Looking into the heart of Ireland

As the deadline for this 7th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture began to draw near, I was beginning to wonder why I'd gotten the bright idea to suggest a "reading assignment" during the lazy (yet, sometimes busy) days of summer. A few entries had trickled in, but it didn't look like the carnival would be much of a carnival at all. (After all, who ever heard of a carnival with only one or two attendees?)

It turned out that many of you, like students procrastinating on their homework assignments, were working hard to finish your reading material just in time for the due date. Thanks to all who squeaked your entries in at the last minute, we have a carnival...and quite a carnival it is!

From fiction to poetry, history to genealogy and memoir, adult reading to books for young people, the Small-leaved Shamrock summer reading challenge has resulted in a wonderful assortment of book "reviews" written by a variety of writers.

Now, without further ado, I'll share with you an assortment of reading material on Ireland and the Irish. Join with me as we "return to Ireland" through literature, poetry, history and more.

"I returned to Ireland. Ireland green and chaste and foolish. And when I wandered over my own hills and talked again to my own people I looked into the heart of this life and saw that it was good."

~ Patrick Kavanagh, The Green Fool

Fiction

"There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen."

~ Sean O’Faolain

The Silence in the Garden is the name of a work of fiction introduced to us by Lori Thornton of Smoky Mountain Family Historian. It is a story set in 20th-century County Cork. The novel has a strong focus on genealogy and its plot involves a family secret, a death and a diary. According to Lori, William Trevor's book is a well-written novel and an interesting look at Ireland's religious conflict and various aspects of Irish culture.

A 7th-century nun living in Ireland? It's not too surprising to find that type of character. What about a 7th-century Irish nun who is also a detective? Bill West of West in New England shares with us The Sister Fidelma Mysteries written by Peter Tremayne. Bill shares how this series of more than twenty books gives us a look into the relationship between the Celtic and Anglo cultures along with the relatively independent role that women played in Ireland even long ago. Read his post to learn more about Sister Fidelma's adventures as a dálaigh aiding her brother, the King of Cashel.

Donna Pointkouski of What's Past is Prologue writes a nice inroduction to Pete Hamill's Forever within her post on an Irish history book (I'll describe the history book a little later in the carnival). The beginning of the story is set in 18th-century Ireland. The main character Cormac O'Connor immigrates to New York City and, fantastically, finds a secret akin to the fountain of youth.


Poetry

"...quite often the kind of poem I write is just an attempt to get back."

~ Seamus Heaney

A carnival on Irish literature would not be complete without some Irish poetry. Colleen Johnson gives us a taste of one of her favorite poets (and one of Ireland's most famous), W.B. Yeats, in her post Peace by Yeats. Speaking of Yeats, you might also enjoy visiting the current online exhibition The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats presented by The National Library of Ireland.

For a sampling of works by a couple of well-known modern Irish poets read Colm Doyle's post Mahon & Heaney at The Corcaighist. He shares with us his favorite lines from an assortment of poems. Colm writes, "These two men both speak with the same tongue, albeit in slightly separate positions, and you get an appreciation for Ireland and the Irish, whatever be their background and history."

Want to delve further back into the history of Irish poetry? Visit my post On bards and beautiful words here at Small-leaved Shamrock for an introduction to one of my favorite Irish poetry reference works. Believe it or not, it takes the reader on a journey through 1,000 years of Irish poetic history, including many types of forms written by many types of Irish poets (including the well-known writer Anonymous).

Genealogy

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."

~ Samuel Beckett

One of the ways to aid the discovery of elusive branches in your family history is to just dedicate yourself to the search with good old-fashioned perseverance. I enjoy Samuel Beckett's suggestion to keep trying in the hopes of "failing better". That is my experience with my search for one of my Irish family surnames in particular. My success was aided by several books written by one author that I share on Small-leaved Shamrock within the post What's in an Irish surname? If you are doing Irish genealogy and are not familiar with Edward MacLysaght, now's the time to get acquainted.

While we're on the subject of Irish genealogy, take a visit over to the Irish Family History blog's review of Tracing Your Irish Ancestors by John Grenham. The author gives a very good overview of this book that is indispensible when doing family history research in Ireland.


Memoir
"When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.”

~ Edna O’Brien

Frank McCourt is one of those tenacious Irish characters whose story is one of seemingly insurmountable odds. After many years of being drawn to reading his memoir but avoiding it because she feared it was too sad to read, Elizabeth O'Neal finally decided to pick it up. Halfway through the book, she shares her observations of Angela's Ashes: A Memoir on her blog Little Bytes of Life.

Another good memoir is the story of Thomas Lynch and his search for roots in Ireland. Loretta Murphy of The Creek introduces us to Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans and makes the observation: "Climbing the branches of our family tree, we grasp the hands of those who came before us, trying to reach the top to catch a glimpse of that past from which we became the future." As Loretta shares in Never Forget..., Thomas, a descendant of Irish-American immigrants, not only "grasps the hands of those who came before [him]" but gets to know several present-day relatives still living in Ireland. Unbelievably, he eventually finds himself the custodian of the family's ancestral home back in Ireland.


History

"One by one they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age."

~ James Joyce, from The Dead

Going back in time to the fall of the Roman Empire, Thomas Cahill begins to tell the story of How the Irish Saved Civilization. Donna Pointkouski enjoyed his historical look at Ireland from Roman to Medieval times. Thomas Cahill writes about the impact of the work of the Celtic monks on European history, according to Donna, in a fascinating way. Read her post to learn more about this book and others in Cahill's "Hinges of History" series. I especially like a quote that Donna chose from this book that rings true of many of our immigrant ancestors.

