President’s Corner

This month’s meeting marked the conclusion of our sixth year as a chapter. (We started in October of 1999) We marked it with a weekend celebration in Mount Dora, and those who were able to attend for the entire period had a great time together. Although Pat and I have visited the area many times, this was our first extended visit. We found the Lakeside Inn to be a very comfortable place with good food and a wonderful atmosphere. On Saturday, we shifted to Tavares to have our meeting and lunch at O’Keefe’s which is familiar to most of you. The restaurant has been expanded and the menu revised slightly. We had the front room mostly to ourselves, and had a nice meeting.

Our next meeting will be our sixth annual meeting—yes, it’s that time again. As before, Vicki and I will welcome anyone who wishes to step forward into a leadership position. While we are willing to serve as long as we are welcome, I have to admit for myself that it is difficult to continue to conduct new and interesting meetings. Variety is truly the spice of life, and that goes for groups such as ours as well. In keeping with our intention to shift around the are, we will meet next in Lakeland at a new Irish restaurant discovered by Paul and Dot Morin. The meeting will take place on October 29th, so mark it on your calendars. If you have any small items that could be used for door prizes, we would welcome your donations.

In January ‘06, we will meet at Vickie and Bob Pearce’s home in Maitland. This meeting will feature our annual auction to benefit the Degenhardt Scholarship Fund, so begin checking your cabinets and closets for items to donate for auction. Remember, donations do not have to be Belleek, but one or two special pieces will make it easier to reach our donation target. Also, donations are tax deductible and we will be happy to give you a receipt for the value of your donation.

Tentatively, we are looking at a luncheon cruise again in April next year, either from Sanford or Tampa. We will keep you posted on developments as time goes on. That seemed to be very well received last year when we went aboard the Romance in Sanford.

The Rivership Romance at dock in Sanford, April 2004.

Finally, in July, we are considering making a return to South Florida to accommodate members who live in that area.

The BCIS Annual Convention will take place in September, and Pat and I are planning to attend. It appears that the Sunshine Chapter may not be as well represented as in previous years. If anyone is planning to attend, please let me know so we can look for you there. We will provide a report on happenings for those unable to attend. Have a good summer, and try to stay cool! John

Treasurer’s report

We started the quarter, April, 16, 2005 with $1468.31.

We received dues, renewals, from 6 members (+$90.00).

We purchased for the chapter, a copy of Richard Degenhardt’s first book “Belleek: The Complete Collector’s Guide and Illustrated Reference”.(-$50.00)

Newsletter supplies this quarter, (-$97.21).

Cup and Saucer donation for the 2006 convention auction, (-$125.00)

We ended the quarter, July 22, 2005, with $1286.10.

Pictures from the Mt. Dora weekend.

Though it was a hot weekend, It was good to get away and enjoy friends at the Lakeside Inn for a few days. Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Lakeside Inn,

Reception desk

One of the rooms

The house cat

The pool

The dock for those who came by boat

Dinner at Pisces Rising restaurant

The main course was delicious and the deserts were out of this world.

Catfish

Eleven for dinner

Eleven for dinner, reversed

From the Belleek UK Collectors Group

Hello from the UK Group, I am circulating all the Chapter email contacts I am aware of in order to tell you that we have just updated our Group web-site and made it easier to access and to navigate. The new look isn’t finished yet but already we have more to see and are adding to it on a regular basis.

Our latest newsletter, issued to members in March has now been added to the others already on the web-site and as the content of the newsletters increases, so does our reading audience, and we are now beginning to receive contact from collectors who found us through various search engines and want to join the Group, as the web address is now much easier to find at

www.belleek.org.uk

Email contact is now easier for those who don’t have an address, simply contact me at,

chairman@belleek.org.uk

As a Group, we still receive copies of notes of meetings from different Chapters, these are then made available for our members to read when we meet, so please continue sending them either by email to me, or in printed form by post to me at

David Reynolds, Chairman

Belleek Collectors Group UK

7 Highfield Estate

Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 2JR

England

Best wishes

David

Saturday’s meeting at O’keefes.

