March 22 - Irish History from Denis Cowhig
Our speaker last week was NxNE Austin Rotarian Denis Cowhig. Since St. Patrick's Day had just past, Denis told us a bit about his history. St. Patrick was born about 389 in Wales at the end of Roman Empire. He was captured as slave by Irish raiders, but later made it back to Wales where he become a priest. He had vision to go back to Ireland, and become one of its 1st Christian missionaries. He co-opted the shamrock and the #3, which were both looked at favorably by the Celts, used to explain the Trinity. The story of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland is a myth as there are no snakes in Ireland historically Denis also told about the famine in the 1840s when 850-900 thousand died and 2 million left Ireland. Denis is a distance cousin of the early 1900s Irish politician Michael Collins, who was the 1st president of Irish free state, but later was assassinated. Denis included with his talk pictures of his trip to Ireland to visit his relatives.