Step-mother Aoıfe resents the bonds between her husband Lear and his children and their love for their lost mother and turns them into singing swans for 900 years, by the end of which time Christianity had come to Ireland. A monk heard their song and recognised them. At his touch, they are restored to human form. Being 900 years old, they die immediately but not before being baptised.
For another ‘baptised before death’ story, see the story of the mermaid Lí Ban in Sea-Born.
This is the third of three Celtic mythology boards in Creggan/An Creagán, Derry. See previously: Tír Na nÓg and Cú Chulaınn.
Robert King, of the 12th Royal Irish Rifles, who joined the army from the Ulster Volunteers, was “awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in action on 1st July 1916” at the Somme. The two sides of the medal are shown in the top right, with George V on one side and “for bravery in the field”. The 12th Rifles were drawn from the Central Antrim regiment of the Ulster Volunteers including the Newington area of Larne; King, however, was from Ship Street.
This past Saturday saw the north Belfast derby between Crusaders and Cliftonville, with the League-Champion and league-leading Crues coming out on top 4-3. Today’s images are from their Seaview home ground: above are the railings and below a mural on a side wall. The newspaper The Express employs the same emblem of a Christian knight.
Pay the £5 “door tax” and you can attend the Fernhill Flute Band’s “Full night of loyalist culture” including “Blood And Thunder, Melody, DJ, disco, ballots, prizes, and more”.
(We’ll start posting images from that other culture night — #CNB16 — tomorrow.)
The Christian missionary Colm Cılle (in Latin, Columba), born in Donegal, founded a monastic settlement on the banks of the Foyle (then still part of Donegal) around 540 AD. The “Doıre” part of the name means “oak grove” and perhaps refers (as the information panel suggests) to “a sacred grove of trees, which may have pre-dated the monastery.” The mural above shows a reconstruction of the Derry monastery c. 700 AD. The name “Londonderry” dates to 1662.
Columba moved on to Scotland circa 563 and founded an abbey on the island of Iona. Among his reputed miracles is the banishment of a great water beast from the River Ness in 565.
“Is athchuthú é seo ar an mhainistir luath-Chríostaí i nDoıre thart ar 700 AD a bhunaigh Naomh Cholm Cıille thart ar 546 AD. D’fhág Colm Cille a phobal ı nDoıre thart ar 563 AD le dáréag eıle le mómhaınıstır oıleán Í a chur ar bun. Níor fhill sé go hÉıreann ach uaır amháın agus fuaır sé bás in AD 593. Cé gur bhunaigh Naomh Cholm Cille roınnt maınıstreacha eıle ı nÉırınn, shocrıgh sé ı nDoıre de réır cosúlachta go dtí gut ımıgh sé. Déanann an t-aınm ‘Doıre Cholmcılle’ tagaırt do dhoıre naofa, a bhí ann roımh an mhaınıstir.”
Lıú Lúnasa is an Irish language festival, held this year on 24-28 August. The mural above shows rocks taken from the wall separating Palestine and Israel being used to build a gaelscoıl (an Irish-language school). The mural was painted by Jımí Mac Fhlannchadha.
Five images of the St. James Youth mural on Rodney Parade across from the farm: “Music is our drug – R speaker is R dealer” and “Mates do hugs, not drugs”.
JP Beadle’s Battle Of The Somme, Attack Of The Ulster Division is reproduced in the 1916 installment of the Poppy Trail in south Belfast. (For more on the painting, see belfastsomme.com.) In addition to listing local men lost in on July 1st – from places such as Roden, Matilda, Kitchener, Barrington, Blythe, Ebor, Rowland, Abingdon, and Combermere Street – it also features an individual from each community who served and died, in this case, Rifleman Paul Irvine from Lower Rockview Street and Private Patrick McGinney from Balkan Street (in the Divis area).
The mural above in Londonderry’s Ebrington Street celebrates three local organisations: in the upper portion, Orange Lodge #1007 “City Of Temperance” lodge (web) and Women’s Lodge #29 “Mountjoy”; in the lower portion, Glendermott Cricket Club (Tw), whose home pitch is Rectory Field (shown on the shield in the middle).
Extramural Activity 