As we plan for our annual
festival, we need to know about any possible funding sources that can help us
continue to offer this event AT-NO-CHARGE. Please contact Bill Knight or Gary
Hamilton (info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org
)if you have any ideas (they are our S.I.S. representatives on the Festival
Board). We also want to expand our vendor list if you have any thoughts
regarding vendors, please don’t keep them to yourselves! J
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Apr 19
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7:00 p.m.
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General membership
Meeting, American Legion Post 22, Rapid City
PROGRAM: Genealogy for
Dummies – by a Dummy (Gary Hamilton)
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May 3
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7:00 p.m.
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Board Meeting
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May 17
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7:00 p.m.
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General membership Meeting,
American Legion Post 22, Rapid City
PROGRAM: TBA
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Jun 7
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6:00 p.m.
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Board Meeting
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June
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TBA
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Midsummer’s Eve
Celebration @ Knights
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Jun 21
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6:00 p.m.
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General membership
Meeting, American Legion Post 22, Rapid City
PROGRAM: TBA
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*American Legion Post 22, 818 East St. Patrick St, Rapid City
Are Two Heads Better Than One?
No, I am not speaking of a
legendary or mythical dragon of yesteryear but of a consensus that appears to
be coming over and between two separate yet distinct Celtic Societies in our
community. SIS of course being one and COA (Celts of America) being the other.
COA, I like to call our sister society. “Why?”, you ask. Because particularly
as of late the two societies are doing quite a number of events, projects and
fund raisers together. Many of the current members from each society are
members of both SIS and COA. This includes myself as well. At our last general
meeting a committee was formed to explore the possibility of combining the two
societies, to this person this feels like the right thing to do as both
societies have similar goals and objectives with the main objective of course
being to educate and enlighten our community of our Celtic culture. Many
members of the Celts of America feel as SIS does that a possible merger may be
at hand.
Thoughts, ideas, pros and cons
need to be discussed by both groups and committees and presented to the
membership, though at a glance this appears to be a formidable idea; many
details have to be worked out and approved or otherwise by each group. At this
time I only ask you to consider this concept and bring forward your concerns,
thoughts, wants and needs to enhance our Celtic activities.
It's also time to turn our
ideas towards our next event The Midsummer's Eve gathering which will be in
June at the Knight's residence, (the exact date has yet to be determined).This
gathering began with an idea from Sally Knight to be a small and informal...
celebration of just that the Midsummer's Eve and it's significance within our
Celtic world. Like all good things and events it has become very popular and an
event we all look forward to and Sally has promised a little something
different this year to keep the event fresh and alive. So I ask you to keep an
open Saturday or two in June reserved for this fun and enlightening event and
just be prepared to have fun.
On a final note, I would
personally like to thank everyone involved with the complete success of the St
Patty's Day activities and the Cultural Days booth at SDSM&T. Both events
required a lot of thought and hard work to make them a resounding success.
Again, thank-you!!
Bill Knight, President
Great Turnout!
Great Talent!
Great Fun!
Great Food!
The whole evening was a huge
success! MUCH nicer weather than last year (remember the ice storm????). Many
folks got into the spirit and offered jokes, songs, and stories. We had fun
selling raffle tickets for anything from artwork (courtesy of Jim Conrad –
artist was present for fans!), to shamrocks, to music CD’s, T-shirts, and
massage gift certificates (thanks Heather! --- 3 lucky ducks will be visiting
you soon!)
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Our infamous Irish chefs,
John and Jim – AGAIN with prize winning recipes!!!
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Ciara Breen, one of our
newest
members sang a lovely song.
String Thaw and Guests
treated us to wonderful
music and led our sing-
a-longs!
I wondered why Bill Knight was
so GUNG HO about the SDSM&T Cultural Expo that he volunteered to chair the
committee. NOW I know why!!! What a great event. The Surbeck Center Ballroom
was filled to capacity by both students and members of the community on both
3/31 and 4/1! There was a well attended food tasting. We had plenty of takers
for our Tatties & Neeps, Irish Stew, and Haggis. We had NO leftovers at
the end of the event! Thanks to all who volunteered for the fashion show and
the event. Hope to see even more of you next year!
Scottish & Irish Society
worked with the Celts of America (C.O.A.) to put on a fund raiser for Lynida at
the Dublin Square on April 7th. The C.O.A. donated some items for a
raffle and coordinated a Claymore and the Coin contest – Lots of women
competed! It was an enjoyable evening.
We did hear from Aliyah and
she is with Lynida in Sioux Valley (Sandford Health) Hospital in Sioux Falls after surgery in Minneapolis. Lynida is in a body cast now and they hope to
be back in Rapid City within a week. She’ll be getting a new cast in several
weeks.
Your Input Needed
This newsletter would be far more
interesting with your input: news, events, culture, history, photos, new
Celtic businesses, anything. Submit your articles in MS Word doc and photos in
jpg format. E-mail to info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org
.
Ciara Breen & Kandyce
Wright are 2 new
members who are currently
students at SDSM&T. Both know a lot about their heritage already and know
some Gaelic (one of their e-mail addresses proves that! J ) You heard Ciara’s wonderful voice at the St Pat’s dinner.
Actually BOTH have nice voices as we practiced some songs at the 1st general
meeting they attended!
We generally bring
about 1/4th of our Library holdings (books and VHS tapes and music
CD’s) to each general meeting for our members to check out. Have any
suggestions for our Library? We do have some budget dollars set aside to add
to our library. Let Pat Hamilton know your ideas (info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org)
.
We welcome any Scottish or Irish trivia from any
member. Please submit your thoughts to Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org
or
contact Pat Hamilton, newsletter editor.
