Category :: ah, ireland
Tues 06/15.10 - British Prime Minister David Cameron addresses the UK Parliment in regards to Lord Saville's report on Bloody Sunday.
Ah, Ireland, you break my heart, but today I am greatly heartened on your behalf. It is truly extraordinary in the true sense of the word to have a conservative prime minister to apologize to the people of Northern Ireland.
"What happened should have never ever happened."
"On behalf of our government, indeed of our country, I am deeply sorry."
Thank you, Mr. Cameron. Thank you, Lord Saville and all the investigators and staffers of the report commission. Thank you to all of the witnesses, survivors, families, officials, army folk, and others who gave testimonies and interviews for this matter to be parsed out.
News, Video, & Commentary:
BBC : Bloody Sunday report published
The New York Times : Cameron Calls N. Ireland Killings 'Unjustified'
Video of Cameron's Apology For 'Bloody Sunday,' and Footage From 1972
The Irish Times : "On behalf of our country I am deeply sorry" - British prime minister David Cameron
The Guardian : Bloody Sunday report: 38 years on, justice at last
Making Light : "Both unjustified and unjustifiable"
Metafilter : After 38 years, the truth
All photos taken by Ms. Jen on Feb. 4, 2006 with her Casio Xlim40
digital camera at the 'new' St. Brigid's Well in Kildare, Ireland.
Yeah! This weekend is the time for my two favorite, highly under-appreciated holidays! St. Brigid's Day today and Ground Hog's Day / Candlemas tomorrow!
Go out and celebrate the transitioning of winter-spring and the increasing daylight by giving your local Ground Hog a big kiss... ;o)
Everliving God, we rejoice today in the fellowship of your blessed servant Brigid, and we give you thanks for her life of devoted service. Inspire us with life and light, and give us perseverance to serve you all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, world without end.
... for at least 15 minutes. I even needed sunglasses during those 15 minutes. Given that I left my sunglasses in my car in SoCal, I should be glad that the big dark heavy rain laden clouds returned promptly.
Today was Mom and I's last full day in Ireland for this trip. We ventured southwest from Letterkenny to Glenties and then down the N-56 to the N-14 via Donegal town to Sligo. Most of the drive was lovely. The above photo was taken on the small, one lane road to St. John's Point.
While in the Sligo area, we visited the Creevykeel Goort Cairn, Strandhill Beach with surfers (to quote one after Mom asked after the water temps, "It is feckin freezing!"), and then off to Carrowmore Megalithic Tombs just before sunset.
The sky was completely dark by 4:30pm and we were off down the N-4 to Dublin. Tomorrow we fly back to the UK for the last week of the trip.
Mon 11.19.07 - Today Mom & I drove from Donegal to Omagh to go to the Ulster American Folk Park. About 2/3 of the way through the park, the clouds cleared a bit to give a view of blue sky. Photo taken on the 'Pennsylvania' side of the park, thus the log cabin.
After a lovely early dinner at the Sperrin Restaurant on the A-5 just south of the Folk Park, we drove to Letterkenny in Donegal for the night. Tomorrow is Donegal and Sligo.
Photo of a Crane in Dublin taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.
... so I can trot around the world taking photos of construction cranes. In lieu of winning the lottery, anyone want to sponsor me with a mobile art grant?
Sat 11.17.07 - Walking to brunch.
Fri Nov 16, 2007 - The Registrar, Jurgen, The Vice Provost, Ruth, The Vice Chancellor, Dermott, and another College official.
Fri 11.16.07 - Mom, Me, and Ruth just before entering Trinity's Public Theatre for the Commencement ceremony.
Around Ireland : A Mobile Documentation Project is a finalist in the "Student" category of the SXSW Web Awards 2007!
I am very excited. Simon said via email, "FANTASTIC". Shonagh wrote, "such brilliant news about the website! ". Jasper emailed, "hooray for us."
In case you missed my blogging about the Around Ireland project this last summer, here is a summary from the About page:
Around Ireland is a mobile documentary project completed as part of the MSc in Multmedia Systems at Trinity College Dublin. We have travelled the 32 counties of Ireland, gathering video and images on mobile phones over the course of the Summer of 2006. The mobile content is sent directly to our site, Aroundireland.net from camera-equipped mobile phones in real time.
Rather than sending an image to just one other individual via MMS, Around Ireland aims to act as a central respository for mobile photographic content, allowing visitors to browse submitted mobile pictures from all over the island, geotagged according to location.
