Category Archives: Books

Winding Stair

My Soul.I summon to the winding ancient stair;Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,Upon the breathless starlit air … WB Yeats Named after the Yeats poem and staircase, the Winding Stair Bookshop and Café overlooking the River Liffey and Ha’penny bridge became a famous Dublin landmark in the 1970s andContinue reading “Winding Stair”

Beckett’s Reprise

“Moonlight is sculpture: seen and easily discerned in good composition like a suspension bridge, where each line adds strength and takes none away.” The exquisite lines of the Samuel Beckett Bridge, designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava, crossing the River Liffey in Dublin under a cloud moonlit sky.

The Samuel Beckett Bridge

Under a rare cloudless blue sky, the exquisite lines of the Samuel Beckett Bridge over the River Liffey in Dublin. Designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava, it’s his second bridge over the Liffey, the first being the James Joyce Bridge that shares a literary connection in more ways than one…

Nocturnal Balcón de Europa

On a deserted Balcon illuminated by moonlight there are just four people visible. Three are unknown, the one on the extreme left is a sculpture of the late king Alfonso XII who actually named the balcony during a visit after the big earthquake that hit Nerja in 1884, observing that “this is the Balcón deContinue reading “Nocturnal Balcón de Europa”

Megalithic Dolmen

The sun sets eerily behind the Knockeen Portal Tomb, a megalith near Tramore in County Waterford, Ireland. Over 3.5 metres high, it’s the largest dolmen in County Waterford and one of the finest examples in Ireland, albeit unclear exactly what it was used for…

Quintessential Spanish Country Life

The wind has swept from the wide atmosphereEach vapour that obscured the sunset’s ray;And pallid evening twines its beaming hairIn duskier braids around the languid eyes of Day:…Percy Bysshe Shelley

One Man and a Boat

A solitary stroller inspects the “Harvest Seeker” during its temporary beaching at Arthurstown on the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford. High and dry, I guess it’s one way to remove the barnacles and sea weed. The boat is a regular sight on south east Ireland’s Waterford Harbour as it drifts through the quiet waters collecting musselsContinue reading “One Man and a Boat”

The Sea…

Waves and shafting sunbeams over the Celtic Sea as it fringes County Waterford. It was while searching through some infrequently visited files, for today’s image, that I found two forgotten videos. Compiled some six years ago as creative exercises to learn the art of videos, the black and white images lend themselves to a filmContinue reading “The Sea…”

Silver Water Droplets

Low winter sunlight cutting through the trees pierces the water droplets over the fountain in the Millenium Park in Lismore in County Waterford, Ireland. The town is renowned for its early ecclesiastical history and the imposing Lismore Castle overlooking the town and the Blackwater valley.

The Celtic Sea

The gleaming Celtic Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean located off of the southern coast of Ireland was named by an English marine biologist (no less) in 1921 during a meeting of fisheries experts. Nearby Celtic regions have their own names for it; in Irish it’s “An Mhuir Cheilteach”, in Welsh “Y Môr Celtaidd”, Cornish:Continue reading “The Celtic Sea”

Yellow Road

A twisty yellow farm road in the hinterland of Spain’s Andalusia. A disappearing track, the golden cornfields and slightly ominous skies, elements that reminded me of the painting, ‘Wheatfield with Crows’, by Vincent Van Gogh. According to the Van Gogh Museum, “the painting (left) is often claimed to be his last work. The menacing sky,Continue reading “Yellow Road”