Pigs can fly ! .... 80m in 15 secs

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon that at the races ?


One event in a rural village in Ireland:

Rosenallis Pig Races 2013.

One MC, face painting and 100's of ice creams

Eager and supportive community and one goal for participants:

And five flying pigs.... watch and enjoy... and maybe next year you'll go roving through the Slieve Blooms mountains and visit this fantastic event, and if you do let us know how you get on.

The Quare Fella

What better inviting spot to sit down at on a nice May morning in Dublin than beside the locks along the Royal Canal at Binn's Bridge, Drumcondra (along Dorset Street).

Construction of the Royal Canal started in 1790 and twenty years later it linked the River Shannon to Dublin port.

One of Dublin's famous sons is the borstal boy himself, Brendan Behan (playwright, poet and writer). Brendan's brother, Dominic Behan wrote the song 'The Auld Traingle' which was used in Brendan's play The Quare Fella. The song has become almost an anthem with a fantastic version by Luke Kelly. Click for Luke Kelly's Auld Triangle

The triangle refers to the triangle in Mountjoy Prison that was rung by the screws (prison wardens) to wake the inmates and get them to clean out there cells (slopping out - buckets of bodily fluids as there were no toilets in the cell). Ironically, it was only announced recently that soon slopping out will be a thing of the past in Mountjoy Prison. The prison is a few kilometres from Binn's Bridge.

So next time you're roving through Dublin, take a few minutes to sit on Brendan's seat and look at the locks. It's a lovely spot. But don't think you can take a shortcut over the wall behind.... there's a fair drop to the train lines below.

win some, loose some !

Sitting at home on a bright but wet May evening and looking back on a days activities, I notice there was a recurring theme to my day... that of 'water'.

Some colleagues were asking me whether I had heard of the theft of a lovely medieval font from a church site in Rathmore, Co. Meath. The beautiful carved stone water font was stolen by an organised gang of thieves. The font stood in the church for hundreds of years and was left unaltered.... respected for successive generations. The font used for many religious ceremonies. Not that this matters any less, but the fact that it was stolen from a national monument.. makes it slightly more annoying. Its impossible to police for this... but in the year of 'the gathering' when we want people to come back and see their heritage... it's particularly disrespectful and mindless to steal an object that so many would like to see. Click for newspaper story

On the same day, I got home and say a lovely piece on the national news about a find in a river. Sitting in the bank of the River Boyne in the town on Drogheda, Co. Louth was discovered a dug out canoe. The boat is probably thousands years of old and the river has kept it hidden from theft and discovery for centuries. The fact that the man who discovered it, is so confident about what it is, is so good. He knows full well that it is a boat, as he found one with his father some 40 odd years before. Click for video of story

So it's a day of water, it's falling from the sky, the stone sculpture that used to hold it for religious ceremonies is gone, but in forming rivers its protected valuable perishable objects of our heritage.