Blog Archives

Timoleague Timeline

15/6/2014

Last week, when in Timloeague, I was very much impressed with their ‘Timeline’ installation

There was a leaflet available at the site which expanded on the story/history in each of the plaques.

I thought it an ideal way to raise this reader’s curiosity for local historical items. I suspect a return visit will be in the not too distant future – the Mass Rock; Holy Well; and Charlie Hurley’s home will be scheduled.

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Quality Control at Debenhams

14/6/2014

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Debenhams Retail
(Ireland) Limited

Trading as Debenhams.
Registered in Ireland. Company no. 239481
Registered office: 54-62, Henry street, Dublin 1

For your security this store is
Covered by close circuit
Television 24 hours a say

The system is operated by Debenhams ltd.
For more information, contact
1890 946779 and ask for the
Duty Manager for the relevant store.

While Mrs. MM went shopping for lipstick yesterday, I got distracted by this notice. I was surprised by how many queries could be raised from one short notice:

Should these words not begin with Capital Letters?

Should these words not begin with lower-case letters?

You have stated who Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd is but who is Debenhems Ltd.?

If the CCTV is for customer security, and not primarily for theft control, why is it on 24 hours a day, especially when the store is closed and no customer to be protected?

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Taking Sides

13/6/2014

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Southern members of the Irish Brigade photographed in Dublin prior to embarkation. Back row (left to right): P. McCarthy, Enniskeane; M. O’Connell, Bandon; P. J. Cleary, Limerick (now Rev. Fr. Leander, O.F.M.); C. Horgan, Mallow; J. Roche, Bandon; D. V. Higgins, Ballyhooly (who remained on in Spain after the brigade had returned home and was later killed in action). Middle row: J. Crowley, Dunmanway; Col. P. J. Coughlan, Ballineen (who saw the detachment off at Dublin); C. B. O’Donoghue, Bandon (who supplied this photograph); T. McCarthy, Ballydehob; W. F. McGrath, Cork. Front Row: J. M. Poland, Bandon; G. Kavanagh, Cork; J. McCarthy, Enniskeane (writer of these articles) and J. Manning, Toames.

For a good while now, I have had an interest in and have read quite a bit on the Spanish Civil. War. I was delighted to have recently watched Cathal O’Shannon’s excellent Even The Olives Are Bleeding on YouTube. RTE’s DocOnOne also has some great programmes. Come Here To Me regularly has enlightening pieces.

A few weeks ago, I travelled to Dublin and photographed memorials in Burncourt and Inchicore to members of the International Brigade.

In Bandon earlier this week, I went to the West Cork Heritage Centre and saw some details of members of the Irish Brigade who travelled to Spain to support Franco.

There was a policy among European nations not to get involved in the war – nominally at least as Hitler managed to aid Franco’s uprising. I found it interesting that the International Brigade had to sneak into Spain whereas the Irish Brigade had such a record of their sailing - and that it was considered a 'Crusade'.

"The word came from Maynooth, “support the Nazis”
The men of cloth failed again
When the Bishops blessed the Blueshirts in Dun Laoghaire
As they sailed beneath the swastika to Spain"
Christy Moore

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God Speed the Plough

12/6/2014

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1936 2005

IN THIS FIELD
TIMOLEAGUE YOUNG FARMER'S CLUB
HELD THEIR FIRST PLOUGHING MATCH
ON 23RD JANUARY 1936

"GOD SPEED THE PLOUGH"

‘You don’t see one of them every day in Cork City’

GMac

A few weeks ago while walking up Mangerton, GMac, who knows of my affliction for photographing plaques and the like, commented that he had spotted two plaques while out cycling from Timoleague towards Ballinascarthy- close to Kilmalooga Church.

I was west yesterday and my meeting finished early so I went hunting plaques – with only a 50% success rate. Maybe I should be cycling to spot the second.

I think that is the first plaque that I have seen for a Ploughing Match.

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Throwing Shapes

11/6/2014

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Cork has its differences – I always knew that.

I remember being at a concert in Coughlan’s on Douglas Street and Melojian was the warm-up artist. When he came to pronouncing the name of the venue, he said that (in Cork) 'ye say Coughlan' [caw-lan] and (in not Cork) ‘we say Coughlan’ [cock-lin] and wondered why. Someone in the audience quickly responded that ‘You’re wrong’ – enough was said.

Committee is another pronunciation that is somewhat particular to Cork.

Also in Cork, there are Rice Krispie Cakes – there are no Rice Krispie Buns that exist elsewhere.

A few weeks ago, I was watching the Great Irish Bake Off and was surprised by the Battenburg that they were requested to bake – square in profile with four coloured squares. I can only suspect that there are no Cork participants because they would have baked a cake of triangular profile with three tapering layers.

With thanks to KH for capturing the correct profile on camera…..

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Only have arguments that you can win....

10/6/2014

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PRELUDE

ADJECTIVES

The adjective agrees in number, gender and case (but not necessarily in declension) with the noun it qualifies and also usually follows it.

Irish Grammar Book – Nollaig MacCongáil p 86

bóthar = road eile = other

Lower View of the Barracks?

View of the Lower Barracks?

ROUND 1

I started slowly with an opening salvo of the picture from Littleton and a simple question as to whether there were two Thurles’s. I threw in comments regarding the Road to Lower Glanmire and a few others.

I didn’t see the uppercut coming and was quickly returned to my box – Éile is a townland in Tipperary and the full translation of Thurles is Dúrlas Éile.

THE WARM-UP

I had to drive to Dublin recently and used the old road rather than the boring motorway. I spotted this street sign in Littleton. To me it translated as the ‘Road to Other Thurles’ and not the ‘Other Road to Thurles’.

