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 Efforts to organise the repatriation of the Derrynaflan Hoard back to its native home in Thurles Co. Tipperary were highlighted in yesterdays morning’s edition of the Independent newspaper & today’s Irish Examiner (page 4)
The leading Irish newspapers stated that an organisation in Tipperary, called Hidden Tipperary, is calling for the permanent relocation of the Derrynaflan Hoard, now housed at the National Museum of Ireland, to be returned back to its county of origin.
Derrynaflan Hoard
The treasure trove known as the Derrynaflan Hoard consists of one highly decorated ninth century silver chalice, a large eighth century paten and stand, an eighth century liturgical strainer, and an eighth to ninth century bronze basin. A stone slab, found on the site and now also in the National Museum, and much associated with the original location of this treasure & inscribed “Or doan main Dubscull,” (Translated; A prayer for the soul of Dubscuile,) is also being sought.
Abbot Dubscuile mac Cinaeda, mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters, is understood to have died around 962 AD & was the son of Cinaedh, and one of the eventual successors of St. Colum Cille (521 AD – 597AD).
St. Columcille or St. Columba was an Irish Abbot and missionary credited with spreading Christianity in present-day Scotland. He founded an important abbey on the island of Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution in this region for centuries. He was highly regarded by both the Gaels of Dál Riata and the Picts of Scotland, and is remembered today as a Christian saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland.
Derrynaflan Island
The monastery at Derrynaflan was originally founded by St. Rhuadhan of Lorrha in the sixth century. Derrynaflan was an important monastery in the then eighth and ninth centuries and came under the patronage of the King-Bishops of Cashel. After the death of Feidlimid mac Crimthainn the King-Bishop of Cashel in 847, this monastery fell into decline & nothing of this early monastery’s structure now remains, except some very faint outlines of the original enclosure and the ruined walls of a slightly later church.
Suitable exhibition space has been identified in The Source complex beside the river Suir, and new high definition CCTV currently being installed in the town centre is expected to be incorporated into any required security deemed necessary by the National Museum, should an agreement to repatriate be reached.
Employment
Any repatriation of the Derrynaflan Hoard is expected to create at least 300 full-time & part-time jobs in the region, particularly in the tourism associated sectors, like Restaurants, Hotels, Theatres, as Guides etc, not to mention local associated SME’s. The estimated costs of €100,000 required to transport the Derrynaflan Hoard could be recouped within the first year, if a minimum of only €1 was implemented as a charge, during this initial start-up period.
Hidden Tipperary
“Hidden Tipperary,” are a new voluntary tourism promotion group, membership of which insists that all belonging to the organisation must be fully skilled professionals, prepared to volunteer their respective talents at no charge and to the benefit of all persons residing in County Tipperary.
Their committed membership include; local fully qualified I.T. professionals, qualified video camera operators, professional video editors, dedicated historians, award winning short story & script writers.
Tipperary Tourism Offices
Hidden Tipperary today also report that Tourism Offices, marked for closure in both Nenagh ( Bamba Square ) & Cahir ( Castle Car Park ), may re-open in the coming weeks, despite Failte Ireland recommendations. Over 40 per cent of tourism information offices across Ireland have now been dumped on local interest groups and businesses with little financial support from Failte Ireland, who charge for all materials supplied, despite in many cases free space being provided at the expense of the former.
Hidden Tipperary now invite all various tourism sectors in Tipperary, to ensure that all brochure & advertising materials are sent to these offices if & when the future of same are announced.
It has just been announced that more than 807,000 visitors attended the new Titanic centre in Belfast during its first year. The attraction, built at a cost £77 million, overlooks the slipways, where the legendary liner was launched, attracted tourists from some 128 countries worldwide in one year.
Meanwhile the total visitor figures to the 4 sites owned by the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin for 2011 were 1,096,027.
 The Dublin Kildare Street Museum houses “The Treasury – Celtic and Early Christian Ireland,” exhibition, a collection of masterpieces from Celtic and Early Christian Ireland, which contains the recently conserved Tipperary owned Faddan More Psalter & the Tipperary owned Derrynaflan Hoard.
These above named two items in this Dublin exhibition, should by now be sitting in the Exhibition Centre at The Source Arts Centre, complex, but alas, due to in fighting amongst local councillors, and helpless Co Councillors & TD’s same remains to the benefit of Dublin’s continuously rising economy.
This Dublin Museum now boasts, at the expense of employment in Thurles, that it has had the 2nd highest tourism figure ever, with an overall 10% increase on the previous year 2011. You do not believe me? Then please CLICK HERE folks.
Thurles – Imagine For Just One Moment
Let us all imagine, for just one moment, that if only one third ( 365,342 visitors ) of the National Museum of Ireland’s visitors arrived in Liberty Square, Thurles, in any one year period, the difference it would make to our rural economy, in relation to full-time & part-time employment. Imagine the increase in revenues that would be returned to this present sleepy government.
A Pinch Of Powdered Rhino Horn Anyone?
Rhino heads and horns worth €500,000 were ‘pinched,’ possibly by an Irish organized crime gang, from the National Museum of Ireland’s warehouse, in Swords, Co Dublin, late on Wednesday night last. The National Museum’s previous excuse, which usually stated that only it had the necessary security to protect our national heritage, has just evaporated. This also now begs the question, why were there any artefacts stored, not being made available for viewing by our visiting guests of the Irish Nation, especially during the year of “The Gathering.”?
