Sunday, 15 July 2018
The Story Of the Frenchman Who Gave The Statue of Liberty To The USA
1878 - The Head of The Statue of Liberty at the Paris World Fair
In the early 1870s, inspired by the abolition of slavery and the Union victory in the American Civil War, French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi seized upon an idea.
He would build a monumental gift for the United States, a gesture of friendship from a country that had helped secure its independence.
When Bartholdi visited the United States to gather support for the project, he identified Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor as the ideal site.
It was right at the mouth of a major port, and was federally owned “land common to all the states.”
The neoclassical statue was designed in the image of Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, raising a torch and bearing a tabula ansata, representing law.
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| Hand and Torch of Statue on display in 1875 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia |
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| Head of Statue on display at Paris World Fair 1878 |
Bartholdi toyed with the idea of having the statue hold a broken chain, but feared such an explicit reference to slavery might be controversial. (The final statue does have a subtle chain at her feet.)
In 1875, the project was announced and fundraising began, led by French politician Édouard René de Laboulaye. Before the statue’s design had been finalized, Bartholdi built the head and torch-bearing right arm and put them on display at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and the Paris World’s Fair to drum up support for the project.
Construction began in Paris in 1877. Bartholdi recruited renowned designer Gustave Eiffel to help with the structural engineering of the statue.
Eiffel devised an innovative and flexible iron skeleton which would allow the statue to shift in the wind without cracking.
Meanwhile in New York, construction of the statue's pedestal was sluggish due to a lack of funds. Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, held a fundraising drive, promising to publish the names of everyone who donated.
The fund ultimately raised $102,000, mostly from donations of less than a dollar.
In 1885, the statue was disassembled and shipped across the ocean to New York.
Once the pedestal was completed in April 1886, the statue was reassembled by workers dangling from ropes.
Surprisingly (given the safety standards of the time), not a single worker died.
The statue, formally called Liberty Enlightening the World, was ceremonially dedicated on Oct. 28, 1886.
The monument’s signature green color, caused by the oxidization of the copper skin, did not emerge until after 1900.
Source Alex Q. Arbuckle
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Illustration of the unveiling of the Statue in Paris to the US Ambassador to France in 1885
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Over 1000 Sham Marriages Declared Illegal By Gardai
More than 1,000 marriages between foreign men and women in the Republic have been identified by the Garda as sham marriages of convenience.
The vast majority have been between Asian men and Eastern European women. They have been arranged, at a fee of up to €20,000 each, so the men could secure the right to live and work in Ireland.
All of the “brides” are believed to have left Ireland after fulfilling their part in the illegal marriages.
Many of the “grooms” have remained and are now having their bogus marriages cancelled, their permission to remain in the State revoked and their deportations readied.
The Irish Times has learned while Garda files have been prepared on 1,200 such marriages, the major Garda investigation into the scam is continuing.
Files on each of the 1,200 confirmed sham marriages have been sent to the Irish Nationalisation and Immigration Service, which has the power to revoke immigration status.
Security sources said the number of marriages confirmed as sham is likely to reach several thousand by the time the Garda inquiry, called Operation Vantage, was completed.
Operation Vantage
The most recent series of Garda raids under Operation Vantage occurred late last week when 17 addresses were targeted in co-ordinated searches in Dublin, Waterford and Limerick.
The most recent series of Garda raids under Operation Vantage occurred late last week when 17 addresses were targeted in co-ordinated searches in Dublin, Waterford and Limerick.
Some 24 officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau’s Evader Track Unit arrested 13 men who had taken part in sham marriages. They were brought to Cloverhill, Limerick and Mountjoy prisons ahead of their deportations.
The arrested men – from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mauritius – were being sought for deportation after Garda investigations and surveillance over several months confirmed their marriages were sham.
During the course of the searches for the 13 arrested men, a further 11 men with no immigration status in the Republic were discovered. They have been told to leave the State within a fortnight or be deported.
This strand of Operation Vantage has also identified 26 other men in the State illegally. Some had also engaged in sham marriages. Others were working full-time while on student visas or had otherwise breached the conditions of their visas.
