Latvia--August 2009

Our trip to Latvia last summer is now 3 months into history and so far I've intended, but not followed through with, posting blog entries to document it. I have the picture above set as background on my laptop desktop as a reminder. It was taken from the observation tower of St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Old Riga, looking north toward the mouth of the Daugava River in the Baltic Sea.



The week-long stay was my second to Latvia (my first was in 2005) and Beth's first and once again I was determined to search for more details of my ancestors' lives there in the 19th century. In 2005, the search concentrated on my Great Great Grandfather Johann Karl Ludwig Maddaus, an artist and art teacher in Riga. I was also looking for a connection to Andzs Rathminder of Vecpiebalga, presumed to be my Great Grandmother's father, but nothing could document their relationship.



Fortunately, in spite of Russification, two World Wars, German repatriation, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Stalin and Hitler, Nazi Invasion and near 50 year Soviet occupation, Latvia has been independent. Even more miraculously, a fair amount of historical information is available and my ancestors had profiles that warranted modest recording.



A recent breakthrough was the internet access to Raduraksti which consists of digitized records from many of the churches that were active in Latvia in the 19th century. Thanks to some hunches I followed in my search, I was able to find my Great Grandmother's baptism record and her parents names: Johann and Marie Rathminder. Johann's name in Latvian is Janis Ratminders, and he was the younger brother of Andzs Ratminders. Why my Great Grandmother mis-represented her parentage is unknown, but the clarification has opened up new insights to her up-bringing.



Our visit included viewing 9 of Johann Maddaus's paintings in a variety of locations including The National Art Museum in Riga, an exhibit at Rundale Palace, and churches in Garkalnes and Tirza, and a church in neighboring Paistu Estonia. We were taken to the site of Johann's burial plot at the Great Cemetery (Lielie Kapi) in Riga and to another church in Carnikava that once had an altar painting he painted. Both were obliterated during Soviet times, but were among those restoration projects which have been prevalent in Latvia over the past 18 years.



We visited Bauska, Baltezer's, Garkalnes, Carnikava, Vecpiebalga, Gaizinkalns, and Tirza, and met some of the most wonderful people, many of whom I had contacted by email prior to our arrival. We were treated with tremendous hospitality everywhere we went, and at times felt that it was as deeply moving for our hosts to have a great-great grandson of Johann Maddaus to visit his work as it was for me to see it. In many ways the circle had been closed with our meeting.

St. Patrick's Day

Watching the news of all the St. Patrick's Day parades and celebrations brought back memories of our Thanksgiving trip to Ireland, so I finally put together a movie consisting of some of our favorite pictures set to Kevin Dolan's brilliant "Oh, To Be in Ireland."

Whether or not I can trace my ancestry back to the McBrides of Donegal or the Willises or another small slice of Irish blood, I feel I have a bit in spirit, in any case.

Galway Ireland

Our visit to Galway was timed as a lunch stop on the way to Limerick (actually we hoped to see the Cliffs of Moher as well, but the day was too short).

We walked through the pedestrian-only shopping district, along William Street

taking in some beautiful music along the way

to Finnegan's on Market Street.

Finnegan's, according to Lonely Planet: "Authentic, utterly unpretentious Irish cooking

and an equally authentic clientele (Beth had the 'homemade shepherd's pie')

make this a wonderful spot for comfort food."

I fulfilled a childhood goal growing up in Galway, NY--visiting Galway, Ireland.

Mullaghmore Head Ireland

After Thanksgiving Dinner at the beautiful Slieve Russell Hotel in County Cavan Ireland, we traveled north and west to our first view of the west coast of Ireland at Mullaghmore Head in County Sligo. Passing Classiebawn Castle, one-time home of the ill-fated Lord Mountbatten, we continued to where sea, sky and clouds formed a brilliant scene.

Dramatic scenery appeared in every direction.

Donegal Bay to the north.

Atlantic Ocean looking west.

The sheep enjoy the view every day.

Jacob took a break and gazed across the Bay to Donegal.

Thanksgiving in Belfast NIE

In the early nineties, my band-mate Mike Ladd introduced us to a haunting Nanci Griffith tune called "It's a Hard Life Wherever You Go," and it became a regular on our playlist. His rendition was at once awesome and chilling. The song's central image is that of an American tourist riding in the back seat of a cab through the divided West Belfast district at a time when "The Troubles" were in full force.

