2nd Bunratty

June 24, 2024 by Sailoil

We fought the second Battle for Bunratty yesterday in glorious sunshine in the grounds of Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. In the first battle for Bunratty the fighters went through the lists like a Knight through butter. The woodwork came apart as soon as the Buhurt bouts kicked off. This time the park builders put in far more braces and added screws to the nails and it had the desired effect. By the end of the day the list remained intact.

Three Irish medieval armoured fighting clubs participated. The Knights of Munster dazzled with their customary sartorial elegance bringing colour and glamour to the list. The doughty warriors of Fragarach from Leinster travelled far and fought hard. The boys from Athenry 1316 MFC took the spoils on the day in a hard fought round of duels, profights and group fights. Also a special mention to Oliver, our visiting French Mercenary Knight from Les Decendents du Hardi, who demonstrated his class on the field of battle.

We fought a selection of longsword duels, sword and shield duels, sword and buckler duels, a profight, and group fights (buhurt). Unlike 1st Bunratty no swords were broken on this day but we saw a shield smashed in two. We also have running repairs to make on some of the armour in preparation for 3rd Bunratty.

“It takes a village to raise a child” can be paraphrased for these events where we build a tented village and the show is impossible without the small army of announcers, marshalls, hit counters, runners, squires and helpers who assemble and dis-assemble the whole kit and caboodle. Big thanks to the folk at Bunratty who are on site to ensure everything goes to plan. And also a big thanks to the crowd to turn up and pay the fee that allows all of this to happen. You are beautiful people. Special mention to those who go the extra mile and dress for the occasion.

The Battle for Bunratty returns again on July 21st and August 11th 2024. In September we will move further north to the grounds of Claregalway Castle for the premier event of the year, the two day Claregalway Castle Shield organised by the Irish National Medieval Armoured Fighting club.

Now I’m off to do some light exercise to ease out stiff muscles but here is a final photo of the Knights of Munster presenting Oliver with a club T-shirt and pin.

-o0o-

This site is available for free and I make no money from any ads you see here. If you would like to show your appreciation feel free to leave a comment or you can buy me a coffee! http://buymeacoffee.com/DonalClancy

Stalin’s Anvil

June 22, 2024 by Sailoil

Operation Overlord began on June 6th 1944 with D-Day invasions of Normandy Beaches. Two weeks later the allied armies were still bottled up in Normandy attempting to take Caen. Summer storms destroyed landing facilities and limited the amount of war materiel that could be landed. There was a very real risk that the “Hammer Blow” from the West was in danger of faltering.

It was at this juncture, on June 22nd, that Stalin launched operation Bagration. From June 22nd to August 19th the restructured Soviet Military system demonstrated the true might of Russia. The casualties suffered by the Germans on the Eastern Front were double what they suffered on the Western Front. A quarter of a million in the West and just under half a million in the East.

Over the course of operation Bagration the Red Army chewed its way through 28 of the 34 divisions of army group centre. In the retaking of Byelorussia they trapped another 300,000 german troops in the Courland Pocket on the Baltic Sea. These troops played no further active role in the war.

The Russian operation forced the Germans to divert resources to shore up the situation in the East. In the West the allies were eventually able to break out from Normandy. They almost trapped the Germans in the Falaise Gap. In Paris the French Resistance rose up to take the capital and the Germans were forced to withdraw to the East of the River Seine. From Gold Beach to Rouen is 155 km. While the allies travelled that distance though the bocage country of Normandy the Russians battled through 500 km of more open country from Mogilev to Grodno.

-o0o-

I just don’t trust men in suits.

June 20, 2024 by Sailoil

There was a time when a suit was a sign of respectability, the mark of an upright, successful man, a man which whom you could do business.

These days I look at men in suits and think I trust them as far as I can spit.

What really grinds my gears is that the planet is relying on this parade of monkeys to save us from climate disaster, and they just do not care. They are wrapped up in their own egos and their own pathetic insecurities.

The western political system is broken and the communist and socialist experiments are abject failures because they are all rooted in accumulation of power. Capitalism is the pursuit of private property and the private individual profiting on the exploitation of resources that should be held in common are the greatest climate assassins.

We need an entirely new paradigm. I’m betting on anarcho-syndicalism. Power corrupts, so distribute power to the bottom. It will never work though because anarcho-syndicalism only works if the people at the bottom assume responsibility and do the work. These days you can’t even get more than 50% of voters in a republic to turn up one day in five years to register a preference. I despair for the planet.

-o0o-

Washington Monument

June 19, 2024 by Sailoil

The National Mall in Washington runs from the Lincoln memorial to the Capitol. It serves two important functions. At a national level it is an imposing symbol of the Nation’s capital, a statement to representatives, senators, Governors and the general public that this is the heart of the nation, the omphalos, the seat of power.

