Background Info

Kerry County Museum
	Kerry County Museum is the nationally accredited museum for County Kerry in south-west Ireland. It is wholly owned by Tralee Urban District Council subsidised by the Council and charging a small entrance fee. The Museum is a repository of archaeological treasures of Kerry origin from the Stone Age through the Bronze and Iron Ages up to the present day. Exhibits tell the story of Kerry (and Ireland) from the earliest times.
The Kerry Museum is housed in the Ashe Memorial Hall in Tralee Town Centre and cost IR£2.8M (US$4.6M)to develop in 1990/91. The Museum is a very striking building, finished in red sandstone, and situated at the end of Tralee's main street, Denny Street, and is surrounded on three sides by a public park. The total (museum) floor area is 20,000 sq feet. In 1994, we were listed among Europe's top ten new museums. The museum attracts in excess of 100,000 visitors annually and has facilities in 8 languages. Children are made to feel particularly welcome(20,000 annually).
The Kerry Museum is a novel and dynamic museum. A museum visit is both educational and entertaining while, at the same time, providing the normal professional museum curatorial services.
	Each year since opening, a major international exhibition on a subject not normally covered in the Irish Museum Sphere is organized. Previous exhibitions include The Age of Dinosaurs, Masters of Medicine, World War 2 50th Anniversary Exhibition (awarded an Irish Museum of the Year Award) and Wireless Revolution 100 Years of Radio and Television.
The Exhibition on Space Exploration is the first such exhibition ever mounted in an Irish Museum and is proving to be a major attraction. This is indeed a unique opportunity to introduce the children of Ireland to the fascinating World of Space.
The Story of the Real Jeanie Johnston
The real Jeanie Johnston was a 19th century sailing ship, to be precise, a triple-masted barque which was copper-fastened, 32 meters long and constructed of oak and pine displacing 700 tons. It carried 200 passengers and had a crew of seventeen. The JJ was originally built in Quebec for the Donovan family. During the Great Famine, the 150th aniversary of which is commemorated this year, the Jeanie Johnston transported Irish immigrants from Tralee to Baltimore, New York, and Quebec. Unlike the disease-ridden 'coffin-ships' of the period, Jeanie never lost a passenger to disease or the sea. She sank in mid-Atlantic in 1858, waterlogged. She went down slowly and all aboard were rescued.
A replica of the Jeanie Johnston is now in the early stages of reconstruction in Tralee using a trans-national team of young people. She will be sailed to North America at the turn of the century. Among President Clinton's treasured possessions is a sculpture of the Jeanie Johnston which he says "occupies a place of honor in the White House". One of the supporters of the Space Exhibition and the Jeanie Johnston project in County Kerry is Mr. Dick Spring, the Irish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
The JJ Captain's name was James Attridge of Castletownsend, County Cork. He was a master mariner with a vast experience of sea-faring who lived to the ripe old age of 90 years. The SS Jeanie Johnston is the spacecraft to be designed for this project. It is the central player of the scenario providing both the narration, the controls for navigation, and the focus of the storylines.
The Kingdom of Chiarrai
The following is background to help in understanding the storyline and for the animators to use when visualizing their scenes. Ireland was a land of kingdoms. Irish place names are anglicized versions of Irish originals. Tralee derives from Traigh Li, the strand on the river Lee in the Kingdom of Chiarrai where rises the Corran Tuathail Mountain. Here walked druids, monks, kings, queens, poets, painters and writers. Strange stone monuments were left by the dark haired and dark skinned people who lived in Chiarrai before the Celts came. The earliest form of Irish writing, ogham script, can be found on the standing stones. The Celtic language is still spoken here. Above the slopes of Killarney Lake, wild red deer and ancient oaks live. Ancient Rome never came to Chiarrai. The Normans came only to Killarney where they met the Bold Mc Carthy who bested them on the slopes of Mangerton. The Gaelic chiefs ruled for another 300 years until the O'Sullivans (O'Suileabhan - hawk-eyed), O'Neills and O'Donnells were deffeated at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. Many of the chieftains fled to Spain. In the Gap of the Killarney lakes, they tell of a race of little woodland people called the Teezeley Weezeleys. The echoes of the hills of Killarney, immortalized by Tennyson, are said to be the voices of the Teezeley Weezeleys. Christianity came without a sword, yet the old religion still lives in ancient holy places. Fishermen still go to sea in canvas skinned barraghs descended from that which took St. Brendan to the new world. Monks came to Skellig Michael in the sixth century and built a monastery 600 feet up on the rock. They traded bird's eggs, feathers and seal steaks with passing ships for tools and vellum. They channeled rain water into five storage wells. The Annals of Innisfallen record the monastery was attacked in 812 and 823 AD by Vikings. The monks moved to Ballinskelligs (Baille an Sceilg - Townland of Skellig Island) on the mainland in the 12th century. Chiarrai is home to the Bog Pony. This pony is not much bigger than a Shetland and was prized for being sure footed and hardy when working in the bogs. Their numbers are estimated to be as low as fifteen. The oldest rocks in Chiarrai are on the Dingle Peninsula and date from 400 million years ago. The McGillycuddy Reeks consist of Old Red Sandstone which was laid down by rivers in a desert environment about 370 million years ago. Seanfhocal (old Irish proverb). "Briseann an duchas tre shulle an chait." This means, "Breeding breaks out through the eyes of a cat" or "Black cat; black kitten." Similar to the saying, "as the twig is bent, so grows the tree." Saoirse , meaning "freedom". Pronounced "Seer-sha" W.B. Yeats, who stayed at Muckross House, wrote: To A Child Dancing In the Wind Dance there upon the shore; What need have you to care For wind or water's roar? And tumble out your hair That the salt drops have wet; Being young you have not known The fool's triumph, not yet Love lost as soon as won, Not the best labourer dead And all the sheaves to bind. What need have you to dread The monstrous crying of the wind?