This year, with a resort hotel in Cavan our Thanksgiving dinner destination and all day to get there, I calculated that the route from Dublin to Belfast was just over 100 miles by expressway, giving us plenty of time for a lunch stop and a quick tour of the city. We strolled through the downtown area, flush with a Christmas Market at City Hall and booths selling gifts and food, and I stumbled on a BBC One reporter doing man-in-the-street interviews. My question was pretty easy: "Which do you prefer, a real Christmas tree or an artificial one?"


The city is vibrant and our visit pleasant but I wanted to see the Murals of West Belfast most of all. We hired a black taxi and were on our way. Our driver gave us a thorough tour of the Shankill and Falls Road areas and while he had a definite bias, it was apparent that both sides contributed to the long-term
conflict. The murals were numerous and impressive, an art genre unto themselves, and we stopped at a number of memorial sites as well. The 'peace wall,' meant to protect a Catholic neighborhood from drive-by shootings, and gated side streets, stand as additional reminders that the troubles are recent history.

We came away troubled ourselves, that such killing could take place so widely, and for so long, between people not unlike ourselves. Our driver did say that the last two years have been quiet, hopefully a sign that the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 is having some lasting effect.

It seemed appropriate to match Nanci Griffith's song with our photos in the video that follows, although hopefully we can say that it's not 1990 any longer in either Belfast or Chicago.

I know we still have a way to go, but at least we can be thankful this Thanksgiving for some measure of peace.

Lough Gur Ireland

Lough Gur is located 21 kilometers southeast of Limerick City where "deep in the rolling hills of County Limerick, an enchanting and rich archeological landscape is simply waiting to be explored." We had arranged to visit Beth's friend Anna's Mater who lives nearby and decided to take in the landscape as well.

A hard frost greeted us as we awoke for a tour of the local sites and after breakfast we began a counter-clockwise circuit of the Lough with a stop at The Great Stone Circle, which dates to 2000 BC.

The circle is the largest of its kind in Ireland, measuring 150 feet in diameter and consisting of 113 upright stones. It is believed that on the 21st of June each year, the Summer Solstice, the morning sun shines through the entrances and illuminates a pattern, suggesting astrological use of the enclosure.
After talking to the cows on the adjacent farm

we met their owner, Timothy Casey, who also maintains the site for visitors and provides his own unique explanation of the circle, sells postcards for the site and accepts donations for maintenance.

Next stop was the New Church, built in the 15th century by the Earls of Desmond as a Chapel of Ease, in ruins by the middle of the 17th century, rebuilt and now in ruins again, with only a shell currently extant.

The scene overlooking the Lough with its surrounding gravestones had a mystical quality under the still heavy frost.

Driving past Wedge Tomb a burial site dating to 2500 BC, we parked at the east end of the Lough in the Visitors Center, closed at this time of year. From the parking lot we climbed above The Spectacles, a replica of a farmstead from 900 AD, to a viewpoint overlooking the Lough.

I can't recall many more beautiful vistas, although I seem to say that about alot of the spots we visited in Ireland.

Here's a compilation of our photos set to Bill Cooley's "Isle of Inishmore."

Leinster House, Dublin Ireland

Jacob's home away from home this fall has been in Dublin where he's studying Irish history, literature and politics in a program called the Institute of Public Administration. A fourth component of the program involves interning in the Dail Eireann, the Irish Parliament.

The Dail meets in the Leinster House on Kildare, not far from Trinity College and St. Stephen's Green in downtown Dublin.

He works for Timmy Dooley, a TD from County Clare in the west of Ireland. Timmy is a member of the ruling Fianna Fail (Republican) Party and serves as Vice-Chair on the European Affairs Committee and it's the latter that is of special interest. Ireland is the only EU member to have not ratified the Lisbon Treaty and Timmy's committee involvement has given Jacob a window on Ireland's struggle to position the country within the EU, maintaining their historic independence and taking economic advantage of their membership. Timmy has been an awesome mentor while keeping an extremely busy schedule during the Dail's Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday weekly schedule.

Judging from Jacob's comments, Timmy has also kept him pretty busy as well, and hopefully it has been a mutually beneficial arrangement.

During our visit, Timmy treated us to dinner at the members-only dining room at the Dail. He arrived well after we were seated due to a meeting commitment, but we had plenty of time to observe his outgoing and gregarious personality and enjoy an outstanding dinner. After dessert we were treated to a gallery-view of a budget vote in the Dail, finishing just after 10PM. Fianna Fail prevailed, though the difficulties in the global economy have certainly complicated the process in Ireland.

