What a beautiful late August day; one of the few fine days we have had this year. A day for the bike and I headed for the hilly back roads above Old Leighlin, passing out through lovely Milford and Tomard and up by Seskin to the top of the Ridge.
To Muckalee
The back roads are best, so little traffic, apart from the busy farmers working flat out in this fine weather to save crops and keep us all fed!.
When I got into Muckalee I was pleasantly surprised to see a little coffee shop in the Community Centre. It’s a community initiative and they’ve done a fabulous job providing a great facility for visitors and locals. I sat down outside to have a snack and three cars pulled up, all lost and all asking me where was the hurling field! Sure I had to go down then to have a peep at what was happening.
Muckalee St Martins have a fine facility and it was hosting a Kilkenny IHL game between Danesfort and Lisdowney, which attracted a decent crowd. It was a lovely family atmosphere, kids all arriving with their hurls, cash at the gate and a lovely glossy programme for €2 for spectators. Because I was on the bike, they let me in for a little stay and it was great to see the wizard himself, Richie Hogan togged out for Danesfort. Wasn’t a good day for them however as Lisdowney won 3-13 to 0-14.
With miles to go before home, I had to head back the road I came but took a short cut up hill over by Coolcullen and rejoined the Ridge above Old Leighlin and Ballinabranna for the return journey home. Nice to see a few llamas up win the hill with Mount Leinster in the background, not quite the Andes but very picturesque!
What a glorious day for the bike! We are fortunate to have the network of local roads that we have – I cycled to Rathanna and back today, 73kms of tiny bóithríns devoid of traffic, the sun was shining and Carlow was looking marvellous! My route took me out through Nurney, across by Augha and behind Dunleckney, out to Ballaghmoon Castle in the above photo, situated at the moment in the centre of a lovely wildflower meadow.
It’s a Castle steeped in mystery; no one quite knows it purpose. This 14th century Castle is more like a large compound. It has massive 8 foot thick walls, 20 foot high with a large internal courtyard. There are great views through a broken window towards Mount Leinster.
Not much more than a puck of a ball away is the 13th century Ballyloughan Castle, near Corries Cross. This must have been a very impressive site in its heyday with its entrance flanked by two impressive towers. Only a small part of this structure remains today and unfortunately there is no public access.
Placenames are so important; the original Irish versions tell so much about an area. I still have my Father’s copy of ‘Place Names of County Carlow’ by Edward O Toole and I was always fascinated by the names and the sounds:
Coolnacuppogue = Cúl na g-Cupóg = ‘Back of the Hill of the Dock Leaves’! Civil Parish ‘Sliguff’, Barony ‘Idrone East’. Here’s the signpost I passed today:
It was a lovely spin along tiny winding lanes, free of traffic, sheep munching on the plentiful grass of the ‘Long Mile’, stunning views of Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs as I wove my way past Knocksquire and Rosdellig into one of our best kept secrets, the tiny village of Rathanna, where there was an almighty crowd gathered for the Rathanna Village Day. There was a massive vintage tractor display. fun and games, stalls, music and Wexford Mummers performing. It was my first time to see the Mummers live; it’s an ancient tradition, hanging on in rural Wexford and they put on a great show that captured a lot of interest from young and old alike. Just as I experienced on the Camino del Cid in Spain, it’s so nice and important to see culture promoted, valued and enjoyed. It was great to also see stalls promoting local artists, whether artists, potters, silversmiths or sculptors and promoting Drummin Raised Bog near St Mullins and concerns about commercial developments on the Blackstairs Mountains – critically important areas – both locally and nationally of biodiversity. I was struck by the huge biodiversity I experienced on my recent #CaminodelCid cycle in Spain – we are not doing enough to protect these areas!
Spain is a country that proudly celebrates its cultures and traditions. It’s Easter processions have morphed into major tourist attractions that are so popular that it’s very expensive to book a flight to Spain at that time of year! This celebration of culture takes many forms and there are some really unique expressions of that show the country in its best light.
I’ve seen these floral tributes in the smallest of villages and in big cities while doing the Camino Santiago in the past, but this was the first time I’ve seen how they make the ‘Alfombras florales’ (floral carpets or tapestries). This was in the beautiful historic city of Sigüenza.