A Book On The History of Ireland: A Reader's Thoughts Partway Through The Book is Jessica Oswalt's post about her reading of Modern Ireland, 1600-1972 by R. F. Foster. Jessica gives a brief overview of this survey of Irish history, commenting that she feels the need for a less daunting history of Ireland in order to better understand this more complex work. A few suggestions for Jessica and others who might want another angle on Irish history:

• Fianna's A Timeline of Irish History webpage on Rootsweb


• Wesley Johnston & Patrick Abbot's Travel Through the Ireland Story website (which uses maps to illustrate Irish history)


• The Oxford Companion to Irish History edited by S.J. Connolly - see its review on the Irish Family History blog

Moving across the ocean to Boston, Bill West (of New England) shares with us an introduction to a new publication: Hidden History of the Boston Irish by Peter F. Stevens. According to Bill, this collection of historical vignettes is an interesting read. Bill comments, "If you are of Irish descent and live in Boston or your ancestors did this book will give you a better picture of the obstacles Irish-Americans faced in 19th-century America and will make you better appreciate how they overcame them with talent and determination."

For young people

"You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was."

~ Irish Proverb

Our carnival includes two great books on Irish history written for younger readers (although they are great reads for adults, too).

Miriam Midkiff of AnceStories shares The Long March, the unlikely story of the Native American Choctaw people's attempt to send aid to the starving Irish during the famine in the middle 19th-century. According to Miriam, the book is beautifully illustrated by the author and "an emotional experience" for the reader. Read Miriam's article to learn how the Irish thanked the Choctaw over a century later when "two great nations, both knowing suffering and starvation [were] bonded at a deeply emotional and spiritual level."

Also set during the time of the famine of the mid-19th-century is the story of Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff. Read Song of Suffering on my blog A light that shines again for an introduction to this fictional story of the struggles of one young girl and her family to overcome starvation and survive one of the most trying times in the history of the Irish people. As I stated, this book is one of the most moving descriptions of Ireland's Great Famine that I have read.

In the mood for children's stories of Ireland that go back further into Irish history? You might enjoy an article written by Jerry Griswold, Director of San Diego State University's National Center for the Study of Children's Literature. Partly of Irish descent and having lived in Ireland for a time, Griswold shares a little background on Irish myth and legend and provides a suggested reading list for children within his article Ireland and Irish Children's Stories on the Parents' Choice website.


Thanks for joining us for this, the first Irish literature edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. I hope that you've found some new books to place on top of your reading pile and that you have some time left in your summer to pick up and read a few of these gems on Ireland and the Irish. In the mood for a little quiz after reading? Try the Irish Literature & Folklore Quiz.

Thanks to all of our contributors including those of you who, though you have not yet found any Irish heritage within your family tree, helped to enrich our carnival with your submissions.

If you liked what you read, you might enjoy the "back issues" of our Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

• 1st edition: Everyone loves a good Irish story - Stories of Ireland and the Irish
• 2nd edition: They say there's a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow... - A focus on Irish family history research
• 3rd edition: Off to Ireland! - Irish places, both in and out of Ireland
• 4th edition: A St. Patrick's Day parade of posts! - An assortment of posts on all things Irish in celebration of St. Patrick's Day 2008
• 5th edition: A little Irish language, a bit of Blarney... - A tribute to the Irish language
• 6th edition: The many faces of Irish identity - Contributors ponder the question, "What does it mean to be Irish?"

Thanks for reading this, the 7th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Please plan to join us for the upcoming 8th edition. See Back to school for the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture! for the details. Get your school supplies ready now!

Images courtesy of Karen's Whimsy.

Last call for the carnival!

Submit your Irish/Ireland book reviews (or list of books you had hoped to read) A.S.A.P. to be included in the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture's Small-leaved Shamrock summer reading challenge!

The carnival will be posted on July 28 here at Small-leaved Shamrock. See you there!

On bards and beautiful words

Poetry has long been dear to my heart. If you've been reading Small-leaved Shamrock, you also know how much pride I take in my Irish heritage. It was with great joy that I received a gift a few years back from my mother (thanks, Mom) of a book of Irish poetry spanning 1,000 years.

Yes, you read that right. 1000 Years of Irish Poetry: The Gaelic and Anglo Irish Poets from Pagan Times to the Present edited by Kathleen Hoagland is a compilation of the best poetic works by Irish poets over a period of history longer than you can imagine could fit in one book. Beginning with the ancient poetic songs from pre-Christian Ireland and progressing through the centuries to the modern Irish poets of more recent times, this book is a treasure for lovers of Irish poetry and Ireland in general.

There are so many treasures in this book, from the familiar The Wearin' of the Green (from the section on Anonymous Street Ballads) to Thomas D'Arcy McGee's 19th-century poem The Celtic Cross (within Anglo-Irish poetry). The table of contents itself is a historical timeline of sorts, beginning with ancient poetry written pre-7th-century and moving through the medieval period all the way to modern times. Included are moving poetic tributes to the culture and people of Ireland, poetic laments of hardships and suffering, and of course, an assortment of humorous Irish ballads.

As stated on the book's cover, "1000 Years of Irish Poetry presents for the first time a panorama of Irish poetry as a literature, showing the many faces of the Irish poetic genius; lyrics, elegies, songs, street ballads, satires, patriotic hymns, dramatic epics, natural and contemplative poetry, odes and sonnets, and older unusual Gaelic forms of verse, which influenced the bardic poets of ancient and medieval Europe."

I can't imagine this book not being in my collection. Now, to find the time to be true to my Irish heritage and write more of my own poetic utterances...

For more on Irish poetry, try Out of What Began: A History of Irish Poetry in English by Gregory A. Schirmer.

10 days left for the summer reading challenge at Small-leaved Shamrock!

If you feel like I do, summer is speeding past faster than you every imagined that it could. It has been over a month since I issued the Small-leaved Shamrock summer reading challenge. We now have only ten days left to do our reading before the carnival!

Just to refresh your memory, here are the details:

Ireland has a long tradition of literature, both in the Irish and English languages. In fact, after Greek and Latin, the Irish language itself has the oldest literature in Europe. The land is known for both its ancient bards and its more modern poetry and epic works of fiction. Today there are also innumerable non-fiction books touching on subjects related to Irish history and culture.

Read a book of Irish fiction, a selection of Irish poetry or a work of non-fiction about Irish history and/or culture, and share it with us for the 7th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

Submissions are due Friday, July 25. The carnival will be published Monday, July 28.

