I knew this place too
By · CommentsLegendary folk singer Liam Clancy has died aged 74. The actor, singer and musician was the last surviving member of The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, who were credited with bringing Irish traditional music to a world audience in the 1960s . . . RTE News, 4th December 2009.
There were brief and fleeting moments in my childhood when I remember my parent’s being happy. When ceasefires were declared and month long silences were lifted. It was then that I was introduced to Makem and Clancy on a small black tape recorder. That tape recorder accompanied me on a rare holiday with my parents to the west of Ireland and as it played on my mothers lap in our old Renault, Liam Clancy among others provided an enshrined soundtrack. So even as a child, in between Bay City Rollers and Leo Sayer, I was aware of Liam Clancy, I grew to love the songs and their sentiments; Red is the Rose, Waltzing Matilda, All Gods Creatures and The Dutchman with its poignant lyrics that I was too young to understand.
As an adult, I grew more appreciative of Liam Cancy, particularly for his ability to tell a story. I remember a few years back RTE showing a two part Arts Lives documentary about him. I watched it with a fascination and hung on his every word. Two years later my mother died tragically, ironically in Waterford. In grieving her, I remembered the songs from my childhood and played them often. Red is the Rose was one of her favourites – particularly the way Liam Clancy sang it.
Alas, having become a fan of the great orator of folk, I had never seen the man perform live. In April 2009, living in Galway, I heard he was playing a show at the Town Hall Theatre. I remember thinking to myself, this man means a lot to me for many iconic reasons, childhood memories and not least that he was one of the best performers on the planet in my opinion. I also remember thinking that I needed to go and see him, that I should not let the opportunity pass, that I might not get another chance and that I would be doing this for my mother as well as myself.
I asked my friends if anyone would be interested in going – not a one! So I booked myself in and went alone. I spent the night on the edge of my seat, hanging on his every word – again; singing along , laughing with him, listening to stories of himself and Tommy, stories about life then and how it has changed. It was like being with someone I knew. It was like he really cared for us, and of course he did. The way he spoke to us with such empathy, understanding, dignity, and respect. The way he spoke to beautiful Gemma on stage and the way she looked up to him like an apprentice watching the old master.
I often think about that night and what it meant to me. Particularly as it was one of his last shows. It was the first time I ever heard songs like ‘The Broom of the Cowdenknowes’ – oh lord how he sang it! melodic, rich and beautiful, so beautiful. My first time to hear ‘I knew this place’, it made me sad and brought me back to my childhood, to the same rural setting that the song describes – watching my parents in a brief moment of happiness. I had come full circle.
Thank you Liam Clancy. One of my ‘to do before I die’ aspirations, was to get to meet you. I guess I’ll have to put that on hold for a while.
Goodnight and God bless you too.
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I knew This place I knew this place, I knew it well, There across the grassy yard, From my window I can see But all my climbing days are gone And I remember every word A brother’s laugh, the sighing wind, This house is old, it carries on Our lives pass on from door to door, And all these thoughts come back to The day is done. The lights are low, (Dave Mallet, 1978) |
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Photographing tricky scenes (HDR)
By · CommentsDigital cameras are amazing but one thing they don’t do particularly well, is cope with scenes where there is significant variance between the bright and dark areas (highlights and shadows). A classic scenario is the landscape photo and the sunset. Have you ever photographed this type of scene and been left a little disappointed with the results? What normally happens is that the sky looks ok but the foreground looks dark or visa versa – the foreground looks good but the sky is overexposed, too bright and all that lovely detail that your eye saw, is lost. Our eyes and brain are much better at interpreting this type of scene. We have a high dynamic range (HDR) in our natural visual system. Digital cameras don’t however; They operate best where there are no extremes between light and dark. So why is that?
