text:
Man shot during a Fountain Hills bar fight in serious condition
MCSO deputies took a man into custody following the shooting.
Man shot during a Fountain Hills bar fight in serious condition MCSO deputies took a man into custody following the shooting. Check out this story on azcentral.com: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale-breaking/2019/07/12/man-shot-during-fountain-hills-bar-fight-serious-condition/1713458001/
Aubrey Carpenter, Arizona Republic Published 8:57 a.m. MT July 12, 2019
A man was in serious condition after being shot during a bar fight Thursday night in Fountain Hills, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies were dispatched about 11:30 p.m. to Bruno's Bar on Parkview Avenue, near East Palisades and North Saguaro boulevards, where two men had a verbal and physical altercation inside the bar, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Bryant Vanegas said.
The men then left the bar and continued the fight outside, Vanegas said. During the fight, one of the men pulled out a gun and shot the other.
Witnesses performed CPR until the fire crews arrived and took the victim to the hospital.
The other man was taken into custody by MCSO deputies, Vanegas said.
The investigation was ongoing.
Breaking News Intern Aubrey Carpenter can be reached at Aubrey.Carpenter@arizonarepublic.com and can be followed at aubreycarp1.
Support local journalism.Subscribe to azcentral.com today.
Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale-breaking/2019/07/12/man-shot-during-fountain-hills-bar-fight-serious-condition/1713458001/
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Discover CranioSacral Therapy
Dr. John E. Upledger
Modalities Offered
Clinic Affiliate Program
Cancer Therapy Support
ShareCare Workshop
Research, Articles & Case Studies
Intensive Therapy Programs
Group & Individual Intensive Therapy
Dolphin Assisted Therapy
UII Network
Upledger Institute Clinic
Upledger Institute International
International Association of Healthcare Practitioners
Barral Institute
D'Ambrogio Institute
Upledger Foundation
The Home of CranioSacral Therapy
In 1985, Dr. John E. Upledger founded the Upledger Institute to teach people worldwide about the value of CranioSacral Therapy (CST). More than 125,000 therapists have since been trained in CranioSacral Therapy. Dr. Upledger also founded the Upledger Insitute Clinic the same year to provide treatment to individuals suffering from pain and dysfunction, and to continue his groundbreaking research in a clinical setting.
The Upledger Institute Clinic is staffed by physicians and therapists educated in a wide range of conventional and complementary methods of healing. Among our qualified staff are osteopathic physicians, occupational and physical therapists, massage therapists, acupuncturists, chiropractic physicians, and psychotherapists. Each professional is trained in CranioSacral Therapy and all are personally selected for their expertise and commitment to whole-body health.
John E. Upledger
D.O., O.M.M., In Memoriam
John E. Upledger D.O., O.M.M., In Memoriam
Modality Developer
SomatoEmotional Release
The Brain Speaks
Upledger Intensive Therapy Programs
CranioSacral - Dolphin Integrative Therapy Programs
CranioSacral - Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) Programs
Achievement Honors:
Alternative Medicine Program Advisory Council for the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.
TIME Magazine, one of America's "Next Wave of Innovators" for his proven clinical applications of CranioSacral Therapy.
Inventor: Still Point Inducer
Author: Cell Talk, CranioSacral Therapy, CranioSacral Therapy II: Beyond The Dura, SomatoEmotional Release and Beyond, Your Inner Physician and You, A Brain is Born: Exploring the Birth and Development of the Central Nervous System, CranioSacral Therapy: Touchstone for Natural Healing, SomatoEmotional Release: Deciphering the Language of Life, and Lessons Out of School
Born on February 10, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan, Dr. Upledger passed away on October 26, 2012 at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. For manual therapists and other healthcare practitioners worldwide, his legacy is his generosity of spirit in sharing his discoveries and knowledge and ensuring their right to practice, For his patients and the patients of his students, his legacy is an open mind and heart to the validity of non-traditional medical approaches. For his family and good friends everywhere, his legacy is to stay with your journey despite the obstacles. He has proudly passed the torch From His Hands to Ours.
Throughout his career as an osteopathic physician, Dr. Upledger was recognized as an innovator and leading proponent in the investigation of new therapies. His development of CranioSacral Therapy in particular earned him an international reputation. He also served on the Alternative Medicine Program Advisory Council for the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C.
Although much of his experience was garnered through private clinical practice, Dr. Upledger served from 1975-1983 as a clinical researcher and Professor of Biomechanics at Michigan State University. During those years he supervised a team of anatomists, physiologists, biophysicists and bioengineers in experiments testing the existence and influence of the craniosacral system.
The results of those scientific studies explained the function of the craniosacral system and its use in evaluating and treating poorly understood malfunctions of the brain and spinal cord. Dr. Upledger went on to develop CranioSacral Therapy and other complementary modalities that are now taught worldwide to healthcare professionals through The Upledger Institute's educational programs. He also wrote numerous textbooks and study guides, and more than two dozen research articles.
The Dr. John E. Upledger Foundation was formed to honor his life and work by reaching out to those less fortunate and help improve their life experiences. This nonprofit organization is dedicated to the ongoing research and development of new therapeutic applications, and the establishment of community-outreach programs that enhance total health.
Robert Boltuch
Robert Boltuch D.O.
Dr. Rob Boltuch graduated magna cum laude from Duke University and attended medical school at University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. He completed his internship at Southeastern Medical Center in North Miami Beach and his residency in Osteopathic Medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. During his internship, Dr. Rob met Dr. Upledger and became his first associate in 1986 shortly after the formation of The Upledger Institute. He treated patients alongside Dr. John and taught CranioSacral Therapy classes for three years before entering private practice in family practice, osteopathic manipulation and sports medicine.
Dr. Rob is presently on the faculty of Nova Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine, and regularly lectures and trains students and residents. He particularly enjoys his role as ringside physician with The Florida Boxing Commission, and is on the Board of Directors of the Association of Ringside Physicians.
In his spare time, Rob loves horticulture, golf, and weight training. He is happily married to his wife Sintra, with two sons, Andrew and Jonathan.
Dr. Rob has recently rejoined the Upledger Institute Clinic and participated as Medical Director in The Ricky Williams Concussion Pilot Program.
Lee Nugan
Lee Nugan MA
Master's Degree, Psychology
Certified Instructor, The Upledger Institute
Program Director, Spirituality and Healing
Medallion Member, Upledger's International Association of Healthcare Practitioners
In 1984, Lee Nugan was personally tapped by Dr. John E. Upledger, developer of CranioSacral Therapy, to help him establish The Upledger Institute Clinic. Now more than 20 years later, she continues to treat adults, children and couples in her psychology practice here. She brings a wealth of specialized training in guided imagery, meditation, biofeedback, sand-play therapy, play therapy and psychosynthesis.
Understanding the critical role of psychotherapy on even the little ones – ages 2 and up – Lee specializes in safe and compassionate approaches like sand-play therapy and play therapy that encourage children to open up so they can resolve their physical, mental and emotional issues more effectively.
In addition to maintaining her thriving clinical practice, Lee is the developer of Spirituality and Healing, a workshop she has taught in the U.S. and Europe based on principles from A Course in Miracles. She is the author of "Healing the Mind and Body Via the Spirit," an article published in PT & OT Today. Plus, she is a certified instructor of SomatoEmotional Release II workshops. Lee has been deeply involved in The Upledger Institute Clinic's intensive therapy programs, where she works closely with patients, family members and caregivers. She also played a pivotal role in The Upledger Foundation's landmark intensive therapy programs that helped Vietnam veterans better cope with the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Lee earned her bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University and her master's degree from the University of Sydney. Much of her early life was spent seriously studying piano and performing in concerts. She recently used her love of music to create a CD called Compassion for the Self. Intertwining music with guided imagery, she takes you on a journey that allows you to release your fears and open yourself to receive more love and compassion.
Gayle Mya Breman
LCSW, LMT, CST-D
Gayle Mya Breman LCSW, LMT, CST-D
Licensed Massage Therapist, Florida (#MA 0014761)
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Florida (#SW 7389)
Master's Degree, Social Work
Diplomate Certified, CranioSacral Therapy
Presenter, CranioSacral Therapy Intro and Overview
Presenter, Lymph Drainage Therapy Overview
Presenter, Subtle Energy
Member, American Massage Therapy Association
Member, Fla. State Massage Therapy Association
Member, Nat'l. Association of Social Workers
Member, Fla. Association of Social Workers
Medallion Member, Upledger's International Association of Healthcare Practitioners
An Upedger Clinic staff therapist since 1994, Mya Breman is a licensed clinical social worker who blends psychotherapy with CranioSacral Therapy, Lymph Drainage Therapy and other holistic approaches to address the particular needs of each client she serves. In addition to the successful private practice she maintains here, she also assists in our world-renowned intensive therapy programs.
Formerly a broadcasting executive in TV and radio, Mya originally joined The Upledger Institute as its marketing director in 1989. Impressed by the results she saw patients attain here, she decided to shift her focus and study manual therapy. She went on to earn her state massage therapy license, as well as a master's degree in clinical social work from Barry University.
Today Mya specializes in working with infants and other individuals experiencing a wide range of physical and emotional trauma. She also teaches a series of continuing-education workshops in CranioSacral Therapy, Lymph Drainage Therapy, subtle energy and other innovative healthcare topics. And she is a highly sought after presenter, lecturing and demonstrating her techniques at schools and conventions around the world.
When she's not practicing or teaching, you can often find Mya pursuing another passion of hers: applying her hands-on skills to cats, dogs, horses and other animals who can use some healthy support.
OTR, CSP, CST-D
Rebecca Flowers OTR, CSP, CST-D
Registered Occupational Therapist, National (#576314) and Florida (#OT 8679)
Certified in Pediatrics, AOTA Specialty
S.I.P.T. Certified, Sensory Integration International
Ombudsperson, CranioSacral Therapy Pediatric Curriculum
Member, American Occupational Therapy Association
Member, Fla. Occupational Therapy Association
Member, Sensory Integration International
Rebecca Flowers joined The Upledger Institute Clinic in 1998 as a staff clinician with more than 20 years of experience in occupational therapy, CranioSacral Therapy and Sensory Integration.
After earning her bachelor of science degree in occupational therapy summa cum laude from Indiana University School of Medicine in 1986, she went on to establish the pediatric occupational therapy outpatient rehabilitation program at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie, Indiana. Later, in her groundbreaking work as a school occupational therapist, she established the first alternative occupational therapy clinic in Indiana, where she utilized both CranioSacral Therapy and Sensory Integration as well as other complementary approaches.
Rebecca holds three specialty certifications: in CranioSacral Therapy at the Diplomate level by The Upledger Institute, in the administration and interpretation of Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests by Sensory Integration International, and in the Treatment of Pediatrics by the American Occupational Therapy Association.
She also has advanced training in CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation. In addition she has studied Lymph Drainage Therapy, Therapeutic Listening (an auditory training program), and she has extensive training in Healing Touch, Esoteric Healing, Neurodevelopmental Treatment Techniques and Myofascial Release.
Along with her clinical practice focusing on adults and children, Rebecca is actively involved in clinical outcome studies and research. She directs The Upledger Institute's pediatric curriculum and instructors worldwide, and she is an examiner for the CranioSacral Therapy Certification program.
Rebecca teaches a number of Upledger Institute workshops, including CranioSacral Therapy I and Clinical Application of CranioSacral Therapy and SomatoEmotional Release classes focusing on pediatrics and adults. Widely considered an expert in her field, she teaches nationally on a wide range of subjects, and she has published articles on CranioSacral Therapy as well as Sensory Integration.
Lynn Darville
LMT, CST-D
Lynn Darville LMT, CST-D
Licensed Massage Therapist, Florida MA36523
Certified, CranioSacral Therapy
Certified Teaching Assistant, International Alliance of Healthcare Educators
Presenter, International Alliance of Healthcare Educators
IP Support Therapist, The Upledger Institute
Member, The American CranioSacral Therapy Association
Member, Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals
Lynn Darville is a Licensed Massage Therapist and Certified CranioSacral Therapist with over 18 years of experience in the field of massage and bodywork. She specializes in Therapeutic Bodywork and CranioSacral Therapy, having taken many advanced level courses with the Upledger Institute and working as a visiting therapist in their clinic. Originally from the Bahamas, she practiced at the exclusive Lyford Cay Club and The Spa at Atlantis as well as working with a talented chiropractor for many years.
Through many years of experience, Lynn has come to realize that each client is an individual and that no single modality works for everyone. With that in mind, Lynn approaches each person as unique in which their life journey has molded and shaped them into the unique being that they are. While she has predominantly focused her studies on specializing in CranioSacral Therapy, she has also studied many other modalities that are integrated into her work as needed by the client.
Kat Perry
NCBTMB, CST-D
Kat Perry NCBTMB, CST-D
Certified, National Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork Board
Clinic Development, Upledger Insititute Clinic
Kat Perry, CST-D has been practicing CST since 2000 in a variety of venues. She is an Upledger Institute International (UII) instructor and the Ombusdsperson for the BioAquatic Exploration classes. She serves as a therapy team coordinator and administrator in the Dolphin Assisted Therapy Programs. Kat is on staff at the Upledger Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens.
Kat owns and administers Integrative Intentions, LLC, a company specializing in coordinating CST based Comprehensive Therapy Programs, Therapist Retreats and aquatic workshops around the globe. Integrative Intentions (II) brings together a variety of healthcare and body work modalities into five-day Comprehensive Therapy Programs throughout the world. All programs are based in Upledger CranioSacral Therapy to create and promote overall health.
Integrative Intentions has a Clinic and Center in Truth or Consequences, NM where clients come for individual treatment or multi-day, multi-hands CST. Integrative Intentions Clinic proudly holds the title of the first and only Upledger Affiliated Clinic.
II hosts dolphin assisted therapy programs, equine assisted programs, big cat and elephant programs in various places around the world. Integrative Intentions was founded in 2002 by instructors Kat and her husband, Chas Perry, and like-minded CST therapists with the intention of bringing healing to humans, animals and the entire planet ecology. II works closely and in partnership with the Upledger Institute International.
I believe that we are whole - that there is no separation of our mind, body and spirit. I believe that we each have our unique way of healing and that within each of us, is something that knows just what we need and what we need to do. I believe that CranioSacral Therapy allows for each of us to take our own path, and allows for a more full healing experience, whether that is an accompaniment to western medicine, traditional eastern medicine, native healing practices, psychology, pharmaceuticals or stand-alone CST.
I love people. I love that my work allows me to get to know so many individuals. I am blessed to interact and accompany so many on their healing journeys. I get to Be With and hold a space for them and interact with them as they discover how their own bodies hold the knowledge for healing.
My work allows me the joy of travel to lead therapy programs in unique locations like Iceland and Portugal and to lead retreats in places like Sri Lanka, Florida and New Mexico. I am blessed to teach BioAquatic classes and lead therapy programs in the Bahamas. I have amazing opportunities to treat clients in many places on the globe!
I love life - mine, yours, plants, oceans, animals and those of my clients. I have immense respect for dolphins, cats, dogs, oceans, flowers, family, friends, sunshine and all of life.
Frederick Stahlman
P.T., CST-D
Frederick Stahlman P.T., CST-D
Registered Physical Therapist, Northwestern University, Florida PT21158
Certified Instructor, CranioSacral Therapy
Ombudsperson, CranioSacral Therapy 2 Curriculum
Certificate of Competency in Manual Therapy, Institute of Graduate Health Sciences
Member, American Physical Therapy Association
Graduate, School of Energy Mastery - Robert Jaffe
Frederick B Stahlman is an individual who has the ability to guide his patients through physical, emotional or spiritual challenges with grace and ease. With his extensive background in manual therapies, as well as CranioSacral Therapy, he is able to bridge traditional and complementary approaches to assist his patients in the understanding of the issues at hand and the belief systems that maintain them. Together, they open new doorways of freedom.
Fred's background includes extensive study with most of the masters in manual therapy as well as indepth study in the advanced realms of: CranioSacral Therapy; Lymphatic Drainage; Visceral Manipulation; SomatoEmotional Release; and Awareness Release Technique.
Lynn K. Mabry
Lynn K. Mabry DC
Florida License CH9797
Bachelor of Science, Psychology
Graduate of Central Florida School of Massage
Member, Florida Chiropractic Society
Member, Florida Chiropractic Association
Techniques Certified in Upledger CranioSacral Therapy
As a member of the Upledger Clinic staff, Dr. Mabry's extensive experience in Chiropractic, CranioSacral therapy and Massage therapy brings a unique blend of healing manual therapies to patients suffering from pain and dysfunction.
Prior to joining Upledger, she had Chiropractic practices in California, Louisiana and Florida. Dr. Mabry practiced massage therapy and herself is a graduate of the Upledger Institute CranioSacral Therapy curriculum. Her study of the human body began in 1993, when she attended her first Upledger Institute course, ShareCare. Dr. Mabry graduated Summa cum laude from Palmer College of Chiropractic West in San Jose, California. She has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she completed her undergraduate studies.
Dr. Lynn Mabry has contributed to the publication of two papers in the Clinical Chiropractic journal: "A 24-year-old man with neck pain: case presentation" and "A 24-year-old man with neck pain: case discussion."
She fully believes that every human being has an innate intelligence within them that maintains the material of the body in active organization. She understands that the body is programmed to heal itself and that the innate intelligence in each of us needs no help, just no interference. The application of Chiropractic and CranioSacral Therapy removes interferences from the body to allow the innate intelligence to more effectively adapt, organize and co-ordinate the many self-healing properties of the body, which in turn allows the individual the opportunity to express life, health, healing and well being to their fullest potential.
She is dedicated to improving the lives of children and families in her community through safe and effective Chiropractic care and CranioSacral Therapy. She has created her own unique blend of bodywork, which incorporates many different aspects of her years of study and practice and loves how beautifully chiropractic and CranioSacral Therapy go hand in hand.
CranioSacral Therapy and Headaches
CranioSacral Therapy and Pelvic Fracture
Jill K. Mabry
LMT, CST-T
Jill K. Mabry LMT, CST-T
Jill K. Mabry, LMT, CST-T specializes in CranioSacral Therapy (CST) with private
practices at The Upledger Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. For the past 24 years
Ms. Mabry has devoted herself to a full-time health care practice treating newborn to
adult patients.
In 1995 Jill graduated from Florida College of Natural Health then completed her CST
Certification through The Upledger Institute where Dr. John Upledger developed CST.
CST is a gentle, hands-on whole-body method of releasing restrictions around the brain
and spinal cord to enhance central nervous system performance and allow the body to
self-correct.
As a member of the Upledger Institute's Bureau of Professional Presenters, Jill is a
popular teacher and lecturer at schools, social and health organizations.
Jill considers CST as a collaborative care therapy and believes in the patient's well-
being by working toward health in body, mind, and spirit.
RoseMary Hurley
RoseMary Hurley LMT, CST-T
Teaching Assistant, International Alliance of Healthcare Educators
Upledger Affiliated Clinics
Upledger Affiliated Clinics Various Locations
Dallas, Texas; Sally Fryer Dietz PT, DPT, CST-D, SIPT
Integrative Pediatric Therapy
Integrative Concussion Therapy
Intensive Therapy Programs; Kat Perry CST-D, NCTMB
The Upledger Institute Clinic
11211 Prosperity Farms Road, Suite D223
clinic@upledger.com
Copyright © 2021 The Upledger Institute Clinic | All rights reserved
The Upledger Institute Clinic is a proud member of the International Alliance of Healthcare Educators

