Dublin’s day once again
"What I love about GAA games is that kind of rebellion, and the hunger and passion children grow up with today for their native sports. Remember Winston Churchill once said that "We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English." A wonderful lack of respect for anything British almost. And whereas babies in Belgium are born with a bicycle between their legs, Irish babies enter this world with either a hurling stick or a ball in their hands."
Shortlisted!
After a holiday which wasn’t really a holiday – flying home because a family member passed away is hardly reason to have that excited holiday feeling – and trying to sleep while having half an eye fixed on the Ireland Blog Awards 2013 website every so many hours for the last week or so, I am now still trying to figure out how I got to being shortlisted in the Personal Blog category. Chuffed. Exhilarated. Stunned. In the past I expressed my surprise about that peculiar kind of twist of fate which later turns out to be a blessing in disguise, and yet again I have to admit that life really is a stage show. A show of which I continuously seem to misplace the brochure but manage to grasp…
Dingle, the golden hour
Weekly Photo Challenge: The Golden Hour by Cheri Lucas Rowlands on July 12, 2013: The Golden Hour. In photography, the “golden hour” is the first and last hour of sunlight of the day. Photographers venture out on sunrise hikes or sunset treks to capture a magical shot, due to the quality of the light during that time of day. An Daingean When I go to the Irish countryside for a short trip, I try to get a cab just before sunrise to drive me to quiet places to get the golden hour in a photograph. The two pictures below were taken on Ryan’s Daughter‘s beach on the Dingle Peninsula, south-west Ireland, where the famous film of David Lean was shot in 1970. The island pictured in the first photo is called…
I am of Ireland (14th century)
Is D’Eirinn Mé “Icham of Irlaunde Ant of the holy londe Of Irlaunde. Gode sire, pray ich the, For of saynte charite, Come ant daunce wyt me In Irlaunde.” (Anonymous in honour of St. Patrick’s Day) (translated from Old English to Modern English): “I am of Ireland And of the holy land Of Ireland. Good sir, I pray thee, for the sake of charity, Come and dance with me In Ireland.” © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2013. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me with appropriate and specific direction to the original…
Teens, social media and suicide
This is something totally off-topic but it’s something that is becoming more and more a regular news story. It’s making me afraid, short of not freaking out because Ask.fm is the reason why. You might have heard of this website if you’re living in Ireland because it has been linked to several cases of vicious cyberbullying, leading to the suicides of two teenage girls. In the past 3 months, 5 Irish people took their own life because they were bullied online, so you probably understand my fear and gasping for air when I found out what some people anonymously write on people’s profiles. According to the Irish website Be Safe Web: “From looking at this website, I’m shocked at the very public conversations that are happening in this forum. I’ve…
An Irishman’s heart is nothing but his imagination
I’ve put up lots of blog posts involving pictures lately. Sometimes a picture says a thousand words, especially when MS fatigue and asthma are a pain in the proverbial bum. Rugby is keeping me company this afternoon, and seeing Ireland play Argentina in Dublin on a Flemish television screen is making me yearn for home again. Home is Dublin, in a tiny suburb village close to the County Dublin and Meath border. It has been for the last 10 years now and it was a seamless integration and assimilation into Irish culture and society, and I’m so proud of the way Irish people have welcomed me into their midst without ever questioning my motives for being there. Please forgive me if I sound rather distasteful, awful or just plain ridiculous.…
Your feet will bring you to where your heart is
Your feet will bring you where your heart is (Irish proverb) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.