The Gathering of Stones

An event for all diaries

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'The Gathering of Stones'

 Clink link for event video

June 20-23

Lough Boora Parklands, Co. Offaly

Lough Boora is a fantastic and beautiful spot, boasting the location of a Mesolithic settlement and amazing sculptures set in a beautiful location.

You can bring along your own stone and have it incorporated into the sculpture.

All four provinces in Ireland will be represented in the sculpture by using a particular stone type and style from each province.

Finding your family tree

2013 in Ireland is a whirlwind of social community events, labelled 'The Gathering'. The 'reverse genealogy' concept means contacting members of your familial / communal genealogical tree and inviting them to visit Ireland this year. Hundreds of events are planned around the country.

For those of you, who weren't in Ireland for the start of the millennium (2000), you might not know that the state sponsored the planting of trees around the country, with each family allocated a 'family tree' to celebrate the occasion (The People's Millennium Forest). I loved the idea and still do, native tree, recreational value, CO2 friendly measure, forestry employment, feel good factor.

The certificate, received through the post, had an identifying tree number and gave the location of the tree in the forestry plantation in the county.

So the rural rover is setting himself a mission for the summer months.... he's going to find his family tree. No libraries, newspapers or census data... just me, eyes, certificate number and fresh air... and knowing my luck lots of rain !.

Has anyone ever visited their family tree ?



P.S.
What's 'the gathering' all about -  Click link

The winds of change !

Early February and 'the days are getting longer'. I find myself galloping around the place finding things to put in different places - spring cleaning !.

I often hear people saying that 'the days are getting longer'. True, one should say 'there are more hours of daylight' as the day itself is still 24 hour. But maybe it's just an Irishism.

I was taught in school and brought up to believe that Spring starts on 1st February and runs until the end of April. Many of my friends and colleagues from other parts of Europe and farther afield consider that Spring starts at the end of March !. For me, it's Spring on 1st February, you can feel it in the air.

In Ireland the 1st February is St. Brigids day, the day for making your Brigid's cross and placing it in the kitchen to ward off bad luck and prevent fires. St. Brigid is associated with the town of Kildare. Her feast day intentionally coincides with the pre-Christian (or pagan) date of the first day of Spring in Ireland. St. Brigid brought her own winds of change to Kildare when in the fifth century A.D. she converted the people of Kildare to the Christian faith and established a monastery with a highly acclaimed scriptorium. Her feast day effectively re-used the pre-Christian first day of Spring.

So if you're wondering why you're rushing around cleaning the house, you are in fact doing your spring clean, which is natural, as it's Spring... if it was good enough for the Celts then its good enough for me.

If you should find yourself in Kildare, take some time out from rushing, visit the fantastic round tower in the town and go up to the summit (great views), do some shopping in the Kildare Village Outlet Centre and make sure to drop in to the Curragh race course. And if you are down that way, drop us a line.

Kildare round tower

Kildare round tower - detail of doorway