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Aids and Adaptations, Bathrooms and Kitchens, Access Solutions, Plumbing and Electrical.
We carry out aids and adaptations work to private and public sector housing. We strive to work with those involved to improve the safety within an individual's home by means of improving the accessibility to essential facilities. This is particularly beneficial to the elderly, vulnerable and disabled where for instance deterioration in mobility has become a daily battle.
Private owner occupiers may be eligible for funding aid via their local authority by means of a Disabled Facilities Grant. For more information on this, please contact your local council or Home Improvement Agency who can offer further advice. Furthermore, residents of Housing Associations may also be entitled to disabled adaptations within their home. For information regarding, this, please contact your registered social landlord for advice.
We are able to undertake the construction of ramps to improve the access to a property in line with DDA, Doc M and British Standards suitable for wheelchair use. Types of installations can range from basic concrete with a brushed tamped surface to a non-slip slab or block paviour finish, or even a metal modular ramping system. Regardless of the type of ramp, all would typically be installed with suitable upstands and guard rails if deemed necessary depending on the end user.
In some instances it may not be initially evident as to whether the formation of a ramp is feasible, e.g. the desired gradient. We are able to advise on this and explore what can be achieved.
Furthermore, we can also undertake other types of access improvement works which include door widenings or replacing high threshold doors with DDA compliant units.
We are very experienced in carrying out bathroom and kitchen installations, employing all the necessary trades and engaging with our suppliers to carry out all the work from inception to completion.
Whether for a grant assisted wet-room conversion, an en-suite re-configuration and upgrade or for a complete new luxury bathroom for a private owner, regardless of the type of work, all our projects will entail the same level of detailed input, planning and management from start to finish.
We are fully competent in all aspects of bathroom and kitchen installations, which may include the following: bath suites, sanitary ware, shower trays and cubicles, flooring, lighting, electrical, tiling, worktops, wall and base units.
We can undertake a range of plumbing services to domestic properties, which include works associated with bathrooms, kitchens, showers and wet-rooms.
We are registered with the NICEIC (National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting), the UK's leading regulatory body for the electrical contracting industry. Our electricians are fully qualified in electrical safety to conform with Part P requirements under the Building Regulations.
Typical electrical works which we carry out include: house rewiring, consumer unit upgrades, ring main extensions, additional wiring for house extensions, electrical condition reports and safety certification.


