The Great Outdoors 21march2024

This program is sponsored by Galway Rural Development, Social Inclusion Community Activation Program. Contact 091-574-858. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. Welcome to the Great Outdoors here on Connemara Community Radio 87.8 and 106.1 FM. This project comes after we have just finished another very large project called Eurofleets where the Marine Institute were coordinating a lot of the large research vessels in Europe. We made them available to researchers from all over the world actually, so that included our own vessel, the Celtic Explorer. The whole idea of this is called transnational access. It's where researchers from other countries in the EU and beyond apply to use research infrastructure such as the research vessels that's from another country other than their own. We've just spent the last five years actually running that project. Just before that finished, we made an application to the European Union for this other large project called Aquarius. The previous project, and indeed this one, involved a lot of reaching out to newer users or students, so we would run training courses on our vessels and on vessels in the Mediterranean and in the Baltic Sea. The new project, in that it's slightly more different in that it's going to have a team, and the team is the European Union have four ocean or basins that they've defined, which is the Danube Basin and the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, which we're a part of, of course, the Atlantic Arctic, and then the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. They have different visions for the different problems in each of those basins, so we'll be inviting researchers from across Europe and Ireland, indeed, to apply for a targeted call where we're trying to solve some of the major problems, for example, in the Mediterranean. It's pollution from plastics and pesticides and other things, so we're going to actually give them all the infrastructure that we make available for them to address a particular challenge. When we were running the Eurofleet project, it involved 27 research vessels, but now it involves not alone 18 research vessels, but it also involves scientific aircraft from all across Europe, from Belgium, from the Czech Republic. There's four aircraft that can link in with other infrastructure, such as the ships to perform large-scale studies of these different areas, and we've also included four of the main river systems in Europe, so we have the Danube, which is obviously one of Europe's largest rivers, the Elbe, which flows out into the sea after going through Germany, and the Ebro, which flows into the Mediterranean just south of Barcelona, and we also have included our own river system, which is the Marine Institute's research facility in Newport and Mayo. It's in Furness there, which is the Borrachule River encatchment, which we've included as being a pristine river. Obviously, there's a lot of work being done for many years there in salmon and the like, so basically what we're making available is high-tech research infrastructures throughout Europe, free of use, free of charge to use for scientists to apply for, to address many of these challenges that have been identified under the European Union Missions Programme. It's a very interesting kind of challenge, because obviously you have the ocean here in the Atlantic, which is fairly big and very, I wouldn't say very rough all the time, but very different, and then you've got these kind of inland seas, like you have the Mediterranean, you've got the Black Sea, you've got the Baltic, all very strange little kind of, you know, almost no entry, tiny little openings into them as such. That presumably makes it all very more challenging and more interesting as well. It does, and so each of them have their own unique sort of, I suppose, physics or dimensions, as well as their own unique challenges, so our work in the Danube and the Black Sea will focus a lot on the, we try to involve Ukrainian researchers. Unfortunately, many of their institutions are no longer active, but there's a lot of problems there as a result of the Russian-Ukraine war. You know, there was a big dam burst there in some of their regions, which has released a lot of material into the Black Sea, as well as the Danube, which is a high load, and then you have the Mediterranean, which you say is a very warm and salty basin, which is quite different to the Atlantic, and I suppose the Atlantic is so vast, and a lot of the challenge under that will be mapping it and looking at the habitats and looking at marine protected areas in the Atlantic, and then obviously the Baltic is entirely different as well as the North Sea, and we include a lot of these rivers, which is a whole new thing for us, and we'll be dealing with a whole new cohort of people, of people who make these facilities available and lots of new sciences as well, so it's very challenging for us, it's very exciting, we're putting a team in place in the Institute now to run this program over the next four years, so yes, it's a big deal for the Institute, and it's a big deal for marine science internationally as well for the state. And I suppose, you know, as you say, the different sciences can get involved, but I mean, you know, I'm