A big thanks to SXSW Interactive and see y'all at the 10th Annual SXSW Web Awards on Sun. March 10, 2007 at the Downtown Hilton, Austin, Texas!
The above letter was mailed on Jan. 11th from Dublin, arrived in California on Jan. 25th (today). Deadline for the Feb. 16th graduate commencement was Jan. 19th, exactly one week ago. I was told that we would have received our letters by mid-November and our class voted to graduate on Feb. 16th. Even if I were to Fed-ex the commencement application back this afternoon, it would be a week and a half late.
I guess I will have my own party here in Calif. on the 16th. Who wants to join me?
We can go over to the Chapman University chapel for the dark wood university chapel ambiance, we will need someone with gray hair in a black robe to intone in Latin, all at 8am (to be in time sync with the 4pm graduation in Dublin), and then we can go over to pub (O'Hara's?) and get drunk after.... Or maybe we can stay in bed and go to Walt's at 5pm for happy hour instead... ;oD
Sun 09/17/2006 19:54 Saeed Testing the Stone
Sun 09/17/2006 18:50 Lia Fail
Sun 09/17/2006 18:41 Lìa Fail
Sun 09/17/2006 18:35 Mound of Hostages
Sun 09/17/2006 15:17 Graveyard
Sun 09/17/2006 15:16 Ogam Stone
Sun 09/17/2006 13:36
Sun 09/17/2006 13:33
Sun 09/17/2006 13:28
Tue 09/05/2006 18:19 : N9 Standing Stone, Gormanstown, Co. Kildare
Tues. Sept. 5, 2006 - Jerpoint Abbey, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.
Tues. Sept. 5, 2006 - Jerpoint Abbey, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.
Sun. Sept. 3, 2006 - The Dungarvan Fort / Castle / Type Object.
Sun 07.16.06 - View from the Catholic Martrys Memorial Garden. What a mess. I cried.
Sun 07.16.06 - A View from the Protestant side of the "Peace Wall", Belfast.
Sat 07.15.06 - The Europa Hotel and Grand Opera House, Belfast.
Sat 07.15.06 - The new bridge over the River Boyne.
Tues. 07.04.06 - Sparklers are my favorite. While fireworks are illegal in Ireland, sparklers can be purchased at joke shops. These sparklers were purchased this afternoon.
Thu 06/15/2006 17:03- West Cross, Monasterboice. GPS N 53 46.672' W 006 25.087
Thur 06.15.06 - East passage view. GPS N 53 42.072' W 006 29.436'
Wed. 06.14.06 - at Clonmacnoise.
Wed 06.14.06 - Using the GPS: N 53' 19.658' W 007' 45.120'
St. Manchan's poem (or so accredited):
Grant me sweet Christ the grace to find
Son of the living God!
A small hut in a lonesome spot
To make it my abode.
A little pool but very clear
To stand beside the place
Where all men's sins are washed away
By sanctifying grace.
A pleasant woodland all about
To shield it (the hut) from the wind,
And make a home for singing birds
Before it and behind.
A southern aspect for the heat
A stream along its foot,
A smooth green lawn with rich top soil
Propitious to all fruit.
My choice of men to live with me
And pray to God as well;
Quiet men of humble mind
Their number I shall tell.
Four files of three or three of four
To give the Psalter forth;
Six to pray by the south church wall
And six along the north.
Two by two my dozen friends
To tell the number right
Praying with me to move the King
Who gives the sun its light.
Fri 06.02.06 - Hundreds of sunburnt folks, BYOB*, no security, and a cricket game going on.
*I pre-purchased at The Corkscrew & am drinking a celebratory bottle of Raveswood Old Vine Lodi Zindfanel. Eoin & co are drinking cans of beer. Happy End of Exams to us!
Sun 05.21.06 - The last few days have been dark with heavy rains, but come evening the downpours cease and the skies clear. Anyone know why?
Wed 05.10.06 - Rather than 'Work in Progress'.
Can someone tell me why in English (UK version) it is "Works in Progress" or "I am good at maths" or "drinks driving" or... And English (US version) it is "Work in Progress" or "I am good at math" or "drunk driving" or...
Why the grammatical difference?
I do.
Last night, my apartment-mate, Angee, threw a lovely Korean dinner in honor of my birthday with a few friends from our building. The food was amazing, the wine lovely (Thanks, Simon & Eoin!), and the conversation lively.
