A Celtic Connection
An Annotated Bibliography
The goal of this project is to discover how my family was able to obtain the happiness they searched for when they came to America. This happiness could not have just fallen into their hands — they would have needed to work hard. I want to understand the struggles and hardships my ancestors went through as I will be better able to understand my family as a whole. This project is my exploration of the history and culture that surrounds my family. My grandmother is who I will be interviewing to piece my family’s story together, so I want to prepare by exploring aspects of her life as well as historical sources.
What follows is an analysis of sources that ties each article, movie, book, etc. to the Ison-Harte family narrative. In addition to sources that discuss the history of Ireland and Irish immigrants in New York City, ones that explore gardening and Irish folk tales will also be incorporated. Family favorites are also included as they hold a special place in the narrative of my family.
My grandmother is interesting and amazing not only because of her heritage but also because of the magic she creates when she nurtures her garden and tells stories. As such these important aspects of her life will be incorporated. I want to understand my grandmother at a deeper level as she is so important to me. I hope to understand how my family struggled to get to where we are now as understanding my family’s experiences will help build character and establish a stronger sense of self for me to live with. A secure connection with one’s identity is essential when living a fulfilling life after all.
The Celtic Twilight
Yeats, W.B. (1902). The celtic twilight. London: A.H. Bulletin.
Just as Yeats begins his exploration of the Celtic tales he has heard throughout Ireland, I will begin my journey into the history of my family by conveying my hope that this family bible I am creating will properly portray the essence of my family and its history. I wish this to be a course of self discovery and research reported from the heart.
The Celts are a people who share a culture that spans back to 1200 B.C.. They began as a collection of tribes practicing the same traditions and speaking the same language. Destroyed by attackers from the Roman Empire during Julius Caesar's reign they found refuge on the British mainland where the attacks could not reach. Thus, separated from the European mainland, their culture thrived and can still be found today in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Celtic culture is always close to nature. Ireland has a climate perfect for many plants to thrive and forests to grow in after all. My family, myself included, has forever felt a connection to nature as true Celts do. William Butler Yeats, the famous Irish poet, felt it as well. In this book of his he writes of ghosts, fairies, and other such creatures, but he also delves into the magic of Ireland’s forests and the creatures within them.
For example, he tells of a man who believed in the magic of common forest animals in a section of the book titled, “Enchanted Woods.” He and many others believed that these animals were in fact spirits that could shape shift and would shift in and out of human form when necessary.
Other tales tell of a common theme in Irish literature. The kidnapping of people by fairies and spirits. People would disappear and often were never seen again, so the Irish attributed this mystery to spirits that would come take people away and make them dance till they died. Yeats recalls a story of one woman who came back that had lost all her toes from apparently dancing them off!
This collection of folktales Yeats created perfectly captures the essence of Celtic culture. The mystery and magic that the very land of Ireland emits. With the beauty and fascination Ireland has it lead me to wonder why my family left and how that choice effected them and their future generations. The connection to the land was never severed though as I still feel it now.
The Best of West Ireland: Dingle, Galway, and the Aran Islands
Rick Steves’ Europe. (2014, May 14). The best of west Ireland: Dingle, Galway, and the Aran Islands [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYa8nOB2_3s
Nights in the kitchen with my mother are composed of cooking meals to eat at the dinner table while Rick Steves’ Europe plays in the background. Watching Rick travel from place to place and teach us about the culture and history of different places across Europe always created a good mood in the kitchen. Our favorite episodes were ones that included any place in Ireland as we both love Irish culture and the land itself.
Western Ireland is a part of the country that is brimming with Irish culture. The Gaeltacht, the Irish Gaelic speaking region of Ireland, is located here, and it is the last place on Earth where people still practice speaking the dying language today. My paternal ancestors hail from this beautiful land that is filled with culture and history. Sligo, where the Hartes lived, lies a bit east of the places explored in this video, but as a true section of Western Ireland, Sligo carries the same feeling as the rest of the west. This land that captured Yeats attention and became his muse is worth exploring after all.
