The Daily Tribune from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin • Page 3

THE DAILY TRIBUNE Second Section INFORMING THE SOUTH COUNTY A A OF I I Wednesday, November 18, 1970 Castle in Ireland will be summer home for O'Day family of Rapids By Lorena Paap Tribune Staff Writer A Wisconsin Rapids family of Irish heritage now owns a castle in Ireland. John B. O'Day 911 32nd whose great- grandparents emigrated from County Clare, and Mrs. O'Day recently returned from Ennis, seat of the county government, and Dublin, where the necessary documents were presented and papers- signed, for acquiring Dysert O'Dea castle. Along with the castle, located three miles out of Corofin, beside Ballycullinan Lake on the brink of the Burren (a limestone desert), the local descendant of Dysert O'Dea acquired six and one half Irish acres, or approximately 10 of our acres.

The castle was built in 1480 as a fortress to withstand various invasions by other i The O'Deas, descendants of the Dalcassian clan, which can be traced back to 2000 B.C., were well known Clare warriors. They held the province and were not driven out by the English until after Cromwell in 1653. The castle was so situated that four other castles could be seen from its top. From its valley, location, ap- proaching enemies could be seen coming over the hills. The O'Deas, during the Middle Ages, looked a those who lived in cottages on the O'Dea lands, which they in turn fought to save.

In time of seige, all were sheltered within the castle, and even livestock was driven into the ground floor area. castle is approximately 30x40 feet and 68 feet high. It has a spiral stone stairway and five floors. The fireplaces and dungeon hole are still intact. The windows and roof were removed when the English put a tax on any castle that was livable.

Only one wall remains of the large 40xlOO-foot banquet and dance hall, where the landowner entertained all of the families in his clan. That the castle is still standing and is relatively sound is due to the fact that ox blood was mixed in the mortar to hold the stones together. Not counting the ground floor, the first was of stone, the second wood, the third stone and the fourth wood with the stone roof above. Wood timbers rotted away, which means that two floors have to be replaced. But a new roof comes first, according to O'Day.

The castle was sold to Mr. O'Day by Brendan Keane of Ennis, a butchershop owner and farmer, who is also a descendant of Dysert O'Dea. The new owner plans to have it fully restored in 15th century style and to. use it as a summer home. This is the second year that he has visited the castle after locating it on a first trip to Ireland in 196S.

Last year the O'Days took i of their family of six, ages 8 to 22. Next spring his father, John B. O'Day who is familiar with construction, plans to go tc Ireland to oversee some of the reconstruction. Two of his grandsons, John, 15, and Grady, 16, are -planning to spend the summer there to do what they can to help with the work, having already, earned money for the trip. Mr.

and Mrs. O'Day also plan another trip there early in 1971. After acquiring the property, they arranged with a Dublin architect, John C. Scannell, to draw up plans for the castle's restoration to its original state. Stone workers were also contacted.

The purchase was made at this time because of the change in the economy of Ireland, with property values rising rapidly in the past two years. DOORWAY TO THE CASTLE Here John O'Day stands in the doorway of his newly acquired castle, near the historic St. Tola's Church. A hole above the entrance originally was fitted with a loose stone. When an umvclcomed guest came in the entry, the rock or tar was released on his head.

Meetings set on dropout problem Dr. Almon G. Hoye, director of Marshall- University High School, the recently merged Minneapolis public and laboratory school at the University of Minnesota, will be guest speaker at two meetings this week, one of the Wood County Council of Social Agencies (COSA), and Ihe other of the COSA Subcommittee on High School Dropouts. Mrs. Janet Mensching, assistant supervisor, Wood County Health Home Nursing Service and subcommittee chairman, said that all area school administrators, junior and senior high school principals and guidance counselors have been invited to attend the meetings, at which Dr.

Hoye will discuss programs for school dropouts. The first meeting, an informal one, will be at 3 p.m. Thursday in the emergency government room of the Courthouse here, followed by a second meeting at 9 a.m. Friday in the Fla-ne Room of the Wisconsin Gas Co. at Marshfielci.

