Tracing reggae's (Irish) Catholic roots

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Tracing reggae's (Irish) Catholic roots

Postby OnoI812 » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:16 am

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Kind of off topic, but since there are so many Sinead fans here. I found this kind of interesting.<br><br>Both she and most of these Jamaican stars have railed against the vatican, but it seems a hip Irish Catholic nun played a significant part in helping the "Irie" vibes flow.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Tracing reggae's Catholic roots</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><br><br>Thomas Green<br><br>Monday, 16 January, 2006<br><br>Bar the odd dent - such as the depiction in the film The Magdalene Sisters of cruelty in their now-defunct Irish orphanages and laundries - the reputation of the Catholic Order of the Sisters of Mercy is of 200 years of good deeds in some of the most underprivileged areas of the world.<br><br>Less well known, and more bizarre, is that this order of nuns is also partly responsible for the birth of reggae music.<br><br>The sisters had already been working in Kingston, Jamaica, for 12 years when they founded the Alpha Boys' School in 1892.<br><br>Its purpose was to house and educate "wayward boys," most of them from backgrounds of dire poverty. With instruments donated by a benefactor, a drum and fife corps was set up which, as the years passed, became a martial brass band.<br><br>By the mid-20th century, the connection with military music was still a constant, but the Alpha Boys' bandmasters were increasingly influenced by swing and jazz.<br><br>"Without the school, there just wouldn't have been the blossoming of talent on the island in the key period of the `60s and `70s," says Laurence Cane-Honeysett, a music consultant to reggae label Trojan Records, who has compiled the excellent album Alpha Boys' School: Music in Education 1910-2006.<br><br>"When the Jamaican music industry took off, it was totally dependent on those who studied there," he says.<br><br>A quartet of Alpha alumni, Tommy McCook, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, Lester Sterling and the celebrated trombonist Don Drummond, were founder members of the Skatalites and, as such, co-creators of Jamaica's first indigenous pop music.<br><br>Reggae would eventually bloom from these roots at Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd's hugely influential Studio One, all built on horn sections featuring Alpharians.<br><br>Another old boy, Winston "Sparrow" Martin, has been the school's bandleader for the past 18 years, having also worked with artists from Otis Redding to Bob Marley.<br><br>He attributes the sound of Marley's original `60s versions of Stir It Up and One Love to ex-Alpha musicians.<br><br>Martin well recalls life at the school in the `50s. "We worked six days a week," he says. "Some boys were on the morning shift, some on the evening shift; those on the morning shift would go to band practice in the evening, and those on the evening shift would go to band practice in the morning."<br><br>Despite the strict discipline, the school's musical reputation was such that trumpeter "Dizzy" Moore faked tantrums just so his parents would be forced to send him there.<br><br>There were, of course, times when the children were not so willing to knuckle down to work.<br><br>"I was one of the boys who used to try to escape practice," Martin says, laughing. "There was a tree they used to have by the name of the monkey puzzle tree, and I climbed up this tree, hid up this tree.<br><br>"Rain was falling when Sister Ignatius found me and said, `Come out of the tree, you naughty little sparrow. What will your mother do if you stay there and drown?' From that day until now, that name is mine - `sparrow."'<br><br>Sister Mary Ignatius Davies perhaps best encapsulates the spirit of the school.<br><br>She joined the Sisters of Mercy in 1939, aged 18, and remained at Alpha until her death in 2003, but it was her devotion to the music program for which she is remembered.<br><br>Hard as it is to imagine, this nun also ran sound-system dances at the weekends, where she would spin records from her vast collection.<br><br>"Sister Ignatius preferred secular music to anything," says Sister Susan Frazier, the school's current director. "She was really a blues fan, and loved jazz music.<br><br>"In the early days in Jamaica, whenever there was any significant event such as a hurricane or earthquake, a 45rpm record would immediately be cut about it.<br><br>Iggy, as she was affectionately known, would send out a couple of boys to buy these records. She had an expansive collection, which eventually went to the Seattle music museum."<br><br>Don Drummond's 1964 number Eastern Standard Time was Sister Ignatius's favorite piece of music - and a key moment in ska's development.<br><br>And as the Alpha Boys' School album runs in chronological order, it's possible to trace the astonishing musical impact of Drummond and his fellow Skatalites.<br><br>Proceedings open with `50s British jazz recordings by Alpharians such as Joe Harriott and Dizzy Reece, but as the school's graduates develop their sound such music gives way to something far rootsier and uniquely Jamaican.<br><br>It seems that nuns - and a boys' brass band - inadvertently helped release the spirit of one of the most musical islands in the world.<br><br>Alpha Boys' School: Music in Education 1910-2006 is out now on Trojan Records.<br><br>THE DAILY TELEGRAPH <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Tracing reggae's (Irish) Catholic roots