Hi, I'm Casey Winters. I advise and consult with startups on how to scale and sustainably grow their businesses.
When I first joined the growth team at Pinterest, in one of the early syncs a fellow PM presented a new onboarding experience for iOS. The experience was well-reasoned and an obvious improvement to how we were currently educating new users on how to get value out of the product. After the presentation, someone on the team asked about how the experiment for it was going to work. At this point, the meeting devolved into debate about how they would break out all these new experiences into chunks and what each experience needed to measure. It was liking watching a car wreck take place. I knew something went seriously wrong, but I didn't know how to change it. The team had an obviously superior product experience, but couldn't get to a point where they were ready to put it in front of users because of a lack of experimentation plan to measure what would cause the improvement in performance.
After I took over a new team in growth, I was asked to present a product strategy for it to the CEO, and the heads of product, eng, and design. Instead of writing about the product strategy, I wrote an operational strategy first. It was just as important for the team and this group of executives to know how we operated as it was to know what we planned for our operation. One of these components of the operational plan was a mix of optimization vs. divergent thinking. Growth frequently suffers from a local maxima problem, where it finds a playbook that works and optimizes it until it receives more and more marginal gains, making the team less effective, and hiding new opportunities not based on the original tactic. Playbooks are great, and when you have one, you should optimize every component of it for maximum success. But optimization shouldn't blind teams to new opportunities. In the operational strategy, the first section was about questioning assumptions. If an experiment direction showed three straight results of more and more marginal improvements, the team had to trigger a project in the same area with a totally divergent approach.
This is where our previous growth meeting ran into trouble. When tackling a divergent approach as an experiment, you will either start in one of two directions. One is that the team steps back and comes up with a much better solution than what it was optimizing before, and are pretty confident it will beat the control. The other is the team determines a few different approaches, and they are not sure which ones if any will work. In both cases, it's impossible to just change one variable from the control to isolate the impact of changes in the experience.
In this scenario, the right solution is not to isolate tons of variables in the new experience vs. the control group. It is to ship an MVP of the totally new experience vs. the control. You do a little bit more development work, but get much closer to validation or invalidation of the new approach. Then, if that new approach is successful, you can look at your data to see which interactions might be driving the lift, and take away components to isolate the variables after you have a winning holistic design.
If you're optimizing an existing direction, isolating variables is key to learning what impacts your goals. When going in new directions though, isolating variables sets back learning time and may actually prevent you from finding the winning experience. So, when performing experiments, designate whether you are in optimization mode or divergent mode, and pick the appropriate experimentation plan for each.
Currently listening to Oh No by Jessy Lanza.
Tags: experimentation, growth by Casey Winters.
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Candy Glazed Tiles What is candy glaze? When we touch the tiles, we can feel that some grain are on the surface. The technician use the 3D inkjet printing and good quality glaze to produce these wall tiles.


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Two nuns and priest arrested over cover up of baby born to girl allegedly raped by another priest
The teenage girl told investigators that the Catholic priest raped her at a church-run school last year.
By AFP Friday 17 Mar 2017, 10:42 AM
Mar 17th 2017, 10:42 AM 52,503 Views 0 Comments
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Image: Shutterstock/FeSeven
TWO NUNS AND a priest accused of covering up the birth of a baby born to a teenage girl who was allegedly raped by another priest have been arrested in India.
All three handed themselves in to police in the southern state of Kerala where they were being questioned over allegations they deliberately hid the birth at a hospital run by the Catholic church and took the baby to an orphanage.
Under Indian law, hospitals and orphanages must report all teenage pregnancies and births to authorities.
They surrendered two weeks after Robin Vadakkumchery was arrested on charges of raping the 16-year-old, who gave birth in February.
Six more people believed to have helped the victim give birth are still on the run.
The girl told investigators that the priest raped her at a church-run school last year.
She and her family said they were unaware of the pregnancy until she complained of stomach pain and was taken to hospital, where she gave birth.
A child rights organisation tipped off police about the secret delivery, triggering an investigation that revealed the alleged involvement of the priest, nuns and other officials.
It is not the first time the Catholic church in Kerala has faced accusations of sexual abuse.
Two autobiographies by former Catholic nuns have in recent years revealed the scale of sexual exploitation by priests and the prevalence of same-sex relations in convents.
Last year, a priest was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Kerala court for raping a 12-year-old girl in 2014.
Nearly one-fifth of the coastal state's 34 million people follow Christianity.
Read: Pressure mounts on Church to 'pay up' on sexual abuse redress as Taoiseach says 'get on with it'>
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Q: Django TemplateView thread safety I'm reviewing Django's TemplateView because of a threading problem we're seeing while calling the same service concurrently using AJAX from a single web page.
The symptoms are what you'd expect with a threading problem related to requests/responses on the server.  Sometimes the value we'd expect from the first invocation is returned to both the first and the second, sometimes it's reversed, sometimes it works as expected.  If we serialize the AJAX calls, the results are always correct.
Looking at the code, I see that TemplateView inherits from TemplateResponseMixin, which has the following implementation:
def render_to_response(self, context, **response_kwargs):
    """
    Returns a response, using the `response_class` for this
    view, with a template rendered with the given context.

    If any keyword arguments are provided, they will be
    passed to the constructor of the response class.
    """
    response_kwargs.setdefault('content_type', self.content_type)
    return self.response_class(
        request = self.request,
        template = self.get_template_names(),
        context = context,
        **response_kwargs
    )

So, TemplateView requires an instance variable called self.request. If a given TemplateView subclass instance is used to serve concurrent requests, I imagine you'd see the behavior we're seeing.
Am I right about this?  I have not explored Django's threading model with respect to handling concurrent requests. If their threading model is similar to that used in every Java Servlet engine I've worked with, then I can't think of a way that this isn't broken. If Django does something fancy like using a pool of TemplateView instances to handle concurrent requests, or it does something rudimentary like queuing requests, then I'm looking in the wrong place and we need to look elsewhere to fix our threading problem.
Thanks in advance for your help.

A: There is one view instance per request, you can find the code that does this in the implementation of View.as_view (this is what you call in the URL conf).
Some Template Tags, however, are not thread safe.
To help you further though, I think you'd need to tell us more about the exact issue you're seeing. You might also want to tell us what technology you're using to serve requests - is that mod_wsgi, Gunicorn, something else?

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Putin ready to meet with Trump in Washington or Moscow
Johannesburg - By Peter Spinella,- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he was willing to meet with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in Washington or Moscow.
"We are ready to welcome President Trump to Moscow," Putin told reporters at a summit in South Africa, according to comments carried by Russian state news agency TASS.
"I am also ready to go to Washington, if there are some relevant working conditions there," Putin said, without giving further details.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Friday that Trump would consider a trip to Moscow once he has received a formal invitation and that he would welcome Putin "after the first of the year."
Putin and Trump, who first met last year at a summit in Hamburg, came together for a bilateral meeting last week in Helsinki.
Trump was widely criticized afterwards for accepting Putin's denial that the Russian government committed cyberattacks in an effort to influence the last US presidential election in Trump's favour.
The Helsinki meeting was overshadowed by the US indictment of 12 Russians on charges of hacking into computers of Hillary Clinton's campaign and other entities in an effort to influence the 2016 election.
Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, has dismissed the allegations as a politically motivated effort to victimize Russia as the US gears up for congressional elections in November.
By Peter Spinella,


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Q: Unpack list into pandas Given I have a list, how can I unpack it into a pandas data frame such as:
data = {u'2344': ["id", "value1", "value2", "01", "Addf112", "Addf113", "02", " ", "Addf213"]}

>> id  value1  value2
   01  Ad112   Ad113
   02          Ad213

A: You'd have to extract the individual elements for the column names and then construct a list consisting of 2 lists for your 2 rows of data:
In [23]:

data = {u'2344': ["id", "value1", "value2", "01", "Addf112", "Addf113", "02", " ", "Addf213"]}

pd.DataFrame(columns = data['2344'][:3], data=[data['2344'][3:6], data['2344'][6:]])
Out[23]:
   id   value1   value2
0  01  Addf112  Addf113
1  02           Addf213

A dynamic method would be to use a chunker (modified from one of the answers to this question) to build the dict and use this to construct the df:
In [59]:

def chunker(seq, stride):
    cols = seq[:stride]
    data = [seq[stride:][pos::stride] for pos in range(0, stride)]
    return dict(zip(cols,data))

pd.DataFrame(chunker(data['2344'],3))

Out[59]:
   id   value1   value2
0  01  Addf112  Addf113
1  02           Addf213


It's the big day! WrestleMania: Play Button (because numbers make WrestleMania sound old) is today in Santa Clara with the pre-show starting at 5:00 PM EDT, matches starting at a rumoured 6:00 PM EDT and the show proper starting at 7:00 PM EDT. That's some five hours of wrestling. Holy crap, that's way too much.
Anyway, it's time for the links. Since WrestleMania is today, I think it's appropriate to lead this one off (or maybe we should say start the card) with Paige.
Today in WrestleMania videos, here's a look at why wrestling fans hate wrestling.
And some WWE wrestlers went on a promotional tour that included… a visit to Smosh Games? I knew I needed my own Let's Play channel on YouTube.