Cameras use metering to measure the amount of light in a scene and then either set or suggest an appropriate exposure depending on whether you’re in automatic or manual mode. The way a camera meters is limited however! If you want to meter a landscape scene for example, you might set the metering mode to evaluative whereby the camera averages out the light in the entire scene. Alternatively you might use spot metering using a point at the centre of the viewfinder to measure light. With spot metering, you could point the camera at the foreground. The camera would determine the scene to be quite dark and set a bright exposure, or you could point the camera at the sky. The camera would then determine this to be very bright and set a darker exposure. Either way, whatever way you go about it, your final image will either have very dark areas in the foreground (dark areas such as fields) or very bright (blown out) areas in the background (areas such as sky).
One solution, HDR
High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a way to overcome this problem. This involves the photographer taking several exposures (shots) of the same scene. The images are then loaded into a dedicated software program that merges them together extracting the optimum exposed area from each. Typically, a photographer will set the camera on a tripod, set focus, aperture and ISO, then take an average meter reading which might suggest a certain shutter speed. The photographer will now take a range of shots using the shutter to adjust exposure. Typically 5 or 7 shots are taken across a range from under exposed to over exposed. The underexposed shots will render the sky beautifully while the over exposed shots will bring out the foreground. The shots in the middle of the range will render the mid-tones.
Where would the world be without examples
Disclaimer: This is my back garden, not known for it’s scenic beauty but nonetheless a great place to practice HDR:) I setup the camera on a tripod around 4:30pm this evening. It was already dusk and so a decent landscape was a challenge. I set the ISO to 400, worked for a minute on a quick composition and get the shot in focus. I then put the camera into P mode, and took a meter reading. The camera suggested an exposure of f11 at 1/30th of second. I then put the camera into manual mode and decided I would take 5 or 6 shots at f11 ranging from 1/125th of a second (dark, under exposed) to 1/4 of a second (bright, over exposed). I ended up with the following.
(Click to enlarge)
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You can see from the above that the under exposed images retain the detail and contrast in the sky but render the foreground as dark, while the over exposed images render the sky as blown out but retain the details and contrasts contained in the foreground.
When I was done, I came back inside and downloaded one of many HDR software packages. I chose Photomatix as it seems popular with photographers and gets good reviews around the web. The software itself is very easy to use. You just install it, load it, click ‘Generate HDR Image’, load in you range of exposures and from there follow the wizard. I had a few go’s and eventually started to get some nice results from playing around with the presets etc.
The result (click to enlarge) 
I think you’ll agree, we have an amazing rendering of all the light range from dark shadows to highlights. You can see the foreground and its detail – it’s no longer a dark silhouette but you can also see the sky and all its glorious tones and details. I like landscapes, particularly sunsets. I met a couple of folks from boards.ie this morning and we went out to Renville to take some shots. The two lads gave me loads of pointers that helped me to produce this article so thanks Mark and Mike for all the help.
Undertake a PhD
By · CommentsAs I continue studying, I keep moving the goal posts. I started in 2004, back then my sights were set on a degree. When I got the degree, I went on to honours degree. Then I decided on a Masters degree at University (which is what I am currently at) and over the past year I have been researching the possibilities of a PhD. This is now looking more and more likely. I have an area of interest that I’d like to conduct research in, I have a University, the blessing of a Head of Dept and a supervisor. The only obstacle left is funding. The money is drying up in this recession.
I hope money does not end up being the reason I don’t do this. That would be crazy. So – hopefully this time next year, I’ll have started into a PhD and this time 3 or 4 years from now I’ll be able to tick this off as another “thing to do before I die”.
Note to self….try not to die in the next 4 years
Beginning Photography – Light Painting
By · CommentsI came across light painting while searching YouTube for tutorials on photography and flash. The concept is pretty simple, put your camera into open shutter or bulb mode. Then within the area of focus use whatever light source you wish such as a torch to light your subject. Because the shutter is open, the ambient light needs to be as dark as possible (pitch dark if you can). If you light a torch and move it around in front of the lens, the streaks are recorded as just that – streaks or strokes.
