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Archiver > IRL-CARLOW > 2001-04 > 0986229089


From: "Debbie Romilly" <>
Subject: [IRL-CARLOW] Foot and Mouth Disease and other items in the news
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 09:31:29 -0700


Ananova/PA
28 March 2001

Somme bagpipes to return to Newcastle

A set of bagpipes which piped a regiment into the Battle of the
Somme in
1916 are to return to Newcastle.

The bagpipes of the Northumberland Fusiliers, or Tyneside Irish,
have spent
the last 70 years in the United States, after infantryman William
Robinson
emigrated in 1929.

Now they are to be reunited with the regimental flag for a
ceremony at St
Mary's Cathedral, Newcastle, next month.

The Tyneside Irish brigade was formed in 1914 mostly from second
generation
Irish families working in the coal mines of Northumberland and Co
Durham,
reports the Evening Chronicle.

******************************************
Sheep Cull Larger Than Expected

PA 04/02/01 08:04

Copyright 2001 PA News

By Ian Graham, PA News

A cull of sheep in Northern Ireland carried out to allow meat
exports to resume has turned out to far bigger than expected, it
was revealed today.

The Department of Agriculture expected to kill some 2,500
sheep
in South Armagh but said today the total had risen to 9,000,
partly
due to sheep lambing on the mountains and also through an
extension
of the area in which the cull took place.

The cull - in the restriction zone around the farm in South
Armagh where Northern Ireland's single case of foot-and-mouth was
detected at the end of February - was ordered as one of the
conditions for the province being given EU permission to resume
meat and dairy exports.

The Department said the restriction zone around the Meigh farm
had been extended to tie in with a similar zone across the border
in the Irish Republic's Co Louth.

"We needed a firebreak, a complete corridor without sheep. To
leave any flock in gaps between the two zones was not
acceptable,"
said a spokesman.

He said the department was confident the cull would have been
completed by tonight.

Tomorrow the Northern Ireland Chief Veterinary Officer, Bob
McCracken, will go before the EU Standing Veterinary Committee to
confirm that all conditions had been met to allow them to confirm
regional status on the province allowing exports to resume from
all
areas except the single restriction zone.

A source said confidently: "They will have to say yes".

Meanwhile a relaxation of restrictions on the movement of
livestock and horses came into operation in Northern Ireland
today.

Farmers are now able to apply for a licence to move livestock
between their own holdings, provided they are within 10 km of
each
other. Movement can be made on welfare grounds only.


******************************************
Sheep and Lambs
by Katherine Tynan Hinkson
(1861-1931)

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad,
The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road.

The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road;
All in the April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.

The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak, human cry.
I thought on the Lamb of God
Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains
Dewy pastures are sweet;
Rest for the little bodies,
Rest for the little feet.

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad,
I saw sheep with their lambs,
And thought on the Lamb of God.

******************************************

Americans `Believe Hands And Feet Will Fall Off'

PA 03/31/01 07:40

Copyright 2001 PA News

By Ian Graham, PA News

Americans are so ill-informed about foot-and-mouth that they
believe they will catch the disease if they visit and in extreme
cases that "their hands and feet will fall off", a senior
Northern
Ireland minister said today.

Stormont Enterprise and Tourism minister Sir Reg Empey said
the
disease would have a "devastating" effect on tourism in the
province unless such perceptions were countered.

The minister said he had just received a report from the US on
the beliefs of prospective tourists and it made "grim reading".

It showed people thought if they visited the province they
would
find the whole place closed.

They did not differentiate between Ireland -- where there has
been one case of foot-and-mouth on each side of the border -- and
the rest of Britain or even Europe as a whole.

"They don't believe there will be any food here they will be
able to eat, they believe they can contract the disease and in
some
extreme cases Americans think their hands and feet will fall
off."

"This is how bizarre this incident has been played in the
United
States with the sort of CNN news bulletins, they see this place
as
a diseased country and we have a huge task to change those
perceptions"

The tourism industry in the province was in a "real crisis"
with
some businesses closed down and getting absolutely no revenue at
all and there was no alternative but to change those perceptions
through advertising, he said on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside
Politics.

The Northern Ireland Tourist Board is due to start a major
drive
to try to win back business on the back of the EU's lifting of
the
export ban from early next week.

Meanwhile it was confirmed restrictions on the movement of
livestock in Northern Ireland were being relaxed.

From Monday farmers will be able to apply for a licence to
move
cattle, sheep, pigs and goats -- but only on welfare grounds.

Movements will only be allowed between a farmer's own
different
land holdings and only up to a distance of 10km.

Restrictions on the movement of horses is also being eased.

Northern Ireland has had only a single case of foot-and-mouth
disease -- in a sheep in South Armagh at the end of last month --
and the easing of restrictions came after a fresh scare just
across
the Irish border in Co Louth proved negative.

Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers said she would keep further
restrictions under daily review.

The precautionary cull of 2,500 sheep in South Armagh
continued
today.

A Department of Agriculture spokesman said the cull was
"progressing satisfactorily". Staff were working "flat out" but
it
was not expected to be finished before tomorrow.

The cull was one of the conditions imposed by the EU Standing
Veterinary Committee when it granted Northern Ireland regional
status enabling meat and dairy exports to resume next week from
all
areas except those in the restricted Newry and Mourne border
district.

