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Archives for February 2020

Anois Teacht an Earraigh*

1 February, 2020
Posted in: Cork, Family, Ireland

Today is my mother’s birthday. I thought about her a lot today.

I went to Cork for 24 hours. I brought my bike with me. Somehow I always forget how hilly it is. When I use the Cork bikes rental bike scheme, I tend to stay in the very centre of town but if you venture outside even a small bit, it’s all up hill and down dale. This brings its problems (my parents’ house is halfway up a hill, I walked up it) but also its joys (I freewheeled down). I cycled out to the cemetery which google maps described as a ten minute cycle from my parents’ house. Optimistic.

I bought a St Brigid’s cross from an enterprising young man who was selling them in town for two euros a pop and put it on my mother’s grave. She’d probably have preferred daffodils but they would have been unlikely to last as well.

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It was a beautiful afternoon and felt very springlike after a long miserable winter. I had a wander around the graveyard and enjoyed seeing the 19th century monuments to various Cork families whose names are still part of the life of the city: Sisks, Cantillons, Suttons. Close to my mother’s grave is this monument to a man who died rescuing an old lady at the railway station in Kilmallock. As my mother grew up in Kilmallock, I like to think that she might have known the story even if it was in the 1890s. I presume it made quite a stir at the time.

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I also enjoyed this rather notiony grave monument erected by public subscription.

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It may not be apparent from the picture but they’ve gone for Ogham script on the tablet. A challenge for those of us not as up on ancient celtic scripts as we might be.

I had seen Fr Matthew, Apostle of Temperance and the man who established the graveyard in the Crawford Gallery earlier in the day.

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I dutifully inspected his grave in the afternoon.

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On my way back to the house, I passed close by a building which I had often seen from North Main Street and my father told me was called, I think, Callnan’s folly (although the internet returns no matches which makes me dubious). It was the centrepiece of pleasure gardens, now long gone. It is a bit underwhelming close up.

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I had quite enjoyed my trip to the gallery earlier in the day. The sculpture gallery was very perky in the sunlight. I admired the Dead Christ who had scared the living daylights out of me when I was a child. Cissie (who minded me) had taken me to see him in the South Chapel; due to the pretty impressive marble work, Cissie’s turn for drama and my own imperfect understanding, I was under the impression that it was the actual dead Jesus encased in marble. This theologically unsound position made me refuse ever to go back. I was extremely puzzled and a tiny bit unnerved many years later when I saw the exact same statue in St. Theresa’s Church in Clarendon Street in Dublin. It was only relatively recently I discovered that Hogan made several versions. I won’t be fooled if I ever end up in Basilica of St. John The Baptist in Newfoundland.

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I raided my parents’ house for some Agatha Christies for Michael who expressed an interest in reading more of them having had a couple from the library. I picked up some Arthur C. Clarke as well – my mother’s copies, she loved science fiction – and more in hope than in expectation that any of us are really going to read them, some Chekhov short stories (also my mother’s, she was a big fan of the Russians, she had eclectic tastes).

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*”Anois Teacht an Earraigh” is the first line of a very famous Irish language poem that everyone in the country had to learn in school. My mother used to quote it at this time of year. The line means “Now, Spring is Coming” and the poem is a celebration of the start of spring and St. Brigid’s day, February 1, my mother’s birthday.

Election Fever

9 February, 2020
Posted in: Ireland

We have been canvassed. It was all very thrilling and, to prove that canvassing definitely works, I changed my preference after encountering various candidates. My favourite was a candidate from a smaller party who turned up on our doorstep and met herself. In fairness, although acknowledging that she didn’t have a vote, he engaged with enthusiasm. He was ready with his climate change patter but she was interested in his party’s policy on penal reform (don’t ask me). While we had the distinct impression that his party’s policy was being made up on the hoof on our doorstep, I was much more positively disposed to him after his visit. And he might even get elected – still early days.

I can tell you, it’s all very exciting here at the moment and even people with zero previous interest in politics are glued to the count.

An Attempt at Redress or a Vignette from a Wednesday Evening

10 February, 2020
Posted in: Dublin, Ireland

I went to a colleague’s father’s removal after work. Having dutifully sympathised with my colleague, I saw that there was an Aldi next door to the funeral home which was pretty handy as I had no plan for dinner. I graced it with my presence and picked up the ready-made lasagne (I’ve had worse). As I was going towards the till, I saw a bowl of hyacinths and picked them up as well.

When I got to the check-out, the queue was enormous. A man with two mountainous trolleys let me pass ahead of him with my two items. The hyacinths caused massive confusion and the assistant disappeared for ages into the back of the shop while I made apologetic grimaces to the kind humanitarian who let me pass ahead of him.

The hyacinths are blooming now and smell delightful. Every time I see them, I say a prayer for my colleague’s deceased father and also the man who let me pass him out at the Aldi check-out.

Update on Herself

11 February, 2020
Posted in: Princess

Thing one, she is finally taller than me. We’re both delighted really.

Thing two, she was in a documentary film in transition year and now she’s on the poster for the film on her own looking quite cool and moody (though she tells me her role is a small one and that she does not love the picture they have used for the poster). I am very excited and think she looks amazing. She seems to be indifferent, at best. To her absolute mortification, I have messaged the director to see if I can get a hard copy. She is never going to tell me anything ever again, she says. Still, worth it if I can frame the poster and hang it on the landing.

Lovely Lunch

12 February, 2020
Posted in: Work

I am friendly with a former boss of mine, now retired from the world of work. I arranged to meet her for lunch on a Friday when I thought I would be quiet at work but it was not quiet and I scooted out to meet her and arrived late and had to leave early. I then realised that I had left my wallet back in the office and she had to pay for my lunch. The final indignity was that she had bought me a box of chocolates for the children and I forgot to take them with me so she dropped them round to my office later in the afternoon.

I think I probably owe her a nice lunch.

Rainy Saturday

15 February, 2020
Posted in: Dublin, Family, Hodge, Ireland

We were all in reasonably good form this morning. Yesterday evening I had said that we were going for a walk in the mountains to look at the snow. This announcement was greeted with limited enthusiasm. Even I had second thoughts overnight and was contemplating getting out of bed early without truly looking forward to it and only sustained by the reflection that we would enjoy it in retrospect. I was awoken at 9ish by rain dashing against the bedroom window and the glad tidings that it was too wet for our walk were conveyed to the children by Mr. Waffle while I sat up in bed with my book.

I was summoned from my bed at 10 by indignant shouts from herself. The cat had got sick on her bed. One of the joys of adulthood is cleaning up cat vomit, I find. Normally this falls to Mr. Waffle’s lot but he was out getting bread so I was the chosen victim. Later, leaving the boys in the thrall of their electronic devices, Mr. Waffle, the Princess and I braved the rain and went to breakfast in a local cafe.

On our return we brought all the children to town to acquire new hiking boots (when will their feet stop growing?), a camp bed (can only be an improvement on the air mattress, surely), more candles and some Magic the Gathering Cards for the boys (if you don’t know, you’re better off). We got sodden but it was speedy. Then we came home and were still back in time to drop the cat vomit soiled duvet to the dry cleaners (the hilariously named “Day and Night” cleaners which closes at four). Then we came in, lit the fire and battened down the hatches. It’s been delightful.

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How’s your own Storm Dennis day going?

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