I decided to use my faithful guitar once again for this experiment. I put it on its stand and setup the camera on a tripod. I set the camera to bulb mode, and focussed on the guitar with the room lit. Another of my cheap Ebay purchases that I was keen to try was a cable shutter release (about $10). I plugged that into my camera PC port and that allowed me to open and close the shutter without ever having to touch the camera (although being in a dark room it didn’t matter so much). Then I got a small bicycle torch and taped some paper round it to better focus its light beam. Through trial and error it was continuously too bright so I diffused it a bit by taping tissue paper over it.
The bicycle light I used, I taped some card round it to focus its beam, then covered the opening with some tissue paper to soften or diffuse the light.
The setup, Camera set sideways on a portrait rig on the tripod. I composed and focussed the shot with the lights on, then turned them off before taking the actual shot.
Once I had everything setup, it was just a case of turning off all the lights, then fumbling my way to the guitar stand, placing the light at the start point near the bottom of the guitar and carefully tracing my way round the guitar body and fret board. I found that best results were achieved if I pointed the light in towards the guitar rather than pointing it directly at the camera. It took some trial and error to determine how fast I needed to move the light round the guitar body but after some practice I started to get some reasonable results. When I had traced round the guitar with the small bike lamp, I then got a bigger torch and shone it round the base and floor, a little behind the guitar and a little in front (again very much trial and error). Finally after reviewing many results I decided the shot needed something else so I put my flash unit behind the guitar facing it and trigged that remotely.
So to recap, while the shutter is open, trace round the body of the guitar with a small focussed light beam (bike torch), then shine a bigger torch down from above and light various parts of the guitar and the floor. Finally trigger a flash positioned behind the guitar – then close the shutter. All this is done in a pitch dark room so be careful. I will admit that at one stage I knocked the tripod over and my beloved camera went crashing to the ground. It seems to be ok but knowing my luck, some critical element inside the box will fail soon. I really could have done without that!
The results
I ended up taking about 20 shots before I finally settled on one. Some of the discards are beautifully lit but too chaotic or whatever. For example I love #1 below because of the way its lit, shame about the mess of trails. Only for that it would be winner. The one I finally settled for is #2.
#1 (Click to enlarge) 
#2 (Click to enlarge) 
This is the one that I posted on my flickr page. I love the way the floor came out and the flash was pretty subtle causing a sensation being spot lit from above as well as casting shadows outwards from the guitar stand legs.
Early Days learning Photography, Depth of field
By · CommentsIt’s been a while since I wrote, my apologies but all kinds of stuff got into the works and at one stage I nearly ground to a complete halt. But anyway here I am back with a new hobby – photography. When I say new I kinda mean it. I have been taking photos for years with point & shoots and digital bridge cameras but literally just aiming and pressing the shutter release. So I have a disk full of flat jpegs with blown out skies, graining, edge distortion and less than perfect focus. I have always been fascinated by photography, I’ve done quite a bit of reading on the subject. I remember a few years back discovering Bryan Peterson’s ‘Understanding Exposure’. I read it, read it again and then I knew I wanted to take up photography properly.
Enter the kit
I have a Canon 50D and recently invested in a few bits and bobs such as a Manfrotto Tripod and separate tilt and swivel head, I got my hands on a Speedlite 430EXII flash unit and that pretty much forms the basis of the hardware. I got the 50D with the 17-85mm f4.0 kit lens. Its ok but really I am saving for my first lens that I hope to have before Christmas which has to be the Canon EF 50mm f1.4 prime. It’ll give me razor sharp results if I stay above f1.8 but I cant wait to try out a few extreme DOF’s at 1.4 and see what its like to take photos in poor light situations such as gigs.
A few weeks ago I spent an hour on Ebay and picked up some lens hoods, a wireless Flash Trigger kit, a shutter release remote controller, a multi colour light reflector board and a battery grip for the 50D. Would you believe that the entire lot came to about $100, god bless Hong Kong. Mind you, during the week, I got the dreaded letter from Revenue in Dublin stating that I owed them import duty on the package and looking for me to send them the PayPal Invoice. I sent them “a” PayPal Invoice and got away with paying them €15 to release my package so no harm done. But buyer beware! If you are importing anything from outside the EU over €22, your package will be intercepted and you will be charged tax.
