A FACIST ACTION IN LOUTH

On the day that Ireland defended its actions on the rights of children before UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. The barbaric Louth County Council took the opposite point of view and created unnecessary pain and suffering to Traveller Children.

Pavee Point calls on Environment Minister, Alan Kelly TD, to intervene as a matter of urgency to compel Louth County Council to provide alternative accommodation for 17 Traveller families evicted from a halting site in Dundalk today (15th January 2016)

The families were evicted from a Traveller local authority halting site that had been decommissioned by Louth County Council.

Pavee Point condemns these evictions as unnecessary and unwarranted. “This is one of coldest nights of the year and these people have no where to go,” said Martin Collins, Co Director of Pavee Point. “It is clear that Louth County Council has absolutely no concern for the health and safety of these families”

“Louth County Council has totally failed in its duty here. It has a policy of not providing Traveller Specific accommodation such as halting sites or group housing schemes,” said Martin Collins, “They are trying to force Travellers into social or private housing and this is in total breach of the 1998 Traveller Accommodation Act.”

“There is a demand for Traveller specific accommodation in Dundalk and these families are the living proof.

“These families have children at school in the town. Think how these children will be affected by this !

Pavee Point urges the Environment Minister to intervene to find a solution and make good undertakings that there would be no mass evictions of Traveller families as a result of fire safety audits on halting sites in the wake of the Carrickmines fire tragedy.

These evictions are confirming fears that Pavee Point had that local authorities would use the fire audits in a cynical way to evict Travellers.  It is important at this stage that Travellers engaging with the Environment Dept in its safety audit can have trust in this process.

Minister Kelly put a Community Initiative in place at his Department to deal with any issues around fire safety on Traveller halting sites and it is through this Initiative that any fire safety issues on sites should be dealt with.

January 15, 2016 at 7:45 pm

To my blog readers:
Just imagine how you would feel if your local authority were to rescind the planning permission on the house that you had lived in for years. Then arrived at your home, along with the police, on a very cold day in January to evict you.

Can you imagine how these people must feel?

Additional Information:-

Today, Eleanor Kelly, solicitor for six of the evicted families said the youngest family member is eight days old.
Four of the families stayed in B&B accommodation this weekend, while two others stayed with their families and friends.
“The youngest is eight days old, there are 17 families in total,”
“The difficulty is that they were given 48 hours to find alternative accommodation.”
She said she had been in contact with Louth County Council about the site at Woodland Park last August, but did not hear back from the council until last week when the families were being delivered 48 hours’ notice to be evicted.


A fire officer visited the site in October and deemed it to be a hazard.
“If there’s work to be done, there’s work to be done.” But she added: “I was in contact with the council last August”
“The ideal situation is to allow them to go to a halting site but there’s no other halting site in Dundalk.”
“These are Dundalk families, they want to be in Dundalk, but I’m aware the halting site in Drogheda is full anyway.”
The council met with Traveller representatives on Saturday to agree on temporary accommodation for the 17 families involved.


FOR LATEST INFORMATION PLEASE READ COMMENT NUMBER 22

Links:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx
http://www.paveepoint.ie
http://www.childrensrights.ie
http://www.louthcoco.ie/en/Louth_County_Council

Women's Christmas 6th January

Today is Women’s Christmas or Little Christmas which has many different names including ‘Nollaig na mBan’ in Irish. It has been a long-standing tradition in the West of Ireland, particularly in counties Cork and Kerry, when women celebrate the end of the Christmas season. The festive decorations are down, the long season of preparation and cooking is over and the women folk gather together to have a celebratory meal. Nollaig na mBan is also celebrated in Newfoundland which has a strong affinity with Ireland and in some states of the United States of America where the tradition was kept alive by Irish immigrants.

On this day it is the tradition in Ireland that men stay at home minding children & doing housework whilst the woman take it easy and celebrate together. In the past children bought or made their mothers and grandmothers presents to be given on this day, rather than Mother's Day. 

The fascinating thing about Nollaig na mBan is that, rather than dying out like so many other traditions, its popularity has begun to grow and it is now being celebrated across the country. Women in Dublin organize lunches for their women friends, the women of Offaly, Limerick, Laois , Sligo and Westmeath are meeting in their own homes for meals and gatherings. Women only ‘get-togethers’ are being organized all over the place and long may it continue!

Happy Nollaig na mBan (pronounced null-ag na man) to all readers!

Rainbow Cottage

For umpteen years this old cottage has been white all over. The place has been crying out for redecoration for awhile now;so this time we put our thinking heads on and have decided to added a bit of colour to the old walls: using Sheffield Green on the window cills and wall tops, Harvest Gold on the walls and White in the window recesses.

So here am I at the end of the first day taking my ease with my pipe in the evening sunshine feeling at peace with the world knowing that the paint scheme is working well.

