Sean Patrick MacRae Murphy, 32, the son of longtime Irish Heritage Club members George & Eileen Murphy, died unexpectedly in New Jersey on October 16 

Emil Kluck, 88, whose wife Joan is from Tipperary, died suddenly in Everett on October 15 

Ar dheis D� go raibh a n-anamacha d�lse

IRELAND PHOTOS?

AMAZON SHOPPING?

PASSPORT PHOTOS

If you need a Passport Photo taken to the Irish / European image size and poses, Seattle-based Irish photographer, Rozarii Lynch can help. Her next photo session is tomorrow, Saturday, November 22, from 10 am - 3 pm at Studio 404, Bemis Building, 55 S Atlantic Street Seattle. Email Rozarii Lynch or call 206-979-0817 for an appointment.

SHACKLETON PAINTINGS

Irish-born explorer Ernest Shackleton is one of the principal figures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Artist Austin Dwyer, a Co. Tipperary native who lives in Mukilteo, has available for sale 4 limited edition signed Shackleton prints that have been faithfully reproduced on the highest quality archival paper. See details at AustinDwyer.com.

CENTENARIAN'S BOUNTY - Sr. Rose Donohoe, a native of Aughavas, Co. Leitrim, who now lives at St. Mary-on-the-Lake in Bellevue, will this coming Sunday celebrate her 100th birthday. On Sunday she will also receive The Centenarian's Bounty, a national award made by Irish President Michael D. Higgins to Irish-born people when they reach 100 years of age. The letter of congratulations from the Irish President includes a check totaling €2,540 (about $3,200). On Sr. Rose's 101st and every subsequent birthday, she will also receive a special commemorative coin along with another congratulatory letter from the President. Sl�inte is Saol! Health and Long Life, Sr. Rose!

 

SENIORS' CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON - The Irish Seniors' Christmas Luncheon will be at Noon on Saturday, December 6, at F X McRory's, 419 Occidental Ave S, Seattle. All seniors of Irish birth, descent or interest are welcome along with their spouses and friends. Our Special Guest on the day is Daid� na Nollag (Father Christmas). Over 350 different Irish seniors, the majority of them Irish-born, have attended these luncheons over the past six years. Sit-down lunch w/ choice of Ham or Turkey at $10 per person ($20 non-seniors) - please email reservations to [email protected] (include names of any guests and their lunch choices).

 

COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS PARTY - A 2nd annual Irish Community Christmas Holiday Party is being held on Saturday, December 6, from 7 - 9 pm at F X McRory's, 419 Occidental Ave S, Seattle. We had so much fun last year that the Seattle area's Irish groups decided to do it again! Admission is FREE and all are invited to join their friends in Seattle's Irish community while enjoying the special priced drinks, appetizers, etc.  

GUINNESS CO-HOSTING - Guinness is co-hosting the December 6 Christmas party as one of their Raise Your Glass events to highlight the Seattle Gaels GAA Club which is celebrating its 35th Anniversary this year. This National Guinness Recognition of the Gaels acknowledges their efforts to promote the Irish  games of Gaelic Football, Hurling and Camogie around the Pacific Northwest and ties in with the Made of More promotion. At the party you will also be able to get your own personally engraved Guinness glass, just in time to purchase that perfect Christmas gift!

 

CELTIC YULETIDE - Magical Strings' 36th Annual Celtic Yuletide Concert series starts November 30 in Kingston and Seattle's concert will be December 13 with Tacoma's on December 12. Concerts will also be held in Kent, Mount Vernon, Bellevue, Portland and Leavenworth. Featuring the lyrical and joyful sounds of Celtic harps, hammered dulcimers, violins, cello, whistles, concertina, percussion and more, this grand gala of Celtic-inspired holiday music is filled with Irish singing, dancing, juggling, caroling and storytelling. For the details, visit magicalstrings.com.

 

FINNEGAN'S WAKE - Saturday, December 13, 8 pm, in the Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Seattle,an original staging performed from memory by Neal Kosaly-Meyer of the complete first chapter of James Joyce's novel Finnegan's Wake, with sound design, lighting (darkening), and sets carefully made.This is a FREE performance.

BOOK CLUB - The next Irish Book Club meeting is Tuesday, January 13 to discuss The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien, a book that was banned in Ireland when first published in 1941. O'Brien's writings were ahead of their time and she is known as a feminist writer because of her desire for gender equality. Contact [email protected] for meeting details.

