Conversations

Frenchill on my maps!

Erected in grateful remembrance of the gallant french soldiers who died fighting for the freedom of ireland on the 27th august 1798

www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/31307...

Reportage chez Google, hon hon hon.

maps.app.goo.gl/6eCDyJne4aXgQ3FK6?g_st=ac

See also L_ROY_06047, L_CAB_07309

27 August 1798 was a Monday ...

Brief history - www.castlebar.ie/Nostalgia_and_History/French-Hill-Monume...

“Site of engagement between the Franco-Irish forces and English forces on 26th August 1798 following the defeat of English forces at Castlebar & the Races of Castlebar.
William Rooney was one of the main protagonists in establishing the National Commemoration to celebrate the centennial of the 1798 rebellion. Only one month after its inception nationalists in Mayo formed the "Castlebar Central and Barony of Carra '98 Centenary Association with James Daly appointed as president of the Connaught '98 Centenary Council.
On the 9th January 1898 a commemoration, which was presided over by James Daly, was held at Frenchill, near Castlebar. This was attended by Maud Gonne Mac Bride and addressed by James Rooney, who gave an address in the Irish language. James Rooney was regarded as the "Thomas Davis" of the 1890's and was much in demand at patriotic gatherings.
James Daly pointed out that the event was both about remembering dead patriots and undertaking "to abide by the principles of the men of '98 until their country was free again and took its place among the nations of the earth."

www.facebook.com/groups/413224152057476/posts/24712470011...

Via Trove, Maud Gonne's June 1896 visit ...

"THE BEAUTIFUL PATRIOT.
The very handsome and very eloquent Maude Gonne, ' the beautiful Irish patriot,' as they call her in Paris, paid a visit to Castlebar during the first week of June, and was warmly and cordially received. She called on the Very Rev. Father Lyons, at the presbytery. The object of her visit was to go over the historic ground where the Irish rebels and French soldiers, in August, 1798, encountered and ran the English forces, who outnumbered their antagonists ten to one, and which resulted in what is known. in history as 'The Castlebar Races.' Miss Gonne visited the French. Hill Monument, which was erected twenty years ago, enclosing the graves of tho French soldiers who were shot down there while in pursuit of the English retreating army. Mr. James Daly, who showed Miss Gonne over the historic ground, and who was one of those instrumental in getting the monument erected by public subscription, presented her with a very ancient relic, namely, a French five-franc piece and a bullet that were found embedded in front of an old Danish fort close by where the French Hill encounter occurred. Maude Gonne, who has spoken and written so much for Home Rule, is a Protestant, and the daughter of an Irish Protestant clergyman."

See - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/111101590?searchTerm=%...
Freeman's Journal, Sydney

Previously, on GonneView:

Erected 1876, so there’s a start date

Thanks for the identification, Abbie Hudson! I've done some digging online and it looks like they - and you - are right!

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71207910 - Town & Country Journal, 24th December, 1892...description, sketch, etc...

Middle East - Recovered Prisoners of War Rolls, 1939-45 War
Donald John Skelton
Service number NX5055
Rank Private
Unit 2/3rd Australian Infantry Battalion
Places
Crete
Leeton, New South Wales
Oflag III-C [from 6/11/42]
Stalag 383 - [from 10/4/43 until liberated 12/5/45]
Stalag VII-A [from 5/11/41]
Conflict/Operation Second World War, 1939-1945
Fate Recovered
Place of Association Leeton, New South Wales
www.awm.gov.au/collection/R2821494

Donald's casualty form summarised above, which gives a date range for the image, shows he was posted missing 8 June 1941, when he was captured in the Battle of Crete. Beginning 20 May 1941 and named Operation Mercury (German: Unternehmen Merkur), this was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island of Crete.
Allied tactical hesitation, and determined offensive operations, enabled German land reinforcements to overwhelm the defensive positions on the north of the island. Allied forces withdrew to the south coast, where more than half were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and the remainder surrendered or joined the Cretan resistance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Crete

Donald John Skelton
Birth 26 JUN 1918 • Leeton, New South Wales, Australia
Death 8 JAN 2007 • Canowindra, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation - Corner Store Proprietor; Industrial Officer.
Donald's father Walter was Member for Newcastle in NSW Parliament 1922.
AncestryLibrary - Family tree

