Springhill

Beneath Springhill is the incredible story of Maurice Ruddick, "the singing miner," an African-Canadian who survived nine days underground during the historic Springhill mining disaster of 1958. This multi-award-winning chamber musical recalls the events during the disaster, the effect it had on Ruddick's family, and the racial tensions in the town of Springhill. The play is a celebration of hope, courage and community. Music by Susan Newman and Lyrics by Rob Fortin

Long-awaited, this reprint of the history of one of Ulster’s most enchanting houses, Springhill near Moneymore, County Londonderry, will be an invaluable companion to those interested in the history of Mid-Ulster, the Plantation and Ulster families with Scottish origins. Now owned and managed by the National Trust, the house and grounds retain a unique and delightful atmosphere. It was home to ten generations of the Conyngham (later the Lenox-Conyngham) family, and their story is richly documented from the family’s own papers and told in a colourful narrative by the last chatelaine of the house, Mina. She was a formidable character in her own right and her tale gives a period insight into the self-confidence of the rural gentry class and their loyalties in early 20th-century Ulster. This new volume published by the Ulster Historical Foundation provides not only the original text but many new and excellent illustrations as well as a corrected family tree. These additions give a marvellously enhanced picture of this family home with its intact collections and wonderful setting close to the shores of Lough Neagh.

The deepest coal mine in North America was notoriously unpredictable. One late October evening in 1958, it "bumped" - its rock floors heaving up and smashing into rock ceilings. A few miners staggered out, most of the 174 on shift did not. Nineteen men were trapped, plunged into darkness, hunger, thirst, and hallucination. As days and nights passed, the survivors began to hope for death by gas rather than from thirst. Above ground, journalists and families stood in despairing vigil, as rescuers brought out scores of the dead. The hope of finding life undergound faded and families made funeral preparations. Then, a miracle: Rescuers stumbled across a broken pipe leading to a cave of survivors, then a second group was discovered. A media circus followed. Ed Sullivan, then the state of Georgia, invited survivors to visit. Publicity, politics, and segregation sorted the men differently than they had ordered themselves. Underground, the one black survivor nursed a dying man; in Atlanta, Governor Marvin Griffin said: "I will not shake hands with a Negro." If every great writer has one tale of peril, heroism, and survival, Last Man Out is Melissa Fay Greene's. Using long-lost stories and interviews with survivors, Greene has reconstructed the drama of their struggle to stay alive

In all genealogical work the first and most important step is to establish the geographical origin of the ancestor. In Irish research the genealogist may know the name of the county where the ancestor lived but be puzzled about a place name given as the place of birth or residence. In all probability the place-name s that of a townland, the smallest territorial subdivision in Ireland. Since research in Ireland will usually start at the parish level, there must be a reference tool that will key the townland to the parish in which it is located. This work was prepared under the auspices of the British government for almost that purpose. The over 900 densely printed pages show the county, barony, parish, and poor law union in which the 70,000 townlands were situated in 1851, as well as the location of the townlands on the Great Ordnance Survey maps, with appendices containing separate indexes to parishes and baronies.