WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 124

Schools Out

A mother repeatedly called upstairs for her son to get up, get dressed and get ready for school. It was a familiar routine, especially at exam time.
"I feel sick," said the voice from the bedroom.
"You are not sick. Get up and get ready," called the mother, walking up the stairs and hovering outside the bedroom door.
"I hate school and I'm not going," said the voice from the bedroom, "I'm always getting things wrong, making mistakes and getting told off. Nobody likes me, and I've got no friends. And we have too many tests and they are too confusing. It's all just pointless, and I'm not going to school ever again."
"I'm sorry, but you are going to school," said the mother through the door, continuing encouragingly, "Really, mistakes are how we learn and develop. And please try not to take criticism so personally. And I can't believe that nobody likes you - you have lots of friends at school. And yes, all those tests can be confusing, but we are all tested in many ways throughout our lives, so all of this experience at school is useful for life in general. Besides, you have to go, you are the headteacher."

WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 123

Giving up Wine

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of euro for dinner.
I took out my wallet, got out ten euro and asked, 'If I give you this money, will you buy wine with it instead of dinner?''No, I had to stop drinking years ago', the homeless woman told me.
'Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?' I asked.
'No, I don't waste time shopping,' the homeless woman said. 'I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive.'
'Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?' I asked.
'Are you NUTS!' replied the homeless woman. I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!'
'Well, I said, 'I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight.'
The homeless woman was shocked. 'Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting.'
I said, 'That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and wine.'

WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 122

Doilies

Thanks to Penny for the pic...

There was once a man and woman who had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about. For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside.
She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted doilies and a stack of money totalling €25,000. He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be married," she said, "My grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doily." The little old man was so moved, he had to fight back tears. Only two precious doilies were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness. "Honey," he said, "that explains the doilies, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?" "Oh," she said, "That’s the money I made from selling the doilies."

the wee heritage shop buncrana

The wee heritage shop free information day 

Have you ever thought about tracing your family history or wanted to know where key archaeological sites are located in Inishowen? If you have then ‘the wee heritage shop’ conveniently situated next door to the post office on the High Street in Buncrana is just the place for you to start an exciting journey of discovery.
Information day this weekend (2nd 0ctober)

This Saturday, (2nd October) two genealogists from the Heritage Society will be getting things moving in the new shop by providing advice on starting to research family trees. “They are on hand to let you know what census records are available, where to start and how to continue your research if you have become stuck,” Adam Porter from the Local Heritage Group tells us. “Experts in the wee shop will be providing advice free of charge on a regular basis at the weekends; it’s an organic process so if anyone has ideas on how to improve the service we would love to hear them. A small donation towards the running cost is all we ask for.”


More information

 

Adam tells us a bit more about this new non profit making information centre and shop. “Inishowen has a rich cultural heritage,” he begins. “Members of the West Inishowen History and Heritage Society felt there was a need for information on Inishowen landmarks and family history and thought that the shop would be a great resource for both local families and tourists. Everything just seemed to fit into place and happen really quickly.” As well as the two qualified genealogists in the group, there is wealth of local knowledge from other group members who are only too pleased the share their knowledge. Everyone involved in staffing the shop are volunteers and giving their time and knowledge at no cost. “This is a community project, run by the community and covers the Inishowen area from Manor to Malin” Adam explains.
Other organisations around the peninsula are involved in the project. “We are working closely with the tourist offices in Inishowen. The team there are extremely helpful and if anyone visits them looking for more detailed information about families and local places of interest they will refer them to us.”

Local crafts
The wee heritage shop also has an emphasis on highlighting local craftspeople around the peninsula. The shop is also providing an outlet for local craftspeople to sell their products. There is a range of old photo’s, landscape paintings, postcard images of local places of interest, homemade cards as well as glass products and jewellery. Adam would like to see more people come forward with their local crafts. “This is a community project and we would love other artists to come on board.” Adam says. “There are so many top quality artists living locally and the shop will be able to showcase their products to a wide audience. “
Adam concludes by telling us what their motivation is for the shop. “Our goal is to promote our Inishowen heritage locally and internationally. Inishowen has the most fantastic heritage on the island of Ireland; this includes our history, our historical sites, our art, our crafts, our music, our literature and most of all our
people!

Check out the shop’s popular Facebook site ‘the wee heritage shop’

If you would like to be involved in this interesting project and volunteer to help run the shop and give help and advice to visitors or if you have an interest in local history, genealogy or arts and crafts then Adam would love to hear from you.

The shop will be open 7days a week
Contact Adam on 0863940704 for more information

Moville Handmade Workshops

 

Hand Made weekend of workshops is an Inishowen Summer Gathering Initiative. Last weekend people gathered in the beautiful outdoor setting at Gulladuff House beside Moville Hostel to learn a variety of
hand skills such as blacksmithing and green woodwork like charcoal making and rustic furniture making. Guest teacher, Joe Gowran from the Coppice Association, Muintir na Coille Co-op, said "Every
community in Ireland will need people with these skills as we face a future of more self reliance and less certainty." Brendan Farren, event organiser and basket making teacher added, "We are delighted
with the standard of the teaching and the enthusiasm and commitment of the students" The next Hand Made workshop is planned for March next year.

WISDOM OF THE WORLD - WEEK 121

 

Thanks to Penny for the pic......

Moral Endings

A teacher told her young class to ask their parents for a family story with a moral at the end of it, and to return the next day to tell their stories.
In the classroom the next day, Joe gave his example first, "My dad is a farmer and we have chickens. One day we were taking lots of eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the truck when we hit a big bump in the road; the basket fell off the seat and all the eggs broke. The moral of the story is not to put all your eggs in one basket.."
"Very good," said the teacher.
Next, Mary said, "We are farmers too. We had twenty eggs waiting to hatch, but when they did we only got ten chicks. The moral of this story is not to count your chickens before they're hatched.."
"Very good," said the teacher again, very pleased with the response so far.
Next it was Barney's turn to tell his story: "My dad told me this story about my Aunt Karen.... Aunt Karen was a flight engineer in the war and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whisky, a machine gun and a machete."
"Go on," said the teacher, intrigued.
"Aunt Karen drank the whisky on the way down to prepare herself; then she landed right in the middle of a hundred enemy soldiers. She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets. Then she killed twenty more with the machete till the blade broke. And then she killed the last ten with her bare hands."
"Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "What did your father say was the moral of that frightening story?"
"Stay away from Aunt Karen when she's been drinking..."