just thinking of underwater geology, which is a huge thing, and, you know, the effect of the kind of spreading of the Atlantic, and whether, you know, if you look at Iceland at the moment, as it's going through, there's lots of kind of challenges there, but there's also fish stocks and there's so many other aspects, so is this open to, like, scientists of all types of science? It is, so we'll be basing the calls on what's sort of outlined by the EU in terms of the challenges under each of the mission-based scenarios, so in the North Atlantic, a lot of it is, because a lot of it is unknown and unmapped, and, you know, its biology is particularly on the seabed, it's very unknown, and I mean, the Institute has spent a lot of time over the last many years, didn't make it to an orbit to map, and indeed we've mapped all our own deep water areas, but there's a big push on get all the world's oceans mapped by 2030, because only about 27% of the oceans are mapped at the moment. So that probably will be a large part of it, get some, a few vessels together to give a sort of a large campaign to map important areas of the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe, obviously. And, I mean, is this quite unique in the world? I mean, does it happen in other oceans or other places? Is it kind of a first to do this kind of multi-discipline type of a one? Yeah, the fact that, so, I suppose the United States would be a similar, they have a thing called the UNALS, which is the University Laboratory, Ocean Going Laboratory System, and they have ships on the east and west coast, indeed around the world, and their scientists in the U.S. get to apply to use their ships. I suppose in Europe, normally what would happen, each vessel, each country or each facility is run nationally, and national scientists get to apply for it. I suppose our oceans are, you know, our oceans are all part of Europe, if you know what I mean, so here it's a coordinated approach to allow people to access vessels all over any of the European seas and beyond. But the fact that we're making it a targeted approach where we're going to spend the first six months sort of looking at the issues in each of these places and coming up with a sort of a plan, a framework that we would ask researchers to apply within to address a particular challenge and for them to put together the plan and to select which infrastructure they'd like to use. You know, so our vision is of somebody, you know, using details from a river monitoring system, having a research vessel offshore, having unmanned drones as well doing research, as well as aircraft and satellites, all coming together to it over a period of time to address a particular question or a challenge that will contribute to the mission, the ocean program. And when will this get started exactly, or how soon is it ready to kick off? Well, it's kicked off in earnest. We're the project managers and we're the coordinators, so we've been working from since the 1st of March on the project, getting all our partners on board and planning for our kickoff meeting, which is happening virtually towards the end of April. So rather than making everybody travel to Ireland, which is a carbon footprint, we're having an initial online meeting and then after that we have sort of smaller events around Europe where we're trying to just promote the project and promote it to different people in different, you know, science teams and in different regions as well. So, yes, so we're hard at work at it now at the moment in the Marine Institute and we will be so until 2028, I think, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And you mentioned students there that could be getting involved. Will they have to be kind of nominated by their universities or colleges or can people apply more or less on their own? So we have some parts of the project includes things called floating universities where different, and it's not just research vessels, but different facilities around Europe will invite any student in Europe to apply through a system to come and spend some time at the facility and undertake a training course. We ran this very successfully under the Eurofeeds program. So that will be completely open. They don't have to. They just have to be affiliated with an institution and they apply on their own right. And we've taught people how to use ROVs and there will be opportunities to learn about aircraft and stuff like that. And also we often, as well, make the principal investigators who apply for this funding that they have to make a certain amount of space available to young researchers, which is finally a certain thing in Europe. So they have to make space available for young researchers. And then there's also training associated that can be made available to any team that's embarking on any of the ships or indeed using any of the facilities. So, yeah, it's a really good opportunity for young scientists and we're trying to do what we can to help them as much as possible. Okay. Well, it sounds absolutely fantastic, Adon. It's very best to look to yourselves there with all of that. And as I say, we'll keep informed, I've no doubt, over the next few years as to see how it's going. But thank you for being with us this evening on the program. Thank you very much. Okay, thanks. Bye-bye. That's Adon Fitzgerald there with Research Vessel Operations Manager at the Breed Institute. And that's an incredible project that they're getting started there. And we'll be trying to follow up a bit more about that along the way. You've just been listening to The Eco Sloth on Connemara Community Radio, a weekly program focusing on environmental and climate sustainability. 