Farewell Old Soldiers

Armistice Day London 2008

I am hardly a supporter of British Militarism or military adventurism which the Red Tops treat as some jolly jape under the heading of “supporting our boys” or “finishing the job.” This begs the questions, too rarely asked in the same Red Tops, of what are we supporting and what is the job? Indeed I’ve pointed out elsewhere that Britain’s colonial history contains many disgraceful episodes when it acted as the Great Imperial Bully and we have also decidedly mixed feelings in Ireland on this count.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/britain-in-iraq.html

But none of this is in any way to detract from the personal heroism or sacrifice of soldiers in battle and it is right that their bravery is commemorated each year on Armistice Sunday, the service held on the Sunday closest to Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the fighting in World War 1 at 11.00 am on the 11th November 1918. Indeed when you read the obituaries of those who served in the wars and the enormous responsibilities and decisions they had to undertake at a tender age you somehow feel that those of us whose lives have not been tempered by war have somehow led shallow lives by contrast. However we largely read about those who survive, not those who perished.

Few can have been unmoved by the poignant sight at the last commemoration at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London of three of the last surviving veterans of the First World War joining serving soldiers in current conflicts to mark the 90th anniversary of the day peace returned to Europe. Henry Allingham, 112, Harry Patch, 110, and Bill Stone, 108, led the nation as it remembered the sacrifices made by the 1914-1918 generation. They each represented the armed service they belonged to - for Mr Allingham the Royal Air Force, Mr Patch the Army and Mr Stone the Royal Navy. All three men laid wreaths at the Cenotaph in central London to commemorate Armistice Day. Sadly, but not too surprisingly, all have now died since that ceremony.



Henry Allingham, who was in the Royal Naval Air Service in the war and later with the RAF, was the world's oldest man when he died 12 days ago aged 113. Since his death, the last WWI veteran in Britain, Harry Patch, has also died. Mr Patch was conscripted into the Army aged 18 and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres in 1917 in which more than 70,000 British soldiers died. At the end of the service the bells of St Nicholas's tolled 113 times, once for each year of his life, and five replica World War One planes - Mr Allingham was the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service and a founder member of the Royal Air Force - performed a flypast.


Henry Allingham, 1896 - 2009



The veteran was being buried with full military honours. Guests included the Duchess of Gloucester; the veterans minister Kevan Jones and senior figures from the Royal Navy and the Air Force. Henry Allingham was, at the age of 113, the world's oldest man when he died on July 18 and, with Harry Patch, one of Britain's last two survivors from the Great War. Harry Patch died exactly week later, making Claude Choules, 108, who lives in Australia, the last living British veteran of the war.

Mr Allingham's medals were carried by two of his 16 great-grandchildren who are both currently serving in the US Navy, his late daughter Jean had gone to America after WW2 as a GI Bride. Outside, a crowd of hundreds watched as the service was relayed on a big screen. Among them was Dennis Goodwin, founder and chair of the First World War Veterans' Association, who said he would never forget Mr Allingham. "I have been to many veterans' funerals but this is most special because it coincides with the end of an era." There are now only three surviving veterans of the First World War, none of them living in the UK.

John Babcock, who turned 109 on 23 July, was with Canada's Boys Battalion in England but the war ended before he turned 18 and could go to the front.

Frank Buckles, 108, joined the American army aged just 16 and was held in reserve in England from December 1917. After six months he was sent to France but never saw action on the frontline.

Claude Choules, 108, served with the Royal Navy during World War I. Originally from Worcestershire, he now lives in Perth, Australia.



The First World War and the Flu Epidemic of 1918/19 produced a death toll of unimaginable proportion and we should not forget the callousness with which lives were thrown away. Indeed, in a telling indication of the attitude among the General Staff to casualties there were more allied deaths on the morning of 11th November 1918 alone than there were on D-Day in 1944. The respected American author Joseph E Persico has calculated a shocking figure that the final day of WWI would produce nearly 11,000 casualties, more than those killed, wounded or missing on D-Day, when Allied forces landed en masse on the shores of occupied France almost 27 years later. What is worse is that hundreds of these soldiers would lose their lives thrown into action by generals who knew that the Armistice had already been signed. The recklessness of General Wright, of the 89th American Division, is a case in point. Seeing his troops were exhausted and dirty, and hearing there were bathing facilities available in the nearby town of Stenay, he decided to take the town so his men could refresh themselves. "That lunatic decision cost something like 300 casualties, many of them battle deaths, for an inconceivable reason," says Mr Persico.


Bill Stone, 1900 - 2009

It was with this in mind that I made a personal journey to the battle fields for there were deaths on both sides of my family in that war. Edward Kenny who died with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and my Great Uncle, James McMahon who died with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at Beaurevoir in the Ainse 5 weeks before the end of the war in 1918. When I visited James McMahon’s grave I wasn’t expecting to feel a great deal of connection with somebody who died so many years before I was born but being there amongst the graves of so many young Irish soldiers who all died on the 8th October 1918 was surprisingly moving.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-somme-personal-journey.html


Grave of my Great Uncle, James McMahon,1898 - 1918, Beaurevoir, France.

We now know that the war to end all wars did nothing of the sort and did little for “small nations” either. It is hard to explain the “Causes of the Great War.” In his weighty book of the same name the historian A.J.P. Taylor cannot come to a definitive conclusion but, as he observes, it was the first truly industrialised war and it was industrialisation which made possible the scale of the awful bloodbath as “Defence was mechanised but attack was not,” The aim of the domino effect of the alliances which clicked robot like into action after the assassinations in Sarajevo was to preserve the established order, “For King and Country” as it was expressed in Britain.

