Historical walk in Brideswell

Recently the children of Brideswell NS and the wider school community witnessed the raising of their second green flag. Sixth class pupil and chairperson of the Green Schools Committee Edel Carroll outlined the various activities that took place in the school to reduce the school's energy usage and to increase environmental awareness. The Green Code for the energy theme was "Modern Technology owes Ecology an Apology" An energy management plan drawn up by the Green Schools Committee was distributed on the day. After ice-cream and a little chat everyone assembled at Cam Cemetery for a local history walk, conducted by local historian Willie Gacquin. The audience heard about "Log na bPéist" (the site of a penal mass rock), the division of land by the Congested Districts Board in Cam Lodge in 1913, Harry's dance hall, combined with a visit to the oldest inhabited house in the parish (Byrne's house, Sallow Grove). Mr Gacquin pointed out that emigrants today have email and skype, but in the era of the famine years, local emigrants firstly went to Canada and then made their way to the USA. Willie read advertisements from the newspaper "The Boston Pilot" placed by people from the locality who were searching for a brother or sister and in one case a husband. Standing outside the Dolan house listening to Willie, reading a letter from Michael and Thomas Dolan in 1867 to their brother John, who had emigrated 20 years previously, made the historical walk a living link with the past.