Flight of the Earls 400th Anniversary
Anyone else attend this in Rathmullan in Donegal on September 14? Good crowd of over 300 gathered, including a mate of mine who had stepped off a plane from Prague.
It's the first time the Irish State was able to celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of the end of Gaelic Ireland as the plantation of Ulster followed shortly thereafter. There was an emotional reenactment of the Earls getting on a boat and rowing out to a ship in the Lough (the Jeannie Johnson in this instance) and a number of Irish laments were sung. I liked the Irish navy frigate standing off the Jeannie Johnson which symbolised to me the Irish State which now exists. A poignant occasion for one like myself deeply interested in history.
Two slight problems in my opinion though, one official and the other not.
(a) the official problem was it ended in a 40 minute religious service which I felt had no place in an historical context.
(b) One child had been dressed by their parents in an Arsenal outfit and they obviously didn't see the irony of that. He stood out like a sore thumb with a crest of an English cannon on his jersey.
Great fireworks display the next day in Rathmullan and the sculpture depicting the flight was unveiled by the President. Excellent and sad scupture it is too.
