Irish Folk Furniture

Loving this piece directed and filmed by Tony Donoghue with a camera bought on eBay for €150. It's so sweet that I felt all glowy and warm watching it.

Farewell to the Julia – Cork's lost passenger ferry

Running along the docks this morning I was caught up in the City Marathon to my own bemusement, and glanced across at the empty stretch of water where Julia used to sit. She had been a friendly presence in the port of Cork for the last couple of years. High and unmissable, you would catch glimpses of her from various parts of town. Initially she was busy between here and France and back again. But economics intervened and she was left redundant to sit indefinitely in the port until the sad day she turned round and left altogether: April 28th, 2012. Apparently she's servicing the Dutch oil rigs off the North Sea now.

Below is a riston print I did in the printmakers' on Wandesford Quay in 2010, and the next is sunset over the port and train station taken from my house only days before the departure. You can see the empty Elysium building just to her left, monument to the heydaze of the Celtic tiger, and the old R&H Hall building a little left of that again.

Julie Gough – Time and Space and Memory

At the moment she's in Ireland researching her roots and no doubt making something... Here are some images from Tasmania

A Ransacked Country House - Co. Tipperary

A distant relative had lived here for 86 years before reluctantly giving into the nursing home. Sure enough the property has been continuously raided by burglars (my parents use a different word). It's so sad to see a grand house crumble; a life plundered. Check out David Creedon's shots of similar houses around Ireland.

Cautious Cartography - Keep Out of Ireland!

Problem: it's WW2 and countries are being invaded left right and centre. Cause: over-zealous nationalistic bragging. Solution: a map showing your country as the most smelly, disease ridden and toxic as possible. Worth reading the background to this at Strangemaps

A train journey from then and now.

I came across this sketch of mine the other day, from when I existed in the nineties. I had recently discovered this thing called "Photoshop Layers' and was still enthusiastic about my new scanner. Alas, since it didn't have a USB port, it has been consigned a death.

So anyway, loving trains and all as I do, when I came back to Ireland recently, I was amused at the new reservation system on Irish Rail. They put your name about the seat, just so that stalker can get a head start. Or, more realistically, if feeling an existential malaise and ask "who am I?", the answer is a foot above your skull.

Travel Posters

Via BibliOdyssey

Irishships.com

Those guys sure were adventurers. Thanks to J for this link: it's a beauty.

Debbie Godsell

These are multi-pannelled prints by Cork-based artist Debbie Godsell. I love how she manages to take the kitschy elements of Irish souvenirs and tourist symbols and somehow makes them tasteful (to me at any rate). She says of them: "They represent an idyllic, romantic and unreal Ireland where shamrocks, rainbows, and milkmaids replace politics, finance and endless rain. This is a place where the sun always shines in summertime."

debbie godsell online

NASA Workspaces

From the 'GRIN' (Great Images in NASA) image collection.

It's Bauhaus Bicycle!

I'm looking for a bike right now and this takes my fancy. Might just park it outside the Ritzy Cinema on a friday night..www.baubike.dk Via Ceilidh. .

Ghosts of the faithful departed - David Creedon

These are so beautiful and haunting. Check out the book

Between 2005 and 2007 David Creedon photographed many of the abandoned, derelict houses to be found throughout Ireland, whose owners had fled, mainly due to dire poverty during the 1950s, leaving an unmarried family member behind to maintain the property’s upkeep or run the farm. When in turn they passed away, ownership was usually passed to far-flung relatives. Now, in a new millennium, these houses lie deserted, awaiting the return of owners whose dreams of coming home may never be realised.

CND Poster and Photography Exhibit

Stumbled across an interesting show just around the corner from Russell Square tube. An unassuming little door (The Horse Hospital) ... inside was a fascinating collection of protest materials, posters, badges, news clippings and photos of people being dragged along the streets by old school metropolitan bobby hats... A visual language of protest from the 60s.