Ireland – Page 6 – For the fainthearted . . .

Still looking for clues of the coup

It’s now some forty years since I read the story, or imagined that I had read the story. It is too absurd a story to have been imagined, particularly by someone who had no knowledge of the situation.

The memory, real or imagined, from four decades ago is of reading a news report in late August 1982 that the Irish military were contemplating intervening if the general election anticipated for that autumn proved indecisive?

There had already been elections in June of 1981 and in February 1982 and the expected …

Wikipedia entries

Walking down to Chapelizod village one evening, I noticed the street art used to disguise the junction boxes included cartoon images of Tristan and Iseult as they might have been in the Twenty-First Century.

Seeking to discover the inspiration for the images, I discovered on Wikipedia

‘ . . . the etymology of the village indicates an association with Princess Iseult/Isolde from the Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde – indeed, the village derives its name from a chapel consecrated in her honour.’

‘Oh,’ I thought, feeling somewhat sceptical.

Reading …

Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor. Tom Kettle, killed in action, 9th September 1916

In December 1917, “AE”, the writer George Russell, wrote Salutation, a poem of lament for those who had died in the conflicts of the preceding years. In his lines dedicated “To the Memory of Some I Knew Who are Dead and Who Loved Ireland.”AE commemorates six men, three of whom died for their participation in the Easter Rising in 1916 and three of whom died in the Great War.

Read the names of those AE remembers, Padraig Pearse, Alan Anderson, Thomas McDonagh,Tom Kettle, James Connolly, and Willie Redmond, and …

Losing things with speed

Ulster are playing Leinster at Ravenhill on a Friday night. A friend said he might like to go, but would there be time to get there after finishing school in Dublin on a Friday afternoon? If we set off promptly, it might be feasible.

It is not so many years ago that such a trip would not have been considered. Journeys in Ireland might have been filled with variety, with unexpected moments, with a sense of having travelled somewhere, but they also took a long time.

A journey from Ulster …

For the safety of Roger

It’s some years since Roger died. Cancer had come upon him suddenly in his mid-50s and he was gone before we knew it.

A gentle, private person, he had never been blessed with many of this world’s goods, but never seemed trouble by the thought. Sometimes an enigmatic smile would come to his lips, as if some pleasing thought had just occurred. Other times, he would have a haunted and frightened look.

An elderly uncle explained the haunted look.

‘Roger was driving one night. There were four of them in …

How should Collins be remembered?

In our house, there was never any doubt, Michael Collins was a hero.

It never occurred to me to ask why someone who had fought against the British should be a hero in our family.

There was a long history of military service, one great grandfather had served in Hussars regiments from 1899-1918, seeing action in South Africa and on the Western Front, and had then joined the Military Provost Staff to guard prisoners at The Curragh. We weren’t predisposed to supporting armed factions who fought against the British army.…