Knockananna

Photo: Michael Wayne
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It all started with an out of the blue email from Michael Wayne in Florida. When I saw the intro, "Mr. Póló", I immediately thought it was one of those spam things. Fortunately my curiosity got the better of me and I read on.

Some of Michael's people were Whelans from the Knockananna area in Co. Wicklow. He had Googled the place and come up with my web page on the village and then got in touch with me.

His main purpose was to enquire about a plaque he had seen on one of the family graves during a visit to Knockananna last year. You can see the plaque above. The Gaelic script led him to believe it was in Irish but he could not find a translation. The script is certainly misleading and the text turns out to be a Latin version of Matthew 20.1 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a landowner .." and so on into the parable of the Vineyard.

Photo: Michael Wayne

Once we got that out of the way, he told me this amazing story.

Some twenty years ago his mother had given him a plastic sealed envelope of papers and photos on the history of her side of the family: the Whelan’s. He wasn't hugely interested at the time and, after a cursory reading, chucked it into the back of a drawer. The bulk of the information in the packet was an essay and story based on much research done by a distant (Whelan) relative named Dan Wagner in the early 1970’s who had typed out this large volume of pages about the Whelan family history and the ancestral area around Knockananna.

This year, Michael and his wife Kendra were planning a visit to Ireland. "I decided then that one of the trips we had to take while in Ireland was to try to track down the family gravesites in Knockananna so I made a copy of Dan’s entire packet and the photos along with a “to whom it may concern” letter about who I was, and my contact information. I put it all in a waterproof envelope and figured if I did find a Whelan gravesite I would just leave the envelope at the site and see what, if anything, would happen".

Photo: Michael Wayne

In the event, he changed his mind and left it in the adjacent church. Instead, he left a bottle of Guinness at the grave.

Some while later, he got an email from a Whelan relative in Knockananna. Someone had taken the packet from the church and passed it on to the relative who was thrilled to get the information it contained. Her family had been aware of some visitor from the States way back who was collecting information on the family, but they knew no more.

And lo and behold, when I checked out my own photos of the graveyard from last Christmas, I found I had taken a photo of the very same grave, and it appears the Parish Priest had meanwhile confiscated (scoffed?) the bottle of Guinness. I had taken my photo because of the interesting way the illustration had been worked into the gravestone. This was a feature of a number of the gravestones there.

So there you are.

Isn't the internet a truly amazing place.

You can read Michael's own story and see a photo of his mother and grandmother.

My page on Knockananna.

Ripper Street, Raheny

There I was, passing by my favourite church, All Saints', Raheny, when I noticed the hydraulic platform. Fine, I thought, they're fixing the roof.

But hang on a minute, I thought the roof was fixed a while back? What's going on here? So I turned the car around and went back for a look.



What on earth is this? A distinctly odd looking crowd of roof fixers if ever I saw them. No safety helmets, no high visibility jackets and a funny assortment of theatre lights on tripods.



And then this. We must be in the movies?

RTÉ had already done a very nice piece on the King James marathon bible reading last year and this year's marathon had finished on Holy Thursday.

So in I went for a look. Well sort of. The church was out of bounds for the moment but the security man told me they were filming Ripper Street, including in the vaults.



Wow. One minute King James, the next minute Jack the Ripper. Poor Lord Ardilaun and the Missus will be sorely in need of that 250th anniversary can of draught Guinness in the mortuary chapel.

Following an intensive piece of dectective work (Google to you) I can now bring you the background to this, the most innovative and exciting piece of religious fund raising I have seen in a long time. Hat off to the Reverend Jim. And Bram Stoker, eat your heart out.

Ripper Street is an extraordinary new drama set in the East End of London in 1889, during the aftermath of the Rippers grisly killings. The action centres around the notorious H Division – the police precinct from hell – and the officers charged with impossible task of keeping order in the chaotic streets of Whitechapel.

Ripper Street explores the lives of characters trying to recover from the Ripper’s legacy, from crimes that have not only irretrievably altered their lives, but changed the very fabric of their city.

The eight-part BBC series began filming in various locations around Dublin earlier this month, using various locations across the city to re-create London’s East End in 1889. It is expected to be screened sometime later in the year.
Source

On Guard

People go to great lengths to protect their stock of booze. This guy is standing guard over the Guinness mortuary chapel in All Saints' Church in Raheny. As far as I can see, he is the only gargoyle on the outside of the church.

As well as the remains of Lord and Lady Ardilaun the chapel contains a special can of Guinness (below) commemorating that brewery's 250th anniversary at James's Gate in 2009.



The dragon above has been on guard for nearly a century and a quarter, but the piece of Sharia law below has just been introduced into the Supervalu off-licence in Raheny.




It would need to be a very very Good Friday!