Subject: RE: The Old Man
From:
Big Mick
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 08:20 PM
Hello Martin. It is not a typo, and I am not sure if I used it properly, but I believe I did. During the days that the land in the State/Territory was originally divided up for sale/grant, it was divided into plats. It was simply a section of land. Then each plat was sold, auctioned, granted, etc. to individuals. In this area of Michigan, the original settlers, or platholders, and their descendants became known as Parnell Irish. To this day the descendants take great pride in being called by this name. Some of the people who came to Parnell stayed and many more came here and then were passed on to jobs working on building the railroad, lumbering in the North, and so on. Michigan has very strong ties to her Irish children. One has but to look at the county and city names to understand this. Among Michigan's counties are Wexford, Roscommon, Clare and Antrim. Cities and villages include Parnell, Grattan, Corktown ( the oldest settlement in Detroit)Clare and many others. The oldest tavern in the State of Michigan is an Irish joint in Hubbardston.
The Book of Kells has only been copied once in the time it has been at Trinity College. My understanding is that Trinity allowed it to be taken for the purpose of creating a very small number (I believe it was 100) of perfect museum quality replica's. These ended up in places like New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the other great museum's of the world. They were exact replica's down to the imperfections in the vellum and the irregular size of the pages. The Irish in Muskegon, Michigan raised the funds and purchased one of these. Quite a feat for a small city in Michigan given the competition that existed for these copies.
And finally, there is Beaver Island. Located in the northern part of Lake Michigan, is a beautiful island with a lovely deep water port. It was originally settled by emmigrant fishermen from the Arran Islands. It has a colorful history, including a time when a Mormon minister came and started a settlement, eventually declared himself King, was killed by his followers, and the lads took the Island back. That is an extremely abridged version of the story which is a great read. For a trip through the Island and its history CLICK HERE. The Island is known as "America's Emerald Isle". The last Ambassador to the U.S. from Ireland (Dermott Gallagher??), just before he left to return home, brought his family here for a 2 week visit. The music of the Island has its own sound, but is clearly evolved from its Arran Irish roots. There is a recording available someplace called Beaver Island House Party. It is a mixture of very old recordings and current. It is an amazing tape. One of the highlights in the history of our band is when we went their and performed.
See what happens when you ask a Mick a simple question? Hhahahahahahahahaha..........LOL
All the best,
Big Mick
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sj
