Bringing the Irish wine story to the stage

                    Susan Boyle chases the 'wine geese'.

A Kildare woman is set to bring the history of wine in Ireland to life in a new play.
But it's not the story you might assume.
A couple of years ago Susan Boyle was working on a TG4 documentary when she realised that despite not being able to grow vines, the Irish have actually played a leading role in the development of the wine industry down through the centuries.
At points throughout the last millenium, the Irish were the biggest exporters of wine amongst non wine producing nations in Europe.
She learned that many of the famous 'wild geese' families who left Ireland in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries brought their educated wine-noses with them.
In particular in the 17th century more than 200 Irish families moved to Bordeaux in France and changed what we now know as the wine industry.
The names of these, including the Phelans, Bartons and Lynchs, can still be seen today on some of the world's most desired bottles of wine.
As a result, Susan has spent the past few months working on a theatrical re-telling of the story of what she calls the 'Wine Geese'.
The result is the aptly titled 'A Wine Goose Chase' which will have its debut as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival in September.
The play is written and performed by Ms. Boyle with direction from the award winning director, writer and actor Gina Moxley.
Susan says she was fascinated by why the Wine Geese left Ireland for France. “And how did they go on to influence wine-making in Europe and across the globe?”
The play intertwines this fascinating history with her personal experiences of the contemporary wine world.
And appropriately enough, the performance of the play will double as an interactive wine-tasting event as well!
Ms. Boyle hopes to tour with the play following the Fringe Festival.
Susan grew up in Kildare town where the licensed trade is in her blood. Her family have been publicans for at least five generations.
She went to school in Newbridge College and followed it up with a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin, a stint as a University of California scholar, and an MA in Performance Studies from the University of London Royal Holloway.
She's well known for her childrens art classes, summer camps and her annual Joy to the World exhibition at Christmas time.
She has also been attending professional wine tasting for almost 15 years, and generally loves wine and talking about it.
The show will take place in La Ruelle Wine Bar, Joshua Lane, just off Dawson St from Septmber 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18, starting at 6:30 pm.
Previews will be on September 9 and 10 at 5pm and 6:30pm respectively, with an early evening show at 5pm on Sunday, September 15.
Tickets are available from www.fringefest.com at €14/ €12 (concession)/ €10 (previews).
For more, see http://www.fringefest.com/programme/a-wine-goose-chase

When you get a husky, do you know what you're really getting?

Cute? Yes, but if anything they suffer from being so good looking.


In the 1920's, many parts of rural and isolated Alaska were threatened by the kinds of diseases we never hear much about anymore.


In late 1924, the fishing town of Nome on the west coast was under threat of an epidemic of dyptheria.

The story made headlines all around America and the race was on to get an antidote, in serum form, to the people of Nome, who were more than a thousand kilometres away from the nearest outpost.

With temperatures, on a good day, hovering at about minus 50 Celsius, it was up to husky teams and a few brave men to make the trip.

Over the course of what it now known as the “Great 1925 Serum Run to Nome”, 150 dogs and 20 men relayed the medicine through a wall of blizzards.

Some of the dogs died and the men often arrived at their drop off point with their hands and faces black with frostbite. But they delivered the serum, entirely intact (although obviously frozen), and saved the town of Nome.

It took five and a half days, with 20 separate husky teams pulling their masters and sleds between 60 to 146kms (40 to 90 miles) in one stint. 'Balto', the lead dog in the final section of the relay is commemorated in a statue in New York's Central Park.

Huskys are amongst the most beautiful looking dogs around, and for that reason, and that reason alone, they have become highly popular here.

There several different types, but the most common in Ireland is the Siberian Husky. They are boisterous and affectionate, and good companions for a very active family with lots of space.

A little known but salient fact is that they have the DNA of wolves in them.

Why? Because the Siberian husky is a dog that has been bred to pull heavy loads very fast and very far. Along the way, they were crossbred with wolves – and let's just say, it wasn't to make them fluffier.

They have fur that can be an inch and a half thick, and that needs, in our particular climate, to be brushed regularly.

On a scientific physiological level they're way off the scale. The average elite athlete has the ability to process one and a half times as much oxygen as the average couch potato. I won't bore you with the science, but on the test to determine this, couch potatoes score somewhere between 30 and 50, elite athletes are somewhere between 70 and 90.

Huskies hit 250. They are not elite athletes. They are freaks.

I took a husky for a walk recently. She dragged me for 10kms across bogs, down canal banks, through hedges, under bridges, around lakes and back.

At the end, I was on my knees - she was a bit thirsty.

For such a big dog, she was quite light, but amazingly strong. She was growled at by umpteen dogs, whom she completely ignored, as if they were flies.

The other day, I saw a rather large and rotund man, leading a rather large and rotund male husky on a lead. The man walked approximately half a kilometre from his house to the local shop. There, he got somebody to hold the dog while he went inside to buy something with lots of sugar in it. Then, they both waddled home, as the rotund man drank the stuff with lots of sugar.

It was one of those warm days and the dog was panting hard, in a way that looked that suggested that he uncomfortable and in distress.

Clearly neither of them were getting enough exercise. The man could do with walking another four and a half kilometres, the husky, another 29 and a half, in a climate that's 20 degrees colder.

Dan Donoher of Kildare Animal Foundation says there's a clear problem with people owning them, and not really knowing what it is they actually have in the back garden.

“They're not being exercised enough and they're getting all these problems. They're becoming hyper, getting stressed out, losing weight. And their mental health suffers as well.

“They're cute and cuddly when they're puppies, but when they're six months old, it's a different story altogether.”

He's quite clear: “The simple fifteen minute walk just doesn't cut it anymore. They can go for hours and hours.”

Dan blames films for making them popular and irresponsible breeders for essentially taking the money and running.

“We get a lot of them in here, people asking us to rehouse them,” which, he says, is difficult.

And if that wasn't bad enough, people are confusing them with Malamutes, which look similar, but are bigger (over six stone rather than four) and far stronger and need even more exercise.

These breeds have been created over centuries by humanity for specific purposes. Looking pretty and fluffy in suburban Kildare backgardens is not one of them, and is, in fact, a cruelty.

It is cruel to impose upon any animal an environment and lifestyle so foreign to them that it makes them unhealthy.

It's time to do the responsible thing.

If you insist on owning a husky, either be prepared to adopt one from Kildare Animal Foundation along with a new lifestyle that includes long distance running - or get a Jack Russell.