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EYEING THE PILE of stones, one is spotted that just might fit. Its size and shape is quickly assessed as it is carried over.
“Try the flat side. We can build on top of that.”
The heavy stone is lifted and turned. A smaller one hammered underneath. Initially shaky, it becomes solid. Destined now to sit there for decades to come.
This is main activity of the Tír Chonaill Stone Festival which is taking place this weekend in Ballyshannon Co Donegal. It is one of a number of such stone-themed events this summer.
Louise Price, has been one of the main organisers of the festival since it began in 2014. “It’s hard work and, at the same time, relaxing.”
The nature of the craft makes it a ‘meitheal’ experience, she explains, “an ancient Irish word for cooperative work”. This type of shared work is common in farming communities across the world. “That’s the way we lived for a very long time.”
There has been a resurgence in hand skills including dry stone wall building, she says, as people are “looking for something more authentic in their lives”.
With schemes such as the Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant as well as the high cost of labour, she adds that more people are learning these skills themselves.
Price herself “was hooked” to the craft after she started fixing up an old cottage 15 years ago and learned the skill from men that were doing it up for her.
Hammers and pickaxes are the tools in people’s hands though most have no need for tools as it is the placing of the stone that is the task at hand.
Between trainers (wallers), highly-skilled volunteers and eager-to-learn students, almost 30 people turned up yesterday morning donned in steel-toe boots and work gear. The festival is supported by the local ETB and council.
“This is not only an extremely historic part of Ballyshannon, but it matters a lot as we’re bringing something historic back to life,” Price explains.
The festival moves to a different part of Donegal every year “to allow different communities to enjoy the opportunity”. The wall they’re building this year will form part of a community project, with an orchard planned in the field beside it.
Stone carving is also on offer with a number of students chiselling away under the shadow of Saint Anne’s Church.
It is apt that this is taking place here, according to Barry Sweeny who is part of the Ballyshannon Regeneration Group.
He delicately opens a book with fragile and yellow pages. It is a novel from 1896 by Henry Caldwell Lipsett whose family hailed from the end of the street the church is on.
One of the book’s characters, ‘Old Shan’, was a stone carver whose “favourite haunt” was in the churchyard. Sweeny reads a section that gives an insight into the life of the fictional handyman:
“At the time he did very little work, and used to spend the greater part of his day there stringing rhymes together, while he renewed the inscriptions upon the old weather beaten stones, and made them once more legible.”
This work ethic was not reflected in the builders and carvers yesterday as they were a non-stop team apart from a break for soup and sandwiches at lunch.
The enjoyment of everyone was evident from the high energy chat between munches. The feeling only gained from a well deserved sit down and a satisfying cup of tea after working outdoors.
As the day progressed the piles of stones shrank as they were organised into the 40-metre-long wall.
If you fancy yourself as a waller, other stone festivals are taking place in Fanad Co Donegal and Inis Oírr Co Galway in the coming months. Details of both are not finalised as yet.
Tír Chonaill Stone Festival continues in Ballyshannon from 9am to 4pm today (tirchonaillstonefestival.ie), with the hopes of completing the wall by the time it wraps up.
Not many festival-goers get to leave such a legacy!
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Anybody who murders another person should spend their life in solitary for at least the first 5 years, only attending rehabilitation courses with the maximum of 2 other prisoners twice a week for a couple of hours and not mixing with general prison population. Activists will cry that their human rights have been violated but they gave some of them up when they killed somebody.
I’m all for rehabilitation, but I still think that they shouldn’t be released. The punishment should fit the suffering of the victim, as well as providing sufficient safeguards for all of society. A person who has killed & murdered another human (arguments aside for manslaughter another day) should spend the rest of their natural life in prison until they die there. Likewise, someone who is prepared to go out and murder, is too much of a risk for all the rest of us in society; they shouldn’t be let out and if they are and kill again, then the state should be 100% liable (what little good it will do the victim and their family).
You dont get the concept of human rights if you think they gave some of them up. Having said that I’m sure solitary confinement for their safety or the safety of others isn’t necessarily an abuse of human rights. They still get them out when practical.
@Anto Curran: Life should mean life, make it a deterrent for others and 23 hour lock up is too good for them. I’d have them, doing hard labour also or send them off to the Labour camps in China/NKRP and that should give them food for thought before committing serious crime!
@Gareth Murphy: You obviously don’t get the concept either no matter how”sure” you are! People like you may not be concerned with the mental health of convicted people but when those people have finished their sentences and are released into society with more problems than they went in with, I am “sure” you’d be concerned then.
@Stephen murphy: Life in Ireland **DOES** & can mean Life. Yes there are exceptions etc. but there is no guarantee for any lifer that s/he will ever be released.
There have been people sentenced to life who’ve died in prison; I.e. Served their sentence.
There are others still serving out their life sentences; some 20-30+ years inside.
Anyone released on T.R./Parole from a Life Sentence is out on licence & can be recalled at any time; unlike those whose sentence is pre-determined such as Mr. Halls 18 Years for example.
Once his 18 Years is served (with standard remission I expect that to be maybe 15/16 of actual incarceration if my Maths re 1/4 or 1/3rd Remission is correct…?) he can no longer be recalled unlike an actual lifer who is released & has an infinite & no pre-determined tariff.
@Missyb211: You can argue that about any prisoner no matter what they’re in for or what they’ve done surely?