US CITIZENSHIP - If you're not already a US citizen but are eligible to apply for citizenship having legally lived continuously in the US for the past five years (in some cases only three years), Seattle's Irish Immigrant Support Group urges you start the process right away to become a US citizen so that your vote will count in the next election. Note that your rights and responsibilities as an Irish citizen are not affected in any way by becoming a dual Irish-US citizen, but you do gain numerous advantages. Email [email protected] and a member of the group will answer your questions.

HERITAGE CLUB AGM - At the Irish Heritage Club's recent Annual General Meeting, David Jacobsen was elected President for 2014-2015. Ari Hausler and Jane Sepede were re-elected to the Board while David Jacobsen, Corbin Johnson and Brendan Shriane are new Board Members and Mary Shrine is the new Membership Secretary. Special thanks to Justin McMahon who stepped down after two years as President but who remains on the Board, to Frank Gill who stepped down after 14 years as Membership Secretary, and to Ralph Kosche who stepped down after ten years on the Board but who remains as stage manager for the Irish Festival. To renew your membership in the Irish Heritage Club for 2015, you can pay online at irishclub.org/membership.

MAYOR'S ANCESTRY - Pages 16-19 of the October issue of Irish Lives Remembered, a free online Irish Genealogy Magazine, has a nice article on Seattle Mayor Ed Murray's Irish ancestry. The Mayor's four grandparents were born in Ireland, in Limerick, Tipperary and two in Co. Down. The article was written by Br�d Nowlan, a member of Irish Network Seattle.

• Through Sunday, November 23, Cedar Park Church, 16300 112th Ave NE, Bothell, presents Katie's Hope, a musical about an Irish immigrant family's journey to America from famine torn Ireland in 1847. 
• Geoffrey Castle's Celtic Christmas is Friday & Saturday, December 12 & 13 at 8 pm at the Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave, Kirkland.
• The 2015 Masters of Scottish Arts Concert, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Friday, February 6, featuring many of the world's finest Scottish bagpipers, drummers and fiddlers.
• Seattle Metro's RapidRide buses and stations will have a new poem every day of the year through November 2015 as part of the Poetry on Buses public art program. The poem to be highlighted on July 30 is entitled Irish Morn by Karen Portzer.

WEB SUMMIT - For three days in November, Dublin was the world's tech capital with more than 22,000 people from 109 countries attending The Web Summit. 86% of the 22,000 attendees were from outside Ireland at an admission cost of $2,000 per person (or $820 for early birds). 2,150 start-ups attended from 85 countries with more than 2,000 companies exhibiting. About 800 investors from 51 countries, and a press corps of more than 1,190 journalists from 70 countries, were also present at Europe's largest event of its kind which started as an informal gathering of 450 techies in 2010. It is estimated that this year's event pumped more than $125 million into the Irish economy.

SUMMIT & UBER - During the 2011 Dublin Web Summit, at a meeting over a few pints in Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel pub, an American entrepreneur was convinced to provide a $26.5 million capitalization in ride-sharing start-up Uber which was then operating in just three cities. Three years later, Uber is valued at $18 billion and operates in more than 230 cities worldwide.

U2 REPORT - U2 band leader Bono explained to the packed audience at the Web Summit that 100 million people had listened to a song or two of U2's recent album release on September 9 and that 30 million people had listened to the whole album - all for free.U2's 1987 breakout album "The Joshua Tree" took over 25 years to reach 30 million people, something that "Songs of Innocence" did in three weeks when released as part of the unveiling of the iPhone 6. "With that," the report said, "he was fetched to lead a pub crawl for the summit event, which has been exploding in size and scope, doubling its attendance this year to 22,000."

LOW TAXES - U2's Bono also told the Summit about Ireland's low business tax rate, which has attracted multinational companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google to Ireland, "We are a tiny country, we don't have scale, and our version of scale is to be innovative and to be clever, and tax competitiveness has brought our country the only prosperity we're known."

IRISH SEARS - A report headlined: "Sears to lease space in 7 stores to Irish retailer Primark" states that "Primark, founded as Penneys in Ireland in 1969, announced this summer that it plans to open 10 stores in the U.S. by spring 2016, starting with a store in downtown Boston." Forbes.com describes Primark as "... a scary, low priced fashion retailer with a contemporary flair. The merchandise ... is of very good quality, is well designed and is sold at very, very low prices. ... Primark focuses on basic merchandise that youngsters need - "throw away merchandise" - but is in step with today's consumer mood." Primark currently has 275 locations in nine countries.