The sheep were being shot at a Ministry facility in Newry, Co
Down and taken in sealed trucks to a plant in Belfast where they
were being rendered.

*****************************************************************
****
Major Animal Cull In Irish Republic Starts Monday

OT 04/02/01 03:16

Apr 02, 2001 (FWN Financial via COMTEX) -- TOP STORIES:

Dublin, April 2 (BridgeNews) - Up to 15,000 sheep in County
Louth in the Irish Republic will be slaughtered this week after
measures to combat the spread of foot-and-mouth disease were
tightened again. Department of Agriculture officials said Monday
the decision to cull all remaining animals on the Cooley
Peninsula-
-where Ireland's first and only case was found--was made
following
confirmation that a slaughtered sheep had been found to be
carrying
antibodies for the disease. ( Story .12952 )

FOOT/MOUTH:
(C) Copyright 2001 FWN

******************************************

Bank Records Aid In Slaves History

AP 04/02/01 00:13

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A young boy is stolen away from Africa,
sold into slavery, left to fend for himself after winning his
freedom in the Civil War.

Buried in the 1870 bank record for 20-year-old George Thompson
is much more than the dry stuff of deposits, withdrawals, dollars
and cents.

His life story unfolds in a new collection of records from the
Freedman's Bank that offers glimpses into a period in America's
history when blacks moved from slavery to citizenship.

"Doesn't know father or mother's names or brothers and
sisters.
Was stolen away from Africa, thinks when he was about 15 years
old," says the record for Thompson, who worked as a driver for a
doctor and deposited his money in the bank's New York branch.

Created by President Lincoln in 1865, mostly to help freed
slaves after the war, the Freedman's Bank folded within a decade,
costing depositors some or all of their savings.

More than a century later, the surviving records are making it
easier for many Americans to search out their pasts.

The bank records tell when and where an account was opened
and,
in most cases, list the depositor's age, address, occupation,
military history -- even height and complexion.

Names of former slave owners were sometimes listed, too.

"Has two moles under the right eye. Widow. Rents from Mrs.
Crawley," reads part of the May 1869 notation on the bank card of
Mary J. Green.

David Tavis, who opened an account in the Washington branch in
September 1866 with $10, is described in precise terms. "5 ft. 4
in. Dark," his record says.

The files also note when a depositor "signed own name,"
suggesting some could read and write.

Unsure, perhaps, of how they'd fare on their own, some
depositors left explicit instructions on how their savings should
be handled. Sarah Nugent, born free in Charles County, Md., and
the
mother of William Henry, put $20 into a new account in Washington
in March 1868.

"I desire that whatever money I may have in the bank in case
of
my death to be paid to my son above named," said Nugent, who
lived
near what is now Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

Not all the bank's depositors were black.

Whites, often immigrants from Germany, Ireland and Italy,
trusted the Freedman's Bank with their savings, too. Other
account
holders were natives of Africa and the West Indies.

Irish native Isaac Williamson, 59, a tinsmith in New York
City,
was excited about opening an account in late 1871. "Is too
nervous
to write his name," his bank card noted.

A new CD-ROM arranges the nearly 480,000 names from the bank's
37 branches in 17 mostly Southern states to show relationships
among depositors, including names of spouses, parents, children
and
grandchildren -- all valuable leads for genealogists.

Researchers say the disk is important because the records,
which
are housed at the National Archives, aren't well organized.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons,
spent 11 years, with help volunteered by Utah prison inmates,
extracting and linking the names before releasing the disk for
sale
in February.

The church, which teaches that family ties continue beyond the
grave and encourages members to trace their roots, collects
genealogical data from around the world and maintains a database
of
more than 400 million names, which is available on the Internet.

The disk already is saving amateur genealogists like Hollis
Gentry a lot of leg work.

Gentry, 37, began her research 25 years ago after the
publication of "Roots," in which Alex Haley traced six
generations
of his family back to West Africa.

She found a great-great uncle -- self-employed shoemaker and
Civil War veteran Daniel Langley -- after countless hours
searching
records at the Archives.

Comparing her library notes against the disk, Gentry
unexpectedly found another great-great uncle with just a few
computer-mouse clicks as she sat in her one-room apartment,
surrounded by rows of reference books and binders stuffed with
information about long-ago relatives.

St. Paul Langley, a brother of Daniel, opened an account at
the
Norfolk, Va., branch of the Freedman's Bank in 1873 for an
organization called the Young Juvenile Samaritans. He served on
its
banking committee.

"Prior to that I had no information indicating that he had
money
in the bank," Gentry said, marveling at the ease of her computer-
assisted search. "It'll make it a whole lot easier and a lot
faster
to locate a record if one exists."
------

On the Net: Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society:
http://www.rootsweb.com/(tilde)mdaahgs
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
http://www.lds.org
Freedman's Bank:
http://www.ustreas.gov/curator/freedmans/index.html
National Archives: http://www.nara.gov/genealogy
National Genealogical Society:
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/index.htm
Buying and downloading the records:
http://www.familysearch.org

-------
Jay Dooling ()
Irish Aires - 90.1FM KPFT in Houston
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/homepage.htm
Irish Aires Email List
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Irish_Aires/emaillis.htm



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