White O'Morn Cottage

I'll never forget.....9/11 & 5/17

I have just been on Main Street Memories blog where her little granddaughter Ella Ireland, signs the beam and says in her childish voice " Never Forget"

I'll never forget the day it happened. I was on my way to the shops when the program on the car radio was interupted for a newsflash... One plane...then A second plane. I raced home to the TV and stayed with it. I shared the horror of what was happening. I saw people running....I was sick to my stomach.

At age nineteen, during the "Troubles" here in Ireland, in 1974  I saw a terrorist bomb go off in Dublin City Centre's Talbot Street.... and the awful aftermath of it.  Most of the bombs at that time were in the North of Ireland and we, in the south, really never understood what the people of Northern Ireland had to live with daily. We found out that day.

Three bombs went off in  Dublin City within minutes of each other on 17th May 1974 - catching people as they fled for their lives. I fled too, all the time thinking "I want to live"  and "am I running into the next one?" I know what it is to feel the terror that they want us to experience. That is another day I'll never forget.....5.30pm, 17th May 1974.

I saw them running on 9/11 and I knew their terror, I knew their thoughts. I ran with them. I was with them.

The photo on left shows people running from one bomb perhaps towards another. I am in that crowd somewhere.

The Dublin Monaghan Bombings is based on interviews with the families of those who were murdered on May 17th, 1974, when three bombs exploded in Dublin wrecking the capital and innocent lives. The suspects are known, but, 27 years later, the biggest mass murder in the history of the Republicof Ireland remains unsolved.

 ...and the second one shows the memorial to the dead of the Talbot Street bomb,  It includes John O'Brien (25) Anna O'Brien (22) Ann-Marie O'Brien (5 months) and Jacqueline O'Brien (17 months)  The whole family wiped out. I saw Ann-Marie as she was taken by a fireman from the grating in the ground through which she had been blown. Her soother (dummy or comforter) was hanging, swinging from her little cardigan where her mam had pinned it that morning.

 

 

This one -though... 9/11, 2001  was a world changing event. Iwatched them running and  I remember thinking  "I want to get off this world"

Of course I didn't get off this world....What I did do - is get off the fence. I no longer had the luxury of being "Neutral" ...I finally had to take sides. I did.

 

A walk in the park

 

One of our favourite places to walk the dogs is St Anne's Park in Raheny, Dublin. We are always saying "We must bring the camera next time...so I did!                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

A Picture Paints a Thousand....

...stories...well, yes I know it is really words.

I took this shot at home in Dublin of my back garden through the conservatory window. Nothing much happening..right? Well - What does this snapshot in time tell me about what was going on during that week?

*The vase of gorgeous roses were given to me by my students to mark the end of term at end of May so I know it was taken about then.

*I can see cans of decking oil on the garden bench and the shed door is open so I know I was (at least) planning to do the deck.

*At left you can see my dog Holly. I snapped just as she started to cock her leg for a pee..huh? (yes, I said SHE and "cock her leg") She is the only shedog I know who lifts her leg to pee!

*My neighbhour's sweetpea are just beginning to drop beautifully down my wall. He plants them every year, which saves me from the trouble!

* The garden bench along the wall is one of my favourite spots for a nice cup of tea.

*At the bottom of the garden on and beside the wicker chair are my pots and bag of compost. The flowers I planted at that time are now coming into flower at the cottage.

*Paul's collection of frogs (well, some of them) can b e seen on windowsill and on deck near the bench.

*And beyond the wooden fence of neighbours garden can be seen the trees that grow in the field at the back of my house where we take the "Girls" ...eh..I mean dogs for a walk.

Thanks for visiting...now you know me a little bit more!

More Irish Cottages in Dublin

Not all the pretty Irish cottages are located in the Irish countryside. Dublin is the capital city and has it's own share.

These photos were taken by me during my 15 minute walk home from work in my local library in Baldoyle. Baldoyle (or in Gaelic -Baile Dubhgall) is on the east coast of Ireland and used to be a fishing village. It is now a suburb of Dublin City.  These lovely cottages date from that time.

As they are in my locality, I am so used to seeing them I hardly notice them. But as you bloggers know - blogging makes you see things as potential blogging material! Enjoy these pretty cottages and cottage gardens.

Beautiful Bluebells in Suburbia & Blue Desks in Utah

I was walking home from work today when I chanced upon this garden full of bluebells. What a cheerful sight! It reminds me of those pictures of bluebell woods you sometimes see in magazines. This house is just around the corner from me in Baldoyle, a suburb of Dublin. I had never noticed it before.  When I got home I took my camera and went back to get the picture. They really do look like little bells...you can almost hear them tinkling! Pretty, pretty, pretty!

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of pretty blue things.....I have just been on Main Street Memories blog (on sidebar) and Colleen has done the most fabulous job on a small desk. She has before and after pictures and it is to die for! Check it out. Well done Colleen!

St Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin

Well, it's time to get back to normal after the fun and madness of St Patrick's Day (which went on for a week!) No more fun allowed until the next holiday...Easter is next weekend...Wheeeeee!!

Here are some pictures of the main parade in Dublin's main street, O'Connell Street on Saint Patrick's Day yesterday. Sorry for quality, but I took them from the telly. I will put better ones as I get them. Also a section of the 675,000 crowd that turned up for it. A good turnout especially  when you consider there are only 4 million of us on the whole island!

Dublineese 101 or how to speak English in two different languages...

I recently got a message from Cheapdiva at Cottage Living telling me that when she was in Ireland and she loved the way we did not pronounce our "th"  in words. It's true -we don't - at  least not in Dublin. She said she used to go into the pub every day from three to four just to ask people the time every few minutes, just to hear them say ..."It's tree turty tree"

So let's have a little fun. Here we go...

Dublineese 101. Repeat after me...deez dat dem and doze. Very good -you have mastered: These That Them and Those. The trick is not to stick your tongue out between your teet every time you want to say a "th" word. Sticking your tongue out is very rude anyway and I tink de rest of de world should give it up . Nutting can stop you now!

Here's a little story I wrote meself  (we also have changed my to me) in me native Dublineese. (wit deepest apologies to de English nation whose native language was hurt during de making of dis story)

                                                  De Tale of Tree Trees

...Once upon a time der were tree trees in a ticket of woods. Two trees were quite tick and the udder, turd tree was tin. One day dey decided to go for a walk (HUH??) It happened like dis...one tree said to the udder two trees "Now don't be lookin' at me in dat tone of voice! But I tink I'm after gettin' worms!"

"Ahh sufferin' heart!" said the tin tree and the udder tick tree  said "Sure dat's only wojis - let's get ou'ra here"

So dey uprooted demselves and off dey went saying "If we stay here any longer widout moving we'll all get roomatizzim (or should dat be room-attic fever?")

...to be continued as I have only taut up a beginning, it has no middle or end which does not matter as it has no rhyme or reason eeder!

Happy St Patrick's Day from White O'Morn Cottage and De Old Schoolhouse