Some of us were at the St. Columban project site yesterday (Sunday, August 2nd but unfortunately the continuous hard rain prevented us from being able to do any additional works on the project. Hopefully the weather will be more co-operative next weekend.


[size=10pt]A local newspaper called ?Main Street? in the Laurentians, has profiled our project this month. You can view it at the following locations:- http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/Published-Histories/index.html


Shelia was recently at the Notre Dame des Neiges cemetery in Montreal and found a tombstone related to the Walsh/Gaffney family of St. Columban. Here are the details:


[table]
  [tr]
    [td]Pr?nom[/td]
    [td]Nom[/td]
    [td]Conjoint(e)[/td]
    [td]Date d'accueil[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td][/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]George James[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td][/td]
    [td]21/03/1977[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Irene Margaret[/td]
    [td]Murray[/td]
    [td]Walsh L.p.[/td]
    [td]30/10/1972[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Joseph Thomas[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td]Lavertue Gladys[/td]
    [td]01/06/1959[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Laurence Patrick[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td][/td]
    [td]07/06/1973[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Lorraine Gladys[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td][/td]
    [td]31/12/1984[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Mary Ann[/td]
    [td]Gaffney[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td]11/02/1930[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Mary Jane[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td][/td]
    [td]23/01/1933[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Patrick Henry[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td][/td]
    [td]14/07/1925[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Thomas Patrick[/td]
    [td]Walsh[/td]
    [td][/td]
    [td]12/04/1898[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td][/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]Nombre de d?funts : [/td]
    [td]9[/td]
  [/tr]
[/table]


You can also view a picture of the tombstone at:- http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2221

There are tentative arrangements to return the broken Tombstones to the Cemetery on Thursday, July 2nd 2009 at approximately 10:00am - Depending on weather conditions etc.

Once the placement of the stones in the wall is decided, an approximate list of items needed to complete the project (i.e. bricks) will be made.

.

As you may know, over the last year or so, Kelley O'Rourke has been protecting the broken tombstones at her home in Baie D'Urfe

During this time, she has also cleaned them, and transcibed the information. Now with Jeff's help, the photos and inscriptions on various stones have now been added (or in some cases updated) on our site. You can view these stones and their inscriptions on the main page under the heading "View Photos and Inscriptions of the Broken Grave Markers" - you can go directly to this page at:

http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=11&g2_navId=xf9686caf

Thanks Kelley (and Jeff) for all this terrific effort !

The Irish O'Quebec show at the McCord Museum in Montreal will be on for a few more months. It is worth a visit and does include some items from St. Columban. They have also now posted a video on their McCord site that you might like to view at:

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/expositions/expositionsXSL.php?lang=1&expoId=55&page=accueil

Hi everyone,

Baie D'Urfe is hosting a garden tour this coming Saturday, June 20th, from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. It is free of charge and all are welcome. The headstones will be on display as well as a description of the cemetery restoration project featured in one of the gardens. I will be on hand to answer any questions you may have.

Cheers, Kelley O'Rourke

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Just testing out the new discussion board format - It looks great Jeff...

Also, just a note that I was interviewed on the CJAD Irish Show Podcast about our Restoration project. It can be heard, of course, on any computer from anywhere in the world. And it is posted under the show for June 15th 2009. I believe the direct link is at:-

http://www.cjad.com/media/944122/Irish+Show+-+June+15%2C+2009  

It is just a quick update about St. Columban in general and our project in particular.

Take Care everyone

Reposting as notifications were disabled:

Hello folks, some of you may have noticed I updated our Discussion Board today to a hopefully new and improved version. As with any upgrade there lies the possibility something may not function exactly as before or as you expected or I simply missed something however, the benefits of the new system should outweigh the old. I'll be looking at more enhancements once everyone if comfortable with the update.

The developers of the old software YaBB were not keeping up to date with current technology very well and they did not support French in the interface very well. Something that's important to our members. This new system will allow you to change the interface to French after you login as your preference. Look under the Profile link on the navigation bar.

Generally everyone should notice this system is much faster and a bit less complex to use. Behind the scenes we upgraded to a database system that is more stable and much easier to back up our data and postings.

Please be sure to let me know right away if you experience any technical issues with using the forum or logging on. Just a reminder you will need to use your assigned username (not your real name) when logging in. The old system would allow you to use both however, this is not a feature of this system. If you don't know your username let me know right away and I will help you to login.

Hope all works well for everyone.

Enjoy!

Jeff Legault
jeff.legault@rogers.com

   As some of you may know, each year, members of the Montreal Irish Community march from St. Gariel's Church on Centre St. to the "Black Rock" found just on the Montreal side of the Victoria Bridge.
    The "Black Rock" is the site where about 6000 Irish immigrants perished from the Fever when they arrived in Montreal around 1847 - For additional information, you can view an article in the Montreal Gazette at:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/etched+stone/1649917/story.html

    And Jeff has also posted some of our pictures from this walk at:

http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1884

ANNE McLAUGHLIN

One of the descendants that have worked so very hard on our St. Columban project since we started back in 2005 was Anne McLaughlin.

About a year or so ago, Anne moved to South Africa to be with her daughter.

I regret to inform you that I noticed in today?s Montreal Gazette, (May 30th 2009) that Anne passed away on April 19th 2009 in South Africa.
She will really be greatly missed by our St. Columban group.

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I am very, very pleased to report that after almost 4 years of planning and fundraising, that the work on our Cemetery Project has started.

On Tuesday, May 19th 2009, the Town of St. Columban dug the trench necessary for the foundation thanks to the efforts of Claude and the Mayor.

Ken Neil has done a tremendous amount of work in being on the site and directing this trench digging operation.

The next step is that hopefully tomorrow, May 21st, a foundation company will start the installation of a very strong foundation (again designed by Ken) that we hope will last for many, many years.

And then in a week or so, we will start the brick work to build the walls.

It is all very exciting that we have now started!

It would appear that we have enough funds to complete all three foundations and build one or three of the walls. However, we still hope to receive more donations to make a pathway, install some benches, make a proper garden and maybe help repair the fence that faces the main road. etc.

So, if any of you would like to make a donation to this cause, the information is on the front page of our main site that includes the address of The St. Patrick's Society of Montreal who accepts donations on behalf of our project.

I am sure that we will also set up a section on the site to show photos and maybe even videos of the work as it progresses.

Thank you to everyone that has worked so hard to make this happen !!

Fergus