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Volume 5, Issue 6
Irish tyrant drives legendary LA water project
An Irish immigrant obsessed with an engineering challenge of epic proportions, William Mulholland brought the Owens River to Los Angeles through a combination of determination and deceit. His accomplishment earned him not only the honor of being the namesake of Hollywood's famed Mulholland Drive but his project was the focal point of several movies including the film-noirish Chinatown and Mulholland Drive.
Born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1855 into a family of modest means, Mulholland spent his childhood in Dublin. He left home at age fifteen to become a sailor, arriving in New York City in the early 1870's. He worked for a time in the Michigan lumber camps and at a dry-goods business in Pittsburgh, and arrived n San Francisco in 1877. After a brief stint as a miner in Arizona, during which he was hired to fight the Apache, Mulholland moved to the Los Angeles area.
In 1878, Mulholland began what was to be a lengthy engineering career with an inauspicious beginning — as a ditch-cleaner for Los Angeles' private water company. Eight years later, the self-educated engineer had become superintendent. When the city took over the water system, Mulholland was retained as head of the Department of Water and Power, a position he would occupy until 1928.
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Volume 5, Issue 6
Oireachtas 2003 winners
Regions' competition qualifies dancers for World Championships and North American Championships.
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Volume 5, Issue 6
The anatomy of Irish figure dancing
by Donagh Corcoran ADCRG — Cork, Ireland
The figure dances are the heart and soul of indigenous dancing — they capture the spirit and social entertainment of Irish society. A prerequisite of planning a trip to Ireland should include a few ceili dance lessons so when the tables and chairs are cleared for dancing you can join in the fun. You definitely will be a hit with the locals!
However, competitive figure dancing requires the precision and practice of a well trained military unit.
The casual observer will see no connection between mathematics and high quality figure dancing. Such a person will merely see a group of dancers working together as a team either enjoying themselves or perhaps going though the motions with boring routines. Teachers, adjudicators and dancers who enjoy figure dance performance will have a different view. They will have accepted the challenges presented by each figure dance. In order to achieve success they will have worked to perfect the movements in a figure dance sequence. These movements normally consist of a lead around, the body of the dance and figures, which show patterns of movement and finally intricate hand formations.
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Volume 5, Issue 5
Captain Francis O'Neill — Champion of traditional music
Captain Francis O'Neill was the General Superintendent of Police in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. He preferred the title Captain to Chief or Superintendent, which perhaps gives us some insight into the man. By any measure he led an exciting life. He was born in County Cork and there he learned to play the flute. At the age of sixteen, he was given a letter of introduction to the local bishop. His family sent him off to a life as a priest but he had a change of mind and ran away to sea.
He circumnavigated the globe and was later shipwrecked in the Pacific. He was rescued and landed in San Francisco, then did some ranching in Montana, before going to Chicago by way of New Orleans and Missouri. In Missouri, he married a young lady, Anna Rogers, whom he had met when she was an outbound passenger on one of his voyages from Ireland.
He and his wife moved to Chicago in 1870, shortly before 1871's Great Chicago Fire. He came to Chicago to work as a sailor on the ore boats that cruised the Great Lakes. But fate intervened and the Captain ended up as a patrolman on the Chicago Police force. He was on the force less than a month, when he was shot by a burglar. He carried the bullet, lodged near his spine, until his death. Even though he was wounded in the shoot-out he still managed to arrest the felon and bring him into the station. Not a small feat when you consider that patrolmen in those days walked their beat.
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Volume 5, Issue 5
Santy and the six-year-old Whistle Blower
From Jim McAuley, Ireland Editor, Hornpipe
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