GEORGE CLOONEY’S IRISH ROOTS ARE DISCOVERED IN KILKENNY VILLAGE

http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/George-Clooneys-Irish-roots-are-discovered-in-Kilkenny-village-133142458.html

His ancestor Nicholas Clooney fled the Great Famine in 1847

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Thursday, November 3, 2011, 7:28 AM

George Clooney's Irish roots traced to Kilkenny

George Clooney's Irish ancestor  and his ancestral home has been discovered after an extensive search in Ireland.
The Hollywood actor's roots have been traced to a derelict house in County Kilkenny where a Nicholas Clooney from the hamlet of Windgap left for Kentucky and the New World in 1847 at age 18. He was born in 1829.
The discovery was made by a local amateur genealogist after Clooney stated he was coming to Ireland in April to research his roots according to the Irish Examiner newspaper .
Nicholas Clooney was his great-great grandfather  and his baptismal cert has been found.by  Gabriel Murray, a  Kilkenny filmmaker .
________________
He discovered the Nicholas Cooney baptismal cert after an exhaustive trawl through newly computerized records.
It showed that Nicholas Clooney was baptised in Windgap church on July 23, 1829, and was from Knockeen, Tullahought.
He also  discovered he still has cousins living in the area , Peter Purcell and his son, Paul.
Peter Purcell described  how his ancestors, the Clooneys, had left  overnight for Kentucky around 1847, the worst year of the Famine.
Now the relatives are hoping to organize a welcome home for Clooney when he comes in April and to invite Clooneys from all over Ireland to the local community center and  Power's the local bar.
Clooney has said he will come to Ireland in April and embark on a Harley Davidson tour of the country and to meet with Bono.
Topics: Irish Celebrity news , Irish ancestry , Entertainment news

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/who-were-Black-Irish-133290803.html

Who were the Black Irish?

By

The Information about Ireland Site,

Published Saturday, November 5, 2011, 8:11 AM

Visit The Information about Ireland Site

The term 'Black Irish' has commonly been in circulation among Irish emigrants and their descendants for centuries. As a subject of historical discussion the subject is almost never referred to in Ireland. There are a number of different claims as to the origin of the term, none of which are possible to prove or disprove.

'Black Irish' is often a description of people of Irish origin who had dark features, black hair, dark complexion and eyes.

A quick review of Irish history reveals that the island was subject to a number of influxes of foreign people. The Celts arrived on the island about the year 500 B.C.

Whether or not this was an actual invasion or rather a more gradual migration and assimilation of their culture by the natives is open to conjecture, but there is sufficient evidence to suggest that this later explanation is more likely.

The next great influx came from Northern Europe with Viking raids occurring as early as 795 A.D. The defeat of the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in the year 1014 by Brian Boru marked the end of the struggle with the invaders and saw the subsequent integration of the Vikings into Irish society. The migrants became 'Gaelicized' and formed septs (a kind of clan) along Gaelic lines.

The Norman invasions of 1170 and 1172 led by Strongbow saw yet another wave of immigrants settle in the country, many of whom fiercely resisted English dominance of the island in the centuries that followed. The Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century saw the arrival of English and Scottish colonists in Ulster after the 'Flight of the Earls'.

Each of these immigrant groups had their own physical characteristics and all, with the exception of the Ulster Planters, assimilated to some degree into Irish society, many claiming to be 'more Irish than the Irish themselves!'

The Vikings were often referred to as the 'dark invaders' or 'black foreigners'. The Gaelic word for foreigner is 'gall' and for black (or dark) is 'dubh'.

Many of the invaders families took Gaelic names that utilized these two descriptive words. The name Doyle is in Irish 'O'Dubhghaill' which literally means 'dark foreigner' which reveals their heritage as an invading force with dark intentions.

The name Gallagher is 'O Gallchobhair' which translates as 'foreign help'. The traditional image of Vikings is of pale-skinned blond-haired invaders but their description as 'dark foreigners' may lead us to conclude that their memory in folklore does not just depend on their physical description.

