The Quiet Crisis

Good news and bad news, but good news first!

Our Christmas cards are out! We know it's early but can it ever be too early for Christmas?! The cards are from a collection printed by Kelly Cards and part of the proceeds go to Focus Ireland.

photos courtesy of irishphotoarchive.ie

Remember the O'Connell Street photo?! I blogged that earlier because I was starting to get that Christmas itch and lo and behold, it's being used on our cards! I didn't know, I swear! And it's a slightly different view than the one I posted but it's the same idea : )

We are gearing up for The Gathering here in the office and in our excitement we came across an interesting article by The Independent. Some of you may remember the film The Quiet Man because it's extremely iconic and features John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, others may know of it because of the amazing little cottage in North Connemara that is featured in it.

The cottage in 1951

Regardless of what you associate the movie with I'm sure you will more than a little upset, as I was, to find out that the cottage has been allowed to crumble into ruin by a Mr. Gregory Ebbitt. The cottage was purchased by Mr. Ebbitt in 1985 and locals were led to believe that he was going to restore and maintain the iconic building and the surrounding 11 acres. Mr. Ebbitt also led the locals to believe that he had been born in the cabin and that his grandfather was of Irish descent.

The cottage today

Mr. Ebbitt's claims have proved unfounded as the locals later discovered that Mr. Ebbitt has never had family from Ireland and he has let the cottage fall into ruin. Efforts by both the Irish government and the people of Ireland to buy the cottage back from the eccentric man have proved fruitless as he refuses to sell even when offered generous prices. There is a great sense of bafflement by the Irish community as to why Mr. Ebbitt continues to refuse to sell a property he so obviously cares little about. Groups and Committees have been established in an effort to convince Mr. Ebbitt to sell the property but to no avail.

Mr. Ebbitt agreed to sell the property last August as was reported in the Irish Central but he has once again changed his mind to the great disappointment of locals and film lovers alike.

Why the California resident continues to jerk around the Irish government and people is beyond our understanding but we sincerely hope the property gets returned to both the Irish people and the film's fans and restored.

-N-