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On Sunday I participated in an annual charity walk from Ballycotton to Ballinrostig in Co. Cork. It’s a pretty special occasion because it is the only time in the year that walkers are permitted by the local land-owners to hike the route. As the video below will testify, the scenery is quite stunning. It’s not the easiest of walks – you have to negotiate quite a few barbed-wire fences – but the end is definitely worth the effort. The weather on Sunday was unseasonably good, which helped greatly.
So here is the video. Enjoy!
On July 25th to July 27th of this year I am going on a sponsored walk in aid of the Cork Cancer Research Centre – a local charity. We will be walking part of the Ring of Kerry, from Caherdaniel to Killarney – a distance of 71 km.
I can’t wait! Hiking, fresh air, good company, nice photographs and the scenery of County Kerry all in one weekend. It will more than make up for any bad weather or sore feet along the way.
Cancer research features very highly on my list of worthwhile causes. Good friends of mine are currently battling it, two family friends have recently been lost to it, and I had a close brush with it myself last year in a very minor way.
I set up a web page to get some sponsorship and already I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of all the contributors after just two days. It’s been amazing! The donations have already exceeded my initial expectations. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you!
You can sponsor me online at this page. Every penny goes to the CCRC, and I promise I will post up some nice photos of the trip when I get back.
A couple of weeks ago, an unusual advertisement appeared on RTE Radio 1. It called to attention the amount of litter on the N25 road from Cork to Midleton, sarcastically inviting people who wanted to see real litter to take a trip on this road. This was the brainchild of Zoe Malone of Ballymaloe Country Relish who decided to take Cork County Council to task in a very public manner*.
According to the County Manager Martin O’Riordan, this was a much more complex issue than it might seem. There were health and safety issues, the traffic would be disrupted and the costs would be astronomical. As a result, the county council did nothing for well over a year, leaving one of the busiest roads in Cork to become a veritable rubbish tip.
It’s an ongoing problem in Ireland. We spend billions on building new roads all over the country, but once they are up and running, no-one can be bothered to spend any money on maintaining them. Before long you have mounds of litter, overgrown hedges, unkempt verges and noxious weeds such as ragwort running riot.
Anyway, as you can see, it looks like the Cork County Council have come to their senses. The road is being cleaned this week. It’s just a pity that it required someone taking a public stand to prompt them into action. Well done to Zoe and the team at Irish Business against Litter.
* More information about this can be found on this stream (Real Player required) at the 14.43 minute mark.
This weekend, the “Independence of the Seas” arrived in Cobh, Co. Cork on it’s maiden voyage from Southampton. It’s the biggest cruise ship in the world, but from what I can gather, it won’t hold that record for long.
Rather than show photos this time, I’ve recorded a short video instead. Enjoy.
During the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Cork yesterday the festive atmosphere was broken momentarily by the usual procession of dour, po faced holy-Joes and Josephines threatening us all with damnation and a bit of perdition on the side if we didn’t get back to saying our ten Hail Marys.
My six year old daughter, annoyed by the break in ceremonies, shouts up at me within earshot of everyone around us..
“Hey, this isn’t a parade for God, it’s for St Patrick”..
Ah, bless.
I managed to get myself up very early last weekend in order to take a few photos down by the coast while the sun was low in the sky.
This photograph, of the fields, the mist and the windswept bush in the foreground, was taken on my way down to the beach. I love it.
The above are a few photos taken of the coast and the rocks as they are bathed in the orange searchlight glow of sunrise. Check out the rock monster poking his head out of the ground!
Irish Rail recently purchased a whole set of super-duper railway carriages as part of a major government initiative to modernise our country’s rolling stock. You can book your train seats in advance, there is plenty of room for luggage and the journey itself is impressive by its relative silence.
One of the things that particularly interested me were the on-board toilets – automatic doors, push-button locking systems, triple action pee sprays for the loo-bowl, infrared systems for hand-washing, hot air blowers for drying. An almost totally hands-free waste management experience. The future has indeed arrived!
Except for one thing.
On my trip down from Dublin, the smell of cigarette smoke emanating from the little room was overpowering. The little room is being used as a smoking room by some of the lesser-evolved members of this society. And what do Irish Rail seem to be doing about it? Smoke alarms perhaps? Spot fines? Throwing the offenders out of the train at high speed? Garotting them on the emergency break cord? Naah. More than their job’s worth I would guess. After all, we are only talking about health and safety laws here..
In addition, what is it with the Irish male species that they feel obliged to bring on-board 12 packs of beer tins, and proceed to get pissed in front of their fellow travellers? Some of my fellow travellers were already stinking of drink before they boarded the train. If this was air-travel these people would never be allowed on in the first place.
I must be getting old, but it just seems that with all the changes in our country over the past few years, some old habits will take a long time to die out.
Yesterday we went down to Cobh to see a huge ocean liner arrive into the port.
The town of Cobh* has a fascinating maritime history. For decades, before the rise of air travel, it was the departure point for millions of Irish people as they set sail for the New World. It was the last port of call of the Titanic before its fateful crossing. It received the dead bodies from the Lusitania, when it was torpedoed off the Old Head of Kinsale. And it is a later addition to the Republic of Ireland, a “treaty port” ceded to the State by Britain just before the onset of World War II. The headquarters of the Irish Navy is just across a narrow channel from Cobh, on the island of Haulbowline.
The ship, the Navigator of the Seas, is one of the largest cruise ships in the world with a weight of 140,000 tonnes. It can carry over 3,000 passengers. In this case, the boat was on a short weekend trip from Southampton. The passengers must have been amazed when they were greeted by a large crowd of onlookers. It was a holiday weekend here, with a local festival happening in the town.
My kids were well impressed. A floating hotel of this magnitude is an impressive sight, no matter what age you are.
* Cobh is pronounced, and means, “Cove”: unusually, an “irishisation” of an English word. Most of our place names are anglicisations of Irish Words.
With St. Patrick’s Day on the way, I took a short spin over to Blarney Castle to take a few pictures.
I’ve never kissed the Blarney Stone – the idea of suspending myself under a damp rampart to press my lips against it in the hopes that I will speak more eloquently seems rather pointless, if not somewhat unhygienic. Anyway, I think I have already have the gift of the gab. You don’t want me to get super-charged on gabbing, believe you me. It’s a magical de-gabbing stone I need.
Click on any photo above for more detail.
The grounds of Blarney Castle are delightful. Along with the impressive ruined castle, there are all sorts of structures to discover including a lookout tower, a lime-kiln and Blarney House itself. Then there is the lake, the cave and the Rock Close: a pleasant walled garden not far from the castle. Spring has come early this year, so all the trees are budding, the daffodils are everywhere and the hazel catkins are in full flower. Not a shamrock in sight.
Our Toastmasters club ran a poetry and prose evening tonight and for the first time ever, I recited some of my poems in public. I got a particularly good reception to my poem He lies there still. We had about 12 contributors tonight. A few guests spoke, including two visitors who have never been to a Toastmasters meeting before. One guest even told us that she wanted to join the club through the medium of poetry!
For me, the comment of the night was “I couldn’t write poetry. Poetry is far too profound. Nobody should ever underestimate the depths of my shallowness”.
The club has been thriving this year. We have signed up our 7th new member (more than the previous 3 years combined) and all our meetings have been varied and interesting. We made a key decision last year to move to a new venue. We moved from the formal surroundings of the local hotel to the more intimate setting of a pub and this has played a part in making the club more accessible to ordinary people.
I’m really enjoying it this year. Compared to this time last year, it’s like a different world.
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