A visit to The Druid's Altar, Drombeg Stone Circle.

It's our 35th Wedding anniversary this month (the equivalent of 2 life sentences probably). We always go away for a few days to celebrate our anniversary. Himself offers me the world on a plate, "where would you like to go?" he says,  "a city break? a few days in Spain? England to visit Suzanne?"
You know what I'd love I say. A trip to west Cork, not 2 hours drive from where i live in Cobh, Co. Cork. I can't be doing with airports and travelling at the best of times and besides I haven't seen the whole of Ireland yet.

Co Cork has a wealth of Megalithic sites, places of Pagan rituals and rites and I wanted to go and soak up some of Ireland's ancient past in Drombeg, near Glandore, in West Cork. Not so much a cheap date or easily pleased, I get a whole lot more out of visiting old graveyards, ruins and ancient historical sites than i could ever get traipsing around cities and into shops. Drombeg boasts one of the most visited Bronze age Stone Circles in the country, originally it had 17 standing stones and 1 recumbent / Altar stone. Google it, it's amazing.

The photographer in me  dearly loves to have these places to myself to soak in the atmosphere of the environment and take my time composing my shots. A lot to expect at Irelands most popular Megalithic site.
We heard the voice of a child as we were walking up the pathway to the stones. Not an ordinary child but one that is obviously used to making herself the centre of attention. While mummy was giving a history lesson to a fine upstanding, quietly spoken gentleman madam was giving a narrative on her every movement.
While her slightly older sister was sitting day dreaming alongside the Fulacht Fiadh (you'll find out what that is when you google Drombeg Stone Circle) madam was climbing noisily up a rocky incline in close proximity to her mother.
"i'm  going to put this foot on that  rock, Oh it's a bit slippery here. oh no, oh no, I think I'm going to fall! Good I didn't fall, I'm going up a different  way instead. It went on and on and on in what seemed like and endless tirade of nonsense.
Don't get me wrong I love children but the noise seemed so out of place in this Ancient sombre place.

I had read that a physic had been brought to visit the place and she deemed it to be a very evil site where human sacrifices had been made. For a very brief moment I was a Pagan Druid contemplating making a human sacrifice and madam wasn't helping her case.

Finally they left and myself and himself then had the place to ourselves. Now all i had to do was make sure i avoided getting himself into the shots. Not easy when he decides to sit on the Fulach Fia soaking up the quietness and sombreness of the place. I had to angle myself so that he was hidden behind one of the stones.
In the end i got him up on the recumbent stone and sacrificed him instead.

We had about 5 minutes with the whole place to ourselves before a bus load of tourists arrived. I think got a few nice shots though.

Drombeg Stone Circle, Co. Cork

Camera-Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55@17mm, 1/800sec, f5.6, ISO200

 What remains of 2 stone huts

Camera - Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55@17mm. 1/320sec, f5.6, ISO 200

The Portal Stones

Camera- Canon 70D, Lens 17-55mm@17mm, 1/320sec, f5.6, ISO 200

Camera-Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@13mm, 1/640sec, f5.6, ISO 200

 The recumbent/Altar stone facing the Portal Stones

Camera- Canon70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, 1/640sec, f5.6, ISO 200

 There are some engravings on the recumbent stone, a mark made by an axe and 2 cup shaped engravings

Camera-Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, 1/640sec, f5.6, ISO 200

The missing stones

Camera- Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, 1?640sec, f5.6, ISO 200

My Human Sacrafice

Camera-Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@10mm, 1/640sec, f5.6, ISO 200

 A view of the Standing Stones with the Fulacht Fiadh and the ruin of the huts in the distance

Camera-Canon 70D, Lens Tamron 10-24mm@24mm, 1/250sec, f8, ISO 200

 The stone in the centre of the circle where people place offerings. This was excavated in 1957 by Professor Edward Fahy.  The cremated remains of a youth along with the sweepings of a pyre were found wrapped in thick cloth in an upturned bowl. Radiocarbon dating placed it 1100 - 800BC

Camera -Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm@47mm, 1/800sec, f3.2, ISO 200

The Fulacht Fiadh. Professor Fahy performed an experiment here to see how long it would take to heat 70 gallons of water using red hot stones from the fire pit. It took 18mins.

