A truly remarkable picture

JUST another snowy scene to fill a spot on the page? Not a bit of it – this is quite likely one of the most amazing pictures you will have seen for quite some time.

The shot was taken by a Newcastle reader on Sunday past and shows a couple of intrepid hill walkers literally on top of the Mourne Wall on Slievenaglogh. That rocky outcrop on the bottom left-hand side is the only stretch of the wall visible at this particular location.

By all accounts the Mournes have been hit by some of the heaviest snowfalls in many years, hence even an imposing feature such as the Mourne Wall – approx six feet high here – is dwarfed.

It’s a hard climb to reach the snow but as the reader who contributed the picture was telling the column, it was well worth the effort.

Questions for Councillors after ‘inventive’ rate increase

DEAR Man About Town – Congratulations on blowing the whistle on Down District Council’s actually larger than announced district rate increase we will all be paying.

What on earth did the Councillors think they were playing at, allowing themselves to be drawn into such an obvious sleight of hand? To be honest you were amazingly restrained in the words you used to describe what was going on.

Can I therefore pose the following questions to any or all of our elected representatives, knowing full well they will continue to live in their ivory towers?

Did you know the rate increase you were intending to publicise was actually a combination of your own district rate and the Assembly’s regional rate? Did you have even a slight twinge of conscience that what you were announcing drove a coach and horses through the accepted format of every previous rates meeting in living memory?

Incidentally, if I’m interpreting a news item I heard last week correctly, Finance Minister Sammy Wilson only last Monday sought and subsequently gained the Assembly’s approval to freeze the regional rate during the financial year 2010-2011.

By my reckoning that means when Down District Council decided on this highly inventive way of interpreting their new rate increase, they were actually taking something of a gamble that the regional rate would indeed be frozen for another year. Not all members favoured this action, with Alliance, for example, feeling more revenue was needed to make up for shortfalls in the health and education budgets.

No doubt the Council would have found someone else to blame if this had proved the case.

THE NUMBERS GAME, Newcastle

Seeking to ensure plight of women does not become lost in mists of time

LAST week’s edition of the paper reported how a Tasmanian artist’s efforts to commemorate the lives of over 25,000 female convicts has been receiving a helping hand from this part of the world.

Artist Christina Henri has set herself the ambitious target of collecting 25,655 bonnets as a way of remembering the women who were transported from their loved ones in Britain and Ireland to the other side of the world during the 19th Century.

Often their crime was no greater than stealing a loaf of bread to feed their families.

Two Kilkeel women, Margaret McBride and Laura McClelland, have been creating bonnets to help Christina reach her target.

Margaret was in Australia visiting her sister and decided to travel to Tasmania to personally deliver bonnets to Christina.

With the help of friends, Laura made 157 bonnets to represent the women who were on board one convict ship, Kinnear 2.

Both ladies are currently working on bonnets for another convict ship, Roslin Castle, which left Ireland for New South Wales in 1835.

Laura has also been reflecting on the plight of the female convicts through the medium of poetry.

The poem below is called The bonnet my true love gave to me. It tells the story of a woman who was transported for stealing food for her desperately ill husband.

The bonnet my true love gave to me
(My Marriage Bonnet)

We danced all night to the fiddler’s tune,
‘Neath a starry sky and the harvest moon,
And I wore a bonnet so pretty to see,
That my true love had given me.

I wore it on my wedding day,
When my Dada cried as he gave me away,
To the black-eyed boy who was kind and good
And loved me best as a good man should.

Then life was sweet, and happy were we,
And we were blessed with children three,
Who were taught to spin and bake and farm,
And kept them healthy and free from harm.

But famine came to blight our home,
So searching for food we had to roam,
But nowhere was there food to find,
And one by one the children died.

I surely thought my heart would break,
And I prayed that death my love would not take,
For he caught the fever and faded fast,
And I knew without food he would not last.

And so I slipped away and stole some food,
From a rich man’s house where I knew I could,
But I was caught and put in jail,
And now on a prison ship must sail.

I know not of my darling’s fate,
But I will survive just for his sake,
And every night I’ll look at the moon,
To remember our dance and the fiddler’s tune.

Laura McClelland

Travel writer misses out on Mourne National Park!

THE travel section of the acclaimed Montreal Gazette newspaper has been singing the praises of Northern Ireland in a recently published art-icle, which can still be viewed on their website (www.montrealgazette.com).

The writer enjoys a guided tour of a number of our more northerly attractions, including the “usual suspects,” such as the Giant’s Causeway, the Bushmills Distillery and Carrickfergus Castle.

However, heading down this way one place he mentions should be of particular interest to Mourne Observer readers, largely because it doesn’t actually exist.

The relevant sentences read as follows:

“Back in Belfast the next day, I continued south for some further exploration. Nearby County Down has a rolling green landscape and a claim to fame no other area can match. Its sleepy Downpatrick main town is home to a pretty hilltop cathedral with a graveyard granite slab said to mark the final resting place of Saint Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint.

“Checking the circles on my Northern Ireland map, I realised I still had the Mourne National Park, Mount Stewart House and the walled city of Derry to hit — but the rest of the island was also beckoning...”

It could, of course, have been a proverbial ‘slip of the pen’ but no doubt campaigners against the proposed National Park will be wondering if overseas travel writers are now being briefed to consider the Mournes as already being part of a National Park.

Maybe someone will be able to provide an answer to this intriguing question.

Thanks are due to the reader who contributed this picture postcard, which dates back to the summer of 1959. It shows Hugh McConnell, of Ballyveamore Road, Annalong, working at granite kerbstones.

Don’t fall for this!

A BALLYANHINCH correspondent finds his email “in-box” regularly piled high with inventive requests for money, which usually involve him being invited to reveal all his private passwords and account numbers.

He keeps his eye very much on the ball as regards such matters, but readily admits the so-called “scammers” are coming up with new versions of familiar themes.

In the latest email he has received, purportedly from a well-known financial investment company, he is told: “We have noticed you have reset your online banking access or have updated the profile on your account and we have been unable to reach you by phone to talk to you.

“If you are having difficulty making repayments please do not ignore the situation. Our payment advisors will be happy to assist...”

How many of you would fall for such a deception. My friend in Ballynahinch would be wise enough to ignore such a message. Would you?

‘Tollymore problem ignored for some time’

DEAR Man About Town – I was very pleased to read your recent article attacking the “Tollymore Park Meanies” (who avoid paying the entrance charge, but usually create traffic problems in the process).

This problem has been ignored by the Forest Service for some time now. They have two notices on their property at this point, which clearly state “No Entry.” Does this mean nothing? No other organisation would be allowed to get away with causing this problem.

Thank you again for your interest and please continue.

BRYANSFORD OAP (UNDER SIEGE)