Launch of However Blows the Winds an Anthology of Poetry and Song from Newfoundland and Labrador and Ireland

Address by Mr Michael Ahern TD, Minister for Trade and Commerce

at the Launch of However Blows the Winds an Anthology of Poetry and Song from Newfoundland and Labrador and Ireland

On Thursday, April 1st 2004 at 6pm

As chairman of the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership, I am very pleased indeed to have been asked to perform the Cork launch of this lovely book.

I am particularly pleased to welcome so many eminent poets and other distinguished citizens to Cork City, the capital of the South of Ireland, next year's European Capital of Culture, and - some would say - the REAL capital of Ireland.

I must say a particularly warm "Cead Mile Failte" to those who travelled from Newfoundland to be with us here today.

They are: Randall Maggs, Rex Brown, Nick Avis, Tom Dawe, Boyd and Marilyn Chubbs, and Kevin Hehir. Some of you, I already met here last year - and I am delighted to see you again. I understand that poetry readings have already been held in other venues in Dublin and Waterford. You were wise to keep the best wine until this stage of your trip, when you have recovered from your long journey and can fully enjoy yourselves here on the banks of the Lee.

I also welcome and congratulate the two Irish-based editors of the Anthology, John Ennis and Stephanie MacKenzie and extend a very warm welcome to the many distinguished Irish literary figures and guests here this evening.

I don't need to reflect in this audience on the very special relationship which Ireland has with the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is an ancient relationship - going back to the migrations of the late 1700's and early 1800's. A relationship that makes it easy for us to get along together and to form friendships quickly.

I had the pleasure last year of visiting Newfoundland. I visited the capital, St. John's, and I went further afield to Fogo Island, and visited a small Irish community there in Tilting. This is a remote place and one where most Newfoundlanders have never visited. Yet even there, I found familiar faces and names and accents - and the warmest of welcomes. The families of Tilting are names Foley, McGrath, Burke, Green and Broaders - all names from East Cork and West Waterford. Their ancestors travelled there over 200 years ago.

The epigraph to this anthology tells the story of a 16 year old boy, William Ennis, who went to Newfoundland around that time, in 1796, and of his settlement and marriage there. William Ennis was but one of the tens of thousands of young Irish men and women who settled in Newfoundland in a fifty year period between 1780 and 1820.

Arising from this close historic connection and affinity between the people of Ireland and Newfoundland, we now have a Government programme to encourage the rejuvenation of our historic links. This book is the result of a grant from this programme - made through the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership to Dr. John Ennis at the Waterford Institute of Technology. Further support has been received from Foras na Gaeilge.

This work - which we celebrate today - deserves very special praise and note. Rarely does one see such an interesting, intriguing and readable volume of poetry. This anthology is not only lovely to look at, and gripping in content. Its features work in six languages: English, Irish, French, and the aboriginal languages of the Mi'kmaq, (pronounced MICK-MAW), the Innu and the Inuit peoples (all of which have been translated into English).

I note from the Introduction that the work commences with a traditional Innu story from Labrador, as well as ballads from both countries, and goes on to showcase the poetry of Donnchad Rua MacConmara (who lived and wrote in St. John's in the 1700's, and whose tombstone can be seen at Kilmacthomas, Co.Waterford).

Happily, the anthology also features many eminent living poets whose work we all look forward to hearing. I don't intend to keep you too long from that pleasure, so I will end my remarks by again congratulating the three editors, John Ennis, Randall Maggs and Stephanie MacKenzie, and all those associated with this work and I look forward to listening to the readings.

ENDS/TC 87