All Categories - Reading the Signs

Search the site

An Ríordáinigh & Me

22/9/2022

Earlier I was reading a blog post on The River-side about banned books and particularly, The Tailor and Ansty.

In it, the UCC Library included a photograph of what was Seán Ó Ríordáin’s copy of the book, which made me smile. Many years ago, I decided that my books were mine and it was ok to make notes and underline passages.

Not alone did Seán Ó Ríordáín do likewise – but we both made notes as to Ring- A-Dora.

Saint John Paul II

21/9/2022

I did stop when I spotted one of the side altar dedicated to Pope John Paul II.

Taking chill out and chill time in the Basilica of San Miguel while the dedicated shoppers did their thing, I was surprised that the first side altar on the right contained a statue to the former pope. I did remember that the canonisation of John Paul II was some years ago, subsequently checked to be 2014.

But my very limited religious participation has contributed to, since then my not hearing the words Pope John Paul II – hence the surprise.

Titanic

20/9/2022

This lifebuoy provided a source of discussion when awaiting our meal when on holidays a few weeks back.

Use It …………………………..Or…………………..Lose It

10/9/2022

A few weeks back, I learnt from Eoin’s tweet that his uncle’s butchers stall in The English Market was to close. I spotted the closed stall today and it confirmed once again that not all progress is good.

Stealing some me-time on our holidays, which started with lovely steaks from McCarthy’s of Kanturk, I did receive the task to get some chops for the dinner. I walked the main shopping streets in Tralee but could I see a butchers – not one. This is not surprising as in Cork, outside of the English market, there is only one butchers shop trading in the city centre.

Calling to the workplace of a friend, I received directions to a small butchers shop on the North Circular Road – Waddings. The only regret with the chops purchased was that I didn’t buy enough.

That morning, I got chatting with the two butchers on duty and explained that I did not want a prepacked meat. I wanted meat that was recently carved and open to view on all sides. I learned that, similar to Cork, the number of butchers shops had significantly reduced – trade lost to the supermarkets.

The Butcher's apostrophe

Waddings, Tralee

A few years back, walking on the slopes of Baurtegaum on the Dingle peninsula and meeting a sheep farmer, he told of times past when his family would have had animals ready for killing, a message was sent to the butcher who would collect the animal, cut and sell in their shop. Regulation has done away with many of the butcher/abattoirs but that morning I learned that Waddings believed that they were the only butchers shop in Tralee still buying full beef carcass and doing the butchery themselves – many others buying the joints and cutting them in the shop.

Local shops and newsagents have significantly reduced from when I was younger. I don’t think there is a tobacconist in Cork and only a couple of cobblers. Post Offices are closing. Recently, a chat with a few friends revealed that the many different insurance and life assurance brokers that we all used had all been taken over and subsumed into larger entities and contact is now with a call-centre-type set-up; personal contact and connection is gone.

Last year, an article in the Irish Times reported that ‘ It is one of Ireland’s great culinary treasures to have such a wealth of independent meat shops. And apparently it is a treasure that a new generation of shoppers is rediscovering.’ I do hope that the article spoke the truth. We do enjoy the fare from O’Mahony’s of the English Market but I do fear the future of mass produced sameness and blandness driven by the supermarkets, the mass producers and the regulators.

I do hope we take a turn on the road to the Brave New World………………

One of Cork's last Victuallers

P.S. Bresnan’s is likely to be the end of reference in Cork to Victualler???

Is Tinsmith just a memory?

9/9/2022

Coolcower, Macroom, Co. Cork - March 2015

Trawling through Twitter this morning, I spotted a tweet from Survivors Unite at Last in which she included a copy of her mothers’s birth certificate. This cert records the profession of her maternal grandfather as a Tinsmith.

Very many trades are dwindling in numbers or disappearing completely. Tinsmith is definitely in that category. Automation and machinery has had its impact, so too has plastic.

Tweet from @UniteAt

We busked around the market towns
And picked fruit down in Kent
And we could tinker lamps and pots
And knives wherever we went
And I said that we might settle down
Get a few acres dug
Fire burning in the hearth
And babies on the rug
She said "Oh man, you foolish man
It surely sounds like hell
You might be lord of half the world
You'll not own me as well"

Beeswing - Richard Thompson

The tweet reminded me of my journey west in early July. Just over Two-Mile Bridge on the Macroom side at Coolcower, the civil engineering works were well advanced for the construction of the Macroom- bypass.

But just as one cannot make an omelette without cracking eggs, serious muck-shifting cannot be done without some disturbance.

I stopped early that morning to record that another reference to Tinsmith had been cast aside to the memory banks.

Many, but not all, memorials (and grottos) have been relocated and repositioned after roadworks. Only time will tell if the memorial to Tinsmith Danny Hourigan is to be reinstated.

Mark of the English at Collins Barracks

4/8/2022

A few months back, I attended a very enjoyable talk at Collins Barracks in Cork by Prof. Tim Hoyt as part of The Irish Civil War National Conference held by U.C.C. .

Collins Barracks was known as Victoria Barracks at the time of the handover, one hundred years ago. It was subsequently named after Michael Collins and retains that name to today. Gerry White’s talk at the conference on the handover is available online, 48:20 minutes in.

I learnt during the conference that when the British Army handed over the barracks, one of the last things that they did was to cut down the flagpole – seemingly this is always done when a stronghold is being vacated, ‘a long British Army tradition’.
Leaving the Officers’ Mess after the talk, I smiled that not all signs of things English had been removed. Looking down, I noted that the manhole cover was manufactured by Ham, Baker & Co of Westminster.

