Blog Archives

Crossing The Road

29/9/2015

Often, I have seen a deceased hedgehog on the road.

Travelling backroads between Kilmichael and Inchegeela, I spotted this little fellow. I stopped to yield right of way.

I had not realised that the legs were so spindly.

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Launderette - Beautiful or Otherwise

25/9/2015

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‘Launderette’ was, and continues to be, one of those play words among our family members.

‘Minestrone’ is not pronounced ‘Min Ess Throw Neigh’. It rhymes with stone and is simply ‘Mine Strone’.

Elsewhere an egg may be boiled, hereabouts it becomes a ‘baldy egg’

I am sure that there are a few more that will only come to mind after I hit the ‘post’ button.

‘Launderette’ is pronounced as ‘Lawn Der Et eeee’ as if to rhyme with the former Chelsea goalkeeper, Peter Bonetti.

Maybe it is because of this word play, but I have never had difficulty with the spelling of these words.

But if ‘Launderette’ is to be misspelled, I would have thought ‘Launderet’ was more probable than ‘Launderett’, but I was wrong.

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Eir – Own Goal

24/9/2015

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Brand Awareness, Yes
Positive Brand Association, NO

Of all the corners in the city…….

I spotted this advertising sign earlier in the week and was angry.

There are so many empty buildings; run down buildings; even, derelict sites upon which a marketing banner might actually be a benefit in hiding dereliction.

But Noooooooooooo!

The Marketing Department of Eir obviously left their common sense with the Com bit that has been discarded from Eircom. They decided to cover up the most interesting and recently completely corner in Cork.

From twitter, I see that I am not alone in being annoyed but the banner will remain until Sunday.

The genius in the Marketing Department has succeeded brilliantly in brand awareness but at a cost.

In this potential customer’s mind, the brand will forever be associated with tactlessness and complete disregard for community, art and heritage. I doubt it is a brand that I ever wish to give my custom.

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Eamonn Kent, b. 21.09.1881

21/9/2015

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This morning’s update from Stair na hÉireann advised that Eamonn Kent was born on this day in 1881.

I thought I’d share this photograph of the plaque on the house in North Co. Galway.

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Cork International Short Story Festival – Thank You

20/9/2015

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But I am a little puzzled....

Friday night was Culture Night and making our way from the English Market to the Masonic Hall, I spotted bunting for the Short Story Festival and Munster Literature Centre on the railings of Bishop Lucey Park.

I think they were in the process of shutting up shop for the evening, but I spied a sign mentioning a Lucky Dip for a free Book of Stories – a tad surprised that these freebies had not been snapped up already. My hand was allowed into bag.

John Kinsella’s book is now on the To Be Read list and then hopefully released.

The fact that it has a sticker but is not on Long List on website just makes it more intriguing for this reader….

The Seamus Murphy (Thursday) and Frank O’Connor (Wednesday) films and Wednesday evening’s reading at Triskel have all been entered into the diary – here’s hoping I’ll get there.

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Cork Ignite

19/9/2015

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Thank you and congratulations to SimonMcKeown and all involved in Cork Ignite – excellent enjoyable entertainment.

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Touching History – Thomas Kent

18/9/2015

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Last evening, my 9-year old and I went up to Collins Barracks, to St. Michael’s Garrison Church where the remains of Thomas Kent lay in state.

As I have mentioned here before, my recollection of Intermediate Certificate history as taught in my particular Alma Mater is of events, places and people so distant in time and/or place. I never felt a connection or experienced a sense of inquisitiveness that I wished to pursue – something that I regularly encounter now when seeing a commemorative plaque.

I have no recollection of a school education on Fenian times, the Easter Rising or the War of Independence/Civil War period. Any interest, you may have observed in blog posts hereabout, are without the foundation of directed school learning.

The 9-year old did not enjoy the queuing too much. The ceremonial aspect of the changing of the guard definitely grabbed attention. The signing of the book; the photographers, the Mayor of Derry and Cork Lord Mayor; the guns; the guard of honour with heads bowed in respect; and, the flag over the coffin – there were all registered in the young mind.

