i find no mentions of evictions in the newspaper. 731 reported people the largest eviction of a town land in one day happened not 20 miles from cottage and palace in april of 1849. the story had one short paragraph about it in the paper. could it be that most evictions did not make it to the newspaper unless someone died? in the news of january 19th 1848, judith was ejected off a small farm by the landlords james and john parker. she wandered in want without shelter and entered her former abode on the 18th of august last. for this forceable possession shes tried and sentenced to 6 months confinement which

punishment of and died of natural causes. eventually i find mention of the easterly of conwell evicting tenants in the near by town land. september 13, 1848 the newspaper says on monday last the agent of lord kwanwell attended by sheriff, police and bailiff evicted 9 families in 50 souls from the town lands near by. nothing could be more disstressing than to hear the clanking of the embarrass of the cabins mingled with the shrieks of women and children. i switch from reading the newspapers to the books i find james lacy of the books of lectural district of the poor law union. the library has most of the

electoral district books for the 1840's. they are beautiful leather bound books with copper writing and calligraphy. the spelling of each name is not consistent from year to year. i find lacy spelled as l. a. krfrment y. e l. aechlt c. e. y. the books show the records of james lacy up through 1847. there are other tenants on the books. hanly, boshg, ryan, kennedy,llower and hoge an. i examine the rate books people were paying. they paid a tax shillings to the pound. another indicate the tax is paid and another indicate the taxes in arrears. james lacy was paid in full and

not in a rears. the tax in 1846 was cut in half from the previous year. the year 1847 shows something else. the people were taxed in may of 1847 and made to pay a 4 fold increase and in october of 1847, 15 times what they were paying in 1846. this amounted to a 900 percent increase in tax in less than a year. still james lacy was paid in full and not in arrears. i show the book to the librarian who knows i am reading papers to look for clearance notices and says, there's your answer now you know why they left. newspaper mentioned the establishment of insolvant commission. in commission states the tax afforded the clearance amongers the most effective means of getting rid of this agricultural

population. some landlords were praised as humane for forgiving 3-4 year's rent or accepting what people could pay. these landlords were in the minority and the landlord of cottage where nie family lived was not among them. rate payer books for 1848 is missing. the book for 1849 is in worse condition than the earlier books. theate book for 1849 is torn and muddy and appears to have blood stains on the pages. as if this book is telling me what happened that awful year. i search for james lacy's name and find it gone along with the other tenant and it is town lands as well. [applause] >> i think on that note i will read a poem, which is my book among other things my quest to

discover the family's connection or my connection to that history. and what happens there is the pursuit and the logical seeking after those signs. those material signs baptismal records and there is happenstance. that's what happened to me once when i went to ireland i staid at a b and b. there are a zillion every other house is a b and b. i hit on the one b and beshgs where the owner said, your last name is to bein i know where all the to beins came to ireland. i said, i'm all ears. this poem goes into that and the last part is a translation from an irish song, the ring.

>> i followed the winding coast road back from cove airny moore and her brother cast in branz at the center entrance head of a line at elis island looking as though they a choired dreksz in their own country. dim passage through american wait and coffinship the figures of a prior generation real to swells and sound effects each swollen in the ache of crossing. my father's ship united states streaming to the harbor, the way it steamed in the narrows below the rising towers of the bridge. above the keys, saint coalmans resided over the dock where my mother's mother waited and my father's forefather disappeared like vermon in the fields they flooded home.

i can tell you where the to beins first landed that invited me to the patio in the house glass of whisky regard in luminous in the long twilight. if you drive east on the way to gonegarvin off to the right you will come on the ring road where there are to beins from norman times. the name [inaudible] into our own name now. i had known history but not the place. so next day driving along the route each village seemed a station on the journey of return. kiely's cross i pursued the paper trail, unwound the breed of names through census and baptism each generation christening the last until it

was language on the tongue and the trail trailed to the mists of the unrecorded. now i was tracing a highway to ore gin the potatoes struck black with blight. metals and we was their faces swollen with fever. stench rising from the evicted burrowed. men like dogs scoured the fields. i saw in one cottage a royal of rats feasting on an infant. no one where i witnessed anything like it not in calcutta. the voiceless children silenced by hunger the bodies burned at night leaving i don't trace. descending the drum hills i turned off the main road following signs and i language