Camera - Canon70D, Lens 17-55mm@17mm, 1/320sec, f5.6, ISO 200

A visit from John.

About 20years ago, long before the Celtic Tiger visited the country, we bought a cottage in Ring, Co Waterford. It was no more than a ruin at the time but it was once a home to John Tobin and his 11 children. Typical of the time it was a cottage on an acre. There was no electricity and the cottage consisted of 3 rooms and a lean to which housed a toilet and sink.
John Tobin had died about 2 years before we bought the cottage from his son.

It was a challenge getting the place together with little money and four young children in tow but we took our time. Nothing came easy, in fact from the start it felt like we were battling against an invisible force. Himself was working on the house and i looked after the children in a mobile home in the garden.
One day while Himself was working inside near the roof a few rocks fell from the wall hitting him on the head and he was very lucky to have escaped a serious injury. Every change he made to the house brought another difficulty and more challenges.

One night while we were sleeping in the mobile home one of my daughters, who was 8 at the time, woke up crying. She told us there was a man standing at the corner of the house looking over at us. We took her outside and showed her the house but she couldn't be consoled. Eventually she slept but from then on she was convinced that he was there, standing at the corner of the house.
Her vision developed from there and soon she was seeing him inside the house. No longer afraid she was able to tell us when and where she could see him.

Himself found a broken pipe in the garden and placed it over the fireplace, she said she saw the man picking up the pipe and looking at it before replacing it above the fireplace. She used to tell me he was watching me washing the dishes at the sink or peeling the potatoes. It freaked me out a bit to be honest, if he was in the kitchen watching me where else was he likely to be!

A cousin of Himself's lived nearby and we told him and his wife Dolores about our child and her visitor. They asked her to describe what she was seeing. She told them it was hard to see his face because it was very dark but his eyes were really bright and he had a cap pulled down over his forehead. I can still see Dolores's face when she  heard this description. She was stunned to say the least. You see John Tobin used to sit by his fire with the door of the cottage open. The room was in darkness as he had no electricity. He sat by the open fire smoking his pipe and all you could see when you looked in the door of the house were his 2 bright eyes looking out at you. He also wore a cap.

Sean and Dolores commissioned a local artist Bríd Kenneally to paint a picture of John Tobin on a slate for us. He takes pride of place now in our cottage next to the fireplace he loved.
My daughter laughs now when we remind her 20 years later about her visitor. She's very unsure of what was going on at the time, whether she was playing on the attention or whether she was really seeing him. One thing is certain, as soon as we acknowledged John with the picture things turned around.
One day Himself placed his hand on the bellows that stood by the fire. Up until then it was stiff and seized up. All of a sudden it turned in his hand and from then on things went ok in the house. It was as if John accepted us and knew we loved the place.

To this day Himself is finding remnants of John Tobin's life in the garden of our cottage in

 Baile na nGall Ring, Co Waterford. The photographs below show some of these items. 

The Bellows

Camera Setting - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm f2.8@18mm, 1/40sec, f2.8, ISO1600

Artist's impression of John Tobin by Bríd Kenneally

Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens 17-55mmF2.8@55mm, 1/100sec, f2.8, ISO 500

 John Tobin's house when we bought it in 1995

My daughter Alice and her friend outside the house, check out the ghost in the window. There was nothing on the window apart from the curtain, so this is obviously a twist in the curtain or is it!

 John's wash jug, found in the garden.

 Camera Settings - Camera canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@28mm, 1/800sec, f2.8, ISO 100

An old paddy bottle, dug up in the garden.

Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@55mm, 1/500sec, f2.8, ISO100

 Bríd Kenneally's painting of John, done on slate. 

Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@18mm, 1/60sec, f2.8, ISO500

 Black and White image of the pipe sitting on the stone wall in the garden

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens 17-55mmf2.8@55mm, 1/250sec,f2.8, ISO 100

A piece of a leather boot dug up recently in the garden

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@28mm, 1/160sec, f4, ISO100

Black and white image of the Bellows by the fireplace (not original fireplace)

Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon17-55mmf2.8@17mm, 1/40sec, f2.8, ISO 1600

The pipe,  dug up in the garden

Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@40mm, 1/320sec, f2.8, ISO100

In Song and in Story

We are wonderful here in Ireland for commemorating disasters. We celebrate them in great fashion. We're commemorating/celebrating 100 years since the torpeoding of the  Lusitania at the moment. Next year it's the 100th anniversary of 1916, when we will commemorate/celebrate the loss of our heroes who died in the fight for Irish freedom. A few years ago we commerated/celebrated the loss of the Titanic. I hope i live to see the 200th anniversary of the Great famine in 2045.