The positioning of adjectives such as Great, West, Lower, Upper on streetnames has been something that has puzzled me for some time so this sign was a bit of a red flag to me and had me well primed for a ‘discussion’ with MD on matters Irish.

Hill of Lower Grattan?

Road to Lower Glanmire?

Too late - another lesson in carefully picking one's arguments.......

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Donnċa Mór Ó Dálaiġ

9/6/2014

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Donnċa Mór Ó Dálaiġ
Ard Eigear
(venerable Poet)
c. 13°
Conaiġ anseo

“Donnoch Mor O’Dalaigh is remembered for his religious poems and the sweetness of his verse and is lauded in The Annals of the Four Masters as ‘a poet who never was and never will be surpassed’.

The O’Dalaigh’s became the bardic poets, first to the O’Loghlens, Princes of the Burrin and later to the royal O’Briens of Thomond.

According to tradition, Donnchadh Mor O’Daly kept a college for finishing the literati of Ireland in history and poetry at Finavara, in the north of the Burrin, about half a mile west of New Quay. In Ó’Donovan’s time the ruins of his house and gardens were still to be seen. He died in the fourteenth century and the monument erected to him is across the road opposite to where the house stood.

The monument itself is a simple hexagonal pillar mounted on a plinth of the same shape and format, and can be seen at Parkmore, Finavara, in Co. Clare”

A Burren Village: A Brief History of New Quay and its Environs – Michael Balfe P46

More photographs from our visit to New Quay over Easter.

Further proof that one, at least this one anyway, can learn by reading signs.

Strange to think that his poetry is eight hundred years old….and survives

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War Horse

8/6/2014

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I have photographed very many war plaques and memorials – Civil War; Fenian/United Irishmen; World War 1 and many others.

Towards the end of May, for the first time, I came across a plaque commemorating a War Horse.

11TH (P.A.O.) HUSSARS

UNDERNEATH

LIES CRIMEAN BOB

A VETERAN TROOPHORSE

WHO AFTER PASSING UNHARMED

THROUGH THE MEMORABLE

CRIMEAN CAMPAIGN

DIED AT CAHIR BARRACKS

ON THE 9TH NOVEMBER 1862

AGED 34 YEARS

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What? Why?

7/6/2014

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I took these photos last August when we walked along the Cliffs of Moher.

My curiosity as to the meaning or reasoning of the stone towers, stone assemblies, or even stone heaps has not yet been satisfied. Are they an Irish version of Inukshuk?

So I might as well throw it out there for anyone passing by with a suggestion.

.	Someone who does not share my condition regarding proximity to edges

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Changing the Gallery Exhibits

6/6/2014

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On a number of occasions, I have written a blog regarding the wall art at the Camden Palace and its environs.

Yesterday, I noted that a lot of the artwork had been replaced or amended in some way.

It definitely proves that it is more time consuming to change the exhibits when they are wall art rather than framed items hung on a wall.

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Great Gas

5/6/2014

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Sorry, no entries for ANALYSER were found.

Chambers Dictionary

analyser (ˈænəlaɪzə) (US) or analyzer (US)

Definitions

noun

a machine that analyses things

person that analyses things

Collins Dictionary

I saw this van yesterday and the spelling did look wrong.

Driving on, I did wonder what the difference between an analyser and an analyst might be.

Reverting to online dictionaries, Chambers does not recognise ‘Analyser’ whereas Collins does which may indicate that it is a recent addition to the official word list.

Neither recognise Analiser – which, having written it does look rather uncomfortable. It does raise the query if the gas is human rather than vehicular.

Or maybe that is just me....

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Remembering Tiananmen Square

4/6/2014

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Croppy Quay, Clonakilty

I was watching the news last night and there was mention of clampdown in China as to possible commemorations of Tiananmen Square, after twenty-five years.

I was reminded of the man standing in front of the tank.

It also reminded me of this photograph taken in Clonakilty a while back.

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Dealing with the Celtic Corpse

3/6/2014

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My own preference would be for all derelict sites to be compulsorily acquired under the Derelict Sites Act by the local authority who could then sell on. The market will then determine the value of the property. The purchaser will not be waiting for an upturn in the market and, hopefully, will have available funds to develop the site.

Derelict sites do drag down adjacent properties and the city in general. It is unfortunate that Cork City Council allows so many derelict sites to exist and continue to deteriorate in the city.

If they are afraid to use the power to compulsorily purchase the sites, they could take lessons from Limerick City Council on how to transform derelict sites on a temporary basis.

Western Road, Cork

Disused Petrol Station

Parnell St., Limerick

Disused Petrol Station

Above

Cathedral Place Limerick

Left:

South Main Street, Cork

Above:

Castle Street, Limerick

Left:

Castle Street, Cork

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Apple Tree Training

2/6/2014

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Another ‘I never knew that’ moment was had recently when I spotted this plaque in Gort.

Someone actually has a job as an apple tree trainer.

If my trees could talk, they would probably say that the trainer ought to have been consulted some years ago.

My Effort - 1

Effort Nr 2 - Requiring some upkeep

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Nico

1/6/2014

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Through work, I would have met or spoken with Nico Maguire on a small number of occasions. My memory is of finishing the conversation in a better mood than when I started. With positive outlook or with humour, he would have caused an uplift in mood.

Recently, I was in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Mahon and from a distance I was admiring the design of a headstone.

When I got close to be able to read it, I smiled. He did it again.

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Forward>>

MIXED MESSAGES.

Timoleague Timeline

Quality Control at Debenhams

Taking Sides

God Speed the Plough

Throwing Shapes

Only have arguments that you can win....

Donnċa Mór Ó Dálaiġ

War Horse

What? Why?

Changing the Gallery Exhibits

Great Gas

Remembering Tiananmen Square

Dealing with the Celtic Corpse

Apple Tree Training

Nico

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