For my 60th birthday, my kids Jessie and Amy, and Jessie’s Scott took me to Dublin for a few days. It was fabulous, what a lovely place.
We wandered around the Temple Bar shops every day… http://dublinstemplebar.com/goingout.php
The Children of Lir
The legend of the Children of Lir has long been told in Ireland, and this Irish myth forms the basis of the famous ballet; Swan Lake.
According to the story, long ago there was an Irish King called Lir with four beautiful children. Their mother died when the children were very young and King Lir eventually remarried. But the new Queen was a devious woman of witchcraft who wanted the throne to herself, and saw the children as a threat to her plans.
One day, the Queen took the children down to the lake to teach them to swim, but once the children got into the water, the evil Queen cast a spell on them, turning them into Swans.
For 900 years the Children of Lir were doomed to live as swans by daylight and only in the light of a full moon could they take their human form. They lived on lake Davra, the sea of Moyle and the lake Isle of Glora in Mayo, before their spell was broken with the arrival of Christianity to Ireland.
When the Children of Lir heard the sound of bells ringing out from a church, they flew down to investigate and as they entered the church their feathers fell away and they once again became human.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
The Great Famine (Irish: an Gorta Mór) was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1852.[1] It is sometimes referred to, mostly outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine because one-third of the population was then solely reliant on this cheap crop for …
Breaking The Silence, an organisation of former Israel Defence Force (IDF) combatants, presents an exhibition of photographs taken by soldiers serving in the West Bank and Gaza. The photographs and the accompanying testimony offer an insight into the tactics used by the IDF to control and disrupt the daily lives of Palestinian civilians, and reveal the psychological and physical damage those tactics have on both the Palestinian people and the soldiers themselves.
The exhibition, supported by Trócaire, marks the tenth anniversary of Breaking The Silence’s first ever photographic exhibition, which was held in Tel Aviv in June 2004. It has since toured Europe, North America and Israel and now, for the first time, will be on here in Gallery of Photography from Thursday June 19th to Sunday June 29th. Members of Breaking The Silence, all of whom served in the IDF, will be here during the exhibition run to offer personal tours and recall their experiences. Describing the exhibition,Yehuda Shaul, co-founder of Breaking The Silence and one of the former soldiers who will be in Dublin for the exhibition, says:
“We saw and did a great deal during our time in the occupied territories, but for the duration of our service we said very little about our experience to our friends, to our families, and even to each other. But after we completed our army service, we chose to break the silence.”
“This exhibition shows the reality of what we witnessed – innocent civilians being beaten, children kept from school, parents kept from work, people’s homes invaded, and much more. The photographs and testimony refute the false claim that the horrors of the occupation are the exception rather than the norm.”
Exhibition tours: Former Israeli soldiers will be on hand throughout the exhibition run to engage directly with visitors, and can provide guided tours for groups.
Panel Discussion: Wednesday 25th June 6pm-8pm – please r.s.v.p nguiheen@trocaire.ie
‘The role of photography in conflict situations’ Speakers: Yehuda Shaul (founder of Breaking The Silence), Anthony Haughey (Artist, lecturer, photographer), Dearbhla Glynn (Documentary Film-maker), Eilish Dillon (Kimmage Development Studies Centre lecturer)The Breaking The Silence exhibition is being held with the support of Trócaire