Cammoge Ferry Disaster 1849

[pwaldron]

Anyone with an hour to spare and an interest in the history of county Clare during the famine years should listen to this excellent new radio programe from Raidió Corca Baiscinn, formerly at
http://soundcloud.com/newsloop/cammoge-ferry-disaster
now at
http://www.mixcloud.com/moc/cammoge-fer ... ster-1849/

[pwaldron]

There is also a facebook page for those interested in campaigning for a memorial to be erected to the memory of the 41 people who lost their lives in this 1849 disaster:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cammo ... 3917732733

[Paddy Casey]

Thanks for flagging this most interesting account, Paddy. Apart from the content, the format is refreshingly simple and straightforward (no need for a proprietary player, easily downloadable for listening on the bus). A lot of work was put into this. Sobering stuff.

Paddy C.

[pwaldron]

I've found soundcloud very straightforward, but unfortunately two other readers of this forum have reported to me that they have been unable to listen to the programme, so it doesn't seem to work for everyone.

[moc66]

[quote="pwaldron"]I've found soundcloud very straightforward, but unfortunately two other readers of this forum have reported to me that they have been unable to listen to the programme, so it doesn't seem to work for everyone.[/
I will check it out with our technical people there is another system for uploading I will try and put it on with that tomorrow. Though it maybe that sertain servers are blocking it maybe because of the music on it. Thanks for the nice comments moc66

[Paddy Casey]

....it doesn't seem to work for everyone.

Could be that those people have browsers containing add-ons (e.g. NoScript) which need to be temporarily deactivated in order to listen to the track OR browsers which lack a module needed to play this particular track. In situations like this, if I feel confident about the website I simply try accessing the track/webpage with a different browser, e.g. Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome. It usually works and doesn't need technical knowledge.

Tell those people it's well worth persisting. Sorry to be repetitive but the gripping/poignant/horrifying/sobering account is well-researched* and superbly edited. Many thanks to the authors and contributors. It made me feel different about/thankful for my breakfast this morning.

While listening to it I fired up the Clare Library Gmaps browser at http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... index.html so as to be able to follow the geography of the account, step by step, on the 1840s map. It adds greatly to the account (or did so for me).

Paddy

* Well, OK, to be pedantic I'm not an expert in this field so, in strict academic terms, cannot personally vouch for the quality of the research but it's full of chapter-and-verse from the Government archives of the time and contains a most interesting briefing on how the workhouse "system" of the time worked (or didn't work, depending on whether one was a starving supplicant or a wealthy landlord for whom extra mouths to feed were simply a burden to be shrugged off by whatever subterfuges possible).

[pwaldron]

No insult intended to any of my friends, but some people's technical knowledge doesn't extend to an appreciation of the existence of different browsers! The individuals involved have technical advisors (a son and a grandson respectively), but I doubt either has installed anything like noscript. When I get a chance I'll sit down with them and investigate. Living in different parts of remotest rural county Clare, it may just be simply that their broadband speeds are not up to even streaming audio.

Paddy Nolan's contributions to the broadcast are based on his article Nolan, Paddy: "May He R.I.R." in The Other Clare Volume 30 (2006) 31-37.

[Paddy Casey]

Ah, yes, Paddy. Sigh. The spectrum of knowledge of computer/internet users is indeed wide. The Tech Support logs are full of stories about people who call in to say that the coffee cup holder won't pop out of their computer (they are referring to the CD tray) or that their new computer won't work despite their pressing the pedal repeatedly (the "pedal" being the mouse which the would-be user has placed on the floor on the assumption that its function is like that of a sewing machine pedal). Or the people whose computer screens are covered in blobs of Snopake (evidence of attempts to erase text in Word). And so on.

Thanks for that "The Other Clare" reference.

Paddy C.

[Clare Admin]

Up to recently, you would need to have Adobe's Flash Player installed on your PC to play a Soundcloud 'widget' (and probably an up to date version of Flash Player at that). You can download Flash Player here http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/.

Soundcloud recently introduced a HTML5 widget (as default) and this won't require the user to have Flash installed. See http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/so ... player.php

I've just posted the recording on the library blog (http://clarelibrary.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... -1849.html) using the HTML5 widget, so hopefully it should be accessible by all (although as HTML5 is a new standard it may not work on all web browsers).

Regards,
Clare Admin

[pwaldron]

If you liked the radio programme on the Cammoge Disaster, here is another programme.
http://www.mixcloud.com/raidiocorcabais ... he-edmond/

[moc66]

Hi all
The Sound Cloud link is no longer available I have transferred it to another system called mixcloud hope it is accessible to everyone
http://www.mixcloud.com/moc/cammoge-fer ... ster-1849/
Thanks MOC

[pwaldron]

Belated congratulations to Michael O'Connell for winning an award for the Cammoge Ferry Disaster programme - photo of presentation to his Raidió Corca Baiscinn colleagues at
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... 0489280995

[moc66]

Thanks Paddy sorry I couldn't make it the other evening there will be other lectures good stuff moc66