The AWM has a photo of Stalag 383:
"THE CAMP AT HOHENFELS, STALAG 383, WHICH HOUSED SOME 8000 BRITISH ... IN MID-SUMMER. ITS ONE REDEEMING FEATURE WAS THAT THE GERMAN COMMANDER WAS A FREEMASON, WHO EXERCISED HIS HARSH DUTY WITH COMPASSION, AND WHATEVER SYMPATHY HE DARED." www.awm.gov.au/collection/C206805

Stalag 383
The camp comprised 400 detached accommodation huts, 30 feet (9.1 m) x 14 feet (4.3 m), each typically housing 14 men. More were built towards the end of the war as prisoners were moved in from other camps as the Russian front advanced from the east.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_383

Blue Mountains Library, Local Studies 👍

"Money's No Good To You Here - Mate"

This was a true statement that I was aware of as soon as I entered a Prisoner of War Camp. I had often heard it said that money had no intrinsic value itself - it was only a means of exchange. It was what money could buy that was important and in a P.O.W. Camp Pounds, shillings and pence; Dollars; Francs and Guilders could buy very little.
BUT there was "money"in the camp, which could purchase many things. The "currency" in the camps was CIGARETTES, and this was the accepted means of exchange. There were a few wealthy men in the Camps - these were the cigarette "Barons". Men who accumulated thousands of cigarettes. I never found out how they did this - there was talk of con men and cardsharpers. No
doubt there was a sprinkling of such characters, as card games involving gambling went on at every possible occasion. Gambling schools took place in many parts of the huts - I often watched, but never played for "money".

The cigarette "Barons" could buy many things inside the camp - and it was said even outside the camp. Dealings with various camp guards went on all the time. The "Barons" purchased extra rations of Red Cross food from prisoners who had run out of their supply of cigarettes. Articles of clothing were also exchanged for cigarettes..."
www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/43/a5676843.s...

I located Donald's military record at the NAA and found his 'Statement of Repatriated Prisoners of War', which shows his place of capture as 'Sparkia' and continues, "Withdrew from Suda Bay to Sparkia for evacuation, all troops capitulated". He then spent a month in Salonica in Greece before being transfered to 'Stalag VIIA (13 months), then Stalag 383 (32 months)".

He describes camp conditions in the following terms: "Accommodation - BAD; Rations - POOR; Clothing & footwear - None except for Red Cross issues; Bathing, washing and sanitary facilities - VIIA fair, other camps BAD; recreational facilities (sport, reading, news) - REASONABLE in VIIA and 383"
recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchS...

Sparkia is actually the Greek 'Sfakiá' in Wikipedia, which notes: "After the Battle of Crete during World War II, the locals helped many Australian and New Zealand soldiers escape from here on the night of May 31, 1941, suffering great reprisals. King George II of Greece had already escaped this way when the Germans invaded. "

"Sfakiá is notorious for the harshness of the environment and the warlike people. Sfakians themselves are still considered somewhat beyond the reach of the lawmakers and tax collectors of Athens, with vendettas over stolen sheep and women's honour still fought into the mid-20th century, with a whole village abandoned."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfakia

"POW CIGARETTE STANDARD
A unique form of commodity money surfaced in the Nazi prisoner-of-war (POW) camps during World War II. Cigarettes came to fulfill all the functions of money: a medium of exchange, unit of account, standard of deferred payment, and store of value. The Red Cross furnished the prisoners with cigarettes along with food, clothing, and other goods.
The history of POW cigarette money furnishes examples of a wide range of monetary phenomenon. Gresham’s law could be seen in the tendency for inferior cigarettes to remain in circulation while prisoners hoarded higher-quality cigarettes. Sometimes prisoners debased the currency by removing tobacco in the middle of the cigarette and replacing it with inferior material. A diminished (or expectation of a diminished) influx of cigarettes caused a fall in the velocity of circulation as prisoners hoarded cigarettes, which were becoming more valuable as prices in cigarettes fell. An added infusion of cigarettes, or rumors of an added infusion, brought a rise in velocity, dishoarding, and rising prices in cigarettes."
More - encyclopedia-of-money.blogspot.com/2011/10/pow-cigarette-...

Rendell Keith

Rendell Keith—
raised where the mountains stand tall
and so did he.
West Virginia State sharpened his mind,
gave him the steel in his backbone,
taught him that discipline and destiny
can share the same classroom.

A Black man built from legacy—
not just surviving history,
but shaping it.

In DC Government halls,
where decisions echo through neighborhoods,
he moves with purpose.
Department of Youth and Rehabilitation—
not just a title on a badge,
but a mission in his chest.

He stands in the gap
for young brothers who almost lost their way,
for young sisters who needed someone
to see more than a mistake.

