SEATTLE-NEWS@IRISHCLUB.ORG ©, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 2007

 

SEATTLE IRISH NEWS HEADLINES

 

-        IRISH RACES

-        PRE-RACE CÉILI

-        SAMMAMISH CONCERT

-        GALWAY TRIP

-        15TH FEICEÁIL

-        IRISH BASEBALL

-        IHC AGM

-        NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION

-        IRISH CAMP

-        GAELIC GAMES

-        PORTLAND CÉILI

-        SOCCER CAMP

-        POKER CHAMP

-        EMMET FELLOW

-        PLAY

-        PIGOTT DONATION

-        DON’T FORGET

 

NEWS FROM IRELAND HEADLINES

 

-        TAOISEACH AGAIN

-        LISBURN BREAKTHROUGH

-        CANADA VISIT

-        SUBMARINE INVENTOR

-        GUINNESS MOVE

-        UNKNOWN ART

-        TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHTS

-        TID-BITS

-        IRISH ARTHUR

-        GENEALOGY BUTLER

-        IRISH PROVERB

 

Irish Heritage Club - www.irishclub.org

 

 

SEATTLE IRISH NEWS

 

IRISH RACES – Coupons for FREE Admission to Irish day at Emerald Downs this

Sunday, June 24, can be printed off the IHC website at

www.irishclub.org/races.htm. Free Activities for Kids include Pony Rides,

Face Painters, etc. There’s an Irish Pub in a tent with Guinness-on-tap,

Irish music, dancers, etc. Buses will run from the Galway Arms, Owl ‘n

Thistle, Kangaroo & Kiwi, Paddy Coynes, etc. For racetrack information, call

253-288-7000 or visit www.emeralddowns.com.

 

PRE-RACE CÉILI – A Céili Dance tomorrow, Saturday, June 23, 7 PM at Vashon’s

Grange Hall, suited to adults and children over 12. The Grange Hall is at

the Vashon Island ferry dock parking lot, a 15 minute ferry ride from

Seattle. For information, call 206-774-4047 or visit

www.hoilands.com/ceilisteps.htm.

 

SAMMAMISH CONCERT - Sunday, June 24th, 7-9 PM, Irish music and dance at

Sammamish Presbyterian Church with acoustic guitarist Dan Carollo

(www.celtograss.com), uilleann Piper Eliot Grasso (www.eliotgrasso.com) and

the Baile Glas dancers (www.baileglas.com) - see www.spconline.org.

 

GALWAY TRIP - Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels travels to Ireland from

Friday-Sunday, September 28-30 on a Sister City visit to Galway during

Galway’s Oyster Festival. Seattle Galway Association members and supporters

are invited to join the Mayor and his party in Galway during the festivities

and the more the merrier! For details, contact Heidi Kinsella at

425-822-2333 or visit www.etitravel.com/galway

. For Galway Oyster Festival

information, visit www.galwayoysterfest.com.

 

15TH FEICEÁIL - The Irish Heritage Club will have gatherings on the 15th of

each month for people to socialize, at a movie, meal, or excursion, etc.,

without a lot of bother. Everyone is invited to participate. The first 15th

Feiceáil gathering is Sunday, July 15th, for an all day trip to Sol Duc

Falls and Ancient Groves Nature Trail in Olympic National Park

(www.nps.gov/archive/olym/dayhike.htm). Bring a lunch and plan to take the

10:10 AM Edmonds Ferry and drive from Kingston. To arrange carpools or for

more information, contact Melissa at 206-229-8512 or melissae@irishclub.org.

 

IRISH BASEBALL – Discounted admission tickets are available to Irish Night

at the Mariners, Tuesday, July 31, for the Mariners vs. L A Angels at Safeco

Field. $18 View Reserved Seats are $10, and $38 Field Level Seats are $24,

and each ticket includes an Irish Night Mariners baseball cap. For tickets,

visit www.mariners.com/IRISH.

 

IHC AGM - Irish Heritage Club Board Members elected on June 1 are Charles

Hadrann (reelected), Nanci Spieker (reelected), Suzanne Green, Kathleen

Anderson, and Judy Donoghue. The new Club President is Melissa Estelle,

Vice-President Ralph Kosche, Secretary Wendy Zboyan, Membership Secretary

Frank Gill and Treasurer John Keane. For more information, contact

MelissaE@irishclub.org or visit www.irishclub.org.

 

NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION – The monthly Celtic Connection newspaper, which

reports on the Irish and Celtic communities of the Pacific Northwest, needs

help with distributing the newspaper each month in the Seattle area. Contact

Catholine Butler at 604-434-3747 or cbutler@telus.net.