Source: http://www.ireland-information.com/heraldichall/irishsurnames.htm
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The Origin of Irish Family Names
It is a help
when tracing your family history to know something about the origin of and
evolution of Irish names and particularly how names have changed over the
centuries.
Early times: In ancient Ireland the population was much smaller than
today and the mass movement of people was uncommon. It was usual therefore
for a person to be known only by one name: Niall, Eoin, Art, etc. Once there
was no one else in the locality with the same name then this was not a
problem.
The Gaelic Clann system was well established and this gave people a common
identity with their people of the tribe and with the commonly shared area.
This single name system began to break down during the eleventh century as
the population was growing and there was a need for a further means of
identification. The solution was to adopt a prefix such as Mac (Mc is an abbreviation)
or Ó. Mac means 'son of' whilst Ó means 'grandson of'. Mac surnames are
generally of a much later date than Ó. The vast majority of Gaelic Irish
surnames were created during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
It should be noted that the Scottish Gaels were actually descendants of
Gaelic emigrants to Scotland. The word 'Scotus' is Latin for 'Irishman'.
Scottish settlers who moved to Ireland (and especially Ulster) may already have been of Gaelic Irish descent.
Septs: The Clans eventually broke up into a number of distinct septs
or groups. These groups were headed by an original member of the clan and
dominated a particular part of the countryside. It was not uncommon for septs
from the same clan to be found in completely different parts of the country
(O'Connor for example) so it is important when researching your roots to try
to find out the original part of the country that your ancestors came from as
this may be a completely different area from that where the 'major' sept was
domicile.
The sept system was an integral part of Gaelic society and survived and was
even propagated by the Norman invaders. The system did not survive the
English invasion and colonization of the seventeenth century however, and it
became a disadvantage to have a Gaelic sounding name.
Anglicization: The Penal laws that were enforced by the colonists
attempted to completely subjugate the Gaelic way of life. It is about this
time then, that many Gaelic names changed to their Anglo equivalent or
translation. This can cause confusion as many of the names were
misinterpreted or misspelled. The name McEaneny for example has a number of
variants including McAneny and Bird (the Irish word for bird is éan). Mac an
Thomáis was converted to Holmes, Mac Giolla Íosa to MacAleese, etc. The
conversion of names beginning with Mac and Mc was even more difficult because
the removal of the M sound from the name often completely changed the sound
of the name.
The revival of Gaelic consciousness in the later eighteen hundreds saw many
Irish families reassume the Mac, Mc, Ó or other Irish form of their names
although this was reduced in a number of cases depending on the sound of the
name (Kelly is still much more prevalent than O'Kelly, Murphy more prevalent
than O'Murphy, etc.)
Surnames today: There are many different origins for Irish names today
but the vast majority can be broken down into either of three categories:
Gaelic Irish, Cambro-Norman, and finally Anglo-Irish.
A listing of the 100 most commonly names found in Ireland and their meanings
may be found in the source for this article. These details were compiled from
the 1890 Matheson report.
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DID YA KNOW this about County Mayo?
The Famine in Ireland devastated the rural population. “County Mayo has still not recovered. In 1841
there were 388,887 people in the county. By 1851 the population – depleted by
starvation, epidemic, and emigration – fell 29%, to 274,830. By 1971 the
numbers had dwindled to 109,525. Today the figure for County Mayo is 117,446 and rising, as the Celtic Tiger economy has boomed. People are moving back to
rural Ireland these days.
Geneaology
The genealogy
association meets every 3rd Friday of each month at the Canyon Lake
Senior Citizen’s Club. Contact Nila Boone if you have any questions.
The Sons of Norway host
dancing lessons at the Canyon Lake Senior Citizens’ Center each Monday evening
at 6:30. We’re learning some Norwegian dances and are preparing to learn some
Celtic dances. Call John or Nancy Burke if you’re interested in attending as
their summer schedule may vary a bit.
This will be a regular feature
of our Newsletter with your help. Please share any of your favorite Celtic
Shopping locations with our Newsletter editor, Pat Hamilton. Send any
suggestions to info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org
.
Dream Shoes (Bald Mountain): http://www.DreamShoes.com/
They have great sandals and
shoes for both men and women.
Pyramid Collection: http://www.PyramidCollection.com/
Clothing, jewelry, goblets
(mail-order catalog available)
Creative Irish Gifts: www.ShopIrish.com
Clothing, trinkets, jewelry,
caps, mugs (mail-order catalog available)
Cashs of Ireland: www.cashs.com
Dishes, glassware, clothing
(mail-order catalog available)
Shannon: www.ShopShannon.com
Clothing, trinkets, glasses
(mail-order catalog available)
Sofi’s Stitches: http://www.sofisstitches.com/
Medieval and renaissance
clothing
Gael Song: http://www.gaelsong.com/
(mail-order catalog
available)
Celtic Croft: www.kilts-n-stuff.com
Kilts, clothing, jewelry, etc
(mail-order catalog available)
The Celtic Shop: http://CelticShopDunedin.com
This is our old friend Coleen
Coble’s web site. Check out her wide assortment.
Not available at time of
publication.
Not
available at time of publication.
President Bill
Knight info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org
Vice President John Burke
Secretary Heather Payden (Sally Knight,
co-secretary)
Treasurer Carole Conrad
Board Members Aliyah
Sanders, Kerry Smith, Jim Byrne, James Marrs, Paul Smith
Past President Gary
Hamilton
Membership Sally Knight
Web Site Gary
Hamilton
Newsletter Pat
Hamilton, info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org
If you would like to contribute an article or story, list an event,
submit a photo, etc. to the newsletter, please email the item to me by the 5th of
each month.
PO Box 765, Rapid City SD 57709
