Page 16
THE CELTIC CONNECTION » MAY 1994
To the Green Hills of the Gatineau
(Continued from page 15)
rapher friend who will insert it on the map." And so he did.
The following day, Martin took me to see logging being done on his land. Three lumberjacks were busy logging a half acre of trees in no time. One logger axed a tree. Another on a monster machine, with each huge wheel controlled independently, hitched onto a tree and crawled down the mountain like a giant crab, overcoming all obstacles on route. The third logger cut the
trees into logs with a powerful saw there and then.
This scene gave Martin the chance to tell me about logging in the old days. From October to April was the lumbering season. Then, the most able bodied men headed for the forest to make that extra cash so badly needed. They lodged in makeshift houses called shanties. All through the winter, the axes never ceased falling, while horses pulled the logs to the rivers.
Piled high there, they awaited
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the spring thaw. It was then the river drivers came into their own as they guided the logs down river, very dangerous work requiring great skill and nimble-ness as they made their way across the floating timber, breaking jams with axe and pike-poles. It was a rough, harsh life.
That afternoon we visited Venosta, a small village in the same parish as Martindale and met some friends of Martin. That night we dined again at Catholine's mother's. The next day, Catholine collected me at Martin's for the trip home.
It was sad parting from Martin. In Ottawa we ca fled to the TV studio to see the documentary on the blessing of the Celtic cross. It was shown on TV in Ottawa and New York. I received a copy as a present. Another sad good bye and I was airborne for Toronto. An unforgettable episode had ended.
MARTIN with Belfast-born Celtic artist Ethna O'Kane who designed the symbolic depiction on the cross
FAMINE REMEMBERED
DUBLIN — The 150th anniversary of the Great Famine will be commemorated in an "appropriate, dignified and challenging way" according to Tom Kitt, Irish Minister for State at the Department of Foreign Affairs. The main thrust of the official commemoration will be to highlight current injustices which cause famine in today's world.
— Celeste Sinclair
FATHER O'MALLEY while saying the mass in Irish receives the offerings from two traditional stepdancers
POSTSCRIPT
In March 1984, I returned to Ireland as Bursar at St. Michael's College. On March 8, 1985, Martin Patrick Brown died, aged 74 years. His last letter to me:
Hello Father O'Malley,
You may well think I have long departed from this planet considering I am six months or more behind in replying to your very welcome letters and cards. 1983 was not such a good year, at least for me, and a person does get down betimes. Had even hoped to get this to you before Paddy's day but not likely now.
Had a visit from Catholine a few weeks ago and she looks very well. The world seems to be going well for her now. She also said you might be posted to Blackrock in Dublin this year. So I hope you can make it back to the Gatineau before leaving Canada. My old shack is, if anything, more dusty now than when you were here in 1982. But, dusty and all, you will always be most welcome here for as long as you wish to stay.
We still have solid winter here with 30 below in the mornings but a few weeks more it is sure to be milder and O'Malley's Lake will be open again. Passed that way in early winter and everything was silent as the grave.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely yours, Martin Brown.
How happy are the wild birds, they can go where they will, now to the sea, now to the mountains, and come home without rebuke.
(Welsh Seventeenth Century) — Ethna O'Kane.
FRIENDS and family gather to commemorate the Irish who emigrated on coffin ships from Mayo during the Famine