Passages 2 Ireland

16/05/2024

Twenty five years ago I stepped into the magical world of Cloghane & Brandon and had a holiday home to stay in before my first pint was pulled at O’Connors Guesthouse 💚💛💚

Eachléim Village, Belmullet, Co Mayo.

10/05/2024

Quin & Corofin - another sweet surprise of Ireland.

FROM CHIEFTAINS TO HEALERS!

I love this photograph, it's like a vertical cross section allowing us to better imagine the interior of the original structure which is Ballymarkahan Castle near the village of Quin in County Clare. It was built in 1430 by the MacNamara family and is only one of several they built in the area. The MacNamaras were one of the most powerful clans in the Kingdom of Thomond.

The castle changed hands various times down through the centuries, both by fair means and foul, but by the start of the 1700s the MacNamaras were back in their ancestral home. Less than half a century later, however, their time at Ballymarkahan would come to an end when, in 1748, Michael MacNamara sold up and some members of the family moved to Corofin, also in County Clare. They would go on to serve as doctors there for generations. When Dr Maccon Macnamara retired in 2006 it ended 180 years of medical services by his family to the people of Corofin. 🥰

(M) ☘️

Pic. Mike Searle for https://www.geograph.org.uk

29/03/2024

Jaysus, it caused a kerfuffull!

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29/03/2024

See you in September 🇮🇪💚🧡💚

22/03/2024

You won’t go wrong staying in a Little Bit of Heaven!

A road side view of our O'Connor's Campsite.
We have Bays with electricity and water hook up.
A designated field for Tents
Showers and toilets on site.

We are open all year around with a Bar & Restaurant on site.

21/03/2024

Ireland has had the LARGEST drop in alcohol consumption (over 20%) in the EU since the Dry January movement began in the UK in 2013. I long for the day when drunken memes about the Irish are in the past and the country is known for all of the amazing and wonderful things it has contributed to the world.

Hit me up if you’d like to hear about them!

20/03/2024

Move over Bing- Jackie’s got this!

Here's Jackie singing a classic that originally wasn't his own, but he made Danny Boy his, and he sung it better then anyone else. He proved in this song he ...

17/03/2024

12/03/2024

19/01/2024

A "lost" 4,000-year-old tomb has been rediscovered on the Di**le Peninsula in Co Kerry.

27/12/2023

Ireland Christmas 1847, James Tuke “The people were turned out of doors and the roofs of their houses pulled down. That night they made a tent or shelter of wood and straw; however, the drivers [bailiffs] threw them down and drove them from the place. . .It would have pitied the sun to look at them, as they had to go head first into the storm. . . . It was a night of high wind and storm, and wailing could be heard at a great distance. They implored the drivers to allow them to remain a short time as it was so near that time of Festival [Christmas] but they would not.” Taken from The Truth Behind The Irish Famine, 72 paintings, 472 eye witness quotes: www.jerrymulvihill.com

18/08/2023

Poem read at Sinead O'Connor's funeral by her brother Joseph, a novelist. It’s called, ‘Blackbird in Dun Laoghaire.’

There’s a blackbird in Dun Laoghaire
When I’m walking with my sons
Through the laneways
Called ‘The Metals’
By the train-tracks.

And he sings among the dandelions
And bottle-tops and stones,
Serenading purple ivy,
Weary tree-trunks.

And I have it in my head
That I can recognise his song,
Pick him out,
I mean distinct
From all his flock-mates.

Impossible, I know.
Heard one blackbird, heard them all.
But there are times
He whistles up a recollection.

There’s a blackbird in Dun Laoghaire –
And I’m suddenly a kid,
Asking where from here to Sandycove
My youngest sister hid.
I’m fourteen this Easter.
My job to mind her.
Good Friday on the pier –
And I suddenly can’t find her.

