Blog Archives - Reading the Signs

Search the site

Francis O'Neill

31/5/2014

Ballyea, Ennis, Co. Clare

Yesterday, I wrote about my visit last month to St. John’s Well in Killone, outside Ennis.

The local resident told a lovely story about Francis O’Neill who had lived locally and who had helped and volunteered with very many local groups and actions. When the new altar was being built, it was decided to dedicate it to Francis O’Neill.

When the monumental sculptor who was making the altar was told of the engraving, he said that there would be no charge for the altar. Some of those good turns did not go unnoticed in that quarter.

One needs a story like that every once in a while for the uplift value.

St. John's Well, Killone

30/5/2014

General Daniel Florence O'Leary & Fitzgerald's Park

29/5/2014

Is There Anybody Out There?

28/5/2014

Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?

Roger Waters

I have said previously that this blog was borne out of a Journalism course that I signed up for last year.

I would have been one of the most reluctant in the course with regard to starting a blog. I would have been a strong advocate of whatever is personal and private should remain just that. That was then.

Some days can be a struggle to find a blog entry but generally there are enough signs out there that generate an immediate thought or comment within my brain that at some time gets shared here.

Since last year, I have come to enjoy looking out for signs; spotting the unusual; and, generally most things relating to the blog.

So I know why I am here.

Why you and others are here is another story that does make wonder….sometimes.

On Your Bike

27/5/2014

Gort, similar to Macroom, was a town that one had to pass through on a journey to elsewhere. The length of the town always made the passing through feel much longer than was perceived as necessary. The bends in the road up to Gort only added to the lack of feel-good when considering Gort.

All that is now changed – a by-pass solves many ills.

Recently, I went to Gort and saw it as a town for the first time.

I was well impressed with the wall art on the Gallery Café – if it had been open at that time of the morning, it would have had me as a customer.

Irish Laughing at Us

26/5/2014

Ascaill - Mallow

I was in Mallow a few weeks ago and noted this sign on the newly constructed public toilet facility.

After my blog some weeks ago on the various translations of Avenue, I smiled that ‘Ascaill’ was the only word consistent in Irish between the two signs – and that it was spelt the same on both, not any of the recently observed such as ‘Ascall’, ‘Ascal’ or even ‘Ascail’.

As the toilet sign is more recent than the streetsign, one might assume that the Irish are moving away from ‘Noamh’ for ‘Saint’ and back to ‘San’.

As for James, I suppose that there are even more than the two alternatives here.

If one were to contemplate learning Irish, it may not be recommended to start with streetsigns.....

Galway - Ascal

Ennis - Ascail

Limerick - Ascaill

Droiċead San Uincent

A Tale of Three Cities

25/5/2014

A twenty-first century grotto, Thomas St., Limerick

On the May Bank holiday weekend, from Ennis we headed into Limerick. The Riverfest was on but there was a major buzz around the place. The Milk Market area was thronged. Even allowing for the showery weather, the activity, the sense of happiness and commerce, and the uplift that such activity brings was refreshing.

The following Saturday, I was in Galway. Another showery day and no bank holiday but the number of visitors in the city was remarkable. A different day, a different city, same buzz.

Last Saturday, I was in Cork and attended a talk as part of the Bealtaine festival - a completely different feel. Maybe there is truth to the argument of green hills being far away – or maybe Cork is missing out.

This was one of the many street art installations in Limerick that did impress – expect to see some more over the coming weeks.

And smithy work from the Gort forge

24/5/2014

I, the poet William Yeats,
With old mill boards and sea-green slates,
And smithy work from the Gort forge,
Restored this tower for my wife George;
And may these characters remain
When all is ruin once again.

We were in Ennis a few weeks back and I woke very early and decided to head out very early to capture some signs and the like. In Gort, I spotted this plaque.

It did intrigue but once again the internet steps in to satisfy the curiosity raised by a plaque.

It was well before eight on a Bank Holiday Saturday morning when I took the photographs but I suspect that the building did actually outlast the characters and enterprise.

Fowl Lingerie

23/5/2014

Last Friday, we went for a meal to Sakura on MacCurtain St. – a Japanese restaurant.

The food was very tasty and we all enjoyed the fare.

None of us were adventurous enough to try the Chicken Tights…..

John Scannell Taylor - died in Carlist War

22/5/2014

TO THE FOND MEMORY

OF

JOHN SCANNELL TAYLOR

LIEUTENANT 1ST BATTN CAZADORES DE ASPEITIA

OF THE ARMY OF DON CARLOS VII

WHO FELL ON THE FIELD OF IBERO JULY 23 1878

HIS REMAINS LIE IN THE

CAMPO SANTO OF ORORVIO PAMPLOMA

R.I.P.

