August 28, 2003
Shipbuilding
Statue of Admiral William Brown in Buenos Aires
Foxford are getting ready to welcome some visitors - sailors from the Argentine navy. While this is no doubt causing great excitement among the maidens in the town, the sailors are on a serious mission - to honour the founder of the Argentine Navy - Admiral William Brown, who was born in the Mayo town in 1777. The people of Foxford are planning to open a memorial park in his honour - it has not been without it's problems.
Back in 1996, they asked the Argentine Navy for some nautical gear to decorate the proposed memorial park. The Argentines obliged, and gathered two containers of chains, anchors and other stuff and sent it off to Dublin. The memorial committee had asked Enda Kenny for some financial assistance with the shipping - Enda was the minister for Tourism a the time, and more importantly, a Mayo man. He said that "he'd sort them out" if they could get the stuff ( a phrase you often hear in Mayo). Alas, by the time the containers arrived in Dublin, there was a change of government - the new minister was Síle De Valera. One can imagine the steely glint in her eye when asked to fund the project of an opposition TD in a nearby constituency (and a Blueshirt at that!) - she said no. Now, the amount that they were looking for in 1997 was around three thousand pounds. The current bill to retrieve these containers (which have sat in a Dublin dock ever since) is around 18,000 euros. I'm not sure how Sile's gesture squares with her vow on her webpage:-
Representing a west of Ireland constituency, I am very mindful of government policies encouraging measures and mechanisms to dial (sic) with peripheries and in ensuring that such measures will have a positive effect on local communities.
The excavation of the park is about to start (the town was promised a 250,000 euros grant to help with that, but it fell through too) so they made a public appeal this morning on The Pat Kenny Show for the present tourism minister, John O'Donaghue to help them pay the customs bill. They could be waiting awhile…
Recoleta cemetery in Buenos aires. Thegraves seem more luxurious than the surrounding apartments, and are certainly more expensive
There are plenty of memorials to Brown in Argentina - he's buried in the Recoleta cemetary, which is the Buenos Aires graveyard of the rich and famous (Eva Peron is also buried there).
UPDATE:Account of the sailors visit here.
Posted by Monasette at August 28, 2003 10:25 PM | TrackBack