Other stories in brief
Piping up for Mexico
THE THEME OF this year’s 41st Festival Interceltique de Lorient is the worldwide Celtic diaspora. No event more powerfully captured that theme than a concert with The Chieftains. On stage were singers, dancers and musicians from Canada, the US and the Isle of Lewis, the virtuoso Galician gaita player Carlos Nunez, a tattooed young Argentine harpist, a mariachi band and the St Patrick’s Pipe Band from Mexico City, in full kilted regalia.
The latter play a crucial musical role in the album San Patricio, recorded last year by the Chieftains with American guitarist Ry Cooder. It commemorates a little-known episode involving a company of Irish conscripts and their leader Jon Riley from Clifden, who deserted the US army to fight for Mexico in the 1840s.
In 1997, piper Rafael Gutierrez set up what is still the only pipe band in his country, with the aim of keeping alive the memory of the St Patrick’s Battalion.
“This was a group of mostly Irish soldiers, a kind of foreign legion, that developed in Mexico during the war of 1847 with the US,” he says.
“After the Famine in Ireland, a lot of immigrants were going to America. They joined the American army but once they went to Mexico to fight, they realised that they were fighting an unjust cause.
“Many of them deserted and joined the Mexicans. I suspect that they also spotted the very attractive Mexican ladies .”
The St Patrick’s Battalion successfully fought several battles under its distinctive green silk banner. In the penultimate battle of the war, the Battle of Churubusco, they did not give up until they were out of ammunition and an American victory was inevitable.
“These men died for Mexico,” says Gutierrez. ”The San Patricios were captured, court-martialled for desertion and executed by hanging. First, they were tortured, and branded on the cheek with a D for deserter.
“No deserters were treated as harshly as these Irish were. Mexico remembers them to this day as martyrs, fighting for a foreign country.”
– Jane Coyle
Weeding in Redwood
IT’S NOT THE barbarians at the gate threatening to storm the battlements of one renovated castle in north Tipperary. Rather, it’s the wretched weeds. Coleesa Egan, who took over the running of Redwood Castle from her father, has found upkeep and maintenance of her 13th-century Norman castle expensive in recent years. She had to cut down on staffing numbers when she found herself making high-cost repairs to the structure.
“I used to have a maintenance person who would do the grounds. I started building work a few years ago and it turned out to be more expensive than I had envisaged,” she says. “So what I had envisaged money-wise lasting for a few years didn’t. I used to have staff but had to let some go. I stopped spraying weeds and started the weeding myself. They have started to become a real problem and I realise one person over two months wouldn’t pull all the weeds.”
Egan’s solution is to invite members of the public to the castle on August 20th, and in return for some weeding, she will give visitors a free guided tour of the restored interior and some light refreshments.
“I’d like some quid pro quo. If someone lifts the weeds or brings along a hoe and helps fill plastic bags, I think I can get through quite a lot of what needs to be done.” She says an hour’s work is what would be expected of prospective visitors, and while it’s open to everyone with an interest to attend, she is hoping for a particular type of person.
“I suppose if 20 able-bodied men turned up it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But don’t get me wrong, women are very welcome also. I won’t be cracking a whip, they can take plenty of breaks.”
For any visitor not willing to break a sweat, the castle is open to visitors from 2pm-6pm until September, albeit for an admission charge of €7.
See redwoodcastleireland.com
– Brian O’Connell
