Daffodils and tulips in Market Street
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A Welcome Back
I was back in my old workplace earlier this week. I was in very prestigious company. Cora Staunton and I were the inspiring guests invited to be part of the school’s celebration of International Women’s Day. We are pictured above in the school’s new library.
Wouldn’t Sr. Benedict be so proud to see reading centralised in her old school?
The new library is colourful, well stocked and inviting. I am honoured that my two humble offerings are now on the shelves here.
The main business of the day took place in the hall. Cora and I were interviewed on stage.
The audience was attentive and appreciative.
A moving poem was delivered by Taylor Lynch. In a day away from Mother’s Day, Taylor’s poem in honour of her late mother was dignified and poignant.
Everything Wasn’t Perfect.
Everything was perfect.
Until it wasn’t.
Your sweet smile,
And loud laugh.
Your buoyant nature.
How birds sang,
As you walked.
Your hair danced,
In the wind.
You were perfect.
A mother’s love,
There’s no compare.
Imprisoned into darkness.
A hospital grey.
Taken from us.
“Paradise” you said,
“I’m going there”.
Four short decades.
Freed from life,
like a bird.
Now your name
Is a word,
Carved onto stone.
Everything was perfect.
Until it wasn’t.
Taylor Lynch
_______
In a break in our interviews we had music, poetry and song from some of the very talented pupils.
A lovely event…thank you girls.
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One for the Diary
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From Pres. Yearbook 1988
Ah, happy days in the tuck shop.
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Water from the Well
This vignette of life in rural Ireland in the 1940s and 50s is from the late Jim Costelloe’s lovely book, Asdee in the 1940s and 50s.
Thanks for the memories, Jim. Rest in peace.
In the days before group water schemes were introduced to rural areas, domestic water was sourced from wells and pumps. If the water supply lasted through the summer and into October it was the sign of a good spring. I well remember trips to the local well with a white enamel bucket and trying to move the green moss on the surface of the well water so that it would not get into the bucket and make the water in the pure white bucket appear dirty.
Getting clear water into the bucket was a skilful job, between trying to avoid the green moss on the surface and the “dirt” at the bottom of the well. How wonderfully cool and refreshing a mug of water was straight from the well. There was always a mug beside the well and we often drank from it during those warm summers that we seemed to get long ago.
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A Fact
In 1999 the founders of Google tried to sell it to Excite for $1 million. The offer was turned down.
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