Tightened legislation
The 1,200 marriages now confirmed as sham occurred prior to 2015 when legislation was tightened to clamp down on the problem. The Garda was given enhanced powers to object to planned marriages on the grounds they were believed to be sham.
The 1,200 marriages now confirmed as sham occurred prior to 2015 when legislation was tightened to clamp down on the problem. The Garda was given enhanced powers to object to planned marriages on the grounds they were believed to be sham.
Garda offices have closely monitored notices of intentions to marry, which must be submitted by all couples, to ensure sham marriages were prevented. Garda sources said they were also determined to catch those who had secured the right to live and work in Ireland by engaging in sham marriages before the clampdown of 2015.
Men from countries such as India, Pakistan, Mauritius and Bangladesh were coming to the Republic and claiming asylum. While waiting, and often having had their applications rejected, they were marrying Eastern European women. Through those marriages, facilitated by Pakistani fixers in Dublin, they were secured the right to live and work in Ireland permanently, thus sidestepping the immigration system.
Source: Conor Lally, The Irish Times
Release The 1926 Census
The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) is calling on the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, and Heritage Minister, Joseph Madigan TD, to allow the early release of the original 1926 Irish Census returns.
As the first census undertaken by the newly established Free State, it represents a snapshot of Ireland at the end of a very turbulent decade in its history.
The population collectively bore the scars of the Great War, Easter Rising, War of Independence and the Civil War. And all this was followed by significant migration post partition.
Though the 1993 Act introduced a retrospective 100-year embargo on public access to Irish census data compiled since the foundation of the State, previous censuses had been conducted without such restriction.
Significantly both the 1901 and 1911 returns were released after only 60 and 50 years respectively, in 1961.
The 2016 Census notes fewer than 70,000 people then alive aged over 85.
The release of the 1939 National Register for England & Wales by the UK National Archives in 2015 set a precedent which should be followed in Ireland.
It was a success because, on a rolling basis, data for anyone born less than a century before was redacted.
Please join with CIGO to lobby the Taoiseach and the Heritage Minister to follow through on the commitment made in 2012 to release the 1926 Census.
Sign The Petition HERE
TripAdvisor Reveals Ireland's Best Beaches
Inh Beach, County Kerry
TripAdvisor has published its annual round-up of Ireland's best beaches, a list dominated this year by the Wild Atlantic Way.
Inch Beach on the Dingle Peninsula takes the top spot for 2018, followed by a previous winner - Inchydoney strand near Clonakilty, Co. Cork.
Inch was also voted Ireland's favourite beach in our Reader Travel Awards 2018, with one comment describing it simply as "heaven on earth".
TripAdvisor's Top 10 beaches in Ireland
- Inch Beach, Inch, Co. Kerry
- Inchydoney Beach, Clonakilty, Co. Cork
- Dog's Bay Beach, Roundstone, Co. Galway
- Barleycove Beach, Schull, Co. Cork
- Coumeenoole Beach, Dingle, Co. Kerry
- Maghera Beach and Caves, Ardara, Co. Donegal
- Silver Strand Beach, Malin Beg, Co. Donegal
- Derrynane Beach, Caherdaniel, Co. Kerry
- Strandhill Beach, Strandhill, Co. Sligo
- Banna Strand, Tralee, Co. Kerry
TripAdvisor's Travellers’ Choice awards are determined based on traveller reviews gathered over a 12-month period, the review and booking giant says.
Inch Beach also ranks as the 22nd best in Europe, with Inchydoney 24th - a list topped by the stunning La Concha beach in San Sebastian, Spain.
The Story of Choctaw Indians Who Sent Help to Ireland During The Famine
Photo: 'Kindred Spirits’ Sculpture in Midleton, Cork.
On his St Patrick's Day trip to the USA this year, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited the Indian Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma to thank them for the aid they sent to Ireland during the catalystmic Irish Famine.
$170 may seem like small change by today’s numbers, but in 1847 this donation amounted to many thousands of euro and made a difference.