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Call 095 22669 or visit connemaralettings.ie to find out what fantastic offers we have throughout the year. Now we came across a piece which I thought was very interesting. It's Letters Open Windows into the Past. The University of Galway launches a database of Irish American immigrant letters. I think a lot of people have had these letters in the past from family and friends abroad. But to find out more about it I'm delighted to welcome Professor Daniel Carey, Professor of English at the University of Galway. Daniel, you're very welcome to see us here on Connemara Community Radio. Thank you very much. Glad to join you. Tell me a little bit about this project. Where did it come from? Well, the project originates with the work of the American historian Kirby A. Miller. He's the preeminent historian of migration to the New World by the Irish. And Kirby is a professor of history at the University of Missouri, now retired. And starting in the 1970s, beginning when he was a graduate student, he started accumulating letters because he wanted to get the voices of immigrants, what they said about their own experience. So he went to archives and then he placed advertisements in Irish newspapers and sought people's correspondence. He said, look in your presses, seek out these letters, send them to me, I will copy them, I'll make a transcript, I'll send the originals back to you. And he was working on a major book, which was published in 1985, Immigrants and Exiles. It was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize, so it made a huge impression. And he reckoned at that time that he had read about 5,000 immigrant letters. And he continued thereafter to accumulate more and more, and people would send him things and fellow historians would send him things. So Kirby was interested in donating his archive, and myself and my colleague Gwendolyn McSivna, the historian, knew Kirby, and Kirby agreed to give it to the University of Galway as a wonderful gift. And that's the basis for the archive, the online database that we've created. I presume a lot of people, when you hear about something like this, would be thinking relatively new, but this goes back to the 1600s, some of these letters, so that might surprise a lot of people, that there was correspondence at that particular time. No, it's remarkable, and it tells its own story, because people clearly kept these things in families as very precious documents, things that they wanted to preserve that tell them about their own relatives and family history. So I think the major concentration of the collection is 1850 to 1950, kind of in that time period we have most of the letters, and we have about 7,000 in the collection. But there are, as you say, letters that go right back to the 17th century, and then ones even in the later 20th century. Now, as you say, these are letters coming back from the United States to Irish families. I presume they could have paid, well, for all sorts of pictures, good ones and bad ones. Are they broken down into any way, or a particular time period, or how do people research the different ones? Well, you can really put in the search terms, and by the way, the correspondence is booked in both directions. So you have letters from Ireland sent out to relatives in America, and then you have relatives in America writing back to their families in Ireland. And so you can search by date, you can search by keyword, by theme, by family name, by parish, all sorts of different ways of getting access to information that you think might be of interest, and it will speak to you in different ways. And are most of them in English, or are there quite a few in Eskild as well? Most of them are in English, some are Eskild, and we're very interested in further donations that people might have, your listeners and people's networks out there. We very much encourage you to have a look, ask around, see what relatives might have. We're very interested in gathering letters and correspondence from Irish-speaking districts and from people who are Irish speakers. You definitely find it in the idiom and the language and the expression, even when it's written in English, you can recognize the intonations, if you like, of the Irish language in many letters. I suppose when we think of immigrant letters or immigrant letters coming or going, they generally tend to be fairly sad, fairly downbeat, I suppose, because people are missing home, etc. Do they kind of have that feeling, or do you get very upbeat ones as well throughout the whole thing? It runs the whole spectrum. It really is an amazing resource, and once you start reading them, it's like it's very hard to stop. And even very basic letters, very simple sentiments are moving because you hear them in people's own voices. And sometimes it is just, you know, remember me to my friends, I'm well, I hope you're in good