Tag Archives: squee

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6Clonakilty, Co Cork, today.

It’s 400 years old.

Four hundred.

Miriam Cotton writes:

Months of preparations and a town make-over were rewarded well today when Clonakilty celebrated its 400th birthday. Michael D and his wife Sabina helped us to mark a hugely fun occasion. Everywhere people were dressed in costumes from the 17th and 19th centuries. The weather came out in solidarity giving us a balmy, warm day which was perfect for the many open air events that were taking place in various locations.

Squee himself was given a tremendous welcome – cheering and clapping greeted him wherever he went. His address to the townspeople in historic Emmet Square, where a statue of Michael Collins oversaw the proceedings, was a warm and encouraging speech the theme of which was the need for us all to show solidarity and support for one another in these times.

He congratulated Clonakilty, citing its track record as the first Fair Trade town in Ireland, the Random Acts of Kindness Festival and the Clonakilty Favour Exchange as examples of the generous and community-minded spirit of our town – and its resilience in the face of recent flooding.

When the formalities were over Michael D made his way down Spillers Lane – an old, pedestrian quarter where vendors and stalls of every kind were on display – many with an historical theme. It seemed as though he shook hands and had a kind word for every single person in the town and the affection with which he was received was unmistakable.

Congratulations are due to the organisers for creating a truly wonderful event, which was rounded off by a superb set in Emmet Square in the late afternoon from local band ‘The Sexy Lady Boys‘! Seriously talented – look out for these. Parties and celebrations are continuing on into the night.

 

Pics: Miriam Cotton

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He had this to say:

 

Asked if he would continue to express his views on the matter, the President said that nobody would thank anyone for looking on at the very serious situation in Europe and not putting tuppence into the debate.

 

President Higgins defends criticism of EU’s handling of economic crisis (RTE)

Previously: There’s Always Fionnan

President Higgins Breaks Cover

Thanks PT

blossom

Blossom the Blossom Bat was taken into the care of Louise Saunders at Bat Conservation and Rescue Queensland after a cat attack, nursed back to health and later released on Macleay Island.

But not before her weapons-grade adorability was harvested for teh interwebs.
BCRQ sez:

Blossom Bats are nectar specialists which feed and groom themselves with the aid of their long tongues. They are known to hover in front of flowers as they forage and are important pollinators of many rainforest plants. A baby at the time of arrival, the little bat was fed a nectar mix recipe and the occasional milk formula. Blossom gradually gained weight and began to practice flying during the night. Often she would dart in and out of rooms and even hover above Louise as she slept before retiring to her little brown bag at dawn.

Oh sweet Lord. Karl is lactating.

geyserofawesome

President Higgins, in Paris with from top: French President François Hollande, and with Irish generals at a wreath laying ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe .

Extracts From a speech President Higgins gave at the Sorbonne last night.

James Joyce’s manifesto to ‘Hibernicize Europe and Europeanise Ireland’ – was, we must remember, anticipated many centuries earlier by, for example, Columbanus and Gallus who brought precious scriptures and treatises from Bangor through France in the early 7th Century; John Scotus Eriugena who brought Greek back into Europe after the dark ages; travelling all the way to the French King in the 9th Century to translate the Pseudo-Dionysius from Greek into Latin, Peter of Ireland who taught Acquinas philosophy, and later Berkeley the ‘Irish Cartesian’ who engaged with French thinkers like Malebranche in the 18th Century – and since I am advocating a rethinking of economics –  the Franco-Hibernian thinker Richard Cantillon, born in Kerry in 1680 whose essay      ‘L’Essai sur la nature du commerce en general’ in 1730 was described by William Stanley Jevons as constituting ‘the cradle of political economy’ and which influenced Adam Smith and Karl Marx…

...I feel, now more than ever, at a time of economic crisis and loss of trust in institutions and decision-makers, that if Europe is to have a discourse informed with all the energy, concern and creativity that the times demand then surely, the lives, the conversations, the anguish, the hopes, the beliefs, and the commitment of those of previous centuries who believed, in their day, and in response to the circumstances of their times that not only was a world with the stamp of humanity necessary, but that it was possible, are relevant to us as examples of the moral courage we need in facing the contradictions of our times.

Fair play though in fairness.

Full text here

(Aras/Photocall Ireland)