Why the ancient winter wonder of Newgrange resonates today
PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT Volume Two. Number Forty-One. 19 December 2024.
More than an email. Less than a newspaper. In your email box the first and third Thursday morning of every month. Published by The Portland Hibernian Society.
Nollaig Shona agus. Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise.*
AN ANCIENT WONDER - THE WINTER SOLSTICE IN IRELAND
If you're awake at half past midnight tomorrow night, you can fire up your laptop or tap your phone and actually watch the Winter Solstice happen LIVE at Newgrange in Co. Meath. Here’s a helpful advisory from Ireland’s Office of Public Works. Newgrange is older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza. Here’s what you will witness very early Saturday: At sunrise on the shortest day of the year (Dec. 21), for 17 minutes, direct sunlight can enter the monument through the specially contrived small opening above the entrance known as the ‘roof box’, to illuminate the Chamber. How can this be? Here’s a good Newgrange write up with info about how to visit the World Heritage Site next time you’re in Ireland. Time: 8:40am in Co. Meath is 12:40am here in Oregon.
Newgrange December 2023. Getty Images.
A JOLLY TIME WAS HAD BY ALL
May your holidays be as filled with laughter, good cheer and spiritual reflection as the Portland Hibernian Society Christmas Luncheon was at Kells Restaurant on December 14. A platoon of Hibernians was in the house. Lively conversations ensued. This SNL skit about American tourists in Ireland entertained. Hibernians Tim and Katie Hennessy unpacked memories of their recent pilgrimage to Clonmacnoise in Co. Offaly, site of the original Cross of the Scriptures. This video shows the significance of the Cross in Irish history. And you only have to go as far as Mount Calvary Cemetery to see our own Cross of the Scriptures.
Kells Restaurant Saturday December 14, 2024. Portland Hibernian Society Christmas lunch.
NETWORKING AT KELLS
Micheal Smith, Ireland’s Consul General in San Francisco, was guest of honor at the Irish Network Portland Holiday Party at Kells on December 6. Left to right. Dr. Niall McCusker, Eunan McLaughlin (nice sweater), CG Smith and Hibernian Brian Doherty.
IRISH CITIZENSHIP ALERT
The Irish Consulate in SF is putting together a mass swearing-in ceremony somewhere in The City for residents of the western United States who hold Irish citizenship. Hibernian Tim Hennessy was told by the Consul staff that the tentative date for the SF event is February 7, 2025. It's possible that such a gathering could be scheduled for later this year here in Portland. WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING AN IRISH CITIZEN SWEARING-IN CEREMONY HERE? Please let us know by filling out a form.
SAVE THE DATE - JAN. 16, 2025 - THE TROUBLES THEY’VE SEEN
At the PHS meeting on January 16, 2025, at Kells Restaurant, we’ll be talking about what life was like in Ireland, especially in the north of Ireland, during the times dealt with in the book and tv series SAY NOTHING. Make plans to join us for a no-host dinner at six pm and our discussion of SAY NOTHING at seven pm.
THE GREATEST MODERN CHRISTMAS SONG?
Hint: Released November 1987.Voted Ireland's favorite Christmas song 2002. Most played Christmas song of the century in the UK. Answer: Fairy Tale of New York. Hear it like you've never heard it at TC O'Leary's on NE Alberta Saturday night. Theres a new tradition, started by Tom last year, of the whole room singing Fairytale of New York, with the gents on one side and the ladies on the other.
BOB DYLAN ON LIAM CLANCY
Not having seen the new Bob Dylan movie “A Complete Unknown” since it’s not opening in theaters until Christmas Day, we can’t say for sure that Liam Clancy’s role in Bob’s early career is given the credit it deserves. Liam was a fixture in Greenwich Village in Dylan’s early days. They hung out and drank together. A lot. Here’s some of what Bob had to say about Liam in the PBS documentary No Direction Home.
“I heard rousing rebel songs. Napoleonic in scope. And they (the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem) were just these musketeer-type characters. And on the other level you had the romantic ballads that would just slay you in your tracks. The sweetness of Tommy and Liam. It was just like a sword cuts off the head and then you weep.” And. “Liam was profound. Besides uh, you know, besides all the rebel songs and his acting career, he would have these incredible sayings, like once he said to me after 30 pints of Guinness, ‘Remember Bob. No fear. No envy. No meanness.’ Right.” The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem on the Ed Sullivan Show in March 1961.
*WHO SAYS “HAPPY CHRISTMAS”?
Hibernian Tom Markgraf posed that question. When told, “That’s what they say in Ireland,” he scoffed. “No, that’s what they say in England. Haven’t you heard the Queen say that in those annual Christmas messages?” So, is Happy Christmas Irish or English. Both. Irish because the literal translation of Nollaig Shona! is Happy Christmas (literally: Christmas happy to you!). English because of Rudyard Kipling and Charles Dickens. Enlightenment from something called Get Surrey. “It could be argued that the royal family have played a significant role in returning and keeping 'Happy Christmas' in the common English language, reflecting the idea that 'happy' took on a higher-class connotation than 'merry', which was associated with the rowdiness of the lower classes. They adopted 'Happy Christmas' as their preferred greeting, starting with King George V’s 1932 Christmas radio message, written by Rudyard Kipling, and others took note, with Queen Elizabeth II continuing to wish her citizens a 'Happy Christmas', rather than a 'merry' one in her Christmas broadcast.” Rudyard Kipling wrote the King's Christmas message. Who knew?
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“'A merry Christmas, Bob!' said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. 'A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year!'” Charles Dickens - a man who knew "the rowdiness of the lower classes."
HAVE A WONDERFUL WINTER SOLSTICE
Bill Gallagher
503-939-8732