health. These simple wishes that people convey have their own emotional impact. Others are quite heightened, and when people hear devastating news, as they do from time to time, you hear it in their own voice. There's a letter from 1845 where a woman named Waters is writing from Pittsburgh, and she's had a letter with bad news from her brother. And she says, Alas, alas, our father, my dear, dear father, is no more. As soon as I caught the first glance of the letter, I screamed out, My father, my father is dead. You get letters like that. But others are amusing. They have observations. They want to convey the experience of the strange. This is something you'll find interesting, and things are done in an odd way in this country. And others are quite jolly. There are some letters from the 1930s from New York to County Cork where the correspondent is writing to his friend, He's reminding him of various sedaliances that they had, and loved ones, shall we say, that they both admired. So you get the whole spectrum there. It's all there. I presume these letters would be hugely important for people who are doing social history, as it would tell the story of real people and the real lives that they're living. So I'm sure that to social historians this would be a huge benefit to be able to get it. Yeah, absolutely. You put your finger on it. The social history value of this is enormous. And I think that's what inspired Kirby Miller in creating this archive and, as I say, writing a number of important books on the topic. But you find people commenting on major events. They comment on the famine. They comment on the American Civil War. And they comment on ordinary life. They comment on their economic fortunes, for good or ill. They talk about race relations in an interesting way. There are a number of letters that talk about African-Americans. They talk about slavery. So the observations on American life are really fascinating from my point of view as an American myself with an Irish-American background. But you really find about all the different kinds of things that people are up to. They'll often send money back that's gratefully received and sometimes the emotional register of, you know, with this money that you sent. And others who are maybe a little bit more grasping, like, well, you know, I look forward to the next installment. So it's, you know, it's really nice that it's lived. Yeah, I would imagine there'd be a lot of different bits of it. How do people access this if they want to see these? It's easily done. So there's a website, which is emirca.universityofgalway.ie, so H-T-T-P-S, forward stroke, emirca, I-M-I-R-C-E.universityofgalway.ie. And then you can, there's a search bar, and you just put in the keywords. There's some suggestions for how you might want to search, and there's all sorts of ways of configuring it. If you're interested in a certain decade, if you're interested in a part of the country, if you're interested, as I say, in family names, that kind of thing. There are letters from Galway you can put in those search terms. There's letters in the Irish language. Really, any word that would occur to you, you think, hmm, I wonder what people say about slavery. Oh, you can put that in. You can find out about it. If you're interested in economic life, that kind of thing, and the ordinary lives that people lived in their pursuits in coal mines and elsewhere in Pennsylvania. Yeah, absolutely. And I suppose, Daniel, as you mentioned there, because the 1950s was maybe a little bit later, but now, of course, it's probably all e-mails and things that new immigrants are using. We may not have access to all of this kind of stuff at this stage, but I suppose it's important to try and maybe save some of those for the future as well. Yeah, absolutely. It is an interesting question, you know, precisely how will people keep hold of those things. I mean, we know that people take photographs and there's all sorts of ways that they record things, but I think the written word, the voice that people use, if they're sending texts back and forth, it's not so interesting. But obviously, you know, and this is within our own experience, when people left, for one, they didn't think they were ever going to see their loved ones again. And the letter was the way it communicated. Even in the 20th century, phone calls were very expensive, and so people were quite reluctant to use the phone unless there was an absolute emergency or some tremendous news that they had to provide. And you see people's eagerness to get letters, and they said, look, have you been sharing my letters with others? I told you to contact so-and-so, and I haven't heard from them. There's real distress when people don't hear letters from others and when they feel a letter might have miscarried, it hasn't reached its destination. Absolutely. Well, I suppose, Daniel, just before you finish up, if people do have letters within their own collections, or if they have, you know, letters from family and friends, can they get in contact with the university to donate them or to have them scanned or whatever? They absolutely can do that. We very much encourage it. We would be delighted if people would seek us out in that way and have a look and talk with their family members. And so there's a way really