Dinner with Timmy Dooley, TD representing County Clare in the Dail Eireann.

Bank of Ireland

In 1984, I joined the staff of First NH White Mountain National Bank and four years later became an employee of the Bank of Ireland as a result of their purchase of First NH Banks. Executives from the Bank of Ireland visited their first US acquisition regularly and we met Mark Hely-Hutchinson, Chief Executive and former Guiness executive and Frank O'Rourke, Deputy Chief Executive when they visited our office in North Conway, NH. One of my more embarassing moments occurred after coordinating an all-day realtor appreciation day at Attitash Ski Area and attending a management team welcome dinner in the evening for Frank O'Rourke. Exhausted after a day of making arrangements and skiing, I started dozing off seated next to Mr. O'Rourke after dinner. Taking notice of my lapse in judgment, our affiliate president, Mike Kirk, came around to my side away from our guest and assured me in no uncertain terms that I did not want to be falling asleep at that point in my banking career.Visiting Dublin 20 years later gave me the opportunity to visit the 'Main Office' for the first time. Beth and I entered from Westmoreland/College Street and followed the maze of corridors to the main entry. The building was originally built to house the Irish Parliament, opening in the 1730s, and became a Bank of Ireland property after 1800. We were granted entry into the House of Lords chambers, which have been preserved in more or less their original state. I introduced myself to a current employee and inquired as to the Bank's business standing, getting little positive feedback. Considering the price of it's stock has fallen roughly 95% since early 2007 and they're suffering from many of the same lending tactics that have crippled American banks, the response was not surprising. They seemed to be waiting for the ax to fall at any moment.


Ireland in recent years has been known as the Celtic Tiger for the dramatic upswing in its economy but the past year and a half has dulled the shine on the progress there. Still, I remember hearing of 18% unemployment on the Emerald Isle in 1988, and with many infrastructure improvements evident throughout our visit, present-day Ireland seems well ahead of 20 years ago in spite of the recent downturn.

The Bank of Ireland, 2 College Green, Dublin.

Dublin Ireland

Arriving in Dublin last Wednesday morning after the overnight flight from the US, Beth and I had most of the day to wander the streets before meeting Jacob and Nicole, who had spent the previous few days in Berlin visiting the site of her semester abroad in 2007. We headed for the tourist information center--not a very adventurous move but providing a scenic walk from our hotel on Kildare Street.

We proceeded to City Hall and through Temple Bar and came to the River Liffey. I'd say we were in awe of our surroundings or just plain tired--I'm not sure which--but the scenery was fascinating to these first-time visitors.

My next stop was a visit at the old parliament building, now an office of the Bank of Ireland, my former employer via their purchase of First NH Banks in 1988. I'll talk about my visit at BOI in a later post.

Across the street is Trinity College, pictured below, and we strolled through taking pictures at strategic locations and noting the whereabouts of The Book of Kells for Beth and Nicole's visit later in the afternoon. (Jacob and I had another mission, picking up some luggage at his host family's house in Dun Laoghaire, south of the city) It turns out they are very compatible in terms of museum visits. Trinity was estblished in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I of England on an expansive property outside the city but now is surrounded by the city

Unsuccesful in an attempt at early check-in at our hotel, we strolled down Kildare Street to the current Parliament Building, Leinster House, where we would have dinner later, to the National Museum of Ireland, dedicated to Archaeology & History of Ireland, and including Bronze Age and Iron Age gold artefacts and "the world's most complete collection of medieval Celtic metalwork," according to Lonely Planet.

Though tired from the long trip, we were sustained by the fascinating collection and did not hurry to leave. I have no argument with LP's assessment.

To be continued...

Santiago, Chile

Our April trip to Chile was capped by a visit to the Centro section of the capital city. We toured The Moneda, the center of the government and delighted in all the street activity. Numerous street performers entertained the crowds on the many pedestrian-only thoroughfares of the downtown. "Los Portenos" played a variety of 'LatinoAmericano' folktunes and I purchased a CD to bring home. The strong vocal harmonies and multi-instrumental flavor distinguished them from some of the solo performers up the street.