For visiting dignatories it is a statement of raw power, the ultimate home court advantage to overawe the ambassadors of foreign nations.

On the intersection of the National Mall with a line running due south from the Whitehouse sits the Washington Memorial. Before the pedants jump on me, the ground at that precise point was too unstable for the monument. On the exact point you will find the Jefferson Pier. The Washington Monument had to be located almost 400 feet away from that position.

You cannot write a series on the obelisks of the world without including the Washington Monument. Not only is it the largest obelisk ever constructed, and the world’s tallest stone structure, but it is one of the most prominent and easily identified monuments in the world. Star of thousands of movies and TV shows and a centrepiece of every US Presidential inauguration ceremony. Over 169 metres tall it is constructed in the pattern of a hollow Egyptian obelisk. Construction commenced in 1848, five years after completion of the Bunker Hill Memorial. It was interrupted by funding difficulties and the U.S. Civil War and was finally completed by 1888. It was the tallest building in the world until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.

If you look closely at the photo above you can see a distinct colour change in the marble, when the supply changed from one quarry to another. Just like the ancient obelisks of Egypt and Rome it has been damaged by an earthquake in 2011.

-o0o-

Bunker Hill Obelisk

June 17, 2024 by Sailoil

The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17th 1775, 249 years ago on this day.

The Colonial Revolutionary forces learned that the British in Boston were planning to occupy the hills that would allow them to command Boston Harbour to keep it safe for the Royal Navy. In a stealthy move 1,200 colonials occupied Bunker hill and the adjacent Breed’s hill. They constructed a stout redoubt on Breed’s hill.

The British mounted an assault and were repulsed twice suffering heavy casualties. But on the third attempt they took the redoubt because the colonials ran out of ammunition. The Americans withdrew to Bunker hill and slipped away. The British claimed the ground and the victory. But they learned a hard lesson. American colonial militia were tough, and could shoot, and were able to stand up to a frontal attack by the British Army regulars.

Between 1825 and 1843 the 67 metre granite obelisk was erected, the Bunker Hill Memorial. It is located on Breed’s hill where the majority of the fighting took pace. The obelisk replaced an earlier wooden column erected to the memory of General Joseph Warren who fell during the battle.

The Marquis de Lafayette, on a 50 year anniversary tour of the war, laid the foundation stone. Built at the same time as the Wellington Monument in Dublin, the Bunker hill monument came in 5 metres taller making it the tallest obelisk in the world until the construction of the Washington Monument.

-o0o-

War Memorial Obelisk

June 16, 2024 by Sailoil

World War 1, the Great War, had an impact on society that we cannot internalise today. In the opening phase of the war the British Regular army performed magnificently, far beyond expectations. An apocryphal tale of the day suggested that the Kaiser referred to the British Expeditionary Force as “this contemptible little army” and the adopted the nickname the “Old Contemptibles“.

The British were vastly outnumbered and outclassed by the German military machine and this became glaringly obvious at actions such as the Rearguard Affair of Étreux. Few of the regulars survived the “Race to the Sea”. In response the British put out a call for volunteers to replace the shredded ranks of the regulars.

The outpouring of nationalistic fervour led to situations where large numbers of young men from the same towns or factories joined up together. In the early part of the conflict the Ministry of War thought it was a good idea to form these into “Pals Brigades”, instant communities of men who knew and trusted each other. This policy was changed once the first encounters between raw British recruits and experienced German troops well entrenched and defended. The scythe of death could reap the entire manhood of a small town or village.

Back home in those towns and villages as the death toll mounted the true horror of industrialised warfare was laid bare. The jingoistic songs like “Long way to Tipperary” gave way to “The Roses of Picardy” and poems of glorious self sacrifice by Rupert Brooke were nudged aside in favour of Dulce et Decorum Est.

When the war ended the Government and the military branches erected grand Cenotaphs, Triumphal Arches and War Memorials to commemorate the fallen. But at the local level the surviving servicemen and the families of the fallen wanted their own, more modest, and more personal monument. The obelisk became a common expression of grief. It is modest, easier to erect than a statue or an arch. It is something within the capability of any local gravestone maker.

It is also modest in cost. These memorial societies were ordinary working class people contributing a couple of shillings a week, or perhaps only pennies. All over Britain and Ireland you will find these small personal memorials to the local lads who fell. This one is on South Mall in Cork City

-o0o-

Conolly’s Folly

June 13, 2024 by Sailoil

This has to be the most bizarre and unusual obelisk in the world. It is to be found outside of Dublin City in Ireland, in County Kildare in what used to be Castletown Estate between Leixlip, Maynooth and Celbridge.

When you mention famine in Ireland everyone defaults to the Great Potato Famine of the 1840’s. Exactly 100 years previously in 1740/41 there was a famine that proportionally killed more people as a percentage of the population than the great famine. A cold and dry period at the tail end of the “little ice age” was experienced all across Europe. Ireland at this time was not as heavily dependent on the potato as a staple food as it would be 100 years later. The harsh winters destroyed milk production, the oat harvest and the potato crop. This triple whammy devastated the peasant farming class.