lost before i was born. this was land observe the land was renamed and hushed. what was left for me, generations gone. a purfume of smoke freshened my nostrils. pastures reached to the head of the bay. thick roads where locals greeted with slowly raised hands or a nod of a cap to my car the postcard my eye framed in it's longing. moony's pub where i stopped for a pint and slipped my quest. so, you are a to bein accomodating my english. they're all about here. she showed the photograph with dark hair and features unlike my own but a resemblance of an uncle. what was the ring happened on my chance or grace. why not trace through lost

norman crests or track dna to tribes 6,000 years gone from the banks. or further back through each human cell to african eve her grunts are tuning savannahs. i felt the gift shared from the bones later that night in the crowded room when all the instruments had gone silent and a man rose up shyly alone and sang sean moss one of the singer's songs. beautiful country, i take you to by the black water screens of the beast the thrush and the black bird sings sweetly and the wild deer over the mountains branches with fruits and blossom the and hives with honey. and the corn creek lifts it's cries in the grass. [applause]

>> your poem has a sense of place and you mentioned earlier the sensation of going to canada and what it felt like to be in that place in canada and in other opportunities to be in that land in ireland. i wonder if you can reflect and margaret as well, what were the physical experiences you were having and what was the importance ever going to the place by way of informing your story? >> i don't know if anybody seen there is a series on now on called african-american lives? >> yeah. >> and it remindses me so much of my experience and some of the things that were said that rang through for me are things like, if we don't know where we come from we don't know that we are

somebody. it's like, the effects of colonization when -- when our story is taken from us. in when our language is taken and we are disoriented and we come to a new country, we are not literate, it's a way to keep people oppressed. so, part of reclaiming ourselves as irish americans and having the biggest life possible means knowing everything there is to know about ourselves and our people. >> i will talk briefly about the going to saint john i set that trip up and 911 happened. and so i endsed up going on this journey back to where 3450i family came over a week after 911 which was a remarkable experience in itself because the airports were empty much everybody was gone.

until we got to canada where there was a crush of people moving through with added security and so forth. when i got to saint johns i went to the perish rejist ree. met the woman i spoke with on the phone and she gave me complete access to the archives. ship lists and when they came over 1550 or 1851. there was no marriage record. they probably got married on the boat which happened often. that's where i found out that the trade with the merry times and county cork was a lumber trade. they brought lumber over and humans were brought back.

profound history that, you know, my ancestors were a part of. not just mine bithousands and millions of people have this story deep in their background. i also found out the location of where my great, great grandfather was buried in saint johns which is ruinned by acid rain because they built a refinary over it. this is an irish american grave yard a memorial to the experience of coming over her in famine times partridge islands is where they had to go through. i stood about where the plot was which was a mass grave. there was no marker at all. they were buried together with the other poor in a little area. to be standing there in the

space where your great, great grandfather was and other members of your family and have no marker they are the grass. they are the grass underneath your feet or their bodies are. that is a humbling experience. we are part of a remnant if we think we are not we are diluting ourselves that genealogy searchs should humble you. because it's only traces left. there are only signs left. those signs are not empty. you know, they transsubstantiate the lines that were that were there that were gone and yet are somehow encoded in us. >> thank you.

>> good afternoon petraeus i am hearing to present -- i was told over the weekend, no, i would go present and entered as the person who will be receiving

the award this year. i said, when is that coming at the lunch? the end, the grand finale? she said, no, it is the first award. i said, isn't this the international women's day and we're giving a man the first award? she said, oh, they have to go back to work. i said, we have heard that before. so the man of the year. when we think about who the right person should be and is deserving of such an honor, believe me, we're not looking for a man who is in high political office or the ceo of the major companies. instead, we're looking for someone who has demonstrated over time that he is committed to advancing equal rights and opportunities for women and minorities, someone who has talked the talk and walked the walk. i know we have a number of guests from other countries at

this year's women's summit. and at many levels. and it is universal. we're talking about advice for education. jobs and economic opportunities. and in the political arena. when i first became active in this community, thanks again to many of my friends who are in this room who are my inspiration and give me all the encouragement that i have had, i have come to learn that we must have a place at the table. that is what was referenced issue today. this should be the theme this year, to be at the table. we're talking about in the corporate world, the board room, the state legislature, the halls of congress, or at city hall. well, i am very proud of the recipient of this year is a man of the year award, our mayor, mayor at least pujols -- mayor

