are clearly shown on maps prepared for the development of the harbour, and in particular on a John Rennie plan of 1817, when construction of that town centre had barely commenced at the western end of George's St. That street may originally have been laid out as a military road connecting the Dún Laoghaire Martello Towers—one at the "People’s", the other near the end of the West Pier—both of which have long disappeared. Whatever its origins, the street was clearly an engineer’s design, being ruler-straight for all of its length (except the small western part which clearly pre-dates 1816). When King George IV came to visit the new port under construction in 1821, the name Dunleary was dropped in favor of the name "Kingstown"; the town returned to its former name in 1920, in the lead- up to the creation of the Irish Free State. By the time the Ordnance Survey was completed around 1845, the maps show buildings on much of the street and adjacent streets.
Ireland's first railway from Dublin to Kingstown, opened for business in 1834, terminated near the West Pier. It established Kingstown as a preferred suburb of Dublin, and led to the construction of elegant residential terraces. By 1844 the "Atmospheric Train" (designed by Robert Mallet) connected Kingstown to Dalkey, leading to further development. The Atmospheric Train ceased in 1854, but was replaced by the extension of the railway, which was subsequently extended to the ferry port of Rosslare. The opening of the railway from Dublin saw Kingstown become a Victorian era seaside resort.
In 1890, the Kingstown Town Commissioners established the Peoples Park on the site of a depleted quarry. By 1900, the centre of the town was congested. and steps were taken to widen the street. These steps included the demolition of shop frontages on George's St from Patrick St to Mulgrave Street, and their replacement by new frontages stepped back about 5 yards (4.5m). Shops on the corner of Marine Rd and George's St were also demolished. The main road to Dublin, through Monkstown village and Blackrock, was the sole road connection to the city of Dublin until 1932. In that year, the Eucharistic Congress, held in Dublin brought thousands of visitors to Dublin, and plans indicated that most of them would come through Dún Laoghaire. The road was considered inadequate, and a new coast road was created by connecting some short segments of road and closing some gardens. This road is now Seapoint Avenue. An agreement with the local residents to restore the area to pre-congress condition was never fulfilled.
The British 59th (2nd North Midland) Division disembarked at Kingstown in April 1916 and marched up the road to Dublin, to crush the Easter Rising. Adjacent to the Carlisle Pier and overlooked by the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, there is an anchor, recovered from the wreck of the mail boat RMS Leinster which was torpedoed over the Kish Bank in 1918, with the loss of over 500 lives.
Dún Laoghaire was hit by stray German bombs during World War II, a couple of bombs landing near the People's Park at Rosmeen Gardens. Damage from the bombs was limited to buildings. Dún Laoghaire was once the core element of the borough of Dún Laoghaire, and until 2013 remained the only town in Ireland to have its own Vocational Education Committee. It is considered part of the Greater Dublin Area.
The area is governed locally by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council which is responsible for the provision of local services and amenities. For elections the town is part of the Dún Laoghaire local electoral area which elects six councilors. Following the 2009 local elections there are two councillors each from the Labour Party (centre left) and Fine Gael (centre right) and one each from Fianna Fáil (centrist) and PBPA (left wing).
For elections to Dáil Éireann the town is part of the Dún Laoghaire constituency which is currently represented by four TDs; two from Fine Gael and one from the Labour Party and PBPA. The most high profile TD from the constituency is current Tánaiste Eamonn Gilmore, who resides in Shankill to the south. The harbour, one of the largest in the country, and base for a now limited car ferry route to Great Britain, is notable for its two granite piers. The East Pier is particularly popular with walkers, and was featured in the 1996 movie Michael Collins, where Liam Neeson (as Collins) and two of his co-stars are seen walking along a seaside promenade, which is actually the Dún Laoghaire East Pier. A band is seen playing on a bandstand in this movie scene, and this is the actual bandstand on the East Pier. The bandstand was restored to its original condition in 2010 by the Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company. It took 42 years to construct the harbour, from 1817 to 1859. The obelisk near the old ferryport terminal at the harbour commemorates the construction of this harbour. A lighthouse was located at the end of the East Pier, while the new headquarters of the Commissioners of Irish Lights (the General Lighthouse Authority for Ireland) is located on Harbour Road.
South of the harbour is Scotsman's Bay, where there was a Victorian seaside amusement area, with walks, shelters and baths. The walks and shelters are largely intact. The Dún Laoghaire Baths have been derelict for many years, but were repainted in bright colours in 2012.[11] Plans for restoration of this area are much debated, and some of the more ambitious ideas have been highly controversial. A traditional Victorian-style park, the People's Park, is located at the eastern end of George's Street, and including still-functioning tea rooms. At least one traditional "cabman's shelter" survives – these were small buildings built for the drivers of horse-drawn taxis. Community facilities include the Boylan Community Centre, the Dún Laoghaire Scout Den, and a community information service in the tower building of St Michael's Church.
Dún Laoghaire Harbor Real Irish Heroes
John Devoy
John Devoy (1842-1928) was an Irish rebel leader and exile.