My first project, Depth of Field
Sounds great eh…my first project, Truth is I have been messing with the camera for a few weeks and trying out all sorts of experiments especially when I got my hands on the Speedlite, the wireless triggers and the reflector board – so calling this my first project is a little inaccurate. The truth is that its my first project to write about but I promise you I am an absolute beginner to using cameras in anything other than fully automatic mode.
Depth of field is all about the area of the photo that is in acceptable focus. You will often see portrait shots for example where the subject is in sharp focus and the background is nicely blurred, well that in a nutshell is depth of field. You control DOF by adjusting the cameras aperture which refers to the size of the hole used to allow light to pass through to the sensor or film. Aperture is measured in f stops and is a little counter intuitive. The larger the number – the smaller the hole. So f4.0 is actually a much bigger hole than f22. As you increase each f stop, you are halving the amount of light that gets into the camera. i.e. f5.6 lets in half as much light as f4.0, f8 lets in half as much light as f5.6 etc so it is a key element in exposure setting. Why is it counter intuitive like this? Well very basically, f stops are measured by taking the focal length of the lens and dividing this by the size of the aperture, so a larger hole gives us a smaller number. There are a few basic rules to remember
- The smaller the f number, the shallower the depth of field you’ll achieve.
- The closer you are the the subject, the shallower the depth of field you’ll achieve.
- The more zoomed in you are, the shallower the depth of field you’ll achieve.
- Depth of field refers to the area of the picture that is in acceptable focus with one third being in front of the subject and two thirds being behind.
I’m sitting here in my living room tonight, I look at my guitar and I figure, I could get a nice DOF shot looking down the fret board. I might put my left hand in focus and my strumming hand in the background out of focus. The room is badly lit with cold white light from an overhead bulb. So lets look at the setup and as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a photo of the setup taken on my mobile phone.
The Setup (Click to enlarge)
Sorry its a bit dark, best I could do with the phone. On the left is the camera, mounted on the tripod. In the background I have setup the reflector board using its gold sleeve to reflect a nice warm light. I placed it in the guitar stand which allowed me to position and control it. On the floor in front of the reflector board you can see a little black device, that’s the flash unit plugged into the wireless trigger receiver. The transmitter is sitting on the camera’s hot shoe. The guitar is lying on the table where I sit and strum it when the photo is being taken. I focussed the camera on the corner of a cardboard box that I aligned with the corner of the coffee table. So I knew then when posing, I should place my left hand and fret board roughly over the corner of the coffee table. I pointed the flash unit towards the reflector board at a shallow angle. I set the camera up to shoot 10 seconds after pressing the shutter release button.
So lets talk about settings. This photo is as much an experiment in lighting as it is about DOF. I have a reflector board and a reasonably decent flash unit so I am keen to learn how to use them. I have read many articles about flash and how to achieve better results through bouncing light off a surface and back onto the subject rather than blasting the subject directly which can result in harsh light and shadows. The flash wireless units are cheap little devices ($30) so you’d hardly expect them to transmit TTL and indeed they don’t, so the flash was set to manual mode. I toned it down almost two stops (1/2 – 0.7). The way the wireless trigger works is that it fires when the camera fires. The flash is pointing towards the reflector board at an angle so that when it fires, the light gets bounced off the board and back to the guitar / subject. Using the gold surface gives a nice warm light that is a little diffused or softened hopefully. I took the shot at 1/6 second with an aperture of f5.6 @ 85mm. I kept the ISO right down to 100. Of course the camera registered severe underexposure as it was unaware of the flash settings but through trial and error, the above combination started to give me some nice results.
