Ashford Castle. We liked it so much, we thought we might sell everything and rent a permanent suite here:
Cong Abbey:
The Doolough Valley:
Kilronan Castle, where we are staying tonight:
Across Ireland
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Tag Archives: Photography
Dublin Day 2
Dublin Castle:
This Georgian era statue of Lady Justice is unusual in that it is not blindfolded – signifying impartiality – but looks at Dublin Castle. This, in addition to the fact that justice favoured the elite, gave rise to the following:
Lady Justice, notice her station:
Face to the castle and arse to the nation.
Those who have followed the ANiC v.s. ACoC court litigation, will note that this sums up those proceedings, too.
At the Guinness brewery. This was just her first pint; things went rapidly downhill from there.
As the advertisement says, Guinness is Good for You: it must be, Arthur Guinness and his wife had 21 children. Of course, today she would have had two children and 19 abortions.
Molly Malone who, we were told, was celibate by day, but used to sell a bit by night:
A street artist:
St. Patrick’s Cathedral:
We had dinner in a restaurant that had once been a church. John Wesley preached his first Irish sermon there in 1747, Jonathan Swift used to attend it, Handel used the organ for practice and, as you can see from this plaque, the Rev. John Magill’s remains were deposited in the Vault Beneath. I doubt if even this Divine of Polite Learning and Sound Judgement foresaw that, within a few hundred years, aided and abetted by mainline denominations, Western Christianity would decline to the point that his church would become a restaurant and his final resting place in the vault – toilets.
I have little doubt that St. John’s Shaughnessy will, after the elapse of a decent interval, suffer a similar fate. Perhaps the new owners will offer Michael Ingham the position of head waiter.
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Dublin
There is a huge spike in the centre of the city:
At some point the British tried to make the Irish paint all their doors black. The result was this:
Ireland is on the verge of bankruptcy. Never mind, someone has the answer, although I have an uneasy feeling it was tried before and found wanting:
One of the main streets:
Book of Kells. No photography was allowed – which explains why this isn’t a very good image. There was no surreptitious way to erect a tripod.
The magnificent Trinity College Library which was used to represent Hogwarts library in the Harry Potter films.
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An unexpected visitor
This fellow perched on a branch in our back yard this evening.
We haven’t seen many mice around lately.
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Photo shy Muslims in Toronto
This person really didn’t want her photo taken.
From here:
What constitutes a physical assault in Toronto these days?
This would appear to be straightforward. If, for example, one individual punches another, surely that’s assault. Especially if the punch in question was witnessed. And photographed.
But as I learned firsthand on Sunday, a fist in the face doesn’t necessarily constitute assault in our increasingly culturally sensitive Toronto.
The details: I was at Yonge-Dundas Square with my nine-year-old son. We ate pizza. We drank bubble tea. And I used my new Canon camera to take photos of this neon shrine.
Suddenly, a woman wearing a hijab ran toward me. She was part of a group that included two women wearing full face-covering burkas. She was screaming: “We are Muslim! You do not take pictures of us!” (Odd. I can’t find the “no photos” rule in the Qur’an.)
I informed the lady I was in a public square in a democracy. I can actually take pictures of whomever I please.
And then: Ka-pow! Her fist collided with my face. Worse, she almost knocked my new camera from my hands.
When I was in Turkey, where Islam is the predominant religion, I photographed a lot of people; only a few of them seemed less than happy about it. None of them tried to slug me.
This particular gentlemen kept wagging his finger at me, but ended up laughing when I took more photos of the wagging:
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Photography in the age of terrorism
It isn’t as easy as it used to be.
A group of photographers in London have investigated how easy it is to shoot around the city. The six photographers, backed up with six videographer, attempted to take photographs around the City of London (the city’s financial district), to see what resistance they encountered. The experiment, conducted as part of the London Street Photography Festival, showed several private security guards trying to impede the photographers (often with vague allusions to ‘security and ‘terrorism’). The Police were called in three cases, but, in each instance, the Officers were well aware of the laws concerning photography and appear to have resolved the situations amicably.
I’ve enjoyed taking street photos in over 300 cities in 19 countries and nobody seemed to care much – well other than Russia when someone started waving a gun.
I haven’t been to London recently, though.