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:28 am

Thanks OnoI812<br><br>I liked this review <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www10.shopping.com/xPR-Throw_Down_Your_Arms_Digipak_Sinead_OConnor~RD-215869460100">www10.shopping.com/xPR-Th...5869460100</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Pros: Brilliant. Political. Sinead. Reggae.<br>Cons: I'll go with speeddemon here - No lyrics sheet.<br><br> <br>The bottom line: This has got to be one of the best, most interesting albums of 2005. <br> <br>Full review<br>When my boyfriend came home a few weeks ago and asked me if I'd heard the new Sinead O'Connor song on the radio, my immediate thought was whew! Now I've got a stocking stuffer idea. I had no idea what I was getting into. What I thought would be me indulging his love for reggae for a little while became a fascinating tour through Irish and Jamaican history to the tune of "Vampire" - a song that would put any Irish-Catholic girl in a loose, spiritual spell. <br><br>Aside from the obligatory hours spent bobbing my head to Bob Marley, UB40 and Steel Pulse, I had only a typical Midwesterner's appreciation for reggae. Even though I'd had life-changing experiences in both Ireland and Jamaica, neither Sinead nor reggae ever really resonated with me. I preferred Tori Amos' aching lilts and screeches to Sinead's "acrobatic" but slow vocals, and had become desensitized to reggae after witnessing too many potheads manipulating the lyrics to justify their slacker lifestyles. <br><br>After giving my boyfriend his gift and slapping it on, I was immediately impressed by the first track, Jah Nuh Dead, which opens with the quiet hum of something akin to a dial-up modem connecting and a nearly acappella Sinead singing in slow, rich tones that break into climactic, signature-Sinead political wails: <br><br>They tried to fool the whole population <br>By telling us that jah jah dead <br>And they tried to fool the whole population <br>By telling them that jah jah dead.. <br>I & i knows that - jah no dead - jah no dead <br><br>Jah no dead [5x] <br>Oooh nooo - jah no dead <br><br>Interestingly enough, Sinead has changed two important words from the original - namely, she changed "black population" to "whole population" and "by telling them" to "by telling us." At first, it smacks of a less sincere adoption of the strife rightly belonging to an oppressed people - something along the lines of Marlon Brando refusing to accept the Academy Award in the name of a Native American people he has little connection with - an admirable, but inauthentic stance. This small, but critical change in lyrics - one in which the Irish-Catholic girl dressed up for her First Holy Communion on the album's cover jams to Marcus Garvey - only makes sense after learning a little bit about the history of the Irish in Jamaica. It is a history of one colonized island people being turned against another oceans away. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Upwards of 80,000 Irish political prisoners were shipped to the Barbados by Oliver Cromwell and his son Henry following the conquest of Santiago De la Vega. According to Rob Mulalley (writing for Wild Geese), The Irish prisoners made up for a serious labor shortage caused by the English planter's lack of access to African slaves. The Dutch and Portuguese dominated the slave trade in the early 17th century and most white landowners in Barbados and the neighboring islands were unable to purchase slaves of African origin. And so, the Irish priests, professors and political agitators became the exploited who did the dirty work of exploitation for the English. To this day, you will find Ulster Spring, Belfast, Killarney Avenue, Irish Town and even Dublin Castle in Jamaica, as well as thousands of Jamaicans with Irish surnames replete with O's and Mc's.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <br><br>But don't be fooled by the politics. Throw Down Your Arms is also a deeply personal album, and this is not Sinead's first foray into reggae. You may recall her wrapping a Rastafarian prayer cloth around her microphone on Saturday Night Live in 1992 for her performance of Bob Marley's War (which she also sings on this album). At the end of the song, she tore up a picture of the Pope. Sinead had few American performances thereafter. <br><br>Sinead's affinity for the Rastafarian approach to God is sprung from the roots of hundreds of years of Catholic-Protestant violence. Murder, rape, abuse and colonization in the name of God doesn't sit well with most of us, and the Rastafarian approach is comparatively de-religious. God is not an excuse. God is not religion. God gives us strength to overcome, even when what we are trying to overcome is a system of exploitation in His name. Hope those Illinoisian potheads are listening now . . .aw, they're probably just listening to this album and toking up. <br><br>So this album . . .It is a collection of reinterpreted originals like Prophet Has Arise, Y Mas Gan, and He Prayed. It is unmistakably reggae and unmistakably Sinead. The track listing is Jah Nuh Dead, Marcus Garvey, Door Peep, He Prayed, Y Mas Gan, Curly Locks, Vampire, Prophet Has Arise, Downpressor Man, Throw Down Your Arms, Untold Stories, and War. The songs were recorded during a three-week stint in Jamaica at the famous Tuff Going Studio in Kingston, Jamaica. Ten percent of the profits benefit "the care of Rasta elders in Jamaica," so you should take a chance and buy it if only for philanthropic reasons. Sly Dumbar and Robbie Shakespeare truly deliver on the drums and bass, and at the most rudimentary epinion level I will say that I like this album even though I don't usually listen to reggae. The music is a smooth backdrop for the occasional scream or snarled, spitting whisper. <br><br>The only song I can absolutely not deal with is Curly Locks in which Sinead maddeningly, demonishly whispers "Your Mama said you shouldn't play with me" and "Dreadlocks, Curly Locks" etc. Her Irish brogue in the line "Thank you for the letter, You made me feel better" doesn't work. This song just makes me want to scratch her eyes out. And that's the plain truth. <br><br>Vampire, on the other hand, is my favorite song. According to her website (<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.sineadoconnormusic.com):">www.sineadoconnormusic.com):</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> Two of the songs on the record have marked pivotal moments in Sinead’s life. Vampire, first recorded by Devon Irons, has a special resonance for Sinead. It was this track that she danced to after her ordination in Lourdes, France in 1999. With its menacing, mantra-like chant it is in fact a type of Rastafarian spell, which aims to cast out evil. War, similarly, has changed the course of her life and career, and, in this context, needs no introduction. I dare you to listen to Vampire a few times and not catch yourself saying "A true Rastaman does not gamble, A true Rastaman always humble . . .Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire." <br><br>Overall, Sinead O'Connor's Throw Down Your Arms has got to be one of the best, most interesting albums of 2005. She brings an important part of Irish and Jamaican history to light, but sings from the very depths of her experiences as an Irish Catholic woman that is hellbent on fighting the social and economic aftermath of oppression and "rescuing God from religion." <br><br>An excellent (and more review-y) review of this album by speeddemon appears here <p></p><i></i>
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Truly (Thanks Ono)

