It was great to catch up with my old friend, Conor McGinn MP at today’s conference on the 75th anniversary of Ireland becoming a republic Liverpool Hope University. Also pictured are Dr Ruth Canning & conference convenor, Prof Bryce Evans.

Where are the charms and virtues which we dare
Conceive in boyhood and pursue as men,
The unreach'd Paradise of our despair,
Which o'er-informs the pencil and pen,
And overpowers the page where it would bloom again?

Where indeed? A bit of Byron for his 200th anniversary.

But those the candles light are not as those
That animate a mother's reveries,
But keep a marble or a bronze repose.
… O Presences
That passion, piety or affection knows,
And that all heavenly glory symbolise—
O self-born mockers of man's enterprise;
W.B. #Yeats

Day Tripper. On way back to Dublin. First time at John Lennon Airport. Instant Karma!

A great talk from our keynote speaker Daniel Mulhall to end the day

It was great to catch up with my old friend, Conor McGinn MP at today’s conference on the 75th anniversary of Ireland becoming a republic Liverpool Hope University. Also pictured are Dr Ruth Canning & conference convenor, Prof Bryce Evans.

Daniel Mulhall bringing the day’s proceedings to a close Republic 75 with a brilliant reflection of 44 years of service to the state at a packed conference hall here at Liverpool Hope University

O spring
inside the world,
forgive me
if I haven’t
drunk my fill.

Mark Roper, ‘MacDuagh’s Well’ #IrishPoetry

Skye! No matter the weather it is lovely!

Today’s conference Liverpool Hope University marking the 75th anniversary of Ireland becoming a republic kicks off with a paper by Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid on Seán MacBride and John A. Costello, members of the inter-party government that declared the republic.

Early start this morning. On my way to Liverpool Hope University to take part in a conference marking the 75th anniversary of Ireland becoming a republic.

O spring
inside the world,
forgive me
if I haven’t
drunk my fill.

Mark Roper, ‘MacDuagh’s Well’ #IrishPoetry

Here is a link to the trailer for the #Carlichauns , the children’s animated project for which I am acting as a brand Ambassador. Anyone with an interest in knowing more about the project can contact me at [email protected]. carlichauns.com

I would send you
the horizon
folded into a crease
of this page. Now
a gesture of sea
that rushes
from it, now
the deep bow
of sky
toward it.
Home
resides in this
line between,
holding its
open gaze.
Nell Regan ‘A Letter’ #IrishPoetry

It’s been a long time since I first came across the name Palladius, ‘first bishop of the Irish Christians’. I found this sign at the Birks of Aberfeldy. Wasn’t it a suggestion that Palladius was also called Patrick that gave rise to the controversy about ‘the two St. Patricks’?

One more day till our conference Liverpool Hope University
We have many great speakers that we look forward to listening to tomorrow Daniel Mulhall Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid Donal Coffey Sarah Mangan Ireland CG for the North of England
Felix M. Larkin
Registration begins at 11:15am
Prof Bryce Evans

I would send you
the horizon
folded into a crease
of this page. Now
a gesture of sea
that rushes
from it, now
the deep bow
of sky
toward it.
Home
resides in this
line between,
holding its
open gaze.
Nell Regan ‘A Letter’ #IrishPoetry

.. the kayak’s foam-cuffed

trail now a vein of vanishing
ripples. Wave-pleats fold

and crease, while out
along the horizon, the pause

of settled light, brightness honed
to a scalpel

and the whole world curves
to meet the cleave
of a sea-gull’s wing.

Eithne Lannon #Poetry

Visited Dunvegan Castle on #Skye , home of the chief of the Clan McLeod. An imposing building in a beautiful location.

On way out of #Skye , visited the monument to Bonnie Prince Charlie at Glenfinnan. It was erected in 1815, 70 years after the defeat of the Jacobites at #Culloden .