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www.celtic-connection.com
MAY 2005
'The Greatest Friend St. Helena Ever Had9
[^■g? HIS IS a tale of
m$s%A an island so remote and
i^^s^ isolated it was deemed the safest place to send Napoleon. An island that for centuries lay in uncharted waters marked on ancient maps by the legend "here be dragons."
Forged in a violent volcanic upheaval nearly 14 million years ago it slumbered in the South Atlantic undiscovered until 1502 when a Portuguese navigator Diaz rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
Ask most people where St. Helena is and the reply is probably "isn't that the place where Napoleon died?"
It is, in fact, a tiny tropical island 3,000 kilometres from Brazil, 3,000 kilometres from Cape Town that's been described as "the piece of land on earth that is furthest away from any other piece of land on earth than any other piece of land on earth." Quite a mouthful, but true.
Perhaps isolation makes St. Helena an alluring sort of place for much of the attraction lies in the "Saints" who live there.
A gentle caring people, totaling 3,000, there is little crime to speak of. The local jail which I visited housed one solitary inmate who was charged with public drunkenness.
Life on St. Helena is an almost Utopian ideal village the rest of the world has forgotten. Walking through Jamestown was stepping
TRAVEL DIARY
into history!
But, it wasn't always like this. The island was the site of bloody battles, sometimes vicious, arbitrary justice and a place of exile. Life was tough; discipline severe. Thieves had their hands cut off.
Slaves suffered horrible and lingering deaths. Many were hanged in chains and left to starve to death while others were hanged and still alive, cut down, disemboweled and their body parts stuck on pikes as a warning to the slaves from Madagascar and Angola.
But, the abundance of vegetation, lots of fresh water and safe anchorage turned St. Helena into one of the most hotly contested pieces of real estate on earth. Battles for the sea routes between the English, Dutch and Portuguese were constant for many years until the British won out.
Today, it's all very very British. There are Bobbies on the beat. There are little red Elizabeth Regina Royal mail vans and postboxes. The British flag flies everywhere and
portraits of the Queen are in houses and shops.
The place names sound like something from Tolkien's world of Hobbits. Fairyland, the Devil's Garden, Lot and Lot's wife, Bamboo Hedge, Half Tree Hollow; names found in fairy tales
The cars are Austins, Land Rovers, Morris' andBedfords. The Governor is British and the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides troop would make Baden Powell weep with joy.
An amble down the main street of Jamestown discloses a Georgian village like one you'd find in Cornwall. Chat with the locals and you'll find accents that sound like a cross between Jamaican, Dickensian English and a smattering of the American Deep South.
When Napoleon arrived with his court of 27 French men and women, and Dr. O'Meara his Irish doctor, his wretched six years started well enough. He played blind man's bluff and flirted with Betty Balcombe. But, his very presence caused the British to send 3,000 soldiers to guard the Fmperor's residence and foil any French attempts to free Napoleon. The death of Napoleon brought about an almost cataclysmic decline in St. Helena's fortunes.
Then Twentieth Century history of the Island took an unusual twist. Six thousand South African Boer fighters were exiled on the island. This is about the time Dr. W. John James Arnold arrived.
Born in Belfast, he'd received his medical training at Queen's University and began working as a surgeon among the coal mines of
South Wales. Brought to St. Helena with the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, to attend the troops and the South African Boer prisoners' hospital.
Appointed Colonial Surgeon and Health Officer, for over 20 years he carried the responsibilities of physician, surgeon, dentist, health officer, Justice of Peace, Member of Council and, on three occasions, Acting Governor of the island.
He was devoted to the work despite the low salary (0600 per annum plus horse allowance). But, it was not only his diligence and willingness to serve the Island in so many roles that earned him the love and respect of all classes, but his caring manner. After serving in the 1914-18 War, he returned to St. Helena to cheers from the crowds at the wharf.
His work in preventive medicine, instilling basic rules of diet, hygiene
and public health, are said to have cut the death rate by two-thirds within 10 years.
He never stinted in his labours, visiting the sick and elderly, supporting charities from his meager funds, paying fees rather than accept them from the poor, while living frugally as a bachelor.
In 1925 while Acting Chief Justice and Governor, he collapsed and died. He was 57. It is said that half the population flocked to his funeral. Thirty years later an elderly "Saint" told a travel writer "A shiver went through this place the day the doctor died."