@Daithi O’Laoghaire: Maybe but I never heard that simply being put in prison has any adverse effects to mental health. I’d say it’s when the prisoners are subjected to violence and threats that ‘s when the mental health is affected, that’s when they come out worse. People seem to forget that being locked up in prison is the punishment for their crime. Crimes against the person including solitary confinement and violence from other inmates is not part of the ‘deal’ . It’s only sick people who want that to be the way.
@missy being deprived of liberty has no adverse effect on mental well-being? It’s the fundamental punishment of being sent to prison.
How did he get manslaughter? They went out to kill someone. They may have ended up shooting the wrong person but its still murder!!
@Hupthejaysus: lol. You should replace the word murder with kill, it’s less confusing.
It’s the quality of the Judges in our Judiciary system.
Poor fella (not), if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.
Solitary confinement me arse.He will get his own cell with Sky Sports and an Xbox.
Why call it life if he only gets 18 years?
because though you only serve 18yrs you are on licence for the rest of your life, the authorities own you and you can be put back into prison at any time no excuse needed.
@Aidan Duggan: I think you’ll find solitary confinement means isolation from human contact , real humans,not Sky news and xbox. lol
@canuckandgo: Mr. Hall wasn’t sentenced to life; McDonnell was.
That’s why Mr. Halls sentence isn’t called life but Mr. McDonnells is.
Former convicted of manslaughter; latter murder.
To *my* knowledge someone convicted of manslaughter can’t be sentenced to life anyway; but as with other crimes a judge can, as he did in Mr. Halls case, set a tariff.
@Martin Ryan: Incorrect; this is only the case for life; once you’ve served the tariff imposed upon you you cannot be recalled.
So if Mr. Hall, with remission is paroled after 15-16 years, once the remaining 2-3 years have passed by, he cannot be recalled for that crime for he will have served his time both inside & outside of prison.
Unlike a life sentence prisoner who is always serving their sentence whether they are released or not.
The opening paragraph implies that hall is serving a life sentence. So the journal has it wrong then as it implies that hall is serving a life sentence with a time period of 18 years. So it’s not a life sentence?
@canuckandgo: Exactly. The Journals headline is misleading here; life sentence is infinite with no definite release date.
Mr. Hall sentence on other hand is determined even if his actual release date isn’t.
Manslaughter sentences length vary; this is quite severe but others can be totally suspended for a period of time etc.
Daithi, you are correct i didn’t explain myself right . I’m friends with a person whose husband got life and he is often picked up and brought back to prison for a couple of months.
@Martin Ryan: We’re not disagreeing on this point; your friends husband is & always will be a lifer; hence always subject to recall for any amount of time at discretion (in theory) of Min. for Justice and/or Parole Board/I.P.S.
My point was re determined sentences as is the case of Mr. Hall in this article; to reiterate; once his 18 are up he can’t be recalled from any Early Release/T.R./Parole he’s received allowing for 2-3 Years Remission.
During his time of early release (say after 15-16 years served of the 18) he is still subject to recall until the 18 are up.
My turn to apologise if any crossed wires on my part sir.
I’m sure I have a little sympathy here somewhere…..now, where did I leave it?
But, but….an innocent 16 year old girl is still very much dead & the fact that they she wasn’t the intended target is totally irrelevant. No punishment, no matter how harsh or severe, will ever punish these two little skangers for killing Melanie. Let them suffer, as much as possible, for as long as possible too. Melanie can never be made “un-dead” but these two murderers will eventually, one day, once again feel the sun on their faces & do everyday things. Melanie never will, ever again.
@Anne Marie Dowdall: Mr. McDonnell may never be released; that’s conjecture.
Mr. Hall will be.
The former was sentenced to life due to no other option being available to the judge.
Mr. Hall will be released & is unlikely to serve full 18 years (allowing for remission of 1/3rd or 1/4 which would mean he’ll be out after 15-16 years **IF** my Maths is correct).
However for remainder of his sentence he is subject to recall at any time until the full 18 years is up.
Ah no, that’s so sad what’s happening to them two lads. I am sure if it wasn’t fear that traumatised em it would have been remorse – yeh right. Doesn’t happen often enough but at least in this case they will reap what they sowed.
Sniff
Isn’t that just the crux of the problem, where government gives better protection to a killer than to the man on the street who has done no wrong.
@Alan Currie. I Don’t know Alan, the idea of keeping someone alive. So they will have to serve out their full sentence in solidarity confinement has a certain evilness about i. That I like.
Watch your back, lads and always keep your arse to the wall and don’t bend over in the shower if you drop your soap!
These 2 killers only get what they deserve! Hope the wardens will look the other way next time!!
He shot a child in the head with a shotgun. Let him into the general population. Why protect child killers?
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture says that Ireland has violated the ‘emerging standard’ on solitary confinement. In other words Ireland has not violated any existing law but a prospective law which he would like to see. I would say that the chances of this standard becoming recognised as international law are precisely nil, given the widespread use of long-term solitary confinement by prison regimes throughout the world.
111 previous convictions before the shooting. If the judical system in this country locked up dangerous s(um early doors, Melanie would still be alive. If it’s any consolation, this fine upstanding gentleman has been slashed, stabbed and had boiling water mixed with sugar poured down his throat since being locked up. The pikeys have a bounty on his head.
Let them out into general population they deserve it
Wonder he couldn’t find a judge to leave him out
Nutter! Should be labotomised and locked up for life!
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