Another days sailing done. Having survived a mix of weathers, a run-in with a spiteful tug boat and long day’s sail, we find ourselves coming into view of our next stop: Concarneau. Passing the first harbor walls, it is a beautiful evening. Even from sea, the place looks amazing. In fact, arriving by sea is… Read More Sailing Brittany part VII- Audierne to Concarneau.
Part ii- Dublin to Concarneau and Carnac; a sailing voyage on the coasts of Brittany. Getting there: (Part Two) Day zero + 1. North Wales to Plymouth. We leave mid-morning to catch the train, first leg Bangor to Birmingham. Despite the continuing grey weather, the first part of this journey is quite nice, with the… Read More Part ii- Dublin to Concarneau and Carnac; a sailing voyage on the coasts of Brittany.
Following on from Saint Brendan in our previous post; another stone carving, from another church. This time from the lovely and medieval St Nicholas of Myra church, right in the centre of Galway city. As you see, this stone carving above shows an angel. But this particular angel is unique, for reasons shortly to… Read More Answer Picture 3… Saint Nicholas Church Galway.
a stone carving from a capital that adorns a column in Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, Co Galway. The Cathedral was designed by William Byrne and funded by the wonderful Edward Martyn, Catholic land-owner, Humanist, scholar, patron, and playwright. Martyn was an absolutely vital figure in Ireland’s Gaelic Revival, a hugely important benefactor to the arts. Among his many… Read More St Brendan’s Cathedral & St Brendan Navigator.
We asked readers to try and identify four architectural details, from buildings around Ireland. If you have not seen the quiz yet, you can find it here. Or, if you just want the answers, and a bit of additional detail, here’s the answer to picture 1. (below) This fierce and fabulous sea creature is… Read More Answer 1… Dolphin House, & the influence of John Ruskin.
A small set of curious pictures, just four today, for readers to puzzle over. In a break with tradition, these images are not all from the capital. Two pictures are from Dublin, but the other two from elsewhere in Ireland, from much further afield. Enjoy, and please feel free to share with friends or colleagues.… Read More Four details… four pictures from Dublin and around Ireland.
Doors of Dublin quiz, results and reflections. It has to be acknowledged again this was a tough quiz. Too tough for most it seems. Over two hundred people read the post, but only around 1o people had a crack at answering the picture questions.. less than 1 in 20 readers ! That’s a… Read More Results of Doors of Dublin Quiz.
Here, at last, are the answers to the Doors of Dublin Quiz. They were delayed until now because replies were still trickling in until just a few days ago. It’s probably also necessary to repeat a word of apologetic explanation, to readers who replied to the quiz but did not see their responses appear (until tonight).… Read More Answers to the Doors of Dublin Quiz.
“there are so many doors to open. I am impatient to begin…” – Charlie Gordan, Flowers for Algernon. Many Dubliners are familiar with the well-known comercial souvenir poster, prominent in pubs and language schools, showing a grid of photographs depicting lovely painted Georgian doors. The simple, elegant Neo-Classical restraint of Georgian doors are of course wonderful. But,… Read More Doors of Dublin…
In his much-quoted opening of Dublin 1660-1860, the architectural historian Maurice Craig describes how one of the most momentous events in history, the taking of Byzantine Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, had a side effect with unexpected consequences. Byzantium, a huge Christian empire and the surviving eastern half of the old Roman Empire,… Read More Egyptian Neo-Classical Architecture in Dublin: the Ripples of History. A self-indulgent & speculative wander, through ideas, history, and some favourite Dublin buildings.
Arran Q Henderson 