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Winegeese Events - June 2005

A beautiful June evening during The Ireland Funds Conference in Cork provided the backdrop for the launch of A Kingdom of Wine: A Celebration of Ireland’s Winegeese by Ted Murphy.

Ted Murphy’s much anticipated book on the Winegeese covers the history of Ireland’s connection with wine from earliest times and the significant contribution of Irish missionaries in Europe to its viticultural development in the 6th-10th centuries up to the present day. Coined by the author, the term “Winegeese” honors that history that only now is receiving full appreciation around the world.

The publishing of A Kingdom of Wine was sponsored by the Patrons of The Ireland Funds WineGeese Society. Members and guests along with the entire Murphy family gathered in the garden of Hayfield Manor to pay tribute to this culmination of Ted’s work.

We had several events planned round the launch of Ted Murphy’s book A Kingdom of Wine. Book details >

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On Saturday, 18 June 2005

• Morning tour of the Winegeese Museum and Desmond Castle led by Ted Murphy (open to all Ireland Funds WineGeese Society members)
  
• Evening Patrons-only dinner at Blue Haven Hotel, Kinsale (open to Patrons of the book)

On Sunday, 19 June 2005

• 6-8 pm we will celebrate the Book Launch of A Kingdom of Wine: The Story of the Winegeese by Ted Murphy in Cork (open to all Ireland Funds WineGeese Society members) in Cork.

Desmond Castle was erected as a Custom House by Maurice FitzGerald the Earl of Desmond in the late 15th century. At this periodKinsale had become a busy port with a considerable overseas trade in wine. In 1497, Henry III granted “To our dear cousin Maurice, Earl of Desmond, all our customs, cockets and prize wines in Kinsale.” The granting of this pressage of wine entitled the Desmonds to a cask of wine from every ship that docked in the ports of Kinsale, Youghal, and Baltimore. This appointment lasted until the unsuccessful Desmond rebellion against the Crown, which in 1583 resulted in the forfeiture of the Desmond lands by a syndicate under the leadership of Sir Walter Raleigh.

The International Museum of Wine is located in Desmond Castle and was opened in 1997 by the Marquis de Goulaine, a member of one of the oldest wine growing families in the world. In 1819, Henrietta Galwey, a member of a prominent Cork family, married Alphonse, the sixth Marquis de Goulaine.