Gold Coin Hoard found in Carrick-on-Suir Tipperary

It is believed a Catholic merchant must have been saving and storing the coins over several decades in around the time of Oliver Cromwell's campaign in Ireland and the penal laws.
The Carrick-on-Suir guineas - a collection of 81 coins dug up from the grounds of a derelict pub - have gone on show in the National Museum.
Five builders are now awaiting a reward for handing over a 17th century gold coin hoard to the state

Mainie Jellett (1897-1944) Irish Artist

Quiet House

Irish painter, stage designer, writer, lecturer, and administrator, one of the most important pioneers of modern art in this country. She was born in Dublin, where she studied at the Metropolitan School of Art before spending two years (1917–19) at the Westminster School of Art in London, where *Sickert was among her teachers. In 1920 she went to Paris, where she studied with *Lhote and then with *Gleizes (along with her friend Evie *Hone) and she returned to visit Gleizes regularly until 1932. By 1923 she was painting in a completely abstract, *Cubist-inspired style (Decoration, 1923, NG, Dublin,). Her work in this vein prompted derision when exhibited at the Dublin Painters' Society, and she devoted much of her energy—through essays and lectures— trying to overcome conservative attitudes in Ireland, which was then culturally isolated. In the 1930s figurative elements reappeared in her painting, and her later work included landscapes and religious subjects. She also made designs for the theatre and ballet.

 

 

 

Cubist Nude in Landscape

 

 

 

Achill Horses 1940

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Artist Evie Hone (1894-1955)

Irish School Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

Evie Hone

Evie Hone (1894 – 1955)
Evie Hone was born on 22^nd April 1894 in Clonskeagh, Dublin.  Her father was a director of the Bank of Ireland.  At age 11 she contracted Polio which left her with a severe disability for the rest of her life.  Determined to study art, despite this, she began attending classes in London under Byam Shaw.
From London she travelled to study in Paris in 1920 under such well known masters as Andre Lhote and Albert Gleizes.  Though she was always attracted by stained glass she only took up this work in 1935 on her return from a visit to Holland, where she had received great encouragement from the famous Dutch stained glass artist Professor Roland Holst.  She was as knowledgeable in Medieval Stained Glass as she was in European Stained Glass.
She converted to Catholicism in 1937 and this fact coupled with her lifelong search for a true expression of her faith, led her to continue her work in stained glass.  She eventually became a member of An Tur Gloine, an umbrella organization set up to foster excellence in stained glass painting and production.
She had a definite dislike of any of her works leaving Ireland and thus her stained glass windows are to be seen in Churches throughout the country.  These churches include the Catholic Church in Howth, the chapel at Portobello Barracks, the chapel in Clongowes Wood School and the chapel in Blackrock College Dublin.
Her most famous commissions were definitely a series of five windows she made for the Catholic Church in Tullabeg, Co. Offaly (1946).  Four windows for the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kingscourt (1947 – 1948), the Hatch Street, Dublin series in 1947 and the huge nine light Eton College Chapel East window (1949 – 1952).
It appears that the only Church in Co. Cavan with Evie Hone stained glass window is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kingscourt.  In Co. Meath, there is an Evie Hone window in the Church of Ireland at Tara.  It is called ‘The descent of the Holy Spirit’ and was commissioned in 1936.  There is also a window by her in the Church of Ireland, Ardcane, Boyle, commissioned in 1935 and consists of a two panel window depicting St. Patrick, St. Brigid and St. Berac.
Her studio was in a beautifully situated old house in Rathfarnham, at the foot of the Dubin Mountains.  During the Second World War when petrol for transport was scarce, her windows were transported by pony and trap into Dublin City to be fired.
Evie Hone exhibited some of her work in the Dawson Gallery, Dublin in 1944 and held another exhibition in the College of Art in 1947.
Prior to its installation in Kingscourt her Crucifixion window was on private exhibition in her studio at Marley, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin.  Her windows in Kingscourt are truly unique and are treasured by the Parish.

         

 

Moonlight Camping

The Moon Last night


6am this morning at the twin cairns Knockaunapeebra above Mahon Falls( Cairn is a prehistoric burial mound usually on a hilltop)






Breakfast in the Comeragh Mountains

Thanks Michael Whelan in Mountainzone for the photos

Patrick Kavanagh Irish Poet (1904-1967)

Memory of My Father

Every old man I see
Reminds me of my father
When he had fallen in love with death
One time when sheaves were gathered.

That man I saw in Gardiner Street
Stumble on the kerb was one,
He stared at me half-eyed,
I might have been his son. 

And I remember the musician
Faltering over his fiddle
In Bayswater, London.
He too set me the riddle. 

Every old man I see
In October-coloured weather
Seems to say to me
"I was once your father."