Dr. Hoye, on leave from the Minneapolis school, is studying innovative approaches to educating culturally alienated younj; people, educating the so-called "uneducable student" and in decreasing the number of high school dropouts. Last year at Marshall- University High School only 19 of 1,300 students dropped out. A former principal of the University of Minnesota Laboratory School, Dr. Hoye has designed flexible program schedules for several junior and senior high schools in Minnesota and at Seattle, Wash.

Mrs. Mensching said the COSA dropout committee was formed in April 1967 and has worked with various agencies and schools in exploring the dropout problem locally. In October the committee met with members of the Wisconsin Rapids Board of Education and presented findings of a survey on the dropout problem with recommendations for school action. "The committee is now active in attempting to utilize community concern in forming a project to aid the dropout student," Mrs. Mensching said.

In order to prove descen- dancy from the O'Deas and purchase the castle, it was necessary to get certified copies of birth, marriage and death certificates to show that his great-grandparents were born in Ireland, as well as records for his grandfather, his father and himself. His great-grandmother was a McNamara. The castle stands near the famous ruins of St. Tola's Church, the Round Tower and 12th century High Cross, now owned by the Historical Society of Ireland. Church and tower were built on the site an early Christian monastery founded by St.

Tola, who died in 735 A.D. The doorway in the church, reconstructed about 1680, is Hiberno Romanesque, a fine i i a frieze of beautifully carved geometric motifs, foliage and almost mongoloid human masks. It is the only one of its kind in Europe, its uniqueness due to changes made at the time it was rebuilt. Also the High Cross in the field adjoining the castle is famous for its sculptured effigy of St. Tola and a crucifixion scene.

In 1683 the cross was repaired by Michaele O'Dea, son of Conor Crone O'Dea, who lived in the castle. A replica of the cross and Scientists oppose bill on security WASHINGTON (AP) -About 750 top scientists including six Nobel Prize winners are urging the Senate to kill a defense facilities and industrial security proposal they say is "a bill of horrors." The scientists from 138 universities, medical schools, hospitals and research institutions in 35 states and Washington, D.C., signed a petition "against what they see as a threat to their work in the laboratories," a spokesman said. A delegation arranged a meeting with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, today to present the petition opposing the House-passed bill, which would apply to campus research on classified military projects.

Petition signers include Nobel laureates Hans Bethe, Arthur Kornberg, Salvador Luria, Linus Pauling, Albert Szent-Gyorgyl and Georga a I plus presidential scientific advisers Jerome Wiesner and Jerrold Zacharias of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kistiakowski cf Harvard, the spokesman said. Backers of the legislation, which cleared the House 274 to 65 last January, call it an effective means of balancing a individual's interests against the nation's security interests. Rep. Richard H. Ichord, D- chairman of the House Internal Security Committee, says it would bar subversives from sensitive positions in defense facilities and from a i i classified i formation.

Kennedy ngrees with the scientists' views and called the bill unnecessary, unwise and almost certainly unconstitutional. He said it gives the president and secretary of defense 'power to designate virtually any institution a defense facility and to investigate any person connected with that institution. Other opponents say the bill is a serious threat to personal liberties and an attempt to overcome eight Supreme Court decisions on civil rights. Under the bill, the president would have power to institute a personnel security screening program to determine an individual's eligibility for access to sensitive positions in defense facilities. romanesque doorway are in the Dublin Museum.

The crosier and mitre of Bishop Conor O'Dea, bishop of Dysert O'Dea, are in Limerick, where the O'Days were permitted to view them. Presented to the bishop in 1418, the pastoral staff and bonnet-type headgear are of solid gold, studded with gems. Gems, ammunition and important books were stored in the Round which in the 16th century was converted into a fortification as the narrow slits and the window high up show. Entrance was made via a rope ladder. thousand visitors, mostly tourists, visited the cross and St.

Tola's Church this year. Cousins the O'Days have located in the area are Canon James O'Dea, Clarinbridge, County Galway, who is writing the ancestry; Kitty O'Dea, Kilfenora, County Clare, who plays with the all- Ireland champion Kilfenora Ceili band, and Paddy O'Dea, Ennis, health inspector for County Clare, who has heirlooms to place in the castle after restoration. Father Martin Ryan, parish priest of Dysert O'Dea, is writing up ancestry for the O'Days. Jimmy Morgan, Corofin publican and overseer, and Michael Brendan O'Maoileoin, solicitor from Dublin, helped in legalizing the sale. DYSERT O'DEA CASTLE IN IRELAND This castle, built by Dysert O'Dea in County Clare, Ireland in 1480, is now owned by John B.