through the website of doing that. You can click on a button that says Contribute a Letter or Memoir, and I should point out that there are also memoirs in this collection. We haven't uploaded them yet, but we're going to be doing that over the next few months. So those are more extended documents and very revealing in themselves. But again, if you go to that website of emirca.universityofgalway.ie, you'll find that button to Contribute a Letter. We would very much welcome contact with people. Okay, well, Daniel, thank you so much for being with us. And as I say, the best to look with this. I look forward to getting into myself and having a look. But thanks for being with us this evening. Thank you, Randall. Okay, bye-bye. That's Professor Daniel Carey there, a professor of English at the University of Galway. And that particular digital repository of thousands of Irish immigrant letters and memoirs are at emirca.universityofgalway.ie. And I would imagine that an awful lot of people will probably still have old family Bibles or old family books or some sort of letters from grannies and uncles and people who've gone abroad. And maybe have a quick look through something like that if you have some old books or old things or old boxes of stuff. Because every part of this would add to the whole story of the immigration and the people going and coming and what happens to them and whatever. So do keep a lookout for that and get on to that website, as I said, or just get on to the University of Galway and I'm sure they'll be happy to help you. Anyway, we are going to take a piece of music and we're going back to John Campbell. And we actually made a mistake the last time, but anyway, it doesn't matter. That was my fault. We are going to go back to Southern Nights from John Campbell. Some tunes that you know and love so This Southern night Will be just as good even when closed your eyes I'll be part of the jam, yes I will To anyone who can do the same I've found the best way, yeah I'd like to thank Jerry Reed for this second music. Thank you, Jerry. Southern skies Have you ever known these southern skies, yes? Well, this precious beauty lies just beyond the eye of your door Was runnin' through your soul like the story told of old, old man Jim He and his dog that walked the old land, yes Every flower took his gentle hand As he slowly walked by a meeting window to cry for joy Joy, yeah Joy Well, it feels so good Well, life feels so good, it's frightening Wish I could stop this old world from fighting Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- Have you ever felt so close to my heart? On the streets of the night Lifting the sky Ow! How did this come about? The idea is to give the popularity of hill walking nowadays to keep people on the pathways. So, for example, a path we might walk on or work on would be Maumane. So, I mean, imagine your listeners will be familiar with that. That's the Pilgrim Path out there behind Recess, where people actually next week, isn't it, they go up on Good Friday to venerate St. Patrick. And then they go back up again for Sunday in August to venerate Lunasa, you know, the pre-Christian gods, you know. So, we do a lot of work there. So, you'll be doing the Western Way, I see here on the 27th, the Western Way on the Valley, Bridget Tully-Connor. But you also then have more stuff on the 24th of February with the Western Way as well. So, do you kind of, as I say, there's a load of different events taking part along the way. But what do people have to do to get involved and to help out? Right. Well, the way this works, it's not so much events as such, but like the modern way of getting these things done is kind of from the bottom up, right? So, what would happen is a hill walker might say a bump to a local farmer, went about hill walking. And as has happened many a time, and he'd say, listen, that old barber I sent you, your hill walker's going over there looking bad. So, to discuss it and they'd say, oh, maybe you could have bestialed her or something like that, which is quite common. So, then it would go from, say, the level of the farmer and the owner of the land through the hill walker to the rural recreational officer, right? So, rural recreational officer, he works for the county council. And he would have a certain amount of money set aside for this, which is handed down to him through, say, the minister, you know, and that's where the funding would come from. So, it has to be done quite officially. We don't do any work, you know, that wouldn't be authorised by either the rural recreational officer or, say, a creature. Okay. So, you have certain guidelines that you can adhere to, which I suppose is very important that you do that. The whole idea, I suppose, then of, you know, people going out to do any kind of work, do they bring all their own stuff or do people, do you supply, you know, shovels and spades or whatever you might need to work or do people have to bring things with them? Yeah. So, if a person was interested in joining us, for example, we just go out and you don't commit, right? You can turn up or not turn up, right? So, we go out usually the last Sunday of every month. Now, we may not go out, for example, we would go out at Christmas or maybe January is too wet. So, we then would, let me see, the rules