Last Saturday, the dogs needed walking and I decided to also do try to get in some reading – so a stroll in St Joseph’s Cemetery in Ballyphehane was good for the three of us.

I came across this monument and did not recognise the battle or war in which John Scannell Taylor died.

The power of the internet led me HERE and a very interesting read.

I recommend heading off THERE for some history lesson.

Once again, learning by reading the signs…….

St Joseph's Cemetery, Ballyphehane

Victorian Shadows

21/5/2014

I spotted this stencil art recently when on Oliver Plunkett St.. I do like.

The images are definitely appropriate to the name of the shop.

I have been somewhat put off by many thinking that street art is what should be done with idle or derelict buildings – board up the windows with plywood and paint a window with curtains and either flowers or a cat in it. After seeing this so many times, it does hammer home the poor future for commercial buildings and entities.

Carrigtohill

Patrickswell

Killavullen

Carrigtohill

A Lack of Focus

20/5/2014

Micko was in the Imperial Hotel in Cork over the weekend and spotted this sign at the hotel. He knows someone who is delighted to receive such photographs.

Whatever the author was focussing on, it wasn’t the underlined word that the spell-checker was suggesting or proof reading the four words.

We all make mistakes but regularly they will be spotted at the typing stage; when reviewing on the screen; when checking that it printed properly; even when sticking up; or, when assessing whether it has been stuck level.

Talbot Street Memorial

19/5/2014

For this site and also for the Irish War Memorials website, I have been recording commemorative plaques around the country when I see them.

With the 40th anniversary this weekend, I thought it a good idea to upload photographs taken on my last trip to Dublin.

Haggard

18/5/2014

KH's panoramic capture of Devil's Bit and Horse's Glen

Cork to Innishannon Road

“On your right is the site of a battle in 1262 in which the McCarthys defeated the Normans. In the battle, Cormac McCarthy fell, thus giving his name to the place”

Walk Guide Southwest of Ireland – Seán Ó Súilleabháin (Gill & MacMillan 1978 – 2000)

tuairín, m. (gs. ~, pl. ~í). 1. Dim of tuar2. 2. Grassy plot; patch of lea. 3. Bleaching-green.

Foclóir.ie

haggard1, s. Iothlainn f.

haggard2, a. a (Dreach) fiata, fiáin. b Caite, snoite, deilfe.

Foclóir.ie

haggard adj 1 looking very tired and thin-faced, because of pain, worry, etc. 2 wild or intractable. 3 said of a hawk: untamed, having matured in the wild before being caught. noun, falconry an untamed hawk, or one caught when adult, especially a female. haggardly adverb. haggardness noun.
ETYMOLOGY: 16c: from French hagard wild.

Chambers Dictionary

haggard2 (ˈhæɡərd )

Definitions

noun

(in Ireland and the Isle of Man) an enclosure beside a farmhouse in which crops are stored

Word Origin

C16: related to Old Norse heygarthr, from hey hay + garthr yard

Collins Dictionary

On way to Mangerton

Last Sunday, a much finer day than today, four of us set of for Killarney and a walk up Mangerton. We parked and I spotted this plaque. I was well pleased to have a translation of Toureen – only since then I am not so sure.

I would have known of Toureen Terrace in Passage West – where John Spillane launched the commemorative song. Recently, I stopped on my way to Innishannon to record a plaque to the Toureen Ambush. The internet has also thrown up a Toureen at Burnfort by Mallow and at Peacaun in Co. Tipperary.

It was a name that did create some curiosity in the recesses of my thoughts – generally when out and about; not when at a computer when I could check it out. Last Sunday, I thought I had a Eureka Moment and that ‘Toureen’ translated as ‘haggard’ – although I was intrigued somewhat as a battle at or about a small farmbuilding.

Now I have more knowledge but am still confused as to Toureen being a haggard.

As for the walk – a great day out with such a clear sky.

Bernardine

17/5/2014

There is a small line between determination, stubbornness and obsessive compulsive tendencies and I am probably veering towards the end of that progression.

Last June, I pondered on three tiles that I saw in Cork. Since then I have photographed over 200 such tiles in different cities and towns. Last Saturday, I had to go to Galway and set off early to head to Tuam as I was told that there were tiles there – if there are, they did escape me.

After my appointment, I did record many more tiles in Galway but also found out a few things:

the tiles are to a design by St Bernardine of Sienna
there are a few different designs
St Bernardine was male

- and, A Triduum is a three day observation