But after the dust had settled there were no more Hapsburgs, Romanoff’s, Hohenzollern’s or Ottomans and the Saxe-Coburg Gotha’s had become “Windsor’s”. The war and the humiliating peace left a legacy of instability both in Europe and in the former Ottoman territories only some of which has been resolved today. It removed a whole generation and those left behind bore deep scars. They included a French Captain, Charles De Gaulle, left for dead by his own side at Verdun in no-man’s land for two days before being taken prisoner by the Germans, an Austrian corporal Adolph Hitler who was gassed and wounded and unemployed after the war in a collapsed German economy who concluded his country was not defeated on the battlefield but by its own lack of willpower and subversive elements on the home front who were not “proper Germans” The novelist J.R. Tolkien was a survivor of the Somme and wrote a mythological parable of the horror and inhumanity of mechanised warfare and a plea for the decency of humanity, “The Lord of the Rings.”

The “Last Tommy” Harry Patch thought that his comrade’s sacrifice had been in vain because what the world achieved was not “Peace in our Time” but rather it set the scene for the conflict of WW11. He expressed himself movingly in interviews in 2004;

“I was taken back to England to convalesce. When the war ended, I don't know if I was more relieved that we'd won or that I didn't have to go back. Passchendaele was a disastrous battle — thousands and thousands of young lives were lost. It makes me angry. Earlier this year, I went back to Ypres to shake the hand of Herr Kuentz, Germany's only surviving veteran from the war. It was emotional. He is 107. We've had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it's a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn't speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?"

......."It wasn’t worth it. No war is worth it. No war is worth the loss of a couple of lives let alone thousands. T’isn’t worth it … the First World War, if you boil it down, what was it? Nothing but a family row. That’s what caused it. The Second World War – Hitler wanted to govern Europe, nothing to it. I would have taken the Kaiser, his son, Hitler and the people on his side … and bloody shot them. Out the way and saved millions of lives. T’isn’t worth it."


Ypres

Harry Patch will be buried after a service at Wells Cathedral near Bath this coming Thursday 6th August. A quiet man who did not talk about the war in public until he was 100, he may have been surprised to see that his passing led television and radio bulletins and prompted banner headlines in the Sunday papers. "Too many died... war isn't news," he once said. When he is buried with him will go the last living connection to World War 1 and this cataclysmic event will finally be “History”.

No doubt his passing will be marked with full military honours and the greatest respect, as is only right. But, is this Irish Republican alone in thinking that on such a momentous occasion, as a token of respect to all who died, his passing should be marked with nothing less than a full State Funeral? And am I alone in feeling that the Queen should break with convention and attend this last opportunity to honour first hand all those who fought in her Grandfather’s name “For King and Country”? Even a non-royalist would be churlish to suggest she has not always shown good judgement and felt the pulse of the Nation. I cannot imagine that her sound instincts are saying anything to her other than “We shall be there” to say farewell to this remarkable old soldier.


Harry Patch 1898 - 2009

Let it Grow! Let it Grow!

I wish these tourists wouldn't stare at me!

The Television Gardener and raconteur, Alan Titchmarsh, once remarked that “They say gardening is the new sex. I preferred the old stuff.” I bore this thought in mind today when with the brief outburst of summer sunshine midst the rains of London it was time for me to womble into my favourite London Park, the Royal Park of St. James to record the summer bedding, the newly cleaned lake and the Royal allotment! It was also an opportunity to record the seasonal changes since my last visits in winter and in spring. The lake gets drained and cleaned about every 15 years and it is a major undertaking whilst ensuring the Pelicans and water fowl don’t go elsewhere so it is good that it is completed and the park is back to normal. The summer displays are always wonderful, particularly compared to my sad displays at home.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/blooming-june.html

How I admired the skill of the gardeners and cursed my green fingered mediocrity until one horrible morning when walking through the park I lost my innocence! For there in front of me were rows of trolleys with the summer bedding in peak condition ready to be planted and the spring bedding being dug out? Now that I knew their secret of how the beds always looked so wonderful I was reconciled to my own indolent efforts at home!



St. James’s Park is in fact one of 3 Royal Parks which provide the setting for Buckingham Palace, London’s great ceremonial avenue, The Mall, and the ceremonial parade ground of Horseguard’s Parade. The Green Park was originally a swampy burial ground for lepers; but by 1668, Charles II had enclosed it and stocked it with deer, again to indulge the regal passion for hunting. It was designed by the French landscape architect Le Notre and it is a “Green Park” as it has no flower beds. The third park is less well known; being the 32 acre enclosed walled garden of Buckingham Palace which contains another lake. We last visited St. James’s Park when it was covered in snow and then when it was in its spring glory where the flower beds tried to recreate the colourful displays of its designer John Nash.


Horseguard’s Parade from the park

Here is the park in winter;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/02/london-snow.html

Here is the park in spring;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/st-jamess-park-london.html

One excellent new summer feature for the past few years is the allotment to encourage people to renew their interests in allotments and grow their own vegetables and fruit and maybe even honey! The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in association with The Royal Parks ran a Dig for Victory allotment project in St James’s Park, London from May-September 2007. As many of you are aware, Dig for Victory was a WWII campaign to help combat food shortages by promoting the planting of allotments in gardens and on public land. The campaign reflected issues still relevant today, such as access to fresh healthy food, being active and living sustainably.




Dig for Victory!

You don't need a large garden to grow your own food. Lots of different fruit and veg will flourish in the smallest pots. So if you have a patio, balcony, window box or just a window sill you can enjoy the fun of producing healthy cheap food. The Royal Parks Allotment at St James's Park offers a wealth of inspiration for all the family. This year alongside the allotment and herb garden it will show you how to grow potatoes, salads, and greens in containers, raised beds and confined spaces. Experts are on hand to provide friendly advice and tips for the garden. It is good to see its progress and return again to observe the fascinating development during the season. Today it was certainly a popular attraction with the visitors book recording the “newly married” K. Patel’s from Leicester, Chelsea Pensioners and visitors from North Carolina and Malaysia. It is clear that many people are very suspicious of the food industry and want to take control of part of their own nutrition by growing their own food. As well as the nutritional benefits it is relaxing and saves money. Going back to its origins in the original “Dig for Victory” campaign it is worth noting that during WW11 when food was rationed and people eat less meat, sugars and fats nutritional health in the UK actually improved greatly – the moral here is “Less is more!”