GERMANY JEALOUS - Most economists expect Irish GDP growth to be 5% or more in 2014 as the country bounces back from the recession, leading German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble to say that Germany is "jealous" of Ireland's growth figures.According to the European Commission, Ireland's second quarter figures displayed "significant momentum cross the board" and this will make Ireland the fastest growing country in the European Union.

JOURNAL APPROVES - A Wall Street Journal story headlined "Jack Lew, Irish Hero", says "While the U.S. continues to suffer slow growth as it sustains a punitive tax regime for business, Irish eyes are smiling. A popular inversion destination thanks to its low 12.5% corporate tax rate, the Emerald Isle has rebounded from the financial crisis and this year is expected to post GDP growth of close to 5%-fastest in the euro-zone. Competing governments complain that Ireland's tax rate is too low and grouse about the way it is pulling investment away from more expensive locales, but the Irish government wisely refuses to budge."

WORLD RANKINGS - Ireland is in 13th place on the World Bank's "Doing Business 2015" survey. The annual report measures the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it, presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies. Ireland was also listed in the top four of global destination countries by estimated jobs per million inhabitants.

FDI RANKINGS - Ireland has held onto the top position for added value of foreign direct investment projects in the IBM 2014 Global Location Trends report. According to the IBM report, Ireland remains 'the top performer in the world' in relation to the quality and added value brought by FDI projects coming into the country.This is the second year in a row that Ireland was the top performer in the world.

MORE RANKINGS - IMD's 2014 World Talent Report ranks countries across more than 20 indicators including quality of life, brain drain, cost of living and skilled labor. In the 2014 report, Ireland has been ranked in 6th place among 60 countries in terms of its ability to develop, attract and retain talent for companies. This is the tenth year running that Ireland is ranked in the world's Top ten. Ireland is in 13th spot in a ranking of 82 countries by the Economist Intelligence Unit to determine the best places in the world to do business.

BANKING HEIST - With a headline of The Great Irish Bank Heist, the Wall Street Journal reports that in late 2010 the European Central Bank (ECB) threatened to withdraw support for Ireland's stricken banks unless the government sought financial help from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The letters caused outrage in Ireland as they appear to prove that Ireland was forced into its EU bailout by the ECB. The ECB had previously declined to release the letters, citing potential financial-stability risks ahead of the results of the central bank's review of the balance sheets of Europe's biggest bank.

BIZARRE INTERVIEW - One media report headlined the story, "This might be the stupidest CNBC interview of all time". The New York Times headlined their story "Irish Agog That Joe Kernen, CNBC Host, Missed Their Exit From U.K.". The story referred to a TV interview with the leader of Ireland's foreign direct investment agency, IDA Ireland. While being quizzed on CNBC's business show Squawk Box, one of the co-anchors initially insisted that Ireland uses sterling, and also expressed surprise that Ireland is a different island to Britain. Squawk Box is one of the most popular shows on the dedicated business channel.

NI ENVOY - Former US senator Gary Hart has been appointed US Envoy to Northern Ireland for a new round of "talks to achieve a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.". Hart was the favorite in the US presidential campaign in May 1987 when revelations about an extramarital relationship with a 29-year-old model derailed his campaign. He afterwards retired to a rented cottage in Oughterard, Co Galway to avoid the media.

EMIGRATION EFFECT - Despite Skype and cheap air travel, the impact of emigration on Irish people left behind is keenly felt. A new Trinity College Dublin study on ageing shows that parents whose children have moved abroad in recent years have suffered a significant increase in depressive symptoms and feelings of loneliness. Since the recession hit in 2008, more than a quarter of a million Irish people have moved abroad. While about half have returned, many may never return to live in Ireland again and the loss parents feel when a child emigrates is comparable to bereavement.

SECURITY PROBLEMS - The National Museum of Ireland says it cannot afford the enhanced security that has been recommended to protect its valuable collections. There are four constituent National Museum of Ireland museums: the Natural History Museum on Dublin's Merrion Street; the Museum of Archaeology on Kildare Street; the Decorative Arts and History Museum at Collins Barracks; and the Country Life Museum in Co Mayo.