Postby TroubleFunk » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:38 pm

Truly a fine, fine album. And I speak as a reggae fan, one who has scarce given Sinead the time of day previously.<br><br>I will backtrack and reconsider. Great post, thanks. <p></p><i></i>
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although...

Postby TroubleFunk » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:41 pm

I must say, wrapping a Rastafarian prayer cloth around yourself couldn't be seriously considered a "foray into Reggae"! Reggae is music. Rasta is religion and lifestyle. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: to Hell, Connaught, or Jamaica

Postby Iroquois » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:51 pm

There's a lot of shared history between Jamaica and Ireland. In another life, maybe I could make studying the cutlural similarities between the two a thesis for graduate study. For now, I'll just pass on the following article from the Wild Geese website: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/jamone.html">www.thewildgeese.com/pages/jamone.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>'One Love': The Black Irish of Jamaica<br><br>By Rob Mullally<br>Special to The Wild Geese Today<br><br>PART 1 OF 3: To Hell, Connaught, or Jamaica<br><br>Century following century, still at the heels of the nations:<br>Poor, divided, derided; a wit-mark, and sport to the dull.<br>What, say what hast thou done, land not wanting in beauty?<br>What, say what hast thou done, race not wanting in spirit?<br><br>"Looking Eastward," Emily Lawless, 1902<br><br>In this three-part series, I will attempt to solve a puzzle that has bothered and intrigued me from the time I first set foot in Jamaica some 20 years ago. What is it about this small island and its people, 6,000 miles from Ireland, hardly the size of the state of Connecticut, and with a population that originated mainly from a different continent, that made me feel so at home? How was it so easy for me -- and so many like me -- to make it my home?<br><br>That I was not the first Irishman to set foot on the shores of Jamaica was made blatantly obvious by the Irish place names that abound there. I found Irish Town and Dublin Castle in the cool hills of St. Andrew; Irish Pen and Sligoville in St. Catherine; Athenry and Bangor Ridge in Portland; Clonmel and Kildare in St. Mary; Belfast and Middleton in St. Thomas; Ulster Spring in Trelawny, and Hibernia in Christiana. I traveled Leinster Road, Leitrim Road, Longford Road, Killarney Avenue, Sackville Road and Kinsale Avenue all in Kingston and St. Andrew. There are two St. Patrick's churches and -- in typical Irish fashion -- the church on Windward Road is Protestant and the one in Waterhouse is Catholic. Tom Redcam Avenue is named after Tom McDermot, an Irish campaigner against colonialism and slavery, Redcam being a sort of backwards spelling of McDermot.<br><br>A drive from Kingston to Ocho Rios takes you through the garden parish of St. Ann, where the lush green fields and stonewalls is testimony to an earlier Irish influence.<br><br>And then there were the obviously Irish surnames, despite the less than obvious features that went with them: the Burkes, the Collins, the Lynches, the Murphys, the Maddens, the Mullings, the Lanigans, and the Walshes. There were the McCarthys, McCormacks, McDermotts, McDonnoughs, McGanns, McLaughlins, and McMorris's. I found the O'Briens, O'Connors, O'Reillys, O'Haras and O'Meallys -- the list is almost endless, with Maddens being one of the least popular, as Madden's is the name of the main undertaker in Kingston.<br><br>Two of my personal favorites -- and I might add two of my good friends -- have names any self-respecting Irishman would be proud of -- O'Brien Kennedy and Daniel O'Reilly Kelly.