With its royal, political and literary associations, St James's Park is at the very heart of London and covers 23 hectares (58 acres). With a lake harbouring ducks, geese and pelicans and in the centre of the lake is Duck Island is the home to many wild breeds of beautiful ducks and bird life.



There are many ducks; gulls; swans; geese; pelicans. Some rarer visitors are the golden eye, carrion crows, grey wagtail and shovelers. A popular spectacle for visitors is to watch the wildlife officers feeding the pelicans every day at 2:30pm. The stars of the feeding show are undoubtedly the gregarious pelicans who were introduced to the park as a gift by a Russian Ambassador in 1664.




Local inhabitants

St James's is also home to the Mall, the setting for many ceremonial parades and events of national celebration. St James's Park is the oldest Royal Park in London and is surrounded by three palaces. The most ancient is Westminster, which has now become the Houses of Parliament, St James's Palace and of course, the best known, Buckingham Palace.


Humans chillin...


Ducks chillin...


Pelicans chillin...

The Park was once a marshy water meadow. In the thirteenth century a leper hospital was founded, and it is from this hospital that the Park took its name. In 1532 Henry VIII acquired the site as yet another deer park and built the Palace of St James's. When Elizabeth I came to the throne she indulged her love of pageantry and pomp, and fetes of all kinds were held in the park. Her successor, James I, improved the drainage and controlled the water supply. A road was created in front of St James's Palace, approximately where the Mall is today, but it was Charles II who made dramatic changes. The Park was redesigned, with avenues of trees planted and lawns laid. The King opened the park to the public and was a frequent visitor, feeding the ducks and mingling with his subjects.


Duck Island

During the Hanoverian period, Horse Guards Parade was created by filling in one end of the long canal and was used first as a mustering ground and later for parades. Horse Guards Parade is still part of St James's Park. The Park changed forever when John Nash redesigned it in a more romantic style. The canal was transformed into a natural-looking lake and in 1837 the Ornithological Society of London presented some birds to the Park and erected a cottage for a bird keeper. Both the cottage and the position of bird keeper remain to this day. Clarence House was designed for the Duke of Clarence, later to become William IV and was also the home of the late Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.





Outside Buckingham Palace is the Queen Victoria Memorial, which celebrates the days of the British Empire. The memorial includes not only the marble statue of Victoria and the glittering figures of Victory, Courage and Constancy, but also the ornamental gates given by the Dominions. These are the Australia Gate, South Africa Gate and Canada Gate.


Rear of Downing Street from the park

Another excellent feature of St. James’s Park is the restaurant run by Oliver Peyton and designed by Hopkins Architects (The Architects of a nearby Building of the Year – Westminster Tube Station) – the punningly named “Inn the Park” . Oliver is well known to the British Public as one of the judges on “The Great British Menu” programme on the telly but the lad actually hails from Sligo in the West of Ireland – as do Westlife but you can’t win them all! He owns several restaurants throughout London, which, over the years, have been as much applauded for their architectural achievements as their gastronomic standards.




Inn the Park

The Hopkins designed building is nestled in the 1828 Nash landscaped park, amongst the trees, on the edge of the lake. With such a beautiful and historic setting, Hopkins Architects set out to create a modern design that worked thoughtfully with the original intentions of Nash’s design and did not impose itself on the unspoiled urban oasis. The result is that from The Mall and most parts of the park the building blends invisibly into the rolling landscape. Whilst walking from Horse Guards Parade or Admiralty Arch it emerges; an elegant, wood-clad shelter with glazed frontage and roof top pathway looking across the lake to Duck Island and onwards as far as the London Eye.

Warm Austrian larch, contrasting with concrete and stainless steel, was chosen to reinforce the calm and timeless feeling of the historic park. The larch, from sustainably managed forests, forms the primary structure and envelope of the building and has been left untreated to gradually weather over time. Basically, the building is a one-story structure housing a restaurant and toilet facilities. A glass wall with sliding panels and a veranda overlook the adjacent lake. The whole of the project is beneath a grass roof that makes the building blend into the park.



Inside, the dining room is divided from the kitchen and take-away area by chunky white marble booths with black patterned leather banquettes. Chairs are constructed out of tubular polished stainless steel topped with patterned black or purple crocodile leather cushions, table tops are crafted out of burgundy stove enamel. The lighting is striking. The building design maximizes the use of natural light with three large holes bored through the roof flooding the back of the restaurant with daylight, whilst running the length of the room are suspended Tom Dixon’s impossible to miss mirrored lights. With the lights on, the larch wood floor and ceiling glows with a honeyed intensity.





Behind the marble partition, ‘grab & go’ food is displayed in elegant bronze refrigerators, whilst either side of a giant three-metre long grill, bountiful displays of freshly baked produce form impossibly precarious piles along a terrazzo counter.

Outside, the majority of the wooden terrace is covered and heated. Sturdy wire chairs replete with purple leather mock-croc cushions accompany marble topped tables. The far end of the terrace, open to the elements, looks up towards Buckingham Palace. A flight of steps at the end of the building leads to the grassed roof, where a wooden banquette follows the ‘swoop’ of the walkway, which extends Nash’s paths over the top of the building and down the other side. From here all visitors can enjoy the sublime views, the perfect vantage point for the daily Pelican feeding or a comfortable seat for reading a book and nibbling a sandwich. Overall the Inn the Park restaurant is a remarkable success and a most well mannered building but there again it is set in London’s most well mannered and loveliest park!


Swire Fountain

Amnesty honours Burma's Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, elected leader of the Burmese people

Aung San Suu Kyi was today awarded Amnesty International's highest honour, the Ambassador of Conscience Award. The human rights group said it hoped this would help protect the Burmese pro-democracy leader as she faces a potential prison sentence. Amnesty secretary-general Irene Khan said the award coincided with the 20th anniversary of Ms Suu Kyi's initial arrest on 20 July 1989, as she led a campaign to oust Burma's military dictators.