IRISH VOTE - An Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Committee has issued a report supporting the principle that voting rights should be extended to Irish citizens living abroad, saying that citizen members of the Irish Diaspora outside Ireland should have a say in Irish political life. The government is expected to soon announce a referendum to permit Irish citizens living abroad to vote in presidential elections. When meeting with Seattle Mayor Ed Murray in September, Taoiseach Enda Kenny spoke of his support for a proposal to permit anyone who has carried an Irish passport for the previous ten years to be permitted vote in presidential elections. More than 120 countries around the world have provisions for their citizens abroad to cast a ballot, but Ireland does not.

OTHER CHANGES - At the Constitutional Convention last year, 78 of 100 members voted in favor of extending the vote in Presidential elections to the Irish abroad. TheEuropean Commissionhas warned Ireland that it was "disenfranchising" its citizens living in other EU member states by not providing them voting rights in national elections. When designing a system to extend the vote, issues being considered include the definition of citizenship, time limits on the right to vote if living abroad, and reserved constituencies for Irish citizens overseas. The new Minister of State for the Diaspora is looking at the French model where seats are reserved in parliament for nationals living abroad.

BEAUTIFUL IRELAND - Business Insider UK, in an article that includes some beautiful photos says that Ireland is home to incredibly peaceful cemeteries, gorgeous castles, an awesome landscape of bogs, beaches, cliffs and, Guinness, and is one of the most magically friendly places on Earth. The story notes that about 16% of Ireland is "bogland;"there are over 45,000 ring forts around Ireland; 10 million glasses of Guinness are sold every day around the world; and The Burren, a limestone-filled landscape in County Clare, contains 75% of Ireland's native species.

1916 CELEBRATIONS - Ireland's 2016 centenary celebrations will be based on five intersecting themes. The first is based on the word "Remember" and will recall the shared history of those who live on the island of Ireland. The second theme is "Reconcile" which aims to honor all who have built the peace that now prevails in Ireland. Then "Imagine" will focus on releasing the creativity and imagination of Irish people as they attempt to envisage what the next 100 years will bring. The fourth theme is "Present" which aims to find a way of imaginatively and creatively showing Ireland's achievements to the world. The final theme is "Celebrate", with an emphasis on family, community and friendship.

FAMINE MEORIAL - Ireland's Great Hunger was remembered recently at the International Irish Famine Commemoration in New Orleans. As many as a quarter of a million Irish Famine emigrants sailed to New Orleans and by 1860 one sixth of the city's residents were Irish-born. A new Hibernian Memorial Park in New Orleans honors the thousands of Irish immigrant laborers who died in the 1830s while building the six-mile New Orleans navigation canal that connected the city with Lake Pontchartrain.

REMEMBRANCE DAY - Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny laid a wreath at the war memorial in Enniskillen on Remembrance Day this year, the third year in succession that he traveled to Enniskillen to remember both the dead of the first World War and the 12 people who died and the scores who were injured when an IRA bomb exploded at the war memorial there in 1987. Some 200,000 Irish-born soldiers from Ireland north and south served in the first World War, with about 50,000 losing their lives.

NO POPPY - Republic of Ireland soccer player James McClean refused to wear a poppy on his team shirt like the rest of his Wigan team-mates when playing on November 7. In a letter to the Club's chairman, McClean explained that, for someone like him, "from Derry, scene of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, the poppy has come to mean something very different." He wrote that, "if the Poppy was a symbol only for the lost souls of World War I and II, I would wear one", but him wearing a poppy would be "a gesture of disrespect for the innocent people who lost their lives in the Troubles - and Bloody Sunday especially." McClean had also refused to wear the poppy earlier in his career while playing for Sunderland.

IRISH PEACE TOWER - The Island of Ireland Peace Park at Messines in Belgium was opened in 1998 by Irish President Mary McAleese. The park is dominated by a 110 ft high traditional Irish round tower that is designed so that the inside is lit up by the sun only on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the time at which the 1918 Armistice was declared and the guns fell silent. The tower's stone came from a former British army barracks in Co. Tipperary and from a workhouse near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. It houses bronze cubicles containing record books listing the known names of the war dead from the island of Ireland. Over 200,000 Irishmen served in WW1, and an estimated 50,000 died, the great majority of whom were from the Catholic, nationalist tradition in Ireland.

BEST RESORTS - Readers of Cond� Nast Traveler magazine have named five Irish hotels among the Top 10 in their Best Resorts in Europe: Readers' Choice Awards. Number 1 on the list is the former Doonbeg Resort (now Trump Hotel) in Co. Clare with Dromoland Castle # 4, Powerscourt # 7, followed by Sheen Falls Lodge, Adare Manor, and Ashford Castle rounding out the top ten.