There is only one Obelisk in St. Helena and it is dedicated to Dr. W.J.J. Arnold as "the greatest friend St. Helena ever had."
Dave Abbott's Travel Diary is heard three times daily on Jim Pattison Radio Group Vancouver's 600 AM.
Bertie Ahern: Irish Divorce Law Will Not Be Changed
DUBLIN - Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announced that the FU will not be allowed to interfere in Irish divorce laws, after it emerged that the European Commission plans to harmonize divorce rights across the EU.
The harmonized laws would entitle EU nationals living in other member states to divorce under the laws of their home country.
But Ahern said that Ireland's relatively strict 1995 divorce law was protected under the new EU Constitution and would not be affected by the new EU proposals.
Speaking in Madrid, he said, "the European Union has no say in these matters, in other words, it's none of their business. Irish divorce law is a matter for Ireland."
Replying to questions on the issue in the Dail, Finance Minister Brian Cowen agreed that domestic laws would be preserved under the EU Constitution. Under Irish law, a married couple must be separated for at least four of the five years before applying for a divorce.
Currently, there is no provision for cross-border divorces within the EU but pressure has been growing for a common judicial area to grant equal rights to all EU citizens.
Legal sources claimed that if non-nationals were entitled to use foreign divorce law in Ireland, Irish couples could lodge discrimination claims.
A Wickedly Dark Tale About Marriage, Friendship, Adultery, and Much More
AWILD PEOPLE by Hugh Leonard St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-29029-2
By SHARON GREER
In an interview in the New York-based Irish Connections magazine, the Irish playwright and writer, Hugh Leonard, noted, "My life is every moment of my life.
"It is not a culmination of the past, we are an aggregate.... unfortunately we are all the foolishness and all the crimes we did. We're also all the kindnesses we did. I like to think of life like that."
Indeed, Leonard's first venture into novel writing, A Wild People, could be apdy described by this very quote.
A middle-aged Dubliner, T.J. Quill, feels trapped and restless in a boring, passionless marriage to
Greta, his wife of many years. He finds himself enticed into an affair with the trophy wife of an acquaintance.
As the story unfolds we discover just how treacherous it will become for the naive T.J. His affair with Josie, a sexual predator, has moments of real danger throughout the story.
It's always amazing how gullible some people can be when it concerns sexuality - and the high price they are willing to pay for it.
The double life T.J. leads is further complicated by a boom in his career. He is approached by another acquaintance, Thorn Thornton, who offers him a job as an archivist for a museum dedicated to the late, great western filmmaker, Sean O'Fearna (based on Hollywood director, John Ford).
As his life gets more complex he finds himself involved in a number of absurd schemes with equally absurd characters.
A visit from the dead filmmaker's widow has him matching wits with a flamboyant, feckless fiend. In fact, half the people T.J. Quill comes into contact with fit this nasty category.
Hugh Leonard's literary output is vast and complex including film, memoir, criticism and journalism. He is probably best known for his wonderful play, Da, a semi-autobiographical, two-act play, exploring the relationship of
AWILD PEOPLE
Charlie, a successful writer, with his adoptive father.
Da explored themes of death, family, memory and identity and was translated on to the screen with the American actor, Martin Sheen, portraying the long-suffering son.
Last summer on a visit to Ireland, I was fortuitous enough to land in Dublin for several days. Bewley's Cafe on Grafton Street had a brilliant one hour play, The Lily Lally Show, written by Leonard.
A profound and wonderfully funny, fond tribute to the last great age of Dublin variety, performed solo by the fabulous actress, Barbara Brennan - it was a real treat.
A Wild People is a wickedly dark tale about marriage, adultery, friendship and manners that likes to take jabs at people's desire to recreate themselves. It is also a very fond tribute to a lifelong love of film. It is a wonderful tale from the ever-acerbic tongue of the most commercially successful playwright in modern Ireland.
Hugh Leonard was born John Keyes Bryne in Dublin to a single mother named Annie Bryne. Adopted as a baby by a gardener and his wife, he was raised and still lives in Dalkey, Ireland.
ODD SPOT
Robbery Fiasco
Two Derry men in their twenties stole a small amount of money when they held up a bookmaker's shop next door to the garda station in the County Donegal village of Muff.
They then attempted to escape on a motorcycle but were followed by a garda patrol car.
In an effort to shake off their pursuers they performed a u-turn but in the process crashed into the garda car. Both were arrested and one had to be treated in hospital.