Rock band U2 were due to announce the award tonight at a Dublin concert. U2, who won the honour in 2005 in recognition of singer Bono's humanitarian work, have been honouring Ms Suu Kyi at each performance of their European tour.


Bono

Closing arguments were heard today in the trial of Nobel Peace laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, marking a transition into a crucial phase of her court case and her 20-year non-violent struggle against Myanmar's military junta. The court's verdict could come at any time.

Suu Kyi could spend as many as 5 years in Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison — which some have referred to as the "darkest hell-hole in Burma" — if she's convicted. Critics have condemned the regime's trumped-up charges as a flimsy pretext for keeping her in prison and out of the country's 2010 elections.

Meanwhile, Myanmar authorities have been cracking down on other democracy activists outside the courtroom. The military regime arrested at least 50 opposition party members on Sunday as they peacefully observed the anniversary of the death of Myanmar independence hero Gen. Aung San.

While the trial was initially open to journalists and diplomats, Myanmar authorities closed the courthouse doors, leaving the international community in the dark on the subsequent proceedings. The country's military junta is hoping that by the time the court reaches a verdict in Suu Kyi's case, the world will have long since forgotten about her.

Ms Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, won national elections in 1990 but the military refused to relinquish power. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.
Ms Khan said: "In those long and often dark years, Suu Kyi has remained a symbol of hope, courage and the undying defence of human rights." Ms Suu Kyi, 64, is on trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house-arrest: harbouring an American who swam to her Rangoon home uninvited. The offence can carry a five-year prison sentence. Foreign diplomats have been barred from key parts of her trial. Her supporters accuse Burma's junta of seeking to put her behind bars until after elections planned for next year.


Saffron Revolution crushed in 2007

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel, a fellow Nobel Laureate and the first winner of the award in 2003, said foreign recognition probably has deterred Burma's rulers from imposing even harsher punishments on Ms Suu Kyi. "I know from my own experience that international attention can, to a certain extent, protect the unjustly persecuted from punishments that would otherwise be imposed. Goodness knows what would have happened if her fate had not been highlighted as it is again today," Mr Havel said in a statement.

Her trial has been adjourned until tomorrow. Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer, Nyan Win, said he expected a verdict in two or three weeks. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (64) is a non-violent pro-democracy campaigner and leader of the opposition National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma). According to the New York Times she has been held under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years by the military junta. In 1991 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship.

The decision of the Nobel Committee mentions:

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.

...Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades. She has become an important symbol in the struggle against oppression...

...In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour this woman for her unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means."

Let us all condemn the self serving Burmese Junta who have imprisoned a whole Nation and cut shabby deals to enrich themselves and their families with the natural resources of what should be the richest nation in the region. What brave Generals they are who have only ever fought against their own people whilst running a kleptocracy. How they must fear the reckoning which is surely to come. Let us join Amnesty International in honouring Daw Aung San Suu Kyi the democratically elected leader of Burma, daughter of the leader of its struggle for independence and a true daughter of Burma.

Free Aung San Suu Kyi and free the people of Burma from the military freeloaders who enslave them.

Here is Aung San Suu Kyi’s website;

http://www.dassk.com/index.php


Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the grounds of the Rangoon house where she has been imprisoned for most of the past 20 years

A Tale of Three Restaurants and a Hotel

Dublin's Grafton Street

The recent weekend in the Fair City will sound like a Sybarite’s Progress but basing ourselves in the South City Centre in Buswell’s Hotel it afforded an opportunity, rare for a native of the auld place like myself, to enjoy the city without the need to “get home” and absorb the urban sights and sounds in a relaxed way without any need to hit the tourist trail. So over I went from lovely London Luton airport and for my Father’s 79th Birthday I set up camp at my favourite Dublin Hotel, Buswell’s in the city centre opposite the Irish Parliament and enjoyed an excellent Birthday dinner in the Saddle Room of the Shelbourne Hotel.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/dublins-fair-city.html

First up on the Friday we took the railway which is celebrating its 25th year, the DART or Dublin Area Rapid Transit from Pearse Station, formerly Westland Row. This in itself caused a slight outbreak of nostalgia on two counts. Westland Row was the terminus for the Boat Trains from the ferry at Dun Laoghaire and in its heyday was full of boarding houses, cafes and shops ministering to traveller’s needs. With the DART implementation 25 years ago and the traffic changing from passengers by rail to a Car Ferry the Boat Train (which used to go onto the pier beside the boat) stopped and Trinity College bought up the row of properties on the far side of the street so it has a somewhat sterile appearance these days compared to the hustle and bustle of yore. One of those shops was run by my Grand-Aunt Helena Nearey. When the young me was in town or going on the boat to Holyhead it was the first port of call and as she was a kindly lady I rarely came away empty handed.




St. Andrews

Beside the station is one of Dublin’s finest churches, the Episcopal Church of St. Andrews. It is the Episcopal Church because it is the personal parish church of the Catholic (Cardinal) Archbishop of Dublin and its well mannered pedimented Doric front gives little hint of the massive scale of the interior modelled on the great basilicas of northern Italy. The first major Catholic Church on a main thoroughfare in Ireland after Catholic Emancipation (i.e.; the end of vindictive religious discrimination by the British colonial power in 1829) its interior with its side chapels and adjoining structures (originally a children and old folks home and accommodation for clergy) it has played an important role in city life. It is also famous because your correspondent was baptised there as the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street where I was born was close and babies in those days were baptised quickly as dodgy Catholic Doctrine held if they died first they ended up in “Limbo.” I used to think I was special being water boarded as a 2 day old in such splendid surroundings but it turns out from the church guide that over a half a million kids have been baptised there – obviously one way tickets to Limbo were to be avoided!

