February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
On the island of Valentia, off the coast of Kerry, it will be both turning and skirling.
That’s because the usual silence of the late hour, barring the not untypical wind of course, will be shattered by bagpipes being played by members of the New York Police Department Emerald Society Pipes and Drums Band.
And what has these officers so far off their normal beats, drums excepted of course?
Well, an idea of Ireland’s Consul General Niall Burgess in New York who is spending the holiday on the island with his family.
The pipers will be playing in Portmagee from 11 p.m. until a half hour or so into the New Year.
In doing so they will be taking part in an island tradition that sees a man dressed in rags and representing the old year being banished into the darkness and the New Year heralded by a piper.
This year it will be pipers plural, specifically Sergeants Keith Rossiter, Brian Coughlan, Kenny Finn and Tom Nolan, Officers Thomas DuBois, Kevin Moloney and Detective Bill Donahue.
They will be carrying a proclamation from New York City Council, facilitated by Speaker Christine Quinn.
The visit closes a year of celebrations of Valentia marking the 150th anniversary of the first telegraph cable linking America and Europe which was brought ashore on the island in 1858.
The visit, according to Consul General Burgess, will also mark the county’s especially strong links with New York. In the 1880s, over a third of all emigrants leaving Kerry came to New York City, ranking it alongside Cork as one of the two counties most connected to the city.