Blog Archives - Reading the Signs

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And the flowing of waters below......

16/12/2014

More than once before have I posted regarding public displays of poetry in Galway – I have yet to find anywhere in the country as enthusiastic for public reflection.

Paint and glaze a tile. Then stick to a wall. Not very expensive.

The return from feelgood factor so outweighs the investment.

Or maybe it is just me.

“Houses of stone,

Archways,

Mill wheels

And weirs

And the flowing

Of waters below

Too many years”

Kevin Faller, from the poem ‘Hometown’

Writing Numbers

15/12/2014

Yet another where I was not as correct as I had previously thought.

A few weeks back, having brought our eight years old swimming and waiting for the class to finish, I was sitting next to a father who was helping his young daughter with her homework. They were doing Roman Numerals.

I have always liked the logic of Roman Numerals – particularly the counting back for 4 and 9.

I did comment to the father that if she managed to convert 99 correctly, she deserved an ice cream cone.

Last Saturday, I was again on child dropping duty and spent an hour walking around the Shandon area. When I spotted this plaque in the North Cathedral, my mind was immediately thinking, if Rev Magrath was expert in Latin, he was possibly 113 years turning in his grave with the use of MDCCCCI instead of MCMI.

That was until Wikipedia revealed that the subtractive notation is not universally in place and so both are correct.

Rev Magrath can rest easy….

Incorrect

14/12/2014

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity – Chapter 20

I had thought that there was a difference between the use of ‘right’ and ‘correct’.

This van in Ennis prompted some online research.

I was not right – they are interchangeable.

Impartiality

13/12/2014

When I spotted this sign in Enniskillen last June, I thought it a great name for a newspaper – The Impartial Reporter.

It was only a few months later, listening to the radio, that I realised that it is still in existence.

To me a much better title than Independent……

Impartial Reporter

Fish At The Gate

12/12/2014

I spotted this in Enniskillen during the summer – incorporating art into the practical.

Pushing all my buttons.

Conscience Prickers Everywhere

11/12/2014

A few weeks back, it was Louise’s blog.

Before that, it was a plaque on the wall of a pub in Cobh.

During the summer holiday, it was a church in Killorglin.

Reminder to self – do it before it is too late……

Killorglin

Rob Roy, Cobh

Fire Specialsist

10/12/2014

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity – Chapter 19

My recollections from the English classes in school was that there ought to be only one ‘and’ in a sentence, or a clause. Be that right or wrong, it is the rule that has been complied with hereabouts – other than that riddle.

This Firecrest van did cause me to assess whether the rule in my head had any solid basis.

I suspect that Firecrest intended to convey a message that they were experts in Fire & Gas Detection; and, Process C.C.T.V. – but to my reading they are advertising as specialists in Fire, not Fire Detection.

As for the number of ‘ands’, the internet suggests that my rule does not appear to be founded on the strongest foundations.

It is also not a rule to which Ernest Hemmingway adhered.

"I said, 'Who killed him?' and he said 'I don't know who killed him, but he's dead all right,' and it was dark and there was water standing in the street and no lights or windows broke and boats all up in the town and trees blown down and everything all blown and I got a skiff and went out and found my boat where I had her inside Mango Key and she was right only she was full of water." Ernest Hemingway, After the Storm

More Art

9/12/2014

Last month, we went walking along the Mahon Estuary and Old Blackrock Railway walk and noted that there has been a further street art installation.

A welcome addition.

Solving A Riddle

8/12/2014

No Such Thing As Bad Publicity – Chapter 18

Business card at Cork Coffee Roasters

I always thought that one might find a leak.

If successful at that, one might fix a leak.

Solving was generally reserved for puzzles, riddles and crosswords.

I never thought of solving a leak.

As I am one not to be trusted with any tool, I would not be the best person to go to if you needed a leak found, fixed or even solved…….

At the back of the house........

7/12/2014

Tá cearca ann is ál sicín

I like to think that I have a good memory and recall but sometimes I come across something that brings to the immediate thoughts memories of times or things that had been filed away in the deep archives, covered in mental dust, not referenced for years.

Last Saturday was one such day.