So, on the splendid DART on the scenic trip along the south coast of Dublin with splendid views of the bay through Dalkey where we alighted at the next stop at Killiney. There were met by my old friend who, it occurred to me, I had first met 30 years ago. He is a true altruist and has restored the Martello Tower along with the defensive glacis, artillery battery and in a true coup de theatre has had an authentic cannon fitted to the tower and fired over the nervous neighbours!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/07/killiney-martello-tower-no-7.html

Guinea Pig



After viewing the Tower and the superb views up and down the bay we to Dalkey and Bray Head we headed past the homes of the likes of The Edge, Bono and Enya to the old Viking village of Dalkey, itself something of Celebrity Central and our destination was the Celebs cantina the long established Guinea Pig Restaurant. This is situated in Railway Avenue but visitors alighting at the DART Station notice that the adjoining road is called “Atmospheric Avenue.” This is not a reference to the salubrious surroundings; local roads are called Sorrento and Vico because the views have been compared to the Bay of Naples, but to the fact that the original railway was an “Atmospheric Railway” where the carriages were pumped up by air pressure from Dun Laoghaire.

Opened in 1957, The Guinea Pig has become an established haunt of Dalkey locals and stars of the stage and screen. What attracts them is the timeless atmosphere and consistent good food prepared by the staff and equally courteous service. The emphasis has always been on fresh fish, some caught locally, beef and lamb from the not so distant hills of Co. Wicklow. Only a short walk from Dalkey Dart station, and therefore a pleasant 20 minute ride from the centre of Dublin the Guinea Pig along with the many other good restaurants and pubs in this attractive seaside town should be a pit stop for visitors.



The rooms manage to capture the comfortable familiarity of an old friend’s house. Seats are squishy, table decoration is unfussy and the staff are friendly without being obtrusive. We had the Early Bird menu, which at €24.50 (excluding dessert) seems a bit pricey but this has never been a cheap restaurant. For a birthday or a special occasion however, it might be worth splashing out. Though it is primarily a fish restaurant, there is a wide selection on the Early Bird menu, with eight starters and twelve mains to choose from. Our table ordered the chicken liver pate and the seafood chowder. The chowder was the best I ever had, a more luxurious offering than the name suggests with fresh seafood in a broth which was unctuous with cream, sherry and paprika. The toast for the excellent homemade pate was cold but was replaced in nano seconds when this was mentioned to the waiter. For mains the Dalkey Crab Meat with cream and cheese was served in a scallop shell but I’m not sure that the richness of sauce helped the really excellent crab meat. The Grilled Fillets of Sole with Ginger and Spring Onion were pronounced the best ever, simply grilled allowing the wonderful quality of the fresh fish to speak for itself. There was an extra change of five euro for the duck and the steak.

The desserts are presented to you on a tray but here there is a catch as they are extra on the early bird menu at 6 euros each but we settled for the selection of Irish Cheeses and Crackers and received a selection of four excellent farmhouse cheeses served with celery and small grapes. The wine was an excellent Merlot at 32 euros – wines seem expensive in Irish restaurants compared to the UK.


Dalkey

The menu choice may seem familiar, but it is the execution of the dishes which sets this restaurant apart. Portions are generous but it is the quality of the ingredients which stands out and the confident cooking which allows them to speak for themselves. This is not haute cuisine but rather reminded me of French Bistro food, good quality artisan ingredients treated simply and with respect. I had last been here 25 years ago so seeing the place again was a great pleasure and I didn’t feel strange for little has changed – the rest of Ireland may have been “interior designed” but the Guinea Pig has remained immune to faddism. Another connection with the French Bistro tradition is that the Chef Patron for the past 32 years has been Mervyn Stewart and as I remember on my last visit 25 years ago he still appears out front and visits every table. He knows his market and this is an establishment which never patronises the customer. It was good to catch up with Mervyn and swap notes on Malta which he frequently visits. He is looking unseasonably well for such a hard working chef and the Guinea Pig is very much a family restaurant with his wife and daughter keeping front of house. I suspect it won’t take another quarter of a century before my next visit!

Yamamori Noodles



Saturday night and we met up for drinks at Buswells with old buddies before heading over towards George’s Street for noodles. On the way we passed ample evidence of the nightlife which has made Dublin the 3rd most popular weekend destination in Europe with many roaming stag and Hen parties in evidence. Yamamori is a popular Japanese restaurant located a stone's throw from some of Dublin's trendier pubs such as the Globe and Hogan's. It's a bright, airy and well-decorated affair, with large windows looking out onto South Great Georges Street. The food is hardly adventurous given Japanese standards, but always reliable, and with sushi, teriyaki and a variety of Japanese beers on the menu, it's an ideal spot for an early dinner. Yamamori also has a lunch menu with a range of noodle dishes that are certainly good value for money.



Yamamori Noodles is one of the most established Japanese noodle restaurants in Dublin and South Great George’s Street has over the years transformed itself from a retail graveyard to a hopping restaurant and nightlife area. Experts in Japanese cuisine and sushi, this Dublin restaurant offers a thorough Japanese menu. The atmosphere is very authentic and service is always fast. Well-known to be one of Dublin's busiest restaurants, Yamamori Noodles popularity is due to the quality and selection of food available. The menu contains enormous variety from Sushi and Sashimi to Teppanyaki to Tempura and Ramen. The side dishes are include authentic popular Japanese snacks including delicious Ebi Gyoza which is a finely chopped king prawn dumpling combined with pak choi, leek, spring onion, garlic and ginger, oyster sauce, dipping sauce.



Lunch is served at Yamamori from 12.30am onwards seven days a week. Dinner begins at 5.30pm and runs through until 11.30pm. The restaurant is pleasantly decorated in traditional Japanese style. Hanging lanterns, white pillared walls and large solid tables inlaid with tiles enhance the authentic atmosphere.

We arrived late with one of our party having rejected Wagamama’s due to its clinical décor. As we needed a table for six we had to wait a while as this was full restaurant but we were quickly given drinks from the bar until a table was free. Food was slow coming and it occurred to me that this was very different from the normal UK Noodle Bar operation with a far longer menu incorporating Bento and Sushi dishes as well as the usual noodle and rice dishes. Whilst a commendable choice is offered the flip side is slow service when the kitchen is under pressure. However when the food came it was a cut above the usual with excellent ingredients and execution and generous portions. My vegan friend pronounced the tofu starter the best he has had for a long time and my Chilli Chicken really hit the spot. Yamamori also offers authentic Japanese deserts including green tea ice cream. There was no rush and it was over 1 O’clock in the morning when we left happily. For six people with deserts and several drinks the bill was 181 euros.