It remains, most probably ignored by the majority who pass by, on the southern side of the Main Square.

p.s.
I have previously blogged on the War Department, Board of Ordnance markers, which also remain.

Slateing, Tileing & Fiberglass

3/8/2022

Once again, the construction trade step up to prove if one is engaging a builder, one does so for the skill with their hands – and not their spelling.

I would have thought that the memo of ‘Measure Twice, Cut Once’ would also have applied to proofreading but no….

When typing this blog, ‘Fiberglass’ did not get a red squiggly line, being American English. ‘Slateing’ and ‘Tileing’ did not escape.

Patrick Morrissey – Died Playing Marbles

2/8/2022

Memorials to Innocent Victims of the War of Independence and Civil War are proportionally significantly lower than I.R.A. dead.

A few weeks back, parking my car off The Market in Ennis, I spotted this plaque to a young boy playing in the wrong place at the wrong time. The screws definitely suggest that the plaque is recent.

I wonder if there is more resonance and sympathy with an innocent victim going about their normal activities rather than a soldier combatant – and even more sore with a child. Quite likely if the success of Joe Duffy’s book on 1916 children is anything to go by.

Art In Progress

1/8/2022

A few weeks ago, I was driving through Baile Mhic Íre and spotted scaffolding and netting around the remains of a tree outside the school.

I have long been an admirer of chainsaw art on trees, so had to stop and record the work in progress.

Looking forward to seeing the completed installation

Location, Location, Location……..

31/7/2022

Real estate matters - even in burial

I have spotted a couple of signs at cemeteries, recently, giving notice of upcoming Mass for the Dead. My recollection is that elsewhere these were held in October/November close to All Souls Day.

I have blogged before as to Cillíní throughout the country being recognised.

The Radio Kerry Saturday Supplement from last year visited the Cillín at Derrymore and it was said that there is an annual mass for those buried in the Cillín (05:20 minutes in) but this is the only reference that I have seen so far to such remembrances, the majority of Cillín are not recognised, let alone commemorated with a mass………. So far.

P.S.

The number of Cillíní on my To Visit list is increasing:

Annaghdown, Co. Galway

Clontallagh, Co. Donegal

Coomnakilla, Co. Kerry

Dumhnach na Leanbh, Co. Galway

Lackan, Co. Wicklow

Lislevane, Co. Cork

Lisselton, Co. Kerry

Loch Con Aontha, Co. Galway

Oileán na Marbh, Co. Donegal

Quilty, Co. Clare

Would be delighted to hear of any more Cillín - marked or unmarked - please do contact

Protestant Eyebrows – Anyone????

30/7/2022

A few weeks back, a friend spotted these houses in Blennerville and took the photographs of the plaster mouldings or pelmets over the windows. The belief was that it was I who told her that these were called ‘Protestant Eyebrows’.

Unfortunately, not – as that was the first time that I had heard the expression.

I can understand the name with these additions to the façade being suitable only for larger houses.

I have seen many examples on my travels during the week but am still clueless as to the origin of the expression or even if widely used

Ceramic Religious Tiles

29/7/2022

I did a talk a few months back on the IHS tiles that are on buildings around the country. A friend suggested that the practice may be Mediterranean in origin and I did find a couple on tiles on streetview in Capranica.

Seven years ago, I blogged about ceramic tiles on The Brown Pub in Kealkil – but since then, very little similar.

A few weeks back, Kanturk provided two mosaics – one to Our Lady of Fatima, the other well beyond my Spanish, or maybe Portuguese, knowledge.

If anyone knows of any more, would be delighted to learn of them.

First Time For Everything

28/7/2022

I was this age old when I first saw marketing for a wedding celebrant

Maybe it is a factor of my age and upbringing with weddings generally celebrated by priests, I never saw competition between priests for the next gig.

I am not the target audience for the branding – luckily for the Celebrant as unsure if it sits well.

Maybe there is no such thing as bad publicity

Agnes Mallin – “My darling wife, pulse of my heart, this is the end of all things earthly…”

28/7/2022

Once again, a headstone’s simple carved message does not tell the full story

Last Sunday afternoon, I declined the option of a few hours in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre and exited the car at St Mary’s Church in Clonsilla. My intention was to look for the seven graves that had a request for a photograph on the FindAGrave website.

I did manage to find six of the seven. It was only when uploading the photograph of the headstone of Agnes (Hickey) Mallin that I spotted her family tree and her much more well-known husband.

Two days prior, we had a great tour of Kilmainham Gaol – highly recommended.

It was only with time pressing at the end of our walk around the museum that I cam upon the Last Words exhibit – letters from those executed in Kilmainham in 1926 to their family and loved ones. I did stop at the section to Muriel McDonagh but did not really read any of the others.

If our visit to Kilmainham was two days after the cemetery visit, maybe I might have clicked and stopped to read of Agnes, rather than reverting to the interweb.

‘Sitting on the Dashboard Of My Car’

27/7/2022

‘I don't care if the night is scary
As long as I got the Virgin Mary
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car.
She don't slip and she don't slide
Cuz her butt is magnetized
Sittin' on the dashboard of my car.’
Plastic Jesus

‘I don't care if it bumps or jostles
Long as I got the Twelve Apostles
Bolted to the dashboard of my car
Don't I have a pious mess
Such a crowd of holiness
Strung across the dashboard of my car’
Plastic Jesus

Winner Alright!

Not quite the twelve apostles – one short

Not often you see Elvis hanging out with Jesus, Buddha and Mr. Bean.

This is definitely the most I have seen on any dashboard

A celebration that almost warrants a song

No Virgin Mary – maybe Hell is calling