Mother love on the cliff walk in Ballybunion. Her little boy is a bit big now for that kind of attention. Remember when your mother spat on her handkerchief to wipe you face?  There comes a time when mammies have to accept that you’re too old for that.

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Ballybunion Cliff Walk, Sunday Sept. 23 2018

The pictures speak for themselves.

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Lartigue Monorail and Museum



This visitor attraction is closed for the winter but they open by appointment for special events. I dropped in shortly before they closed.


I learned at the launch of his memoir, Spoilt Rotten, that Jack McKenna donated the site for the railway and museum and gave €250,000 towards the setting up of the visitor attraction.

It was late September when I called in but there was still a steady flow of visitors.

This model was a new addition since I was last here.

Looking down the line

These seats on Platform 1 were donated in memory of Anna Grimes.

The locomotive and carriages always look in perfect nick.

Pat Walsh was one of the volunteers on duty. He was giving a tour to these Austrian tourists.

The stationmaster, Martin Griffin, told me that they had a good season. They have plans for some planters on the  pavement for next year.



You’d never know where you’d see a milk churn.

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I Remember That Summer in Dublin


Dublin 1946; photographer unknown



Fruit sellers in O’Connell Street, Dublin 1946. Unknown photographer


In the Summer of 1948, an English travel writer named John Wood went on a backpacking trip around Ireland. Wood walked most of the 1,000 miles with a few unsolicited lifts and bus trips along the way, he managed to visit seventeen counties in one of the wettest summers on record for the time. He later wrote a travel book called ‘With Rucksack round Ireland‘. The book offers a fascinating snapshot of Ireland, from tourist sites, accommodation, transport and general everyday life. Wood was originally from Yorkshire and had served in the army. He had visited Ireland on a few occasions previously and describes himself as pro-Irish.


A Sunday in Dublin