If you don't have a blog of your own, read along with us and share your "book reviews" by leaving a comment here.

Interested in participating in the reading challenge, but finding the lazy days of summer have gotten you behind on your reading? Or perhaps you've not had enough downtime this summer for some leisurely meandering through Irish subjects? If you haven't yet chosen a title to read, don't fret. Just choose a book of interest on Irish culture, history, literature, travel, genealogy, etc. and write what you know about it, finished reading or not. Join us for our "show and tell" of sorts on books about Ireland and the Irish.

Be sure to choose your selections soon and share your blog "book review" by Friday, July 25. Happy reading!

Hard black coal and a lady in white

At the start of the new year I enjoyed taking a look back at Schuylkill County and my Cowhey ancestors one-hundred years ago in the year 1908.

Working back to one-hundred years before that date, none of my family had arrived yet in Pennsylvania, but an important event occurred there that would eventually draw them to the area and impact the rest of their lives.

1808 was the year that anthracite coal was first substituted for wood by a prominent citizen: Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre. Since the discovery of the anthracite coal fields in Eastern Pennsylvania in the 1790s, there had been a push to mine and sell it. It was slow to be received by the public until Judge Fell's example showed that it was cheaper and cleaner-burning than wood. It was a decade later before serious marketing and the building of canals would bring anthracite coal to its glory in the industrial age.

Another individual who did her part to encourage the use of anthracite as a fuel was the fictional Phoebe Snow. Created in 1903 by the Lackawanna Railroad to advertise the use of anthracite coal to power their trains, Phoebe Snow introduced would-be passengers to the cleaner rides on the rails thanks to anthracite.



According to William White's The Lackawanna: The Route of Phoebe Snow published in 1951:

"Rail travel around the year 1900 was a messy business. After a long trip on a coal-powered train, travellers would frequently emerge covered in black soot. The exception to that rule were locomotives powered by anthracite, a clean-burning form of coal. The Lackawanna owned vast anthracite mines in Pennsylvania, and could legitimately claim that their passengers' clothes would still look clean after a long trip. To promote this fact, their advertising department created Phoebe Snow, a young New York socialite, and a frequent passenger of the Lackawanna. For reasons never explained, Miss Snow often travelled to Buffalo, New York, always wearing a white dress. The first ad featured the image of Phoebe and a short poem:

Says Phoebe Snow about to go
Upon a trip to Buffalo
'My gown stays white from morn till night
Upon the Road of Anthracite'

The campaign became a popular one, and soon Phoebe began to enjoy all the benefits offered by DL&W: Gourmet food, courteous attendants, an observation deck, even on-board electric lights:

Now Phoebe may by night or day
Enjoy her book upon the way
Electric light dispels the night
Upon the Road of Anthracite

Phoebe soon became one of the United States' most recognized advertising mascots. During World War I, anthracite was needed for the war effort, and its use on railroads was prohibited, thus ending her career, but her legend remained alive among railroad fans."

Phoebe Snow would eventually appear again (she would even one day have trains named for her), but never would she acquire her previous glory.

For more on the history of anthracite coal see the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission's website for the article Who Are These Anthracite People? by Valerie A. Zehl, originally published in Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine's Winter 1997 edition. (Phoebe Snow appears on page 5 of the article.)

For more on Phoebe Snow, see The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958: Who Wrote Them and What They Did published by Julian Lewis Watkins in 1959.

Thanks to the 24-7 Family History Circle blog for the look back at the year 1808 and their mention of Judge Fell's use of anthracite coal in his home furnace two-hundred years ago.

What's in an Irish surname?

If you have Irish surnames in your family tree and are interested in your heritage, there is one 20th-century Irishman's work that you absolutely must know about. Although born in England, Edward MacLysaght (1887-1986) eventually came to Ireland where he developed a deep love for his Irish heritage. Eventually elected to the Senate of the Irish Free State, elected to the Royal Irish Academy, and appointed Chief Herald of Ireland, he was busy within the Irish government for many years, including time spent as Keeper of Manuscripts at the National Library of Ireland and Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission.

In his role as one of the foremost genealogists of twentieth century Ireland, he expanded upon the work of Patrick Woulfe published in 1923 (Irish Names and Surnames - click on the link to read it within Google Book Search). MacLysaght's resulting compilations of the history of surnames in Ireland are a treasure for any Irish family historian. His book The Surnames of Ireland is a detailed guide to over 4,000 Gaelic, Norman and Anglo-Irish surnames and serves also as a type of index to two of his other works: Irish Families: Their Names, Arms & Origins and More Irish Families.

It was on a used book sale table at a genealogical library where I found my 1957 copy of Irish Families. Heading out the door that day, I couldn't pass by the little table without just a quick look. I spotted the title Irish Families and thought it looked interesting enough to justifying paying a few dollars in order to take it home to read. What a treasure I had found!

Read my post entitled Victorious! to learn the story of my long search for the uncommon Cowhey surname and my discovery of its origins within MacLysaght's Irish Families book thanks to that used book table.

Anxious to research your own Irish family surname within MacLysaght's books? Check out the genealogical collection at your local library or purchase a copy for yourself. You can also check out the Irish Family History blog's ongoing series on Irish surnames. The author is in the process of highlighting the top twenty most common surnames of Ireland using MacLysaght's surname histories. Odds are one branch of your family tree may be there!

"Speeding to the front" in defense of the nation

Once more war's alarm is heard - the Government is shaken to its foundation, and now General Scott is called upon to save the Capital. Will the men of the North arise? Will they come to protect the nation? Yes, they spring forward to the fray and the veteran chieftain knows that thousands are rushing to his aid. The flower of the country are speeding to the front - but the first to meet his sight, the First Defenders appear, and two of the five companies are from Pottsville! Should any ask what town this is whose men have passed all others in the race, he would learn of a people who have already made history enough to fill a folio, and the story of whose energetic career would be the story of the anthracite coal trade.

This glowing description of the citizens of Pottsville was written in 1876 by George Chambers. His Historical Sketch of Pottsville: Schuylkill County, Pa. is interesting reading, particularly when you understand that Pottsville as a town had been in existence for less than a century at the time this history was written.

