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Montserrat
Montserrat
is a British
overseas territory located in the Leeward
Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser
Antilles in the Caribbean
Sea. The island is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean,
both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland
and for the Irish descent of its inhabitants.
History:
Montserrat
was populated by Arawak
and Carib
people when it was claimed by Christopher
Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, naming the island Santa Maria de Montserrate, after the
Blessed
Virgin of the Monastery
of Montserrat. The island fell under English
control in 1631 when a group of Irish
suffering anti-Catholic violence in St Kitts and Nevis, many of whom had been
forcibly removed from Ireland as indentured servants, settled there. More Irish
settlers arrived after Oliver Cromwell's defeat at the Battle of Drogheda in
1649, when Irish political prisoners were transported to Montserrat. Place names
and surnames such as Dublin, Daley, Corbett, Galloway, O'Brien, O'Garro, Riley,
White and Ryan are commonly found. Ireland is represented in the country's flag by the harpist maiden wearing green and
holding a cross.
The
import of African slaves,
common to most Caribbean islands, began early. An economy based on sugar,
rum,
arrowroot
and Sea
Island cotton
was established. By the late 1700's there were many plantations on the
island.
In
1782, during the American
Revolutionary War, Montserrat was briefly captured by France.
It was returned to the United Kingdom under the Treaty
of Paris which ended that conflict. A failed slave uprising on the
17th of March 1798 led to Montserrat becoming one of only four places in
the world that celebrates St
Patrick's Day as a public holiday (the others being the
Republic of Ireland, Northern
Ireland and the Canadian
province of Newfoundland
and Labrador). Slavery was abolished in Montserrat in
1834.
Falling
sugar prices during the nineteenth century had an adverse effect on the island's
economy and in 1869 the philanthropist Joseph
Sturge of Birmingham, England formed the Montserrat Company to buy
sugar estates that were no longer economically viable. The company planted limes
starting production of the lime juice, set up a school, and sold parcels of land
to the inhabitants of the island, with the result that much of Montserrat came
to be owned by smallholders.
From
1871 to 1958 Montserrat was administered as part of the Federal Colony of the Leeward
Islands, becoming a province of the short-lived West
Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962. In 1979 George
Martin’s AIR
Studios Montserrat opened and the island attracted world-famous
musicians who came to record in the peace and quiet and lush tropical
surroundings of Montserrat.
The pictures
above were once advertising for tourists, the river
has gone so has the waterfall.
The
last decade of the 20th century, however, brought two events which devastated
the island. On the 17th of September 1989, the Category 5 Hurricane
Hugo struck Montserrat with sustained winds of 160 miles per hour,
damaging over 90 percent of the structures on the island. AIR Studios closed,
and the tourist trade upon which the island depended was nearly wiped out.
Within a few years, however, the island had recovered considerably - only to be
struck again by disaster. In
July 1995, Montserrat's Soufriere
Hills volcano, dormant throughout recorded history, rumbled to life
and began an eruption which eventually buried the island's capital, Plymouth, in
more than thirty nine feet of mud, destroyed its airport and docking
facilities, and rendered the southern half of the island uninhabitable.
Following the destruction of Plymouth, more than half of the population left the
island due to the economic disruption and lack of housing. The ash venting
does occasionally extend into the populated areas of the northern and western
parts of the island.
Stark reminders
The
southern part of the island has been evacuated and visits are severely
restricted. Since volcanic activity began, the human population on the island
has declined from approximately 11,000 to about 4,500. A sustainable
development plan has been developed for Montserrat and it will be important to
integrate environmental aspects into the island’s redevelopment. Today
most of Montserrat remains lush and green. A new airport at Geralds in the north
(renamed the John A. Osborne International Airport in 2008) was opened
officially by Princess
Anne, the Princess Royal in February 2005, and received its first
commercial flights on the 11th of July 2005. Docking facilities are in place at
Little Bay, where the new capital is being constructed. The people of Montserrat
were granted full residency rights in the United
Kingdom in 1998 and citizenship was granted in 2002.
The symbol of Plymouth - the War
Memorial, here it is featured in an edition of the National Geographic,
showing the ash fall from early volcanic activity. Sadly now gone,
buried completely.
Geography:
The
island of Montserrat is located approximately thirty miles southwest of Antigua.
It comprises only forty square miles and is increasing gradually owing to
volcanic deposits on the southeast coast of the island; it is ten miles
long and seven miles wide, with dramatic rock faced cliffs
rising fifty - a hundred feet above the sea and smooth bottomed sandy
beaches
scattered among coves
on the west side of the island. Montserrat has been a quiet haven of
extraordinary scenic beauty. Montserrat has two islets:
Little Redonda and Virgin, and Statue Rock.
The nearly finished food market
Economy: Since
the twin devastations of Hurricane Hugo and the eruption of the Soufriere Hills
Volcano, the Montserratian economy has been effectively halted. Export
businesses currently based in Montserrat deal primarily in the selling and
shipping of aggregate for construction. Imports include virtually everything
available for sale on the island. The
island's operating budget is largely supplied by the British Government and
administered through DFID (the Department for International Development)
amounting to approximately £25 million per year. Additional amounts are secured
through income and property taxes, license and other fees as well as customs
duties levied on imported goods. A short distance from the Cultural Centre is
the two storey food market, costing US $630,000, the ground floor is complete.
The $8.5 million first phase of Little Bay infrastructure project is in
progress.
The cricket pitch proudly overlooks Little Bay and is also
used by the local schools as a sports ground
Famous
Montserratians: Jim
Allen - former cricketer who represented the World
Series Cricket West Indians. Lionel
Baker - the first Montserratian to represent the West Indies in
international cricket. Alphonsus
"Arrow" Cassell MBE
— well known for his soca
song "Hot
Hot Hot" which has sold over four million copies. Maizie
Williams - musician, member of musical group Boney
M.
Culture:
Cricket
is a popular sport in Montserrat. Players from Montserrat are in fact eligible
to play for the West
Indies cricket team. Jim
Allen was the first to play for West Indies and he represented the World
Series Cricket West Indians. No other player from Montserrat had gone
on to represent West Indies until Lionel
Baker made his One Day International debut against Pakistan in
November 2008. Montserrat has its own FIFA
Affiliated Football
Team, and has twice competed in the World Cup
qualifiers.
Flora and Fauna: Despite its small size, Montserrat
supported at least one hundred and thirty two tree species, fifty nine species
of birds and thirteen mammals. The Montserrat oriole is found nowhere else. Also
restricted to Montserrat are the galliwasp and another unnamed lizard. The
endangered and edible 'mountain chicken' (a frog) is found only on Montserrat
and Dominica. There is a rare fruit bat found in the caves between Little bay
and Rendezvous Bay. Several other species are restricted to Montserrat and some
nearby islands. The
effects of the eruptions on the island's plants and animals are being studied
where circumstances allow. Extensive monitoring of the Montserrat oriole - the
National Bird - the mountain chicken and other important key indicator species,
is ongoing. It is however the first
Caribbean island we have visited where we have seen NO Carib Grackle. In fact
our tally is four brown boobies, three frigate birds,
two pelicans, four doves and a few chickens. You hear no birdsong and see few
wild flowers other than planted in gardens and a few tough survivors on the
edges of Plymouth. We will be interested to see how, when and if visiting
birds come back to stay and if the natives survive. Acid rain, islands
nearby with no threats are great deciders.
ALL IN ALL OUR HEARTS GO OUT TO MONTSERRAT AND
HER HAPPY PEOPLE
SO PLEASED TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO
VISIT
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