<br><br>To understand the history and background of the Irish in Jamaica one has to go right back to the year 1655. That was the year Admiral Penn and General Venables, having failed miserably at taking Santo Domingo in Hispaniola and not wanting to return home empty handed, turned their attention to Jamaica, where the Spanish settlers could put up only a token resistance. They fled to Cuba, freeing many of their African slaves, who took to the hills and became "Maroons," guerrilla fighters who wrote the book on tactics for bush warfare.<br><br>The English quickly captured Santiago De la Vega, the modern-day Spanish town, but they lacked workers to exploit their conquest. Barbados and the Leeward Islands -- St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Monserrat -- were already under their dominion, and from them the new owners brought manpower to colonize Jamaica.<br><br>Records show that the vast majority of the first wave was made up of young Irish men and women, mostly servants, bondsmen, or bonded servants. For all practical intents and purposes, this was slavery by another name as most, if not all, were not there of their own free will.<br><br>And how did they reach Barbados? For that we have to thank Oliver Cromwell, who in 1648 put down a rebellion in Ireland with such savagery and cruelty that his name is still today burned into the Irish psyche. In his own words after the siege of Drogheda, "the officers were knocked on the head, every tenth man of the soldiers killed and the rest shipped to Barbados."<br><br>Cromwell drove Irish men and women from their home counties into the relatively barren and inhospitable province of Connaught. The soldiers and the intelligencia, mainly Catholic priests, teachers and Gaelic bards, posed a real threat to a new government. His solution was to institute a system of forced labor, which would also provide British planters in the Caribbean with a massive influx of white indentured laborers.<br><br>According to Thurloe's state papers, "it was a measure beneficial to Ireland, which was thus relieved of a population that might trouble the planters, and of great benefit to the sugar planters who desired the men and boys for their bondsmen and women and Irish girls in a country where they had only Maroon women and Negresses to solace them." Speaking from my own personal experience, I would say that the planters came off the worse in that deal.<br><br>Cromwell's son, Henry, was made Major General in command of the forces in Ireland. It was under his reign that thousands of Irish men and women were shipped to the West Indies. From 1648 to 1655 over 12,000 Irish political prisoners were shipped to Barbados. Although indentured servants (Irish included) had been coming to Barbados since 1627, this new wave of arrivals was the first to come involuntarily.<br><br>The Irish prisoners made up for a serious labor shortage caused by the English planter's lack of access to African slaves. The Dutch and Portuguese dominated the slave trade in the early 17th century and most white landowners in Barbados and the neighboring islands were unable to purchase slaves of African origin.<br><br>Numbers vary, but reliable estimates put the number of Irish shipped out at between 30,000 and 80,000 persons. In 1641, Ireland's population was 1,466,000. By 1652, it was down to just 616,000. The sword, famine, hardship and forced deportation all had taken their toll.<br><br>For two decades, Kildare native Rob Mullally (e-mail: jamirish@sbcglobal.net) managed a variety of manufacturing companies in Jamaica. He and his wife, Mary-Kay, a Jamaican, have two children, Ryan, 14, and Tara, 11, and now reside in Del Mar, California. Rob originally gave this narrative as a speech at a St. Patrick's Day ball in Kingston, in aid of St. Patrick's Foundation, a charity that he and Monsignor Richard Albert established and directed.<br><br>Next ... History revealed by a Jesuit priest, and female Irish pirates of the Caribbean<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=iroquois@rigorousintuition>Iroquois</A> at: 3/23/06 10:54 am<br></i>
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Re: Tracing reggae's (Irish) Catholic roots