are, for example, you need to be over 18 for a start, right? Okay. In fact, most of our members will be female, if there is physical work. And the first three outings will be kept, you know, you don't have to join up or anything like that. So, you'll be insured, et cetera, the first three outings. Transport is provided. And then, if you wish to join, then you just pay £20 to join up. But if you want to get insurance, then it's advised you maybe would pay €80 for insurance, but that would be after you've had to come and had a look. By the way, I said last Sunday, but it's last Saturday, I should have said. Okay. Okay. And this, as I say, takes place around the area. So, I mean, it can be in the Isle of Valley, it can be in Westerway, different places, but it's also going to be County Clare. So, you could be kind of, actually, both people could travel as well, even if they, you know, rather than just in their own area. So, if somebody said, oh, I'd love to go down to the borough or something like that, you could join up the day that you're going to be down there and get an experience as well as working. Oh, yeah. I mean, if you're the type of person who likes to sit inside of a mountain on a summer day and have a cup of tea and a sandwich, you kind of should be out at us, you know. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Sounds good. And, as you say, people can go out just for the first three sessions to see how they get on with it and see how they feel. But, after that, then, I suppose, once you, if you do sign up fully, I presume you give a notice anyway about all the different events, where they're going to take place, and you can decide whether you can be there or not. Yeah. I mean, it isn't only, we're Mountain Metal West, but Mountain Metal Ireland, we're actually one of five groups. So, there's a Mountain Metal West, there's a Mountain Metal in Dublin, Wicklow, who work in Glendalough a lot. There's a Mountain Metal North West, and they work up in the Leitrim Way. You may have seen them on TV, those guys that were putting down sheets full in the pathways, using their own Roman method that was televised very recently. There's a group in the South East, they do the Gautis, you know, in Constantinople. There's an interesting group that's formed in Mount Mallory in Waterford, down in this Cistercian Trappist Abbey. Yeah. So, they do work down there. So, there's quite a few. We're set up around, here in Galway, we're set up around 2019. But nationally, they were set up by, actually, an ex-Queenshire member, a chap called Bill Murray, and that was about the year 2000. Okay. Okay. So, it's a lovely idea. And again, as I say, people like to go out walking, but this gives them a little bit of purpose as well. And also, then, as I say, to meet up with other people who like to do the same thing. So, I mean, it's kind of a win-win situation for both the landscape, the trail, or whatever, but also the people involved. Oh, yeah. I mean, when you say metal, it's quite wide. I mean, we're working with the farmers, with the county council, and, I mean, we get great. I mean, if you go and walk in the metal in the evening, when you're home that night, you're going to sleep well. Yeah. They feel healthy. And, of course, there's the social side, very, very strong. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it sounds fantastic, Sean. Just give us a way for people to contact you if they need to do that. Yes, indeed. So, I think the best way would be to contact our secretary at Mountain Metal West. So, I'll spell that out, will I? Yeah, yeah. Because people are not familiar with the metal Gaelic word. So, M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N M-E-I-T-H-E-A-L-W-E-S-T. So, Mountain Metal West at gmail.com. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll give that out again throughout the program. But, listen, thanks a million for being with us. And, as I say, continue to say good luck with it. And, as I say, I hope a lot of people will help out and get involved. But it's a great idea. So, thanks a million, Sean, for being with us. You're very welcome. Okay. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye now. That's Sean O'Donoghue there, who's the spokesperson of Mountain Metal West. And if you are interested in getting involved with that, even if you want to just go out and see what it's all about, as he said there, you go on to Mountain Metal West. And that's Mountain M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N M-E-I-T-H-E-A-L-W-E-S-T at gmail.com. And you can just find out where the next one is. I actually think I got myself a bit confused as to where things were. This Saturday, they're down Blackhead, Glen Island, Ballyvaughan, Woodland Loop, Maintenance, Repair, and County Clare. And in April, they're back out at the Galtie Moors, and they're back at Western Way. Actually, they're doing quite a lot at Western Way. It's May, June, July, and August and September are both at County Clare. And, again, it's a lovely way to meet up with people who have a similar interest, you know, walking and getting involved. And you might meet some very interesting people going this way. So, if you are interested, as he said there, get on to Mountain M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N M-E-I-T-H-E-A-L-W-E-S-T and find out more details. Now, coming up, we'll be speaking with Jim Deegan, who's Project Manager with Midland Western Railway. And that's, of course, connected with the Mount Cross area. And we'll be finding out exactly what's happening there. But we are going to take a piece of music to lead us up to that. We're going to go with Stefan Grappelli and a track called You Took Advantage of Me. 