The next challenge was to position myself correctly within the 10 second countdown to shutter release. I kept getting that wrong – the depth of field was quite shallow so the margin for error was tight but I kept at it. I think the shot I ended up with works. I am posting it here with absolutely no post production whatsoever. I have never pp’d a photo (yet) and that will be my next learning curve if I can get my niece Niamh (a Photoshop genius) to spend a few hours with me and get me started. It’s also been pointed out to me that as a student I can pick up a copy of CS4 cheap so that’s where I’m headed.
Enough already, show us the dam photo (Click to enlarge)
A quick word about some of the kit used. I got all the bits and pieces from Ebay. The stuff from Hong Kong is cheap as chips but it works just fine. The flash wireless unit works 100% of the time, it literally never misfires unlike some units I have come across. Cheap and cheerful, at these prices if anything goes wrong – so what.
- Reflector board (It has 5 different coloured surfaces and folds away into a small pouch) – $6
- Wireless Flash trigger unit. This is a little Gem, it allows you to remove the flash unit from the camera and place it anywhere while controlling it wirelessly. This particular unit is the CTR-301P – $27
- Lens hood for Canon 17-95mm Lens – $5
Mizen to Malin – Thank you
By · Comments
I would like to acknowledge those that helped witht the cycle. Sincere thanks is expressed to the following.
- All those who sponsored me. It looks like we will end up with 2k raised. I am so grateful to everyone for their donations. I know that there is a lot of competition for fundraising particularly at present and in light of this I think 2k is a great achievement. A particular thanks to the people I met along the journey who donated money spontaenously.
- Josephine Daly from Cloughereen Cottage B&B, Kenmare. Josephine was the only BnB along the route to allow me free board and she even donated to the cause. All the other B&B’s charged me the full price even though they knew what I was trying to do. Sincere thanks Josephine.
- Tristan Goodfellow and Mike Higgins for taking time out of their lives to drive me to Mizen Head. Also to Tristan for driving all the way to Killybegs to collect me a week later. Not only that, they also endured costs such as B&B in Schull, Food along the way etc. Guys – I’m forever grateful.
- Kevin Carey for all the help, food, for putting me up in Dinegal and for helping me with rearranging schedules. Thanks a million Kev.
- SVP for their support. They provided me with promotional materials such as t-shirts. They took time out to meet with me and made their PR company available to me. The biggest thanks of all for the work they do and for what they did for my Mom in her last few years.
- To Kerry radio, Mid-West radio and Clare FM for the publicity and interviews.
- Eimear and Jim for collecting me and looking after me for a couple of days in Killybegs. Sincere thanks for all the hospitality and amazing boat trips.
- To those who communicated with me via sms, twitter and the website. Especially Blaithin, Eimear, Niamh P, Niamh C, David, Mike, Tris,, Michael C, Aisling Noirin and others. Getting comments and feedback from people was a huge boost and I never felt alone.
- Aaron and Joseph from California for letting me cycle as far a Lehinch with them. Made the day and the spin very short. Many thanks to you both for all the great advice.
- Kearney’s in Galway for their help with the bike.
- To all the people who made the time to stop and chat with me along the way. Too numerous to mention but you all know who you are, you made the journey very special.
- To Michael Carroll for plugging me with the GAA and on the web.
As always, there is a danger that I forget someone from the above list. If I think of anyone else, I will immediately edit this post or indeed if you think I have left anyone out, feel free to contact me and I will be glad to amend as appropriate.
Right, that’s about it, the bike is quiet and I’m off to Sandyford. I am dreaming of cycling the Pan-am highway (Alaska to Argentina, some 25000km) in a few years. It might never happen but if I tell enough people about it, it has the effect of keeping the idea alive and keeping the pressure up on myself to make it happen. If anyone wants to join me feel free, but you need to start training now 
……..life is good.
Mizen to Malin Cycle (final day)
By · CommentsSunday morning – I had time to kill in Buncrana so I went for a walk around the town before setting off at 11am. Eimear was now enroute from Killibegs to meet me. As it happened, the last short stint across Innisowen had a few small climbs but once I got up into the hills the views were breathtaking. When I reached Carndonagh, I met up with Eimear. We decided to carry on and meet up down the road in Malin village for coffee.