Devoy was born near Kill, County Kildare. In 1861 he travelled to France with an introduction from T. D. Sullivan to John Mitchel. Devoy joined the French Foreign Legion and served in Algeria for a year before returning to Ireland to become a Fenian organizer in Naas, County Kildare.
In 1865, when many Fenian leaders were arrested, James Stephens, founder of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), appointed Devoy Chief Organizer of Fenians in the British Army in Ireland. His duty was to enlist Irishmen in the British Army into the IRB. In November 1865, Devoy orchestrated Stephens' escape from Richmond Prison, Dublin. In February 1866, an IRB Council of War called for an immediate uprising, but Stephens refused, much to Devoy's annoyance as he calculated the Fenian force in the British Army to number 80,000. The British got wind of the plan through informers and moved the regiments abroad, replacing them with loyal regiments from Britain. Devoy was arrested in February 1866 and interned in Mountjoy Gaol before being tried for treason and sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude. In Portland Prison, Devoy organized prison strikes and was moved to Millbank Prison.
In January 1871, he was released and exiled to America, where he received an address of welcome from the House of Representatives. Devoy became a journalist for the New York Herald and was active in Clan na Gael. Under Devoy's leadership, the Clan na Gael became the most important Irish republican organization in the United States and Ireland. He aligned the organization with the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1877.
In 1875, Devoy and John Boyle O'Reilly organized the escape of six Fenians from Fremantle Prison in Western Australia aboard the ship Catalpa. In 1879, Devoy returned to Ireland to inspect Fenian centers and met Charles Kickham, John O'Leary and Michael Davitt on route in Paris. It was on this trip that he convinced Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell to cooperate in the "New departure" during the growing Land War.
Devoy's fundraising efforts and work to sway Irish-Americans to physical force nationalism made possible the Easter Rising in 1916. In 1914, Padraig Pearse visited the elderly Devoy in America, and later the same year Roger Casement worked with Devoy in raising money for guns to arm the Irish Volunteers. Though he was skeptical of the endeavor, he financed and supported Casement's expedition to Germany to enlist German aid in the struggle to free Ireland from English rule, including Casement's "Irish Brigade". Also, before and during World War I, Devoy is also identified closely with the Ghadar Party, and is accepted to have played a major role in supporting Indian Nationalists, as well as playing a key role in the Hindu German Conspiracy which led to the trial that was the longest and most expensive trial in the United States at the time. In 1916 he played an important role in the formation of the Clan-dominated Friends of Irish Freedom, a propaganda organization whose membership totaled at one point 275,000. The Friends failed in their efforts to defeat Woodrow Wilson for the presidency in 1916. Fearful of accusations of disloyalty for their cooperation with Germans and opposition to the United States' enterring the war on the side of Great Britain, the Friends significantly lowered their profile after April 1917. Sinn Féin's election victories and the British government's intentions to conscript in Ireland in April 1917 helped to revitalize the Friends.
With the end of the war, Devoy played a key role in the Friends' advocacy for not the United States' recognition of the Irish Republic but, in keeping with President Wilson's war aims, self-determination for Ireland. The latter did not guarantee recognition of the Republic as declared in 1916 and reaffirmed in popular election in 1918. American-Irish republicans challenged the Friends' refusal to campaign for American recognition of the Irish Republic. Not surprisingly, Devoy and the Friends' Daniel F. Cohalan became the key players in a trans-Atlantic dispute with de facto Irish president Eamon de Valera, touring the United States in 1919 and 1920 in hopes of gaining U.S. recognition of the Republic and American funds. Believing that the Americans should follow Irish policy, de Valera formed the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic in 1920 with help from the Philadelphia Clan na Gael.
Devoy returned to Ireland and in 1919 addressed Dáil Éireann. He later supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. Devoy was editor of the Gaelic American from 1903 until his death in New York in 1928. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Division Calendar of Events for January 2014 January 14th
Monthly Business Meeting, Holy Spirit Denver, NC 7:30 PM PAC Room 9 January 28th
Monthly Division Social- Safari Miles Restaurant in Denver, NC 6:30 PM A Bit of Irish History
Daniel O’Connell Daniel O'Connell and the Catholic Association
1823 The Catholic Association was formed by Daniel O’Connell. It was financed by the ‘Catholic Rent’. The proposed government veto on appointing priests helped create a split with the aristocratic leadership, but it was O’Connell and his elite of Catholic lawyers who mobilised mass politics. They wanted rights, not concessions. There were mass demonstrations and an ‘alternative parliament’ in Dublin.
1826 A Protestant Catholic Association candidate beat the local aristocrat’s choice in the Waterford election. The tenants voted in droves against their landlords.
