Search still ongoing for US rock climber Michael Reardon

clipped from www.mounteverest.net It wasn't a fall but a wave that took the free climber at the bottom of the cliff face at Dohilla he'd just scaled. Thumbnail of Michael courtesy of his website, over image of Cliffs of Mohar (about 60 miles north of Valentia) courtesy of public library/Answers.com (click to enlarge) Michael had arrived Ireland about a month back, to climb the island's cliffs and "reacquaint himself with the land of his ancestors." He blogged on his website, "Chaos follows me everywhere. I arrived in Killarney, Ireland, barely rested from the ten-hour plane flight, and surprised my friend Con Moriarty by showing up two days early. Big smiles and bigger hugs came from everyone at his outdoor shop. It had been too long since I last shared a pint with everyone." Related Links More on the accident Reardon's blog Independent It wasn't a fall but a wave that took the free climber at the bottom of the cliff face at Dohilla he'd just scaled.

New Technology: Irish TCD-based competition for Skype

clipped from www.siliconrepublic.com 09.07.2007 - Software created by researchers in the Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Research (CTVR), based in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), uses wireless technology that hopes to “bring advanced new mobile telephone systems to the global market”. Enterprise Ireland has granted €400,000 in funding to bring this new technology through the commercialisation process, as the CTVR see the potential for a “fully-fledged commercial spin-off”. Metakall will enable users to make cheap mobile calls using wireless hotspots and the internet as a network base, with emphasis on the fact that customers would be able to roam at low cost rates. “Imagine the possibility of going anywhere in the world and using your wireless phone or laptop to make calls through the internet for as little as 5 cents a minute, with no other costs,” said Professor Donal O’Mahony Dublin:

The software that sits on the mobile or laptop will have a meter that logs the amount of time you spend online making a call and only charges per minute online, letting your know how much you are spending as you talk.

It is estimated that this service will be offered at, on average, five cents per minute, although, as yet CTVR is still in talks with industry players on how it will implement Metakall.

Metakall can offer low-cost calls because it pays hotspot providers small amounts of cash in real time.

“Right now you can make internet based phone calls, but you will also have to pay a monthly registration charge of over €20 to an Internet Service Provider or buy a scratchcard in each location for about €10. Only then can you use services like Skype or Vonage for example.”

Razed M3 site 'was national monument'

clipped from www.ireland.com Razed M3 site 'was national monument' 06/07/2007 17:59 A site that campaigners claim was an ancient burial ground near the Hill of Tara and which was razed during construction work this week should have been given "the fullest and most detailed attention" and was indeed a national monument, documents published today suggest. Documents published by Minister for the Environment John Gormley today reveal that the director of the National Museum Dr Pat Wallace wrote to the Minister's predecessor Dick Roche in May urging him to set up a special committee to examine a site at Baronstown, just outside Dunshaughlin, Co Meath. That site was razed by heavy machinery earlier this week Dr Wallace said in his letter dated May 3rd, 2007 that a committee should be set up after "a short pause for discussion and reflection" in order to afford "this national monument the fullest and most detailed attention and a total excavation to the highest and most transparent standard".

A letter on file from Dr Wallace to Mr Roche dated May 3 rd last congratulates him on declaring Lismullen a national monument and says there is a "compelling case" to be made that Baronstown is also worthy of such protection. Dr Wallace wrote that the discovery of the national monument at Lismullen came as "no surprise" to those who believed the intended motorway route "was indeed bisecting an ancient ritual landscape".

M: Britain's first spymaster was an Irishman who played patriot game

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk William Melville was born in the Kerry village of Sneem to a publican’s family and fled his roots to forge a stellar career in London as a detective fighting terrorism. When he “retired” in 1903 from the Metropolitan Police at the height of his fame, he went on to establish the forerunner of MI5, providing the inspiration for James Bond’s boss in Ian Fleming’s books. “Melville was referred to by the War Office as M or the Spy-master from almost the beginning,” Andrew Cook, the author of M: MI5’s First Spy-master, said. “Although a Kerryman born and bred, he has been a forgotten figure and we now have an opportunity to illuminate a fascinating history,” Helen O’Carroll, curator at Kerry County Museum, said. “One of the striking issues in the Melville story is the irony that here is an Irish Catholic who was proud of his Irish identity, defending Britain from terrorist threats that included Irish terrorism.

Melville’s most famous exploit was his foiling of the Jubilee Plot of 1887, an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria by Irish republicans. It has since been argued that the attempt was a “dirty war” operation orchestrated by the Government.

Vikings and the Celtic seas

clipped from www.ireland.com For at least 1400 years, up to the ninth century, the civilization of Ireland remained uniformly Celtic. Then, in the year 795, came the first of the Viking attacks, on Lambay Island in Dublin Bay. "Viking" (from the Old Norse vikingr) means "sea-rover" or "pirate", and this is precisely what these people were. Ethnically, they were Teutons, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian farmers, fishermen and sea-merchants, who were forced onto the open sea in search of a livelihood by over-population and shortage of arable land. From the eighth century, their plundering raids terrorized much of the known world, reaching as far as America, North Africa, and Constantinople. In Ireland, the annalists distinguished two groups among the raiding vikings, the Lochlainn, or Norwegians, and the Danair, or Danes, the Norwegians being described as fair, the Danish as dark. Initially, the Norwegians dominated, and their raids were sporadic and unsystematic.

LUSK

clipped from www.askaboutireland.ie Surrounded by the cemetery, it is a place of peace. The Church is dedicated to St. Catherine, having formerly been dedicated to St. Damnan. (A grand synod was held in Lusk by St. Adamnanus, in 695). In 1530, the chapels appended to the parish of Lusk were stated to be Rush, situated in the land of the Earl of Ormond, Kilnure and Knightstown (now Whitestown)'. Perhaps this old spelling of 'Kilnure' indicates an older name 'The Church of the Yew Trees', later anglicised as Kenure. Dr Donnelly in his 'History of the Dublin Parishes' says this was the church of Rush in Celtic times, before the coming of the Normans. Click image for detail "Rush by the Sea" - cover illustration Click image for detail Catalogue with crest Click image for detail Catalogue Cover Click image for detail Catalogue history of House Click image for detail Furniture for auction Relics of an Older Time The Great House built by the Duke of Ormond and rebuilt by the Palmers has ceased to exist

Lusk Black Raven Pipe Band!!!

clipped from www.blackravenpipeband.net Site Designed and Maintained By Damien and Keith Russell clipped from www.blackravenpipeband.net The Library Hall was used for practice and one evening during practice a certain Jack McNally happened to be passing complete with tin whistle and following an old Lusk tradition he looked in the Library window to see what was going on. The band were playing 'The wind that shakes the barley''. The pipes finished the tune but a tin whistle echo remained until Thomas Ashe ordered the tin whistle man to be caught. He was finally captured on the 'Green' He did not succeed in escaping from the band until the time of his death in 1965. The Black and Tans brought more than the their share of trouble and finally in November 1917 on the night John (Rover) McCann and Joe Sherlock were shot they raided the band room which was then in the Foresters’ Hall (the old Billiard Club). They took those instruments, which had not already been hidden, and also the Black Raven Flag. clipped from www.blackravenpipeband.net
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The John (Rover) McCann murdered by the 'Tans' was my Grand Uncle. The Foresters' Hall was later part of our home. The photo is on the band stand in front of the 'new' church on The Green where the male side of my family have lived for ever. My father was staff major as he could not play a note, just like me. The practice room in recent times was very close as I studied or tied to.

Thomas Ashe was also a band member. More later...