Eighteen members gathered at O’Keefe’s Irish Restaurant and Pub for a great lunch and meeting. We discussed the coming October, January and April meetings for next year. Marcy O’Keefe, Michelle Jones and Dot Morin brought Belleek and hand crafted articles for sale. Bob and Vicki Pearce brought a Belleek wedding cake topper purchased from Reed and Barton, the American distributors of Irish Belleek. This topper was made in China and carries the Belleek name but not the same trade mark..

Lunch at O’Keefe’s

Belleek Items for sale

Items made by our membership, for sale

The ‘Real Saint Patrick.’

Charles Easthope March 1996

Part 2 of 2

Tadhg Gavin, writing in ‘Ireland’s Own’ March 14^th 1980, tells us of the Saints first visit to the court of the High King Laoghaire, and how he came to meet the young poet Fiacc, who was to become St. Fiacc of Sletty, and St. Patrick’s first biographer.

Fiacc was a descendant of Cathair Mor, the famous King of Leinster. His father was a prince of the Hy – Herrach clan; his mother was a sister of Dubthach, who was the chief bard and brehon, (judge) at the court of Tara when St. Patrick arrived as a missionary. Fiacc was sixteen at this time and had already been a pupil and foster son of Dubthach for some time.

We learn that Laoghire had commanded Patrick to visit the court, having first issued strict instructions that no one was to stand to do the visitor honour. But so impressive was the Saints appearance that both Dubthach and Fiacc disobeyed the Royal instructions and on his arrival they both rose to their feet and saluted him. On the same day the two poets embraced the Christian Faith.

Shortly after this double conversion Dubthach was invited by Cromthann, the King of Hy – Kinnseallagh, to make his home in Leinster and he gave him a grant of land known as ‘The Marshy Plain’ in north Wexford. Fiacc accompanied Dubthach to this place and they took up their abode at Donaghmore. Several years later St. Patrick, when traveling through Wexford, visited Dubthach and asked him if he could recommend to him a young man of good family who might become a priest and perhaps a Bishop. Dubthach recommended Fiacc, and Fiacc agreed. Soon after his ordination to the priesthood he was appointed Bishop, with jurisdiction over all of Leinster.

Fiacc built his first Church between Clonmore and Aghold on the borders of Carlow and Wicklow, and for many years he remained there. Then receiving a call that he should set up his Church on the west side of the River Barrow he followed his divine directions and came to Sletty, so called from the Sleibhte Mora, a chain of high mountains nearby. His Church and Monastery were situated two miles north-west of the present day town of Carlow, and it was there that he spent the remainder of his life.

We are told that “when getting on in years” Fiacc suffered from an ailment that made any traveling difficult for him, and that on hearing this St. Patrick sent him a horse and chariot all the way from Armagh. (It is worth considering here the ‘facts’ we have learned so far regarding the ages of these two Saints. Remember St. Patrick was 45 when he became Bishop, and it wasn’t until after this that he came to Ireland. We are not told how long after arriving as a missionary it was before he came to Tara, but are told that this was the occasion of his first meeting with his future biographer, and that at this time Fiacc was aged sixteen. This begs the question that if Fiacc was ‘getting on in years’ how old was St. Patrick at this time?) However, to continue. It was in gratitude to St. Patrick’s generosity in sending the horse and chariot that Fiacc decided to compose a metrical ‘Life’ to honour his friend, but by the time the work was completed, St. Patrick was dead.

Having been a poet by profession it was quite natural that Fiacc should have chosen to write his tribute in this manner. Also that he should choose to use that ancient language of the bards of Erin. We are told that “this is perhaps the most beautiful of all the biographies to have been written of the Saint.” Also that it is written in “pure and perfect Gaelic.”