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rise in the sky The tears will always cloud in your eyes When you're without love Lonely Without you, baby Girl, I need you I can't go on The sun ain't gonna shine anymore The moon ain't gonna rise in the sky The tears will always cloud in your eyes When you're without love Baby The sun ain't gonna shine anymore The moon ain't gonna rise in the sky The tears will always cloud in your eyes When you're without love The sun ain't gonna shine anymore The moon ain't gonna rise in the sky The tears will always cloud in your eyes When you're without love That's Robson and Jerome there And of course, Robson Green and Jerome Flynn were the two guys there Robson used to be in one of those detective things in England, I think is where they started off on television, and then they started singing and all that or maybe they sang first and then became detectives, I'm not quite sure but anyway, Robson and Jerome and lovely sounds, that particular one I think that might be the Walker Brothers way, way back Now we're just trying to see if we can get Sharon but at the moment we haven't got her so we are going to take a little track here Trissi Ahmed, and this is called Breakaway Breakaway from you No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I make a vow to myself You and I are true Nothing can change my mind I'm sorry, just won't do Just thought I'd take time But I can't follow through I can't break away Though you make me cry I can't break away I can't say goodbye Never, never, never break away from you No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Even though you treat me bad And many cruel words are spoken You have got a spell on me That just can't be broken No, no I will let your past be damned And just throw it away There's no better now For you to call each day Just thought I'd take time But I can't follow through I can't break away Though you make me cry I can't break away I can't say goodbye No, I'll never, never break away from you No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I can't break away Though you make me cry I can't break away I can't say goodbye No, I'll never, never break away from you No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away I can't break away Right, that is Tracy Armand there with Break Away from That Particular One, as they say. Going back into the 1980s, That Particular One, I'm not sure the exact year. But anyway, as I say, it's a nice track to hear that one. Now we're still unable to get Sharon, and we'll try her once more, I suppose, and see if we can get on to her. It's great to see, as I say, the town and the whole area beginning to come back to life and the hotels and restaurants and bars kind of opening up again. And of course, all of us at this time of the year, there's a lot of new projects going on and I think people are looking around in particular, I wouldn't say particularly in Clifton, I'm sure it's the same everywhere, but looking to see what's going to happen in such a premises because people have moved or changed or closed down and opened up. So this is also a lot of very interesting, this time of the year, with people making an effort or changing things around. So just good luck to all of the people, as I say, Easter coming up along this next week and a lot of people will be coming on holidays, etc., and we hope they will anyway. And we hope for some nice and good weather for them to explore and to find their... recharge their batteries here in Calamara. But anyway, as I say, yeah, it's good to see that and to see the businesses beginning to get themselves all geared up. I know, busy around today, I must admit, I was in Clifton during the morning time and even though the weather was pretty awful, it was quite hard to find a place to park and a lot of people around. So it was very good. Though I think we're not able to get Sharon, which is a pity, but anyway, I will tell you what it was about. And it's just saying that funding is available to celebrate Creoleog National Day of Creativity for Children and Young People with a host of free events and workshops on Saturday, June the 15th. The day is all about giving children and young people the opportunity to express themselves through cultural and creative activities while having fun. Events will take place throughout the county from Banlisloe to Calamara and everywhere in between. Criann Dúna Nóg 2024 is a collaboration between the Departments of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Games and Sports and Media. The Creative Ireland Programme, RTE and local authorities, the Secaugan County Council is delighted to once again partner with Creative Ireland for Criann Dúna Nóg in presenting in-person diverse activities throughout the county for a wide range of ages. The person who is going to say we welcome application for a variety of creative events