Ireland – The Dingle Peninsula

 [ Photo Blog #57 ] 

Following on from the photographs of my visit to Killarney and the Mulcross Estate, today’s tour is of the Dingle Peninsular, one of the 3 promontories which jut out into the Atlantic Ocean from the south-west coast of Ireland.

Map of South West Ireland showing the Dingle Peninsula

Beach along the southern coast of the Peninsula

Further along the southern coast with a view to the outlying islands

Looking eastwards back towards Dingle

One of the Dingle Peninsula’s many small secluded beaches

The Dingle Peninsula has many dozens of standing stones such as this menhir beside the coast road.

. . .  and this menhir further along the coast

The roadside remains of a one-time occupied croft

Dingle Slea Head Crucifix – one of many such roadside shrines

Seagull on the seawall with the Blasket Islands behind

Sea thrift beside the coast road

Roadside wild foxgloves at the south-western end of the peninsula

 

Killarney

[ Photo Blog #54 ]

One of the highlights of my visit to the South West of Ireland in 2003 was a tour by horse-drawn Jaunting (or jaunty) Car of Killarney’s Muckross House and gardens and of the world famous Killarney National Park and its lakes and mountains.

A still extant relic of the reign of Queen Victoria

This nineteenth century Victorian mansion is set against the stunning beauty of Killarney National Park.

The jaunty car taxi rank

By Killarney’s Lakes and Fells

A pause to take in the view

The Ruins of Killegy Chapel

In the graveyard of Killegy Chapel

Wild flowers in the Graveyard overlooking the lake

Tree growing inside the roofless nave of the chapel

The roofless chapel

Close-up view of a memorial – now open to the sky.

Return to Mucross House

Dublin, City of a Thousand Welcomes

Dublin has many such beautiful doorways dating from the Georgian period

This one photo is from Pinterest – the others are all my own

Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland, is a beautiful city.  It is an absolute delight to wander around the lush green parks and open spaces, especially on a sunny afternoon.  My first visit, many years ago, was in torrential rain.  A lorry driver who generously gave a lift, southwards from the city, to two itinerant hitch-hikers, welcomed us with the comment, “Ireland is beautiful – just needs a bloody great umbrella over it”.  My second and third visits were in delightful sunshine which showed off the city’s exquisite Georgian architecture and its many monuments and statues to great advantage.  I add below a gallery of photographs taken during my last visit in 2010 …

Sea approach to Dublin Harbour

The Aviva Stadium – formerly Landsdowne Road Stadium – venue for major rugby and football matches

St. Patrick’s Cathedral – Church Of Ireland.   Founded in 1191, its 43 metres high spire makes it the tallest church in Ireland.

Ivy covered Georgian Terrace houses

Georgian-style Bay Windows

Front façade of St.Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre

Memorial Stone in St.Stephen’s Green Park, to Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa,  (1831-1915) a former Fenian Leader.

Statue in St. Stephen’s Green Park, to Wolfe Tone a leading figure of the Irish Independence Movement

The Papal Cross in Phoenix Park commemorates the Pope’s visit to Dublin in 1979  

The Wellington Testimonial Obelisk in Phoenix Park.  Arthur Wellesley, ‘The Iron Duke’, general and politician, was born in Ireland.

The Ring of Kerry

At Beenarourke, County Kerry, Eire … Photo – WHB, 2003

If you ever go across the sea to Eire,
You will love it and be glad that you have been.
I can recommend you travel south to Kerry,
Then you will see the sights that I have seen.

You certainly should try the Ring of Kerry,
Just to watch the sun go down over the sea.
The beauty of its coastline is amazing,
No better in the world you will agree.

You can take a jaunty car out from Killarney,
Visit Muckross House, Ross Castle and Moll’s Gap.
You won’t find better views elsewhere in Ireland
However much you scour an Irish map.

You may even meet a travelling musician
Playing his squeeze box to the listening crowd.
He sings of love with lots of Irish blarney,
With wit he shares his history out loud.

At Beenarourke you’ll find Our Lady watching;
She silently observes the passers-by.
The circling helicopter keeps a lookout,
This Trinity enhance their Irish sky.

As well as ‘pinching’, with only the slightest of alterations, the first line of the well-known Irish song, ‘Galway Bay’, I have composed the verses above in the same form and metre as the well-known Irish song, ‘Galway Bay’.  If you know the tune, and should you feel so inclined,  you should be able to fit my words to it.    To refresh the memory of any who don’t know or remember the original words, I give below the lyrics of the first and last verses . . . 

If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,
Then maybe at the closing of your day,
You can sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh,
And see the sun go down on Galway Bay.

And if there’s gonna be a life here after,
And faith somehow I’m sure there’s gonna be,
I will ask my God to let me make my Heaven,
In that dear land across the Irish sea.

jaunty car – an open two-wheeled one-horse cart formerly widely used in Ireland

SUICIDE ON A WHIM

‘River Liffey Incident . . . Pen & Wash . . . WHB – 1994

suicide on a whim
is not unheard of
but few such perpetrators
live to tell the tale

one such
rescued from his indecision
by the Gardai
lived through his trauma
sweet Liffey run softly
while I tell the story

distraught by his
gambling debts
and the drinking
his only way to a conclusion
seemed to him to be
voluntary
self-inflicted
euthanasia
yes
he thought
that he wanted to die
half-determined
part irresolute

in a single moment of wavering
he had jumped
just fell perhaps
but the fear
and the cold water
soon hit him
hit harder
than the twenty foot drop

an instinctive cry
escaped him
you could call it
a change of mind
his cry for help
was a second thought
an unintended consequence
of his half-hearted conviction

and now he was held
grasped in a rescue bid

but did he wish to be salvaged
to be pleaded with
would that bring him
the closure he craved
attention unwanted
but secured
attention secured
but unwanted

and still
he could not let go
the ladder
his passport to life
a life he did not desire
could he bear to go there
yet again
to continue
victim to more pain
to yet more anguish

but temporary chagrin
is no killer
his cri de coeur
answered
his indecision
thwarted

is it heads or tails
is it stay or go
is life’s hurt
greater than death’s pain
is future shame
worse than eternity’s
opprobrium

we will never know
the prognosis
I suspect
he is still amongst us
ever indecisive
a suitor for attention
defaulting on his debts
not stopping at three pints
one of life’s
irresolute chancers