RELAXED at LOUGH ENNELL

When words are no longer required...

TRANQUILITY RULES OK

DAWN SUNRISE

County Laois in April

A brackish lake in county Clare

Healing

Coastal Waters of Clare

The Offering

The Shannon in May

The Cockerel, Mouse and Fly.

On Mother's Day we took ourselves off on an adventure to southern Laoise [pronounced as Leesh] and in particular to the picturesque village of Timahoe.

Timahoe, derives its’ name from Saint Tigh Mochua, 

there the houses are built around a large, central piece of common land known as the Goosegreen.  

St. Mochua established a monastery at Timahoe in the seventh century which burnt down in 1142, later it was re-established by the O’Moores.  

A 12th century round tower standing 96ft high is located close by Mochua’s Abbey and there was a monastic community here as late as 1650. It was then that the Franciscan friars were murdered at a spot known locally as "Boher a wurther" or the murdering road, by Colonel Hewson and Cromwell’s army. 

Along the road to Timahoe.

The locals call it 'Goosegreen'

Looking East the River Bauteogue

Looking West along the River Bauteogue

The round tower stands in a lovely setting accessed by a footbridge that crosses the River Bauteogue, Báiteóg, meaning ‘a swamp’. Originally access to the tower and Abbey was via a ford.

Drawing from Laois County Council archive

Detail of the towers entrance.

The Round Tower 

St Mochua had a reputation as a healer, and is said to have cured two other abbots – St Colman Elo of a sudden loss of memory and St Fintan Munnu of ‘leprosy’.

Mochua died in the year 657.

St. Mochua's companions

St. Mochua lived as a hermit without worldly goods except for three pets – a rooster, a mouse and a fly. The rooster wakened him for the hours of Matins; if he didn’t wake up or dozed off during the day weak from his vigils and prayers, the mouse would nibble at his ear not letting him sleep more than three hours a day or night. The fly would walk along each line of his Psalter as he read and when he became tired, the fly would stop at the point where the saint had broken off until he could return again to resume reading the Psalms.

The Little Pets of St. Mochua

When St. Mochua knelt to pray

Each morning at the break of day

There always was about the house

A rooster, fly and little mouse

Three willing slaves to serve him well

And share his solitary cell

The rooster every morn would crow

And waken him for matins, though

When he slept too sound to hear

The mouse came forth and nipped his ear

And though he never had a clock

The mouse would call him or the cock

And if he had to leave a book

From out some dusty hidden nook

A fly, with patience and with grace

Would sit for hours and mark the place.

 © John Irvine

I very much hope that your appetites have been whetted sufficiently enough to make a visit to this breath taking place. Where a on a sunny warm day you can lose yourself in peaceful surroundings and enjoy some wonder filled dreams.

A Spring Return

As many of my followers are aware I had a mild TIA - transient ischemic attack,  a few days ago. This put me into hospital for four days and my route there was because my pipe fell out of my hand three times in succession, for each time that I picked it up from the floor and stood up, down it would go again. I became aware that all was not right with me so I trotted down to the studio to sit with her Ladyship and eventually brokered the subject that perhaps a trip to my GP would be a good thing to do.

Arrangements were made and we were given appointment for 4pm that day, not too long to wait, although in the surgery that time spent in the waiting room seemed horrendous - I am not good at waiting, not good at all; you might even think of me as being an impatient patient :)

My BP was extremely high as stated in comments on my recent blog, that being the case my lady GP told us to go directly to A&E at the nearest hospital which was about six miles away. We did as we were told, the waiting room only had two spare chairs and eventually I was seen by a Doctor and returned back to the waiting room, with a warning given to my wife that if I turned a funny colour or started acting oddly to ring the bell. We sat there until eleven pm when I was put on a trolley and given loads of caring attention. I slept fretfully, her Ladyship was given a comfortable chair and at eight thirty a.m I told her to drive home and get some rest.

The rest of my time there was spent in having a multitude of tests done,  he majority of which showed that I was healthy, apart from some clogging in carotid arteries - they supply blood to the brain. That sounded serious and the ward doctor explained to me that there were two procedures that would correct the situation; thus I returned home without having to consider any options because if you choose Life then either method is acceptable and I do choose life.