1828 Daniel O’Connell stood at Clare. He was to become known as the Liberator because he liberated the Irish majority from their political obscurity. His achievements were to allow Catholics to sit in Parliament and to campaign against the Union. As part of his first campaign for Catholic Emancipation he built up a mass organisation including Catholic clergy and middle-class supporters. People could join his Catholic Association for a penny a month, and it soon attracted large sums. O’Connell had a horror of popular violence, but he stressed the physical power that lay in the mass support behind him. O’Connell won at Clare but was not allowed to take his seat until he scored a second victory. The government were worried by the menacing discipline of his followers, who marched in columns. For the first time, Irish popular opinion was a force in British politics.
1829 Catholic Emancipation passed. Catholics were allowed to sit in parliament and hold most high offices, but the franchise was raised to £10, losing them many voters.
1831 - 1836 Violent resistance to the collection of church tithes.
1830s The Orange Society was banned over a political plot to put the Duke of Cumberland on the throne. Respectable Irish opinion towards the Orangemen was ambivalent.
The Young Ireland movement of this decade was led by Protestant nationalists who were often anti- English. The Young Irelanders published an extreme Repealer newspaper, The Nation, which used Irish history to argue that Ireland could become ‘a nation once again’. A cult of ‘dying for Ireland’ emerged, with an emphasis on rebellion. The Protestant establishment as well as the British government were threatened.
O’Connell spent this decade at Westminster allying with Whigs and Radicals, during which time he got tithes to the Church of Ireland abolished and improvements in Irish government, education and health care. Elective councils were introduced in urban areas, and a Poor Law Act was passed. The Ascendancy felt itself under attack.
The British state attempted some modernising initiatives. O’Connell backed some and opposed others, such as secular primary education. He supported policies to whittle down the powers of local gentry.
1836 The police force was centralised and professionalized as the Royal Irish Constabulary. They were largely Protestant but fairly impartial.
1838 A Temperance movement began.
1839 (Jan) The Night of the Big Wind.
1841 Daniel O’Connell of the Catholic Association held Monster Meetings for the Repeal of the Union and the restoration of the Irish Parliament which would be dominated by the Catholic majority. The two kingdoms would be close partners but with independent legislations, sharing a monarch. O’Connell hoped to convert English opinion by arguing that recognition of Ireland’s claim to be a nation would undermine all call for separation. His Monster Meetings attracted huge, well-disciplined crowds. He began his Repeal campaign after the fall of the White government in 1841.
1842 By now, 5 million people had pledged abstinence. The church was trying to stamp out more subversive pastimes like ‘patterns’ and wakes. The movement was marked by an atmosphere of ‘improvement’.
Peel’s government made legislation to favour the Catholic church – the Charitable Bequests Act and Maynooth Grant. The Church was rationalising its structure and broadening its social control. There were too many clergy in comparison to populace.
1843 (15th Aug) The greatest Monster Meeting, on the Royal Hill of Tara, involving at least 750,000 people. In O’Connell’s speech he said the size of the crowd would inspire pride and fear, and they were approaching Repeal with the strides of a giant. However, the government banned one meeting at Clontarf and sentenced O’Connell to jail for conspiracy, although the Lords reversed this. Clontarf had been chosen because of its association with Brian Boru’s confrontation with the Norsemen in 1014. By this time, the eighteenth century Ascendancy fashion for antiquities and history had become bound up with politics. Ideas of national character and the ‘folk’ were growing in Europe. Many histories intended either to validate or invalidate the Union were written. Thomas Moore and Lady Morgan were nationalist writers, and the harp was adopted as a symbol of nationalism. There was an idea of an apostolic succession of national martyrs.
O’Connell’s great achievement was to build up a store of national strength. He successfully channelled the Church’s bond with the people into politics. Catholicism and Irish consciousness were firmly linked.
Around this time, the Orange Order was reconstituted when O’Connell’s campaign for Repeal of the Union became a threat. A royal commission at the time commented that they were emotional and uneducated, and regarded the Catholics as inferior.
Current News from Ireland
Lough Funshinagh the disappearing lake, Roscommon
The incredible tale of the disappearing Irish lake
In 2010 the summer drought in Ireland led to fears that a major lake would once again disappear overnight.
On Monday November 22, 1955, Lough Funshinagh in County Roscommon completely disappeared in moments.
It has since re-appeared.
Accounts at the time in the Westmeath Independent describe an incredible scene as thousands of fish were stranded and swans and geese suddenly found themselves without any water.
"Nature was in the mood for magic in County Roscommon on Monday when sharp at 12 noon Lough Funshinagh with a farewell roar completely disappeared." the newspaper wrote.
An eyewitness, Nicholas Cummins told the newspaper that he was trying to catch a few fish when the lake with a loud gurgle suddenly completely disappeared into a huge cavity at the foot of the nearby Ardmullen Hills.
Thomas Cunningham, another fisherman stated "As the fish strugled about in the water pouring off the lake the fisherman threw them up as fast as they could" he said .
Up to 200 swans were left homeless by the lake's disappearance and flew off to a nearby lake, Lough Ree.
The lake regularly goes dry according to local fisherman and has to do with a local subterranean channel that connects it with Lough Ree three miles away.
During prolonged drought, as Lough Ree drops to an abnormally low level, it drains off Lough Funshinagh.