My hope is that when it comes to Junior Cert history and the period of Republicanism, Proclamation and Civil War, that there will be a memory of last evening that will inspire interest and inquisitiveness which hopefully will lead to a greater understanding than this parent.

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Thomas Weafer & Leslie Price – Easter 1916

17/9/2015

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Last Friday, I spotted this memorial plaque at the corner of Lower Abbey Street and O’Connell Street in Dublin.

On Saturday, I returned to St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork as it was too dark the previous Wednesday to photograph the headstone marking the grave of General Tom Barry and his wife Leslie.

It was today that I leant of the connection between these two memorials.

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St. Patrick's Well, Nassau Street

16/9/2015

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‘Be Prepared’ is a motto – unfortunately I was not.

Sráid Thobar Phádraig - Patrick's Well Street

Last Friday, making my way back towards the train home, I was walking along Nassau Street. A bell in my head went off.

Sometime recently, someone had mentioned something about Nassau Street that had been filed away under ‘unusual and worth checking out when next there’. But could I remember the sometime, the something or even the someone – could I hell.

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Luas Warning To Irish-Speakers

15/9/2015

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Luas Station, Beechwood

OPTION 1

The Irish-speaker has reason to be paranoid.

Maybe he needs to learn from the Godfather and keep his friend close and his enemies closer.

Maybe the Irish speaker just has to keep his back to the wall.

Maybe looking in two directions is not enough – he has to do a full 360 to look in all directions.

“Both - two similarly

an dá
araon

I left both the windows open - d'fhág mé an dá fhuinneog ar oscailt”
Foclóir.ie

OPTION 2

The typesetter decided that:

‘Féach i dhá treoanna’ - (my best effort at translation)

would not fit – and hoped that many would not care or even notice.

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Teenage Kicks

14/9/2015

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Mark's Lane, Dublin 2

I tweeted a photograph of this sign when I was in Dublin on Friday.

When I saw the name, I was immediately brought back in time to teenage years, to when it was fun to make play on names.

Days when it was a laugh to call a house and ask for John Wall, and then Mary Wall and when told they were not there to ask if any of the Walls were there. When answer was in the negative, the obvious question was how the roof was staying up. Easily amused.

Annette Curtin was a name used to liken something to see through – it gets worse.

About ten years ago, I was working on a project and copied on some emails from Mike Hunt – that name also brought me straight back to teenage humour and discussions as to why not Michael Hunt or Mickey Hunt.

Hugh Jarse was another such name to bring a smile back then – and now in memory.

And to think that Hugh Jordan remains in big painted letters. It should really be a protected structure to bring a smile to those of us wishing to be brought back to teenage years.

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King Of The Mountains – Mick Murphy

13/9/2015

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A few years back, homebound with a cold, I caught up on a number of radio documentaries from DocOnOne, including ‘A Convict Of The Road’. I had read briefly prior to that of the race but this was the first that I really learnt of Mick Murphy.

Last year, I was again reminded on Mick Murphy when I stopped opposite the Black Shop Bar to look at these commemorative plaques. I was reminded once again of Mick Murphy.

On Friday, I was on the 05.55 train to Dublin, checking Twitter, when I read of the death of Mick Murphy.

Today, I listened again to ‘A Convict Of The Road’, a memory of times well past.

It would be forty minutes well spent if you are tempted.

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I Remember Where I Was When…..

12/9/2015

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A while back, I commented on Grandad’s site that there were only three such occasions that I could remember – Ayrton Senna’s death; Princess Diana’s death; and, Twin Towers on 9/11.

I remember thinking, shortly after writing that, at the time of Nelson Mandela’s death that the list would extend to four – but that has not proven to be the case.

I was reminded of this earlier this week, two days before 9/11, when we had our final Conversational Irish Walk. The venue was St Finbarr’s Cemetery, prompted by a tweet from Irish Garrison Towns, advising of an online map. The venue definitely provided very many topics of conversation and some new vocabulary.