We were delighted to find that Mrs H had unknowingly captured a band of rainbow beams

falling over the roof (top right of photo) for our place is known as Rainbow Cottage.

I just hope that the present dry sunny weather lasts out enabling us to complete our task.

GOOD NEIGHBOURS

These Lads are our nearest neighbours, we see them on opening the curtains in the morning and throughout the day. They are quiet unobtrusive fellows who apart from grazing the lush green pasture only raise their heads to stare at our comings and goings.


It is rumoured that they are grazing on holy ground, for there is said to have been an ancient oratory that once stood on the rise of this field. I fancy that it was long ago and probably made of wood for there is nothing to be seen now. Nothing, not even an indentation on the ground remains, just a sense of peacefulness.


Many rumours surround my old home and I was told when moving here that there was gold buried behind the cottage. What they didn't say was how far behind.
I think it would have to be many miles away, in the nearest town; although on digging once, I did find some yellowed old bones of an animal - probably of an ass.


There are of course 'the good people' who wander around just before dusk and at times they can be quite active. A bottle of whisky went missing once when we had a party that went on for two days in the back garden.
We had laid down the drink in the long grass to keep it in a place of safety away from the dancers and frolickers and there it stayed for two nights along with a bottle of cider.
In the morning only the cider remained...... 'they' know what they like best you see.

A DAY OF DELIGHTS

The day started at about 4-30 a.m, as it always does whenever the First Light filters through the curtains. My time of rising varies throughout the year, subjected as I am to the Sun. The one blessing is that now that I am retired I can always slip back into bed for a short sleep. 

The Waning Crescent at 5-00 this morning 26th April.

Sunrise was at 6-10. We are approx GMT -30 minutes.

Our bathroom goddess Boann.

We have given our bathroom a going over (a make over) and she who has been gracing the wall above our bath was included in the process. Mrs H gave her |(Boann) a repaint plus with the addition of crystals, pearls and shells. In candlelight she positively glows

giving the setting a peaceful atmosphere, whilst one relaxes in a hot bath.

A 6 year old Pear Tree

I have never seen so much blossom on our pear tree, unfortunately if we are to have any decent sized fruit, we shall have to drastically remove many of the small pears. For  I think that it were let go then many of it's slender branches would break off.

A macro shot of a pear floret.

While  taking a few photo's of the tree I was unable to resist the beauty of the floret.

A mixed fruit cheesecake.

This last photo is actually some research. That Mrs H and I felt that we had to undertake, in order to fully prepare for our visitors who will be descending on us early next month.

Our unanimous verdict is that this cheesecake is one of the finest that either of us has ever tasted. In a word it is truly Sumptuous!

So much so that I am wondering if it might be too rich for them and am considering

whether it is possibly a Health and Safety issue. I shall be guided on this by the blog readers comments.

Coccinella 7-punctata - A Ladybird.

I just happened to look out of the window this morning at my over grown grass that needs cutting and there to my surprise was one solitary ladybird, a beetle that I haven't seen for a couple of years and perhaps because of the rain.

So I nipped out with my camera and took a  macro shot of this delightful creature to share with you all.

A few facts that I have gleaned are :-

That this particular type is probably at least as widespread as the 14-spot ladybird in Ireland though less common in upland areas and more generally scarce in heather moorland. It is worth saying that we do live in an upland area!

Ecology
It was recorded mainly from herbaceous swards (12 occasions), and to a much lesser extent on conifer (2) or broadleaf (1) foliage or in heather (1).  Larvae have been found by sweeping in overgrown, floriferous, mainly legume-dominated swards (2) or on Cirsium arvense (3) in semi-improved pasture.

Variation

The intensity of ground colour may vary and the relative size of spots, but otherwise variation is limited.

My hope is that this sighting is an omen which will give us a splendid summer !

UPDATE !
Gender identification of ladybirds is extremely difficult and virtually impossible on live ladybugs even for the experts.

Behavioural and ecological research on H. axyridis, including examination of its positive and negative impacts, could benefit from in-field techniques for sexing this coccinellid. As mentioned by Majerus (1994), the sex of coccinellid adults can be easily determined through dissection, but more efficient techniques for sexing live adults are necessary. 

Non-destructive sex determination in coccinellids is generally difficult, with no characters applicable across the taxon (Majerus 1994; Hodek and Honek 1996). Despite the lack of all encompassing characters for sex determination, sexual dimorphism does appear to exist within most species. For many species, males are smaller with lighter pigmentation on the anterior portion of the head and slightly longer antennae (Hodek and Honek 1996). .

Aged Hoodie & Spiders

One of the quirks of living in a centuries old cottage, is the amount of spiders who share themselves liberally around the place. So much so that I spend a lot of time looking at their regular web sites (no pun intended) Mrs H used to have a pet spider in the bathroom called 'Itsy' which I fear may have been inadvertently sucked up by the dyson !