 

IRISH CAMP - Seattle’s Tír na nÓg Day Camp will be July 9 - 13, 9 AM – 2 PM

daily, in Seattle Center House. Aimed at 4 - 8 year-olds, with sessions

focusing on Irish culture, Céili Dance, Language, and Folklore & Crafts.

Contact 206-335-5013 or celticroots_seattle@hotmail.com.

 

GAELIC GAMES - The Seattle Gaels sponsor a two day Gaelic Football and

Hurling Youth Sports Camp, Saturday and Sunday, July 14th & 15th. A daylong

Tournament will be held Saturday, July 21, at Marymoor Park in Redmond, with

teams from Seattle, Portland, Denver, Vancouver BC, San Diego and San

Francisco. For information, call 206-953-8460 or email

youth@seattlegaels.com.

 

PORTLAND CÉILI – Portland's All-Ireland Cultural Society has a Céili dance

Friday, July 13, 7 PM, at the Policeman's Athletic Association, 618 SE

Alder, Portland (across from the Melody Ballroom). Live music with a 6-piece

band and caller Sam Keator. For information, contact 503-691-2078 or

sam.keator@verizon.net.

 

SOCCER CAMP – A Seattle-based Irish Soccer School provides a quality

experience to the NW youth soccer community using coaches from Ireland and

the UK. The school provides training for Teams, Coaches and individuals. For

information, visit www.SeattleSoccerCamps.com.

 

POKER CHAMP - Ciaran O’Leary from Seattle, originally from Co. Cork, won the

$727,012 first prize in the No-Limit Hold'em tournament at the 2007 World

Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He was one of 2,998 players who each paid

$1,500 to play. O’Leary operates a remodeling/construction company in

Seattle.

 

EMMET FELLOW - Claire McHugh from Galway, a Barrister-at Law graduate of the

King’s Inn in Dublin, is the 2007 Thomas Addis Emmet law fellow just arrived

in Seattle to spend the summer working on public service projects at the

Washington Appleseed Center. For information on Appleseed, visit

www.waappleseed.org.

 

PLAY - The School for Scandal, a play by Irish writer Richard Brinsley

Sheridan, will be performed at the Center House Theatre at Seattle Center

(Lower Level), Thursdays-Sundays until July 1. Sheridan was born in Dublin

in 1751 and The School for Scandal is considered one of the greatest

comedies of manners in English, an 18th century version of “Desperate

Housewives”. For information, visit www.seattleshakespeare.org.

 

PIGOTT DONATION - A donation from Seattle’s Pigott family has established an

American History Lectureship at Dublin’s Trinity College. At the

announcement, Mark Pigott, Chairman and CEO of PACCAR, spoke of his

great-grandparents, Michael and Anna Pigott, who left Ireland in 1847. Their

son William settled in Seattle and in 1895 founded the company that today is

called PACCAR, known mainly as a worldwide manufacturer of premium

heavy-duty trucks.

 

CONGRATULATIONS - to Cora and Patrick (who hails from Dublin) Finney who had

a baby daughter in early June. The first American in the Finney family,

Penelope Ann, weighed in at 6 pounds 14 ounces!

 

DON’T FORGET

• The Irish Community Picnic, Sunday, July 22, Noon - 6 PM, St. Edward State

Park in Kenmore. For information, email Picnic@irishclub.org.

Seattle’s Dance for Life Feis (Irish Dancing) is Saturday & Sunday, July

28 & 29, Seattle Airport Marriot, 3201 S 176th St. Visit

www.srsirishdance.com/DFLhome.htm.

• That 32-question non-intrusive survey of the Pacific Northwest’s

Irish-born is ongoing. Contact Melissa at 206-229-8512 or

melissae@irishclub.org.

• To watch GAA games live from Ireland, get high-speed internet access and

subscribe to Setanta Broadband Service at www.setanta.com.

 

 

IRELAND NEWS

 

TAOISEACH AGAIN – Following the Irish General Election, Bertie Ahern was

re-elected to an historic third term as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in a

three-party coalition government. Ahern is the first Taoiseach to serve

three terms since Éamon De Valera.

 

LISBURN BREAKTHROUGH – Last Monday, Irish President Mary McAleese received a

warm welcome when she addressed Lisburn City Council, her first-ever

reception by a Unionist-controlled City Council in Northern Ireland. She was

there at the invitation of Councillor Trevor Lunn, the Mayor of Lisburn who

last March was a guest of the Irish Heritage Club at Seattle’s St. Patrick’s

Day celebrations. Might Mayor Lunn’s Seattle reception have played a small

part in making possible his breakthrough invitation to President McAleese?

