ABC Wednesday - K is for Knightstown

We visited Knightstown on Valentia Island (NOT Valencia Island as marked on some maps) in April 1999. We were staying at Kenmare in County Kerry and had set off across country. The rain in Ireland can be fierce and as we drove into the town of Caherciveen the water was bouncing 18 inches high as it hit the road. We didn't take the ferry across but drove several miles to Portmagee where there is a bridge across to the island. We kept on driving until we arrived at Knightstown. Here we found a little cafe. We parked outside and decamped into it as quickly as we could. After refreshing ourselves I took this quick photograph looking down into town with its clock tower by the ferry to Caherciveen.


We returned in September 2000 on a sunny day and explored in more comfort.

The first transatlantic cable to achieve long term success was laid from Foilhommerum, Valentia Island to Hearts Content, Newfoundland on the 13th July 1866 by the largest ship of that time, 'The Great Eastern.' Queen Victoria and President Andrew Johnson exchanged congratulatory messages via the transatlantic cable on July 29, 1866 just two days after the Great Eastern arrived at Heart's Content.

A cable station in Knightstown opened on September 20, 1868 and was closed in 1966 by Western Union International. The cable station is now a factory and the cable houses are now private homes. The buildings are situated on the lower road from Knightstown to Chapeltown.

There is more information about this on the Atlantic Cable website.

Later we went back to Portmagee and took a boat out to the Skelligs from the Skellig Experience Centre but that's a tale for another day.

For more K posts visit ABC Wednesday.

News from The Stinging Fly.

Vol 2 #10, Summer 2008, is now out. There are six new short stories, five long book reviews and a healthy smattering of poems; featured poet is Grace Wells and cover photography is by by Gerry McCloskey. Full details at http://www.stingingfly.org/current.html

The magazine is helping out with the Oxfam Books' Poems for 2009 Competition. The competition is to find six poems for next year's calendar. Closing date is Tuesday July 17th 2008. This year's stellar line-up of guest poets are Moya Cannon, Patrick Deeley, Eamon Grennan, Vona Groarke, Dave Lordan and Eiléan Ní Chuileanáin. The competition judge is Patrick Deeley. Further details, entry form and competition rules are on the Oxfam Ireland website. All funds raised from the competition and from the calendar will go towards funding Oxfam Ireland's various overseas aid projects.

In September they are publishing their second short story anthology, a follow-up to THESE ARE OUR LIVES (2006). The twenty new short stories were chosen from more than 400 stories received late last year. The new book will feature stories by Ragnar Almqvist, Evelyn Conlon, Danny Denton, Damien Doorley, Michael J. Farrell, Mia Gallagher, D. Gleeson, Rosemary Jenkinson, James Lawless, Colm Liddy, Viv McDade, Emer Martin, Gina Moxley, Helena Nolan, Jim O'Donoghue, Donal O'Sullivan, Breda Wall Ryan, Ingo Schulze, Tom Tierney and William Wall.

The Stinging Fly
PO Box 6016
Dublin 8
Ireland
ISSN 1393-5690
€7
visit the website of The Stinging Fly

Read reviews of earlier issues on NHI Review

ABC Wednesday - G is for Geograph

The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland.

A geograph is defined as a picture of an aspect of a square, or prominent feature of the square, showing the context of its geographical location and taken from within that square. In other words, a picture giving the viewer a good idea of the general topography of the area — what the area within the square looks like.

Squares are the 1km x 1km grid reference squares shown on the maps of the Ordnance Survey.

The project has been going for a few years now, and so the kudos of being the photographer who provides the first geograph for a specific square is very difficult to achieve. Most the squares that are still left to be bagged are in remote areas not accessible by footpaths let alone roads. Nonetheless I have managed to provide three first geographs


My first was Puffin island off Ballynahow on Square V3468.


The second was Gated road to Kinnighallen Farm on Square NN7546.


The third was Loch Rannoch on Square NN5756.

But it isn't really about grabbing the first geograph. Some squares have lots of geographs and what are known as supplemental photographs. It is about building up a picture of these islands. Go and take a look for yourself.

ABC Wednesday - T is for Travel

I could have gone T for Tallinn but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here and here.

I could have gone T for Trondheim but you can see my photos and account of that lovely city here.

I could have gone T for Tenerife but you can see my photos and account of that island here.

People seem to have the impression that I am well-travelled but I have only visited 13% of the world.



This map and the others you can compile on the net are bit misleading but interesting nonetheless. For the first 50-odd years of my life apart from a week in Amsterdam in 1980 [which included a day-trip to Brussels] and one holiday in Denmark, I never left the UK. However we saw an awful lot of the UK from St Agnes in the Scillies to Unst in Shetland. Very few areas of the British Isles are unvisited.

We didn't start world-travelling until 1999 when we ventured across the sea to Ireland. Later that year we flew via Amsterdam to Los Angeles. On the visited countries map that is enough to colour in the whole of the USA from New York westwards including Alaska.

In 2001 we had our tremendous holiday of a lifetime spending a month travelling around New Zealand which puts some colour in the bottom right-hand corner. The dot representing Singapore, our only stopover in Asia barely shows up.

The following year, having had to give up driving, we took a coach holiday through Europe visiting 9 countries in 9 days. There were some highlights but, in some respects it was possibly one of our grimmest holidays. It certainly colours the map though.

It was three years before we ventured abroad again on a fabulous cruise to Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In 2006 we went quite mad (and why not?). Firstly we had a holiday in February to Tenerife, which adds Spain to the map even though we've never seen its mainland. June saw us on our second cruise, this time to the Baltics. Although we only visit St. Petersburg, the map covers in the whole of Russia all the way to Siberia! Finally at the end of September we went to Crete, which adds Greece to the map even though we've never seen its mainland.

Our only holiday this year was a week in Southport. We have enjoyed a few day-trips to various places. The likelihood is that we won't be doing very much physical travelling in the future except for short journeys. Any regrets? Absolutely none. I travel Around the World everyday without leaving home.

containers

all my goods packeted for a voyage over oceans

words & picture © gerald england 2007

in response to the "container" theme at One Deep Breath.

The original photograph was taken in Dublin, 2005.