MISCELLANEOUS

• The next Irish Passport photo session being conducted by Rozarii Lynch is tomorrow, Saturday April 18, from 10am -12pm. Call Rozarii at 206-979-0817 for an appointment.
• The Emerald City Feis (Irish Dancing Competitions) is at the Washington State Convention Center at Convention Place this weekend, April 18 & 19 - visit emeraldcityfeis.com.
• The next Irish Book Club meeting is in North Seattle on Tuesday, May 12, discussing Ratlines by Stuart Neville. Contact [email protected].
• Seattle's Wild Geese Players will celebrate Bloomsday by reading Chapters 2 and 5 of Ulysses at the Seattle Central Library on June 20th. Details soon at wildgeeseseattle.org
• The next Irish Seniors' Luncheon is Saturday June 20 at 12 Noon at the Wilde Rover Irish Restaurant in Kirkland. Seniors and their guests are welcome to attend at $10 pp for the buffet lunch. Reservations are required - email [email protected].
• Irish Day the Races at Emerald Downs is Sunday, June 28, 2 pm. Email [email protected] for free admission tickets.
• Irish Community Picnic at Lake Sammamish State Park, Sunday, July 19, noon-dusk. Free admission. Email [email protected] for details.
• Ceol Cascadia's Irish Music Week is July 19 - 25, 2015, at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. Early registration has been strong and if you're thinking of registering don't delay while there is still room. Visit cascadiairish.org for details.
• Join the Irish language choir which will be singing in October for the Mass in Gaelic. Contact [email protected].
• The Tacoma News tribune says Gaelic football, hurling gain foothold in Tacoma
• The SU Blog highlights Mick McHugh, calling him a Successful Restauranteur, Proud Irishman and Seattle University Alumnus
• See Rozarii Lynch's St. Patrick's Day photo of the Seattle Wheel and the Shamrock in the water, as posted by KING5 News
• Congratulations to John Lenth of Magnolia who won the Irish Festival raffle drawing for two round trip tickets to Ireland. His daughter dances with the Tara Academy Irish Dancers. 

BRITISH COMMONWEALTH - Speaking at the launch of a branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) in Dublin, an Indian-born member of the British House of Lords who now lives in Belfast says that the Irish Republic needs to have a "rational and serious debate" about rejoining the British Commonwealth. He said that the economic benefits of being a member are apparent in Northern Ireland, where India is now the second largest provider of foreign direct investment. Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949 when it declared itself a republic, but some 21 million people of Irish origin currently live within the British Commonwealth.

ELEMENTARY TEST - Now in its 24th year, the recent All-Ireland Schools Quiz has a competition for under 11-year-olds and one for 11-13 year olds. More than 25,000 children took part in this year's event where pupils from Killorglin, Co Kerry won the category for under 11-year-olds while the 11-13 year old category was won by students from Roscahill, Co. Galway. Check here to see how you or your children would do when answering some of the test questions.

IRISH ARMY FEMALES- One of the authors of an article in the Washington Post, "It's time to re-evaluate standards for women in the military", is a female Irish cavalry officer who has deployed to Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon, and Liberia. The article says "Females have only served in the Irish Defense Forces since 1980 - 32 years after the U.S. Women's Armed Services Integration Act - but were already in combat roles by 1995. All must pass the same training to serve in combat specialties, and anyone is eligible for assignment to the 'full range of operational and administrative duties'. Women have served in combat units alongside men, and as their leaders, during training in Ireland and on operations abroad."

IRISH TOURISTS - According to the latest household travel survey, in 2014 Irish residents spent $912 million on travel within Ireland, while spending almost $6 billion in out-of-State travel. Irish residents took 1.65 million domestic trips in the last quarter of 2014 while the numbers of outbound travel trips in the same period was 1.5 million with a spend of $1.29 billion.

VISITOR APPROVAL - Almost 1,500 overseas holidaymakers in Ireland were surveyed in 2014 and when asked their overall opinion of their Irish holiday, 55% said their trip met all their expectations and 44% said their holiday exceeded all expectations. The top six reasons cited for a holiday exceeding expectations were: Irish people, scenery, history and culture, the weather being better than expected, and the food. 81% of North Americans said they would "definitely recommend" an Irish holiday to friends and family. Only 5% of respondents found Ireland to be "poor" value for money, while 54% of them said they found "good" or "very good" value in Ireland.

TRAWLER SCARE - An Irish fishing trawler was towed by a suspected submarine off the coast of Ireland on Wednesday. The Karen was towed along during the incident about 18 miles from the shore of Co. Down, not far from the Isle of Man. The vessel was badly damaged but the crew escaped unharmed. The skipper said the boat had been snagged and dragged backwards at speed. There were several cases of trawlers being towed by suspected submarines off the Irish coast during the 1980s. In 1982, the crew of the Sharegla escaped injury when the vessel capsized and sank after it was dragged backwards for about two miles by the Royal Navy diesel submarine, HMS Porpoise, after becoming entangled in its nets.

IRISH HERO - Liam Flynn, the US special forces marine killed in a helicopter crash off Florida in March, was born in Co Kildare. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery at an emotional ceremony watched by his widow, 11-month-old daughter, parents, and six of his seven siblings. Flynn, 33, moved from Ireland to New York in 2002 and enlisted in the US Marine Corps in 2006. He served four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his war decorations included a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

BELFAST DEVELOPMENT - Part of the river Farset, the tributary of the Lagan that almost 1400 years ago gave Belfast its name (B?al Feirste or The Mouth of the Farset), will be developed in a project that will include a history exhibition, outdoor information panels, an app and fifteen tour guides. Founded in the 7th century, Belfast became a Plantation town in the 17th century and is now Ireland's second-largest city.