The Normans were invited into Ireland by Dermot McMurrough and were led by the famous Strongbow. Normans are ultimately of French origin where black haired people are not uncommon. As with the Vikings these were viewed as a people of 'dark intentions' who ultimately colonized much of the Eastern part of the country and several larger towns.

Many families however integrated into Gaelic society and changed their Norman name to Gaelic and then Anglo equivalents: the Powers, the Fitzpatricks, Fitzgeralds, Devereuxs, Redmonds.

It is possible that the term 'Black Irish' may have referred to some of these immigrant groups as a way of distinguishing them from the 'Gaels', the people of ultimately Celtic origin.

Another theory of the origin of the term 'Black Irish' is that these people were descendants of Spanish traders who settled in Ireland and even descendants of the few Spanish sailors who were washed up on the west coast of Ireland after the disaster that was the 'Spanish Armada' of 1588.

It is claimed that the Spanish married into Irish society and created a new class of Irish who were immediately recognizable by their dark hair and complexion. There is little evidence to support this theory and it is unlikely that any significant number of Spanish soldiers would have survived long in the war-torn place that was sixteenth century Ireland.

It is striking though how this tale is very similar to the ancient Irish legend of the Milesians who settled in Ireland having traveled from Spain.

The theory that the 'Black Irish' are descendants of any small foreign group that integrated with the Irish and survived, is unlikely. It seems more likely that 'Black Irish' is a descriptive term rather than an inherited characteristic that has been applied to various categories of Irish people over the centuries.

One such example is that of the hundreds of thousands of Irish peasants who emigrated to America after the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849. 1847 was known as 'black 47'. The potato blight which destroyed the main source of sustenance turned the vital food black. It is possible that the arrival of large numbers of Irish after the famine into America, Canada, Australia and beyond resulted in their being labeled as 'black' in that they escaped from this new kind of black death.

Immigrant groups throughout history have generally been treated poorly by the indigenous population (or by those who simply settled first).

Derogatory names for immigrant groups are legion and in the case of those who left Ireland include 'Shanty Irish' and almost certainly 'Black Irish.' It is also possible that within the various Irish cultures that became established in America that there was a pecking order, a class system that saw some of their countrymen labeled as 'black'.

The term 'Black Irish' has also been applied to the descendants of Irish emigrants who settled in the West Indies. It was used in Ireland by Catholics in Ulster Province as a derogatory term to describe the Protestant Planters.

While it at various stages was almost certainly used as an insult, the term 'Black Irish' has emerged in recent times as a virtual badge of honor among some descendants of immigrants. It is unlikely that the exact origin of the term will ever be known and it is also likely that it has had a number of different creations depending on the historical context. It remains therefore a descriptive term used for many purposes, rather than a reference to an actual class of people who may have survived the centuries.

Visit The Information about Ireland Site.

A FABULOUS IRISH WILL!

IRISH CHATTER...

A BRILLIANT WILL :) of a Parlimentarian Soldier who fought at the Siege Of
Clonmel: as found by Museum Volunteer Eddie Cantwell:-

"I, John LANGLEY, born in Wincanton, in Somersetshire, and settled in
Ireland in the year 1651, now in my right mind and wits, do make my will in
my own handwriting. I do leave all my house, goods, and farm at Black Kettle
of 253 acres to my son, commonly called 'Stubborn Jack,' to him and his
heirs forever, provided he marries a Protestant, but not Alice Kenrick, who
called me 'Oliver's whelp.' My new buckskin breeches and my silver tobacco
stopper with 'J. L.' on the top I give to Richard Richards, my comrade, who
helped me off at the storming of Clonmel when I was shot through the leg. My
said son John shall keep my body above ground six days and six nights after
I am dead; and Grace Kenrick shall lay me out, who shall have for so doing
five shillings. My body shall be put upon the oak table in the brown room,
and fifty Irishmen shall be invited to my wake and every one shall have two
quarts of the best aqua vitae, and each one one skein, dish and knife before
him, and when the liquor is out nail up the coffin, and commit me to the
earth whence I came. This is my will; witness my hand this 3rd day of March,
1674."