At one point, Angee brought up my blog post of this last week and took issue with it, she felt I had been too harsh on Trinity College. Now, Angee is one of the very few International students in my acquaintance who is happy with her program and the service that she has received from the College.
I like my program, but I take issue with the bits of intrenched unnecessary and inefficient bureauracy that I have encountered time and again with various offices on campus.
After telling my network point story to the assembled dinner guests and getting everyone but Angee to admit that they too would be really angry at 40+ days of no broadband that one is paying for with school housing, Angee and Eoin challenged me. Both of them wanted to know what Do I like about Ireland?
Lots. In terms of institutions that I encounter and interact with daily, here are 3 Irish things I am happy with:
1) The Luas. While lots of folk I know are not happy with public transportation in Dublin, I am. The Luas is nice, convienent, runs regularily, and best yet has a purple and yellow interior color scheme. Thanks Connex for the good job.
2) Bank of Ireland: Nice Bank of Ireland. I go to the big fancy branch at 1 College Green. The staff is nice, courteous, and very helpful. The lines are short, service prompt and they have yet to give me any hassle at all. Best of all, they let me deposit US Dollar checks to my account and the money is available in Euros in less than a week. Thanks Bank of Ireland, you rock.
3) Irish Men: Now lots of the Irish women I know complain about Irish men the way I rant about my broadband problems. To them Irish men are passive and not handsome like ___________ (fill in some other nationality). I frequently tell the women in my program that they must need glasses because Irish men are good lookin', esp. their asses. Yes, Ladies & Gentlemen, the true delight of Dublin is the lack of flat white boy butt. Irish men, by and large, have very lovely round bottoms. This is one Irish institution I can get behind....
Sun 04.23.05 - The view from the Villa Farmhouse in Cushendun, No. IE.
Sun 04.23.06 - On the way to the Glens of Antrim.
Sun 04.23.06 - Carlingford Castle and Lough.
Sat 04.22.06 - Moone Abbey, Co. Kildare.
Southside base carving of an interlaced animal form.
Thu 04/13/2006 15:00 : The skies are blue, Happy Easter!
Tue 04/11/2006 19:22 - Cherie & Louisa
Tues 06/15.10 - British Prime Minister David Cameron addresses the UK Parliment in regards to Lord Saville's report on Bloody Sunday.
Ah, Ireland, you break my heart, but today I am greatly heartened on your behalf. It is truly extraordinary in the true sense of the word to have a conservative prime minister to apologize to the people of Northern Ireland.
"What happened should have never ever happened."
"On behalf of our government, indeed of our country, I am deeply sorry."
Thank you, Mr. Cameron. Thank you, Lord Saville and all the investigators and staffers of the report commission. Thank you to all of the witnesses, survivors, families, officials, army folk, and others who gave testimonies and interviews for this matter to be parsed out.
News, Video, & Commentary:
BBC : Bloody Sunday report published
The New York Times : Cameron Calls N. Ireland Killings 'Unjustified'
Video of Cameron's Apology For 'Bloody Sunday,' and Footage From 1972
The Irish Times : "On behalf of our country I am deeply sorry" - British prime minister David Cameron
The Guardian : Bloody Sunday report: 38 years on, justice at last
Making Light : "Both unjustified and unjustifiable"
Metafilter : After 38 years, the truth
All photos taken by Ms. Jen on Feb. 4, 2006 with her Casio Xlim40
digital camera at the 'new' St. Brigid's Well in Kildare, Ireland.
Yeah! This weekend is the time for my two favorite, highly under-appreciated holidays! St. Brigid's Day today and Ground Hog's Day / Candlemas tomorrow!
Go out and celebrate the transitioning of winter-spring and the increasing daylight by giving your local Ground Hog a big kiss... ;o)
Everliving God, we rejoice today in the fellowship of your blessed servant Brigid, and we give you thanks for her life of devoted service. Inspire us with life and light, and give us perseverance to serve you all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, world without end.
... for at least 15 minutes. I even needed sunglasses during those 15 minutes. Given that I left my sunglasses in my car in SoCal, I should be glad that the big dark heavy rain laden clouds returned promptly.
Today was Mom and I's last full day in Ireland for this trip. We ventured southwest from Letterkenny to Glenties and then down the N-56 to the N-14 via Donegal town to Sligo. Most of the drive was lovely. The above photo was taken on the small, one lane road to St. John's Point.
