Author Archives: John Moynes

steampunk

Like Steampunk?

Loathe British imperial-period ‘stuff’?

Talking to a friend a few days ago who is a sean scoil Steampunker I found him frustrated by the way the movement in Ireland is subsumed into the cod-Victoriana of the Pax Britannica, even by Irish adherences, with no distinctive identity of its own.

The conversation actually came about as part of a discussion relating to the Fenian fáinne Chladaigh and other 19th century Irish Republican memorabilia.

Recently he has moved towards the more welcoming environs of the Belle Époque and his Continental peers and it easy to see why. I’ve written a few unpublished stories in the Steampunk genre myself, using the struggle of the Fenian movement against the British colonial powers in the mid to late 1800s as the background…

Hardcore.

Steampunk in Ireland, Séamas Ó Sionnaigh (An Sionnach Fionn)

Pic via Steampunk Ireland

Via @NewtonEmerson

90310052

If you’re looking for trouble then you,
Should head down to Dublin Zoo,
You can burn off some rage,
Inside of a cage,
And take on a tapir or two.

John Moynes

Update:

Re:comments.

John Moynes writes:

“Today’s limerick was written about Dublin Zoo’s decision to allow members of the public into enclosures with animals that had the ability to seriously injure them. I believe that this decision was a bad one.

“I have written before, and will again, about topics that involve both serious injury and death. These topics have ranged from drink driving, to gang warfare, to sectarianism to outright war.

“Making a joke about the child who was injured would have been wrong, that is why I didn’t do so. However I refuse to accept that jokes should only be made about harmless situations.”

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall ireland)