St. Patrick died in Saul, the spot given to him by Ditchu when he first arrived in Ireland on his mission. We are told that “he was most probably buried in Armagh.” This may well be so, but on Cathedral Hill in Downpatrick, Co. Down, quite close to the site of the original ‘barn’ is a large slab of Mourne granite which was placed there at the beginning of this century, (i.e. 20^th) to mark the reputed site of “St. Patrick’s Grave.” This replaced an earlier stone that had the names Patrick, Brigid, and Colmcille on it which upheld the legend that Irelands three best known Saints were for centuries buried in one grave in Downpatrick. Today only the name of Patrick is inscribed on the stone to remind us that somewhere near this ancient Abby site he could be buried. On an exterior wall over the east window are three niches formally containing images of Patrick, Brigid and Colmcille. It is believed that the relics were in fact destroyed by Lord Gray in 1538. (I did attempt to visit this site in 2003, but as it was ‘after closing time’ I was unable to get past the stout iron railings and padlocked gate that protects the monument from vandals. I explained to the few locals I met that I was in search of St. Patrick’s Grave, and they were unanimous in their opinion that he was “buried in Armagh”?)

Still there are unanswered questions.

There has been much debate and argument over the centuries concerning a number of aspects of St. Patrick’s life. One question that has intrigued both medieval biographers and modern scholars alike is the exact location of his birthplace. Where was the elusive Bannavem Tabernia? (Fiacc says that his birthplace was Nemthur? But this is of no help at all.) Until the nineteenth century it was usually identified with Dumbarton on the Clyde, but an area so far north seemed inconsistent with Patrick’s Roman citizenship. This induced modern scholars to seek his birthplace further south. The Severn Valley, the island of Anglesey, and Ravenglass in Cumberland have all received strong support in recent years, but the question is still unresolved.

Then there is the question of the mysterious Wood of Foclut, whose people called him back to Ireland. Faugill in north Mayo, Achill and Magherafelt in south Derry, Killultagh in south Antrim and Kilclief on Strangford Lough have all been advanced as likely sites because of similarities in the Irish forms of the name. The Saints connection with Saul and Strangford Lough would seem to put Kilclief among the favourites, but again there is no proof.

The most disputed of all the questions connected with the Saint at the present time though is the problem of giving definite dates to his Irish mission. What is certain is that it began in the second or third quarter of the fifth century, and lasted about thirty years. But did the Saint arrive in Ireland in 432 and die in 461? Or did he arrive in Ireland in 456 and die about 490? The earlier dating fits better into the Continental background and the Saints associations with Aixerre. The later dating agrees better with the fact that some of his disciples in Ireland survived until well into the sixth century.

It is this problem of dating that has brought forward the theory of two St. Patrick’s, a Roman missionary who came in the 430’s and a British missionary who arrived a generation later. That however is a question for another time, and a much deeper investigation than this. I prefer to think of 432 as the date that St. Patrick started his work in Ireland, as this is the date that appears most often in my limited reading so far. Usser, followed by Todd fix Patrick’s death in 493, but this would make him 120 years old, all other things being equal? There is a book written by Zimmer, published in 1904, that disputes Patrick’s historical existence, and another, written by J. B. Bury and published a year later, that reaffirms it.

So, have I found the ‘real’ St. Patrick? I think not. There is still much to learn, but I have enjoyed this little exercise, and look forward to reading more of the countless volumes that have been written about the Saint. St. Patrick who proclaimed himself “The most unlearned of men,” must surely be enjoying the battles of scholars that have raged over the years in pursuit of him.

(Sadly I never did get back to further research on this most fascinating subject, although I have not given up hope of learning more.)

January’s auction

We need Belleek pieces and other items of desire for the January auction. Let’s try to sustain our $750.00 level of participation in the Richard K. Degenhardt / Belleek Collectors Scholarship Fund. Please start looking around your collections for an item or two that you are willing to part with for this wonderful cause.

Parian Chatter