He understands them—
not from a desk alone,
but from lived truth.
He knows the difference
between punishment and potential.
Between statistics and second chances.

Entrepreneur in spirit,
builder in mindset,
he don’t wait for opportunity—
he drafts it, signs it,
makes it official.

Rendell Keith—
Black man with mountain roots
and city vision.
Professional polish with revolutionary heart.
Walking proof that excellence
is not an exception—
it’s inheritance.

He carries himself like a promise kept.
Like a prayer answered.
Like a future that refuses to fold.

West Virginia State in his foundation.
DC Government in his service.
Department of Youth and Rehabilitation in his calling.
Entrepreneurship in his bloodline.

Rendell Keith—
strength wrapped in purpose,
grace wrapped in grind,
a Black man building legacy
in real time.

Rich4ever Designz Rendell Keith

Rendell Keith—
raised where the mountains stand tall
and so did he.
West Virginia State sharpened his mind,
gave him the steel in his backbone,
taught him that discipline and destiny
can share the same classroom.

A Black man built from legacy—
not just surviving history,
but shaping it.

In DC Government halls,
where decisions echo through neighborhoods,
he moves with purpose.
Department of Youth and Rehabilitation—
not just a title on a badge,
but a mission in his chest.

He stands in the gap
for young brothers who almost lost their way,
for young sisters who needed someone
to see more than a mistake.

He understands them—
not from a desk alone,
but from lived truth.
He knows the difference
between punishment and potential.
Between statistics and second chances.

Entrepreneur in spirit,
builder in mindset,
he don’t wait for opportunity—
he drafts it, signs it,
makes it official.

Rendell Keith—
Black man with mountain roots
and city vision.
Professional polish with revolutionary heart.
Walking proof that excellence
is not an exception—
it’s inheritance.

He carries himself like a promise kept.
Like a prayer answered.
Like a future that refuses to fold.

West Virginia State in his foundation.
DC Government in his service.
Department of Youth and Rehabilitation in his calling.
Entrepreneurship in his bloodline.

Rendell Keith—
strength wrapped in purpose,
grace wrapped in grind,
a Black man building legacy
in real time.

Rendell Keith

Rendell Keith—
raised where the mountains stand tall
and so did he.
West Virginia State sharpened his mind,
gave him the steel in his backbone,
taught him that discipline and destiny
can share the same classroom.

A Black man built from legacy—
not just surviving history,
but shaping it.

In DC Government halls,
where decisions echo through neighborhoods,
he moves with purpose.
Department of Youth and Rehabilitation—
not just a title on a badge,
but a mission in his chest.

He stands in the gap
for young brothers who almost lost their way,
for young sisters who needed someone
to see more than a mistake.

He understands them—
not from a desk alone,
but from lived truth.
He knows the difference
between punishment and potential.
Between statistics and second chances.

Entrepreneur in spirit,
builder in mindset,
he don’t wait for opportunity—
he drafts it, signs it,
makes it official.

Rendell Keith—
Black man with mountain roots
and city vision.
Professional polish with revolutionary heart.
Walking proof that excellence
is not an exception—
it’s inheritance.

He carries himself like a promise kept.
Like a prayer answered.
Like a future that refuses to fold.

West Virginia State in his foundation.
DC Government in his service.
Department of Youth and Rehabilitation in his calling.
Entrepreneurship in his bloodline.

Rendell Keith—
strength wrapped in purpose,
grace wrapped in grind,
a Black man building legacy
in real time.

Hello

What's going on? Is there madness in their Methodism?

Hats on (this photo) -
catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000589969
Hats off -
catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000589972


Also (another year?) Hats on -
catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000589970
Hats off - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000589971

Wonderful! "If you want to get ahead, get a hat!"

Cliff House, Dunmore East

catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000032599

Amazed here! Never suspected Dunmore East...

Niall McAuley Charles ODowd Thank you both.

My unscientific calculations think Cliff House used to be here and the photos were taken in the park across the road, near the tennis courts - maps.app.goo.gl/oVe7ZeBH29pAT5bf7

See also the second (actually third!) house from the left mid-distance here - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000329472

And on the left with a flagpole - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000329471

beachcomber australia

Very interesting find, geohive would suggest it was demolished between 2001-2006.

Test flight over Camino de la Costa and Windansea Beach in Bird Rock, San Diego.

So Cal Metro
👍
Stig

Test flight over Point Loma, San Diego, with Shelter Island on the left.

Lord Lieutenant and Lady Aberdeen visiting and looking very vice-regal ??