The Saddle Room at the Shelbourne Hotel



The resurgent and expensively refurbished Old Lady of St Stephen’s Green has got the restaurant it long deserved, serving modern 5 star hotel fare of the highest order. This historical hotel has been a landmark in Dublin city for generations, going back as far as 1824. History was made here when the Irish Constitution was drafted in 1922 under the chairmanship of Michael Collins. It has seen countless famous names from throughout the globe coming through its doors, and for Dubliners it has been their favourite hotel for decades. I used to meet friends in the popular Horseshoe Bar, and also enjoyed occasional afternoon tea in the Lord Mayor’s Lounge for a treat. We loved the new look Shelbourne Hotel – same address on St Stephen’s Green, but when you walk through the revolving door there is a new sense of space and light, sparkling chandeliers and decorative stained glass. Gone is the central elevator giving way to the original grand sweeping staircase, and The Horseshoe Bar, The Lord Mayor’s Lounge and The Constitution Room have all been restored while the new restaurant, The Saddle Room and No. 27 Bar & Lounge have been added.




Horseshoe Bar

Instead of being tucked away in a corner like its predecessor, the new Saddle Room is rightly given pride of place in the entrance foyer of the hotel, right opposite the front door. It presents a dramatic façade, as just beyond the entrance bar is a dramatic marbled Seafood Bar which leads to the dark-mahogany panelled main dining room with rows of lavishly furnished banquettes along the walls framing the open plan kitchen where you can watch Executive Chef and his team strutting their stuff as they prepare your meal. This was a special occasion being the other Mr. C’s 79th birthday and the saddle Room offers pizzazz by the bucket load for special occasions, and at an exceptionally reasonable price for the quality of the location, service and above all food.


Seafood Bar

The Saddle Room keeps the cooking simple, using only a handful of ingredients and relying on the freshness and quality of the raw materials to make the dishes sing. Beautifully cooked, tender and flavour-filled steaks and sparklingly fresh fish are staples here, and the service is expert and discreet. When full, the Saddle Room has the really buzzy atmosphere of a gentlemen’s club, but with Premier League food instead of the nursery pap usually favoured by clubbable gentlemen. As it was their 185th Birthday they were offering an Early Bird Menu of two courses for 18.50 euros and three courses for 24.50.


Happy 79th Birthday!

When I enquired earlier I was made very welcome and was booked into a luxurious banquette in gold leather which would be accessible to my parents. Unprompted they also said they would bring out a plate of homemade sweets after the meal to celebrate my Dad’s 79th. We were warmly welcomed when we arrived having first treated ourselves to a pre-prandial libation in the famous Horseshoe Bar. I can honestly say the service, presentation and food was of the highest order and more than met my special occasion expectations.



I had King Crab Risotto as a starter which was just right whilst her indoors enjoyed a well considered Parma Ham with fresh figs and a port sauce. The elder Mr. C ordered a warm salad of Chicken Liver with smoked bacon and a poached egg and the absence of left overs was most eloquent.



For mains my Confit of Duck on a Cassolette of white Coco Beans with garlic sausage was superb and her indoors pronounced the pan fried fillet of sea Bass on fettuccine with brown shrimp, cucumber and a white wine veloute was to die for. The elder lemons were equally happy with their mains of Seared Organic Salmon and Braised Irish Beef. When the elder Mrs. C saw her desert of Pavlova with Lime Mascarpone with balsamic and peppered strawberries her eyes lit up and for me the warm bread and butter pudding with pear puree and Crème Anglaise was just so! Then the coup de theatre as the plate of hand made sweets was served with coffees with “Happy 79th Birthday” piped in chocolate on the rim. Great venue, great service and top food at a reasonable price – With wine coffees and water the bill was a highly reasonable 137 euros for a five star experience for four people.


Buswell’s Hotel



Buswells has been operating since 1882 and is an elegant 3 star hotel with special character in the heart of Dublin 2. A charming 67-bedroom Georgian hotel, it is ideally located in the centre of Dublin city a short stroll from St. Stephen’s Green, Trinity College, Grafton Street and many other visitor attractions and near to the DART at Westland Row and the LUAS (Tram) terminal at St. Stephen’s Green.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/07/tale-of-two-parks.html


Room

Strangely, whilst I have long recommended it to friends and whilst the present wife and her sister have stayed there this was my first time there as a resident. That is not to say that the place is unknown to me. The bar had Adam style plaster swags painted blue and white and used to be known as the “Wedgwood Bar.” Many years ago in the company of a leading Irish feminist I had bumped into the Northern Ireland poet Michael Longley and his poetess wife Edna who were staying in the hotel. Michael had just won the GPA poetry prize and with the winners cheque in his pocket was in expansive and generous form, from what I could vaguely recall the next day! The bar and restaurant are today called Truman’s after an adjoining print and drawing instrument shop which I was a customer of as a young architectural student. When it closed down in 1975 Buswell’s bought the property and incorporated it into the hotel and as Secretary of the Student Union at Bolton Street I bought most of their stock for our Student Shop.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/08/bob-geldof-and-me.html

Being across from the Irish Parliament it had an erstwhile reputation as a late night drinking den for politicos leading to the story about a conversation between a policeman who raided the premises at 3 in the morning and encountered the then Minister for Justice (and later Prime Minister) Charles J Haughey “What will it be for you Guard, a pint of Guinness or a transfer to Donegal?”


Truman's Bar

This is a good hotel in a great location, very close to Grafton Street, Trinity College and the National Museums. Our room was spacious with high ceilings and throughout the décor and furnishings were of a good quality and fresh. The Bathroom and shower were excellent if compact. The bar was good with helpful and obliging service but here and in the lounge you could just sit and relax with no pressure to order anything. We only had breakfast on the last morning (when my parents stayed and this is taken in the rather splendidly upholstered Truman’s Restaurant. It was as good as I’ve seen anywhere with a really excellent selection of juices, cereals, breads (including Irish soda bread) meats and cheeses from a buffet counter with the hot Irish Breakfast, toast and generous pots of tea and coffee served at the linen covered table.


