A bright lovely Sunday morning last April, this headstone did cause me to pause and wonder, and smile.
I have not seen the masks on a headstone before or since.
It has proved memorable.
Using signs, advertisements and messages as the inspiration for observation and comment - enlightened and otherwise
This morning, I spotted a retweet mentioning that it was #WorldTheatreDay. It included the image of two masks which reminded me of a headstone in Kilmalkader.
A bright lovely Sunday morning last April, this headstone did cause me to pause and wonder, and smile. I have not seen the masks on a headstone before or since. It has proved memorable.
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I very much like the idea of bringing metal or even street furniture into the garden as a feature. I still hope for a phone box – and a letter box. I was jealous of JV’s Cannon Bath. I do have a hopper, a yellow fire hydrant ‘H’ sign and recently got the top of an old bus stop when CIE were installing the new design bus stops. I think that they improve the garden – not everyone agrees but they definitely provide a discussion topic. The most recent acquisition is a church pew – an adequately sized location is the current hurdle. When in Kerry during the summer, my envy increased a few levels when I spotted what I assume to be a railway line marker. The Inchicore Works from 1899 for the Great Southern & Western Railway – absolutely lovely and guaranteed to start a discussion. An absolute beauty – in the eyes of this beholder.
To Find Out More List The three books have provided little bits of knowledge about so many things that I need to find out more (ever connecting). I have enjoyed a pint in The Blue Bull in Sneem. It was Éamon Kelly who educated that The Blue Bull was a Synge Play. I will need to return to Gneeveguilla to photograph the plaque to Mick Sullivan who was shot by Black & Tans while Éamon Kelly was in the adjacent school – the list of Civil War and War of Independence memorials ever growing. There are many traditions that intrigued, sounded lovely or just demanded further exploring – families joined in butter; overnight fasting prior to receiving Holy Communion; family owning a church pew so those standing at back did not have funds to purchase and pay rent on pew; stopping the clock upon a death, as seen in Jean deFlorette; and the giving of a disease to another similar to leaving cloth on a rag tree at a Holy Well. It also introduced words to me, many appear derived for Irish. These will keep me going for some time. The list is below but any education as to ‘gripe’; ‘hoult’; ‘fakah’;or, ‘roiseters’ would be welcome. A Visit To The TheatreThis week I spotted that Jack Healy had a play based upon the stories of Éamon Kelly at The Cork Arts Theatre on Camden Quay.
Yesterday lunchtime was a magnificent hour spent listening, smiling, laughing and remembering. More than halfway through the show, I was reminded as to one of my flysheet notes in The Journeyman. There had been quite a few different stories. Éamon Kelly in The Journeyman was writing of ‘In My Father’s Time’ – ‘We found that a number of stories told one after the other could sound episodic. There had to be a changing relationship between the pieces, and the links had to be carefully thought out to make seamless the fabric, which we hoped would be colourful and entertaining’. My flysheet note was that the book, unlike The Apprentice which I found much more interesting, was failing to flow. Fair play to Jack Healy. With the benefit of reflection on my hour or so in the auditorium, the different aspects and stories flowed; and, the knitting of the stories was brilliant and of a manner that brought the occasion up to date. I had heard or read of a few of the stories but the delivery, verbally and with actions, made them a new experience – I laughed even when I knew the punchline. It is in the Cork Arts Theatre only until tomorrow night but is intended to travel later in the year. I do recommend. There may be a difference between the strategies of city based and coastal based seagulls. Last week, I was enjoying a dirty black pint with my chips and sandwich at Murphy’s Bar at Brandon Pier - there is something extra tasty about a summer lunchtime pint. Sitting there, us city dwellers saw for the first time dive-bombing seagulls. They are possibly common and seen by nearly all but me. As new to me, I thought it warranted an upload even though it is not a sign (or is it) and especially even though I have yet to find out how to manipulate video to turn 90°. I suspect that there is only one ‘word’ who has provided a source for four separate blogs – that ‘word’ being ‘extention’.
This van was spotted in Tralee – so that makes two Kerry builders and two from Cork leading the campaign for an alternative spelling of ‘extension’ to be included in the dictionaries. I promise that any future blogs on extension will include more than one ‘extention’ – so may take a while. Thanks to Tadhg who took this photograph on his holidays – at Sandy Bay in The Maharees.
The modification to the message is very well done. I have spotted many plaques to General Tom Barry – where he lived, where he fought, and where he is buried.
One common denominator is that they are all in County Cork. Last weekend, the daily updates from Stair na hÉireann listed the anniversary of the death of Tom Barry (2nd July,1980 ) and also his birth (1st July, 1897). What I hadn’t realised was that the birth was in Co. Kerry. The 1901 census confirms that Thomas B. Barry, then 3 years old, was resident at house 35 in Langford in Killorglin, Co. Kerry. His mother is listed as head of house. His father is not mentioned on that form so I assumed that he may be at the R.I.C. barracks, where he then worked – retiring a few while later and returning with family to West Cork. But the only other Thomas listed for Killorglin that night was not his father –so maybe he did manage to opt out for a while. Or maybe I need to search further. Reverting to Google streetview, it appears that, unlike so many places in Co Kerry, Killorglin has not erected a plaque to record the residency of the young Tom Barry.I hope to visit in the coming weeks and visit to confirm. That is not to say that Kerry is short of republican memorial plaques I smiled when I spotted this in Tralee a while back.
I got to thinking that the pub was happy to advertise its food (bia) and music (ceol) but definitely wanted a bit of emphasis on its prime activity, drink (ól). I thought the capitalising of such a short word was a much understated marketing strategy – but it worked on this reader. All this assumes that it was a marketing strategy and not a typesetting oversight…… There is a bridge at Faha.
As there are at least 9 places called Faha in the country, there is likely to be more than one bridge in Faha. I can confidently say ‘at least’ as the three listed on Logainm in Co. Kerry exclude Faha on the R563 from Killarney to Milltown (or on to Dingle) -the one that has been in and out of my thoughts for over a year. I stopped to photograph the postbox and noted this plaque on the bridge with three letters and a date – E.M.B. April 1816. I admit failure. Since April, 2015 I have been unable to even find one suggestion for E.M.B.. I am hoping that the expression ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ may extend to riddles and puzzles….. Maybe there is someone, west of Dingle, actually reading my meandering thoughts and scribbles.
Maybe Dingle Distillery spotted the issue themselves. Maybe Obi-Wan Kenobi dropped the rogue off when he was passing. However it arrived, the rogue fada has landed at Milltown bridge. Permission has changed to a hundred. Having spotted quite a references today recognising it as Star Wars Day, ‘May the 4th be with you’, I thought it a good day to mention the advertising campaign of the ItMustBeDingle Art Gallery.
It brought a definite smile to this face when I came across them a while back with the site of the new film being set up in the background. Enjoy.
Plaques, Statues, Railway Stations, Bridges, G.A.A. Clubs – I have seen many of them commemorating those who died in 1916. Last Sunday, on way home, I detoured to Ardfert and Banna to photograph memorials to Sir Roger Casement.
2016.04.23
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