I read a great poem recently by Desmond Egan.

Famine, a sequence (Desmond Egan)

the stink of famine
hangs in the bushes still
in the sad celtic hedges
you can catch it
down the line of our landscape
get its taste on every meal
listen
there is famine in our music
famine behind our faces
it is only a field away
has made us all immigrants
guilty for having survived
has separated us from language
cut us from our culture
built blocks around belief
left us on our own
ashamed to be seen
walking out beauty so
honoured by our ancestors
but fostered now to peasants
the drivers of motorway diggers
unearthing bones by accident
under the disappearing hills

We love doom and gloom, we thrive on it. At my daughter's wedding recently we had the customary sing song which started approx 3am. Nearly every song that was sung was about a death, or a broken heart. Himself sang A Weila Weila Waila, listen to it here. You will be absolutely horrified. It's about a mother who kills her child with a pen knife. It was categorised in the 1800's as a childs nursery rhyme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuUanDlD9vg  

I have to admit to be a lover of the Ballads about our heroes though, I know the words of the ballad of Wolfe Tone, Michael Collins, James Connolly, Terence Mc Swiney (Shall my soul pass through old Ireland), James Plunkett (Grace) and a few more, i sing them to myself all the time so i won't forget the words. I love the sheer poetry of them without hanging on to the history of them, because if we hang on we are never free.

These photographs were taken in a famine graveyard in Coachford, Co Cork known as Magourney Cemetry. A large stone marks the mass grave where the famine victims were buried and some smaller ones jutting out at different angles acknowledge the fact that there are several un-named bodies there. An Gorta Mór inscribed on the stone is "The Great Famine" in Irish. 

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm@17mm, exp 1/640sec, f5, ISO100

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55@17mm, exp 1/320sec, f8, ISO 100

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm@17mm, exp 1/320sec, f5, ISO 100

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm@33mm, exp 1/320sec, f5, ISO 100

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens 17-55mm@17mm, exp 1/200sec, f9, ISO 100

 Camera settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm@17mm, exp 1/200sec, f9, ISO 100

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm@17mm, exp 1/200sec, f3.5, ISO 100

 Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm@17mm, exp 1/200sec, f3.5, ISO 100

Show me your friend's and I'll tell you who you are.

This is an unusual title for a blog about the morning of my daughter's wedding. However I was gobsmacked by the love and support my daughter Frances and we as a family got from her friends in the lead up to the big occasion.

It was one of my mother's favourite quotes and God knows growing up, myself and my siblings heard it often enough. "Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are". It comes from the Bible, Proverbs 13:20 "He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm". Most of us have enjoyed the company of a bad influence at some stage in our lives but this is a tribute to the good influences. 

There was the friend who arrived with boxes of home made cakes a few days before, lovingly baked just for us as we would be inundated with visitors. Little did she know that I ate most of them but it's the thought that counts. I still fitted into my dress, no thanks to Áine.

There were the lads who arranged the music for the wedding, Alan and George who roped in two other hunks to form a Bachelor quartet. Thanks a million guys. I was really holding things together until yee started singing. They had us all in tears with the entrance song, Glen Hansard's 'Falling Slowly".

Then there's Rosie who doubles up as a cousin who did our make up and made us all beautiful for the photographs and Lilly her sister (check her out http://lillyhiggins.ie ) who made the cake.

I could go on and on but the point is we all benefited greatly from the love and support showered on Frances from all her friends, siblings and relations. We were inundated with flowers, it was like daffodil day without having to contribute to the charity.

These photos are of wedding morning moments, captured by myself and my daughter Marie. The morning went by in such a blur that it's great to have the photographs to relive it all.

All photos were taken with Canon 70D Camera and my new toy - Canon Lens 17-55 2.8mm