Friday, 11 July 2025

Loughshinny and Balbriggan.

Loughshinny/Balbriggan

Just a quick few snaps on a Maratime theme from beautiful Loughshinny and Balbriggan in North County Dublin.

Keep the Wheels turning.

and last but not least some Sand Martin nests along Balbriggan strand......

Crime and Democracy

Democracy is simply a State sponsored illusion.

Voting is merely a personal endorsement of the largest Organised Crime Syndicate in whichever jurisdiction or State you may happen to reside in.

If you condone criminality then cast your vote.

If you condemn criminality then refuse to vote.

Keep the Wheels turning and never forgive the IDF......

Friday, 27 June 2025

We See You

We see you.

No cash for Doctors no funds for special care,

When it comes to people the cupboard is bare,

New budget for guns and raised deficit for shells,

More misspent youth spent wasted in cells,

No housing for citizens nor bedsits nor flats,

A wandering minstrel on a street of fat cats,

A foodbank and charity from those who may care,

But there’s little to wash away hopelessness, lost pride or despair,

Behind the raised walls and security of Killiney’s Vico road,

In Foxrock, Leopardstown and Brennanstown behind enhanced security and a five digit code,

Here lies the man who is pulling the strings,

Dressed in Versace and Gold covered rings,

Counting his money while stealing your future,

Locking away his big filthy lucre,

“I’ve worked hard for my money” is his belligerent opening feeler,

Sure there’s many who could say the same, even the local Drug Dealer,

Dictating law, various acts and legislation,

Then telling us how everything he does meets legalisation,

It’s not theft, graft nor human exploitation,

It’s democracy, capitalism and the way of our great Nation,

Avoiding taxation, special purpose instruments, off shoring,

Corporate Human Trafficking and Banking Whoring,

The Dole has gone up, hip hip hooray,

Yet they still moan and grumble in spoilt San Tropez,

Are they taking the Piste as we struggle to find homes,

In their Ivory Towers beneath their gold gilded rotunda domes,

Bezos in Venice and Elon in Space,

Bono in Dalkey, the billionaires base,

The Malone Road is buzzing, no trouble is sight,

No SF, DUP or radical right,

Wealth knows no borders it’s international,

While people and lives are all transactional,

A resource to be exploited that’s all people are,

To use and abuse both near and afar,

A consumer, a worker, a servant a slave,

Brainwashed and taught just how to behave,

Bread and circuses, a bone here and there,

A Dinner Party, a Charity affair,

Done their bit now ain’t they great,

A nice Bow tie and 500 euro a plate,

A few bob for the starving African babies, an odd debit from the Credit card,

They think this ostentatious giving will reserve for them a table in God’s own back yard,

Or impress the Network or help with introductions,

Like Sycophants and Lickspittles they need no further instructions,

Flouncing through Donnybrook, Ailesbury and Shrewsbury road,

Ballsbridge, Tritonville and bucolic Sandycove,

Says Mary “You pay peanuts you get monkeys”,

Says I, you pay millions you get Blackrock college's useless flunkies.

A few Chimps could type the complete works of Shakespeare,

Overdue laws for White Collar Crimes could one day make things clear,

Milud, Milud, my client begs your forgiveness and pardon,

Your old class mate Judge, he once gave you a hard on,

Lock him up, not a hope,

Tis true tis true and not a trope,

Wearing Suits and ties with white starched collars,

Invisible people, invisible workers making you trillions of Dollars,

Sowing hatred and division to safely bank Shares,

Selling Tv’s and iPhones, artillery missiles and kitchen chairs,

The American dream a shattered illusion,

With Wall Street and Fleet Street in classic collusion,

But fear a bright dawn, a day anew,

For,

We – will – see - you.

Keep the wheels turning.

If you can crawl, crawl. If you can walk, walk. If you can run, run.

Sunday, 22 June 2025

Two Workers went to War

Two Workers went to War,

neither knew just what the fuck for,

One manned a Machine Gun the other a Tank,

neither had ever managed a Bank,

One was a Street Sweeper the other a Waiter,

they both went to battle and died a day later,

The Wife of one had three young kids,

whose house was auctioned off after multiple online bids,

The Spouse of the other lived all alone,

in a squalid damp Rental with little to own,

And the War rumbled on like the “Devil may cares,”

while the Banker and Corporate bought and sold Shares,

And the Nikki Dow, Dax and the Financial Times,

kerchinged and kerchinged to the wonderful spoils,

As Northrup, Lockheed and Raytheon grinned from ear to ear,

the World shouted “5% 5% 5%” just out of fear,

So to keep the ball rolling they starved all the young,

then they sold some more missiles, a few bombs and a gun,

And as the Cash kept on flowing and the babies were dying,

all the while the Mother’s were twisted, broken and crying,

The Ghosts of the workers ruefully looking back in time,

wondering just how they died covered in mud, filth, blood and stinking slime,

Still the Shares kept on rising as the bodies were falling,

the Bells of Wall Street vulgar, Pealing and Calling,

Canary Wharf, Zurich and Japan’s Tokyo too,

so much money in death but what can you do ?