Rick captures the true essence of western Ireland as he travels from the north west coast down to the south west coast. He features the rich Celtic culture that is still alive today along with historical sites that litter the western side of the country. His first stop is the Aran Islands. The 2,000 year old Celtic fortress of Dun Aengus stands on the largest island, Inishmore. It stands beside a cliff surrounded by Frisian soldiers, sharp stones pointing out of the ground in order to defend the fort. This fort is just one of many archaeological sites in western Ireland. Another site is found in Dingle. Numerous small, stone huts litter the area, and they were home to monks who fled continental Europe during the Dark Ages in order to keep literacy alive. These monks were called upon by Charlemagne to be his scribes when he ruled most of Europe around 800 A.D..
Rick also visits towns that are part of the Gaeltacht to give people a taste of the amazing culture these places keep alive. For example, in the Aran Islands the only real town is called Kilronan, and it is here that the locals speak the Gaelic language. They also use English with tourists, but they speak their own language amoungst themselves. Dingle is also part of the Gaelic speaking world. As with all Gaeltacht towns, Kilronan and Dingle have a vibrant culture with an abundance of folk traditions and music. In Kilronan there are performances of Irish hard shoe, which is step dancing.
The effect of the English invasion and subsequent control of Ireland for years afterward is also apparent in the western part of the country. When the English were taking over the eastern lands they told the Irish Catholic locals to “go to hell or go to Connemera,” which is a name for the poor land in the west. The English did eventually want the western lands too though. Galway got its name from the old Irish word for foreigners, “gal.” When the English got all the way over to the west, they kicked the Irish out of this fishing village and took it for themselves, building a large wall around it. The Irish that were displaced then called it Galway, “the town of foreigners.”
The rugged natural beauty of Ireland is captured by the scenic lands in the west. The rocky land with long, lush grasses grazed on by cows and sheep alike create theraw and unrefined charm that defines western Ireland. The Burren, an hour away from Galway, is a perfect example of the determined elegance this country possesses. It is a 50 square mile limestone plateau that is home to over 600 species of plants, and it has the greatest diversity of plants in all of Ireland. The Burren has Mediterranean and Arctic wildflowers growing side by side.
This land that my family is from is beautiful and natural. Hardworking, Gaelic speaking Irish folk work the land and live enjoying the countryside. My ancestors lived these lives and may have visited these nearby historical and cultural sites. I truly hope one day my family and I can visit them too.
The Illustrated History of Ireland
Duffy, S. (2002). The illustrated history of Ireland. Dublin: Contemporary Books.
A picture is worth a thousand words. History explained through the use of many pictures, paintings, charts, and graphs is always more memorable than just reading words off a page. This book makes learning the history of Ireland much easier as it provides many pictures, maps, and charts that aid in the given explanation of the history. Duffy gives a thorough account of Irish history from before history itself all the way to the present accompanied by illustrated, in-depth explanations. This book was the perfect place for me to start learning about the history of my family’s homeland. I mainly used this book to explore how the British established control of Ireland and the effect this event had.
The English invasion of Ireland is an important event in Irish history as it marks the beginning of 800 hundred years of British control of the island. It began with an invasion in 1169 led by Robert fitz Stephen. Stephen and his men landed in Wexford and took control of the county. A year later in 1170, Strongbow, the lord of Pembroke and Strigoil, took control of Waterford, and in the same year they advanced on Dublin. These campaigns never grasped full control over all of Ireland throughout the medieval period, but they did succeed in granting England the power to begin colonizing Ireland. Under the reign of Henry III (1216–1272) the colony in Ireland would expand and prosper. However, this expansion was met with resistance from the Irish themselves. It wasn’t until 1494 that Ireland was officially declared part of England.
Within a few years after 1169, occupied Ireland would see an increase in immigration from Britain as people came over to take advantage of the creation of boroughs. The boroughs were created to encourage settlement as the status and tenure was appealing to potential settlers. These settlers brought with them their culture and loyalty to another country that would stay for most of the Middle Ages. Even English common law became the law in occupied Ireland in the late 1160’s. British control of Ireland would change the country forever.
It should be noted that British control of Ireland is said to have begun when Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, the king of Cenel nEogain, died. He had been fighting for control of Ireland when he was killed, and his ally, Diarmait Mac Murchada, fled overseas and made contact with the king of England at the time, King Henry II. He asked for help regaining his kingdom of Leinster and promised to become the king’s vassal and to have his kingdom become a fief of the king’s. King Henry II agreed and thus the invasion of Ireland was at hand. the king had been waiting for an opportunity to take control of Ireland, and Mac Murchada gave him the prefect excuse.
