Ireland was officially neutral during the Second World War and the Irish government referred to the war as "the emergency". But part of the island of Ireland was at war and physically we are very close to the UK, so there was always a risk that German pilots could get confused about which country they were over. And so the Irish government set up the coastal watch to … [Read more...] about A Quirky Bit of Irish History
photography
Castles, so Many Castles
This year's July break is being spent in County Galway, close to Mayo. The cottage I rented via AirBnB is surrounded by fields and most of our neighbours are of the wooly variety. While I have spent a lot of time in County Clare since I was very young I've never really spent time in this part of the country so there's plenty of things to see that are new to me. One … [Read more...] about Castles, so Many Castles
Shooting Old Guns
Growing up in a stately home is probably a little different from the norm, but I lived in a 19th century mansion from the age of 10 onwards, so it was my normal. Living there meant that I was literally living in a museum which was full of antiques. It also meant that I got to meet people who worked on the contents or were in and around for any number of other reasons. One … [Read more...] about Shooting Old Guns
Photo Memories
A friend tagged me on Twitter a couple of days ago with "my life in pictures". So I thought I'd participate. I take photos with my phone or one of my cameras when I'm travelling. Over the past few years I've taken literally thousands of photos. Some of them are incredibly boring, but others aren't. So in order to participate in this Twitter thing I thought I'd … [Read more...] about Photo Memories
Photos from Mexico
I need to write a few more blog posts about my recent trip to Mexico, but in the meantime I finally got round to uploading the photos I took during the trip. Here they are: … [Read more...] about Photos from Mexico