What makes this gift especially impressive is the fact that the Choctaw were themselves living in poverty and had been recently relocated from their own land in what became known as the 'Trail of Tears'.
But the suffering of the Irish moved the tribe, and so the Choctaw, who firmly believe in charity, dug deep into their pockets to help a foreign nation across the sea.
The Irish continue to remember the Choctaw to this day.
In 1992, Lord Mayor’s Mansion in Dublin unveiled a plaque reading, “Their humanity calls us to remember the millions of human beings throughout our world today who die of hunger and hunger-related illness in a world of plenty” to honor the tribe.
In 2015, a monument honoring the Choctaw Nation called 'Kindred Spirits’ was unveiled in Cork.
The monument features nine steel eagle feathers towering 20 feet into the air arranged in the shape of a bowl.
On his website, the sculptor of the monument, Alex Pentek, wrote about the symbolism of the bowl of feathers, saying:
“By creating an empty bowl symbolic of the Great Irish Famine formed from the seemingly fragile and rounded shaped eagle feathers used in the Choctaw ceremonial dress, it is my aim to communicate the tenderness and warmth of the Choctaw Nation who provided food to the hungry when they themselves were recovering from their own tragic recent past.”
I Only Saw My Long Birth Cert When I Was Nearly 50
Former Minister Joan Burton
‘WHAT’S YOUR NAME and where do you come from?’ These are daily parts of Irish conversations.
For adopted people like myself growing up in the 1950s and 60s the answers had to be ambiguous and complex.
There was a double identity. One was the adopted identity and there was also a kind of secret identity, the original or birth family of which you knew nothing and had no right to such information.
How did people know they were adopted?
In most cases they were told at home but many were told nothing and often found out at family occasions such as funerals or weddings. Of course, the public authorities knew and created a special short form birth certificate that adopted people could use as I did to register for college and for marriage.
The long form birth cert that contained the adoption information was kept strictly under lock and key with no right of access to the adopted person.
I only saw mine when I was close to 50 years of age.
When I was getting married I asked St Patricks Guild to pass on a letter to my birth mother to tell how I was and my wedding plans. Months later I got the letter back with a note saying they didn’t do that kind of thing.
Upsetting
That refusal to convey a simple message upset me a lot but I realised it was just one of the hallmarks of psychological cruelty so characteristic of the adoption societies.
I had attempted again and again from the time of my adoptive mother’s early death from cancer to get basic tracing information from St Patrick’s Guild. Each time I sat in their little waiting room under a picture of the baby Jesus and each time the answer was a blunt NO.
One incident I remember well was in 1993 when I had become a TD and Minister of State.
A woman came to me about her fruitless search for her birth records. This woman was married with grown up children.
She told me she had been to St Patrick’s Guild where she had been told a mess of conflicting stories about different possible mothers.
Eventually she found out she had been informally fostered so that there was in fact no legal barrier to her getting full information.
Months of battle
Even then it still took months of battle with the Archdiocese to get her information. I met one senior priest who remarked frostily to me that people like the woman I was representing were only interested in getting money.
At this stage we need to proceed with some essential legal changes that have stalled so far.
First and foremost, there has to be a clearly stated right of full access to records and knowledge of their original identity.
That is a human rights issue and has been recognised internationally as such by a UN Convention and is also implicit in the European Convention on Human Rights.
I have one fear about all this that I mentioned in an interview with Jason O’Toole in a Hot Press interview a few months back.
We have made immense strides in the past few years on Marriage Equality, Gender Recognition and now Abortion Rights.
Are adopted people to be last in the queue to have their basic rights accepted and enshrined in law?
Reform
I think there have been too many barriers to reforms in this area. I had to endure endless delays whenever I argued for reform in government.
The draft 2015 Bill is on the Seanad Order Paper and needs to get priority.
It has a number of cumbersome features and some serious flaws that have to be amended in Committee to fully satisfy the demands and rights of adopted people.
In the spirit of justice and compassion that inspired the Repeal referendum I make this plea: Let’s do this now.
Joan Burton is Labour TD for Dublin West and a former Tanaiste.
Source The Journal.
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