The sky like a bruise
By the lighthouse wall.
We were playing hide-and-seek.
Is she lost? Did she fall?
There’s a blackbird in Dun Laoghaire
And the terror’s like a wave
Breaking hard on a hull,
And the peoples’ faces grave

As Yeats on a banknote.
Stern as the mansions
Of Killiney in the distance,
As the pier’s granite stanchions,
And Howth is a drowned child
Slumped in Dublin Bay,
And my heart is a drum
And the breakers gull-grey.

The baths. It starts raining.
The People’s Park.
And my tears and the terns,
And the dogs’ bitter bark.
There’s a blackbird in Dun Laoghaire,
And I pray to him, then,
For God isn’t here,
In a sobbed Amen.

And she waves from the bandstand,
Her hair in damp strings,
And the blackbird arises
With a clatter of wings
From the shrubs by the teahouse,
Where old ladies dream
Of sailors and Kingstown
And Teddy’s ice-cream.

And we don’t say a word
But cling in the mizzle,
And the whistle of the bird
Getting lost in the drizzle.
Mercy weaves her nest
In the wildflowers and the leaves,
There are stranger things in heaven
Than a blackbird believes.

•

What a beautiful and touching poem.

09/08/2023

The Spirit of this community is second to none🥰

28/07/2023

How I miss the curry Pringles!

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16/04/2023

Ireland-always ahead of the game looking out for others!

30/03/2023

28/10/2022

An original Jack O'Lantern c.1850 on display at the Museum of Country Life in Mayo.

History of the Jack O'Lantern.

According to Irish folklore, a man called Stingy Jack was sentenced to roam the earth for eternity by the devil. A ghostly figure of the night, Jack walks with a burning coal inside of a carved out turnip to light his way. Irish folklore began to refer to this spooky figure as 'Jack of the Lantern' which then became 'Jack O’Lantern.'

We all know that Halloween started with the Irish festival of Samhain or 'All Hallows Eve', which then became known as Halloween. This was a time of year when the veil between this world and the next was at its weakest and spirits roamed the world. This legend is why people in Ireland began to make their own versions of Jack’s lantern by carving grotesque faces into turnips, potatoes and beets, placing them by their homes to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits and travelers.

Irish migrants in the 19th century brought this legend across the Atlantic, where they discovered that Pumpkins were easier to carve than Turnips. So, it’s to an Irish character named Stingy Jack that we owe the origins of the modern Jack O'Lanterns.

29/08/2022

Green grass & Blue skies !

We LOVE this picture . A big thank you to Pat Nevin for the wonderful capture.

15/05/2022

When you arrive as you depart!

LA, we’re on our way! ✈️⭐️Today’s flight EI 69 is our first Dublin ➡️ Los Angeles service since March 2020 ☘️🇺🇸 We're so happy to have daily flights to the City of Angels back in the air!

📸 Our superstar crew before take-off this afternoon 💚

18/04/2022

Rare photo taken inside the GPO on Easter Monday 1916. There were only 2 photos taken inside the GPO during the 1916 rising. They were taken by a young volunteer named Joseph Cripps. He was out walking on Easter Monday when he heard the gunfire coming from the centre of the city. He rushed home to get his first aid kit and made his way to the GPO. He had his camera with him but unfortunately only had two exposures left on his roll of film. He was arrested by the British and questioned but let go, he had hidden the roll of film in his sock.

The volunteers are from left, Desmond O’Reilly, James Mooney, Paddy Byrne, John Doyle, Tom McGrath, Hugh Thornton, John Joseph Twamly and Bernard Friel.

12/03/2022

☘️ Purchase Album from iTunes Now: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/live-at-the-gaiety/id295949773 ☘️Since 1962, The Dubliners have been enthralling audienc...

12/10/2021

RIP Paddy. Your gift of wrapping sorrow in in music that brings joy is unmatched. You will be missed. 💚🧡💚

Multi-instrumentalist who helped to re-popularise traditional Irish folk music hailed for ‘enormous contribution’ to his country’s culture

09/09/2021