I school, Irish would not have been a favourite subject, by any means. It is only of late that I have returned to Conversational Irish class and have been learning the language and expression willingly and with enthusiasm. Back then, obligation stood in the shoes of willingness. For enthusiasm, read acceptance.

Last Saturday, we stopped at the excellent Tea Rooms in Ballyvaughan, An Féar Gorta.

Reading the framed items on the wall, the memory was stoked into action – to primary school, I think; to a time when I could actually picture such an upside-down world of creatures; to a time that had not been visited since in all likelihood.

Reading the poem last Saturday, the first two or three verses came back very quickly which is more remarkable as I was and am one not to learn poetry by rote, for exams or otherwise.

I was reciting it in my brain at the same rhythm of forty years ago.

Now to introduce my eight year old to it, before it gets associated with education and learning and filed away in dark dusty places as I did. Hopefully, it will be associated with adventure, imagination, and what might be happening at night at the back of the garden.

Hopefully, it will be enjoyed.

Cúl an Tí

Tá Tír na nÓg ar chúl an tí,
Tír álainn trína chéile,
Lucht cheithre chos ag súil na slí,
Gan bróga orthu ná léine,
Gan Béarla acu ná Gaeilge.

Ach fásann clóca ar gach droím
Sa tír seo trína chéile,
Is labhartar teanga ar chúl a’ tí
Nár thuig aon fhear ach Aesop,
Is tá sé siúd sa chré anois.

Fancy A Ride

6/12/2014

I must be getting old in my outlook.

I thought the marketing strategy was misplaced.

The message might be a bit of fun in a sports bar, a nightclub or the like. But this was in a Country House.

Maybe I just need to chill out.

Fish On A Bike

5/12/2014

I spotted this last weekend.

The phrase was not new to me but I could not remember why – again the internet acting as a memory back-up.

It seems the original phrase was ‘Man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle’ or even ‘Aragon didn't need an American consul any more than a cow needs a bicycle; for it had no trade with America, and no American tourist ever dreamed of stopping there’ from 1898.

In 1970, ‘A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle’ was coined and which in turn led to a Guinness ad.

As DOT is apt to comment, all of the above is as beneficial as a lighthouse in a bog – totally brilliant, correct and accurate but of no benefit in explaining the reason for the particular fish on the particular bicycle in the harbour at Ballyvaughan.

The non-existence of the website on the pontoon only adds to the mystery.

Giving It Up

4/12/2014

Picture the scene.

A group of schoolboys at the bus-stop awaiting the bus home after a week at school. Some horse-play and some jostling for position at the top of the queue.

The bus arrives, fairly full. All get on but not all get a seat.

Jimmy Second-Class was lucky to get a seat. Johnny Fourth-Class did not but was in no way worried. He goes straight over to Jimmy Second-Class saying ‘I am older than you. Give up that seat to me as required by the sign.’

Bus Eireann promoting Bullying

Jimmy, eventually finding a benefit of being good at Irish, sat where he was and replied ‘Ní aostach tú’. (You are not elderly)

Spring Is Here

4/12/2014

Rhododendrons are listed as spring flowering plants.

This photograph of a rhododendron in bloom was taken on the first day of December.

Either one mixed-up plant or a sign of the changing seasons.

Stone Connections

2/12/2014

During the Summer, I read and enjoyed Island Cross Talk.

Last month, I was in a house that had a bust of Cearbhall O Dálaigh done by Seamus Murphy – so tactile.

Last week, I was in Seamus Murphy’s old house and appreciated his art as well as that of his son.

Last weekend, on the free bookshelf at Glór in Ennis, I picked up A Dark Day On The Blaskets.

Four separate threads combining to suggest today’s sign.

“The priest walked to one of the graves, the one with the great memorial of Carlow limestone, with the naomhóg and the four rowing fishermen inscribed on the flat, smooth stone, carved by Séamus Ó Murchú of Cork, Stone Mad Murphy himself. This was the grave of Tomás Dhomhnaill Ó Criomhthain, An tOileánach (The Islandman), so called from the book written in his twilight years.”

A Dark Day On The Blaskets – Mícheál Ó Dubhshláine