Blue Mosque - Istanbul

The Blue Mosque, which was built in the early 1600's is so named because of all the blue tiles that decorate its walls. It is massive inside as you can see from the photos and is still used as a functioning mosque to this day. It's located in the Sultanahamet area of Istanbul, nearby you will find the Hagia Sofia museum, the Hippodrome, the Topkapi Palace and the Basilica Cistern.

Open House Dublin 8 October 2011

"Open House" is an iniative where buildings open their doors to the public. You can visit buildings of all kinds that would normally be closed. I went to Liberty Hall, the tallest building in Dublin.

Dublin is predominantly a low rise city, as you can see from the photos attached and the two short videos. Liberty Hall was built in the early 1960s and is only 16 stories tall. These days it shows its age, but I have to say I like it.





The height gives you a great view over the city and a bit of perspective - you can see the massive infrastructural changes in the city over the last ten years. You can see the new bridges over the River Liffey, new sports stadia and buildings like the convention centre.

The artist in me

I started taking art classes in October last year (2010). I suppose I always liked drawing and painting in school and have recently wanted to do something creative like that. I also wanted to see if I was any good at it. I have learned that I'm going to need a lot more practice.

I submitted two of my drawings from the night class to a competition in the art college where I take the night classes. I didn't win, I didn't expect to to be honest, but it was great to see my stuff up on the wall with all the other pieces. The first two pictures show my two pieces and the rest of the pictures show general views of the gallery in the college where the work was exhibited.

The clash of the ash

The clash of the ash - that's how hurling is known in Ireland. It's because the wood from ash trees is used to make the hurley stick. I went along to a game today between Cork and Tipperary in Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork.

The throw in (so called because the sliotar [the ball] is literally thrown in by the referee) was at 2.30. There was a good crowd there. I hadn't been to a match for a few years and a couple of things struck me about my visit there - I'll share them with you now.

I got there early and went through an old style turnstile where someone on the other side had to release a pedal to let me in when I pushed on the turnstile - really old style, if you'll pardon the pun. A traditional Irish music band was then 'entertaining' the crowd before the game got under way. Then we had the national anthem where only a singer sang and not the crowd - as you'd expect.

The size of the pitch was a surprise to me. It just looked so big and vast and the players by comparison - so tiny and lost on the big pitch. I had forgotten what it was like to see a game being played there right in front of me. If you ever see a hurling match on tv, it looks really fast paced and dangerous. Seeing it there in the flesh - it didn't seem as fast as it does on tv. I'm not sure why that is - could be to do with editing I suppose. Another thing is when you see any sport on tv, you can rely on them for replays and watching it from different camera angles, but when you're in the sports ground you don't have the same luxury and have to keep your eyes glued on the pitch or you'll miss something and never see it again.

I was sitting near a guy who had an opinion on everything that was going on on the pitch. He was looking all around him - either looking for people to back him up or for people to argue with, I'm not sure which. The rest of the crowd was surprisingly reserved. They clapped when a goal or point was scored by either side and didn't really get excited until the very last minutes of the game with shouts of 'Come on Cork' or 'Come on Tipp'. It ended a draw with 1-14 a piece.

Happy St Patrick's Day 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Cork City, the second biggest city in Ireland. This is my second year living in the city and my second time seeing the celebrations for the Irish national holiday. The parade through South Mall, Grand Parade and Patrick Street was colourful, noisy and very well attended. The people marching through the streets were a mix of local cultural and sports groups and associations of new Irish as they are called; people who were born in other countries who came to live in Ireland.

I have a few pictures here showing some of the people marching in the parade. It was an education to watch all this go by - I would probably not have known that Angola's flag still bears the symbols of Soviet times. have a look out for it, complete with cog wheel, machete and a gold star. Apart from that you'll see a strange collection of images that represents St. Patrick's day for many people in Ireland.

New day

This is the view from my flat in Cork, out across the Lee river and the valley. The photo shows the early morning sun shining through the spires of St Finbarrs Cathedral. It was taken at 8.30am on 21 January 2011. As you can see it's getting bright earlier in the mornings. The winter is behind us - at last. It was one of coldest and rudest winters for a long time. We had lots of snow and ice - I'll put up a few pictures to prove it.