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Volume 1; Issue 1 - January 2002

Our first editorial gives a brief history of the Celtic Links Newsletter, how it developed, its aims and future hopes. The format will be very different in subsequent issues but this might help you to see where it all started and to give you fair warning of my 'style'.

I have a quirky sense of humour, a tendency to get on my 'soapbox' at times and tread where angels fear to go on controversial issues. I'm a bit of a soccer and GAA  fanatic so there'll be sporting news aplenty, political debate, economic updates with a personal touch and tongue in cheek comments - in fact anything that takes my fancy! Now's your chance to unsubscribe!!!

The main focus will be Irish but as we also have a Scottish and Welsh component to the website, news from those regions will be available on the website too. Each newsletter will be archived here in the Shop Irish website.

My name is Mary Mullins, aka Moytura, editor, Mom of 6, Grandmother of 4 (with no. 5 arriving shortly), web designer and recent first-time BA graduate. Until October 1997 my professional life was in nursing but an old back injury put a stop to that! Part of my work involved statistical analysis and I'd bought my own computer to cut down on out-of-hours office work. So the decision to change life's direction was a fairly easy one - make my 'puter work for me!

Following an 18 month training period I set out on a new journey - the weird and wonderful world of the Internet with web designing and Internet Marketing. I now work from an office at home and am having more fun than you could imagine. The door to the world has opened to me in more ways than one and quite literally. 

My own roots are Irish - Dad was from Sligo and Mom from Monaghan. I was 'bread 'n buttered' in the UK Midlands - Birmingham - but I always say if I was born in a stable I wouldn't be a horse, so I'm Irish to the core! We live in Galway on the west coast of Ireland and it has to be one of the most beautiful and interesting places on earth. We are surrounded by ancient, mythical and early church history, as well as reminders of more 
recent history. 

Visitors to the Moytura website will see that I love 'Old'. My 'practice' website in the early days was to write about places here in Ireland that I like to visit and show to others when they visit. For those of you who haven't visited you can 'journey with me' to some of these places and see where I live.

An English education did not include Irish history and I found myself having a fascination with our Irish Famine Period. So much so that I started my own 'Famine Journey' 
on the Westport page, 'travelling' to Sligo to find the 'Coffin Ships'  departure point and ending up in Grosse-Île, a tiny island on the Saint Lawrence river about 30 miles east of Quebec.

Internet chat rooms, a fascination for many of us who venture online initially, found me many friends and one was a fine lady in Milwaukee. She was editor at the time for a newly formed organisation called Celtic Women International and asked me to write an article or two for their newsletter. This opened another door and I am now an advisor to their Board and their website designer. Celtic Women International is looking for new members all over the world. So, if you're a Celt with roots in any of the Celtic Nations - why not join us. All are welcome - men, women and students and annual subscription is only $25. More on that in future issues of the newsletter.

More journeys! In January 2001 I paid my first ever visit to the US for their inaugural new Board meeting in New Orleans - now is that ever a fascinating city! In October 2001 I travelled to their 4th International Conference in Milwaukee and hope to see much more of the US through my involvement with them. By the way - Galway will be the venue for their 2005 International Conference.

I have a bit of a 'spiritual' leaning and paid my first visit to Medugorje in 1998, a small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This experience was repeated again in June 2001 for the 20th anniversary of the 'reported' apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I say 'reported' for your sake as the Church has not yet officially announced on them but I personally believe all that is happening - it would be a fool who would say that all is well in the world and Her request is for a return to prayer and  reconciliation, among other things, in not without reason. And that's my final word on the spiritual side of me, 'cept of course, when some of those controversial issues come up and I pull out 'me' soapbox!

So, back to the Celtic Links newsletter!!!!!! Last year it dawned on me that there is a large number of people out there with an interest in their European Heritage, and none more so than the Irish Diaspora, of which I believe there are almost 100 million spread worldwide. So I added a couple of pages on genealogy and ancestry to the Moytura website. This has now developed into a complete genealogy resource website and at the final stages of editing. It can be found both here in the Shop Irish site or at its own domain - the final editing is being completed and the links corrected and will be fully functional within days.

I also added an Irish Book Store and an Irish Video Store to the 'Moytura Stable' and work is in progress on an Irish Music Store. Then the thought came - why not pull together a 
complete Virtual Irish Shopping Mall where folk could get the very best of Irish goods all in the one place. Thus 'Shop Irish With Moytura'  was conceived, birthed and delivered just this month. And what's a great way to keep people informed? Why a newsletter of course! Hence the Celtic Links Newsletter. So, there you have it all, in the proverbial (large) nutshell. As mentioned, subsequent issues of the Celtic Links Newsletter will be more traditional. Our aim is to provide snippets of news from this side of the 'puddle' and provide those interested with updates on new additions to the website.
 

Irish Books

Irish Music

Irish Videos

 God Bless, hope to 'see you all' next month.

Mary Mullins

Next Issue

Those of you with an interest in Ireland might enjoy a quick visit to our sister site - Moytura.com where you can journey with Mary through some of her favourite places in the West of Ireland and to other places she enjoys visiting a little further afield. Or perhaps relax a while on her Reflections pages. Below are some of Moytura's other websites, just use the back button to return you to the Irish Shop: