www.familytreedna.com have just brought in a special offer on the 12 Marker DNA test.
For a limited time Familytreedna (FTDNA) are releasing the 12 marker for the princely sum of $US 39, which is amazing because before it was over $200 !
POWER(S), POOR(E), or POER can also take the test at http://www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Power . Simply a case of paying by Credit Card or Paypal and the Test kit will land on your doorstep shortly after.
Dr. Wally Kirwan, a member of the Steering Group organising and
promoting the Power Clan Gathering 2013 will visit Toronto over 17-20
February to spread the word on this wonderful celebration.
He is hosting a party in PJ O’Brien’s Pub, 63 Colborne St., Toronto at 6.30pm tomorrow, Tuesday the 19th. All are welcome ! Please spread the word if you live in or around the Toronto area.
FREE PINT FOR THE FIRST 25 POWERS !
Ridgley Ceylon Powers (1836-1912) was a Union officer in the American Civil War and a Mississippi politician who served as that state’s Governor from 1871 to 1874. Born in late 1836 to Milo Powers and Lucy Ann Dickinson, his education was attained at the University of Michigan and at Union College in New York, where he took classes in 1862.
During the Civil War, he served as a private in Company C of the 25th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and rose to the rank of colonel by time of his discharge in 1865. After his military service, he moved to Mississippi and settled in Noxubee County, where he ran a cotton plantation. Powers joined Mississippi’s newly established Republican Party in 1868 and was elected lieutenant governor in 1869. Although most Republican officials were very unpopular during the period after the war, Powers retained the confidence and respect of the people during his term as lieutenant governor and later as governor.
Powers died in Los Angeles, California in 1912.
Dermot Power from Dungarvan, Co.Waterford is a digital artist and concept designer who has worked on many well known films, adding to them with his wonderful artwork.
His name may not be as famous as those on whose films he worked, but among his credits to date he can include the Harry Potter films, Batman Begins, Beowulf and Star Wars : Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
Dermot Power has also painted the artwork for several Batman trading cards, and a number of illustrations for the Magic: The Gathering and Warcraft card games. He currently lives and works out of London. For those of you into illustration or digital art, his website is well worth a visit.
Dunhill Castle
by Tom Power, Kill, Co Waterford
Now empty and forlorn you watch the seasons come and go
But what care you for summer sun or a fall of winter snow;
The ivy now grows green around your ancient wall,
No music now or song from within your banquet hall,
No noise around you now but the lowing of the cattle.
But if I stand and listen I might hear the sound of battle.
Cromwell came and did lay siege – he attacked and attacked again,
But each attack was bravely met by your mistress and her men;
around your grounds and ramparts the sound of sword and gun.
After many days of battle they had Cromwell on the run.
But then disaster struck and all because of a drink,
no, not the alcoholic kind, but a keg of butter milk.
The chief gunner was dissatisfied, he expected a stronger brew,
So above your battered walls the surrender flag he flew,
Cromwell then gained entry; revenge was in his eyes,
He blew up the castle and your mistress bravely died;
From inside your broken walls smoke curled up to the sky,
No one loves a traitor so Cromwell hung the gunner high.
Now a ruin you gaze across that lonely Annestown bog,
where you watched them haul the turf in summers now long gone.
You tower above the winding road a reminder of the past,
below you now on that same road cars and tractors travel fast,
but you go back for centuries, perhaps you can recall,
when they were no road, but just a path through oak woods big and tall.
In this peaceful valley now the song birds sweetly sing,
The river Ann flows gently by the ruined castle of Dunhill;
And if you pass this way, going to Annestown or Tramore,
As you gaze up at castle you might see the Mistress De La Poer;
Is that her wandering there, where she fought and died so proud,
Or perhaps it’s just a trick of light, the shadow of a passing cloud.
* Tom Power published a book of poems in 2007, “Waterford In Pictures And Verse”, launched at the Arts Centre Dungarvan by Julian Walton. His novel, “The Mysterious John Grey” is available from orders@choicepublishing.ie.
David ‘Dave’ Francis Powers (1912–1998) was Special Assistant to President of the United States John F. Kennedy during the latter’s term in office.
The son of immigrants from County Cork, Powers was born in 1912, in the Charlestown area of Boston – a waterfront district of three-decker tenements. His father died when he was 2, and at age 10 David got a job as a newsboy, a position that he later said helped him get to know nearly everyone in the area. He attended college at night before joining the Army Air Force in 1942. He served for three years in Asia before being discharged at the end of World War II as a master sergeant.
Mr. Powers was in the motorcade in Dallas when Kennedy was killed, and after the assassination, Mr. Powers remained close to the Kennedy family, visiting often with the slain President’s children, Caroline and John Kennedy Jr.
He went on to assemble and catalogue thousands of pieces of Kennedy memorabilia and to raise money for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum which opened in 1979.
You can now pay for your Power Clan Gathering package by visiting our Packages and Prices page – click here.
As ever, if you require help, have questions or just want to say “ Hi “, please contact us.
In case you haven't heard, 2013 is the year of The Gathering in Ireland. Hundreds of reunions, festivals, and celebrations are on the books, and more are planned every day. From time to time, I will turn the spotlight on Gathering attempting to trace and invite American relatives. And sometimes I will feature Gatherings that just look like a good time!
John O’Connor Power – MP for Mayo 1874-1885 - was one of the most remarkable of the late nineteenth century Irish nationalists. He was born in 1846 in Tulsk, County Roscommon and was the third and youngest son of Patrick Power of Ballinasloe.
In his childhood he contracted smallpox and spent some time in the Ballinasloe workhouse. In 1860 he followed his two brothers to England, taking up work as a house painter in a family business and in a flannel mill in the winter months. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and was one of the leaders on the aborted raid on Chester Castle and at the ‘Manchester Rescue’. In 1868 he spent six months in Kilmainham Jail.
As a member of the IRB Supreme Council, he collaborated with George Henry Moore, forging an alliance between Fenians and constitutional nationalists – a New Departure. After Moore’s sudden death, he enrolled as a student at St Jarlath’s College in Tuam, continuing his Fenian activities. In 1874, against strong opposition, he won a parliamentary seat, becoming the first man of no property to represent County Mayo. In 1876 he was in Washington for the centennial of American Independence and presented a congratulatory address to the House of Representatives, asking for recognition of Ireland’s claim to independence.
His long campaign for amnesty for Michael Davitt and other political prisoners reached a successful outcome at the end of 1877. He was a prominent obstructionist, and the Spy cartoon, which appeared in Vanity Fair in December 1886, is labelled ‘The brains of Obstruction’. He was the only MP present at the tenant rights meeting in Irishtown, which launched the Land War. In the 1880 general election he topped the poll in Mayo.
He was called to the Bar in 1881 and continued to fight for reform of the prison system. A radical and influential journalist, he wrote on Irish issues in American and English journals and newspapers. In 1885 he moved to the Liberals, believing he would be better placed to promote Home Rule. He worked closely with William O’Brien and Michael Davitt on the formation of the United Irish League. In 1893 he married the widow of a surgeon.
Acknowledged to be one of the great orators of his generation, O’Connor Power’s bestselling ‘The Making of an Orator’ was published in 1906. He died at home in Putney in February 1919.
I have an absolute fascination with time in its many guises ~ not least because my days tend to be organised around suitable tides for swimming wherever I go.
I hope you like this poem about time which has captivated me:
Time Is
by
Henry Van Dyke
Time is
Too Slow for those who Wait,
Too Swift for those who Fear,