BEST IN TRAVEL - Ireland is #5 on Lonely Planet's list of the Best in Travel 2014, saying "Beneath the touristic tomfoolery, though, is the real deal: Ireland is stunningly scenic, its traditions - music, dance, whiskey and beer - firmly intact and the cosmopolitan, contemporary Irish are just as friendly and welcoming as their forebears were known to be". The travel guide also covers Driving the Great Atlantic Way, the Top Ten Ireland for First-timers and Ireland's Most Scenic Drives.

PEACE PROCESS TOUR - The New York Times carries advertising for its 'Times Journeys' travel service in which a Northern Ireland Peace Process tour is among the offerings. Participants will "speak with political, social and religious leaders and explore the neighborhoods where the majority of the action took place." The attractions include dinner with Irish Sinn F�in politician and former Lord Mayor of Belfast, M�irt�n � Muilleoir; a tour of the Falls and Shankill Roads with Republican and Loyalist ex-combatants; and a behind-the-scenes look at the Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast with private dinner in the member's Long Gallery.

LUXURY TRAIN - A luxurious 10-car train providing overnight rail experiences throughout Ireland, the 'Belmont Grand Hibernian', will start operations in summer 2016. The sleeper train will have luxury accommodation for up to 40 guests and will offer tours of the countryside, coast and cities throughout Ireland. All-inclusive prices are expected to start around $4,000.

BUSHMILLS SALE - Diageo has sold Bushmills Irish whiskey to the Mexican company Jose Cuervo. First distilled in Ireland in 1608, Bushmills is the No. 2 Irish whiskey brand by sales in North America, after Jameson which is owned by Pernod. 800,000 nine-liter cases of Bushmills were sold in the year to June 30. Diageo, the owner of Guinness, in return for Bushmills gets $408 million cash and ownership of tequila brand Don Julio.

AGELESS U2 - Rolling Stone magazine said that Ireland's U2 is the longest-serving rock band on the go at the moment. Since early 1978, the band's members have been the foursome of Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jnr. Other groups from the 1960s did not meet the criteria for the longest-serving because of the death of band members, line-up changes, or extended break-ups.

BLACK 47 - The New York based Irish rock band, Black 47, is calling it quits after 25 years and 2,300 performances. The band moved from humble origins playing in Irish pubs in the Bronx to appearing on The David Letterman Show and playing in stadiums. A 1993 Time magazine article said it was "the proletariat passion of Black 47's songs that make the group stand out." The name Black 47 is a reference to the worst year of the Irish Famine that decimated Ireland between 1845-1852. Started in 1989, the band's first performance was preceded a speech by the Irish republican activist Bernadette Devlin McAliskey.

DUBLIN VIDEO - A New York Times video report says that "After decades of tumultuous change, a more refined wave of affluence has reached Dublin, where visitors will find a restaurant renaissance, musical creativity and a glorious sense of history." The piece recommends the Guinness Storehouse, the National Museum and Dublin's north side.

SOCCER NOMINATION - Among the ten nominations for this year's FIFA Puskas Award, awarded for world soccer's goal of the year, is a goal scored by Ireland's Stephanie Roche, a member of the Republic of Ireland women's international team. The only woman nominated, Roche scored her goal in October 2013. See the ten goals and vote for your favorite.

FIRST THANKSGIVING - The first Thanksgiving may have been celebrated by the Pilgrims on February 21, 1621, months earlier than acknowledged. A band of starving pilgrims were saved by the arrival on February 20, 1621 of a ship from Dublin called The Lyon which delivered much needed provisions to sustain the colony. The ship had been sent over by a Dublin merchant whose daughter was married to one of the pilgrims. Grateful for their salvation, the pilgrims dubbed the following day, February 21, a Day of Thanksgiving.

O'HARA HOME - Irish actress Maureen O'Hara has put her west Cork home up for sale for about $3 million. In 1970, O'Hara and her late husband bought Lugdine Park, a scenic coastal home on 35 acres outside the town of Glengarriff, set in a picturesque location overlooking Glengarriff Bay with its own private island in the foreground. In 2012, the then 92-year-old left Cork and moved to Boise, Idaho, to be near her grandson.