ed lee. [applause] the mayor is the chosen one. not because you have the title of being the mayor. the mayor was the chosen one because over the last 30 years, he has a history of promoting justice and advancing equal rights and opportunities for women and minorities in the city and beyond. when he graduated from law school across the bay, and instead of adding to a corporate law office, he decided to work for the asian law caucus, fighting against discrimination, against women and minorities. when he became the first asian- american to be in that position in this great city, again -- that was less than three months ago that when the mayor was

sworn billion, he took every opportunity he had to advance women. when there is an opportunity to appoint a member to the board of supervisors, and for those of you who do not live in san francisco, that is our city council. among the list of qualified candidates, he elected christina olague . i believe supervisor olague is with us today. [applause] and in a short three months when he has had an opportunity to nominate and appoint somebody to the very important position which he firmly held as the chief administration officer of the city and county of san francisco, and again he immediately nominated noami kelly to be our cao. [applause] we're living in a city that we're very lucky, and we know

that women around the world and in many other cities are not as lucky. when i look around their room, i see that we have many city departments headed by women. of course there can always be more. but i see melanie, miriam, emily. i mean, there are quite a few and we're very proud. i am looking at the next four to eight years, and i can see there will be more and more women leaders in our city government. so we're very fortunate to have somebody at the top of the city that really believes in making room for women at the table. now i would like to invite the one and only surely bell to join me in presenting this award, and please join me in representing the man of the year, mayor ed lee. [applause]

>> wow, thank you, claudine and shelly. thank you for this distinguished meant. very much appreciated. i am is sitting here listening to the introductory remarks, and i have flashbacks of decisions that made in the past. but if it begins with i think having different attitude because i had a strong mom who had to raise kids by herself and understanding how single mothers have to survive and raise a whole family gives you life lessons. i also need toothache -- to

thank anita because she appointed me her husband. so i have to return the favor. [applause] but you know, i can go on about a lot of things we have done, but i am more excited to signal to all of you to really work hard with us. there is just a lot more to do. because there will be efforts that tried to hold us back as a society, but then we have to continue moving forward. we cannot let the the kind of radio talk-show hosts and things like that hold us back. i, too, have to express my personal shock and just in this day and age how such a vicious language can be used that when someone is invited to present their expertise as a law student about the needs of women, and it

has been such almost spoiled, i guess, to be in san francisco, because this is often our culture, to listen and to follow-up with the articulation from advocates, from people who have served in all kinds of government and business, educational institutions, the private sector, the public sector, to listen carefully to the needs that our children, our young girls and our women in need to not only survive but to go well beyond that and succeed in society. i am often reminded who holds half of the sky up in the city. so i am going to continue inviting all of you, particularly speaking to the women here who do have experience and knowledge and foresight to advise me and advise my administration of how we can do better in all aspects.

nationally, locally, and internationally to keep advocating strongly how we can protect and nurture and how we can make sure that our society is of equalness. that is why i said at the beginning that the flashbacks of being at the dpw and human rights commission, recalling the advocates the came to meet with me and said how important it it is for a city to sign on to united nations convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination -- [cheers and applause] that is still important. and then a decade later, to realize we're still one of the only cities to have done that. how can we still be alone in this effort? realizing we have got a lot more work to do. and to say to you that if you do not continue advocating, if we

do not have opportunities for you to speak out enough for us to listen and to absorb and to integrate into our policies, then you are god have voices of their that suggest -- then you're going to have voices out there that suggest that the issues you bring out are private matters. that cannot be accepted in a city like san fran. -- like san francisco. [applause] i join recognizing international women's day. i personally thank you for this award and recognition. but i also want to make sure you're challenged and you are invited and you are encouraged to advocate with them and to this administration, because we will listen and we will act on it those things to make sure that we're more of an equal society and that we can provide perhaps leadership to other areas of the country that have

yet to catch up. thank you very much. [applause] >> we are going to make a presentation that all the honorees are going to get today. it is from an incredible artists, wanda whitacre, who was over in the corner. she has done a series of portraits murals of each of our honorees, and it is are a gift to you for all that you have done. >> wow. >> so we present to you the ed lee mural. [applause] >> well, thank you, ms. what occurred -- whitacre. i read your bio, so i understand

you have other skills i might need like hypno-