A History of Ireland
Cronin, M. (2001). A history of Ireland. Hampshire: PALGRAVE.
Ireland to me is the place my ancestors are from and the place where part of my family resides today. I have never been, and yet I feel a connection with the land and culture. I recently started to learn Irish Gaelic after I conducted a research project on this fading language my junior year of high school. However, as for the deep history of Ireland, I do not know much. History classes do not go into deep detail when Ireland is mentioned after all. This project gave me a chance to learn more about my ancestors’ homeland.
This book is a wonderful overview of Irish history even going as far back as the Neolithic settlers that used to occupy Ireland thousands of years ago. It gave me a chance to learn about the land my ancestors came from and understand why they had to leave. The Great Famine along with other smaller issues happening at the time of my family’s departure all acted as push factors for them to leave. The famine destroyed the farm and with it any hope that my family could stay in Ireland. The devastation was so hard on them that it took them about another 40 years for them to work up the money and courage to leave Ireland and come to America.
After exploring the history of Britain’s rule over Ireland, I wanted to make sure I looked into another major event in Ireland’s history, the fight for freedom. Ireland would be split into two because of this fight, Northern Ireland staying under the control of the British and the Irish Free State gaining their independence. The fight would last from 1916–1923. These years were brutal and bloody ones as Ireland fought not only the British but also themselves as the nation was split into two. It began with the Easter Rising of 1916 where a group of poorly organized rebels read a now famous document, the Proclamation of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. The uprising lasted a week as the British dealt with the insurgents quickly and without mercy. They arrested anyone that took part in the rebellion and killed the leaders. Overall, this event lead to the next few years of Irish violence against British rule.
In 1919. the Dail Eireann, the Irish parliament, met and pledged to create an Irish Republic. The War of Independence was a harsh one, and as it was vastly unpopular in England, the English Prime Minister, Lloyd George, called it to an end in a truce on July 9,1921. This treaty, however, stated that the Dail must pledge their allegiance to the King rather than the Free State. Thus Ireland was split over whether or not to ratify this treaty. The civil war broke out and while it was short, only lasting from April 1921 to April 1923, it caused more casualties than the rest of the fighting occurring from 1916 to 1921. Thus Ireland was consequently split into the Free State and Northern Ireland.
While my family was not in Ireland for this fight for freedom as they left in 1892, I still firmly believe that they were affected by this event as this was this homeland in peril. They must have been keeping tabs on the fighting and the politics of Ireland even while over in America as they still had family back in Ireland. The relatives and friends they left behind must have been fighting over in Ireland, so my family did not go unaffected by these events. Their hometowns were being destroyed by fighting as well.
This overview of Irish history gave me a place to begin understanding the lives of my ancestors. Reading about historical events they must have witnessed or been a small part of gives context for the people they must have been. The Great Famine impacted my family and with this book I now have a better grasp of how the famine affected not only my family but also the world. It also granted me a better understanding of the fight for independence Ireland went through and how this must have affected my family members, even as they were in America at this point in history.
Children of the Forest
Beskow, E. (1910). Children of the forest. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Floris Books.
The night is dark and the lights are dim inside my Grandmother’s home. My five year old self lays curled up in warm, white sheets in the guest room as Granny sits near me with a book clutched in her hands. Her voice softened by the plush pillows under my head tells a story of tiny children, smaller than even myself, who live in forests and play with the animals there. Dressed in white clothes, they wear bright red mushroom caps to hide themselves from people who walk by unaware. The pictures capture my imagination as the watercolors seems to bleed into air and come alive. Playing with fairies and birds near the stream and gathering wood in the thick snow these children and their family prosper in the forest.
This children’s book will always be an important part of my childhood. I grew up reading and loving this book with all my heart and soul. The magic it generates still moves me to this day. The bright colorful illustrations and the clear descriptive words never fail to stir my imagination.
