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