Category: Help - Reading the Signs

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O.E.F.B.

18/8/2026

Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath

One Headstone ….. Many Questions

The most challenging question comprises 4 letters – O.E.F.B. The internet was of no assistance. My best guess is that is a family joke like – L.W.B.

As they used to say on T.V. and the transistor years ago – answers on a postcard please.

Was ‘Tony’ a late addition? The lettering does look a bit different – so maybe. If not an addendum, why is the line not centred?

I do remember seeing the addition of a name as ‘Erected By’ before but as to where, I cannot remember.

Why the apostrophe? That has me beaten.

Why are Charles and John James not in chronological order? A possible answer is that John was cremated and only subsequently were the ashes buried.

If the purpose of a headstone is to prompt the passer-by to stop and pause a while, this is a success.

LIKEWISE

20/2/2026

I used to enjoy catching tweets from Póló from his mental health walks. Those walks stopped some years ago and I am no longer active there.

Yesterday I took some time for my own mental health walk – in St Michael’s Cemetery in Blackrock. I could really have done with longer.

At the Collins grave, I did stop and ponder as to the meaning. I left a failure.

Why is LIKEWISE carved?

Coffin Shapes

21/9/2025

On Wednesday morning, I travelled to the graveyard of St. Mary the Virgin at Rhossili to visit the memorial at Sailor’s Corner.

I was struck by the coffin shaped stones placed on a number of the graves. I could not recall seeing such stones before and planned to go through the older cemetery photographs to check if I had actually seen before.

A post on Bluesky this morning from Louvain Rees included a selection of cast iron at St. Mary’s Church in Whitechurch and it includes a surround in the shape of a coffin.

Was this a thing?

Was this just a Welsh thing?

My TO FIND OUT MORE list is getting longer…….

Gatepost Pride

18/9/2025

I have spotted the names of stone-carvers and stone-cutters on statues, headstones and plaques.

Last week, on the Douglas Road, is the first time that I can recall spotting a name on a gate post. I am presuming it is the stone carver and not the ironworks who made the gate – but the name does look like branded in concrete.

Another for the TO FIND OUT MORE list…..

Platform 165¼

17/9/2025

It was only in the last week that I spotted this sign at Kent Station.

It is definitely the type of sign that would attract my attention and be committed to memory, so I do wonder if it is reasonably recent or if my observation skills are diminishing. It is not a small sign.

My first though was a Cork-play on Harry Potter and the platform at King’s Cross that still remains on my TO VISIT list.

It is probably the number of miles to Dublin Heuston but wondering as to when it was put up…..

How Traditions Develop

12/6/2025

These religious statues gave me a definite reason to stop and investigate.

Driving from Tullow back to Carlow on Tuesday evening, I was surprised by a line of statues against a stone wall at a Y-junction.

My first thought was possibly a cillín – the triangular small piece of ground being similar to the junction at Ton Duff near Abbeyleix. But no……

That impression proved incorrect. I was at Leamenah graveyard. It has a small few legible headstones.

Google Streetview confirms that the statues outside the graveyard walls were there in September 2023: one appears to be there in September 2019; and, none in July 2018.

How, Why and When this tradition started is now on my To Find Out More list.

Mahomet – Momento Mori

26/5/2025

I have generally only seen Momento Mori carved on headstones – or on photographs of headstones.

I had never seen one written in market on a Utility Box – until two months ago when waiting for a bus outside C.U.H. that is.

Of the near 1,000 roadside memorials that I have recorded around the country, I think only one has been in marker. There were a few painted.

As to the questions:

Who was Mahomet?
Who is Simon?
When was the message done?

I have no answers………

A Lingering Illness Did Me Seize

18/10/2024

A LINGERING ILLNESS DID
ME SEIZE AND NO PHYSICIAN
COULD ME EASE ALL MEANS
WAS SAUGHT BUT ALL (?IN VAIN?)
TILL GOD WAS PLEASED TO ???
?? ME PAIN HASTE PREPAR?? ???
??? DELAY FOR IN MY PRIME
??? ?AS SNAT????

I suspect that on any given day, there are not many people who think of John Driscoll but he did come to my mind today – today being day 18 of #31DaysOf Graves for the month of October on Twitter. The theme for day 18 is poem/verse which reminded me of this to John Driscoll who died in July 1840.

It also acted as a memo to self to get back to Kilbarry Cemetery in Dunmanway to try to establish those words that are not legible from my photographs – any suggestions welcome.

The Suspense of The Lamb

16/8/2024

I received this photograph this morning from GMac who is on holiday in Valencia.

I have since learnt that this is the Postal Palace , Palacio de Comunicaciones; it is now longer the Post Office; and, that the five statues represent the five continents.

It took me a little while to even see him, but I have failed in my search for the answer to GMac’s query – ‘Wonder what the significance of the lamb is……..’

The Eyes Have It. The Eyes Have It.

2/5/2024

Sometimes I wonder if I spend too much time reading and wondering about things that I have seen on display in the public realm. On this occasion, it is stickers: particularly, stickers of eyes, or, at least, what I think could be interpreted as eyes.

Regularly, one can spot the same sticker in many different locations – but not these eyes. Since mid-January, I have photographed over 25 stickers that appear of a similar theme. Only two that I have photographed looked the same. All the others were different.

So far I have only seen them in Cork.