We strolled through the park adjoining The Moneda, (where 35 years ago Allende was bombed and overthrown by the Pinochet-led military junta) past benches seemingly designated for lovers only, and through a 'Carabineros' fair---with booths set up to proudly display the services and skills of the various branches of the Chilean police.

Our photo-taking was crashed by two of the more animated Carabineros. They liked Beth OK, but I think I really made an impression.

It struck me that 35 years ago, Pinochet was poised to execute his plan for take over of the government and widespread torture of political enemies and, even 20 or 25 years ago, anti-American sentiment was more likely to be witnessed here. What happened in the years since?

Coincidentally, Jacob had recently given me a copy of Fareed Zakaria's "The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad," and I encountered a number of references to Chile while reading it on our trip. Zakaria points out that although Chile was long ruled by an oppressive military junta, a number of factors led to its present-day government. Latin values such as strong families, religious values and determination (54), land reform and economic and political reform all contributed to this progress. "It is no accident that the one Latin American country that moved first and most strongly away from that tradition (the aristocratic order) and toward free markets and free trade is now its most successful economy and stable country: Chile." (74) Zakaria contrasts the successes of Chile, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia with the difficulties in Iraq as having less to do with democracy than the level of liberty, the rule of law and economic reforms achieved by the standing governments.

Our cab driver, Carlos, who had spent a couple years in Miami before returning to Chile, noted with some displeasure that the president of Chile, a woman named Michelle Bachelet, was a Socialist. But he still seemed to appreciate the distance Chile has come since their '9/11' in 1973.

We encountered one last entertainer before Carlos picked us up at our pre-arranged spot in the Plaza de Armas. Beth noted a character dressed in pink riding by on his bike and took a photo. This was an immediate sign that he had an audience and oh, did he perform! He stopped all sorts of traffic, built a crowd in the hundreds and used me as one of his straight men. At one point he literally 'threw himself under a bus.'

By the reaction of many of the local cab drivers, we could tell he was a regular in the Centro and they played along with his antics. Other drivers were not as cooperative and their anger and annoyance only served to give him more comic material to work with.

By the time we pulled out in our cab, our pink friend was standing on the passenger-side door frame, saluting the audience while wrapped in a banner featuring the Chilean colors: red, white and blue. I don't think I stopped laughing until I fell asleep on our overnight flight back to Dallas and the Northern Hemisphere.

Sometimes the greatest experiences in life occur in places where joy and sorrow intersect.

Wellington New Zealand

Every parent should take their child to college at the beginning of their Freshman year, right? That's what I thought when Jacob suggested it back in the fall of 2005, although I really didn't have the extra funds for an extra roundtrip ticket to NEW ZEALAND! Little did I know that I would be buying a second ticket a couple months later.

For more on that see: http://cmaddaus.edublogs.org/2008/05/28/teach-nz/

Jacob was somewhat of a home-body in high school, athletic, a relatively good student, but not especially social. I always joked that I couldn't 'ground him' because he never went out much anyway. Figures he'd go as far away as possible for college.

Actually though, I think that it took a lot of courage on his part to decide to go to New Zealand as an 18-year-old and he made the best of it, too.

He attended Victoria University in Wellington, on the south end of the North Island. On our arrival we were met by my friend David Hall, who had worked with me in the Wilderness Program at Camp Calument. Dave took us to meet his family and we stayed at his home in Levin for a night before Jake's orientation started. Having Dave there really increased Jacob's comfort level at being half-way around the world from home... and mine, too.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and is built on the hills surrounding Wellington Harbor and the Miramar Peninsula. The parliament is located there in a unique building called the Beehive (the Prime Minister is Helen Clark, who is everything Hillary Clinton wants to be) and Peter Jackson based his "Lord of the Rings" production in the city. The views from Mt. Victoria are stunning.

VIC was a great choice in a lot of ways for Jacob. He got involved in a Ultimate Club and played a number of tournaments, including the all-University Games in which his team was a disappointing 3rd. He also worked for an event promoter on a part-time basis and saw a number of concerts. Best of all, he developed an interest in Political Science and International Relations that has led to him excelling upon his transfer to Northeastern University in Boston. His credits transferred to more than we expected, attesting to the rigor of the program and he hopes to work with one of his professors there, again some day. And he was quick to jump at the chance to go overseas again--he's scheduled to study in Dublin and work in the Irish parliament next fall.

It was tough leaving him in Wellington that first time, but I was able to return and spend some time with him the following April and enjoy the city myself.