Ireland, Wales and Europe
Poems, History and Language.
Castles of Bones
We have the crass estates
with stupid names plucked out of the air.
We have white ghosts
in sterile electronic rooms.
We have
half moon defences crumbling on cliffs,
and books of invasions.
Our castles
will be built of bones.
From the book, ‘Castles of Bones’, by Patrick Egan (Cardiff, Woodville Press,
2000).
New York, 11 September, 2001 — Oslo, October 9, 2009...
Do we remember 9/11? How can we ever forget...
With President Bush now no more than an unhappy memory the Nobel Peace Prize award to President Obama may be humanity’s best hope
as we face a future of ever more serious challenges.
James Clarence Mangan
Ireland's greatest poet in English before Yeats...
The Great Famine in Ireland (1845 – 1849).
How it was remembered in Cardiff, Wales.
Climate Change: Should Christians Care?
Sadly, many Christians, including Catholics, dismiss environmentalism as a neo‑marxist plot. If only things were that simple.
Unfortunately, the tragic reality was well expressed by a character in one of Sean
O’Casey’s plays who famously said, “The whole world is in a
state of chassis...”
Wake Up Rally – Monday 21 September 2009...
This year will be crucial as the economic recovery begins and efforts to find a replacement for the failed Kyoto agreement intensify.
Maybe it is again a right
time to listen to:
Hard times come again no
more
Stephen Foster’s majestic anthem to ‘the sigh of the weary’,
here sung unforgettably by a great American singer, Nanci Griffith.
Newtown, Cardiff
Take a walk down Cardiff’s virtual Irish memory lane...
The Green Dragon
Between 1996 and 2002 ten editions of this magazine linking Ireland and Wales were
published in Cardiff.
All of the articles may be read here online.
Peace in Erin
The horrifying events of the first weekend of March 2009, when terror returned to the
streets of Northern
Ireland and heartbreak to its homes, was a depressing reminder that peace, as fine
and as lovely as a
precious jewel, is also as fragile as the wings of a butterfly. The message of this
lovely old song
needs to take root in all Irish hearts, both Green and Orange, even in those that are
coldest and
hardest...
It can do surely no harm to read a this remarkable appeal for peace in
Ireland.
‘Peace in Erin’ was written by schoolmaster Hugh McWilliams who
was born in County
Antrim about 1783. The fact that two centuries later we are all still at it should
trouble our collective
conscience.
Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin and Ian Paisley of the
Democratic Unionist Party
Leadership rivals in Northern Ireland as seen from Wales.
In a series of 130 articles Samuel H. Boyd, born in 1919 in Presbyterian
East Belfast in Northern Ireland and now living in Wales, describes the
long‑lasting
and possibly still unfinished contest between Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin and
Ian Paisley of
the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
His latest article, dated 3 April 2009, is entitled: Anniversaries – April
Writing just after the G20 Summit in London and a few weeks before celebrating his 90th birthday Sam Boyd concludes:
“So, whether we look back at the needs of Ireland, North or South, or generally in the wider world, the message should be heard: co‑operation
is better than conflictual competition”.
‘Sam’ celebrated his 90th birthday in Cwmbran on Sunday 26 April 2009!
The Irish Traditional
Music Archive
A visit to this marvellous resource may well take up your time but it will surely not
waste it.
Cymru ac Iwerddon
Tudalennau yn y Gymraeg / pages in Welsh.
Wales is only a quarter of the size of the island of Ireland but, with almost three
million people, it is much more
densely populated. Moreover, there are about half a million speakers of Welsh, and
because of much more vigorous and
relevant government policies it is significantly more visible and usable than
Ireland’s great but largely marginalised national
language.
Cwm Rhondda: dau emyn, dwy iaith, un alaw fendigedig...two hymns, two languages, one great tune...
S4C
S4C is the TV service – available on satellite – for speakers of Welsh,
the most successful of the Celtic languages.
Look for their ‘Clic’ archive service which allows one to watch
programmes online up to 35 days after broadcast.
Unfortunately this facility is available only in the UK.
Even more unfortunately, such archived programmes cannot be downloaded to hard
drive.
However, on a more positive note, unlike TV programmes in Irish from RTÉ
and in Gaelic from the BBC, both of whom encrypt subtitles – to the
inconvenience of native and
fluent speakers alike – S4C makes subtitles, either in English or in Welsh,
available only as click through options: the default setting allows viewing without
subtitling.
This is a more costly but much more satisfactory
approach.
BBC Alba
This is the BBC’s combined television service in Scottish Gaelic introduced in
September 2008.
It is a first class provision which is also available on satellite. For internet users,
however, the sad fact is that, as with all BBC services, it is accessible
only within the UK.
Even sadder is the fact that the iPlayer, the BBC’s splendidly
arranged and presented
internet archive service for all its radio and TV services, only allows one to listen or
to view for just one week after the original
broadcast.
