Monthly Archives: September 2015

Ju jeni kripa e tokës, por nëse kripa amështohet, me çfarë do të njelmësohet? Nuk vlen më për asgjë veç për t’u hedhur jashtë e për t’u shkelur nga njerëzit. Ju jeni drita e botës. Nuk mund të fshihet qyteti … Continue reading →

Continued from Part 4: Part 5   St. Brendan’s Church located on the Larkfield Road in Sydenham, East Belfast. The Voyage of Bran was perhaps the earliest of the Immrama or ‘Voyage Tales’, but the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, (the Voyage of Saint … Continue reading →

Continued from Part 3: Part 4 Bangor, of course, was also the source for the famous Immram Brain MaicFebail, Voyage of Bran of which Douglas Hyde wrote, “I know of few things in literature comparable to this lovely description, one … Continue reading →

Continued from Part 2: Part 3 Tristan and Iseult as depicted by Edmund Blair Leighton (1853–1922) We know of course, the story of how Tristan won Iseult. I recently spoke to chef Rick Stein about it following Van Morrison’s superlative concert … Continue reading →

Continued from Part 1: Part 2 The Inklings of course have now entered literary history, and more has been written about them than I will ever know. A literary society of that name was founded in about 1931 by an … Continue reading →

This is the text of my address to the Ninth William Carlton Summer School held in Corick House, Clogher (a) on Monday 7th August 2000. There are four more parts to come. The Inklings – Mythological Voyagers Part 1 Keir Hardie … Continue reading →

The Gallic Wars Gallia       On Wednesday 30th June 2010, our Somme Pilgrimage took us from Arras on a full day’s tour into Belgium. On the road to Ieper (Ypres) I had the opportunity to tell our group of … Continue reading →

JRR Tolkien’s early story The Story of Kullervo has just been published for the first time. The dark tale reveals that Tolkien’s Middle Earth was inspired not only by the mythology of ancient Pretania. the British Isles… but also by Finland. … Continue reading →

Olet maan suola. Mutta jos suola hänellä mauttomaksi, millä se saadaan suolaiseksi? Sen vuoksi on hyvä vain pois heitettäväksi ja tulla kulkeneet jalkoihin. Olet maailman valo. Kaupunki kukkulalla ei voi piiloutui. Kumpikaan on kynttilä piilotti ja laittaa vakan alle, vaan … Continue reading →

On Wednesday 4th June,1997, two days after I left office as Lord Mayor of Belfast, I flew from Belfast to Seattle. Kevin McBride recognised me and I got an upgrade to Business Class, which was very helpful as I was embarking on a … Continue reading →