Old Drogheda Society
Prince Louis Napoleon as First President of the Second Republic and then as Emperor of all of France was the most powerful and popular man in France.
In 1856 at the suggestion of his Confessor he had ordered that a set of vestments be made in Paris and delivered to the parish priest of Aughrim to be used in a mass to commemorate the death of General St. Ruth and the French fallen at the Battle of Aughrim in 1691. The vestments may now be seen in the Diocesan Museum in Loughrea.
He visited Ireland on two occasions, firstly in 1857, when he visited Birr Castle to view the great telescope and later visited Tipperary, Kerry and Cork. He returned in 1860 when it appears his main interest was agricultural.
French agriculture at that time was in a very fractured state which often resulted in ‛Famine in a Land of Plenty’.
He landed in Kingstown and visited the Albert Model Farm which is now part of U.C.D. He then travelled by train to Ballinasloe to visit the great farm complex of Ganaveen. There he was shown the latest in farm mechanisation and animal husbandry by Alan Pollok it’s then proprietor. It was arguably the most modern farm in Europe, if not in the world at the time.
Ray Jordan’s working career was in the engineering branch of Post and Telegraphs, where he experienced many changes in the field of telephony. He has a great interest in aviation and held a flying Instructor Rating for many years. Ray last gave a lecture to the O.D.S. in 2010, when he spoke on Alcock and Brown which was very well received.
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