BEYOND EXPECTATIONS

          "When you have nothing more to say, just drive 
       for a day around the peninsula.
       The sky is tall as over a runway,
       The land without marks, so you will not arrive."
                   Seamus Heaney from The Peninsula    

      If it was only the land and sea, Ireland would provide this globe with a bounty of lyrical word and prose and a beauty beyond beauty. But the soul of those words and the guardians of the beauty are a people, unique perhaps, but certainly abundant of wit, spirit, explorers of the heart and resolutely independent.  

    It was our good fortune to see the Irish Republic with Irish friends, Kay, Willie, Kay and Jack.

     An almost constant companion was beauty and personality. 

     The presence of history and scenic nature are powerful, but this is a nation of a great people, sociable people. 

    Wit is a near constant companion. Consider the scene below...

    Glendalough in County Wicklow is a beautiful setting and the location of an ancient abbey, the home of a venerated Saint, Kevin. 
    Kevin was a pious man and lived as a hermit, shunning social contact, especially women. 
    While he is a canonized Saint and held with regard, there is a popular cultural remembrance of him as well. It is a tale  about drowning a woman who tempted him. 
     In a Song by the Dubliners are the lines

       "One evening he landed a trout, sir
         He landed a big trout.
         When young Kathleen from over the way
         Came to see what the old monk was about...
         
         fol di do fol di do day

         "Well get out o me way, said the Saint
          For I am a man of great piety
          and me good manners I wouldn't taint
          not be mixing with female society."

           fol di do fol di do day

           Oh but Kitty she wouldn't give in
           And when he got home to his rockery
          He found she was seated therein
          A-polishin' up his old crockery

           fol di do fol di do day

           Well he gave the poor creature a shake
           And I wish that the Garda had caught him!
           For he threw her right into the lake
           And, be Jaysus, she sank to the bottom

    A closer look at Ireland is onboard in coming posts.

     There is an Irish castle in the charming County Meath village of Trim, and chances are you have seen it, on the big screen, but not "where" you might expect. 

       We'll see how the land of writers celebrates the word and the wordsmiths. 

        There is an Irish social current I wish US citizens could take upon themselves. I can only assume it is born of a desire for Independence, not unlike that of our ancestors 245 years ago.
      Ireland declared their independence from the United Kingdom in 1919, following the Easter Uprising of 1916. There was struggle and bloodshed. Today the Republic is a place of pride and the history is close of mind. And in the North, there are still troubles.

            "And drive back home, still with nothing to say

        Except that now you will uncode all landscapes

        By this: things founded clean on their own shapes,

        Water and ground in their extremity."

                             Seamus Heaney

         

        Come along for an Irish journey.

        See you down the trail.

KELVINGROVE

   A highlight of Glasgow is the magnificent Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in the West End on the banks of the Kelvin River and bounded by a beautiful park.

   My friend Frank, a frequent visitor, said not to miss it, if only because of the architecture. 

      It is built of red sandstone from Locharbriggs Scotland.

  It was built from 1888 to 1901 and is near the University of Glasgow. 

   The center piece of the Centre Hall is the concert pipe organ. 

   The building reverberates when the organ master is at the keyboard.

   The Kelvingrove is an apt mixture of art, artifacts, taxidermy and oddities. 

     When viewing the battle ribbons it struck me how frequently and how far flung brave Scots were sent to battle by the King or Queen of England.

   A fine cafe afforded an ideal place for a cup of tea, a snack and place to watch the verdant green, get greener. 

    Admission to this Art Gallery and Museum is free, as are most museums in Scotland. 

   Ireland is on the horizon. Stay tuned.

   See you down the trail. 

An Unlikely Story

   At first glance you'd think it's a scene of people walking to a picturesque little chapel.

        Picturesque and little yes, but with a big and old back story.

   It begins in 1943 when 200 Italians, members of the 5th Labor battalion were captured at Tobruk and Benghazi and sent to Camp 60, a world away in Lamb Holm in the Orkney Islands.
   The Italian POW's were assigned to build roads and causeways, known as Churchill Barriers. The structures were meant to block access through the Orkney Islands which housed the British Fleet, anchored at Scapa Flow. 
    The POW's balked at first until the camp commander Major TP Buckland and Padre Gioachino Giacobazzi put together a plan. The Padre, from the Order of Little Brothers, had been sent to the remote camp to minister to the POW's. 
     The men wanted a place to worship and so they were given two Nissen huts. Amongst the prisoners was an artist, Domenico Chiocchetti and the rest is an amazing history in the lovely Orkneys. 

  Using recycled corned beef tin cans and scrap wood they went to work. They used concrete to fashion the facade to hide the shape of the prefabricated metal huts they joined end to end. They covered the interior with plaster board. The altar and altar rail were made from left over concrete, used in building the barriers. 

  

        It looks real, but is paint and illusion.
    Chiocchetti directed the work and the painting, done in a style to make flat walls look like carved stone, brick, wood, stained glass or tile. The ornate metal frame is painted tin cans, cut and shaped by the POW's. The candle sticks were also made that way.

   Chiocchetti's mother had given him a picture to carry during the war. It was a photo of Barabino's "Madonna of the Olives." He used it as the model from which to create the altar painting. 

    The baptismal font is a car exhaust covered with concrete.
The surrounding walls, like the ceiling, is paint on plasterboard.
   Today the Italian Chapel is the only remaining building at Camp 60. Around the waters of the Orkney Islands one can spot a few rusted Churchill Barrier Block Ships that were purposely sunk to impede German Submarines. An irony in the peaceful waters and beauty of the Orkneys, they are now used for scuba diving. 

    The chapel is used for special services and draws about 100 thousand visitors a year.
    And there is a sidebar story. When the POW's were returned to Italy, Chiocchetti stayed to finish some detail work. Legend has it he fell for a local gal, but alas he had a wife at home in Italy. So with some flourish he assured the local woman though he needed to leave, he was leaving his heart at Camp 60. It is there in the recycled cement at the approach to the altar. 

     Chiocchetti returned in 1960 and 1964.  Many of the former prisoners returned in 1992. Chiocchetti died in 1999 but his daughter sang in a special commemorative mass in 2014 marking the 70th Anniversary of the Chapel.
     An artifact of a world war remains and is an unlikely testament to peace, love, cooperation and imagination.

    More from Scotland is ahead, and the itinerary is about to move us to the magic of Ireland. 

     See you down the trail.

OLD AND NEW WITH SWAGER

    The visit to Glasgow begins and ends at the Museum of Modern art. 
     The art prank on the statue to the Duke of Wellington is in keeping with the mood of Scotland's largest city.

    New and old reflect each other in Glasgow.

      The juxtaposition is an affect of the heavy bombing Glasgow suffered during WWII. The port and industry were targets of the German Nazis.

 Thomas Carlyle is fittingly recalled. He was a towering thinker, writer, mathematician, philosopher and Victorian era commentator. 

    Glasgow is long on contrast and irony.

  There is a rich architectural heritage. 

  Many in Glasgow speak with a dialect or accent that is unique among the Scots. One needs to listen carefully, and even then it can be a challenge, though a delight to hear. 

        It is a cultural and artistic center. It feels and looks larger than its population of some 600 thousand. 

   On the itinerary, the Kelvingrove, and then a place where you can not believe your eyes and onto the magnificent Irish Republic.

   See you down the travel.