While in the Sligo area, we visited the Creevykeel Goort Cairn, Strandhill Beach with surfers (to quote one after Mom asked after the water temps, "It is feckin freezing!"), and then off to Carrowmore Megalithic Tombs just before sunset.
The sky was completely dark by 4:30pm and we were off down the N-4 to Dublin. Tomorrow we fly back to the UK for the last week of the trip.
Mon 11.19.07 - Today Mom & I drove from Donegal to Omagh to go to the Ulster American Folk Park. About 2/3 of the way through the park, the clouds cleared a bit to give a view of blue sky. Photo taken on the 'Pennsylvania' side of the park, thus the log cabin.
After a lovely early dinner at the Sperrin Restaurant on the A-5 just south of the Folk Park, we drove to Letterkenny in Donegal for the night. Tomorrow is Donegal and Sligo.
Photo of a Crane in Dublin taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.
... so I can trot around the world taking photos of construction cranes. In lieu of winning the lottery, anyone want to sponsor me with a mobile art grant?
Sat 11.17.07 - Walking to brunch.
Fri Nov 16, 2007 - The Registrar, Jurgen, The Vice Provost, Ruth, The Vice Chancellor, Dermott, and another College official.
Fri 11.16.07 - Mom, Me, and Ruth just before entering Trinity's Public Theatre for the Commencement ceremony.
Around Ireland : A Mobile Documentation Project is a finalist in the "Student" category of the SXSW Web Awards 2007!
I am very excited. Simon said via email, "FANTASTIC". Shonagh wrote, "such brilliant news about the website! ". Jasper emailed, "hooray for us."
In case you missed my blogging about the Around Ireland project this last summer, here is a summary from the About page:
Around Ireland is a mobile documentary project completed as part of the MSc in Multmedia Systems at Trinity College Dublin. We have travelled the 32 counties of Ireland, gathering video and images on mobile phones over the course of the Summer of 2006. The mobile content is sent directly to our site, Aroundireland.net from camera-equipped mobile phones in real time.Rather than sending an image to just one other individual via MMS, Around Ireland aims to act as a central respository for mobile photographic content, allowing visitors to browse submitted mobile pictures from all over the island, geotagged according to location.
A big thanks to SXSW Interactive and see y'all at the 10th Annual SXSW Web Awards on Sun. March 10, 2007 at the Downtown Hilton, Austin, Texas!
The above letter was mailed on Jan. 11th from Dublin, arrived in California on Jan. 25th (today). Deadline for the Feb. 16th graduate commencement was Jan. 19th, exactly one week ago. I was told that we would have received our letters by mid-November and our class voted to graduate on Feb. 16th. Even if I were to Fed-ex the commencement application back this afternoon, it would be a week and a half late.
I guess I will have my own party here in Calif. on the 16th. Who wants to join me?
We can go over to the Chapman University chapel for the dark wood university chapel ambiance, we will need someone with gray hair in a black robe to intone in Latin, all at 8am (to be in time sync with the 4pm graduation in Dublin), and then we can go over to pub (O'Hara's?) and get drunk after.... Or maybe we can stay in bed and go to Walt's at 5pm for happy hour instead... ;oD
Sun 09/17/2006 19:54 Saeed Testing the Stone
Sun 09/17/2006 18:50 Lia Fail
Sun 09/17/2006 18:41 Lìa Fail
Sun 09/17/2006 18:35 Mound of Hostages
Sun 09/17/2006 15:17 Graveyard
Sun 09/17/2006 15:16 Ogam Stone
Sun 09/17/2006 13:36
Sun 09/17/2006 13:33
Sun 09/17/2006 13:28
Tue 09/05/2006 18:19 : N9 Standing Stone, Gormanstown, Co. Kildare
Tues. Sept. 5, 2006 - Jerpoint Abbey, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.
Tues. Sept. 5, 2006 - Jerpoint Abbey, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.
Sun. Sept. 3, 2006 - The Dungarvan Fort / Castle / Type Object.
Sun 07.16.06 - View from the Catholic Martrys Memorial Garden. What a mess. I cried.
Sun 07.16.06 - A View from the Protestant side of the "Peace Wall", Belfast.
Sat 07.15.06 - The Europa Hotel and Grand Opera House, Belfast.
Sat 07.15.06 - The new bridge over the River Boyne.