Before I start this post I need to say that many vegans do not eat brand name Marmite because it is owned by Unilever, who test on animals. There are other yeast extracts available and a popular one in the UK is Essential Yeast Extract. I do currently buy Marmite and eat a lot of it but I have very good intentions to switch when my current jar is finished.
Having said all that, I do love Marmite. It is a perfect salty savoury tasty spread which can liven up so many dishes. It is full of Umami, which is an idea I did not understand until I began thinking of how to describe Marmite many years to the Russian family I lived with. It's also full of B vitamins so if I ever needed an excuse to stuff my face that's a good one. I carry small heart shaped pots of Marmite with me at all times so that if i'm ever stuck anywhere with only a bread roll that I can eat, I can liven it up with my favourite spread.
The most common use for Marmite is thinly spread on toast on top of vegan margarine. I also love to sneak a peanut butter layer on top for a delicious mix of savoury and salty. but it can go on anything toasted – English muffins with marmite are gorgeous, or my own particular favourite – crumpets.
I made these for VeganMofo 2 years ago but to be honest I usually buy them.
You can also use it to add depth to stews, soups and casseroles. I love to add some to Veganomicon Cholent or any other savoury stew. You probably can't taste the Marmite in the end result but it just gives the final dish an extra layer of flavour.
I also cook a few dishes with Marmite when I want it to be the dominating flavour. These dishes are not for the faint hearted. our favourite, which I've been making for over 20 years (and still haven't written down!), is my Broccoli and Marmite Pie . This was a very early blog post for me when my pictures were even worse and I used to harp on about football all the time. Despite my promises I still haven't exactly documented how I make it. Bianca did a better job of measuring than I did, but I promise that next time I make it I'll be scientific about it. I also recently made a great Marmite gravy for Carla's next book, which was perfect on mashed potatoes.
My most recent test of Marmite came via Nigella and her "Spaghetti with Marmite", which she'd taken from someone else. (Tut Tut BBC, making that age old mistake of calling a recipe vegetarian when we all know that Parmesan can never be vegetarian). I used Vitalite margarine and a shaking of Nutritional yeast instead of the parmesan. I'll never dislike anything that tastes mostly of Marmite but I couldn't rave over this the way Nigella did. If I'm going to eat a carb plus Marmite I think I'll stick with toast or crumpets.
I too am a huge fan of yeast extracts and use it any time I want a 'beefy' flavour, whether in gravies, gluten roasts, pies, or whatever else I'm craving. It's also pretty good on roast spuds.
I felt as if my liking of marmite was my true entrance into British life. Shame I still can't stomach the tea everyone drinks! I started using Natex a few months ago and I really like it too, so maybe try that if you're looking for an alternative?
I've never had marmite but you made me want to try it!
I bought a small container of marmite for a recipe, and then had no idea what to do with the rest. Thanks for the ideas!
I am a marmite-addict, and actually read this post while eating an English muffin with marmite and PB. Can't wait to try your pie!
I am a Marmite addict as well, can't wait to try the pie!
I had no idea that marmite was owned by unilever! That's disappointing.
Love the looks of that broccoli marmite pie!
Marmite! I love that stuff.
I tried Vegemite once but never Marmite. I didn't care for the flavor of Vegemite. Any chance that I'd like Marmite or are they pretty much the same? I really thought I would enjoy it, because I like strong flavors. Everyone always says that you have to grow up on it to like it; do you think that's true?
I didn't try it until I went to University, so you can definitely come to it later in life.
We love your marmite broccoli pie! I have made it many, many times. I don't think you really need exact measurements. It's always worked for me.
I'm trying to stop buying the name-brand stuff to. The ASDA's own brand is just as good!


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By heck, it's been a while since a new issue of Elder Tunnels graced the interwebs, but here it is. ET started life as a Tunnels and Trolls zine, but has now evolved into a publication covering all sorts of indie games (along with T&T).
Here's what it's got in store within its 40 pages:
Introduction by Christina Lea
Crawlspace Adventure: The Clown in the Woods by Tom K. Loney
QUAGS Adventure: Dead and Breakfast by Ian Engle
Stay Alive! Adventure: Voodoo Dusk by Jerry Teleha
Tunnels & Trolls GM Adventure: The Horror on Bleakmoor, by Scott Malthouse
When Tom Loney asked me to contribute, how could I say no? Elder Tunnels was the first place I got an adventure published - it holds a special place in my heart. Plus you've got the likes of Jerry Teleha, Ian Engle in addition to Loney leading the charge.
If you're running a spooky one-shot, definitely check it out https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/292139


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Hofburg – pałac w Wiedniu
 Hofburg – zamek w Innsbrucku

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


This new Umarex Walther P38 replica pistol uses a 12-gram CO2 cartridge and fires in semi-auto. This has a 20rd drop-free BB mag that takes 177/4.5mm copper/steel BBs. This has a very nice blowback action with a 2-stage non-adjustable trigger. This has a very nice battlefield worn finish with fixed sights. This should get about 40-50 shots from one 12g Co2 capsule.


Perfect, thank you, will use again, easy to work with!
Top seller. Fast delivery. Thank you.
Very satisfied. A minor quantity glitch was promptly corrected.
S/B indicates whether EDDI was the Seller or Buyer in that transaction.
If you are EDDI, you may Reply to comments in this feedback profile.
Show me feedback that EDDI left about others.


A Google search on VIX yields some unexpected pages: the name of a Czech rock band, a swim wear catalog and the Vienna Internet Exchange. Interesting stuff, but not quite what we had in mind. The CBOE's VIX is a popular market-timing indicator. Let's take a look at how VIX is constructed and how investors can use it to evaluate U.S. equity markets.
What Is the VIX? VIX is the symbol for the Chicago Board Options Exchange's volatility index. It is a measure of the level of implied volatility, not historical or statistical volatility, of a wide range of options, based on the S&P 500. This indicator is known as the "investor fear gauge," because it reflects investors' best predictions of near-term market volatility , or risk. In general, VIX starts to rise during times of financial stress and lessens as investors become complacent. It is the market's best prediction of near-term market volatility.
Another indicator, albeit not a re-hash of the price, so truly adds new insight.
If a high VIX relates to investor fear, and looking to hedge their position, I guess the next question might be which specific strike price for the Puts were bought.Would that show any insight?


Charge an entry fee: How much will your guests be willing to spend on a ticket to support your organization? $50…..$100….More….?
Our Discount: We give 50% off our hosting fee for all non-profit or school related fundraisers.
Add an auction to the event: We can add a regular auction and/or a silent auction to the event's activities.
Add value to event: Add performances or other activities/services to the event to add value to the guests.


2 responses to Report Finds Students Cannot Google and Reason at the Same Time: What to Do?
A creative way to illustrate critical thinking.
Thanks! Shared with my 5th grade teachers yesterday. The computer teacher already knew about the site…and she agreed to help share this with the unit on explorers this month. I agree that this is a critical thinking opportunity…one we don't always ask our students to do! I appreciate you taking the time to comment.


text:
ANA to return Dreamliner fleet to service
Following the successful completion of a series of battery system modifications, safety checks and test flights, Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) will place its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet back into service effective June 1, 2013.
"ANA's priority is the safety of our passengers," Osamu Shinobe, president and CEO of ANA, said in a statement announcing the resumption of Dreamliner flights. "Our engineers have worked closely with Boeing to undertake the required improvements and we are fully satisfied with the safety of our 787 fleet."
The reintroduction of the 787 aircraft will result in partial amendments to ANA's summer flight schedule for international and domestic services, including flights from Narita (NRT) to Seattle (SEA) and NRT to San Jose, Calif. (SJC).
Reservations services for these routes can be made beginning Friday, May 10.
ANA will also introduce the Dreamliner on three additional international routes this summer – NRT to Beijing (PEK) and Shanghai (PVG), and Haneda (HND) to Taipei (TSA) – bringing the number of overseas destinations served by the 787 to five.
In October 2012, I had the privilege of flying aboard ANA's first Dreamliner flight from SEA to NRT and wrote a number of posts related to this rather amazing plane and my experiences. Links to those posts are below.
Boeing's Dreamliner lives up to its name.
ANA Dreamliner Business Class
ANA Dreamliner Economy Class
Photos from the Dreamliner Tour
Geeking out over the 787 Dreamliner
787 All Nippon Airways ANA Boeing Dreamliner Dreamliner resume service San Jose seattle Tokyo