IRISH CHATTER

       

Courtesy of

 

THE HISTORY OF THE IRISH CHIPPER ================================= 

 It is a well known fact in Ireland that the majority of chippers are run not by the Irish but by Italians! The first of his countrymen to set up in Ireland was Giuseppe Cervi who arrived in Dublin late in the 1880s. He worked as a labourer until he had saved enough to buy a hand-cart and cooker on which he could prepare and sell chips to the many locals leaving pubs at night. With his wife he established the first ever Dublin chipper on Pearse Street and is even credited with being the originator of the famous Dublin saying: 'a one and one' (meaning 1 fish and 1 chips portion). By the year 1909 there were 20 fish and chip shops in Dublin alone. This new industry was certainly not confined to Ireland with the north of England having many more chippers than Dublin. Scotland became the undisputed centre of the trade with thousands of Italian chippers operating there by the time of the first war. Immigration from Scotland into Ireland and especially in to Ulster had continued during the eighteenth century and of course the Italian chippers arrived with them. It should be noted that the most famous chipper in Ireland, Beshoffs, was set up by the Ukranaian Ivan Beshov who arrived in Ireland in the 1940s, and who was originally arrested upon suspicion of being a German spy! He proved his innocence of that charge and in a salt and vinegar covered irony his first chipper was destroyed by the German Luftwaffe who accidentally bombed the North Strand area of Fairview in Dublin in 1941. He relocated to the city centre and became a Dublin institution!  

 =============== MY FINEST HOUR by Pat Watson =============== 

 In the nineteen-forties cutting the turf was one of the most important tasks of the year for most families. Without turf there would be no cooking or heating in the homes of Ireland. Considerable planning went into the week on the bog as this usually involved all hands, that is the entire family, from the baby in the horses collar to the daddy on the 'slane'. In between were the little girls for looking after the fire, the cooking and the baby, the middle boy for catching the sods and filling the barrows, the older boy and the mother for wheeling the barrow loads out the bog. The bogs were divided in stripes about fifty yards wide so there were several families within sight of each other. Whatever anybody did, everyone knew. In the Shannon valley, Roscommon, Westmeath, Offaly, when the 'slanesman' threw up the sods a boy caught them and placed them on the barrow in well ordered symmetric double rows. Each row had twelve sods and weighed nearly a hundred weight. Barrow-men usually complained if more than two rows were loaded on the barrow, as the terrain was rough with clumps of caoibh and heather. In other parts of the country, the 'slanesman' just threw the sods up on the bank and somebody loaded the barrow with a pitchfork in a somewhat higgledy-piggledy fashion. This was how we found things east of the Sliabh Bloom Mountains near Mountrath at the end of the forties. My uncle had bought a farm there and come April he employed a barrow-man and brought me as the turf catcher. When I started catching the sods, work ceased on every bank and a crowd gathered. 'Could I try that?' said a much older boy but the sods slipped from his grasp. You could not be up to the Connaught men, was the general consensus. This was my finest hour. Imagine a ten-year-old boy being the envy of the whole bog. Could things ever get better? 'My Finest Hour ' is one of sixty lyrical yarns from 'Original Irish Stories' by Pat Watson, Creagh, Bealnamulla, Athlone, Ireland. First published in May 2006. Visit: http://www.myirishstories.com or you can email the author here: pjwatson@utvinternet.com 

 

GAELIC PHRASES OF THE MONTH

 PHRASE: Ta suil agam go bhfuil tu i mbarr na slainte 

PRONOUNCED: taw su-ill ah-gum guh will tu ih marr nah slawn-che 

MEANING: I hope you are in the best of health 

PHRASE: Ni raibh am agam scriobh go dti seo 

PRONOUNCED: knee rouh omm ah-gum skreevh guh dee shuh 

MEANING: I hadn't time to write until now 

PHRASE: Scriobh chugam go luath 

PRONOUNCED: skreevh coo-gum guh lu-ah 

MEANING: write to me soon

 

 View the archive of phrases here:

http://www.ireland-information.com/irishphrases.htm

For full newsletter, go to http://www.ireland-information.com

CLARE ROOTS SOCIETY .. "MATCHMAKING AND MARRIAGE CUSTOMS"

Courtesy of Clara Hoyne....

