PO Box 765, Rapid City SD 57709 BlackHillsCelticEvents.org Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org Volume 9 Issue 4 April 2007 Serving the Celtic Communities of: Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall (England), Glacia (Spain), Brittany (France), Scotland and Ireland You may contribute news and photos by email to Info@BlackHillsCelticEvents.org 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! :) Apr 19 7:00 p.m. General membership Meeting, American Legion Post 22, Rapid City PROGRAM: Genealogy for Dummies – by a Dummy (Gary Hamilton) May 3 7:00 p.m. Board Meeting May 17 7:00 p.m. General membership Meeting, American Legion Post 22, Rapid City PROGRAM: TBA Jun 7 6:00 p.m. Board Meeting June TBA Midsummer’s Eve Celebration @ Knights Jun 21 6:00 p.m. General membership Meeting, American Legion Post 22, Rapid City PROGRAM: TBA *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!) 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! :) ) 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 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. 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. C:\Documents and Settings\Gary\My Documents\SIS\NEWSLETTER\Newsletter TEMPLATE.doc 1