There is, of course, the iPlayer Download facility which allows one to delay one's looking or listening again for a maximum of 30 days. However, in a perverse twist, if one look / listens again at any time using this feature the recording dies 7 days later!
All of this, remember, from an organisation that likes to think of itself as the finest
public broadcasting service anywhere, ever!
And yes, the Beeb does indeed produce some great moments in broadcasting – in English, Welsh, Gaelic and Irish ’ that would grace anybody–s hard drive for years to come.
TG4
TG4 is the national TV service for speakers of Irish. This link is to the ‘Web
TV’ section of the website. This allows access to
the extensive archives of programmes in Irish, most of which remain asccessible and
downloadable to disc for as long as 12 months after first broadcast.
S4C and BBC please copy!
Raidió na Gaeltachta
Ireland’s vigorous 24 hour radio service in Irish (‘Gaelic’)
on the internet. Though all human life is there it is also the principal broadcaster of
traditional Irish
music in Ireland and so has many listeners who speak but little of the language
itself.
RTÉ
This is a link to the homepage of RTÉ, Ireland’s national public
service broadcaster, with links to both radio and TV
services. Unlike the narrowly insular internet services of S4C and the BBC –
available only within the UK – all services are available
both at home and abroad on the ‘World Wide Web’.
Most broadcasts are in English but, despite the provision of separate TV and radio
services in Irish only, RTÉ does not completely
exclude the Irish language from its schedules, an indication of its commitment to
providing a service to all.
Many programmes are archived and downloadable – a splendid and generous
service to Irish people and to people of any nationality wherever they may be.
S4C and BBC please copy!
Éire agus an Bhreatain Bheag
Leathanaigh sa Ghaeilge / pages in Irish.
‘Téarmaíocht na
Gaeilge’
‘Irish Language Terminology’ — an online dictionary of
Irish.
Old Words My Parents Knew
They thought they had no Irish but, for all that, they both knew many Irish words
which they regularly used as part
of their everyday English language. I believe that I have managed to record most of
them here.
A Word for Irish!
If you do not know Irish, try to make time to learn it, for, being the ancestral
language of one of the most
distinguished and distinctive nations of Europe it must surely be one of its most
distinguished and distinctive
languages as well.
Artswave
An arts gallery in Fishguard is also home to Artswave, a pioneering initiative
working to bring Wales and
Ireland closer together.
Draig Werdd
Based in Dublin and founded by but not restricted to Welsh speakers living in
Ireland,Draig Werdd,‘The
Welsh Society in Ireland’, is actively building bridges beween our two
nations.
Celtic Tri
An Ireland / Wales family history initiative...
LEXICELT
LEXICELT: the new online Welsh / Irish, Irish / Welsh dictionary from
Wales.
The Life and Times of
Glendalough Mines
Glendalough in County Wicklow is one of the most iconic and most visited of the
sacred sites of Ireland. It comes as a surprise, however, to learn that it also shares
an industrial history
with Wales, having had its own tradition of lead mining that lasted from the 1820s to
the 1950s.
The story is recalled in this vivid and sometimes poignant DVD which was launched
at the Glendalough Hotel on Thursday
7 December 2006 by County Wicklow T.D.Dick Roche, Ireland’s Minister for
the Environment.
Europe and some of its languages
Some pages on this site are in French, German, Spanish and Basque
The Poetry of Things
Poems on this site in English and in other languages that help some everyday words
bring us to the threshold of a wider reality.
The Natural World
All creatures great and small: includes poems from the wild heart of the world.
Notes on Some of My Favourite Books
I wish I had not already read all of them so that I could again have the unrepeatable
pleasure of the first reading of a book to treasure!
A Box of Christmas Readings
Articles on Christmas past to get you into mental, emotional and spiritual shape for
Christmas present, wherever, whatever and however that Christmas may turn out to
be.
Rich and Rare – Ireland’s Store
Christening, First Communion and Confirmation outfits, accessories and gifts in
Canton, Cardiff, Wales.
Welcome to my B & B in Holland...
My name is Pauline Hayward and I am living in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, for the past 20 years. I am originally from Ireland. My home is a Bed & Breakfast for some time now...
A Word of Thanks
I bought my first computer, an Apple Mac Performa, in November
1995.
This site was begun in September 1998. It was last partially updated on Thursday 9 April 2009.
Through all those years I have depended on the unfailing and generous help, advice
and support of brothers Andrew and
Nial Jinks of Riverside, Cardiff. Without them these pages, such as they are, would
not exist.
Thank you both very much indeed! Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi ill dau! / Go raibh míle maith ag lán na beirte agaibh!
Ríomhphost / Email /
Ebost
(masseytown@yahoo.ie)
The website owner...
My preferred laptop security system...
Eat your hearts out, all you guys at Symantec!
Now just take it easy...
Freeservers.com/.
Hosting this site...