Truman's Restaurant

Last year when my wife and sister in law wanted to stay Buswell’s quoted 245 euros a night. Well this is far too much (you could stay in the Shelbourne for this) but what a difference a year makes as I got the rooms on their site on the internet for 89 to 99 euros a night. Don’t pay extra when booking for breakfast because they price this separately at 20 euros a night (A Mercure Hotel in Paris charges 15 euros!) but we were offered “any breakfast” at the desk at a more reasonable 10 euros. The hotel needs to get its pricing realistic and consistent. The other thing to remember is that as this hotel incorporates four different Georgian buildings so room sizes vary and the dovetailing of bathrooms into the structure doesn’t always make for good sound insulation. Also, being in the centre street noise is unavoidable but we found by closing the windows, including the secondary glazing, the room was quiet. Also as these are Georgian buildings don’t expect aircon, but really you don’t need this in Dublin.




Lounge

This is a well managed property with well trained and friendly staff who really make a difference and I would single out Mary on reception and Clive the Concierge but most of the staff have been here a while and this continuity makes a difference. If you want a personal hotel with a country house athmosphere in a great location Buswell’s is a good deal. Or as the elder Mr C put it as he was reading the complimentary newspaper in his adopted armchair in the relaxing lounge “I could get used to this.”

Guinea Pig

17 Railway Road, Dalkey, Co. Dublin, Ireland Phone: +353 (0)1 285-9055

http://www.guineapig.dalkey.info

Yamamori Noodles

71/72, South Great George’s Street, Dublin, 2, Ireland Phone: +353 (0)1 475-5001

http://www.yamamorinoodles.ie/

The Saddle Room, The Shelbourne Hotel,

27, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, 2, Ireland Phone: +353 (0)1 663-4500

http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/hotel-information/restaurant/dubbr-the-shelbourne-dublin-a-renaissance-hotel/

Buswell’s Hotel

26 Molesworth St, Dublin 2, Ireland Phone; +353 (0)1 614 6500

http://www.buswells.ie/


A scene in front of Buswell's

Killiney Martello Tower No. 7

For only the second time in over 200 years, No.7 Martello Tower, in Killiney, Co. Dublin, Ireland, was inaugurated on Saturday, 12th July 2008. This was (almost) the culmination of a project aimed at restoring the Tower to its original state. Niall O'Donoghue has undertaken the restoration at great expense, both financially and in terms of effort, and the result is stunning.


Tower No. 7 showing the musket points and artillery battery in front

The project has been long and meticulous and the (almost) finished Tower was inaugurated with much ceremony, jollity and efficiency on the 12th of July 2008. The newly cast cannon was successfully fired and a blaze of colour was added by the Redcoat finery and arms of the firing party and their escort. Musket volleys were also fired as a teaser to the main event.


Cannon cast




18 Pdr Blomefield cannon recently cast on a wooden traversing carriage

The smaller Killiney Martello Tower (Tower No. 7) is a free-standing, compact, squat, circular, two-storey structure built over a vaulted cellar with a parapet- protected roof which has a fixture for a large traversing cannon. The tower stands 10m high, with bomb-proof walls, over 3 metres thick in places. It is built with large granite blocks and is a magnificent feat of engineering.


View from the Tower towards Dalkey


View towards Bray Head

Martello towers (or simply Martellos) are small defensive forts built in several countries of the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars onwards. They stand up to 40 feet (12m) high (with two floors) and typically had a garrison of one officer and 15-25 men. Their round structure and thick walls of solid masonry made them resistant to cannon fire, while their height made them an ideal platform for a single heavy artillery piece, mounted on the flat roof and able to traverse a 360° arc. A few Martello towers were surrounded by a moat for extra defence. They were used throughout the 19th century, but became obsolete with the introduction of powerful rifled artillery. Many have survived to the present day, often preserved as historic monuments.


Firing Platform


Gun Rails to rotate the cannon 360° degrees

A number of Martello towers were built around the coast of Ireland, especially along the east, from Millmount (Drogheda), to Bray, around Dublin Bay but also around Cork Harbour on the south coast. On the east coast, concentrated mainly around Dublin Bay, the towers were in line of sight of each other, providing the ability to communicate with one another, or warn of any incoming attacks. Possibly the most famous is the Martello tower in Sandycove, near Dún Laoghaire, in which James Joyce lived for a few days. Joyce shared the tower with Oliver St. John Gogarty, then a medical student but later to become famous in Irish history as a surgeon, politician and writer. The fictional character Stephen Dedalus lives in the tower with a medical student, Malachi "Buck" Mulligan, in Ulysses. The character Buck Mulligan was based by Joyce on Gogarty. Known as the James Joyce Tower, it is now a museum dedicated to Joyce.


Interior

(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/james-joyce-and-me.html )

Stairs

A number of other Martello towers are extant nearby at Bulloch Harbour, Dalkey Island, Williamstown, Seapoint and Sandymount and Martello towers feature in many literary works set in Dublin. On the north side of the city, Martello towers can be found in Portmarnock, Howth, and Sutton and on both Ireland's Eye and Lambay Island. During the 1980s Bono owned the Martello tower in Bray, County Wicklow.

See also;

http://www.photopol.com


http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/martello-towers.html

Bombast!

A Tale of Two Parks

The Fair City has undoubtedly given much to the descendants of Arthur Guinness whose St James Gate Brewery gave a distinctive waft of roasted barley to the banks of the River Liffey and whose ships transporting the “Black Stuff” were a feature of the quayside opposite the Custom House when I was growing up in Dublin. Guinness is a popular dry stout beer that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is based on the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide. A distinctive feature is the burnt flavour which is derived from the use of roasted barley. Unfortunately the parent company has been headquartered in London since 1932 when it listed on the London Stock Exchange and was later merged with Grand Metropolitan plc. Due to the machinations of Ernest Saunders (the only person to be cured from irreversible senile dementia!) in the “Guinness Scandal” in the 1980’s the family connection with the firm is largely a thing of the past and the company has developed into a multi-national alcohol conglomerate named Diageo. However, with his well known Gift of Prophecy, the Celtic Sage foresees a future campaign to repatriate this part of our National Patrimony to Ireland!