Among the First Defenders mentioned by Chambers, were two from the Cowhey family: William and Thomas. Part of their volunteer tour of duty (which lasted only three months) was a turn guarding the nation's capital.

Here is a partial description of the movements of Company I-16 according to Samuel P. Bates' History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5:

Joining in the general forward movement, which commenced about the middle of June, the regiment proceeded to the Potomac, and on the 16th, crossed with the advance Division; but soon after returned and remained encamped near the river until the 2nd day of July.

Getting across the Potomac seems to have been quite an ordeal for the brothers. Having read Thomas' handwritten account of their crossing, I was very happy to find E.G. Arnold's 1862 map of the District of Columbia and the defenses surrounding and protecting it at the time.

Its official title is Topographical Map of the Original District of Columbia and Environs: Showing the Fortifications around the City of Washington. The publication of the map has an interesting story. The Alexandria Library website states that:

According to the Spring/Summer 2003 (Vol. 15, No. 1) issue of Washington History, two days after the map went on sale in various shops in 1862, the War Department confiscated most copies, as was the copper plate that was used to print the original maps. In addition, the Department obtained the names of purchasers and seized the maps from the homes of private citizens to prevent it from falling into Confederate hands insofar as the map identifies and locates 51 forts that defended Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.

Surviving copies of the map can now be found at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland (Cartographic & Architectural Section) in addition to the Alexandria Library in Virginia.

E.G. Arnold's pastel map is quite a work of art. It shows Washington, D.C.'s wards, watercourses and original boundary in addition to its various defenses circa 1862. It is a fascinating look back at a time when the nation's capital faced not armies of hot, summer tourists, but a more threatening force. Thanks to the defense of volunteers like the Cowhey brothers, the nation's capital remains as we know it today.

The Small-leaved Shamrock summer reading challenge!

Ireland has a long tradition of literature, both in the Irish and English languages. In fact, after Greek and Latin, the Irish language itself has the oldest literature in Europe. The land is known for both its ancient bards and its more modern poetry and epic works of fiction. Today there are also innumerable non-fiction books touching on subjects related to Irish history and culture.

In the hope that you have some time on your hands this summer to do a little reading, here is a challenge for you:

Read a book of Irish fiction, a selection of Irish poetry or a work of non-fiction about Irish history and/or culture, and share it with us for the 7th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Submissions are due Friday, July 25. The carnival will be published Monday, July 28. (This is a slight change from the original deadline.)

If you don't have a blog of your own, read along with us and share your "book reviews" by leaving a comment here.

Hope you'll join us! Better get off to the bookstore or the library and make your summer reading selections right away!

Speaking of reading, if you haven't yet done so check out the 6th edition of the carnival: The many faces of Irish identity. Scroll down to the end to find a summary of the carnival's previous editions. Happy reading!

The many faces of Irish identity

Beyond wearing green on St. Patrick's Day...

Beyond appreciating the sound of your Irish surname as it rolls off of your tongue (or wishing that you had one)...

What does "being Irish" mean to you?

That was the question posed to the contributors of this, the 6th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

The answer: many things to many people.

Here are the responses of this edition's contributors, a group that includes a wide range of people: a well-traveled citizen of Ireland, a Pennsylvania town's "unofficial ambassador" for its Irish heritage, a few descendants of proud Irish grandmothers, some family historians who have just begun to learn about their Irish ancestry, and others.

You may find yourself pondering your own answer to the question as you read the responses of our contributors.

What does it mean to be Irish?

"Stubborn tenacity, undaunting hope and joy in the very simple things in life"

To be born Irish (in my experience, at least) is to be born into the family of a proud people. Whether born on Irish soil or born the child of Irish-American immigrants, the various generations on the Irish side of my family tree faced challenges, sufferings and sometimes almost insurmountable odds. Leaving Ireland did not free them from their struggles, but brought new trials along with new opportunities. In my post here at Small-leaved Shamrock entitled To be born Irish, I share my memories of time spent at my grandparents' home as a young girl and my understanding of the mixed feelings that they may have had about their Irish heritage. For an understanding of "the unmistakable tug of remembrance" of Ireland shared by those whose "roots have grown in her rich soil", see my post entitled "Are you ancestoring, dear?" over at A light that shines again.

"Pride in my ancestors for what they overcame"

Bill West (in New England) summed up his response to this edition's question with a simple title that tells it all: PRIDE. His post gives us a little background on the first Irishman on the Boston police force (way back in 1851) and the man's personal encounter with the reality of the "No Irish Need Apply" attitude. Bill goes on to share the story of his own great-grandfather's Irish-American success story in Boston and articulates his personal pride in his Irish heritage. He also expresses his own feelings about the echoes of history that he sees in the current debates on modern immigration issues and the American trend toward identifying individuals as "hyphenated Americans".

"It is often the exile who knows patriotism best"

Loretta Murphy of The Creek answers the question Do You Know What it Means to be Irish? in several ways. First, she tells us a little bit about her hometown of Girardville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Resident population with known Irish heritage: 28.5%. Loretta gives us a short list of what "being Irish" doesn't mean before sharing a poem that she wrote a few years ago after a trip to Ireland. As she states in the introduction to her poem, "it is often the exile who knows patriotism the best". (Not to mention the exile's great-grandchildren.) For more from Loretta on Girardville's population of Irish-Americans, along with a list of the American communities with the most Irish background today, see The Girardville Irish.

"A pot of shamrocks" and "a golden thread connecting generations"

Often told about her grandmother's "100% Irish" heritage, Elizabeth O'Neal of Little Bytes of Life did the math on her own Irish pedigree. Read To Be 100% Irish to learn how her Irish ancestry figures into her family tree. Although it includes only sparse family information, Elizabeth feels that the knowledge that she has about her own Irish heritage is "a golden thread connecting generations". Elizabeth also shares the beautiful story of her grandmother's pot of green shamrocks and how they kept a little bit of Ireland alive for her in her own yard, though far from the Emerald Isle.

