A Heron's View

“The custom of carrying banners goes back a long way in County Clare. There is little doubt but that the Dál gCais carried banners at the battle of Clontarf in 1014 or that the Clare Dragoons carried banners at Fontenot in 1745 and in the many battles fought by the Clare Regiments on the continent during the eighteenth century.”

We went on a day trip recently to re-visit one of our favourite counties, as there are so many  antiquities dotted around the countryside we still have not viewed them all. The one thing I learnt a long time ago, when looking for interesting vistas or ancient sites, is that when touring you need to slow down, drive carefully and be adventurous. The best type of narrow roads to take are those with a thin strip of grass growing up the middle as very often you will see something interesting.

This is how we found ourselves outside (1) Smithstown Castle and on another narrow road we saw a fingerboard pointing towards the (2) Blakemount Holy Well.
This tempted Mrs H to go and find it - now doubt she will reveal all soon on her own blog.
It was on yet another narrow road, that I managed to photograph  (3) a double donut shaped erratic which had been dumped there by the last Ice Age.
Photo number (4) A Sham was found on a tourist road on the outskirts of Kilfenora, it is not an ancient monument and was only constructed recently by a local resident.
Photo (5) was taken with my new camera along the road from Callan to Ballyvaughan - said as Bally vocken not vawn.

All around Ireland new monuments are being

erected to commemorate the 1916 Rising.

Several thousand people have marched from Kilmainham to Arbour Hill Cemetery in Dublin to commemorate the events of Easter 1916.

Those taking part included the Cabra Historical Society and flute and pipe bands - including two from the US.

The gathering was addressed by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams.

Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was also present. 

Mr Adams said relatives of 1916 should not have been forced to go the High Court to protect the Moore Street battlefield site.

Mr Adams said the State had lost the Moore Street case and the people had won.

He honoured Colm Moore who took the action in order save the site from demolition by developers.

Addressing the crowd at Arbour Hill Cemetery, Mr Adams said the State was "not the Republic proclaimed in 1916" and he added "efforts to pretend that it is, is an insult to the brave men who lie here".

Mr Adams also accused acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny of turning his back on the border.

"Enda Kenny thinks Northern Ireland is a foreign country." he said.

Mr Adams added that the proclamation remains the mission statement for Irish republicanism.

Today marks the start of our grandsons' formal education and he will attend his father's old school in Leamington Spa. I have been learning from his mother just how very different his first year at school will be from mine; it seems as if I was educated in the dark ages for so many things have changed. Gone is corporal punishment and just as well too. The teaching is very informal, through play, although the focus is still on the three R's and I hear that there is a mud kitchen ?

It seems no time at all since he was born and I made a wintery trip across to the UK to meet Ollie and his proud parents. I thought to mark his special day of starting school I would share a pictorial history of Ollie's first few years.

They came from all over Ireland: from the North, from Donegal, Down & Louth, from the South as far as Cork & Kerry, from the West, Mayo to Clare, from the East, Wexford & Wicklow and from the Midlands too. People from every county were there for themselves and to represent others unable to travel to Dublin.

They brought their placards, their voices and their determination. They stayed for a day and went away carrying their experiences to pass on to others.




On reading the newspapers it easy to see that the journalists are lost for words to describe what they witnessed when the ‘culchies’ came to town; unless of course, as I suspect, many of them are suppressed by a secret committee of censors!

Approximately one hundred and fifty thousand people took part in the peaceful,self disciplined demonstration. Out of this number six people were arrested and none of them actually charged. Were they the fifth columnists planted in the crowd? - I don’t know.


There is a new wave of governance flowing through the land. We know it for now as People Power which occurs when the electorate reach within themselves to become enriched with a sense of personal worth and value. Flowing from this comes the empowerment to become Activists who have ability and inner confidence to tell members of the government what they want and do not want.


That is what happened on the streets of Dublin on 10th December 2014 and from this example even larger numbers will be drawn on 31st January 2015 to another demonstration of People Power.

It has always been my custom, when on day trips, to make the return journey on a different route, as far as possible, than the road out.  So it was that Mrs H, my trusty navigator, brought us home avoiding the cities and towns, on a scenic road that led past a Neolithic dolmen which stands on a bank of the River Greese. 
Unfortunately there was nowhere to park so we had to keep going but we have it marked and shall return to take photos one day. On our return home, after a journey of 193 kms (120 miles) I was pleased to see that my economical driving had only used up a quarter of a tank petrol, approx 12 litres (2.5 UK gallons) - not too bad for a sixteen year old Starlet that had travelled to Hollywood and back!