O'HARA OSCAR - Actors Liam Neeson and Clint Eastwood recently presented an honorary Oscar to 94-year-old Irish actress Maureen O'Hara who traveled to Hollywood to accept her first Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She sang the final words of the Irish ballad Danny Boy and thanked three men who helped make her career: 'The Duke' John Wayne, filmmaker Charles Laughton and "that old divil himself" John Ford who directed O'Hara in 'The Quiet Man'. In July, O'Hara told Vanity Fair magazine her greatest achievement was being "the first person recognized as an Irishwoman all over the world."

PORTER STOUT - When Arthur Guinness first started his brewery in 1759, ale was the first beer brewed at his new St James's Gate Brewery in Dublin. However, ale was brewed for the last time there on April 22nd, 1799 as Guinness had also started to brew a new beer, Guinness Dublin Porter, which drew its name from its popularity among the porters in Billingsgate Market in London. The new porter was destined mainly for export to the British colonies and by 1815 Guinness had become well known outside of Ireland. It was even available in Belgium at the Battle of Waterloo as one of Wellington's wounded officers later wrote in his diary that he took some Guinness to aid his recovery and "I am confident that it contributed more than anything else to the renewal of my strength."

GOOD EMPLOYER - As an employer, Guinness was ahead of its time in many ways. By 1870, Guinness had established a medical center for its employees and their families, with doctors, nurses, dentists and midwives available on-site. A pension for workers was introduced in the 1880s. Housing was also provided for employees in an area of Dublin called Rialto and at one time so many Guinness workers lived there that a 'Rialto Bell' was rung each morning to get them up for work.

ST. JAMES'S GATE - Originally leased to Arthur Guinness at �45 per year for 9,000 years, St. James's Gate in Dublin has been the home of Guinness since 1759, but the 1759 lease is no longer valid as the Company purchased the lands outright many years ago. The 9,000-year lease was for a 4 acre brewery site, but today, the brewery covers over 50 acres around the original site. The name comes from St. James's Gate which was the western entrance to the city of Dublin during the Middle Ages and was also the traditional starting point for the Dublin pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Irish Camino de Santiago (Spanish for "Way of St. James") pilgrims today can still get the traditional documents stamped at St James' Church located a block away from the Guinness Storehouse.

VIKING WATERFORD - Although the city of Waterford was established by the Vikings 1,100 years ago in 914, recent excavations on a settlement only 6 miles upstream at Woodstown reveal that a settlement at Woodstown was established over half a century earlier by an another party of Norsemen. The Vikings were Norse seafarers who started raiding Ireland in 795 and that was the beginning of more than two centuries of attack and invasion. It wasn't until the battle of Clontarf on 23rd April, 1014, that the influence of the Vikings in Ireland was ended.

1468 MAP - The oldest known individual map of the island of Ireland is in a 600-year-old atlas being sold at Christies' auction in London this month. The map is the first depiction of Ireland alone rather than together with Britain. Hand-drawn on vellum (tanned sheepskin), it is in an atlas made in Venice in 1468, 24 years before Columbus discovered America, when Ireland was at the edge of the known western world. The map is inscribed "Irlanda que Ibernia dicitur" (Ireland which is called Hibernia).

USA NAME? - Irishman Stephen Moylan is credited by the New-York Historical Society as being the first person to formally use the name "United States of America" to refer to former British Colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Moylan, a Co. Cork native, had settled in Philadelphia in 1768 to organize his own shipping firm. In 1771 he helped found the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and served as its first President. In 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, he served as Secretary and Aide-de-camp to General George Washington, and as the Continental army's Quartermaster-General. Moylan died in Philadelphia in 1811.

WASHINGTON IRISH - According to HISTORICAL MAGAZINE published in London in 1863, George Washington in 1781 in Philadelphia accepted membership in the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, writing, "I accept with singular pleasure the Ensign of so worthy a Fraternity as that of the Sons of St. Patrick, a Society distinguished for the firm adherence of its Members to the glorious cause in which we are embarked." Washington is also recorded as having attended a meeting of the Friendly Sons at the City Tavern on January 1, 1782 and again on March 18, 1782.

BORU OAK - The traditional Irish oak is the sessile oak. It is the main species to be found in Ireland's most familiar woodlands, and the oaks are direct descendants of the ancient Irish forests that flourished after the Ice Age. The famous Brian Boru oak tree near Scarriff, Co Clare, is reputed to have been planted over a millennium ago by its namesake, Irish High King Brian Boru. It still bears fruit and thousands of its acorns have been planted throughout Ireland. With a girth of twenty six feet below its lowest branches, it is one of the oldest and best known oaks in Ireland.