"The map of Ireland is on your face"

It seems that Irish grandmothers often deserve the credit for successfully passing down a love for Ireland within the hearts of their grandchildren. Like Elizabeth's grandmother, Janice's wanted to be sure that her granddaughter knew that she was Irish and felt pride in her Irish roots. Janice Brown shares What My Irish Heritage Means to Me and gives us a little glimpse into the life of "Gram", who has a special place in Janice's heart and may find one in yours as well.

Janice also gives us a little American history lesson - from a different perspective than American students may receive in school. Want to know the impact that the Irish had on the settlement of New Hampshire, the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Civil War? Read Janice's The Patriotic New Hampshire Men from the "Old Sod" to learn more.

"To never forget the ancestral homeland"

Barbara Joly of Our Carroll Family Genealogy is a fourth-generation Irish-American living in France. In a way, her family has come full circle with her residency in Europe, although she has not yet visited Ireland. Barbara tells us the story of another part of her family who made the circle from Philadelphia back to Ireland and then again back to Philadelphia. The story of Mary Hansen's illness and then her recovery at the hands of family back in Ireland portrays Barbara's love for the stories of our Irish heritage, which she encourages us all to never be ashamed of or forget.

"I may never be able to feel what it means to be Irish"

It was only a few years ago that Tim Agazio, who grew up with a strong Italian-American identity, had any clue that he had Irish heritage. His discovery of his great-great-grandfather's birth in Dublin in the early 19th-century was a surprise to him, and changed his notions about his roots. As Tim shares in his post My Irish Heritage, very little obvious clues to that side of his family's heritage were passed down in the family except perhaps his family's Catholic faith. Read more about his surprise at discovering his Irish roots on his blog Genealogy Reviews Online.

"My sojourn into my Irish history has just begun"

Based on genealogical research thus far, footnoteMaven has found strong ties to Ireland, yet no definitive proof that she herself shares Irish roots. Were her ancestors just passing through Ireland from Scotland (for a century or so) before moving on to America? Read the story of the Campbell clan, and the couple who left Ireland for America circa 1790: "...a new start and a new life for them both; a life from which they would never return to County Tyrone." As their descendant, footnoteMaven is quite far removed from her Irish roots, if indeed she has any. We'll have to stay tuned as she works through her research plan to determine the truth about her possible Irish heritage.

"You can take me out of the country but you can't take the country out of me"

Born and raised in Ireland, Colm Doyle is currently residing in Estonia - his fifth country of residence. As a frequent traveler, he has looked at his Irish nationality from both the inside and the outside. In his post entitled What does it mean to be Irish he shares his perspective on his Irish identity and his thoughts on the complexities that surround the ideas that others have of "Irishness". Colm bemoans the fact that many are "perfectly comfortable in their Irishness sans the Irish language" and makes the realization that "...in essence identity is a personal matter and shouldn't be mixed up in borders, politics or passports." Read more of his thoughts on his own Irish identity at his blog Corcaighist: Musings from the Cork Republic.

As Colm stated in his post, "...at the end of the day there is no one or right way to define Irishness or test someone's Irishness. Afterall a sense of national identity is not a nationality." As we've seen by the response to this edition's question, those that feel a connection to Ireland do so on many different levels and many different ways.

I hope that you've enjoyed joining our various contributors as they've pondered the question of their own connection to Ireland and its culture and heritage.

If you liked what you read, you might enjoy the "back issues" of our Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture.

• 1st edition: Everyone loves a good Irish story - Stories of Ireland and the Irish
• 2nd edition: They say there's a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow... - A focus on Irish family history research
• 3rd edition: Off to Ireland! - Irish places
• 4th edition: A St. Patrick's Day parade of posts! - An assortment of posts on all things Irish in celebration of St. Patrick's Day 2008
• 5th edition: A little Irish language, a bit of Blarney... - A tribute to the Irish language

Thanks for reading this, the 6th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Please plan to join us for the upcoming 7th edition. See The Small-leaved Shamrock summer reading challenge! for the details. (Warning: there's homework involved!)

Thanks to Jordan McClements for the use of the beautiful photographs of the Rock of Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland.

Shamrocks courtesy of Karen's Whimsy.

Happy Anniversary, Small-leaved Shamrock!

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my series of family history blogs.

Small-leaved Shamrock, 100 Years in America and A light that shines again are one year old!

I had known that it was coming, but yesterday in the midst of busy daily activities, it slipped my mind that the one-year mark had arrived. Somehow my inattention to the date seems very appropriate. One of the joys of writing and publishing via blog is just how beautifully that it has allowed me to fit in writing on subjects that I enjoy within the confines of a busy life. Daily life continues to keep up its busy pace around me, yet ideas flow and when I find a quiet moment, I make a short visit to the computer to log my thoughts and to eventually share them with readers like you.

The year has flown, yet somehow I can't imagine life now now without sharing a part of my world and my family history with family, friends and other readers via blog. It has been a tremendously rewarding experience to have this avenue to share information and stories that I have been collecting for many years, and at the same time to find that in the sharing I am inspired to learn more.

In celebration of this one year anniversary of my entry into the world of the weblog, I've done a little counting. Here's the tally thus far:

Small-leaved Shamrock - 116 posts
100 Years in America - 112 posts
A light that shines again - 77 posts

Grand total - 305 posts for my first year of blogging!

This number does not include mention of innumerable drafts that I have started and not quite finished yet. Nor does it really mean too much in the way of importance. What is significant to me is that I've written about things that are meaningful and interesting to me in the realm of my personal family history. I hope that you'll agree and that you've enjoyed sharing a little bit in the story of my family and my Irish, Hungarian and Croatian heritage. If so, please continue the journey along with me as reader as I begin my second year publishing via the web.

Below are a couple dozen highlights from Small-leaved Shamrock over the past year. If you're just being introduced to Small-leaved Shamrock, these are some of my favorite posts and might be good starting places for you to begin reading. If you joined me fairly recently, you might enjoy going back to read some of the oldies but goodies.