across Galway County. Funding will be available to support events for children and young people in any art form you can imagine, from theatre and circus to painting, baking, coding and everything in between. If you want to, if you get on to the Galway County Council, if you get on to creativeirelandatgalwaycountycouncil.ie and you have to do that by 4pm on Friday, April the 5th, that will give you the guidelines as to Criann Dúna Nóg and how you get the funding etc. Galway County Council will give small grants to help fund your 2024 Criann Dúna Nóg project. The maximum amount granted in 2023 was for 2,500 but most were given between 200 and 750. Now I know it doesn't seem like an awful lot of money but these can be very simple ideas for people just to get together and possibly paint or do guided walks with kids along the seashore or up the mountain or the hills or something like that. You wouldn't necessarily need a huge amount of money to get involved with this but it's just handy to be able to find that. So the application, as I say, has to be in by 4pm on Friday, April the 5th and you can get all the information at creativeirelandatgalwaycountycouncil.ie and that will give you the information there that you would need for that particular event. And as I say, people, I suppose, can use almost any idea that they can think of as long as it's aimed at children and young people and it could be a gardening idea that's showing them how to grow plants or something like that or activities throughout the countryside or sports or crafts or anything like that. Anything that you can think of that might interest children, get in contact if you have ideas and I'm sure they will be very happy to have you come to them as well and say they'd be very happy to help out somewhere along the line. So yeah, as I say, it's good to have that. Now we've got another piece of music and we are going this time to a guy called John Paul Young and this is a very well-known track. In fact, I think a lot of people the minute they hear the beginning of it will know what it is because it's a very distinctive opening. But here we go with John Paul Young with Love Is In The Air. Here we go. But it's something that I must believe in And it's there when I look in your eyes Love is in the air In the whisper of the trees Love is in the air In the thunder of the sea And I don't know if I'm just dreaming Don't know if I feel the same But it's something that I must believe in And it's there when you call out my name Love is in the air Love is in the air Oh-oh-oh Love is in the air In the rising of the sun Love is in the air When the day is nearly done And I don't know if you're illusion Don't know if I see the truth But you're something that I must believe in And you're there when I reach out for you Love is in the air Everywhere I look around Love is in the air Every sight and every sound And I don't know if I'm being foolish Don't know if I'm being wise But it's something that I must believe in And it's there when I look in your eyes Oh-oh-oh Oh, love is in the air St. Patrick's Day I am a true-born Irishman I'd never deny that I am I was born in a sweeter prairie boy Three thousand miles away Our lady flies her way No more do I wish for to roam The sun, it will shine in the hardest time To welcome Paddy home Well, the girls are so fair and they're frisky They'll take you by the hand Stenchin' in the tree, won't you come with me To welcome a stranger home Our lady flies her way No more do I wish for to roam The sun, it will shine in the hardest time To welcome Paddy home And then comes a faraway stranger And vanished all over the land The hearth and the plough, the goat and the sow Fell into a stranger's hand Our lady flies her way No more do I wish for to roam The sun, it will shine in the hardest time To welcome Paddy home The Scots may boast of the pistil The English may boast of the rose But Paddy can boast of the emerald isle Where the dear little shamrock flows Our lady flies her way No more do I wish for to roam The sun, it will shine in the hardest time To welcome Paddy home Our lady flies her way No more do I wish for to roam The sun, it will shine in the hardest time To welcome Paddy home Thank you to the Institute talking to us about that new program that's going on there and well done to them. To Daniel Carey from the University of Galway talking about that project, which is Imerka It's all to do with immigrants and letters from Ireland to America and back and over and back so very interesting and if you have any information on that or would like to see them or check them out, go on to the University of Galway and you'll find information there Don O'Donovan from Mountain Mahal West and keep an eye on them if you're interested Jim Deegan from the Midland Western Railway Project and that's a very exciting one and unfortunately we're unable to get Sharon O'Grady but if you are interested in doing anything for Crinion and Oag just get on to Galway County Council and you will get the information there Thanks to everybody who organised the program and was involved in the background of it and thanks to Ann for looking after the desk Music This program was sponsored by Galway Rural Development Social Inclusion Community Activation Program Contact 091-574-858 Music Music Music Music