O'Day a Wisconsin Rapids resident of Irish ancestry. Ivy covers the walls of the five-story structure, which is to be restored to its original state by the new owner. Officials concerned over rash of booby traps SAIGON (AP) An enemy booby trap killed five Americans today, more casualties tnan 6,000 South Vietnamese troops have suffered in two days of operations in Cambodia. The crude explosive device ripped through a unit of the 106th Brigade as it moved out af'er breakfast through rolling foothills 42 miles southeast of Da Nang. American officers have become so alarmed over a recent rash of booby trap and mine deaths in the region north and south of Da Nang thnt they are offering cash rewards to peasants who tip them off to locations of the deadly devices.

Of 53 Americans reported killed in combat in the past 11 days, 30 have been the victims of booby traps and mines. One U.S. official estimates that such devices are causing 60 per cent of the U.S. deaths in action. Meanwhile, more than 6,000 Vietnamese troops pushed deeper into the mountainous jungles of northeastern Cambodia on two smashing North Vietnamese base camps and staging areas, and seizing food supplies and communications equipment, including field radios and telephone switchboards.

a was generally light, with 56 North Vietnamese killed and 24 captured since the two forces crossed the border on Monday. The government said its total casualties were two killed and three wounded. i a a a said the primary aim of the two drives was to search out enemy base areas that could support attacks in Vietnam's central highlands. The U.S. Command reported that American observation helicopters spotted North Vietnamese troops around a complex of bunkers half a mile inside Vietnam near the Cambodian border north of the South Vietnamese sweep.

The Vietnamese fired on the helicopters, which called in American fighter-bombers. After three hours of air strikes, the bodies of 18 North Vietnamese were counted and 32 bunkers were destroyed, the U.S. Command said. There were no American casualties. i a headquarters a termination of another ground operation in Cambodia about 20 miles southeast of Phnom Penh on the east bank of the i ENEMY WOUNDED A wounded North'Vietnamese soldier is dragged by Cambodian troops back to their headquarters.

The man was wounded during a fire fight near Kom- pong Cham, Cambodia. (AP Wirephoto) headquarters said 50 North Vietnamese were killed in the four-day operation, 41 were captured and 61 suspects were a i Eleven South Vietnamese were reported killed and 28 wounded. In the past three weeks, Saigon forces have launched five major operations in Cambodia, trying to thwart preparations for any dry- season offensive the enemy may plan and also trying to ease pressure on Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. A Cambodian spokesman "great military activity" along the 32 miles cf Highway 7 between Skoun and the battered provincial capital of Kompong Cham, the western anchor of the Cambodian government's northern front 47 miles northeast of Phnom Penh. Most of the Skoun-Kompong Cham highway is under enemy conrrol, and the spokesman said a fresh North Vietnamese regiment, the 174th, had moved south across the road.

During the night, the North Vietnamese forces mortared the Kompons Cham airport, killing one Cambodian soldier and woundins two. North Vietnamese forces also made a two-hour attack on Skoun, but the Cambodian command said there was no damage. As the withdrawal of American forces continued at a steady rate, Thailand's Premier Thanom Kittikachorn announced in Bangkok that hilf of his country's 12,000 troops in Vietnam would be brought home by next February and the rest before the end of 1972. Their withdrawal was not likely to cause any concern among the U.S. and South Vietnamese commands since their contribution to the war effort has been slight.

Birth control data for all backed by panel 1 MADISON (AP) A recommendation that birth control m- formation be given to married and unmarried persons upon re, quest was endorsed Tuesday by a state task force on welfare payments. The panel said family planning information should be given only by licensed physi- "cians. Adoption of the recommendation by the Legislature would require revision of a state law which bans the sale of "indecent articles," including birth control divices, to unmarried persons. lEWSPAPERf.