All of our rooms have wooden ceilings. Our front room, which was the old kitchen until I relocated that function to the rear of the cottage; it has a hipped ceiling which is donkey's years old. Twenty-three years ago when I first moved in it sagged a little, so I stiffened it up with a few equally spaced small beams which gave it adequate support.

This is our turf (peat block) basket which our small cat Squeaky frequently adopts as a sleeping nest. She is very fortunate in that I always check the basket before tipping in a bucket of turf.

I acquired this colourful hoodie for five Euros yesterday in a Birr charity shop, it had been sitting there for several weeks and is brand new. I can only presume that it is too loud for the average person in this area. It is light in weight and keeps me warm which to my mind is the sole purpose of clothes.

An Old Singer !

This seventy-six year old lady is still working well. In fact after having being given a good dousing of three in one oil recently on her moving parts. Her owner declared that she is better than ever.

Her Singer number is EB 326703 from which I was able to ascertain, that her birth was at

Kilbowie, Clydebank, Scotland in June 1937.

Mrs H bought her for £20 in London about thirty plus years ago. Inside the 'green box is a

Singer counterfoil (possibly the original) however, unfortunately the figures are ineligible.

I personally view this machine as a piece of art work and greatly admire the gold decorations that it has, them and the decorative cover plates which I think are absolutely splendid.

The Singer Sewing Machine model 28k

Shewing cover plate at business

end of machine.

An inverted pear shaped cover

plate.

I obtained details of year and place of manufacture from http://www.sewshop.com/date-your-machine.html and from them they have this to say :-

"Singer Sewing Machines were first manufactured in 1851. The manufacture dating provided here on our Web site is reproduced from the original Company register number log books. Because we have not been able to locate the log books, serial numbers for the years 1851 to 1870 are not available at this time. 

Serial numbers on Singer sewing machines manufactured prior to 1900 are numbers only. After 1900, the machine serial numbers have a single or two-letter prefix."

Magical Dusk

Last night I was sitting in quiet repose wrapped in my enormous bath sheet after a relaxing hot bath & the phone rang!

The call was from a friend a few miles away who suggested that we took a look at the sky, so Mrs H wrapped in her dressing gown stepped out and called me to bring a camera.

It is just as well that the road is very quiet, mostly devoid of traffic and people, otherwise they would have seen the glamorous Mrs H and a Ghandi type figure busily taking photos over the hedge .

Beyond the leaves a magic lives !

It's the type of sky that could encourage me to drift away....

The fairy horses whose eyes sparkle like diamonds

Variety the Spice of Life

Down to the Wood

I declare that it is now officially summer because we have had no rain for two days and as you can see my barber, Khalid, has me trimmed down to the wood.

The other evening after a very hectic and busy day I took a remedy to relax and chill myself out, it worked almost instantaneously; so much so that I asked Mrs H for a glass of chilled white wine and a Leonidas single dark chocolate, a CERISE EMBALLÉE which is :

A spicy marriage of cherry liquor and dark bitter chocolate. A whole morello cherry and cream liquor hides beneath a dark chocolate shell. Wrapped in dark red, this is a delectable mix of crunchiness and sweetness, enhanced by a cherry liquor taste.

The nearest shop is only 50kms away so it would not have taken her too long on her pushbike… 

- but no !

Instead of satisfying my dream I was brought a large mug of our own chilled spring water followed by a big bowl of semolina with a good dollop of strawberry jam, suffice to say it did the trick.

Homemade Tarka Dhal

This evening the good woman has surpassed her self by cooking for us Tarka Dhal accompanied by Naan Bread, it was absolutely deliciously spicy and hot, shortly it shall be followed by fresh peaches.

Tonights Dinner

One of the Many

A Home for You ?

As many as 35,000 thousand new houses that have never been lived in lie idle in Ireland all since the diabolical bank crash and the imposition of austerity.
The photo above is just one of the many, it was completed during the summer of 2009 and stands on a large site and would be ideal for a keen gardener or even a smallholder.

I think it was built as an investment by the builders, if so it has proved to be a rather costly one, for oil the heating is put on every winter just to keep the place from mouldering.

It is a family sized home with at least four bedrooms and with all of the modern requisites as per a shower on the ground floor. I haven’t been inside or intruded on it’s grounds. Merely gleaned some information by looking in over the hedges which border the property, because at the end of the day I am as nosey as the rest of humanity.

A Photo provokes memories

An old home

 My mind is churning up memories from the past and the blame for this can be placed squarely on the head of my cousin Anne T who yesterday forwarded to me a photo of my old home in Burnham-on-Sea. The house is up for sale at the modest price of  £185,000. I have no idea what my father paid for the four bedroomed property in 1947, except that it was considerably less. 

