Bunclody and The Lartigue Experience, New Maps and Revival 2019

Róisín taking a photograph in the wildflower garden in Ballincollig Regional Park.

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Bunclody, Co Wexford

"Oh, were I at the Moss House where the birds do increase

At the foot of Mount Leinster or some silent place
By the streams of Bunclody where all pleasures do meet
And all I would ask is one kiss from you sweet."

The streams of Bunclody actually flow down the middle of the street. Cliona and I had a lovely trip to this beautiful picturesque village.

They still have working phoneboxes.

Who fears to speak of '98?  They still remember their history in this fair town.
I took the below photos in the lovely church which is at the heart of the town.

The church interior was cool and airy on a very warm Sunday. It is beautifully appointed in the modern style.

The Stations of the Cross

The adoration chapel

Our Lady's Altar

This crucifixion window is rather unusual in it's depiction of the Good Friday

This is the view from the church door

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Today's Fun Fact

from The Second Book of General Ignorance

Vision is by far the most important of the human senses. 30% of our brain's activity is used up processing visual information. Smell, the directional aid used by most mammals, accounts for only 1%. Birds, however, are as visually dependant as we are. But birds have one huge navigational advantage over us. It's called 'magnetoception' i.e. the ability to plug in to the Earth's magnetic field. We may once have had this gift too but we've lost the ability to use it.

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The Lartigue Monorail Museum

Every Listowel person should take a trip on The Lartigue. I loved my trip last week and I learned so much Listowel history.

The whole station was looking in tip top condition with colourful flowers everywhere.

These were three of our volunteer rail workers on the Wednesday we visited.

It was a busy day on the train.

We all got a chance to climb into the driver's section and we got to toot the horn. Our driver, Michael Guerin, offered to take everyone's photo .

There is a saying that has survived from the days when the original Lartigue travelled between Listowel and Ballybunion. When the train reached a bit of a hill, first class passengers were asked to get out and walk and third class passengers were asked to get out and push.  In the case of the replica Lartigue in August 2019 it was the volunteer workers who had to get out and push. And there is quite a bit of pushing involved as there is a complicated system of to-ing and fro-ing at turntables to get the locomotive facing in the other direction.

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New Signage

Kerry County Council has installed these lovely new maps by local artist. Amy Sheehy.

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Revival 2019

The weather was not so kind to Revival on the Saturday night but the concert goers didn't mind a bit. The Coronas, Delerentos, Thanks Brother and Hermitage Green lifted the clouds over The Square and everyone had a ball.

Early Sunday morning in The Square and everything nearly back to normal.

William Street, Sunday morning Aug 11 2019


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Meanwhile in Killorglin

Puck Fair is in full swing.

Photos by Chris Grayson

Ungardening, Lough Boora, Walking in Circles and The Lartigue

Róisín in The wildflower meadow in Ballincollig Regional Park

Ungardening is the new craze.....happy days! You just sow the seeds and let Nature take its course. No need to mow or weed or thin or dead head or any of that backbreaking gardening that people have been doing for ages. If Capability Brown were alive today he'd be ungardening.

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Lough Boora Visit

During a recent visit to the Kildare branch of my family, I spent a lovely morning in Lough Boora. This visitor centre is located just outside Tullamore. It used to be a Bord na Mona bog. It is now a cycleway/walkway, sculpture park, wildlife reserve and biodiversity area. It's well worth a visit if you are ever in the midlands.

These trees are thousands of years old. When they drained the bog, there they were, growing just like this.

Don O'Boyle is the sculptor who made this beautiful and practical bog oak bridge.

This sculpture installation is the Sky train. The local people called This bog train a sky train because when it ran through the bog it appeared to go up to the sky.

Everywhere around there is a mixture of the natural and the man made.

A  crow rests on a heap of discarded stones.

This sculpture represents the four provinces of Ireland.

This one is a kind of optical illusion. The logs appear to go all the way through until you look round the side and see that there is a seat inside a very narrow doorway...ingenious.

This sculpture is made from old pieces of scrapped machines. I thought it was a dragon but it is actually a skimming stone.

I have given you just a small taste of Lough Boora. It's a great place, very peaceful and energising.

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Today's Fun Fact

from The Second Book of General Ignorance

People who are lost, walk, not in straight lines, but in circles. A scientific experiment in 2009 proved that people, when deprived of visual clues, walk round in circles. Volunteers were set down in a particularly empty part of the Sahara. When the sun or moon was out, they walked in straight lines but as soon as they were left in complete darkness they walked round in circles. Another group of volunteers were blindfolded and they too walked round in circles, the diameter of the circle being smaller, at about 20 metres. 

The research proved that people have no instinctive sense of direction. We rely on visual clues.

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The Lartigue

I visited The Lartigue for the first time this year last week. I was in luck because it was Michael Guerin's day for volunteering. Michael is really really knowledgeable about the history of The Lartigue so I'll be telling you more in future posts.

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When You live in the Literary Capital of Ireland

even ordinary things become rhymes.

Mike Moriarty tells me that the local boys had a rhyme for this:

Post no bills
Play no balls
Kiss no girls
Behind these walls.

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Revival 2019

Revival 2019 was a resounding success. People who know more about these things than I know (that wouldn't be hard!) tell me that it was the best run festival they were ever at. They are still marvelling at the "real" toilets.

I joined the happy crew of local people and children outside the fence on Friday night. We enjoyed a great free concert.

Everyone loved Sharon Shannon. She kept the whole show going on Friday. People who came indifferent left as firm fans.

Whether whistling, singing, or telling yarns, Finbarr Furey was brilliant. His set went down a treat and he genuinely loved being back in Listowel where he won his first Fleadh Cheoil prize on the uileann pipes many moons ago

Mundy and Sinead O'Connor were on past my bedtime but I'm told they were well received as well.