When it comes to my family’s struggle to find happiness here in America, this book also portrays a similar fight to brave new territory and create a warm and happy home for a family to live in. The family in the story are easy to relate to as they work hard to survive in the large forest they live in. The parents are always working to provide for their kids. The mother sews them new clothes and the dad goes out and scavenges for food while the children pitch in and also help out. A family trying to build a life for themselves in America has the same dynamics as the family in the story. The parallels are interesting to see as my family must have gone through a similar phase. Thomas J. Harte would have gone to work shoveling coal in a train engine, and Susan Fitzpatrick would have watched John while taking care of the household and from time to time running a boarding house. Johnny like the child he was at the time, would have messed around and played in the streets of New York City while occasionally helping out at home. This story helps me imagine what life must have been like for my family as they worked hard to live in America.
Ireland’s Great Famine: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Grada, C.O., Eiriksson, A., Guinnane, T., Mokyr, J. & O’Rourke, K. (2006). Ireland’s great famine: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Dublin: University College Dublin Press.
The Great Famine had a huge impact on my family as it was the biggest push factor for their immigration to America. This famine killed one eighth of the entire population which marked it as major famine in world-historical standards. My family managed to live through this trial and make it to the New World; therefore, it is extremely important to understand the hardships they faced during this famine.
The dependence the Irish had on their potato crop made the repeated attacks of the potato blight that first reached Ireland in 1845 completely devastating. The moist climate made Ireland perfect for the potato and yields were high.
They depended on the potato for more than just their own food as it was also used to feed livestock, such as chickens and pigs. The first attack of the blight in 1845 did not actually kill anybody as it wasn’t until August 1846 that the first death by starvation was recorded. Crime rose and continued to rise as people became desperate for food.
The British, who still controlled Ireland at this time, attempted to help by imposing a property tax called the “rate-in-aid,” posed greater taxes on the rich of Ireland to support the poor. However, this created resentment strongly in the political world from 1849- 1850. The British government also tried to provide relief by creating jobs for the Irish people to work on small-scale infrastructural improvements. This was also ineffective as it did not target those who needed it the most, the pay was too low, and the people they were employing were already malnourished and barely clothed. These workers were exposed to harsh weather conditions during the worst times of the year. Since this plan was not working properly, in 1847, the British government switched over to publicly financed soup kitchens. These kitchens successfully targeted those in the most need, and mortality seemed to fall; however, their usefulness was not long lasting as the food was below standard. Overall, Britain’s mindset that the famine was God-sent and punishment for overpopulation only hurt the Irish as the British refused to help past a certain point. The British feared that if they gave too much aid, God would be angry with them for getting in the way of teaching the Irish a lesson. Therefore, they left the relief efforts to the Irish themselves and treated the famine as a local issue.
Workhouses started to fill up in 1846 as people searched for relief and jobs. Consequently, the workhouses also began to have trouble as famine related conditions, such as marasmus and dropsy, plagued them. They saw very high mortality rates from 1850–1851. These mortality rates point to the long-lasting effects of the famine in western areas of Ireland.
As for economic effects of the famine, the importance of crops in agricultural output dropped as in 1840–1845 they accounted for two-thirds of the net agricultural output. Subsequently, in 1876 they accounted for less than a quarter and even less in 1907. A more positive effect was that the standard of living rose as it increased the bargaining power of labor.
Overall, O Grada argues that the famine was a consequence of ignorance and poverty as those without means for food died and even those with means did not have enough knowledge to combat the diseases that ran rampant as a result of the famine. With little help from the British and a lack of resources and knowledge themselves, the Irish were devastated by the Great Famine.
Letters from Ireland During the Famine of 1847
Somerville, A. (1994). Letters from Ireland during the famine of 1847. K.D.M. Snell (Ed.) Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
This book is a collection of letters written by Alexander Somerville as he toured around Ireland during the Great Famine in the year 1847. He encountered people that were directly impacted by this catastrophic event just as my family was. He offers his own insight on the state of affairs in each town he visited and his own opinions on what should be done to remedy this disaster. Reading these letters gave me a better understanding of exactly what it must have been like for my family to live through this time.