At the height of this famine Katherine Conolly commissioned works to provide relief to the starving poor. Katherine was the wife of the Speaker of the Irish Parliament, William Conolly. Katherine was a scion of the Conyngham family who live to this day in Slane Castle in County Meath, where Lord Mountcharles puts on the odd music festival.

The Conolly’s and the Conynghams took the soup (becoming Anglicans) during the Williamite Wars and following the defeat of the Jacobites they benefited from land transfers to the winning side. William commissioned the first winged Palladian mansion in Ireland at Castletown Estate. He built a magnificent townhouse in Capel Street in Dublin for the winter parliament season. He also commissioned the construction of the old Dublin Customs House and one of the finest buildings in Dublin, the bi-cameral parliament building today known as Bank of Ireland on College Green.

After William passed away Katherine remained living at Castletown where she also constructed another well known eccentric folly known as the Magnificent Barn. The Conolly Folly is a collection of ascending arches decorated liberally with Pineapples, the mark of extravagance of its day, and topped off with an entirely incongruous Egyptian style obelisk. The whole thing looks like the kind of fantastic building children make with Lego. It rises 42 metres high and can be seen for miles in the flat countryside.

-o0o-

Stillorgan Obelisk

June 12, 2024 by Sailoil

The oldest standing obelisk in Ireland is in Stillorgan, a suburb of Dublin City. It even predates the Boyne Obelisk by nine years. It was erected in 1727, the first Obelisk built in Ireland and was said to be inspired by the Bernini Piazza Navona Obelisk in Rome. This latter I find hard to credit because it looks nothing like a genuine graceful Egyptian stone.

It was designed by the Architect Sir Edward Lovett Pearce who also designed the Bank of Ireland Building on College Green, Dublin, opposite the entrance to Trinity College, which was the Irish Parliament building of its day. Pearce was commissioned, according to one story, by John Allen, 1st Viscount Allen, to design a monument as a memorial for his wife. But she is buried in London. Another story has it that there was a local famine at the time and the obelisk was commissioned as a form of famine relief to provide work to the local tenants.

In an Ancient Roman twist, reminiscent of Emperor Caligula, legend has it that the Second Viscount, Joshua Allen, had his favourite horse buried beneath the Obelisk. The Irish love a good story and there is no shortage of stories surrounding the obelisk.

It stands an impressive 100 feet high but rests upon an unsightly base that is thankfully softened these days by a blanket of greenery. This was designed to be a grotto with stairs leading up to the obelisk which also contains a room in the base accessed by egyptian styled doors. The construction predates the work of Capability Brown, who was only ten years old in the year of construction. But the tradition of constructing classical follies on large estate was well established in the early 18th Century. In truth this was probably a simple case of erecting a charming but pointless folly on the landscape to act as a faux ancient ruin and pleasing focal point. Then the bewildered local Irish filled in the blanks with multiple reasons for its construction.

In 1954 some local schoolboys were building a grotto to celebrate the Marian year at the foot of the Obelisk when they found a human skeleton. The Gardaí (Irish Police) were called in and assessed that it was the skeleton of a small woman who died from a blow to the head. But it was very old. So the National Musuem sent in experts who analyzed the flint and oyster shells in the grave and determined it to be a bronze age cist burial.

-=o0o=-

The Hamilton Monument

June 10, 2024 by Sailoil

In North County Dublin you can find the picturesque seaside and fishing village called Skerries. When I was growing up this was a regular day trip for the family. Our favourite swimming place was the Captain’s. In the distant past the Captain’s was a swimming hole with diving boards which was part of the Red Island Holiday Resort. Feargal Quinn, the founder of Superquinn Supermarkets, grew up working in Red Island which was owned and run by his father.

In the years post WW2 holiday resorts became very popular. The appeal was that a family could pay a fixed fee and be served three good meals a day. All entertainment was on site. Skerries also benefited from being a train stop on the Dublin to Belfast railway line. Then the 1970’s came along and everyone wanted to travel to “the Continent” and drink cheap Spanish wine and get suntans. I remember when the choice of sunscreen was factor 2, or factor 4. The Red Island Resort was an early casualty of the move away from domestic holiday resorts.

We never stayed in Red Island, but I do remember it well. As the infrastructre was dismantled it was replaced by public park facilities, car parking and playgrounds. You can see my family in Skerries in this photograph from the 1960’s.

In the centre of Skerries Village, in a prominent position sits the Hamilton Monument. This is a scale replica of the Wellington Monument. James Hans Hamilton was a landlord who represented the area in the Westminster Parliament in the 19th Century. After his death in 1863 the monument was constructed and was completed in 1865.