text:
Category: Irish Famine Run 2017
National Famine Walk: 'Remember your soul and your liberty'
From Irish Times (25 May 2017):
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/national-famine-walk-remember-your-soul-and-your-liberty-1.3096498
Famine scholars are about to follow in the footsteps of the 1,490 tenants forcibly exiled to Canada from Denis Mahon's Strokestown estate
Thu, May 25, 2017, 17:11 Updated: Thu, May 25, 2017, 17:12
Michael Collins and Jason King
One of Rowan Gillespie's Famine statues in Dublin. Photograph: Kate Geraghty
The National Famine Walk will take place over six days from May 27th to June 1st as an international group of Famine scholars follow in the footsteps of the 1,490 tenants from Denis Mahon's Strokestown Park House estate, who were escorted by a bailiff to Dublin to ensure they boarded ship and left Ireland in 1847.
(Shared here with kind permission of RTÉ News)
Walkers will cover 155km from Strokestown along the Royal Canal to Spencer Dock, passing the Jeannie Johnston Famine Ship and Rowan Gillespie's Famine sculptures before arriving at the EPIC Irish emigration museum on Dublin's Custom House Quay. President Higgins will greet them at Richmond Harbour in Clondra, Co Longford on May 27th to send them off.
The tenants' fate after they left Dublin is a harrowing one. They travelled on open deck packet steamers to Liverpool, where they waited in the cellars of quayside buildings at Liverpool docks to board ships to Canada. The four ships they boarded – Erin's Queen, Naomi, The Virginius and The John Munn – were badly fitted out and poorly provisioned. Almost half of those who embarked died aboard ship or in the "fever sheds" at the Grosse Île quarantine station when they arrived in Quebec. Of course, this was not known to them as they walked along the Royal Canal to Dublin, away from hunger and hoping for a better life.
http://nationalfamineway.ie/about-the-1490/crossing-on-the-coffin-ships/
The National Famine Walk begins at one of the numerous points of origin for what has been an ongoing research initiative to document the passage of more than 100,000 tenants forcibly exiled to Canada in 1847. The transatlantic voyage and passage along the Saint Lawrence river from Quebec to Toronto resulted in the second greatest loss of life in the Victorian era, second only to the Crimean War. Of those who left, more than 20,000 perished at sea or along the Saint Lawrence River, marking Canada with the infamous distinction of having the largest Irish mass graves outside of Ireland.
The 1847 evictions, transfer and passage to Canada encapsulate a twice-told tale.
First, it's a story of British government and Irish landlord neglect. Mahon evicted 3,006 tenants and paid just under £4,000 for the passage of almost 1,000 of those he assisted to emigrate. For his unfailing cruelty, on November 2nd, 1847, Mahon was shot to death as he travelled home to Strokestown House from a Board of Guardians meeting. Murder was not a deterrent for the landlords. Evictions continued until some 11,000 persons of the 12,000 tenants were removed from Mahon's estate.
In exporting evicted tenants, passage to Canada proved the cheaper alternative to America, given that the American authorities, anticipating the influx of a starving flotsam of Irish, amended their maritime Passenger Acts. Imposing stricter regulations, the acts barred disease-ridden ships from arriving into American ports. In 1847, the most destitute Irish emigrants were sent to the British North American colonies in New Brunswick and Canada East and West (Quebec and Ontario) on retrofitted lumber vessels as human ballast. These coffin ships averaged over 300 persons per vessel, three times that allowed under the American Passenger Acts. Mortality rates approached 40 per cent.
The story of emigration to Canada is, secondly, a contrasting one of succour and sacrifice, as a predominantly Catholic, French Canadian province of Quebec braced for and ministered to a dispossessed, disease-ravaged people in one of the greatest unrecognised human refugee crises of the 19th century.
The immigrant numbers are extraordinary. Most of them arrived at Grosse Île in Quebec, which is now a National Historic Site with a glass wall memorial for the 5,000 Irish interred in mass graves on the island. Grosse Île is twinned with the Irish National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park House, where Taoiseach Enda Kenny unveiled a similar glass wall memorial to its missing 1,490 emigrants in 2014.
Many of those 1,490 emigrants died on Grosse Île. It was there that James Quinn, a 45-year-old Irish emigrant from Lissonuffy, on the Strokestown Park estate, whispered his dying words to his two young sons, Patrick (12) and Thomas (6): "Remember your soul and your liberty".
The orphaned Quinn brothers were adopted by a French-Canadian family who gave them a good education. They both entered the seminary and became priests with joint French and Irish congregations. In 1877, Patrick Quinn founded the still flourishing St. Patrick Society in Richmond, Quebec, where there is a theatre named after him. His younger brother, Thomas Quinn, became a champion for his French-Canadian parishioners.
At the First Congress of the French Language in Quebec City, on June 25th, 1912, Thomas Quinn thanked the French-Canadian people for their generosity. In a speech entitled "Une Voix d'Irlande" (A Voice of Ireland), he declared in French:
"It was in 1847. A famine, even worse than the one which had preceded it, threatened the Irish people with total extinction. The most astonishing part of the awful spectacle was, not to see the people die, but to see them live through such great distress. Like walking skeletons they went, in tears, seeking hospitality from more favoured lands. Stirred with compassion, French-Canadian priests, braving the epidemic, contended for the glory of rushing to their relief. I still remember one of these admirable clergymen who led us to the bedside of my dying father. As he saw us, my father with his failing voice repeated the old Irish adage, 'Remember your soul and your liberty'."
http://nationalfamineway.ie/about-the-1490/the-story-of-the-1490/
Like the Quinn brothers, Daniel and Catherine Tighe also sailed to Grosse Île where they were orphaned, adopted by a French-Canadian family, and allowed to keep their Irish surname. In 2000, Jim Callery, founder of the Irish National Famine Museum, visited Daniel's son Léo Tye in rural Quebec and heard the story that inspired the search for the missing 1,490 Strokestown emigrants. He also unveiled a Celtic Cross Famine memorial in Quebec City that he had donated on behalf of the Famine Museum. In July 2013, Léo's son Richard Tye made a return visit from Quebec to Strokestown, and was reunited with the Irish branch of the family. His Irish cousin Philip Tighe will be on the National Famine Walk.
The suffering of Famine emigrants was not confined to Grosse Île. With the arrival of 75,000 typhus-afflicted refugees, the city of Montreal, then a city of 50,000, hastily erected fever sheds to contain disease. The Annals of the Grey Nuns, a recently translated cache of diaries, details the convergence of municipal and religious groups involved in saving Irish lives, often at great personal cost. Notable casualties included the Protestant mayor of Montreal and myriad priests and nuns who worked the fever sheds of Pointe Sainte Charles.
In the wake of the emigrant passing through Montreal, over 3,000 Irish orphan children left in the care of religious orders were eventually adopted, like the Quinn and Tighe siblings, into French-Canadian families.
The journey onward into Ontario has its own history. Less a story of commonality and religious succour, the death toll is lower, given how most afflicted died at Grosse Île and Montreal. Also, a subtle sectionalism led to journalistic self-censorship in accurately chronicling the passage and burial of those who died along riverside towns throughout Ontario.
Such was the forgotten history of Canadian involvement with the fated year of 1847, simply because the crisis and sacrifice had happened so far away, within a single season. For the most part, accounts of the worst suffering were recorded in French, so the episode closed in the forgotten reaches of Quebec. That is, until recently.
In 2016, Irish author and ultra-runner Michael Collins ran a marathon-a-day for a month from Grosse Île to Toronto; he was inspired by his reading of the Grey Nuns' annals. En route, along the Saint Lawrence, he met historical societies researching their town's archives and recorded anecdotal stories passed down by descendants, which he documented on his Irish Diaspora Run 2016 Facebook page. More than 100,000 people visited the page during the run, and he has reactivated it for the National Famine Walk.
The project continues. At Grosse Île quarantine station, a memorial serves as a cautionary reminder of what can befall a dispossessed people, and at the terminus of the route in Toronto, Ireland Park has become a place of pilgrimage, memorialising the passage of 1847. Situated along Toronto's docklands, a series of Rowan Gillespie Famine sculptures reach back across the ocean to Gillespie's Famine sculptures on Dublin's Custom House Quay Docklands. Without descriptive plaques detailing the history of 1847, the sculptures simultaneously encompass and transcend Irish history, evoking the universality of the immigrant experience, both past and present. In the furtherance of peace, Ireland Park Foundation has reconfigured a national tragedy, not as a source of differentiation, but of shared experience. In 2017, the foundation will unveil Dr George Robert Grasett Park, celebrating the efforts of the Canadian medical profession which so tirelessly worked to save both those who arrived and Toronto's own citizens from disease.
What remains yet to be memorialised is Montreal's response to 1847. Specifically, The Black Rock memorial, a stone hastily erected by workmen who uncovered over 6,000 bodies during the 1859 construction of the Victoria Bridge, lies in the median of a major arterial in downtown Montreal and is in jeopardy of being summarily removed as the city plans a major overhaul of the area. The Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation is locked in a tenuous battle with city, provincial and federal authorities to preserve and allocate what is currently an abandoned parking lot as the future site of a memorial grounds honoring both the 1847 emigrants and those who came to their aid.
The National Famine Walk complements these projects to ensure that Famine emigrants like Strokestown's missing 1,490 are commemorated on both sides of the Atlantic. In following in their footsteps, the walkers are not only honouring their legacy. They are embarking on a journey to trace the descendants of the 1,490 emigrants in Canada and the United States, especially from Irish Famine orphans adopted in Quebec. They are also laying the foundation for a permanent walking trail along the Royal Canal between Strokestown and Dublin, the National Famine Way. With its advent, hitherto inaccessible paths are providing opportunities to walk in the footsteps of the dispossessed.
Prof. Christine Kinealy (and founding director of the Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University) talks to ADAPT about the cultural impact of the great famine and how it influenced Ireland in years to come.
Author Cathal Poirteir tells about the particular character from the 1,490 who left Strokestown, one John O'Connor. His story is a tragic one as he died during the famine, but not from hunger!
The Famine walkers' journey from May 27th to June 1st can be followed in real time at http://www.nationalfamineway.ie.
Famine Way Walkers Re-enact the arrival of the 1,490 at Spencer Dock, Dublin.
Having waked from Strokestown, Co Roscommon, Famine Way Walkers 2018 re-enact the final steps journey of 1490 migrant tenants from Strokestown as they made their way towards the replica famine ship, the Jeanie Johnston. This is a playlist of three short but separate videos.
The National Famine Way is being developed by Strokestown Park House, the Irish National Famine Museum, and the Irish Heritage Trust in partnership with Waterways Ireland, the ADAPT Centre for Digital Content Technology, Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University, Ireland Park Foundation, the University of Toronto, Royal Canal Amenity Group, Roscommon and Longford County Councils, and Strokestown Community Town Team.