When we lived at Lynton Road the red bricks were, to my mind, a prominent and homely feature of our Victorian home. As we were a small family my mother had an idea of becoming a landlady so number twenty became a guest house. The first year she provided full board i.e. breakfast, lunch and dinner but this proved to be too much work for her and subsequently she reduced it to a bed & breakfast establishment with an occasional evening meal on request.

I have a memory of there being a week when there was no hen eggs for sale in any of the shops nor even any packets of dry egg powder. So the boatmen of Burnham made a trip to one of the islands returning with sufficient eggs so that each child in the town was given one. They tasted rather salty so I guess that they were seagulls eggs!

During our time in Burnham my father managed a grocery shop in Bridgwater. My mother & I went to meet him from work and it being a Saturday the custom was that any fresh produce that had not been sold was divided up between himself and his assistant: a heated discussion (almost a fight!) was taking place inside, for there was just one banana left in the box outside of the shop. My mother told me to pick it up and be quick about eating it - which I did. The argument inside of the shop ceased immediately.

It was in B-o-S that I first went to school. Oxford Street was just around the corner and my parents sent me to St. Joseph's Elementary School (1948 - 50) which in those days was staffed by the La Retraite Nuns of the adjoining convent. Being sent there was rather odd considering that my parents were virtually pagan in comparison to our neighbours. Xmas meant presents with two days of feasting and Easter meant chocolate eggs with visits to old pagan sites up in the hills.

I enjoyed my time at the school especially the after lunch naps on raffia mats and the music lessons when I was first given a drum to play, however I was quickly demoted to a triangle and I can't think why ! The nuns stole my tender heart away with their sense of fun and the Mother Superior was like having an extra aunt, as she seemed to have an endless supply of sweets. On my last day she appeared with a large flat box of chocolates that were shared among the class and the box with two chocs left were given to me to take home. Of all of the many educational establishments that I attended, I think that this first school was the happiest.

Food in those days was always upper most in our minds. Everybody was subjected to a Ration Card with rip out tokens that had to be presented to shopkeepers before a purchase could be made. 

My father obtained some fertilised eggs which were put in a straw filled box in the airing cupboard and eventually out popped some yellow chicks, from these we kept three cockerels that were put in a purpose made cage in the back garden. Little did I know how exciting this would be on the day that my mother (she being city raised) decided to let them out for a bit of exercise. Getting them back into their run took the combined efforts of two neighbouring housewives armed with brooms to shoo them in the right direction - I think we ended up giving one bird to each of them as payment for their silence. 

Beach combing was a pastime that was carried out by all who lived handy to the shore. The sandy beach at B-o-S is the southern end of a sandy shore that is 7 miles (11km) long from Brean Down at the northern end via Berrow to Burnham. I spent many a happy hour looking amongst the seaweed for odd bits of firewood and other interesting items that drifted ashore. On the beach at Berrow were the old wrecks of two wooden vessels which greatly enlivened the imaginations of small boys of sailing to foreign places, rum, sword fights and romance with dusky maidens.

In my early boyhood days there was no suntan lotion but sunburn could be prevented by squeezing the juice from the bubbles on green bladderwrack and smearing it on the skin. Cooling calamine lotion was used to soothe sunburn. 

It is amazing the memories and reminiscences that Anne's photo have brought into my mind and for that I really need to say:  Thank you Anne!

Home is the Sailor

I often dreamed about living in a long narrow boat and of the comforts it would afford.

The free fresh air and all that greeness to be seen, from every window.

Of hearing the wind and rains lashing down on the cabin roof.

This then is similar - just close your eyes and IMAGINE !

Alphabetical details of me :-

A - Age: 66 years

B - Bed size: King & Queen size

C - Chore you hate: ALL OF THEM

D - Dog's name: TOBY C

E - Essential to start your day : SILENCE !

F - Favourite colour : Purple

G - Gold or Silver: Silver

H - Height: 5' -11

I - Instruments you play: The Comb

J - Job title: Handyman, Chauffeur & Lover

K - Kissing : All Types & Styles

L - Living arrangements: A bijou rural palace place,

M - Married : Twice

N - Nicknames: Pup, Old Coot & Stagbunny,

O - Optimist or Pessimist : OPTIMIST

P - Pet Peeve: Conniving Politicians and so called Experts!

Q - Quotation (Motto) : SERVICE ABOVE SELF

R - Religion : PAGAN

S - Smoking: Pipe & Cigars

T - Tea : Roiboos, Green, Cammomile / Lemon with Ginger.

U- Underwear: Yes

V - Vegetarian: Yes plus Fish

W - Walking : 3.4 km before breakfast most mornings

X - Xmas : No, I'm a Pagan!

Y - Yoga: No, PILATES ! (not that I do any)

Z - ZOO : No, I would rather see them in a Game Park