Program Chair, Sandy MeIntire introduced our speaker, Brian Griffin, a long time RCOB member. Brian, served in the Army, then pursued a successful insurance business from which he has retired. He is a leader in Bellingham community development, a local historian, an author on subjects ranging from bees to local history, a luthier builder of ukuleles, a lecturer and a museum docent. Brian’s program was titled “A Founding Father’s Irish Roots” but he spoke not only on that subject but also on his recent trip to India to attend his granddaughter’s Indian wedding. Both were interspersed with pictures and humorous commentary that only a raconteur like Brian could provide.
Brian Goes to Ireland
The Founding Father, the subject or Brian’s talk, was John J. Donovan a man that Brian regards as perhaps the most important leader in the early days of Bellingham. Donovan moved to Fairhaven in 1888, after being educated in the east as a civil engineer and spending time working with the railroads as they built tracks to cities in the west. He was the grandson of a Dennis Donovan, a poor Irishman who emigrated from Ireland to the United States during the great potato famine of them mid 1800’s. Brian, who has been researching, lecturing and writing about the life of J.J. Donovan, wanted to know more about the place the Donovans came from, the little town of Skibbereen in the southwest corner of Ireland. This led him on his quest to visit Ireland last summer, in what was an exciting and rewarding adventure.
Brian’s adventure began at the Cork airport, with the excitement of driving on the left side of the road. He had been advised wisely before he left to avoid a “stick shift” car since it would require shifting with his left hand, and only increase the challenges of driving in Ireland. But once off the main roads he found other challenges – the roads were narrow and brushing his car on the roadside hedges and bumping side mirrors were ever-present hazards.
Once in Skibbereen, Brian connected with Mary Murphy, a local genealogist who through her dedicated research was able to identify from which of the several Skibbereen-area Donovan families J.J. had descended. She was able to pinpoint the location of J.J.’s grandfather’s farm and graciously take Brian to it. On this small plot, now government owned scrubland, the Donovan family up until the famine had been able to raise enough potatoes for subsistence living. Brian toured the area, viewed a local cemetery and was able to develop a good sense of the Donovan family roots and their early family lives. All in all, a successful and exciting trip that has provided Brian with important background to the understanding one of Bellingham’s earliest citizens.
Brian Goes To An Indian Wedding
Brian’s second adventure of the past few months was his trip with his wife Marya to the wedding of their granddaughter to an East Indian man in Mumbai, man she met while they both were working in Australia. Brian related their experiences of being a part of a 4-day wedding event unlike any they had experienced before. The traditions of colorful dress, elaborate ceremonies, dancing, being decorated with henna tattoos, buying Indian clothes and feasting were exciting and exhausting. Brian cited as one example the colorful pageantry of the groom coming to the wedding seated on a white horse, symbolizing the traditional trek of the groom coming from his village to that of his bride and to the wedding. Brian modeled the clothes he wore to the wedding and showed us an example of a 30-foot long fabric that Indian men artfully wind into the traditional turban. The final event of the wedding was truly amazing - an event with food and an open bar for 1200 guests.
As a final wind-down after the wedding, Brian, Marya and many other guests to the wedding from the United States and Australia, traveled by train to a resort several hours north east of Mumbai. Although the train ride was an experience they would not choose to do again, the resort was spectacular and the air, in contrast to the air of Mumbai, was clean. A fitting end to a truly exciting adventure.
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