Last year, I took a photograph of the Obelisk Monument outside Drispsey. There was no fingerpost sign. Exactly two weeks ago, POF was driving past when he noticed the sign saying: Radharc Luíocháin AMBUSH SIGHT It was not until the following Monday that I was able to get there. In that time, a replacement sign had been erected. The English had been corrected. Maybe when I pass the road next, they may also have corrected the Irish version. | “Radharc” translates as ‘Sight’, ‘Vision’ or ‘View’. |
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“But the story-tellers are a vanishing race for they have lost their audience and the flow of words comes thin and seldom now. The radio has taken away their voices just as the printed page has taken away their memories, and the pictures that once were seen in a glowing peat-fire are seen more readily on the picture-screen today. The world has widened and the imagination of man has dwindled. For it is good communications, not evil ones, that corrupt good manners and local mores, and the better the roads that lead into the glen, the quicker the old language, the old customs, the old stories and poetry, run out of it.” A year ago, I wondered as to the appropriateness of Seachtain na Gaeilge. This year, there is slightly more confusion with SnaG saying it is from 1st to 17th March – as last year, a 17 day week. However, Cork City Libraries have 14 days from 10th to 24th and U.C.C. had a five day week (2nd to 6th). So much for trying to make Irish easy…..
Last Friday was the 13th. Not a day some may select to visit a medical consultant but it was the day that the consultant chose to see me.
Images of Elsewhere – Page 4 |
Logainm tells us that the name of the town/village of ‘Boher’ derives from ‘An Bóthar’. ‘Bóthar’ translates ‘road’. ‘Slí’ translates as ‘way’ Surely the correct Irish translation of ‘Boher Road’ is ‘Bóthar an Bhóthair’ – so good they named it twice. bóthar masculine noun | An Bóthar slí feminine noun |
I spotted this plaque on a house in Masseytown in Macroom when taking a quick bypass of the traffic in the town. Upto then, Peter Golden was unknown to me. I now know a bit more now of a man who was friends with both Terence McSwiney (his second cousin) and Éamon deValera; who read Ulysses in which Macroom is mentioned; who was a heavily involved in fundraising for the Republican movement; and who is the only non-combatant and U.S. citizen buried in the Republic Plot in St. Finbarr’s Cemetery. I need to reserve a book from the library to learn even more…. |
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 |
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.’
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.” |
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