With American Dollars and a large German bomb,

they were dropping munitions with remarkable aplomb,

Not on fighters, nor enemy nor terrorist scum,

but on babies, civilians and children struck dumb,

Yet the workers lined up and signed up for War,

and still haven’t figured out just what the fuck for.

Friday, 28 March 2025

Ferns, Wexford.

Ferns in County Wexford may possible be so named after Fearn, Fearnóg or Fearna, the Irish for Alder, a species of native tree.

The village is associated with Saint Aidan and was once the site of a large and substantial ecclesiastical settlement.

A comprehensive ground penetrating LIDAR survey was completed a few years back with efforts to establish and determine the full extent of the settlement.

Diarmait Mac Murchada (Dermot MacMurrough) is buried here.

The infamous King of Leinster, who is credited with "inviting" the Normans under Strongbow (Richard de Clare) and King Henry II of England into Ireland c. 1169 A.D. in order to maintain his own hold on power and local hegemony is buried in the grounds of Saint Aidan's Cathedral beside the partial remains of the embossed shaft from an Early High Cross.

The present Cathedral Church of Saint Edan (Aidan) stands where once stood Saint Aiden's Monastery sometime in the 7th Century. When Aidan died he was succeeded by Saint Moling of Saint Mullins (a beautiful ecclesiastical site) in nearby Carlow.

There are four plain imperforate High Crosses in the Cathedral grounds and an inscribed Cross Stone.

These may well have been brightly painted depicting biblical scenes or themes around the time they were constructed, no one is quite sure whether they were painted or not but considering the effort put into carving the more decorative and highly artistic High Crosses it would appear logical that they may have been also beautifully painted.

On both my visits the Cathedral itself was closed which was a pity.

In the grounds of the Cathedral are the remains of an early Chapter House, the administrative building of the site and it dates to c. the 1300's.

Roughly 100 metres across an open field and easily seen and walked to is Saint Mary's Abbey, the remains of an Augustinian Abbey. In its grounds are the bases from two further High Crosses.

Of particular interest are the remains of a Round Tower which is attached to the building itself. Its Square base is unusual and atypical for the type.

Saint Mogue's Cottage beside the Cathedral is an ongoing OPW (Office of Public Works) project which was closed when I visited. Nonetheless it is a beautiful example of earlier vernacular architecture and its restoration a credit to the OPW itself.

Ferns Castle further up in the village is a partially destroyed Castle of Norman origin.

These impressive early Norman stone built Castles are generally credited to William Marshal, a Norman Earl and sometimes known as the "Castle builder" and were first constructed in Ireland during the 13th Century.

Saint Mogue's Well is a place of devotion and Holy Well which lies just across the road from the Cathedral in Ferns.

It is well worth taking the time to visit if just to spend a few quiet minutes in reflection or contemplation or listening to the whispered gurgling of the crystal clear water.

Below is Saint Mary's Abbey with its partial Round Tower on a Square base.

Also buried in the grounds of Saint Edan's Cathedral Church is Father John Murphy.

Captured and killed at Tullow in Carlow for his part in the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion, he was born here in Ferns where a Contemporary Celtic Cross memorial was erected to his memory in the village.

At Tullow he was whipped, hung, decapitated, his body burned in a barrel of Tar and his head impaled upon a spiked railing.

It was after 1798 and because the insurgents were multi-denominational that the British authorities decided the only way they could continue to control Ireland was to turn the Irish against one another by using religion as a basis for destroying any Irish unity and further encouraging sectarian divisions within the Country.

The British program was ultimately successful and kept Britain nominally in control until the Irish War of Independence.

Unfortunately the consequences and violence derived from British encouraged sectarianism and division are still to be felt to this day and the Country is also still divided by an illogical and invisible Northern border.

Such were the vagaries of Perfidious Albion, inflicted globally upon virtually every nation she ever invaded and rapaciously stole from as "the Sun never set on the glorious British Empire".

Divide and Conquer.

About 200 meters downhill and across the road from the Cathedral is Saint Peter's Church.

At this point in time no one has been able to accurately date this unusual little Church ruin.

Saint Peter's Church contains various elements of contradictory time periods and is not recorded in the 1500's.

There are 13th Century ogee style windows alongside an earlier decorated Romanesque window. As such it is assumed that the Church is a post 1500's Church of uncertain origin and constructed from a composite of materials taken from other Churches in the area.