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August 3

1823 - Thomas Francis Meagher, nationalist and transportee; journalist and lecturer; brigadier-general on Union side in US civil war, and Governor of Montana, is born in Waterford
1857 - George F. FitzGerald, physicist who postulated the FitzGerald-Lorenze contraction, is born in Dublin
1916 - Roger Casement, Irish patriot, is hanged by the English in Pentonville Prison, London. He was the last to be executed as a result of the Easter Rebellion
1998 - In a landmark deal, the Apprentice Boys of Londonderry and Catholic residents of the city's Bogside reach agreement on a contentious parade after a weekend of tense negotiations
1998 - Between 20,000 and 25,000 people throng Youghal over the four days of the Murphy's-sponsored International Busking Festival
1999 - Continental Airlines announces increased availability of what it says are the cheapest direct flights between Ireland and the US
2001 - Met Eireann reports that up to 22 millimetres of rain has fallen in the south. Insurance companies believe the cost of flash-flooding in Cork and Tipperary could hit £2 million
2001 - A potentially fatal bacterium forces St. James Hospital in Dublin to close its general intensive care unit to new admissions.

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In just two days the citizens of eIreland will vote for the office of President. There are currently three candidates for the office.

The incumbent is President Sweet Drinker.(LP) supported by SUI, IFP and KHNB.
Sweet has been President for the past two months and was responsible for the NAP signed with the eUK. There are two schools of thought on the subject. Some say the NAP is a good thing that allows eIreland to remain on the map. Others say it is an evil that hinders eIreland from reclaiming the rest of her regions. Needles to say the debate continues.

Next up is EmperorPalpatine, formerly MikeBane. (ILP) supported by SRE and IRA.
EmperorPalpatine has been President for one term previously. EmperorPalpatine has been quoted in Silent Wings as saying when asked about the NAP,

"I view the NAP as a necessary breath of fresh air. We are not wiped, our bonds with eUK will continue to grow as long as both nations keep their word, and it allows us to focus on helping our friends and focus on the eIrish community and government health.
I would do my best to extend the treaty and even perhaps try to gain another territory if it is at all possible. Obviously we want a wall to block any potential invaders, but gaining a region or two would be much appreciated."

Finally we have the newest candidate K.Fitzpatrick (UNF).
K.Fitzpatrick has a more nuanced take on the NAP, seeing both positive and negative aspects.

"I believe the current NAP is beneficial and it is not, as it keeps the British from totally taking us over but, at the same time, it is a restriction on the liberation of eIreland."

K.Fitzpatrick would like to negotiate with the eUK in order to gain regions back diplomatically with force as a last option.

With the election so close be sure to keep an eye on the press for further campaign articles and breaking news. Good luck to all the candidates.

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John Patrick Montague (b. Feb. 8, 1929 - present)

...born in St. Catherine’s Hosp., Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn; son of Molly (née Carney) and James Montague. James was formerly an Irish volunteer who fled to Brooklyn after involvement in ambushes and house-burning; he failed in business and became a subway ticket collector, then turned to alcohol. John was raised from 1933 by aunts in Garvaghey [near Fivemiletown], Co. Tyrone. John was not joined by his mother on her return to Fintona.
Educated at Garvaghey Primary School in 1927; he had a problem stammering which was triggered by humiliation by a primary school-mistress; later at Glencull Primary School, then St. Patrick’s College, Armagh, from age 11; he entered UCD on County Council Scholarship, in 1946.
And here we must hedge our biographical information. John Montague produced, published, founded, taught, edited and read in numerous universities in the United States, Ireland and France. At numerous occasions, places and conferences. He also found time to marry, I think it was three, women. When did he find time to write poetry? I'm still trying to find a way to organise, list, date and describe it all. In a way that could be considered digestible at any rate.
For now we embark into his poetry and hope you'll be patient.

All Legendary Obstacles
by John Montague

All legendary obstacles lay between
Us, the long imaginary plain,
The monstrous ruck of mountains
And, swinging across the night,
Flooding the Sacramento, San Joaquin,
The hissing drift of winter rain.

All day I waited, shifting
Nervously from station to bar
As I saw another train sail
By, the San Francisco Chief or
Golden Gate, water dripping
From great flanged wheels.

At midnight you came, pale
Above the negro porter's lamp.
I was too blind with rain
And doubt to speak, but
Reached from the platform
Until our chilled hands met.

You had been traveling for days
With an old lady, who marked
A neat circle on the glass
With her glove, to watch us
Move into the wet darkness
Kissing, still unable to speak.

A Grafted Tongue
by John Montague

(Dumb,
bloodied, the severed
head now chokes to
speak another tongue -

As in
a long suppressed dream,
some stuttering garb -
led ordeal of my own)

An Irish
child weeps at school
repeating its English.
After each mistake

The master
gouges another mark
on the tally stick
hung about its neck

Like a bell
on a cow, a hobble
on a straying goat.
To slur and stumble

In shame
the altered syllables
of your own name:
to stray sadly home

And find
the turf-cured width
of your parents' hearth
growing slowly alien:

In cabin
and field, they still
speak the old tongue.
You may greet no one.

To grow
a second tongue, as
harsh a humiliation
as twice to be born.

Decades later
that child's grandchild's
speech stumbles over lost
syllables of an old order.



Blessing
by John Montague

A feel of warmth in this place.
In winter air, a scent of harvest.
No form of prayer is needed,
When by sudden grace attended.
Naturally, we fall from grace.
Mere humans, we forget what light
Led us, lonely, to this place.

Uprooting
by John Montague

My love, while we talked
They removed the roof. Then
They started on the walls,
Panes of glass uprooting
From timber, like teeth.
But you spoke calmly on,
Your example of courtesy
Compelling me to reply.
When we reached the last
Syllable, nearly accepting
Our positions, I saw that
The floorboards were gone:
It was clay we stood upon.

A Lost Tradition
by John Montague

All around, shards of a lost tradition:
From the Rough Field I went to school
In the Glen of the Hazels. Close by
Was the bishopric of the Golden Stone;
The cairn of Carleton's homesick poem.

Scattered over the hills, tribal-
And placenames, uncultivated pearls.
No rock or ruin, dun or dolmen
But showed memory defying cruelty
Through an image-encrusted name.

The heathery gap where the Rapparee,
Shane Barnagh, saw his brother die -
On a summer's day the dying sun
Stained its colours to crimson:
So breaks the heart, Brish-mo-Cree.

The whole landscape a manuscript
We had lost the skill to read,
A part of our past disinherited;
But fumbled, like a blind man,
Along the fingertips of instinct.

The last Gaelic speaker in the parish
When I stammered my school Irish
One Sunday after mass, crinkled
A rusty litany of praise:
Tá an Ghaeilge againn arís . . .*

Tír Eoghain😕and of Owen,
Province of the O'Niall;
The ghostly tread of O'Hagan's
Barefoot gallowglasses marching
To merge forces in Dun Geanainn

Push southward to Kinsale!
Loudly the war-cry is swallowed
In swirls of black rain and fog
As Ulster's pride, Elizabeth's foemen,
Founder in a Munster bog.
*We have the Irish again.


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Anthony Colby