Before diving into the letters themselves, it is important to explore the introduction written by K.D.M. Snell that describes who Somerville is and what his purpose is. According to Snell, Somerville was a mercenary soldier who fought in the Spanish Civil War. His purpose of writing these letters was to convince the British public that there was a crisis occurring in Ireland that needed to be dealt with. As the British refused to help the Irish to an extent he wished to urge them to do more. He also aimed to figure out how Ireland had been pushed to this point. He was highly sympathetic to the poor Irish and vilified the “parasitic” landlord class. His biases should be taken into account when analyzing his work. Also, the letters I focused on reading were the ones that pertained to western Ireland, specifically County Sligo, as this is where my family was living during the famine.
In the Letter from Collooney, County Sligo, Somerville extrapolates that Sligo is a main producer of butter, eggs, and oatmeal, but the people are not eating these products themselves as they need to sell them in order to pay rent to their landlords. The products are being shipped to Scotland and other lands where they are consumed and paid for. The need to pay rent is overriding the need to consume their own products. In this letter he also explores the notion that Saxons are superior to Celts, such as the ones that populate County Sligo. He says that while he is himself a Saxon, he does not believe that Celts are inferior as this notion, he argues, is the fault of the miseducated aristocracy. He believes instead that the Celts’ bondage to the land is a cause for their misery in this famine. Saxons freed themselves from their attachment to land and created a space for them to explore the enterprises of commercial industries. The Celts’ attachment to the land and their inability to go anywhere else prevented them from enjoying this freedom.
In the Letter from Ennis, County Clare, Somerville stresses the question of why counties like Sligo, Clare, Mayo, and Galway that are devoted to agriculture are not giving employment to the people. He explains that in Ireland there is twenty one million acres of land, and that on third of this land is not being cultivated at the time of this letter. This land is capable of being used for labor and the production of crops. Overall, he urges landlords to allow people to cultivate the land they own and to not withhold land in the hopes of other enterprises.
Somerville’s letters helped me think more deeply about why the famine occurred and how it affected the lives of the people in Ireland. The prejudice my family and the rest of the Celts faced during these times was not something I was aware of until now. These misinformed notions of the Celts affected every aspect of my family’s life.
Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945–1995
Almeida, L.D. (2001). Irish immigrants in New York City, 1945–1995. Indiana University Press.
The year is 1892 and some members of my family have just journeyed across the Atlantic in order to began again in America. With hopes of success that every immigrant brought with them to the new world, my family began their life in Manhattan’s 12th ward. An era of mass immigration occurred from 1880–1920 in America, and more than four million Irish immigrants came over between 1840–1920. They migrated due to the Great Famine, but within fifty years of the famine the Irish managed to build a thriving society in New York City that comprised one third of the total population.
Almeida describes in this book how the Irish found power over in America in both politics and the Church. In her analysis of Irish power in New York, she looks to the historians Daniel Moynihan and Nathan Glazer. These two believed that the Irish era of New York City began in the early 1870's and ended in the 1930's. The Irish era was brought on by the power the Irish gained both in the city government and the Roman Catholic Church. My ancestors came over right in the middle of this era, and while I am pretty sure no one from my family was involved deeply in politics, there is a high possibility that my family was involved with the Church. My Irish ancestors were Irish Catholic. In fact, after the Spanish Flu killed my 2nd great-grandfather and my 2nd great-grandmother soon followed. Their older son,Thomas, died around 1926. After the elder Hartes died, an aunt Delia cared for the boys until her own death. The remaining son, John Joseph Harte, was educated by the Christian Brothers at a school called the De La Salle Academy.
Control of the Church was cemented in after the famine as Irish Americans took on leadership positions in the clergy and hierarchy of the institution. The Irish immigrants brought a strong, formal, and more conservative brand of Catholicism with them as they had been harden by the struggles and hardships of the famine. The Germans also fought for control of the church, but they were outnumbered. However, both the Irish and the Germans contributed to the growth of the Church at this time. The Church grew to include almost half of New York City’s entire population from 1815–1865.
One Irish leader in the Catholic Church was Archbishop John Hughes who is known for building St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. Hughes also made his mark by centralizing power in the Church to the hands of the archbishop rather than in the hands of individual parishes.