• Three's a crowd
  
• Riding the rails
  
• An old soldier
  
• A "working" mother in the truest sense of the word
  
• Victorious!
  
• "Noisy, dirty, bouncy & subject to temperature extremes
• Three-generation-old questions about a coal miner's life
  
• A look back at Schuylkill County: 1908


• Crossing the Potomac with William: a soldier's story


• A limerick for the love of Ireland


• A poem for Patrick


• Fifteen and off to America


• Ready for battle: history for kids


• Irish women in America: our grandmothers' stories


• On leprechauns and other little people


• Your St. Patrick's Day to-do list


• The Celtic blessing: food for the soul


• "Then resumed the chaos louder than ever..."


• "Along the iron veins..."


• The 1892 Pottsville train explosion: How & why?


• To be born Irish

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, which was born here at Small-leaved Shamrock. Thus far the carnival has seen five editions. The sixth will be published here next week on June 9.

Topics have covered "all things Irish". The carnivals have been a wonderful collection of various writers from an interesting assortment of blogs sharing their stories and feelings about Ireland and the Irish. Following is a summary of the various editions of the carnival so far:

• 1st edition: Everyone loves a good Irish story - Stories of Ireland and the Irish


• 2nd edition: They say there's a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow... - A focus on Irish family history research


• 3rd edition: Off to Ireland! - Irish places


• 4th edition: A St. Patrick's Day parade of posts! - An assortment of posts on all things Irish in celebration of St. Patrick's Day 2008


• 5th edition: A little Irish language, a bit of Blarney... - A tribute to the Irish language

Thanks to all of you who have been contributing writers to the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture thus far. I look forward to more good reading material from you in the year to come!

Speaking of carnivals, the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories edited by Thomas MacEntee inspired me last December to write my largest number of articles in any one month. Prompted by various holiday themes, I wrote ten articles on Irish traditions of the Christmas season here at Small-leaved Shamrock (not including a number at my other two blogs), for a grand total of 19 posts that month on this blog. (No wonder I never finished my Christmas cards last year!)

Inspired to celebrate some Irish traditions yourself and to dig further into your own Irish family history? You might enjoy reading a couple of my contributions to our 2nd carnival edition on Irish research:

• Getting to the roots of your Irish family tree: Part 1


• Getting to the roots of your Irish family tree: Part 2

If you make any exciting discoveries, please share them with me. I always love to hear about long-lost family history that has been newly rediscovered and can then be passed on down through the generations. Who knows? Maybe you'll be inspired to start writing your own family history blog!

Once again as I celebrate my one year blogging anniversary, I send a special thank-you to you, my readers, and particularly to those of you that have taken the time to send comments or emails. Thanks for reading and I look forward to continuing this journey with you for another year.

For more highlights from the world of Lisa's blogs, you might enjoy reading Happy Anniversary, 100 Years in America! and Happy Anniversary, A light that shines again!

To be born Irish

We made frequent visits to my grandparents' houses when I was a child. Both of their homes were special places, with different types of things to see and touch, different cousins and aunts and uncles to meet there, and different wonderful places in which to play "hide and go seek".

At the home of my grandparents with Irish heritage, I don't remember much talk of the Irish or Ireland. But just as I learned later in life how very Hungarian my Hungarian grandmother was, so it took me reaching adulthood to realize the true Irish character of my other pair of grandparents.

Oh, I knew that they were Irish. With the prevalence of St. Patrick's Day celebrations each year at school, I had asked early whether or not I had any Irish in me. Each year I wore my green and proudly replied (in response to would-be pinchers) that "Yes!" I was "half Irish", thank-you!

Yet, somehow, the pride in our Irish heritage never seemed to be something that was passed down from my grandparents' generation, yet was something that my generation and the previous generation had insisted upon, possibly thanks to the modern American popularity of celebrating St. Patrick's Day as it rolled around each year.

It may have been that my grandparents were just too close generationally-speaking to those family members who had suffered somehow for being Irish.

The poor Irish coal miner who may have died in the mines, the Irish railroad engineer not always supported by the company he worked his life to serve, the immigrant Irish laborer and his wife who had survived the famine as children and never wanted to return to Ireland again...

These were my grandparents' grandparents - they knew them and they had seen some of the hardship of their lives. It wasn't always so good to be Irish. That may be why they had mixed feelings about talking too much with their own grandchildren about what it meant to be Irish. It was sometimes too painful.

My grandfather went on to graduate from Harvard business school and made a career for himself as a retail marketing executive. The grandson of two poor Irish immigrant laborers, he was the first to get a college education and the first to truly break out of the cycle of near-poverty and manual labor that had been the reality of so many generations before him.

When I wear my green today, particularly on St. Patrick's Day each year, I feel pride in my grandfather's accomplishments and in the accomplishments of those before him. The perseverance they each showed against almost insurmountable odds, the strength they exhibited by having to face situations and suffering that should not be required of a human being, this is what it means to me to be Irish.

My hope is that I have inherited at least a small portion of their stubborn tenacity, their undaunting hope and the joy in the very simple things in life that got them through the obstacles that they faced because God had ordained that they were to be born Irish.

A little Memorial Day history lesson

Ever wonder how Memorial Day got its start?

Originally observed as Decoration Day every May 30 by the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) following the Civil War, it was later renamed Memorial Day. Decoration Day was originally intended for soldiers to decorate the graves of their comrades who had died during "the Great Rebellion".

For more on the history of this holiday, see the United States Department of Veteran Affairs' webpage entitled Memorial Day Background or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Office of History's webpage on the origins of Memorial Day, which includes some vintage photographs.

You might also enjoy reading Janice Brown's little history lesson on Decoration Day over at Cow Hampshire.

Two weeks left for you to ponder "Irishness"

As of today you had only one week left to make your submission to the "What does it mean to be Irish?" edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture. Now, make that two weeks!

Something has come up that will make it very difficult for Small-leaved Shamrock to publish the carnival on the date originally intended, so the new deadline is Friday, June 6. The 6th edition of the carnival will now be published on Monday, June 9, a week later than originally scheduled.

