Lee and Susan Nelsen ended their so welcome Christmas ’94 letter with the following words: “We hope all of you have the Christmas that you are looking forward to and that 1995 will be your ‘great year’ as well”. Well, thank the Lord we did enjoy that Christmas and the year of ’95 was indeed what, for us here in Ireland, could be described as not just great but epochal. Yes, on the negative side there were some very disturbing and even horrific deeds recounted in grim details in media news bulletins – but who needs to dwell on such happenings? What made it so great a year for the Irish people was primarily, that we celebrated the first anniversary of the ceasefire in the Northern Ireland conflict after a quarter of a century of bloodshed and violence. That the ceasefire, which at first seemed very tentative and shaky, had in the meantime become stabilised and seemingly permanent pending a final lasting and peaceful settlement, which hopefully would heal the running ulcer of the ancient historic Irish province of Ulster in the struggle of the Northern Nationalist population with the British and Northern Unionists. That ceasfire still lasts and is a great blessing bestowed on the whole island of Ireland. Next we had the finest, warmest and longest sustained summer weather that has been experienced in this country at least since the commencement of weather records in Ireland over 200 years ago. A very important happening in the latter end of the year, was the visit of President Clinton of the United States of America to Ireland. He came in the last month of the year and visited Belfast, Derry and Dublin and his visit, in the interests of promoting peace in Northern Ireland was undoubtedly an outstanding and memorable success and the Irish people on both sides of the political and religious divide, wherever he appeared, gave him the warmest of welcomes, a real “Céad Míle Fáilte, one hundred thousand welcomes. For a time it was thought that he was coming our way to visit Limerick, en route to Kerry, but his trip was cut short and he left Ireland from Dublin. I will refer to this visit again. Now for the extended Dineen family of Limerick, Ireland, which includes the families of those fortunate (?) enough to have married a Dineen and I consider myself very lucky indeed in my choice, I think of Yeats immortal lines: “Tread softly lest you tread on my dreams”. It was epochal for all of us because from four different States of America there came to visit the ancient city of Limerick four nephews of my wife, Maureen O’Brien (nee Dineen). From Naperville, Illinois came Don Dineen with his wife Ruth. From Centreville, Virginia, came Ray Dineen and his wife Ronnie. Then in August from Keller, Texas came Neal Nelsen with his wife Jeanette. Along with them Lee Nelsen arrived (unfortunately without his wife Susy who could not make this trip) from Alta Loma, California. Hopefully we may meet Suzy in the near future. It was, thank God, an epochal year for the Dineen family of Limerick, because these two parties of four stalwart men and their beautiful, talented and accomplished wives, made it so by coming over to Ireland to see their two surviving aunts and two uncles and numerous cousins and the ancient and historic city of Limerick wherein one of each of those men’s parents was born. The late Richard C. Dineen left his home at 96 Henry Street, Limerick City in the mid-twenties and emigrated to New York having followed his brother Cecil. Their sister Eileen followed a few years later. Richard, married Ann McHugh whose family came from Donegal, became the father of Richard, Don and Ray. Eileen married Neal Nelsen, whose family came from Norway, and became the mother of both Neal and Lee.