I went to New York City my junior year of high school with my orchestra program, and I had the pleasure of visiting this magnificent place.In the middle of the bustling city this cathedral reaches out as a place of worship and peace. I am amazed that this place was built by an Irish immigrant who rose up in ranks in the Catholic Church here in America. This cathedral is a testament to the power and spirit of Irish Americans.
As my ancestors had deep roots in Irish Catholicism, I am glad that I was able to better understand the role of this religion, not only in my family, but in the world at this time. My family is not deeply religious in any way, but we do occasionally go to church, so it is interesting to see how religion can influence an entire city such as Catholicism did in New York.
The New York Irish
Bayor, R.H., & Meagher, T.J. (1996). The New York Irish. The John Hopkins University Press.
The new world my 2nd great-grandparents journeyed to was just getting started. A turn of the century was about to be upon them in one of the greatest cities in the world, New York, New York. As they arrived in 1892, by the time they got settled in this new country, things were beginning to pick up. New technology and a multitude of opportunities stretched out before them and their child.
This book dives deep into the history and lives of Irish living in New York at this time. A section titled “Irish American Worker in Transition” was extremely helpful when piecing together the job Thomas J. Harte had and how this affected the family. As a coal hoister he would have been working in pretty poor conditions, just like many other Irish immigrants at the time. A coal hoist was used in underground mining to move conveyances up and down the mine shaft. Thomas Harte was in charge of working this machinery, and just as most work was back in the day, this job was a dangerous one. Working in horrible conditions and doing dangerous work caused most people in America to start rallying for better pay and conditions in the workplace. This book describes the involvement of the Irish in labor movements at the time so clearly, I can picture my 2nd great grandfather participating in them. He must have been working hard to reform the labor laws in America alongside countless other immigrants at the time.
In 1900 Irish immigrants made up one tenth of the mining industry, and around 12 hundred thousand Irish Americans workers worked in industries and transportation. As the Irishmen who came over directly after the famine had no financial power to become farmers in the new world, they swarmed to the unskilled labor force in America. New York was rapidly developing at this time as the turn of the century approached, so the influx of workers supplied the city with the necessary human capital to grow their industries. However, American workers resisted the growing numbers of Irish laborers, and race riots broke out during the Civil War. Despite this the Irish population in New York continued to grow. More Irish immigrants came over, as my family did, in the late 1800’s, so while many more established Irish families in the city found work in more skilled factions of the labor force, Irish immigrants continued to flow into unskilled positions.
Due to their prevalence within the labor force of New York City, Irish Americans often held leadership positions in the city’s labor unions. They would lead these unions well into the next century after the Civil War.
The Irish County Societies described in the book got me thinking about the class status my family might have had at the time. As poor Irish immigrants devastated by the potato famine, I can’t imagine they were well off in any way. At the very most they could have been middle class citizens, but most of these Irish County Societies were only open to well off, rich families from specific counties back in Ireland. I can’t imagine my family was a part of these groups, but this section of the book helped me realize the impact one’s class has on their life, especially back in the early 20th century.
Comparing French vs English Garden Landscaping
Jonite (2010). Comparing French vs English garden landscaping [web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.jonite.com/blog/2015/comparing-french-vs-english-garden-landscaping.
Irish landscaping stems greatly from English landscaping and the ideals that come with that approach to organizing a garden. The English, and thus the Irish, believe that everything should look very natural and free. This contrasts with the French way of thinking as they believe a garden should look symmetrical and orderly. The relationship between the two approaches is very much natural vs staged. Both ways have their advantageous, but I connect more to the free flow of an English garden.
Granny constructs her garden the English way, letting each plant’s natural beauty flourish. I’ve always admired the wild beauty of my grandmother’s garden. The plants are contained but allowed to blossom freely and naturally. Instead of the plants being built around the garden, the garden is built around the plants to create a natural masterpiece.
Just because the English manner of raising a garden is a less formulated approach doesn’t mean it is any easier than the carefully calculated French way. Granny does not skirt work when it comes to her garden or anything else. Just as she wrote journal articles during her job as a journalist with such care and accuracy, she plants new flowers and meticulously trims back unruly rose bushes so that the garden remains healthy.