That gives you one extra week to ponder the question "What does it mean to be Irish?". So pull out your green, fly your tricolour, and make room for the bard in you as you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and tell us your feelings about the Emerald Isle and its heritage and culture. Submit your article here. Looking forward to hearing your story!

"Twenty-thousand letters by the men who wore the blue"

Bell Irvin Wiley wrote in the introduction to his book Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union, that:

Twenty-eight years ago, when I had completed research for The Life of Billy Yank, I estimated that I had read twenty thousand letters by the men who wore the blue. These personal documents, along with the ten thousand Confederate letters that I had examined while preparing The Life of Johnny Reb (plus several hundred diaries of participants on both sides), while admittedly a small sampling, afford a more intimate and revealing insight into the mind and character of the American masses than any body of material treating of any other period in the nation's history.

Wiley's book, a departure from many written treatments of the Civil War detailing battle after battle and focusing on generals and strategies, instead looks at the experience of the common Union soldier: his purpose, his struggles and his day to day life in the field.

I am looking forward to reading more of Wiley's insights into the life of the Union soldier. And who knows, maybe I can start working my way through some of those twenty-thousand letters in my spare time...

Thanks to Jennifer of Rainy Day Genealogy Readings for suggesting Wiley's Life of Billy Yank in her post How Did That Civil War Soldier Really Die?

A modern poet looks back at the Civil War

Daniel Nathan Terry recently took a trip back into the world of the Civil War with soldiers and photographers, both real and imagined. His resulting book of poetry, entitled Capturing the Dead, has won the 2007 Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition amidst high praise from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.

The organization's April 2008 issue of Strophes announced Terry's win and described the nature of his work of poetry focusing on the Civil War:

[Capturing the Dead] is a sequence of dramatic lyrics in the imagined voices of Civil War soldiers and photographers, primarily that of a fictional war photographer named Noah Williams...

[Contest judge Jeff] Gundy has high praise for the manuscript he selected as winner of the 2007 Stevens Competition: “Among a very strong set of manuscripts, Capturing the Dead stood out for the clarity of its focus, the precision of its language, and the depth and subtlety of its emotional resonance.” He expresses great admiration for Terry’s “ability to create individual characters,” noting that figures both historical and invented, both obscure and famous, “take on weight and solidity, captured in words that emulate the precision of film.” Even more than this vividness, he admires the poems’ avoidance of claims of absolute truth, their “acute recognition of human subjectivity.” He sees Terry’s Capturing the Dead as belonging in the company of “other great sets of war poems from the last two centuries”: From Whitman’s Drum-Taps to Andrew Hudgins’ After the Lost War. Terry’s poems, he sums up, “offer both fidelity to history and relevance to our own predicament. They have much to teach us.”

Terry's poetry manuscript was chosen out of 201 submissions from both the U.S. and abroad. He is currently enrolled in the M.F.A. program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. His book will be published by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies' Press and will be available for purchase in June 2008.

The 1892 Pottsville train explosion: How & why?

After reading about the work of steam engine firemen and engineers, I really enjoyed my recent ride as a passenger on a vintage train and my discussion with its engineer. One thing that I don't want to come close to experiencing, however, is the type of steam engine explosion that took the life of my great-great-grandfather William Cowhey. In fact, just reading about it is difficult enough. The newspaper accounts of the accident show what a sudden and extremely powerful explosion it was. I can't help but wonder about just what would cause an accident of this magnitude.

Now thanks to Ronald Bailey I have an insight into what might have caused that accident on the railroad back in 1892. Ronald Bailey is the President of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Advisory Council, an avid railroad historian, and a licensed steam locomotive engineer. He was able to provide me with an understanding of the technicalities of an explosion such as the one that Engine No. 563 experienced.

Here is his technical explanation of the workings of a pre-1900 steam engine and the possible causes of the type of explosion that killed William Cowhey and the rest of the crew and passengers of Engine No. 563:

A locomotive boiler explosion is usually caused by one of two factors - a defect in the boiler shell or the crew allowing the level of the water in the boiler to drop below the crown sheet of the firebox. In the 19th-century locomotive boilers were commonly made of cast iron rather than steel because steel was far more brittle. Cast iron was stronger than steel and more pliable without tearing. Unfortunately, cast iron could contain unseen inclusions and defects that could cause a failure. As metallurgical techniques improved better types of steel were developed and by the 1890’s almost all locomotive boilers were constructed using steel. Boiler defects were rarely the cause of a boiler explosion in locomotives built after 1900.

A locomotive boiler consists of a cylindrical boiler shell, fabricated of thick cast iron or steel. The boiler shell is thick enough to be able to resist the force of the steam, which, depending upon the locomotive, varied from 125 to 300 pounds per square inch. In 1892 a common boiler pressure was 160 to 180 pounds per square inch, and shell of the boiler was built to safely contain at least twice that pressure.

The steam in a boiler is produced by boiling water. The water is boiled by heat from a fire of wood, coal or oil. The fire is contained in a rectangular box that is placed inside the boiler at the back of the locomotive. To create additional heating surfaces a series of tubes or flues extend from the front of the firebox through the cylinder of the boiler to the front. The hot gasses from the fire are carried through the flues to be exhausted up the stack. The heat of the fire is conducted through the sheets that form the firebox and through the flues into the water, boiling the water and making steam. Most of the heat from the fire passes through the firebox sheets into the water.

This, however, created a problem. To be an effective conductor of the heat, which was necessary to boil the water, the firebox sheets needed to be as thin as possible. This made the sheets of the firebox too thin to be able to able resist being crushed by the tremendous pressure of the steam in the boiler. The solution was to use the strength of the much thicker outside sheets of the boiler shell to support the firebox. This was done by connecting the firebox sheets and the boiler shell with steel bolts, called staybolts. The staybolts conveyed the strength of the boiler shell to the firebox, preventing it from being crushed by the steam pressure. A space was left between the boiler shell and the firebox sheets, through which the staybolts passed, that was filled with water.