Postby OnoI812 » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:57 pm

Thanks Slad...knew you'd get a kick out of this<br><br>and Remember...no Alpha Boys School,<br>No Israel Vibration.<br><br>If you haven't seen " Israel Vibration inna Holyland" I suggest you find it. It's a good film documentary about IV's travels to Israel while they muse about their history from the Alpha school to the present and play several concerts for adoring Israeli fans.<br><br>"watch the Middle East, It starts from there"<br>"Dis a third world slaughter, headin for the west frontier"<br><br>No IV,<br>No "Prophet has arise"<br><br>No "Prophet has arise"<br>No pivotal moment for Sinead<br><br>(on edit-oops...upon reading it again, it looks like War(also chosen for SNL performance) and vampire are the 2 songs, but IV is also a source of deep influence for her)<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://tinyurl.com/hxa54">tinyurl.com/hxa54</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Two of the songs on the record have marked pivotal moments in Sinead’s life. Vampire, first recorded by Devon Irons, has a special resonance for Sinead. It was this track that she danced to after her ordination in Lourdes, France in 1999. With its menacing, mantra-like chant it is in fact a type of Rastafarian spell, which aims to cast out evil. War, similarly, has changed the course of her life and career, and, in this context, needs no introduction.<br><br>Jah Prophet has Arise, from Sinead’s favourite band, Israel Vibration, is maybe the funkiest cut on the album. Up to now in her career Sinead has always recorded her own backing vocals. Here her sepulchral chanting is backed by three Jamaican women as they sing in unison of biblical retribution. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=onoi812>OnoI812</A> at: 3/24/06 2:11 pm<br></i>
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Re: true rasta man always humble

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:29 pm

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:teal;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:x-small;"><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire…<br>Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire…<br>We have the chalice to light up Jah fire!<br>When i and i catch them vampire <br>i and i have to set them on fire<br><br>Ya no see it, OnoI812?<br><br>One love, <br><br>SLaD</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: true rasta man always humble

Postby resonantmonkey » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:36 pm

I and I survive.<br>Rasta is short for RaStafari, or King Stafari. Cool history there, some great selections at sacredtexts.something.<br><br>"Do the reggay"<br>Look to Toots, he will show you the way! <p></p><i></i>
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Re: true rasta man always humble

Postby bkkexile » Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:03 pm

I'm reading "Atlantean : Ireland's North African and Maritime Heritage" by Bob Quinn. From it and other sources, I'm coming to the conclusion that Ireland's history during the dark ages will never be truly revealed. It's more than likely that early Irish christianity was Coptic in nature being brought to Ireland by North African monks. Just one of the many remarkable links is that the Egyptian word for any trefoiled plant is 'shamrakh'. <p></p><i></i>
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Re:Ah sey one bkkexile

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 24, 2006 4:34 pm

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:teal;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:x-small;"><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>will look for that, would like to find this one, a true</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.betweenthecovers.com/images/15283.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:teal;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:x-small;"><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Tanks</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <p></p><i></i>
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the Kebra Negast

Postby TroubleFunk » Fri Mar 24, 2006 4:42 pm

This might be of interest to some of you. Some of it lost me (arcane!), but a lot of it was informative and moved me. <br><br>I have a really good edition - but it looks like this one's free online!<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/aseslno/en.htm">www.angelfire.com/tv2/aseslno/en.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Early African-Ireland connection