Michael Collins and the Irish Famine Novel
From Irish Times (March 31, 2017)
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/below-the-rust-belt-trilogy-a-famine-undercurrent-1.3032081
Below the Rust Belt trilogy, a Famine undercurrent
Historian Jason King finds Michael Collins has spawned new forms of creative energy in finding his own way back to the story of the Famine
Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 11:56
Michael Collins and Jason King beside Rowan Gillespie's Famine memorial in Dublin
In Michael Collins's novel The Death of All Things Seen, native Canadian woman Ursula reflects on the forgotten "great lessons" of animal and human migrations. She "talked of First Nations people who bore witness along the Saint Lawrence, in the aftermath of the demise of the salmon, to the arrival of a great spawn of a new human misery, the portal, wide-eyed coffin ships, unloading a grim discharge of Europe's flotsam. The Irish, most notably, those awful, pale-faced, skeletal wretches, ragged in the embattled way salmon rushed headlong against the current in a death run for the spawning grounds to seed the next generation".
It is a strikingly original metaphor for the Irish Famine migration of 1847. But the metaphor of spawning also marks Collins's creative process, his return to the original source and difficult subject matter from which his literary career began.
In an earlier Irish Times article entitled "Remembering 20,000 Famine refugees who died in 1847," (November 26th, 2016) Collins recalled the creative block he suffered when he began to write a Famine novel and establish his reputation. In his own words: "I would spend a year researching the historical record and in the end wither from the burden of inhabiting the psyche of either the Irish peasantry or the landed aristocracy".
After that year, the novel remained unwritten. "It lives as a singular literary failure that has dogged me," Collins adds, "given I would eventually transfer a sociological acuity to all things American, specifically the collapse of American industrialism, as captured in my Booker shortlisted novel, The Keepers of Truth. The question plagued me – how could I stand as outsider, impartial witness, and documentarian to another history whilst my own eluded me?"
Book Club podcast
The sublimation of Collins's Famine novel into his rendering of the rust belt in The Keepers of Truth was the making of his literary career
The sublimation of Collins's Famine novel into his rendering of the rust belt in The Keepers of Truth was the making of his literary career, one that now spans 10 works of fiction. His penetrating insight into the lives of the struggling white working-class Americans who people his novels set in the de-industrialised mid-western United States seems prescient now that they have played such a crucial role in delivering the Trump presidency. No doubt the Clinton political machine would have been better served by eschewing data driven micro-messaging in favour of lively discussions and character analysis of Collins's works. As the documentarian of another history, his Booker nomination was no small compensation for his unfinished juvenilia.
Michael Collins has spawned new forms of creative energy in finding his own way back to the genre. One of his outlets is the extreme travel writing he pioneered fusing the roles of author and athlete
Yet something was lost in Collins's failure to complete his Famine novel. It is a genre that has come into its own with Sebastian Barry's Costa Prize winning gay romance Days Without End (2016), Emma Donoghue's acclaimed The Wonder (2016) and Joseph O'Connor's intricately-plotted, faux-Victorian murder mystery and bestseller Star of the Sea (2003).
Michael Collins has spawned new forms of creative energy in finding his own way back to the genre. One of his outlets is the extreme travel writing he pioneered fusing the roles of author and athlete when Collins ran over 900 kilometres last summer in the footsteps of the Famine Irish from the Grosse Ile quarantine station in Quebec to Ireland Park in Toronto. Not only did he run a marathon a day every day for a month, but he also filed crisp and incisive stories about his discoveries and the people and places he encountered along the route that could only be the envy of more sedentary, desk bound writers.
Dr Jason King presents a copy of Michael Collins' The Death of All Things Seen to Kevin Michael Vickers, Canada's Ambassador to Ireland
Before embarking on the run, Collins had paid a visit to the Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger exhibition at Quinnipiac University which was launched by President Higgins when it transferred to the Glasnevin Museum in September 2016. He also read the eyewitness testimonies of the Grey Nuns who cared for Famine Irish emigrants in the fever sheds of Montreal in the digital Irish Famine Archive that I curate. "The most striking fact that emerged in reading the transcribed documents from the time was," for Collins, "how the municipal authorities, in tandem with the religious orders of Montreal, had marshalled their collective resources to care and minister to the sick and dying Irish," especially the hundreds of orphans who were adopted by French-Canadian and Irish families.
Yet he was also struck by the sheer incongruity between the Grey Nuns' stories of compassion, devotion, and self-sacrifice and the stark Black Rock memorial that marks the site where 6,000 Irish fever victims lie buried. It is not only the largest Famine Irish mass grave in North America, but also the most dangerous visit. Indeed, it is situated on a traffic meridian on the busy highway approaching the city's Victoria Bridge, built by Irish labourers in 1859, while the remains of the Famine dead lie under the asphalt of an adjacent, overflow parking lot that is owned but rarely used by Lotto Quebec. "Why are 6,000 Irish buried under a Montreal traffic island?" Collins asked in one of his Irish Times articles during the run (June 23rd, 2016). It is a question that far too few Quebecers ask themselves.
From May 27th to June 1st, 2017, Michael Collins will join a group of walkers to follow in the footsteps of these 1,490 Famine emigrants from Stroketown to Dublin along the Royal Canal
The Black Rock is also the grave site for some of the 1,490 tenants who were forced to emigrate in 1847 on some of the worst of the coffin ships, such as the Virginius and the Naomi, from the Strokestown Park House Roscommon estate of Major Denis Mahon (who was assassinated in November 1847), now the home of the Irish National Famine Museum.
From May 27th to June 1st, 2017, Michael Collins will be joining a group of Famine walkers to follow in the footsteps of these 1,490 Famine emigrants from Stroketown to Dublin along the Royal Canal. The Famine walk is being organised by the Irish Heritage Trust and Famine Museum in partnership with Waterways Ireland to help establish a new Famine trail. The journey will provide Collins with a new narrative arc to follow the one he created during his Irish Diaspora Run 2016. It is also the narrative arc of a writer returning to his unfinished Famine novel.
Irish Author and Ultra Runner Michael Collins on National Famine Walk
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/i-feel-an-obligation-to-re-engage-and-better-understand-what-it-is-to-be-irish-1.3032147
'I feel an obligation to re-engage and better understand what it is to be Irish'
Author Michael Collins explains why as an emigrant, a father and a writer he feels drawn to explore his own sense of Irishness
Victor Boyle, Marc Miller MP, Fergus Keyes, Michael Collins and Ronan Corbett at Montreal's Famine memorial in 2016
My relationship with The Irish Times started last year when I approached its books editor Martin Doyle about running a marathon a day from Grosse Île to Toronto. He graciously agreed and found funding for me through the Department of Foreign Affairs' Global Irish Media Fund.
In the year of preparation, both in the (over 6,000) miles run and relying on the support from Famine scholars Dr Christine Kinealy and Dr Jason King, I owe a debt of gratitude. I would also like to acknowledge the help and support of the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation and Ireland Park Foundation, Toronto. Though separate entities, they are bookends to a Canadian passage along the Saint Lawrence and their organisational resources have allowed scholars to further research the passage from Quebec into Ontario, two disparate and unique histories that are now being explored in earnest.
Many of the towns that I passed on my run had erected Celtic crosses in remembrance of those Irish who died along the route of the Saint Lawrence. Much of the historical record, including the location of the mass burial of the typhus victims, was lost until Dr King began his research. Efforts are underway to create a virtual historical tour of the journey.
Perhaps it is an immigrant lament, but in the accumulation of years since I left Ireland, and with the advancing years of my children, I feel an obligation to better understand what it is to be Irish
With the completion and release of my 10th book, I have sought to reorient myself toward my own sense of Irishness. Perhaps it is an immigrant lament, but in the accumulation of years since I left Ireland, and with the advancing years of my four children, I feel an obligation to re-engage and better understand what it is to be Irish. We are remembered in the historical record as victims, as a people of a terrible genocide or famine. Indeed, even giving our suffering a name had been a cause of contention.
In a continued effort to help tell our story, I've a Facebook page that serves as a digital repository of historical documents that I uploaded during my run last year, along with daily videos I recorded. It continues to be updated. More than 100,000 people visited the page during June/July last year. It can be accessed at facebook.com/irishdiasporarun2016
For many, the rediscovery of a historical event some 150 years past has opened deep psychological scars. Of the 100,000 visitors to our page, many are now availing of online genealogical resources, and adding to the collective story of the passage and eventual settlement of those immigrants who crossed in 1847. The fated story of families separated through quarantine is a recurring motif. For a decade after the passage of 1847, notices appeared throughout Ontario with relatives inquiring after their loved ones. We are actively collecting and collating these accounts.
Indeed, for many of the diaspora Irish I met along the run, the ancestral passage to Canada and America, especially during the hunger years, is still perceived as a form of exile connected to draconian British rule. In total, the Great Hunger accounted for the emigration of more than a million and the death of another million. Even contemporary descendants far removed from the tragic departure of the Hunger years, when asked to reflect on their ancestors' arrival to Canada, were more apt to characterise it as an exile than an opportunity.
The journey continues. I am participating in a sponsored walk from May 27th to June 1st, 2017, organised by The Irish National Famine Museum. Starting from Strokestown Park House along the Royal Canal and continuing to Dublin, the walk retraces the route of the 1,490 tenants who were forced to emigrate to Quebec in 1847. The museum is also launching a campaign to try to find as many living descendants of the original 1,490 Strokestown emigrants as possible. Ireland's President Michael D Higgins will greet the walkers along the route.
Again, I am indebted to so many for a year of writing and running, and for being granted the opportunity to reconnect with those at home and afar.
Michael Collins named Irish Times Book Club Author in March 2017. He reflects on 20,000 Irish Famine Refugees who died in 1847.
Irish Times Book Club Author March 2017 Michael Collins with Jason King at Rowan Gillespie Famine sculptures in Dublin, Custom House Quay.
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/michael-collins-is-this-month-s-irish-times-book-club-author-1.2995112
Michael Collins has been named as the Irish Times Book Club Author in March 2017. His novel The Keepers of the Truth was shortlisted for the 2000 Man Booker Prize and the Impac Award and won Irish Novel of the Year. He is the author of 10 works of fiction including most recently The Death of All Things Seen (2016).