The tapestries are quite large and elaborate and they can take up entire streets; first the designs are drawn on the road with chalk or soil. Then thousands of flower petals, that have been meticulously collected, are placed into the designs. Leaves, grass, seeds, soil and other plant based materials are also used to form these incredible vivid and colourful images. Rose petals, irises, pine and sage are commonly used.
Teams of people, young and old, are involved and the creation can take a couple of days to complete. Barriers are erected around the creations to protect them during the process and sometimes plastic tunnels and coverings protect them from the weather. Water is sprinkled on the finished designs to them in place and to kept the flowers fresh and avoid withering in the heat of the day.
The team of alfombristas can work through the night to complete the designs on the morning of Corpus Christi. After Mass in the local Church, the Bishop or Priest leads a long procession through the streets carrying the Eucharist in an elaborate Monstrance. Incredibly the Procession walks over the displays, destroying these beautiful creations and this has its roots in the Bible:
Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit”.
John 12:24
Which basically means that the beautiful floral designs and the dedicated labour of creating them were all in the service of something much greater and the temporal nature of these designs are a large part of what makes them special!
This feast day is widely celebrated across Spain and indeed other countries also practice this beautiful tradition of floral carpets.
We were just talking in the family WhatsApp group about how understated County Waterford is – such a beautiful county with a fantastic coastline, mountains and interesting towns and villages.
One of my favourite cycle routes is an out and back jaunt. Parking at Horsewood GAA Club in Wexford, I cycle down by Dunbrody Abbey, over the hill into Ballyhack where I catch the Ferry to Passage East and journey on to Dunmore East. The ferry adds a bit of exotic to a bike trip and there’s always something exciting about getting on board! The route is deceptively hilly with fantastic coastal views and the great Hook Head Lighthouse off to the south.
I take a turn off the Passage – Dunmore road at Woodside beach onto a cul de sac which ends with a short and very narrow walking trail that connects with a local road on the Dunmore side of the headland, named on some maps as “the Black Woman’s Road”; I suspect its a mistranslation of possible Beann Gorm… cycling across the path is an experience as the branches of brambles and gorse bushes wallop your face!
Last week I wandered through the Iveagh Gardens where a gate between the National Museum for Literature and the Gardens bears a plaque with a quote from Maeve Binchey, so it was a coincidence that we ended up in Dunmore East this weekend, a place also associated with the writer, being the location of some scenes in the film of her book ‘Echoes’. We need to be better prepared – the sun was shining and we should have brought swimming gear with us!
Waterford is not too far away and there’s a lot more of it I want to explore so I took another trip on Sunday, this time parking up outside Cappoquinn Affane GAA Club! I’m trying to get miles and hills into the legs as I’ve big cycle coming up in Spain – Camino del Cid at the end of May and today was just perfect. I had only a rough idea of a route and I was delighted with how it worked out. The main road from Cappoquinn to Lismore is extremely busy but thankfully there’s a local road that is part of the beautiful St. Declans Way that I was able to take and avoid the dangerous main road.
St Declan’s Way is a 115km walking route linking the ancient ecclesiastical centres of Ardmore in County Waterford and Cashel in Tipperary passing through the Knockmealdown Mountains and the undulating farmland of south Tipperary and west Waterford. It has become very popular thanks to the efforts of travel book writer,John G O Dwyer .
St Declan’s Way Walk utilises the route of several ancient and medieval pilgrimage and trading routes such as the Rian Bo Phadraig (Track of St. Patrick’s Cow), Bothar na Naomh (Road of the Saints), Casan na Naomh (Path of the Saints) and St. Declan’s Road.
St Declan was a fifth century saint who brought Christianity to the southern part of Ireland and he is particularly associated with the Deise people. He established his monastery in Ardmore and his grave there remains an important place of pilgrimage. Cashel was the seat of the Kings of Munster and St. Declan’s Way follows the route he would have taken from Ardmore to Cashel.
Art deco Handball Alley in Lismore!
Lismore is a really beautiful historic town with a stunning castle over looking the famed River Blackwater. It’s a real West Waterford gem that I haven’t been in too often but I’ll be back as its great base to explore the Knockmealdown Mountains from.
Having stumbled on St Declans Way, I decided I would follow the path back up into the mountains. It’s a steep route out of Lismore but with beautiful views to distract from the effort involved. It wasn’t too long before I caught sight of impressive Mount Melleray Abbey up ahead in the distance.
