Category Archives: Ireland

A field of cows

For the fainthearted . . .

Summer weather will hopefully bring an opportunity to venture beyond the city and to renew acquaintance with some of the ancient sites.

One of the most intriguing is the abbey of Achadh Bhó (Aghaboe) on the road between Borris-in-Ossory and Durrow in Co Laois.  It is hard now to imagine this place had once been significant.

In the Sixth Century, Co Derry-born Saint Canice (Kenny) had founded a monastery here.

In the eleventh century the abbey at Aghaboe became the cathedral of the diocese of Ossory, before the seat of …

We have wintered it out

For the fainthearted . . .

After his poetry collection Wintering Out was published in 1972, a comment from Seamus Heaney on that violent and turbulent year was reported in the Cork Examiner, “If we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere.”

Some forty-eight years later, as Covid-19 closed down society, Heaney’s words became the most popular meme in Ireland.

The words have expressed the mood of the present times. The first stanza of Heaney’s poem Servant Boy tells of a man who has spent his years working wherever he may earn a wage:…

The problem for the DUP is that they don’t believe in evolution

For the fainthearted . . .

Evolution, as secondary school students will tell you, is a process without purpose or design. A chance difference may give the possessor of a particular trait an advantage over those that do not possess that trait and so the genetic successors of the possessor of the trait develop an advantage for survival.

In politics, the British Conservative Party is the possessor par excellence of the traits needed for survival.

Never a Conservative voter, I have always admired the Conservative Party’s willingness to allow for the possibility of random changes that …

Labels are important

For the fainthearted . . .

The lifting of restrictions has meant that school outings have resumed.  For the first time in three years noisy groups of teenagers can again enjoy the sort of experience familiar to their parents and grandparents. Climbing aboard a coach and heading off somewhere, of course, the significance is never in the destination visited. Instead the point of outings is in the journeying together and the consumption of sweets, crisps, and junk food, with litre bottles of fizzy drinks.

Perhaps it was the prospect of Pringles, pop and peppermint cream chocolate …

Is madness multiplying?

For the fainthearted . . .

It is not the first time.

Walking through the aisles of the local Tesco supermarket, the random distribution of the items followed the previous pattern. Little assemblages of drinks, confectionery and groceries placed neatly on the floor at the corner of various aisles. Not at every aisle and, mostly, not near the shelves from which the items had come.

Who is doing this? More to the point, why is anyone doing it?

What prompts someone to go to a supermarket and gather up items to leave at random spots around …

Nutters

For the fainthearted . . .

It had not been an auspicious first half. The ball in the home net four times and the linesman’s flag only raised once. Three goals conceded and not much sign that any response was possible.

The Ultras have occupied one end of the main stand since being moved there at the time of Covid induced reduced attendances. Tonight, for the first time since restrictions were lifted, the home terraces were reopened. Perhaps the Ultras liked their raised position, for they remained in the stand.

The home terraces held no more …