In the summer of 2016 Michael Collins also completed his epic 550-mile run from Grosse Ile quarantine station in Quebec to Ireland Park Famine Memorial in Toronto to raise funds to commemorate the route Famine refugees took across Canada and the locals who helped them.
Dr Jason King presents a copy of Michael Collins's novel The Death of All Things Seen to Canadian Ambassador to Ireland Kevin Vickers.
After the completion of Michael Collins's Irish Diaspora Run and the publication of The Death of All Things Seen in July 2016, Canadian Ambassador to Ireland Kevin Vickers made the following statement:
I would like to congratulate the Booker-nominated novelist and ultra-runner Michael Collins on the completion of his Irish Diaspora Run 2016. This past June and July he ran a marathon a day from Grosse Ilê in Quebec to Ireland Park in Toronto following in the footsteps of tens of thousands of Irish emigrants who fled the Great Famine for Canada in 1847. Next year he will continue this run along Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way west coast trail.
I would also like to thank Michael Collins for giving me a signed copy of his new novel, The Death of All Things Seen, which has already been acclaimed as a "driven, virtuoso" work and "a formidable, demanding achievement". In both his novel and during the Irish Diaspora Run, Collins has sought to discover and retell some of the most powerful stories of the Famine Irish in Canada. He was particularly inspired by the "Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger" exhibit and Digital Irish Famine Archive (http://faminearchive.nuigalway.ie/) which he describes as "nothing short of genius".
It gives me great pleasure to announce that the "Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger" exhibit, curated by Dr. Jason King and Professor Christine Kinealy of Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University, is coming to Dublin for the Irish National Famine Commemoration in September, and then will travel around the country. Next year marks the 170th anniversary of the Irish Famine migration and the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada. It is only fitting that we pay tribute to these Canadian caregivers of the Famine Irish who express our values and the enduring ties between our two countries.
In a recent Irish Times article (November 26, 2016) entitled "Remembering 20,000 Famine refugees who died in 1847," Michael Collins recalled his epic Irish Diaspora Run and how was inspired by his visit to the "Saving the Famine Irish" exhibit:
http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/remembering-20-000-famine-refugees-who-died-in-1847-1.2870773
Michael Collins at the beginning of Irish Diaspora Run at Grosse Ile National Historic Site.
Michael Collins on Irish Diaspora Run in Quebec.
Michael Collins:
Within the Famine memorial fundraising community, there's a phenomenon quietly referred to as "famine fatigue", which tacitly acknowledges that, in the receding century and a half since the events of those terrible famine years, there's a limit to the emotional empathy that can be wrought from a people, no matter the numbers – one million starved and another two million were forced to emigrate.
Time moves on and yet, when I first heard the term, it rattled me that my month-long Irish Diaspora Run – a marathon-a-day for 30 days, motivated to bring awareness and raise funds to memorialise 20,000 Irish who died during the 1847 passage of 100,000 famine-stricken emigrants to Canada – might be viewed as just another far-cast mournful act of an emigrant dwelling on ancient history.
Michael Collins on Irish Diaspora Run in Ontario.
The term "famine fatigue" was the first reality check I would experience in what has become an evolving and contentious coming to terms with the actual cause, circumstance and culpability regarding the Famine years of 1845-49.
My first point of contact was with the highly regarded Irish Famine historian Dr Christine Kinealy, at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut who has gathered a stirring collection of Famine-inspired sculptures housed in the university's library.
Minister Heather Humphreys, President Michael D. Higgins, Professor Christine Kinealy, and Dr. Jason King at launch of "Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger" exhibit, Glasnevin Museum, September 11, 2016.
Typhus-stricken
She was then curating a Famine-related exhibit on the Montreal order of Grey Nuns, who had not only ministered to the typhus-stricken Irish in 1847, but also undertook the care and eventual adoption of over 6,000 Irish orphans into a French-speaking Quebecois community…
In my own youth, the Famine was not discussed, partly out of a reflexive sense of shame that we had been so subjugated under British rule, but also in our pragmatic rush throughout the early 1980s toward a new Ireland of so-called young Europeans.
In the instinct to outrun history, there was an underlying economic indeterminacy tied to the protracted Troubles and with it, a spike in emigration.
So, too, a nationalist movement, in calculatedly drawing upon the famine, had stoked an impassioned Irish-American community further complicated our self-determinism. We were at once a people united and divided by our own history – by those who remained and the descendants of those who had left.
Upon emigrating to America, I wrote my first collection of short stories, The Meat Eaters, an ode to country inspired by loss and displacement.
Soon after, swayed by legions of emigrant descendants who configured their history around the historical displacement of the Famine, I began a Famine novel.
I would spend a year researching the historical record and in the end wither from the burden of inhabiting the psyche of either the Irish peasantry or the landed aristocracy.
It lives as a singular literary failure that has dogged me, given I would eventually transfer a sociological acuity to all things American, specifically the collapse of American industrialism, as captured in my Booker shortlisted novel, The Keepers of Truth.
The question plagued me – how could I stand as outsider, impartial witness, and documentarian to another history whilst my own eluded me?
Deconstruction of the American Dream
In the intervening years, as an ultrarunner, I would captain the Irish 100K Senior Team. In so doing, I vicariously drew upon the Famine, inhabiting the underlying perseverance of a repressed and starved people in the sublimation of distances covered.
In so admitting it, in drawing on this historical past, I feel, even now, a reflexive cringe at this ignoble servicing of so many dead for the concentrated efforts of trying to win a race.
Years would pass. My writing life turned solely to the deconstruction of the American Dream. Even the tenuous connection to a Famine-inspired endurance receded as I retired from competitive ultra-running.
In the interval of years, there was, too, the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and of course 9/11, and, with it, the end of funds funnelled home given how terrorism was forever re-defined and prosecuted under The Patriot Act.
By the latter part of the first decade of the 21st century, I was furthest from my Irishness and deep into a new novel examining the effects of the financial collapse of 2008 on an American family.
Likewise, a post-financial crash Ireland, caught in the entanglement of what it meant to be European and in the midst of its austerity measures, was turned from nationalist preoccupations that had figured so centrally just decades earlier.
It was not until the fall of 2015, while taking a month-long French language course in Quebec City, that I came across the fated 1847 ocean passage to Canada of 100,000 famine-stricken Irish who had been evicted from some of the most remote estates in a great evacuation of the last enclaves of Gaelic culture.
Much of what I read was in French, or parlayed through a halting bilingual exchange with local historians. It was a story twice told: first a story of the Irish, but also a story of the French-speaking Québécois who became unwitting participants in the greatest loss of life in the Victorian period, surpassed only by the Great Famine itself and the Crimean War.
In the narrative arc of that singular season of death, there was the providential coincidence that those who had survived the ocean crossing eventually continued along the Saint Lawrence river for some 600 miles, to Toronto – a tally of miles I registered as a distance I could run in a single month, amounting to a marathon a day.
I made a promise to return to Canada to complete a solitary pilgrimage along a forgotten route…
Irish mass graves
The fault lines of the complex academic, political and sectarian divide, which appear everywhere in the historical record of the famine, did not surface as I arrived at Grosse Île quarantine island along the Saint Lawrence river.
In the great oddment of the contained history of 1847, in approaching the island, nothing suggests the province holds the ignominious distinction of containing the largest number of Irish mass graves in the world.
Grosse Île is a site of Irish pilgrimage – though, to Canadians, it is a heritage site dedicated to preserving the island's historical significance as a quarantine processing facility from 1832 to 1932.
Michael Collins at Grosse Ile National Historic Site
The Irish Famine is but one story within Grosse Île's long history, and yet the facts are stark. From June to November of 1847, of the 100,000 who emigrated, 7,000 died during the 40 to 50-day Atlantic crossing while, on Grosse Île, a further 5,000 succumbed to typhus and were buried in trenched graves.
As early as May 1847, Dr Douglas, chief medical officer at Grosse Île, wrote letters imploring assistance to offset impending disaster. The British government wilfully disregarded such requests. The coffin ships kept sailing.
By mid-June, due to the throng of the infirm in the fever sheds and a lack of medical staff, passengers languished for upwards of two weeks aboard an armada of 40 ships backed up two miles along the Saint Lawrence.
Without adequate water and food, infection spread.
The diarist and coffin ship passenger Robert Whyte recorded seeing "hundreds . . . literally flung on the beach, left amid the mud and stones to crawl on the dry land as they could".
Of the 427 passengers who arrived aboard The Agnes, only 150 survived Grosse Île.
In my journey to the island, amidst a riot of children on a school excursion, there would be little regard for solemnity. On the cusp of beginning my month-long run, I felt the reflexive need to rationalise why I was compelled to make this pilgrimage in the name of so many nameless dead. There was no immediate answer.
In a quiet disengagement from the school children, I walked first to a Celtic cross that had been erected atop the island in 1909, some 60 years after the fateful events of 1847, then eventually wound my way to a commemorative glass memorial inaugurated in 1998.
Grosse Île glass memorial
Fronting a series of unmarked trenched graves amounting to 5,000 souls, an etched glass sail bears a roll call of the dead. In finding the name Collins, the historical context of why this happened and who was to blame was suddenly less important than simply bearing witness to the place where so many had died.
Early on, I'd understood that this run would be the salvage of a near lost history in the far-flung, French-speaking province of Quebec. What passed represented a single season of death.
Of those 6,000 emigrant orphans sent into the countryside, there has never been a great appeal among them to reconnect with their Irish roots. Perhaps the trauma was too great, or the succour of those who came to their aid did not bear compromise. There was the language barrier, too, and a spirited Francophile resistance to English rule.
The most striking fact that emerged in reading the transcribed documents from the time was how the municipal authorities, in tandem with the religious orders of Montreal, had marshalled their collective resources to care and minister to the sick and dying Irish.
Simply put, the question early on was: What affinity did the native Québécois have toward this advance of typhus-stricken Irish?
In a slow advance toward Montreal, much asked in that question became apparent.