Malin village is really beautiful and always reminds me of Kinnity, Co. Offaly. We both met up at the hotel for soup, coffee and much chat. As we were there a massive thunderstorm struck. After about half an hour of torrential rain, the flat roof over the hotel bar started to leak water in about 20 places. The drains up on the roof must have become blocked and I have never seen a place flood like this – it was crazy and I hope the owner is well insured. We waited out the storm for about an hour and as the rain eased I decided to carry on. I had 14k to go and took the coast road. After the massive storm I was once again heading out into brilliant sunshine and blue skies.
Malin head was a magnificant place yesterday. As it happens, just after I got in, along came two more groups, riders and vintage car enthusiasts who had done the same trek as me for different causes including MS. When the other cyclists rode in, I recognised one of them as Lynn Temple whom I used to know when boating off Mountcharles pier near Donegal Town. We had some great conversation with all of them, routes were recounted, achievements admired and many photos were taken. Being in Malin head on such a buzzin afternoon really added to the day. The atmosphere up there was magic.
I guess we spent over two hours at Malin head before packin up old betsy and heading off for Killybegs. All over now bar the shouting. I have a lot of people to thank and I think I will leave that to a seperate post during the week. It was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone. It’s not that difficult and its a great way to see and experience a place and meet people.
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- Heading across Innisowen to Carndonagh. 14th June, 2009
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- Headed towards Carndonagh. 14th June, 2009
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- The green in Malin village. 14th June, 2009
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- Eimear and Kieran, approaching Malin head. 14th June, 2009
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- Mayhem at Malin head. Many great achievers. 14th June, 2009
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- Kieran and Eimear at Malin head. 14th June, 2009
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- Eimear, Lynn Temple and Kieran at Malin head. 14th June, 2009
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- During the war, the word EIRE was written in stone for pilots. Malin head. 14th June, 2009
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- Kieran at Malin head. 14th June, 2009
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- Eimear with one of the promo t-shirts. Malin head. 14th June, 2009
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- Coming home. Just outside Carndonagh, another storm. 14th June, 2009
Mizen to Malin Cycle (day 7)
By · CommentsIt was great to be back in Donegal town last night. It’s been a while. It was even better to have had the opportunity to spend some time with my old neighbours in Ballyshannon. They are all wonderful people and I was lucky enough to have lived amongst them for about four years or so. I miss Legaltan and lazy days spent on Creevy pier with Sal.
I had a great night’s sleep at my bro-in-law’s place. This morning we both went to the Krusty Kitchen for a slap up full Irish breakfast (not the kinda thing to be eating before a cycle but I just couldn’t resist). I set off from Donegal at around 12 midday with the intention of going as far as Lettekenny. I stopped off in Ballybofey to buy a t-shirt as the two SVP shirts I have been wearing all week have now shrunk beyond any size that could possibly fit me. I had a cup of coffee while there and then set out for Letterkenny. As it happens I am enjoying a great southerly breeze in my back so I made LK is very quick time reaching 60kph several times on the down hill stretches. When I got to LK it was only just after 2pm so I decided to stay going to Buncrana. Kev very kindly reschduled bnb’s for me and helped with the admin side of things from his place in Donegal town.
When I got to Newtownhamilton the fun started. Thunder storm no. 1 struck and I got soaked before finding a garage to pull in to for shelter. There was thunder, sheet and fork lightening and monsoon rain. It was actually very spectacular and I was in awe of the fork lightening as I had not seen it in years (always reminds me of the cover of Dire Straits – Love over gold album). I waited in that garage for a good 40 minutes before deciding that the rain was light enough to continue. I turned off for Buncrana and headed along Swilly to Fahan. I knew another sorm was abut to hit so I took a few quick photos before finding an old bridge to wait out the storm under. I stood under that bridge for over an hour as the rain pumbled and flooded the place. I got very cold under there and had to keep jogging on the spot and what have you to keep warm. Finally the skies brightened up and I hightailed it out of there and on along the shores of the mighty Lough Swilly to Buncrana.