-Patrick Kavanagh

Copyright © Estate of Katherine Kavanagh

 

 

The Galtee Mountains Tipperary

Looking down the Lough Curra Gully climbing Galtymore (photo by Paul Hill Walking Ireland)

The beauty of the Galtee Mountains



 

The Glen of Aherlow,nominated as one of the 5 best places to holiday in Ireland

The Glen of Aherlow, Tipperary’s most attractive and scenic holiday destination, is a lush valley where the River Aherlow runs between the Galtee Mountains and the wooded ridge of Slievenamuck. Bounded by the rural villages of Bansha and Galbally, the Glen was historically an important pass between Limerick and Tipperary.





The Glen of Aherlow, Tipperary is a walkers paradise offering a variety of low level loop and mountain walks



Within the valley and throughout the hinterland of The Glen of Aherlow in Tipperary , the variety of prehistoric and early Christian heritage sites provides interest for all, where one can enjoy the peace and serenity of times past

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The Phoenix Park,Dublin A wonderful facility just 3km from the city centre

The name Phoenix Park comes from its pronunciation in Gaelic “fionn uisce” which means clear water

The Park at 707 hectares (1752 acres), is one of the largest designed landscapes in any European city.  It was originally established as a Royal deer park in the 17th century Phoenix Park is made up of large lawns, tree-lined avenues and wooded areas, there are also sports fields for polo and cricket. It is also home to a herd of wild deer.



Aras an Uachtarain  The Presidents Residence is located in the Phoenix Park






 Ashtown Castle, a medieval tower house that probably dates from the 17th century is part of the visitors centre




Water features were originally incorporated to encourage the "lower classes" to take more interest in hygiene






The Visitors Centre

Going Home to Mayo,Winter 1949 Paul Durcan Poet

Leaving behind us the alien, foreign city of Dublin
My father drove us through the night in an old Ford Anglia,
His five-year-old son in the seat beside him,
The rexine seat of red leatherette,
And a yellow moon peered in through the windscreen.
‘Daddy, Daddy,’ I cried, ‘Pass out the moon,’
But no matter how hard he drove he could not pass out the moon.
Each town we passed through was another milestone
And their names were magic passwords into eternity:
Kilcock, Kinnegad, Strokestown, Elphin,
Tarmonbarry, Tulsk, Ballaghedereen, Ballyvarry;
Now we were in Mayo and the next stop was Turlough,
The village of Turlough in the heartland of Mayo,
And my father’s mother’s house, all oil-lamps and women,
And my bedroom over the public bar below,
And in the morning cattle-cries and cock-crows:
Life’s seemingly seamless garment gorgeously rent
By their screeches and bellowings. And in the evenings
I walked with my father in the high grass down by the river
Talking with him – an unheard-of thing in the city.
But home was not home and the moon could be no more outflanked
Than the daylight nightmare of Dublin city:
Back down along the canal we chugged into the city
And each lock-gate tolled our mutual doom;
And railings and palings and asphalt and traffic lights,
And blocks after blocks of so-called ‘new’ tenements –
Thousands of crosses of loneliness planted
In the narrowing grave of the life of the father;
In the wide, wide cemetery of the boy’s childhood.


Turlough Round Tower County Mayo

 

Lakes in the Galtee Mountains Tipperary

The Galtees have five large pre glacial hollows, which are now occupied by five mountain lakes: Lough's Curra, Diheen, Borheen, Muskey and Farbreaga.
These lough's have remained largely unexplored, due in no small measure to their inaccessibility, and it is not even clear how deep they are.
"At 574 metres Curra is the highest of the Galtee lakes, which meant that we had to an uphill walk of almost nine kilometres to get there


Lough Borheen

Lough Mohra and Knockanaffrin today in the Comeragh Mts.Rathgormack

Photo thanks to Wayne Brown

Great views from up there

Athassel Abbey near Cashel Tipperary

Athassel Abbey is located near the village of Golden, 4 miles outside the town of Cashel. This is the largest medieval priory in Ireland, and was founded for the Canons Regular of St Augustine by William FitzAdelm de Burgo at the close of the 12th century  The monastery was surrounded by a high wall, and beyond the gatehouse is a bridge connecting the monastery with the surrounding area. Outside the walls of the monastery there was once a thriving town which was burned in 1319 by Lord Maurice Fitzthomas and again in 1329 by Bryan O Brien- and nothing now remains of it.







 

The Swiss Cottage,Cahir Tipperary

The Swiss Cottage is a beautiful ‘cottage orné’ built in the early 1800s by Richard Butler, the first Earl of Glengall, to a design by the famous Regency architect John Nash. Its interior contains a graceful spiral staircase and some elegantly decorated rooms. The wallpaper in the Salon manufactured by the Dufour factory is one of the first commercially produced Parisian wallpapers. It is situated on an elevated site with access by stone steps.

This beautiful cottage is about 2 kilometres from my home it is part of a  river walk which links The Swiss Cottage to Cahir Castle.It is a walk much appreciated by my dogs and I often go riding along the river bank




Fishing in the river at Cahir

The hedgerow today following some sunshine