Crainn Jacaranda,/buamaí gorma áille…
Jacaranda trees,lovely explosions of blue. Continue reading
Filed under emigration …
Feisty Irish Women and Irish National Foresters
Susan has had international recognition with her interview on The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio1…The Irish National Foresters were a Friendly Society that commenced in Ireland and then started in Melbourne in 1886 … Continue reading
God in a Bottle
they were usually ‘a reused glass spirit, wine or mineral bottle often containing a carved wooden cross, with a ladder leaning against it inside, sometimes (but not always) filled with water’. The water was usually holy water, or at least marketed as such. Continue reading
Based on truth and story: the Irish ballad tradition and its relevance to today.
The other songs cut straight to the chase of the reality of war. Mrs McGrath and Johnny, I hardly knew you. They give a heartbreaking perspective on the horror and futility of war and although tinged with humour they give a firsthand account of the injuries and lifelong disabilities inflicted. Continue reading
November rain in Dublin
by Michael Patrick Moore ‘Come here to me, let me tell ya, don’t the living be busy today?’comings and goings on Graftonand on Merrion; where the craic is good,O’Donaghues is full. There are footsteps on quay, bridge and streettapping away like rain on tin,all servants of masters with somewhere to be or someone to meetand … Continue reading
The Shanahans of Kangaroo Flat
They came and survived and their descendants are all over Australia. Continue reading
Ar thóir gach ní In search of everything
She points out how the dog is happy to see him home too and the cat in her own way. The bougainvillea has grown wild without his care, the olives need picking. She then notices his inability to respond and offers her arms, in which he finally releases his emotions, relieved to be home again. Continue reading
God Bless the English
It would be nice to say that it is usually employed as a term of affection and perhaps it is; but even then, there is an undertone of disparagement, a hidden adjective with its own sting. Continue reading
Seasonal Poems
Vermeer would have made much of it Continue reading
Playing with Pennies
History tells us that when the stakes were substantial, Pitch and Toss games could become extremely serious. In Dundalk in 1914 a man died following an altercation during a game of Pitch and Toss when an argument arose as to who was entitled to the winnings. Continue reading
Tinteán 