Mount Melleray is a Cistercian Abbey located in the Knockmealdown Mountains. I was delighted to see a sign for a café where I had a very welcome snack! The Abbey was founded on 30 May 1832 by a colony of Irish and English monks, expelled from the abbey of Melleray after the French Revolution of 1830, and who had come to Ireland under the leadership of Fr. Vincent de Paul Ryan. It was called Mount Melleray in memory of the motherhouse. I had a great chat there with Father Denis Luke, Prior of the Abbey, about cycling and the Camino, a really nice man who had a kind word for everyone.
I left the Abbey and headed uphill again in the direction of Newcastle, County Tipperary but I turned off onto what has to be the roughest and steepest road in Ireland! It was a little local road, that has obviously fallen into disuse, along the side of Knockanask and Knocknascullogue which then linked me onto another loop which gave me a great downhill all the way back to Cappoquinn. A superb route with lots more to see in that area on future cycles.
I was a very proud husband last Sunday attending a fabulous concert in the National Concert Hall, Dublin at which my wife Mary was conducting some very personal music and compositions. The Concert was part of New Music Dublins 2024 Programme called “Everyday Wonders”. It was very personal to Mary, to her sisters Eleanor and Patricia and to the wider Amond family who travelled from all over the country to support it.
As in all things musical, Mary brings so much deeper understanding to the words and compositions and on this occasion there was a wonderful piece premiered called ‘Today is Here’. The music was composed by a former Cór Linn choir member, Ferdia Ó Cairbre in which he delicately wove some beautiful advice Mary’s Mam, Lena had given to Ronan and his fiancée Hannah into another note that Mrs A had kept in one of her recipe books, originally written by Father Eddie Fitzgerald. A special moment and I bet Mrs Amond never expected to have her words put to music and premiered in the National Concert Hall! The main feature of the Concert was Cecilia MacDowell’s haunting Everyday Wonders – The Girl from Aleppo which tells the incredible true story of Nujeen Mustafa, a disabled Kurdish teenager who suffered with cerebral palsy, who fled from Aleppo with her sister, Nasrine, who pushed Nujeen in her wheelchair from Aleppo to start a new life in Germany, an incredible distance of 5,782 kms. That piece combined with the other marvellous compositions sent out a powerful message to all who attended and is a clarion call to the good people of this country about how we treat refugees who have endured such horrific treatment on their journeys to the Emerald Isle.
I travelled up early on a surprisingly nice Sunday morning and went for a ramble that took me into Dublin’s Secret Garden, the beautiful tranquil Iveagh Gardens. The Gardens are hidden behind the streetscape and you’d never know they were there. It’s worth seeking them out as they truly are an oasis of calm at the heart of the city. I had a lovely ramble back and forth through this green wonderland that was gifted to the Nation in 1937.
One of the entrances to the Garden is from the Museum of Irish Literature, another little gem to visit in this special part of the city. I’m not very literary but I found it inspiring to pop in for a while – its another gem!
I exited through the front door to pay a visit next door to the beautiful Newman University Church, a stunning small Place of Worship adjacent to St Stephens Green.
It was time to head back to the NCH for the Concert and I thought it was so appropriate, given the heart of the Concert was the The Girl from Aleppo, that I then came upon a lovely memorial to Human Rights Defenders from around the World who had given their lives bravely defending human rights.
Here are a few of the quotations from those who gave their lives:
‘People who can’t even read English and therefore have never read anything I’ve written, know that they are meant to hate me.. and react on that basis’. Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed by a car bomb, Malta, 16 October 2017.
‘Our impact may be large, may be small, and may be nothing. But we must try. It is our duty to the dispossessed and it is the right of civil society’. Cao Shunli was denied medical treatment and was left to die in detention, China, 14 March 2014.
‘We have decided to guide our future and our destiny with our own hands. Revolutions are ideas and ideas cannot be killed by weapons. If society is strong enough, then tyranny has no chance’. Raed Fares, shot dead, Syria, 23 November 2018.
‘We have one goal, which is to save lives and evacuate people. I came here to give care, not get care. I want to continue until the last day’. Razan al-Najjar, shot dead while delivering medical aid, Gaza, 1 June 2018.
Mrs Amond’s words of advice to Ronan and Hannah never meant more than after visiting this memorial…
‘Be kind, be good, be nice to everyone’. Lena Amond.