The added problem, however, is that the fire in a firebox burns at a temperature between 1,800 and 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. This is hot enough to melt steel. In fact the only thing that keeps the fire from destroying the firebox of a steam locomotive is that the firebox is surrounded on all sides, except the bottom, by water, which absorbs the heat in the process of boiling and making steam.

Boilers were fitted with “try cocks” (three valves stack one on top of the other) that an engineer could use to check the level of the water. Most locomotives were also fitted with water glasses that displayed the water level.

As long as the water in the boiler was kept at a level that completely covered the firebox, everything worked fine. If, however, the water level was allowed to drop below the top of the firebox, which was called the crown sheet, the metal of the crown sheet would be subjected to the intense heat of the fire without any water to absorb the heat. This could cause the metal of the crown sheet to soften and begin to melt. As the metal softened the steam pressure could force the crown sheet to pull out of the thread of the staybolts. Without the support of the boiler shell through the staybolts, the crown sheet would deform and at some point of stress would crack or tear. This would suddenly create an opening that would allow all the steam and boiling water in the boiler to exhaust to the atmosphere. The almost instantaneous expansion of the steam from 150 to 180 pounds per square inch of atmospheric pressure produced a terrific force, which was usually violent enough to rip the firebox sheets and tear the entire locomotive boiler off of the locomotive frames. The effect was pretty much like a rocket taking off and exploding. Boilers were sometimes hurled hundreds of feet away.

Ronald Bailey goes on to extrapolate possible specific causes for the explosion of Engine No. 563 on November 14, 1892:

So what caused low water condition that created the boiler explosion that killed your great-grandfather?

The article from the New York Times says that Engineer Allison had just brought in a heavy train. It is possible that Allison had engaged in a dangerous practice used by some engineers of deliberately allowing the water level to drop to the bottom of the water glass (which was still a couple of inches above the crown sheet) in order to have more space in the boiler to generate steam to supply the engine when it was working hard. It may be that he miscalculated and allowed the crown sheet to become exposed to the fire without a covering of water.

It may also be that the locomotive boiler was foaming without the crew knowing it. The steam that is produced by a locomotive boiler is not recycled but is exhausted up the stack in order to produce a partial vacuum that would draw the hot gasses from the firebox through the boiler flues. Unfortunately, water is never pure, and it contains solids and sediments that are left behind as the water turns to steam. These materials can concentrate over time as more water is added to the boiler and then boiled away. The solids can collect on top of the water forming a film. As the water boils, the steam bubbles are trapped by the film, creating foam that can make it appear that the water level is higher than it really is. If the boiler was foaming, the crew might not have had any warning that the water level was dangerously low.

The article suggests that the steam pressure was low and that they stopped to build up the pressure. When the throttle was closed, the water level dropped, either because Engineer Allison had allowed it to be low or because the water was foaming, exposing the crown sheet, and setting off an explosion.

The article notes that the “blower” had been turned on. The blower on a steam locomotive is a valve that controls a jet of steam that is piped on the side of the steam nozzle directly under the stack. When the locomotive is not moving and there is no exhaust from the cylinders to create a partial vacuum, the blower can be opened to produce an artificial draft, thus drawing oxygen into the fire. The blower had no connection to the boiler exploding.

The following image shows the remains of a locomotive boiler that exploded on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in 1947—a larger and much more modern locomotive than the locomotive from 1892. You can see in the photograph the curved boiler shell, the flat sheets of the firebox, the staybolts that connected the firebox sheets to the boiler shell, and how the steel plates had been ripped apart by the force of the explosion.

A boiler explosion can be powerful enough to rip through steel plates, half an inch thick or more. An explosion can be so violent and so powerful as to rip a boiler off of a locomotive frame, and literally hurl the wreckage of the boiler through the air like a missile.

In the accompanying photograph, the remains of a locomotive after a boiler explosion are visible. The boiler has been torn from the locomotive frame, thrown through the air, and has landed upside down in a nearby field. The rear of the boiler, with the remains of the firebox, is on the left. The smoke box has been deformed and flattened. Strips of lagging are visible where the sheet metal jacketing has been torn loose.

Ronald Bailey currently works a couple of days a month as a steam engineer and fireman. As he states, his "top priority is always to keep the water level up".

After reading his thorough explanation of the ins and outs of steam engine operation and the risk of explosions, I can certainly see why. It may have been an oversight of this type that took the lives of William Cowhey and the other railroaders that night back in 1892.

"Along the iron veins..."

Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.

~ John Ruskin, 1819-1900

Recently my family and I took an enjoyable trip on one of America's many tourist railroads. We boarded the train and immediately felt as if we'd stepped back in time to the days when the railroad was king. The passenger cars were vintage and had such a nostalgic feel to them. Although we didn't walk into it, we enjoyed a peek into the caboose which trailed behind us on our daylong trip. Our conductor was a gentleman who loved to tell stories. He shared many of them as he spoke about the flora, fauna and history of the areas that we were passing by on our rail journey. He also told us about the history of the railroad, and the very train that we were riding that day.


It was a special treat for me when the engineer took the time to stop and speak with us. With many years of experience as both fireman and engineer on a steam engine, he was able to tell me firsthand about the type of work that many of my ancestors had done for a living on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.

What a comfortable feeling to be carried along as a passenger on a train and watch the world go by out your window. It may be because of the fond memories that I have of childhood rail trips, or because of the knowledge that I have about my family's history with the railroads, but trains have always had a special place in my heart.

You are not the same people who left that station
Or who will arrive at any terminus,
While the narrowing rails slide together behind you.

~ T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965

Tell your own Irish-American story!

Got a family story to tell, but not sure you can handle keeping up with a blog? Brian Reynolds has begun a website for people just like you. It is a place where you can share your family's stories and memories, or anything of interest related to Irish-American heritage.

The Irish American Story Project can be browsed by date of submission via the archives, or by category. Want to read "coming home" stories? Browse the articles written by a variety of submitters that fit into that theme, or browse through death, education, family, humour, love, travel and more...

Better yet, submit your own! Only one thing I ask: if your story relates to Small-leaved Shamrock families, please allow me to post it here also!