The Hamilton family were responsible for much of the planning of Skerries town. Whether he represented the interests of his tenants in Westminster is open to debate. These were the days before secret ballots, when voters were called out by name to cast their vote. Landlords would set up a beer tent on election day, and after each tenant loudly cast his vote for his landlord the agent would slip him some money. Westminster was a parliament which worked to protect the status quo for landlords, not to reform it for tenants. Irish tenants were victims of the worst conditions to be found anywhere in the British Empire, a hangover from the Penal Laws.

The inscription on the monument reads:

This Monument was erected in memory of James Hans Hamilton Esq. M.P. Abbotstown House, Co. Dublin by the tenantry of his severel estates viz.: Holmpatrick, Dublin, Meath, Carlow, Down and Queens County in testimony of their esteem for him as a kind friend and benevolent landlord. He represented this County in Parliament for twenty-two years and died 19th June 1863.

Pardon me if I throw up a little in my mouth, but I don’t believe that his tenants clubbed in to erect a monument for their landlord. They paid for it but neither intentionally nor voluntarily. By 1897 the Hamilton Family were elevated to the British Peerage becoming Lord Holmpatrick.

For me this obelisk is erected almost as a mirror of how the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh’s went about it. The father made provision for his name in posterity and the son completed the work, elevating his father to grander status. The Egyptians did it to secure a place in the afterlife, the Anglo-Irish landlord did it to secure a permanent bench in the House of Lords.

-=o0o=-

The Wellington Monument

June 9, 2024 by Sailoil

The tallest obelisk in Europe was built to commemorate Arthur Wellesley, the First Duke of Wellington. It stands in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, and is a popular congregation point for families on a sunny Sunday outing.

I spent many a happy day climbing the awkwardly angled steps around the base, and admiring the bronze friezes depicting the victories of the Iron Duke. The bronze, so the story goes, was melted down from French cannons captured at Waterloo.

The survival of this monument following Irish independence from the United Kingdom is a testimony to the birth of Arthur Wesley (spelling intentional) who was born at Mornington House on Merrion Street in Dublin. His parents were the 1st Earl of Mornington and the Countess of Mornington and their seat was Dangan Castle in Summerhill County Meath.

Wesley himself preferred to be regarded as British, if not English. When he was building his career in India he changed the spelling of his surname to differentiate himself from his older brother who inherited the Earldom. He was at pains to point out that though Jesus was born in a stable he was not a horse. He did not consider himself Irish, but the Irish claimed him, and this in part is what saved the monument.

Unlike the Boyne Obelisk the Wellington Monument was not a raw statement of the English oppression of Ireland. It celebrated the man, not the regime. Dublin had another monument that celebrated the man, Nelson’s Pillar. Completed in 1809 to commemorate the victor of the Battle of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar, it was damaged in March 1966, the month and year my younger brother was born. The IRA detonated a bomb that removed the Admiral from the monument. Unfortunately it cracked the granite pillar which then had to be demolished by the Irish Army.

Lord Nelson was an Englishman and his presence in Sackville St. which was named for the Lord Lieutenant who constructed the Boyne Monument, just did not sit well in Ireland. Sackville St. became O’Connell St. after the Great Emancipator, Daniel O’Connell. Nelson was illegally removed, but there was not a lot of effort expended in tracking down the perpetrators. The rubble was cleared away and for most Irish people it was a problem solved rather than an act of vandalism. The site of the Pillar is now occupied by the Dublin Spire.

The original plan for the Wellington Monument was to place it in the City Centre in Merrion Square, where the Irish Parliament Buildings can now be found. The residents objected and as a result it was constructed in the Phoenix Park. I believe the location also benefited it’s survival. Nelson’s pillar was a constant presence of daily life, looming over the work of the city. Wellington’s monument sits outside of the daily grind and is associated with hours of leisure and pleasure instead of with the daily grind.

The foundation stone for the Wellington Monument was laid in 1817. The obelisk was completed by 1822 and the plan was to erect an equestrian bronze statue of he Duke nearby. The pedestal was completed by 1822 but funds were short for the bronzes. When the Duke passed away in 1852 it was still unfinished. The project became something of an embarassment so the unfinished pedestal was dismantled and the available funds were used to install the bronzes on the obelisk. It opened to the public in 1861.

It was the tallest obelisk in the world when it topped out in 1822, but because of all the faffing about with the Bronze the Americans officially completed the Bunker Hill Obelisk in 1843 and made it 5 metres taller than the Wellington Monument.

-=o0o=-

Mindship

Monthly Archives: June 2024

Stalin’s Anvil

I just don’t trust men in suits.

Washington Monument

Bunker Hill Obelisk

War Memorial Obelisk

Conolly’s Folly

Stillorgan Obelisk

The Hamilton Monument

The Wellington Monument