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hamilton-Gordon,_1st_Marquess_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishbel_Hamilton-Gordon,_Marchioness...

1903?

Ms Connellan of the 'Irish Hotel' also has a full frontal, presumably the same day as the chairs are still there - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000317044

Ed. But the upper windows have been closed.

I would guess Ms. Connellan is about 30. To the censusesessses!

Tivoli Terrace

In 1901, there is a Lucy Connellan, Shopkeeper, 27. Not in a Hotel though

May have been fibbing a bit, birth record 1867 www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/birth_returns/births_18...

Don't see any Connellans in Lisdoonvarna in 1911. Don't see a marriage or death record for Lucy.

L_ROY_08938, also of Tivoli Terrace but without the crowd, shows a rather dapper photographer in the doorway of the hotel.

Probably also Bike-to-work day 1999. It looks like the Chula Vista store of Mission Cyclery opened about 2,000. There was a store in Bonita prior to that.

GM "Silversides" coach.

So Cal Metro Thanks for these comments!

I can't read the names of staff here.

Pacific Highway in San Diego, Old Town at left.

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165234515 - the Sydney Mail, 3rd August, 1901...also see this panorama

You are right, www.flickr.com/photos/202763587@N04/ . Our colleagues at West Hants Historical Society verified your identification. Thanks!

Thanks for that identification, www.flickr.com/photos/202763587@N04/ Liverpool's Town Hall was built in 1902, so we can narrow down the date too.

Mr Mason went inside ...
catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000540449
catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000540450

Earlier (1796) via Pau NG

And in 2014 via Hoodworld

And the splendid Saloon which stretches the whole five window width on the first floor, via eu2013ie

Perhaps George Salmon was Provost at the time of the photo ?

Straight out of the annals of 1860’s master photography. Amazing image making.

Do provosts live there now? In a part that is not all Splendid Saloons and suchlike?

I made a post yesterday about a university election in 1903 and the winner being taken to Mr Stickybacks in Grafton Street. What I didn't mention was that the assembled students knew the announcement of the election was imminent when they spotted "the venerable form of the Provost" approaching the platform in the Examination Hall.

John Spooner Presumably the "victorious champion was borne" up Grafton Street aloft on shoulders...

A Finch who made the newspaper was a Rufus C. Finch.
The Courier-News [Bridgewater, NJ], Mon Jun 1 1908, P. 1, Col. 2
- www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-news-horses-arrivi...
Listed for Box No. 1 is Rufus C. Finch.

But I haven't found evidence that he was a mayor.

A 1951 obituary does not mention that Rufus Crane Finch was a mayor, only that he was a native of Plainfield and an active horseman.
See The Central New Jersey Home News, Jan 22 1951, P. 3, Col. 1.
- www.newspapers.com/article/the-central-new-jersey-home-ne...

See
The Courier-News [Bridgewater, NJ], Fri Jun 5 1908, P. 1
- www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-news-moore-string-...

Includes full list of results from the first day of the show (June 4, 1908) and extensive list of gowns worn by ladies in the private boxes.

"Class 33.--Saddle horses, ladies' saddle horses, 15.1 hands or under -- First, Miss Emily H. Bedford's b.m. Miss Ann; second. Otto H. Kahn's br. m. Poppy St. John; third, Udo M. Fleishmann's ch. m. Mayo; fourth, Rufus L. Patterson's ch. g. Durham."

The Star-Ledger, [Newark, NJ], Fri, Jun 5, 1908 , P. 1
- www.newspapers.com/image/889975198/
has a photo that includes a closer view of Miss Fleishmann, who is at the left in the Bain photo on her father's chestnut mare, Mayo.

Another page from same issue:
Plainfield Horse Show Attracts Jersey Society - Reginald C. Vanderbilt Holding Prize-winner Ribbons
The Star-Ledger [Newark, NJ], Fri Jun 5 1908, P. 4 with photo
- www.newspapers.com/article/the-star-ledger-plainfield-hor...
Includes "Among the costumes noted was that of Mrs. Reginald Vanderbilt, a tailored suit of black and white checked broadcloth, worn with a huge dark brown hat."
See the huge hat in the middle of

For a view of the location, including the stands, see
The Star-Ledger [Newark,NJ] Fri Jun 5 1908, P. 7 with full-width photo of the scene with stands
- www.newspapers.com/image/889975287/

Looks like Harbor Drive in San Diego. The Chevy Suburban at right is blocking the road so the F-102 can be towed across the street.

wild!

Fantastic 😍