Postby Iroquois » Fri Mar 24, 2006 5:03 pm

bkkexile,<br><br>Maybe this was mentioned in the book you are reading, but there was a skull from a Barbary ape found during the excavation of the Navan Fort complex (Emain Macha) of Ulster. I've heard dates from the first to second century BCE. <br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><br>It is at the end of the Middle Bronze Age that we begin to see the Navan complex taking real shape. Extant archaeological evidence for the Navan complex shows that during the Bronze and Iron ages there is increased intensification of agricultural production, greater emphasis on livestock herding, community aggregation, stratified social systems, complex exchange networks, and construction of large ceremonial structures (40 m across) and large public works. One such significant feature is the Black Pig's Dyke, which is a double ditch more than 5 m deep that winds its way across the landscape for more than 40 km. The labor required to construct this feature was extraordinary indeed. Both Navan Fort and Haughey's Fort produced evidence for intensive occupation, with gold, bronze, and iron artifacts. The existence of exceptionally large dogs and cattle and rare exotic trade items <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>(an ape skull from Northern Africa)</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> all imply a high status for the occupants. Interestingly, the Black Pig's Dyke and the Navan Fort ceremonial structure have both been dated to 95 B.C. by means of dendrochronology (R. B. Warner, 1994, The Navan Archaeological Complex: A Summary, in Ulidia: Proceedings of the First International Conference of the Ulster Cycle of Tales, edited by J. P. Mallory and G. Stockman, pp. 165-170).<br></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br>From: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.saa.org/Publications/saabulletin/15-1/SAA11.html">www.saa.org/Publications/...SAA11.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Of course, that would have preceeded the Christian monks by a few centuries at least. The Christian monks of Ireland are known from their travels in part, I believe, because they left written records. Though some, myself included, suspect that the Irish were getting around pretty well as far back as the Bronze Age. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=iroquois@rigorousintuition>Iroquois</A> at: 3/24/06 2:05 pm<br></i>
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Re: here's a gift

Postby OnoI812 » Sat Mar 25, 2006 2:36 am

for all you visitors to this thread.<br><br>I've had the pleasure of meeting these guys, and they're the most righteous down to earth bredren you could hope to meet.<br><br>The mighty Meditations, and they have 2 free full length high quality mp3 up on Amazon...Mister Vulture Man and For the Good of Man, you'll have to login but they're both well worth the download IMO.<br><br>Check it <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/-/digital-music/35380/ref=pm_dp_ln_j_2/002-4802687-9029611">www.amazon.com/exec/obido...87-9029611</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Had to kick this

Postby Rigorous Intuition » Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:36 pm

because I picked up Sinead's album a few days ago and am very taken by it. I've added "Jah Not Dead" and "Vampire" to the RI radio playlist.<br><br>Good for the soul, this stuff.<br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000B6D6TU.01._PE30_.Throw-Down-Your-Arms._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire…

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Apr 06, 2006 5:53 pm

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:teal;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:x-small;"><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>you know he did Jeff!</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/aktion/action-smiley-066.gif" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://peacetakescourage.cf.huffingtonpost.com/animations/3years.html" target="top">peacetakescourage.cf.huffingtonpost.com/animations/3years.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:teal;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:x-small;"><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Broken skies, heartaches that flowers won’t mend<br>Say goodbye knowing that this is the end<br>Tender dreams, shadows fall<br>Love too sweet, to recall<br>Dry your eyes, face the dawn<br>Life will go on<br><br>All day long thought that we still had a chance<br>Letting go, this is the end of romance<br>Broken hearts find your way<br>Make it through just this day<br>Face the world on your own<br>Life will go on, life will go on<br><br>There’ll be blue skies, every true love<br>Someday I’ll hold you again<br>They’ll be blue skies in a better world, darlin’<br><br>Tender dreams, shadows fall<br>Love too sweet, to recall<br>Dry your eyes, face the dawn<br>Life will go on, life will go on<br>Broken heart find your way<br>Make it through just this day<br>Face the world on your own<br>Life will go on <br><br>Chris Isaak</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--><br><br><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:teal;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:x-small;"><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>My knowledge increase, My memory reflect, Marcus Garvey did say <br>Meet me at the bank of the beautiful river When your journey has end I & I will discuss about this matter Jah nuh dead</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=seemslikeadream@rigorousintuition>seemslikeadream</A> at: 4/6/06 3:57 pm<br></i>
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