As for why, my best guesss so far has been a guerilla marketing campaign by Fighting Blindness, whose advertising message can be spotted in many locations in Cork and elsewhere.

SKITE? What Is A Skite?

8/10/2023

This particular rabbit hole was inspired by Michael Harding’s book, Chest Pain. I spotted it on my first visit to the library post cardiac incident and it just had to come home. Towards the end, page 363 to be precise, there is a story about damage to a statue to the Blessed Virgin Mary that was not spotted by any of the parishioners, even after the bishop had thrown a ‘skite’ of water on it as a blessing.

‘When the people gathered around the crib that Christmas night I was terrified that someone might notice the damage.

The bishop, an old man with tremendous white eyebrows, gave the crib a skite of holy water. Drops landed on Mary’s face and I feared the congregation would see the scratches on her fingers due to our wanton sexual desires for Mary Brady.’

Michael Harding, Chest Pain

This immediately had me thinking that that is not what I thought ‘skite’ was.

I would have used ‘skite’ as a trip, adventure, or even a session that was an escape from normality. One could go on a ‘bit of a skite’ – some me time to recharge the batteries.

I definitely would not have used it as a volumetric measurement – a dollop of water but not a skite.

The Dictionary of Cork Slang suggests that my use may not be that common in Cork – they equate a ‘skite’ to a drinking session.

Chambers’ Dictionary has it as a ‘boast’. Merriam-Webster has options including blow or impact; trick or prank; a disagreeable offensive person; or a boaster. Collins Dictionary supports the argument for boast; blow; and drinking session - it adds ‘a person held in mild contempt’.

The use of the word by both Michael Harding and yours truly is not supported by the dictionaries – yet.

“Words are in dictionaries because they exist – they do not exist because they are in dictionaries”

Máire Nic Mhaoláin

Margaret Jones d. 29.12.1870

29/12/2019

Another from my visit to the cemetery at Aghada in East Cork. The headstone to Margaret Jones who died aged just 20, on this day 149 years ago did cause me to stop, ponder and leave with some thoughts and queries.

The engraving has stood up a lot better than others that I have seen.

What does 21st Co. R.E. mean? My best would might be 21st Company Royal Engineers.

The spacing of the engraver with regard to YEAᴿˢ.

The apparent expectation of remarrying – How Few Her Equal Shall I Find.

I suppose the world of any period is frail to any bereaved.

Sacred
To
The Memory
Of
MARGARET JONES
The Beloved Wife Of
J. F. JONES 21st Co. R E Who
Departed This Life
29th Dec. 1870 Aged 20 Years

I Mourn Her Loss.
The Fond. The Kind.
How Few Her Equal Shall I Find
In This Frail World Today.

Berkeley – What’s In A Name?

23/8/2019

Logainm.ie does not translate Berkeley. The word Berkeley stays as Berkeley in Berkeley Avenue; Berkeley Court; Berkeley Place; Berkeley Road; Berkeley Street; and, Berkeley Terrace. Even the townland of Berkeley in Co. Wexford translates as Berkeley. All reasonable consistent and reflective of the trend not to translate names.

But there is a ‘HOWEVER’.

I cannot find reference to ‘glascaonóg’ in teanglann, pota-focal or my Irish-English dictionary. ‘Gláscaonóg’ provided similar results.

If ‘glas’ is considered an adjective meaning green, there was a chance that ‘caonóg’ might be a word in Irish. That chance did not last long.

Neither did the chance of ‘caon’ being in the dictionary, if ‘óg’ is a qualifying adjective meaning young. The option of Young Green Something being a translation disappeared quickly.

Logainm does have four references to Caonóg which generally translate phoenetically into English. Keenoge in Co.Monahan, does have a note that ‘caonóg’ means ‘a place for bees’. Keenog, also, in Co Monaghan, has ‘mossy place’ as a note for ‘caonóg’. Neither ‘Green Mossy Place’ or ‘Green Place of Bees’ sound perfect answers, but they may well be.

So I remain lost, on two counts.

What does ‘Glascaonóg’ mean?

Why have many signs in Dublin 7 containing the word ‘glascaonóg’ as a translation of Berkeley been painted over? Even Bearclí has been painted over.

UPDATE 2019.08.25

Very many thanks to Pól Ó Duibhir (Póló), who responded on twitter with a link to SRÁIDAINMNEACHA BHAILE ÁTHA CLIATH which outlines that an old name for the stream Bradóg was Glas Caonóg.

The existence of a stream Bradóg goes some way to explain the Irish name on Broadstone which is nothing like ‘Cloch Leathan’.

Where In Cork?

14/8/2019

Last month, I was at a meeting in the Clayton, although I continue to consider and call it the Clarion.

On the connecting structure between the Clayton building and the City Quarter building, where the Clayton function and meeting rooms are located, they have placed cut out manifestation, or decal if you prefer, outlining a number of buildings in Cork.

It was a pleasant way to spend a few minutes during the break trying to identify each of them. I failed on the image with the half moon over the assumed circular clock.

All suggestions welcome.

A & C G C - riddle unsolved

6/8/2019

Without the ampersand, I might have suspected Átha Cliath Gas Company, a bi-lingual possibility for early form of Dublin Gas Company. With the ampersand, I am clueless.

And the internet has not provided the answer. Sometimes it is more rewarding when the puzzle beats google and lingers unsolved for a time.

This iron cover was spotted a week back on Monck Place in Phibsboro. Inspiration as to meaning still awaited.