Don Malarkey Band Of Brothers

The young, sober and faithful gather among the capes and the collars

KEITH DUGGAN in Knock

With stage events and workshops, the summer festival is like any other . . . in some ways

ALL OF the lights are flashing and the band is in good voice. The crowd is swaying, singing along to the chorus – “Your love is surprising/ I can feel it rising/Hallelujah” – which is not a million miles away from the spiritual malarkey with which Bono enthralled the Glastonbury crowd on Friday night.

This, though, is a smaller festival: one of the many fringe events that have mushroomed around Ireland in the last few years and the scene is typical – a marquee, a hellacious sound system, strobe lights, young people lost in music. But there is one important difference: this is 9.23am and everyone is stone-cold sober.

Knock: nothing changes. On a windblown Saturday morning, the gift shops were hoping for a bumper weekend and on the tarmac plain around Our Lady’s Shrine, the faithful are beginning to gather for the National Eucharistic Congress.

The bishops are present as are curates, nuns, novices, brothers: the entire holy spectrum is present and the wind is making capes and robes fly and billow in all directions. But on a patch of green not far from the shrine, the Knock Summer Festival, pitched as an alternative weekend for young people, is in full swing.

The crowd will have made up a fairly small percentage of the 25,000 people expected in Knock over the weekend: it is unlikely Oxegen organisers are going to see this festival as a rival anytime soon.

But still, after the Ryan report and the battering that the Catholic Church has taken, it is half a surprise to find the famous shrine is still attracting young members at all.

“I think young people are open to spirituality and these retreats: there is a festival vibe similar to the other festivals,” says Paul Keogh, the front man with Elation Ministries. The first thing to say about this band is that they can play.

Several were session musicians – one travelled with Tequila Sunrise for a while – prior to joining what Keogh describes as a contemporary Christian band. The idea of the music is that “it feeds into a deeper relationship with God”. Keogh nods in agreement at the idea that Catholicism as a movement needs to recover from a nightmarish decade.

“But a lot of kids have no experience of church and are open to it. What I have found is that kids are bringing parents back to the church,” he says.

T/Sgt. Donald G. Malarkey will be the Guest Speaker at the Oregon ...

(PRWEB) October 23, 2004

On Saturday November 13th at 10:00 AM the Quarterly Meeting of the Oregon Chapter of the 8th AFHS will be held. This is the weekend immediately following the Veterans Day Holiday on Thursday November 11. Mr. Malarkey will be giving a presentation of World War II from his perspective.

Stephen Ambrose wrote the book “Band of Brothers,” which was turned into a HBO mini-series directed by Tom Hanks, about one company of soldiers that fought in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO). T/Sgt. Malarkey, who lives in Salem Oregon, was one of the central characters that Stephen Ambrose used to paint a picture of combat experienced by airborne troops from their front line combat perspective. The story follows the unit from their training days in the US to VE Day (Victory in Europe).

Easy Company, and many others airborne units, were dropped into combat by Troop Transport Command’s C-47 Dakota aircraft. These unarmed transports were able to operate over enemy territory without interference from Luftwaffe fighters as a direct result of the 8th Air Force bombers and fighters gaining air supremacy over the Luftwaffe.

The meeting is free.

The meeting room will be open starting at 10:00 AM. All people are encouraged to show up at this time so to gather and talk with members and guests before lunch is served. Mr. Malarkey’s program starts after lunch.

The buffet lunch starts at 12 Noon. The menu is soup & sandwich with a salad bar and can be purchased at the door for $ 9.50.

Please contact Don Keller at 503-646-4176 or e-mail him b17airdepo @ aol.com stating that you are going to eat lunch so we can have an accurate count for the caterers. Please contact him before November 10, 2004.

If you cannot contact him please contact the alternate:

Tom Philo

503-350-3744

tom @ taphilo.com

Displays, books, pictures, (re-enactors usually attend), and other items will be on display.

If you wish to join the 8thAFHS you can do so at the meeting. Annual dues are $ 10 a year. You also will have to join the National 8th AFHS http://www.8thafhs.org.

The local chapter publishes a quarterly newsletter; the National organization puts out a monthly magazine. Both include articles, pictures, and events concerning the 8th AF in World War II as well as current news on old bases, monuments, reunions, tours, and research.

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Band of Brothers Characters, Richard Winters, Carwood Lipton, Ronald Speirs, Robert Sink, Donald Malarkey, William Guarnere, Lynn Compton

Biggest Brother, The Life of Major Dick Winters, the Man Who Led the Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers, E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

In the footsteps of the Band of Brothers, a return to Easy Company's battlefields with Sergeant Forrest Guth