As we turned the gate for home, we spotted this lovely triptych memorial – smooth or one face and rough elsewhere; bullaun type depression on top to trap water. The curve was definitely tactile.

I did recall that Ruth Clifford McCourt was originally from Cork but had not realised that she and her daughter were buried in Cork.

Something else to add to that memory of talking with MOS outside a school prior to a construction site meeting fourteen years ago.

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Just A Slab

11/9/2015

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What is it about builders and spelling?

Not ‘extention’ or ‘extension’ this time – but ‘slabing’

“slab noun 1 a thick flat rectangular piece of stone, etc. 2 a thick slice, especially of cake. 3 an outer plank sawn from a log. verb (slabbed, slabbing) 1 to cut or make into slabs. 2 to pave with concrete slabs. slabbed adj.
ETYMOLOGY: 13c as sclabbe.”

Chambers Dictionary

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Captain Jim Burke, d. 28.08.1922

10/9/2015

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Another curiosity successfully scratched.

When in Dunmanway last week, I took a ramble through the old graveyard off the Kilbarry Road and spotted this headstone.

I learnt that there was a 1st Western Division of the Free State Army – something new for me.

I could not recall very many memorials or headstones spotted for members of the Free State Army in the Civil War and so decided to explore further.

IrishMedals.org has a list, in date order, of National Army men killed during the Civil War but 28 August 1922 only has a listing of an ambush in Co. Mayo in which Private Charles Sullivan died. Wikipedia Timeline has no listing for that date. Going back to my daily email from Stair na hÉireann, I still found no reference to Captain Burke.

This lunchtime, I went over to the reopened City Library and quickly found the article below which confirmed that Captain Burke was on horseback and was killed from the first volley of shots at Castlemaine – which was the second of five ambushes encountered by the National Army column that day.

It was interesting to see that the article is noted as ‘Passed by Censor’ – I had not realised that there had been censorship in the Civil War.

Going back to the web, the report contents are mentioned in The Civil War in Kerry by Tom Doyle. Then I realised that IrishMedals.org page has the death of James Burke in July 1922 – not August.

IN
AFFECTIONATE MEMORY
OF

CAPT. TIMOTHY P. JIM BURKE
OF DUNMANWAY
WHO WAS KILLED AT CASTLEMAINE, Co. KERRY
28TH AUGUST 1922

R. I. P.

ERECTED BY THE OFFICERS AND MEN
OF THE 1st WESTERN DIVISION
FREE STATE ARMY

“Capt. Burke who was killed at Castlemaine, was educated at the Presentation Brothers College and University College Cork. He fought as a brave soldier through the Irish war. His death at the hands of his own countrymen is deeply deplored.”

Cork Examiner (Passed by Censor)

Cork Examiner - August 1922

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<<Previous

MIXED MESSAGES.

Crossing The Road

Launderette - Beautiful or Otherwise

Eir – Own Goal

Brand Awareness, Yes
Positive Brand Association, NO

Eamonn Kent, b. 21.09.1881

Cork International Short Story Festival – Thank You

But I am a little puzzled....

Cork Ignite

Touching History – Thomas Kent

Thomas Weafer & Leslie Price – Easter 1916

St. Patrick's Well, Nassau Street

Luas Warning To Irish-Speakers

OPTION 1

OPTION 2

Teenage Kicks

King Of The Mountains – Mick Murphy

I Remember Where I Was When…..

Just A Slab

Captain Jim Burke, d. 28.08.1922

Another curiosity successfully scratched.

Author

Archives

Categories

Blogs I Read & Links

MIXED MESSAGES.

Brand Awareness, Yes Positive Brand Association, NO

But I am a little puzzled....

OPTION 1

OPTION 2

Another curiosity successfully scratched.

Author

Archives

Categories

Blogs I Read & Links

Brand Awareness, Yes
Positive Brand Association, NO