 

CANADA VISIT – Irish President McAleese was in Toronto yesterday to open

Ireland Park, a memorial to the 38,000 Irish Famine emigrants who arrived in

Toronto in 1847, at a time when the city’s population was 20,000. In the

park, haunting sculptures accompany a 25-meter wall inscribed with 1,100

names of Irish victims who died there between May and October of 1847. For

information, visit www.irelandparkfoundation.com.

 

SUBMARINE INVENTOR - The inventor of the modern submarine, John Philip

Holland, was commemorated this week in Ireland. Born in Clare in 1841,

Holland emigrated to the US in 1873 where his submarine prototype was the

first submarine commissioned by the US Navy. Holland's first two submarines,

Holland I and the Fenian Ram, are housed in the Paterson Museum in New

Jersey. Visit www.thepatersonmuseum.com.

 

GUINNESS MOVE - A newspaper claims that Guinness is moving from its St

James's Gate location to the outskirts of Dublin city. Guinness has been

brewed for almost 250 years on the banks of the Liffey where, in 1759,

Arthur Guinness took out a 9,000 year lease on a disused brewery. Guinness

is brewed at almost 50 sites around the world but over 130 million gallons

are still produced at St James's Gate, which also houses a visitor center,

shop, bars and restaurants.

 

UNKNOWN ART - A collection of Irish art, including paintings by Jack B Yeats

and Louis le Brocquy, are on sale after an Irish art gallery purchased them

from the family of a Dundalk man who had them in his home in North Carolina

for the last 50 years. The man was hoping to raise around $50,000 for

medical expenses, but instead received over $1.5 million. For more

information, see www.colouredrain.com.

 

TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHTS – Irish budget airline, Ryanair, has plans to launch

transatlantic flights to five or six US cities within three to four years

with some flights for as little as $12. The company uses sales of food,

drink, duty-free goods and in-flight entertainment to boost revenues. One

hub US airport being considered is Columbus, Ohio. Skybus, a new airline

that employs several former Ryanair employees, currently offers flights from

Bellingham to Columbus for as little as $10. Who wants to fly to Ireland for

$22 each way?

 

TID-BITS

• Popular video website YouTube has unveiled an Irish version of its website

at www.youtube.ie.

Ireland has one of the highest per capita rates of foreign adoption in

Europe with around 500 overseas children adopted annually.

• The cost of sample items in Dublin, the 16th most expensive city in the

world: a cup of coffee, including service, $4; a Bus or subway ride $2.02;

monthly rental of a two-bedroom luxury unfurnished apartment $1,608.

• The average cost of unleaded gas in Ireland is now €1.173 per liter, which

equates to $5.91 per US gallon.

• Between 1995 and 2002, Ireland increased spending on primary schools by

more than 50%.

• Today, more than 80 percent of Irish students earn the equivalent of a

high school diploma.

Ireland educates more scientists and engineers per capita than any other

country in the world.

• In 2006, Irish budget airline Ryanair carried 40.5 million international

passengers, more than any other airline in the world. The top US

international carrier was American Airlines with 21 million.

• Since random breathalyzer testing was introduced in Ireland ten months

ago, there has been a 23% decrease in the number of road fatalities.

Ryanair recently ordered a further 27 Boeing 737-800s, which brings

Ryanair's total firm orders for B737-800s to 308.

• Currently Ireland imports 85% of its energy needs and is the last port of

call in a very long pipeline that extends all the way from Russia across

Western Europe, Britain and finally Ireland.

Ireland’s 2007 Leaving & Intermediate Certificate examinations, for

Secondary (High) School students, finished today after 2 ½ weeks of exams.

• $4.82 billion is spent annually on gambling in Ireland.

• Burglars broke into a police station in Ballynahinch, Co Down, but after

ransacking the place, they left without taking anything.

 

IRISH ARTHUR - A professor at England’s University of Chester claims that

King Arthur of the Knights of the Round Table was Irish rather than British.

His research indicates that Arthur was an Irish war leader and he claims the

Irish enjoyed political control over large areas of western Britain in the

fifth and sixth centuries.

 

GENEALOGY BUTLER - Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel has a new service for guests, a

professional genealogist who will deliver a tailored research plan to guests

who want to combine their holiday with learning more about their Irish

ancestry.

 

 

IRISH PROVERB

Is fearr lán doirn de cheird lán mála d’ór - A handful of skill is better

than a bagful of gold.

 

 

Slán

 

John Keane

jkeane@irishclub.org

 

 

TO SUBSCRIBE, email LIST@irishclub.org

TO UNSUBSCRIBE, email REMOVE@irishclub.org

© 2006 John Keane - items may be copied if SEATTLE-NEWS@IRISHCLUB.ORG is

credited.