Clare Roots Society always has interesting speakers at their monthly meetings. While many of us can't be there, at least we get to hear what they are doing and follow up on their speakers. 

Our November talk will be on "MATCHMAKING AND MARRIAGE CUSTOMS" by Sean O Dúill, a Dublin based historian. This talk will take place on Thursday November the 17^th at 8 pm in the Ennis Civic Offices.

Sean Ó Dúill, B.A, H. Dip, is a fluent Irish speaker from Louisburgh, Co. Mayo. He has published several articles in Irish and English on Irish folklore. Sean has lectured conferences in Ireland and the United States, most recently at the FGS conference in Philadelphia, 2008. His research into Irish Folklore has developed a series of lectures which have been of great interest to Irish family historians.

See http://www.heirsireland.com/

NEW IN IGP ARCHIVES - 2ND HALF OF OCTOBER

Subject: New in IGP Archives - 2nd half of October

Files added from October 16-31st

GENERAL IRELAND Genealogy Archives
Assorted Indentures: Crawford & Rowley, Peacock & Lloyd, Taylor & Nixon
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/countrywide/misc.htm

CAVAN Ireland Genealogy Archives
Drumgoon Cemetery (partial only)
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/cavan/photos/tombstones/markers.htm

DUBLIN Genealogy Archives
1861-1862 Banns from St. Thomas
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/dublin/church.htm

GALWAY Genealogy Archives - Land
Encumbered Estate Property of James CUFF (Ballinamana) 1851
Encumbered Estate Property of James CUFF (Escar) 1851
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/galway/land.htm

GALWAY Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
Galway 1845 17K Oct 2011 Richard Leonard Royal Irish
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/galway/military.htm

LAOIS Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
Queens - 1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/laois/military.htm

LEITRIM Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/leitrim/military.htm

LONGFORD Genealogy Archives - Church Records
Granard Baptisms 1881 (1 page only)
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/longford/church.htm

LONGFORD Genealogy Archives - Headstone Photos
Newtowncashel R.C. Headstones (partial)
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/longford/photos/tombstones/markers.htm

LOUTH Genealogy Archives - Headstone Photos
Melifont Abbey (views)
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/louth/photos/tombstones/markers.htm

LOUTH Genealogy Archives
Louth 1845 4K Oct 2011 Richard Leonard Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/louth/military.htm

MAYO Genealogy Archives
Ballina, Ardnaree Friary (5 images)
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/mayo/photos/tombstones/markers.htm

MAYO Genealogy Archives - Land Records
Encumbered Estate of James CUFF, Esq.  (Crowhill, Castlepark,
Oldcastle, Upper & Lower Shanwar) 1851
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/mayo/land.htm

MAYO Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
Mayo 1845 Leonard Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/mayo/military.htm

MEATH Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/meath/military.htm

MONAGHAN Genealogy Archives - Military
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/monaghan/military.htm

MONAGHAN Genealogy Archives - Headstones.
Ballybay, 2nd Presbyterian
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/monaghan/photos/tombstones/markers.htm

ROSCOMMON Genealogy Archives - Headstones.
Killeenan Headstones
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/roscommon/photos/tombstones/markers.htm

ROSCOMMON Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/roscommon/military.htm

SLIGO Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/sligo/military.htm

TIPPERARY Genealogy Archives - Military
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/tipperary/military.htm

TYRONE Genealogy Archives - Military
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/tyrone/military.htm

WESTMEATH Genealogy Archives - Military & Constabulary Records
1845 Royal Irish Constabulary
www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/ire/westmeath/military.htm

--
Christina
http://www.igp-web.com/IGPArchives/

Appeal for Relatives of Irish War Dead

In a joint appeal between the Commission and The Glasnevin Trust, which is responsible for Ireland’s largest cemetery, in Dublin, relatives of servicemen and women who are buried in the cemetery are being asked to come forward for Remembrance Day.

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