In the beginning...

So how did it all begin? One fine day in 1994 I got a call from Brian Martin, from the Alsace Development Agency asking me what I thought of setting up an Irish association in the area. “ Why not?” says I. “Then meet me for a drink” says Mr. Martin. So over a beer we discussed the ins and outs of setting up a club for ex-pat Irish living in the area. “In fact,” says Brian, “I have the very man for first president – a man with wide experience of Irish associations in Britain.” “Well, phone him right away and ask him to get himself over here now.” I replies. Half an hour later, Noel Purcell walks in and joins us. And that was the beginning.

The Gathering of the Clans

The first of the Monster Meetings took place in the home of the Cashins in Les Epinettes in Orbey in the heart of the Vosges Mountains. The Cashins are a formidable clan who has been running gites in the area for quite a few decades. Tom Cashin from Waterford and his wife Cherry packed their bags and their six young children in 1979 and set off to see the New Europe being formed at first hand. Having satisfied their wanderlust they invested in this old house which had been occupied by the Germans during the 2nd World War and which they duly renovated. So on a certain evening a horde of Irish – and a number of brave-hearted non-Irish – gathered for the first official meeting of the Association. After a barbeque memorable for its portions and proportions, a name had to be found for the “baby”. Irish Rhine Valley Association (IRVA – good sound to it!) was suggested but then someone objected on the grounds that it sounded rather like the Irish were laying claim to the Valley! And so the letters were thrown back into the cocktail shaker and out came RVIA.

The First President

The next question was the election of a President. Noel’s name was put forward and he was duly elected first President of the Rhine Valley Irish Association. And indeed this stalwart Tipperary man went on to serve three initial terms of office, during which time he cajoled, …………the committee members into getting things organized. Noel’s strongest point was communicating and roping in new people to the organization, so much so that earned the name of the Conscience. At one stage, if I didn’t get a call from Noel for more than a few days, I began to suffer withdrawal symptoms!

The First Ventures

Then, of course, came the question of how do we justify our existence?
What sort of activities can we offer our prospective members? Christmas dinners and summer barbecues were all the rage in the first few years and indeed we had some memorable Xmas nosh-ups and lazy, hazy (not always due solely to the weather) summer evenings munching bangers of every shape and hue and other such carnivorous delicacies.

First Music Festival

Since I had been to a number of Irish music workshops over the years and knew there was a lot of people playing Irish music around the continent (many of them with no other connection to Ireland except through Arthur Guinness and their local Irish pub) I tentatively suggested running a music and dance workshop at Whit 1995. Then the hurling match began – the ball was thrown back and forth: Where would we hold it? Who would come to it? Who would teach it? Would it pay for itself or would we all end up in the Debtors Prison?
In the heel of the hunt, the decision was taken to ‘risk it for the biscuit’, as we used to say back in Dear Dirty Dublin! The Cashin’s then offered the fledgling Association their beautiful house as a venue. The location alone was a great attraction, situated as it is just outside Orbey, in the heart of the south Vosges.

The next question was, who should do the teaching? So I rang an old musical friend of mine, Tom cussen, banjo-maker extraordinary, and asked him if he would come over with his group Shaskeen, one of the best known trad bands in the West of Ireland - on the condition that the members of the group would teach their respective instruments. although Tom himself at first doubted his ability to teach the instrument he made, he finally accepted his fate and the rest of the group enthusiastically agreed. So all that remained to be done was to find enough equally enthusiastic participants to make the venture pay for itself.

Many long hours were spent folding hundreds of leaflets, many tongues got dry licking and stamping hundreds of envelopes, many bottles of drinks, various and nefarious, were consumed to sustain this mighty effort (this was at a time when only the more technologically enlightened among us were communicating by email!). It has to be said that it was, at times, touch and go whether the project would ever come to fruition - indeed, there were one or two stormy meetings where strong doubts were expressed as to whether we were not getting into something too financially risky.
Then the first enrolment came, and a second and then one by one the magical forms came trickling in with their booking deposits, giving us all hope that this first big venture might, after all, be a success. As the news spread of what those eccentric Rhine Irish were up to, more and more interested would-be musicians and dancers took the plunge and signed up for a wild weekend in the Vosges. On the great day itself, about 60 adventurous souls came trooping into Les Epinettes, carrying an eclectic mixture of musical instruments and dancing shoes. The first RVIA music and dance weekend was underway!

It is very hard to describe the air of organized chaos that reigned on that weekend! We did not have the facilities we have now at Floessplatz, of course, so everything, an that means everything, from cooking, running the bar, washing up, cleaning up, dealing with participants' various queries and problems, had to be done by our overworked, somewhat bewildered but wonderfully enthusiastic committee members, ably directed by our hosts, the irrepressible Cashin family. During that first incredibly hectic weekend, I felt that if I did not get a heart attack on that weekend, then the chances were good of living forever! I remember clearly retiring from the fray at regular intervals to revitalize myself with a shot of uisce beatha (water of life, for all you tea-totallers!)kindly provided for the battle-weary troops by Cherry and Tom Cashin.

But the high point of the weekend must be the first concert that Shaskeen gave, in the spacious living room of the Cashin family. Spacious it was, but not designed to accommodate 80 to 90 people! They were sitting, standing, crouching everywhere - on benches, on the floors, on the window sills, on partner's laps, each other's shoulders. The air of expectancy was simply electric - and Shaskeen did not disappoint! From the first minutes of that memorable performance to the last encore, the whole room seemed to be moving and pulsating to the driving, centuries-old rhythms of the Celts. The concert was followed by an equally memorable ceili, where the Cashins' parquet floor took such a beating that it had to be totally resurfaced!

But from that moment on, we all knew that we had created something that would perpetuate itself - and so it has.

George Carruthers