In our submission to Minister Jimmy Deenihan some five months ago we stated:
“Finally, we would request the Minister (Jimmy Deenihan) to immediately order a full audit of the National Museum’s present artefacts, with special emphases to be placed on items currently not on display, e.g. Sheela-na-gigs, guns, swords etc, which would further benefit other tourist centres / museums etc. within the Irish mid-lands in particular & which would in turn further encourage / tease visitors to travel …”
It would appear that despite the existence of so many small wonderful museums, right throughout the heartland of Ireland, Dublin has decided that if history cannot be viewed by tourists in “The Pale,” Irish history cannot be viewed at all.
Where now are the Thurles chests, proudly displaying the powerful “Chains of High Office,” & those others claiming to be Community Leaders, when we need them?
Note: According to the Irish Examiner, dated yesterday, employment levels in firms supported by the IDA/Enterprise Ireland (EI) have decreased by more than 19,400, or 6%, to 281,965 in the past five years. Dublin and Cork accounted for three-quarters of all net job increases at IDA companies in 2012. At the same time, Tipperary, Kildare & Leitrim, experienced net losses, yet our County & Town remains silent.
 Recreational angling on the River Suir in Co Tipperary will change following a Bye-Law, sought by a majority of anglers, has been signed into law.
From April 12th, 2103, fishing for salmon and sea trout (over 40cm) on the River Suir, is prohibited where the use of worms, prawn, shrimp or any other crustacean or their artificial forms are used as bait and any fish hooks, other than single Barbless hooks up to and including May 11th, 2013.
From May 12th to September 30th 2013 the Bye-Law provides for a bag limit of 5 fish for the season, subject to a daily bag limit of 1 fish. Anglers must use a single Barbless hook once their daily or season bag limit has been reached. The exclusion on the use of worms, prawn, shrimp and any other crustacean as bait, will continue until the season ends.
Inland Fisheries Ireland would like to point out that this bye-law is applicable to the 2013 season only.
Best Brown Trout River in Europe
Angling for Salmon on the River Suir attracts many visiting anglers annually. It is hoped that this measure will ensure even better angling for the many local and visiting anglers that come to fish the Suir, which already this year has been rated the “Best Brown Trout River in Europe.”
The rule governing this new seasonal Bye-Law can be downloaded HERE.
 A shout of “hurrah,” deafened this country, coming from the Internet searching Press Reporters of Ireland today.
For according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), figures, published on-line this week, more than 30,000 extra visitors came to Ireland in the period December 2012 – February 2013.
These marvellous, encouraging new figures from the CSO could indicate that tourist numbers actually did grow over the period December 2012 – February 2013, as the Government’s ‘The Gathering,‘ initiative got under-way.
Per the CSO, in the period December 2012 – February 2013, the total number of trips undertaken to Ireland increased by 2.6% to 1,176,100 – an overall increase of 30,200 bodies, compared to the same period twelve months earlier.
The present Government is aiming to attract 325,000 more tourists to Ireland this year. None, I hasten to add, have materialized here in Thurles, or indeed North Tipperary, to any great degree this year to date.
Can these CSO figures be accurately proven or should they be categorised under a heading, which is attributed to the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881,) by the American author and humorist Mark Twain, the former who supposedly stated “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Emigration from Ireland in the twelve months to April 2012 is estimated to have increased to 87,100 from 80,600 in the year to April 2011. Add another 10,000 at least to these figures to keep us in line with 2013 figures not yet presented.
The question must now be asked, purely to curb the use of statistics being used to bolster weak arguments; “How many of these so called ‘extra visitors,‘ were simply these same former, forced emigrants returning from abroad for a brief spell, to be with their families for the Christmas season, before returning back into exile, where paid work for them is more easily available?”
Forgive the humour, but in this country “The problem with unemployment is that it’s not working.”
Are the Irish people & hence the world, being drip-fed with the fertiliser normally attributed to the nourishing of the Mushroom Crop, grown in the darkness of a producers poly-tunnel ?
As my once wise old granny used to say, after I had retrieved the hurling ball, before she discovered the smashed window pane “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” In other words, as in a mathematical formula: “Travel,” implies “Visitor,” but “Visitor,” is false, therefore “Travel,” is false.
Anyone care to discuss?
 Queen Elizabeth visited the Rock of Cashel in May 2011. The Office of Public Works (OPW) are pleased to announce that on the first Wednesday of every month, during 2013, all OPW managed Heritage Sites in Tipperary will continue to offer FREE ADMISSION to individuals wishing to visit these sites for the duration of their particular opening season.
The list of participating sites in Tipperary are: Cahir Castle, Rock of Cashel, Roscrea Heritage (Castle and Damer House) and the Blackmills, and the Swiss Cottage.
Details on these and other national Irish tourist attractions can be found by simply clicking HERE
Tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis with normal conditions of admission applying at all sites. Visitors may experience delays at some of the busier sites and are therefore advised to arrive early. If allocated a time, visitors are asked to arrive promptly for the start of their tour. There is no guarantee that visitors who miss their allocated tour-slot can be accommodated at a later time. Children must be supervised at all times and access to some sites will be by guided tour only. Visitors are also warned that opening times can change at short notice.
So please, old age pensioners & those enjoying free travel, do take advantage and use this opportunity “To see old Ireland free.”
Photo courtesy G.Willoughby.
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