TRANSATLANTIC FLIGHT - The Bremen, a German Junkers W 33 aircraft, made the first successful flight across the Atlantic from east to west in 1928. The plane left Baldonnell outside Dublin 0n April 12, 1928 and arrived on Greenly Island, near Quebec, Canada, the following day. The plane's navigator was Irish aviation pioneer James Fitzmaurice who was a Commandant in the Irish Air Corps.

WWI DIARIES -The diaries of Fr. Francis Gleeson, an Irish priest who was a British Army chaplain in the first World War, are on public display for the first time at Dublin's Holy Cross College. Gleeson is the priest depicted in the well-known painting The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois which depicts soldiers of the Royal Munster Fusiliers regiment receiving "general absolution" from their chaplain on the eve of battle on May 8, 1915. After receiving absolution at the small wayside shrine about 500 yards from the trenches, the men then sang the hymns Te Deum and Hail Glorious St Patrick. 900 went into battle the following day and only about 200 survived. Most of the Munsters were natives of Co. Cork and Co. Kerry.

• Fr. Jorge Bergoglio, better known today as Pope Francis, lived in Dublin for three months in early 1980 learning English at the Jesuit center at Milltown on Dublin's south side
• The BBC writes about the Hill of Ward in Co. Meath, asking: Did Halloween begin on 'magical' ancient site?
• With the news about the robot landing on the comet, one blogger visualizes what it would look like if the Comet were to land (very gently) in the heart of Cork City 
• The sun rises 25 minutes and 21 seconds later in Dublin than in London, and until 1916 Dublin Mean Time was the official time used in all of Ireland
• Total live animal exports from Ireland to date in 2014 is almost 203,000. Of that number, 202,500 were cattle and the largest number - more than 50,000 cattle - were sent to the UK
• From its original iMac to the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad, the letter 'i' has become synonymous with gadgets made by Apple, but if you're wondering why you can't buy an
  Apple iWatch, it's because a man from Athlone, Co. Westmeath, trademarked the name iWatch in 2008
• Next spring, 2.2 million addresses in Ireland are going to be assigned a new seven-digit postcode
• Over 500 children in Northern Ireland were physically abused by paramilitary groups between 1990 and 2013, according to new research from Queen's University Belfast
• Of the 1,490 Irish Famine emigrants who left Strokestown Park, Co. Roscommon, in 1847 and set sail for Canada, over 50% died either at sea or in quarantine at Grosse Ile
• The number of civil marriages in the Irish Republic has jumped from under a thousand in 1994 to more than 6,000 in 2013
• The average age of Irish grooms in 2013 was 35 and of brides was 33
• Irish residents made almost 6.6 million trips out of the country in 2013, 85% of which were to other EU countries
• The total area farmed in the Irish Republic in 2013 was 4.5 million hectares (about 17.4 square miles), with 52% of the land used for pasture, 25% for silage and only 5% for hay
• Only 11,000 hectares (43 square miles) of potatoes were grown in the Irish Republic in 2013 compared to 279,000 hectares (1,077 square miles) of potatoes in 1853
• 18% of Irish people aged 16-24 have never accessed the internet and nearly half of those aged between 60 and 75 have never been online.
• October has been one of the warmest, wettest and windiest on record in Ireland
• 7 million people visited Ireland in 2013 spending over $3.8 billion, with most of the visitors being from Great Britain
• The Republic of Ireland's population in 2014 was 4,609,600. Added to Northern Ireland's 1.811 million, the total population of Ireland was 6,420,600
• There are 1,800,900 people aged 35-64 in the Irish Republic
• Dubliner David O'Sullivan is the new European Uunion ambassador to the US
• Irish women account for 6.5% of executive directors in Ireland's top companies and 10.3% of non-executive directors
• Only 25 of 166 TDs (Teachta� D�la or Members of the Irish Parliament) are women.
• See a series of photos taken while restoring a dilapidated 214 year old Irish Thatched cottage in Co. Offaly
• Irish supermarket chain Supervalu recently sent a promotional text message to thousands of its customers offering "Frozen Bastard Turkey 4-5kg for ONLY €7.99." About an hour later, it corrected the message to say they were actually selling "basted turkeys"