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Blues
A rather ancient fishing boat makes its way down the River Slaney and out of Wexford Harbour for a night’s fishing. Wexford was Ireland’s leading fishing port in the 15th and 16th centuries, exporting mainly to ports along the west coast of England and Wales. But nothing lasts, and today Wexford Harbour is used on…
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A Castle Dark…
If you could read my mind, loveWhat a tale my thoughts could tellJust like an old time movie‘Bout a ghost from a wishing wellIn a castle dark or a fortress strongWith chains upon my feet… A verse to mark the passing of the singer-songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot, credited with helping to define the folk of the…
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The Bright Fort
A return to the past with Cahergall Stone Fort, near Cahirciveen on the Ring of Kerry, in south west Ireland. The name Cahergall comes from the Gaelic words, Chathair Gheal, which means “The Bright Fort”. Ring forts are difficult to date as they are often multi-period sites, it appears this dry-stone walled ring fort probably…
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Westport Bridge
Westport is a town in County Mayo at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Ireland. Over the years I’ve noticed many Irish towns tend to situate houses so they back on to rivers. Westport is a beautiful exception, with the town’s Georgian architectural style…
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Olives…
A grove of olive trees basking in the late evening light. Over the years, the olive has been used to symbolize wisdom, fertility, power, and purity. Indeed the olive branch has often been a symbol of abundance, glory, and peace and ritually offered to deities and powerful figures as emblems of benediction and purification, and were…
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Stormy Stage Cove
On the clifftop, white posts and fencing surround the still open mine shafts above Stage Cove. At one time the hub of County Waterford’s copper mining, it was from here that copper ore was shipped out on small boats to waiting sea-going ships for transport to Swansea for smelting. Now part of the Copper Coast…
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Equine Delights
‘Twilight and a pair of curious horses on Croaghaun Hill are silhouetted against the misty blue Comeraghs’ an extract from Waterford, A County Revealed
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Ripples
The wind that ever is with mystic mightA spirit ripple of the Infinite.…Victor Hugo
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Atlantic Evening
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:Silence and Twilight, unbeloved of men,Creep hand in hand from yon obscurest glen.…by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Sculptural Landscape
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Growling Sea
Down on the shore, on the stormy shore!Beset by a growling sea,Whose mad waves leap on the rocky steepLike wolves up a traveller’s tree;Where the foam flies wide, and an angry blastBlows the curlew off, with a screech;Where the brown sea-wrack, torn up by the roots,Is flung out of fishes’ reach…By William Allingham… Image from…
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Coumshingaun Lough
A beautiful, quintessential glacial lake in County Waterford’s Comeragh Mountains, Coumshingaun Lough is a habitat of peregrine falcons, ravens and the elusive nightjar. A delightful peaceful place it wasn’t always so tranquil, especially during the life of William Crotty. The leader of an 18th century gang of highwaymen who like Robin Hood, stole from the…
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Beached
The shadowy splendour of an autumn skyWas radiant with the hues of parting day;The glorious sun seemed loth to leave the west,That glowed like molten gold–a saffron seaFretted with crimson billows, whose rich tintsGave to the rugged cliff and barren heath…By Walter De La Mare
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Wild Beauty
Evening on the lagoon at Gruissan, in Languedoc-Roussillon, France.
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Old Friends
To reminisce with old friends, a chance to make some memories…
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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.
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Here Today – Gone Tomorrow
The derelict San Joaquin Sugar Mill, located between Nerja and Maro on the old coast road, is a fascinating sight, silhouetted against a Mediterranean sunset.
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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…
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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 de…