The Lissadell House and Gardens
The alpine garden at Lissadell. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://lissadellhouse.com/
Deep in the Sligo country side, there is an historic house that is still flourishing today. The Lissadell House was constructed between 1830 and 1835 in Ballinful, County Sligo, Ireland. The architecture for this country house is a neo-classical Greek revivalist style. This house was the childhood home of the Irish revolutionary, Constance Gore-Booth, also known as Countess Markievicz, and her sister, Eva Gore-Booth. W.B. Yeats stayed at this house in 1892 and 1893 as he was friends with the Gore-Booth siblings. This house left such an impression on him that he incorporated it into a poem, “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz.”
The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.
This poem successfully immortalized this house in writing. Lissadell House helped shape Yeats’ love for Sligo as he visited many times during the summer.
A main feature of this house is the grand alpine garden that was created in 1740 as a pleasure garden. In the 1920’s it was made into an exhibition for alpine and herbaceous plants by Sir Josslyn Gore-Booth who was a horticulturist. The garden is two acres and walled in. An alpine garden is a garden that specializes in the cultivation of alpine plants that grow naturally at high altitudes. They usually have large stones and gravel beds rather than soil. The alpine garden at Lissadell is no different as the lower part of this garden is comprised of a series of large rockeries.
This house’s magnificent garden nearly rivals that of my Grandmother’s garden here in Atlanta, Georgia. They both incorporate the English style in their beautiful but wild gardens that spark the imagination. It is interesting to see how this English style garden has found its way to not only Ireland, but also America. The beauty of the alpine garden at Lissadell is mirrored in my Grandmother’s own garden. However, Granny’s garden has that personal touch you can’t find anywhere else. As I have never been to Lissadell House, I may be biased in my comparison of these two gardens, but there is no other garden I know of that can compare to that of Granny’s. The memories I have of running through her spacious, elegant yard are too precious to me. I have to wonder though, how much Irish influence my Grandmother had when creating her garden.
Secret of Kells
Young, P., Brunner, D., Fleteren, V.V. (Producers) & Moore, T., Twomey, N. (Directors). (2009). Secret of kells [Motion picture]. Ireland, France, & Belgium: Cartoon Saloon.
Moss softens the impact of small running feet as my brothers and I race through the forest on a path my grandmother helped pave herself after years of walking through those woods herself. These woods are smaller than I remember them as they mainly consist of the trees and bushes in Granny’s backyard, but back then they were the boundaries of the world for my siblings and me. Imaginations running as wild as we were, we would play games and make believe all day outside in the sunlight filtering through the leaves. Slipping on moss covered stones and rolling in the sweet grass, I would envision myself sprinting with wolves, flying with fairies, and conquering a mysterious evil that was thought to be lost.
A forest as vast and magical as a grandmother’s garden seems to a child sets the scene for the story animated in the Secret of Kells. This film is brimming with Celtic culture and folklore that called to me as a child. Not fully understanding where I was from back then as young as I was, this movie definitely helped me envision the place my ancestors came from. As this was the first movie I had seen that dealt with Irish culture, it impacted my sense of self. I had been told that I was from Ireland and had relative over there, but I didn’t know anything about what Ireland was like until I saw this movie. I had of course heard stories and folktales from my grandmother, but I couldn’t connect them all as Irish. This movie helped me make that connection at a young age. Suddenly the magic and mystery all seemed to click together as that sense of self was constructed around the culture shown in the movie. The characters, setting, and plot all creating a picture in my head of where my family had come from.
This film also represents a masterful marriage of culture and history as it depicts historical fiction in the midst of a vibrant cultural display. The history at play gives tension and a plot to the magic and folklore that comes to life as a result. The main character, Brendan’s, village is preparing for the impending attack of the Vikings by building a wall around them. The Viking raids of the British Isles began in the year 793, and the movie uses this historical event as a driving force in the plot line.
The cultural elements in the film are not made up either as a main antagonist other than the Vikings is Crom Cruach, a pre-Christian god from Celtic mythology. In the movie he is a dark force, and in Celtic mythology he is no different. This dark god was worshiped through the practice of human sacrifice, but Saint Patrick ended this tradition. The film shows Brendan beating Crom Cruach in order to obtain an object he needs to complete the book he is working on that can turn darkness to light. Overall, this film’s use of both history and culture is moving and meaningful as it taught me about my cultural heritage.