Tues. 07.04.06 - Sparklers are my favorite. While fireworks are illegal in Ireland, sparklers can be purchased at joke shops. These sparklers were purchased this afternoon.
Thu 06/15/2006 17:03- West Cross, Monasterboice. GPS N 53 46.672' W 006 25.087
Thur 06.15.06 - East passage view. GPS N 53 42.072' W 006 29.436'
Wed. 06.14.06 - at Clonmacnoise.
Wed 06.14.06 - Using the GPS: N 53' 19.658' W 007' 45.120'
St. Manchan's poem (or so accredited):
Grant me sweet Christ the grace to find
Son of the living God!
A small hut in a lonesome spot
To make it my abode.
A little pool but very clear
To stand beside the place
Where all men's sins are washed away
By sanctifying grace.
A pleasant woodland all about
To shield it (the hut) from the wind,
And make a home for singing birds
Before it and behind.
A southern aspect for the heat
A stream along its foot,
A smooth green lawn with rich top soil
Propitious to all fruit.
My choice of men to live with me
And pray to God as well;
Quiet men of humble mind
Their number I shall tell.
Four files of three or three of four
To give the Psalter forth;
Six to pray by the south church wall
And six along the north.
Two by two my dozen friends
To tell the number right
Praying with me to move the King
Who gives the sun its light.
Fri 06.02.06 - Hundreds of sunburnt folks, BYOB*, no security, and a cricket game going on.
*I pre-purchased at The Corkscrew & am drinking a celebratory bottle of Raveswood Old Vine Lodi Zindfanel. Eoin & co are drinking cans of beer. Happy End of Exams to us!
Sun 05.21.06 - The last few days have been dark with heavy rains, but come evening the downpours cease and the skies clear. Anyone know why?
Wed 05.10.06 - Rather than 'Work in Progress'.
Can someone tell me why in English (UK version) it is "Works in Progress" or "I am good at maths" or "drinks driving" or... And English (US version) it is "Work in Progress" or "I am good at math" or "drunk driving" or...
Why the grammatical difference?
I do.
Last night, my apartment-mate, Angee, threw a lovely Korean dinner in honor of my birthday with a few friends from our building. The food was amazing, the wine lovely (Thanks, Simon & Eoin!), and the conversation lively.
At one point, Angee brought up my blog post of this last week and took issue with it, she felt I had been too harsh on Trinity College. Now, Angee is one of the very few International students in my acquaintance who is happy with her program and the service that she has received from the College.
I like my program, but I take issue with the bits of intrenched unnecessary and inefficient bureauracy that I have encountered time and again with various offices on campus.
After telling my network point story to the assembled dinner guests and getting everyone but Angee to admit that they too would be really angry at 40+ days of no broadband that one is paying for with school housing, Angee and Eoin challenged me. Both of them wanted to know what Do I like about Ireland?
Lots. In terms of institutions that I encounter and interact with daily, here are 3 Irish things I am happy with:
1) The Luas. While lots of folk I know are not happy with public transportation in Dublin, I am. The Luas is nice, convienent, runs regularily, and best yet has a purple and yellow interior color scheme. Thanks Connex for the good job.
2) Bank of Ireland: Nice Bank of Ireland. I go to the big fancy branch at 1 College Green. The staff is nice, courteous, and very helpful. The lines are short, service prompt and they have yet to give me any hassle at all. Best of all, they let me deposit US Dollar checks to my account and the money is available in Euros in less than a week. Thanks Bank of Ireland, you rock.
3) Irish Men: Now lots of the Irish women I know complain about Irish men the way I rant about my broadband problems. To them Irish men are passive and not handsome like ___________ (fill in some other nationality). I frequently tell the women in my program that they must need glasses because Irish men are good lookin', esp. their asses. Yes, Ladies & Gentlemen, the true delight of Dublin is the lack of flat white boy butt. Irish men, by and large, have very lovely round bottoms. This is one Irish institution I can get behind....
Sun 04.23.05 - The view from the Villa Farmhouse in Cushendun, No. IE.
Sun 04.23.06 - On the way to the Glens of Antrim.
Sun 04.23.06 - Carlingford Castle and Lough.
Sat 04.22.06 - Moone Abbey, Co. Kildare.
Southside base carving of an interlaced animal form.
Thu 04/13/2006 15:00 : The skies are blue, Happy Easter!
Tue 04/11/2006 19:22 - Cherie & Louisa