I chose Route 132, given its languid course along the Saint Lawrence. In running this less-travelled road, I came upon religious shrines that harkened to a penitent spectre of a more ancient, religious life, shrines eerily reminiscent of those that still exist along the coastal crag of the West of Ireland; weathered figures of Christ's passion on a cross facing the eternal scour of the Atlantic gales.
This is expected of Ireland, but to come upon these roadside shrines in the rainy cold of Canada was a revelation.
1847 figured as a proxy war between Catholics and proselytizing ministers for the salvation of souls.
Through the recent work of historian Jason King, the historical record of the Grey Nuns has been recovered and translated. The diary entries capture the miasma of catastrophic sickness.
Michael Collins and Jason King in Dublin.
In a Dante-esque apocalyptic vision, 75,000 emigrants descended on Montreal, which then had a population of 50,000. There are descriptions of sickness and effluence in the fever sheds that sickened veteran doctors, and yet the so-called Martyrs of Charity actively sought out the most distressing cases of disease.
Digital Irish Famine Archive with Grey Nuns annals:
What is transmitted is a faith eclipsed by an Enlightenment age of reason and science and, eventually, a jaded modernist cynicism.
In the breadth of some 600 miles, my run would eventually follow the ragged migration of survivors through a divided country: first the Francophile province of Quebec, then the Neo-English province of Ontario.
Their journey reveals a history of how the disparate Canadian populations dealt with the refugee crisis, and yet my initial sweep into the remote, uninhabited lands of Quebec proved the most physically and spiritually challenging. Here lay a lost history and the greatest loss of life.
Collective amnesia
Early in planning the run, there was a singular destination I'd settled on that I felt defined our unsatisfactory collective response to the tragic events of 1847 – Montreal's Black Rock.
Michael Collins at Montreal Black Rock Famine memorial.
Set in a road median in downtown Montreal, the rock commemorates 6,000 Irish interred in a mass grave. The burial site had been all but forgotten until it was uncovered during construction in 1859 of the Victoria Bridge. Such was the collective amnesia of a traumatized city. The workers who unearthed the entombed erected, at their own expense, the stone that now commemorates those almost forgotten dead.
In so reading about the Black Rock, I discovered that, at some point, it will most probably be removed given the sprawl of the city. I contacted the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation, a non-profit preemptively seeking to avert the eventual unceremonious mass exhumation of corpses with a proposed famine memorial park across from a derelict parking lot in an industrial wasteland under federal management.
Victor Boyle, Marc Miller MP, Fergus Keyes, Michael Collins, and Ronan Corbett.
The director, Fergus Keyes, was frank in his general assessment of the dim prospects of negotiating the provincial and federal bureaucratic red tape to acquire the land.
Fergus Keyes welcomes Michael Collins to Black Rock.
Michael Collins and Fergus Keyes at Black Rock.
Yet, his organization has persisted with an annual commemorative gathering that includes the absurd spectacle of having to dart across a major thoroughfare to an island median memorial to honour 6,000 famine victims.
Donovan King and Michael Collins at Black Rock.
In viewing an online video, in witnessing the ragged assembly of the faithful, I took it as a smouldering indictment of our slowness in demanding recognition of the undisputable horrors which befell our ancestors.
Media scrum greets Michael Collins at Black Rock.
On a Facebook page Irish Diaspora Run 2016, set up to provide historical information regarding the famine and to chart my progress, a sub-group quickly spawned around the Irish housing crash. Members likened the modern spate of foreclosure evictions to what happened during the famine.
There was the sense that the famine was relevant and yet distantly remote from the pressures facing people in the collapse of the housing market.
I sympathised with the understated indictment in dwelling on a remote past, and yet there are times when it takes the voice of the pining diaspora to reckon with history.
If we are to be charged with an arrested sense of history, then so be it.
I was cognizant that Canada was the end for so many Irish, but also the beginning of the Canadian Irish diaspora experience.
Psychological reckoning
In the first week I ran over 300km and arrived, shivering, into the Montreal suburbs late at night. Faltering during the afternoon run, I had all but collapsed. This was the beginning of the summer scorch and drenching humidity. In ultra-running, the body succumbs and recovers in a realignment of metabolic adjustment.
It was partly that, but perhaps more so a psychological reckoning in anticipating my arrival at the Black Rock the following day.
My hotel room that night was 90 miles behind. Eschewing backtracking, myself, my daughter and driver waited out the coming dawn sequestered in an industrial parking lot, the grotto of the car light intermittently lit in our exit and return. This was our small vigil in the greater throng of Montreal. We were penitents and refugees for a night.
The next day, I resumed the run toward the Black Rock with a keener sense of purpose. On hand were local and national media. Also present was Canadian parliamentarian Marc Miller who added his support to creating a famine memorial park.
Michael Collins and Marc Miller MP at Black Rock.
I heard, too, that President Michael D Higgins had agreed to open the Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger exhibit at Glasnevin Cemetery, thus bringing to light the untold story of Montreal's valorous efforts that averted even greater loss of life in that fateful year of 1847.
President Michael D. Higgins launches "Saving the Famine Irish" exhibit at Glasnevin Museum.
The Montreal memorial park is too long in the waiting. This is not solely a French-Canadian burden, nor should it be. Our descendants died under the most appalling circumstances. There are the cynics who will say, "Let the dead lie where they will."
Such sentiments encapsulate the spectre of "famine fatigue". It is, of course, the easier choice. Yet, at the Black Rock, and then onward into Cornwall, Ontario, where I met a lone school teacher, who erected a Celtic cross in the honour of over 52 famine victims, to my talk on the Syrian refugee crisis at Skeleton Park's famine cemetery in Kingston, Ontario, I came across a cadre of historically minded citizens who believe remembrance is not connected with advancing animosities, but simply preserving the historical reality of a year so many would prefer to forget.
Michael Collins at Cornwall Famine memorial.
This article was supported by the Global Irish Media Fund
"Saving the Famine Irish" Grey Nuns Exhibit now open in Dublin and Montreal
Photo L-R: John Green, Minister Heather Humphreys, President Michael D. Higgins, Professor Christine Kinealy, and Dr Jason King.
http://www.glasnevinmuseum.ie/news/saving-the-famine-irish-the-grey-nuns-and-the-great-hunger.cfm
Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger
Exhibiton:
President Michael D. Higgins and Minister for Arts, Heritage, and Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Heather Humphreys opened the "Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger" Exhibit at Glasnevin Museum for the National Famine Commemoration on September 11th 2016. The exhibit is curated by Professor Christine Kinealy, Founding Director of Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University, and Dr Jason King. It tells the story of the Grey Nuns who cared for typhus-stricken and dying Irish Famine emigrants in the fever sheds of Montreal during the summer of 1847.
In paying tribute to the Grey Nuns, President Higgins declared:
During that bleak and terrible period of our history, an estimated one hundred thousand Irish people fled to Canada. It is impossible to imagine the pain, fear, despair, and suffering of these emigrants, many of whom lost beloved family members on their journey. As a country, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Grey Nuns, who cared for so many Irish widows and orphans who were left destitute, impoverished and alone in a strange country.
This exhibit is a very important project, which allows us to finally acknowledge the generosity and enormous humanity of those wonderful sisters whose kindness and compassion, during one of the worst moments in our Country's history, must never be forgotten.
In her address at the National Famine Commemoration, Minister Humphreys stated:
Today we will also remember those such as the Grey Nuns of Montreal who are depicted in a new exhibition here in Glasnevin, and who chose to put themselves in harm's way to treat and aid Famine vicitms. Such people remain the light of the human spirit confronting the darkness, and should not be forgotten.
The "Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger" exhibit is open to the public FREE of charge from September 11, 2016.
Photo L-R: Minister Heather Humphreys, Dr Jason King, President Michael D. Higgins, and Professor Christine Kinealy.
Mseum Opening Times:
Monday to Sunday & Bank Holidays
Meanwhile, Fergus Keyes of the Montreal Irish Memorial Park Foundation has announced:
GREY NUNS EXHIBITION OPENS AT THE GREY NUN'S MOTHERHOUSE IN MONTREAL
We are very pleased to note that the Grey Nuns exhibition called "Saving the Famine Irish: …The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger" is now open for viewing at the Grey Nun's Motherhouse at 138 rue Saint Pierre in Old Montreal.
Currently the exhibition can be visited any day between about 10am and 5pm – but an effort is being made to extend, or offer a few evening hours.
Even if you saw this exhibit during the few weeks that we had it at the Centaur Theatre, you might want to visit it again. Just the building itself dating back from the 1600"s is beautiful, and our exhibit is only a very small part of their permanent Grey Nuns museum – which, on its own, is fascinating.
The "Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger" will be on display until about the end of November – and is running at the same time as one that is on display in Dublin, Ireland – "Grey Nuns Famine Exhibit at Glasnevin Museum in Dublin". It involves very similar items as will be found at the Dublin one, with the exception that here in Montreal, the display is bilingual; and also includes some terrific paintings about the event by a local artist, Karen Bridgenaw – which were not available when we had it at the Centaur.
If you plan to attend with a small group, you might want to contact the Grey Nuns at (514) 842-9411 – and they may be able to arrange for a guide to give you a proper tour on their museum.
So if you happen to be in Old Montreal, do take this opportunity to visit this beautiful building and great exhibition.
We will update you with any additional information concerning extended hours etc., as it becomes available.
Ambassador Kevin Vickers announces Montreal Grey Nuns Famine Exhibit is Coming to Dublin and Ireland and Congratulates Michael Collins for Famine Run and new Novel.
Dr. Jason King presents a signed copy of Michael Collins's critically acclaimed new novel The Death of All Things Seen to Ambassador Kevin Vickers in Canadian Embassy, Dublin.
Statement by Canadian Ambassador to Ireland Kevin Vickers on Michael Collins' Irish Famine Diaspora Run 2016, novel The Death of All Things Seen, and "Saving the Famine Irish: The Grey Nuns and the Great Hunger"' Exhibit curated by Professor Christine Kinealy and Dr. Jason King:
Ambassador Kevin Vickers with signed copy of Michael Collins' critically acclaimed new novel The Death of All Things Seen.
Michael Collins and Jason King at Dublin Famine Memorial. Michael Collins announces a new Famine Run along Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way in 2017.
Michael Collins completes Irish Diaspora Run 2016 at Ireland Park in Toronto.
Michael Collins Announces new Irish Famine Run Along Wild Atlantic Way in 2017
From Michael Collins:
At Irish memorial with the esteemed, Dr. Jason King. We are planning a run through rural Ireland along the wild Atlantic way in winter of 2017.