Today I had an appointment with the vascular specialist who with a big smile on his face told me that the clogging in my arteries was only slight, with a natural age related thickening and that he would not be performing any procedures on me.  He then said he would see me in six months time to do a  re-check and providing all was well he would not see me again.

I am delighted and with a spring in my step we left the hospital in glorious sunshine, revitalised.

A Bird in the Hand

Mr Chaffinch © GettyImage

Yesterday morning when I was sitting at my desk working quietly away I heard a loud bang on one of the front room

windows. Hearing nothing more I continued with what I was doing.

About ten minutes later her Ladyship dragged me out to go on a fuel run and as I was walking to the car she said

“What is that behind you on the path ?”

I turned and lying beneath a window was the crumpled form of a small bird that looked quite dead to me.

My first thought was to scoop it up and throw it into a hedge, but not wanting to waste time in getting a shovel, I stooped down and picked him up in my hands. It was then I noticed that the bird was warm on it’s right hand side and quietly said,

“ You poor little sod.”

The small bird moved feebly in my hand and I placed him gently on the lawn and got into the car.

After about twenty minutes we were home again and unloaded the car of it’s peat briquettes. 

I stepped outside to see if the bird had flown off, but no it was still there. 

I spoke to the bird and he turned his head, opened an eye and looked at me.

Once again I picked him up and held him in both of my warm hands for a few minutes talking away to Mr Chaffinch

and believing that he understood me. I told him that it was was time to take flight and immediately, as I opened my palms, he took off, flew high into the air and disappeared from sight.

Next time that I see a bird lying still on the ground I will check for life before disposing.

Blatant Breach of Humanitarian Law

Kunduz outrage: Medicins Sans Frontieres has asked that concerned people demand an independent investigation into the bombing of Kunduz Hospital.

The US Air Force had the GPS co-ordinates of the hospital so there is really no excuse for what happened, regardless of who called for assistance. The US said the Afghanistan troops asked for help however, the pilots were American service personnel, who we must assume are highly trained.

This is not the first time that these specialist fliers have bombed their allies. An incident occurred in the First Iraqi War

when a group of British servicemen were wiped out by friendly fire from American aircraft. The US term is I believe 'collateral damage'.

On Saturday 3 October 2015 the MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was repeatedly bombed by coalition forces.

"The US government has admitted that it was their airstrike that hit our hospital in Kunduz and killed 22 patients and MSF staff. Their description of the attack keeps changing – from collateral damage, to a tragic incident, to now attempting to pass responsibility to the Afghanistan government." – Christopher Stokes, General Director, Médecins Sans Frontières

Please join in and demand that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted.

To support this plea please view the link below

http://www.msf.org/kunduz-

Further to the above

• Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) have called for an independent fact-finding mission into a US airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that killed at least 22 people, AP said. MSF said its call would mark the first time such a fact-finding mission would be launched under the rules of the Geneva Conventions. The weekend strike“was not just an attack on our hospital, it was an attack on the Geneva Conventions,” the group’s international president, Joanne Liu, said on Wednesday, adding that “this cannot be tolerated.”

A Helpful Resident !

Damhnán Alla

or in English

A SPIDER!

The damhnán alla or spider may not be your favourite creature to look at, but you have to admit they are fascinating. There is no shortage of wonderful facts about them that get them noticed either.

All spiders have 8 legs. They arthropods which are invertebrate insects  having an exoskeleton (external skeleton) , a segmented body, and jointed appendages.

Spiders spin webs that they use to catch food in. They have glands that make silk.The silk that they make is stronger than steel and as yet science has yet replicate anything similar.

They are the largest order of Arachnids and are 7th in the world when it comes to diversity among their populations.

Antarctica is the only continent in the world where you can't find spiders.

They don’t have antenna which is what separates them from insects.

There has only been one species identified as vegetarian the rest are all carnivores.

Within the home they consume about 2,000 smaller insects and mites per year. So love them or hate them, they are an important part of our ecosystem by helping to keep the insect population in check. It is estimated that the spiders in 1 acre of woodlands consume 80 pounds of insects a year.

Spider superstition: Never kill a spider or you will invoke bad weather.

The Spider's webs were used to stop bleeding when de-horning cattle and they were also used in wound care in ancient Ireland.
ref: The Tadhg Ó Cuinn (1415) manuscript.