IRISH COTTAGE? - Bloomberg Business says that Now might not be the best time to buy that Irish cottage. Home prices in Ireland surged 16.1% last year - more than four times the average 3.9% increase for the 23 other countries as compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Last year marked the second annual property value increase for Ireland after a five-year slump in which declines averaged 12%.

STING VISIT - 63-year-old rock star Sting was in Co Monaghan last week to see the old workhouse where his great-great-great grandmother, Mary Murphy, was recorded as being "a widow and pauper" who died in the workhouse in 1881 aged 68. All her children had either emigrated or died. Sting, the former Police frontman, was given a tour of the workhouse building, which contains a fully restored famine-era children's dormitory, as well as historical and famine related exhibits. He then viewed the workhouse's three mass graves where Mary Murphy was buried. Carrickmacross Workhouse was one of 130 Workhouses built throughout Ireland between 1841 and 1843 to house the poor, of whom there were an estimated 3 million in Ireland in the 1840s before the start of the Great Famine.

IRISH MARRIAGES - According to the Central Statistics Office, 59% of the 22,045 marriages registered in the Irish Republic in 2014 were married in Roman Catholic ceremonies. For a wedding to be legally recognized, it must be solemnized by a person on the register of civil solemnizers where 4,121 of the 5,461 people on the register are Catholic priests.

EXPERIMENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY - University College Dublin (UCD) is the only university in the world with a Center for Experimental Archaeology. Experimental archaeology involves reconstructing buildings and artefacts from ancient culture using only the tools and materials available in that period. UCD students have built a reproduction of one of Ireland's oldest houses from 7800 BC, using intertwined birch trees like a wicker basket to create a structure that looks like a giant chimney stack. Another student has built stone axes and used them to cut meat and trees. The handle is made from the holly tree, the head from shale and the axe secured with pine roots.

DRONE DOGS - The Wall Street Journal says Irish famers are Using Drones to Herd Sheep. The drones are seen as a relatively cheap alternative to the sheepdog. Camera-wielding copters that can be bought off-the-shelf for as little as $500 can cover hilly terrain quickly, finding and guiding sheep and cattle which the rancher operates remotely, sometimes wearing goggles that show the drone's perspective. A Carlow farmer is quoted as saying "Shep can round up a flock as quickly as a dog or four-wheeler."

CALVING HELP - A dead calf and a dead cow are all too common occurrences on farms, and a Co. Offaly farmer who found himself in a sleep-deprived state every calving season when watching cows day and night waiting for them to calve, has developed an innovative product, the Moocall. He determined that the most significant indicator that a cow is about to give birth is its tail twitching spasmodically. The Moocall is a simple device that clips onto the pregnant cow's tail to monitor the tail's activity until the twitching activity tells the sensor that calving is imminent. The device then texts the farmer with a warning.

BEST MUSICIANS - Billboard Magazine lists the Top Ten Irish Musicians of All Time, those who have made the biggest impact on the Billboard Hot 100 chart over the decades. This special list of the top 10 Irish artists tallies the biggest Billboard stars who were born, raised and/or formed in Ireland, and the list starts with U2 followed by Gilbert O'Sullivan, Sin?ad O'Connor, Van Morrison, Snow Patrol, Enya, The Script, The Cranberries, The Irish Rovers and Thin Lizzy. Those not making the list include The Chieftains, The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, The Pogues, James Galway, and many others.

OLDEST PERSON - Kathleen Hayes Rollins Snavely, a native of Skarrif, Co. Clare, has become the longest living person ever, who was born on the island of Ireland. Born February 16, 1902, she was 19 when she left Ireland and has lived in Syracuse, New York, ever since. On March 27, she was 113 years and 38 days old, a day older than the previous Irish-born record holder. The world's oldest living person is a woman from the state of Georgia who was born May 23, 1899.

LONGEST LIVING SIBLINGS - Guinness World Records has recognized 4 brothers and a sister born near Loughrea, Co. Galway, as the longest living group of siblings in the world, with all of them living to be over 100. Joe Clarke was born in 1901, 13 years before his sister Madge. In between, there were another three brothers and, collectively, they would accumulate 504 years of life. Of the five siblings to pass the 100 mark, Joe lived to 101, Charlie to 100, Pat to 102, James to 103 and Madge to 100. Their record may even be extended as Sheila, the last surviving sibling, is 98.

BOOK REVIEW - The Washington Post reviewer says that Colm T?ib?n's endorsement for a new Irish book The Dirty Dust: Cr? na Cille, "hooked me immediately: 'The greatest novel to be written in the Irish language, and among the best books to come out of Ireland in the twentieth century.' John Banville describes it as 'a modern masterpiece,' while the scholars Seamus Deane and Brian ? Conchubhair add their praise for Alan Titley's truly dazzling English translation. All four emphasize author M?irtin ? Cadhain's humor, speed and never-flagging linguistic energy."

IRELAND'S FAVORITE POEM - Seamus Heaney's poem, When All The Others Were Away at Mass, which recalls a morning the author shared as a boy peeling potatoes with his mother, has been named Ireland's favorite poem of the last 100 years.

When all the others were away at Mass

I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.

They broke the silence, let fall one by one

Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:

Cold comforts set between us, things to share

Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.

Read more at apoemforireland.rte.ie

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