|
The Four Seasons,
|
|
|---|
|
The Four Seasons,
|
|
|---|
The Four Seasons When this is translated into Irish it becomes... Ceithre Raithe na Bliana The illustration shows the cover of the 2006 Spring edition, the white colour the queen colour for the year and each year's covers reflect the current year's marking colour. I asked Claire if there was any significance in the knotwork that forms the centrepiece of the cover page of four seasons. She replied...
|
In the Spring 2004 edition of the newsletter there was a profile of Claire, written by Norman Walsh, entitled 'Editor in Chief'... It is reproduced here as a tribute to a lady of high devotion and achievement, who only started to pursue beekeeping in 1990 and reached a very high standard of knowledge and qualification, in a seventeen year period, that would take many of us a lifetime to accumulate. The Gormanston article linked above left will tell you a little more about Claire from her own words. |
EDITOR IN CHIEF
A PROFILE OF CLAIRE CHAVASSE
Claire's uncle Frank stands in the middle of Church Square in Banbridge surrounded by Polar bears.
It is, of course, the huge statue of Captain Francis Crozier the explorer who died with all his
colleagues on an expedition which was endeavouring to discover the North West Passage. He really
is Claire's great, great, great uncle. Because of this connection with Banbridge, Claire was invited
in 2000 to deliver the third Public Lecture in Banbridge Town hall for Dromore and District
Beekeepers' Association. After her lecture, which was on pollination, an outspoken apple grower from
County Armagh asked her what qualified her to give such a lecture and she replied that she had
reared three sons !
The Dromore Association used the Crozier connection to publicise the lecture and the Chairman of Banbridge District Council, Councillor William McFadden had a reception for her in his parlour and later he attended her lecture. This was a high profile, high pressure occasion for Claire early in her lecturing career, but she handled it brilliantly. Few will forget her lecturer's examination in 1998 at Gormanston when, after delivering an excellent lecture, she dealt very decisively with rather unfair questions from one of the panel of examiners. Since then she has consolidated her position as one of the leading beekeeping lecturers in Ireland, having lectured in Gormanston each year, firstly at preliminary level and then co-ordinated the team of three lecturers which delivered the Intermediate Syllabus over the following three years. The booklet she produced each year, containing all the overheads of all the Intermediate lectures proved very popular and in 2003, over one hundred copies were printed with vivid red covers, reminding everyone that red is the 2003 colour.
Claire was also one of the lecturers who conducted the Varroa road show all over Ireland in 2000 which had a total audience of more than five hundred. Another of Claire's great skills is as a writer. This was recognised in 2000 and in 2003 when she came first in the essay class at The National Honey Show in London and in 2002 when she came second. She writes with sincerity and humour; remember the article she wrote for An Beachaire describing life after Cancer, and that was the first of her two encounters with that dreaded disease? Remember her describing her wig coming off with her Sherriff smock when she had no hair?
When Micheál Mac met with his first GBBG Committee he outlined the jobs to be done. Claire immediately volunteered to edit the magazine which became "The Four Seasons". This magazine started off well and has improved with every edition. She is a most pro-active editor, setting the theme- and picking the writers and subjects for each edition. She has discovered writing talent in some unexpected quarters and now has at least as large a stable of writers as any other beekeeping magazine editor in these Islands. She has joined the Beekeeping Editors' Exchange Scheme, "BEES," for the purpose of sharing material. With the amount of original material in The Four Seasons, watch out for some of it being reprinted over a wide area. When reprinting, editors acknowledge their source, so The Four Seasons is moving into a new era.
Claire, although of Irish parents, was born in Kuala Lumpur and travelled the world as a young girl in an army family. She was educated in Armagh and enjoyed throwing her school hat, like a Frisbee from the train into the Boyne, after her last term at school. She and her husband Hal came back to the family home at Cappagh in 1983 and she busied herself with calf rearing and other farm duties before she decided to become a beekeeper. Claire didn't like insects and there was no tradition of beekeeping in the family, but, when at the Mothers' Union meeting, she heard Gwen Roe talk about bees she was hooked. Managed by Michael Moynihan she was apprenticed to Noel and the late Thomas Lonergan and directed to Gormanston. During her first illness her cousin Sally Perceval-Maxwell helped Claire with her bees and was rewarded with a hive for herself and so another beekeeper and GBBG member was born.
Claire claims that exhibiting honey is not a passion, nevertheless she does it and wins, especially with chunk honey. Her chunk honey has prizes from Clonmel, Dromore, Gormanston and London, but in 2000, at the National in London her entry was disqualified on a technicality, after winning. However in 2003 the first prize was hers. In 2002 Claire coached Tony Murray in the art of exhibiting chunk honey and, so good was her tuition that his entry won at the South Tipperary BKA Honey show in Clonmel and beat Claire with his first ever entry. It was suggested that Tony should go to London and attempt to overturn Claire's expected victory. (Clonmel show has the highest esteem in Ireland and first prizes there often go on to win in London.)
|
The "Four Seasons" is playing an important role in keeping the members of GBBG informed and, as the group expands geographically, it serves to keep members focused, united and enthusiastic. Its creation and success are due to the vision of the Chairman and to the skill, knowledge, imagination, powers of persuasion and industry of the Editor in chief, Designer, Compositor, Printer, Publisher and Circulation manager. |
Thank you... Claire Chavasse nee Crozier.
Norman Walsh.
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Originated... January 2006, Revised... 19, 20 May 2006, Amended... 21, 22 May 2006, Epitaph... 12, 14 August 2007, Revised... 04 September 2007,
|
The Galtee Bee Breeding Group newsletter is published and distributed to members four times
per year, the publishing dates coinciding with Spring, Summer Autumn and Winter, so it is
aptly named "The Four Seasons".
Since it's inception in Spring 2001, until Autumn 2007, the four seasons editor has been Claire Chavasse, her efforts
have produced a remarkable catalogue of GBBG achievements and activities, many of which are
also recorded on this website, the high standards that Claire has achieved in penmanship and
presentation are matched by her pursuit of material for inclusion. She is pictured here on
the occasion of winning the 'beekeeper of the year', Gormanston 2004, Photo... Jon Cox.
Claire is a leading member of Waterford Beekeepers' Association and an associate member
of the South Tipperary Association. It was in that association and later in the GBBG
that she came in contact with the real heavyweights in Irish beekeeping, exhibiting
and breeding, Micheál, Redmond and Dennis. She gives them credit for her fast
track to success and through the GBBG, she and Jim Power attended an NDB course at the
Central Science Laboratory in York. In 2003 Claire gained her National Diploma in Science
(Apiculture), are there any more mountains still to climb?
