Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/06/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 04:56 PM 6/17/2008, Jerry Lehrer wrote: >Sunny, > >To misquote " Oh to be in Ireland now that spring is here". That first >view looks just as it did to >me 50 years ago! > >Gonna get any shots of the Pubs in Dublin? Raise a glass of Guinness to >the memorial to Michael >Collins. Well, there really isn't much of a monument to Michael Collins in Dublin and they make it a bit difficult to get to the gravesite. The highways and memorials sections of the Irish government seem run by the followers of de Valera, as even the site of Collins' death, Beul na mBlath in County Cork, is absolutely unmarked on Irish government maps. I had to ask locals for the way and they were most forthcoming, especially when I asked in my marginal Gaelic, back in 2001. Now, if you visit the General Post Office in Dublin, the locus for the Easter Rebellion, you find huge paintings on the wall, above the clerks busy selling stamps and the like -- for that matter, the Irish PO still distributes something on the order of 250,000 British War Pension checks monthly, a holdover from the days of common rule. The paintings on the wall show Collins as a heroic character but nary a sight there would be of Dev. Clearly, the Irish PO is run by those who admire Michael Collins and who disdain the legacy, such as it is, of de Valera. I did take a couple of shots with my M6 of the marker at the place where Collins was killed and the monument nearby. The pictures are simply documentary and are unremarkable. Perhaps I should post them. Collins was the first Commander of the modern Irish Army but that Army, despite annual requests to do so, is still forbidden to honor his grave. Go figure. Poblacht na-hEireann! Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!