I am now in the bnb where Nora and Charlie are being very kind to me. Not only have they fed me but they are allowing me to use their laptop to post this blog.
So I am almost there, I just have a very quick stint tomorrow and should be in Malin around lunchtime. I am already reflecting on this amazing journey. It’s been a multi faceted device for me. It allowed me some space and time on my own to think. It certainly helped me in my dealings with my mother’s tragic death. It gave me a way to process that in the positive for the very first time. I spent a lot of time thinking about her and chatting to her. Then I remember all the people I met. Some old friends and some new. I ran into enormous kindness time and time again. I saw Ireland at it’s best, I got fit and healthy and I raised 2k for St. Vincent De Paul. I cannot imagine wanting to spend a week any other way. I’m gonna be sad when it’s all over, I’ll almost miss the road and I’ll certainly miss the people. Tonight I consider myself one of the luckiest people alive.
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- Lough Swilly gets ready for another thunderstorm. 13th June, 2009
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- Barnesmore gap. Donegal. 13th June 2009
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- Taking shelter from a moonsoon under a garage canopy. Newtoenhamilton. 13th June 2009
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- Shame I couldn’t catch the fork lightening. Newtownhmilton. 13th June, 2009
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- There’s money in Fahan, Co. Donegal. 13th June, 2009
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- Bridge for shelter, Fahan. 13th June, 2009
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- Lough Swilly after a thunderstorm. 13th June, 2009
Mizen to Malin Cycle (day 6)
By · CommentsI left Charlestown this morning just after 9 to rain, wind and drudge. Not to worry, seal up the cycling jacket and off ya go. I hit the back road into Bunanaddan (near Ballymote) and just got the head down and battled the weather. I had intended to stop off at Ballymote and try to look up some relations but the weather put paid to any excursions. I ended up at the filling station by the Collooney roundabout where I met Tina Egan who had a great chat with me and donated to the cause, many thanks Tina.
I then headed up the dual carriageway towards Sligo and had a great wind at my back so I flew. I kept going on through Sligo as the traffic was bad. I stopped off again at Drumcliff. Struck me that the last time a Stafford stopped off there on a bike was my Dad back in the 1950’s. Just outsde the tea room I got another puncture so I had to do some repairs. Half an hour later I was off. Stopped off at Cissie Macs (the new one) for dinner and stayed going through Grange. I battled with heavy traffic along this stretch.
I was glad to see Bundoran as it meant I got a break from the traffic. Then on to Ballyshannon. I used to live nearby so I took time to head out to Legaltan to see my old neighbours. I met with Angela Bannigan, Margaret Fox and some of the Fox girls – Christine and Linda. I also stopped by to see Tommy and Margaret Geraghty. Folks if your listening, it was great to see you all. I stayed talking with Angela for about 2 hours and she sent me on the rad with loads of goodies. It was lovely to see Legaltan again, I often think of the place with fond memories.
I headed on for Donegal town around 7pm and am now settled in Kevin’s place. Just had a great dinner and a decent shower. The laundry is on and life is once again civilisd and comfortable. Big thanks to Kev for the hospitality. Tomorrow is probably the shortest stint from Donegal to Letterknny so I will take my time and may have a bit of a lie in.
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- The church at Drumcliff. 12th June, 2009
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- Benbulben. 12th June, 2009
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- Slieve League, across Donegal bay. 12th June, 2009
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- Bundoran. 12th June, 2009
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- Ballyshannon. 12th June, 2009
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- Angela Bannigan with Kieran. Ballyshannon 12th June, 2009
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- I used to live here. Ballyshannon 12th June, 2009
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- Great to get off the main road. 12th June, 2009
Mizen to Malin Cycle (day 5)
By · CommentsLeaving my own apartment in Athenry this morning was a little strange. I kept asking mysef, am I really going round the country on a bike? It’s very odd to wake up in your own place/bed when you are in the middle of a road trip.
I headed out for Tuam and from the off I had sunshine and a sidewind which mostly favoured me. The problem now is that I am making too much headway and arriving at places too early. I rode on through Tuam and headed for Dunmore taking the quiet N83 instead of the N17. On arriving in Dunmore I rang my old buddy Joe Mulally to see if he wanted to meet for lunch.
Joe is the Bank Manager in Dunmore. He said he could meet me at 12:30 so I had 40 minutes to kill before then. I stopped into the church (I stopped into a church, I passed along the way) and had a quiet few minutes in there. I am not a religious person at all but I do love empty churches, I find them very effecting places. I spoke to my Mom in there and lit a few candles for her and others (I am ashamed to admit that I did so without paying but I figure I am paying with the cycle anyways). Finally I cycled down to the bank and met up with Joe. We went into Supervalu and had a mighty bowl of soup and a roll and would you believe, Joe paid for it. Good man Joe, first time for everything huh. He spoke to me over lunch about his addiction to ice cream cones which he blames on his childhood (remember Mullally’s shop in Main St, Roscrea, and Mrs Mullally pouring the cones – magic)
We have always called Joe ‘Sally’ and he even refered to himself using this nickname. Joe used to be in London with me years ago, he worked in construction for a while and did a stint at Alexandra Palace known locally as ‘Ally Pally’. When workers went to the clerk on a Friday evening to get paid, they would walk up to the window and shout their name and construction site. So our Joe goes up to the window and shouts to the clerk – ‘Sally Mullally – Ally Pally’. She turned to him and said "are you takin the piss mate?" To this day we still laugh about that. Anyway I digress.
I left Joe at about 1pm and headed on for Ballyhaunis. Again no stopping there, just on through. Out the road I came across Glaune Pet farm and stopped in. I spent about half an hour looking at pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, peacocks, puppies, cats, hens, hamsters, guinea pigs etc. I then sat down with the owner and had a cup of coffee and great chat with her. We put the world to rights in terms of kids, pets, money and the old Irish ways.
I set off again and got lost in my own world as I cycled through the bog in the blistering heat on a nearly deserted road. Reminded me of my childhood bursting tar bubbles on the road as we would head off swimming. I stopped a few times and sat in the heather with a fig roll and some cool water – listening to the streams and the wildlife all around me. I think if you take a journey at a snails pace, the journey becomes the destination and the prize. So many people miss out on that as they whizz past.
I eventually hit the dam N17 a few miles south of Charlestown but was determind to try and stay off it so I shot straight across it and headed up the hills round the back of Knock Airport. It was glorious up there and I had it all to myself in the sunshine. I stopped again and sat a while in the meadow with my water bottle, lord it really did bring me back to my childhood, simpler quieter times and not a car in sight nor sound.
I got to Charlestown sickeningly early (5pm) and write this post from Clocan b&b where the lovely Claire is looking after me in a beautiful house. Sun still splitting the stones and I will probably head out for a walk and get even more burned.
Beautiful day today, I am starting to like this cycling biz. After all the climbing I did in Cork and Kerry, Galway and Mayo are as flat as Holland and the breeze is more or less helping me right now so its gettin almost too easy. Tomorrow is another day though, I have a long stint to do and the forecast is for a lot of rain. Again bring it on baby.
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- Irish farming (John Hinde style) 11th June 2009
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- Church at Dunmore. 11th June 2009
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- Me and Joe, Dunmore. 11th June 2009
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- View from the bridge. 11th June 2009
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- I adore all animals. Graune Pet farm. 11th June 2009
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- Another Donkey and foal. Graune pet farm. 11th June 2009
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- Cottage near Graune pet farm. 11th June 2009
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- Who needs the N17. Peace! 11th June 2009