Summer House by the Lake

Well in better times when Guinness was Irish, the Guinness family amply reciprocated the generosity of Dubliners contributing to Irish institutions and culture and to public welfare through the Iveagh Trust, now the Guinness Trust. In Dublin’s South City Centre you can find many examples of the family’s munificence including Dublin’s best known and finest Victorian public park, St Stephen’s Green, and overlooking it are two fine Georgian Mansions both donated by the Guinness family. One is the world renowned College of Surgeon’s (RCSI) and the other Iveagh House is a splendid urban palazzo housing the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, Iveagh House. Behind Iveagh House is another gift from the family, a “secret garden” the Iveagh Gardens.


College of Surgeons

St Stephen’s Green was re-opened by Lord Ardilaun in 1880 for the citizens of Dublin. This 9 hectare / 22 acre park has been maintained in the original Victorian layout with extensive perimeter tree and shrub planting, spectacular spring and summer Victorian bedding. The herbaceous border also provides colour from early spring to late autumn. Sanctuary from inclement weather can be obtained in the Victorian lakeside shelter or in the Victorian Swiss shelters in the centre of the park. It is a wonderful green lung in the midst of the hurly burly of the busy city and with its lake, flower beds, glades and shelters it is both well used and well maintained by the Office of Public Works who have added features to it without detracting from the Victorian integrity of this public space and its surrounds, encased as it is by fines cast iron fencing and sheltering mature trees.





Until 1663 St Stephen’s Green was a marshy common on the edge of Dublin, used for grazing. In that year Dublin Corporation, seeing an opportunity to raise much needed revenue, decided to enclose the centre of the common and to sell land around the perimeter for building. The park was enclosed with a wall in 1664. The houses built around the Green were rapidly replaced by new buildings in the Georgian style and by the end of the eighteenth century the Green was a place of resort for the better-off of the city. Much of the present-day landscape of the square comprises modern buildings, some in a replica Georgian style, and relatively little survives from the 18th and 19th centuries.


Map of current layout

In 1814 control of St Stephen’s Green Park passed to Commissioners for the local householders, who redesigned its layout and replaced the walls with railings. Access was restricted to local residents, until 1877, when Parliament passed an Act to reopen St Stephen’s Green to the public, at the initiative of Sir A.E. Guinness, a member of the Guinness brewing family who lived at St Anne's, Raheny and at Ashford Castle in Cong, Co. Mayo. He later paid for the laying out of the Green in approximately its current form, which took place in 1880, and gave it to the Corporation, as representatives of the people. By way of thanks the city commissioned a statue of him, which faces the College of Surgeons. His brother Edward lived at Iveagh House, which his descendants gave in 1939 to the Department of External Affairs (now the Department of Foreign Affairs).


Lord Ardilaun


Ardilaun Lodge

Over 3.5 km of pathways are accessible for all users. The waterfall and Pulham rock work on the western side of the green are worth of a visit likewise the ornamental lake which provides a home for waterfowl and a garden for the visually impaired. A number of sculptures are located throughout the green and a children's playground is a popular attraction of the park. Lunchtime concerts are performed during the summer months providing a musical interlude for office workers and visitors.


Map of Green with key features(A)Fusilier's Arch(B)O'Donovan Rossa(C)O'Connell Bridge(D)Wolfe Tone & Famine Memorial E)Lord Ardilaun(F)Countess Markievicz(G)Playground(H)Bandstand(I)3Fates

One of the more unusual aspects of the park lies on the North West corner of this central area - a garden for the blind with scented plants, which can withstand handling, and are labelled in Braille. Another feature is a sculpture group representing the Three Fates inside the Leeson Street gate (a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help to refugees after World War II).


3 Fates




Lake

Further north again (and spanning much of the length of the park) is a large lake. Home to ducks and other water fowl, the lake is fed by an artificial water fall, spanned by O'Connell Bridge, and fronted by an ornamental gazebo. The lakes in the park are fed from the Grand Canal at Portobello.

Most people enter from the top of Grafton Street through the Fusilier's Arch (first termed "Traitors Gate" by Redmondites) at the Grafton Street corner which commemorates the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Second Boer War. Irish Nationalists identified with the stand of the Boer Republics against British rule, hence the epithet this being the only time the supported Orange Men!


"Traitors Gate"

A seated statue of Lord Ardilaun sits on the western side, the man who gave the Green to the city, faces the Royal College of Surgeons which he also sponsored. His country house was the superbly located Ashford Castle at Cong in Co. Mayo, today a rather upmarket hotel on the shores of Lough Corrib.

Overlooking St Stephen’s Green you’ll find the historic Shelbourne Hotel now looking as bright as a shiny pin after an extensive restoration which maintained its character and on the first floor overlooking the Green you will find the “Constitution Room” where the Irish Constitution adopted at independence was drafted. Just to the side and dating from 1693 is another urban enclave The Huguenot Cemetery. The Huguenots were French Calvinists persecuted intermittently by the Catholic rulers of France throughout the seventeenth century. Small numbers of refugees from this persecution had come to Ireland, mainly via England, from 1620 to 1641, and again with Cromwell in 1649, but it was in 1685, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which had guaranteed them toleration, that the main body of Huguenots began to arrive, mostly from the countryside around the city of La Rochelle in the modern region of Poitou-Charente.




The Huguenot Cemetery

After the end of the Williamite wars, large Huguenot settlements were established in Portarlington, Youghal, Cork, Dublin, Waterford and Lisburn, where they became celebrated for their expertise in textiles, specialising in weaving, lace-making, and glove-making. In the course of time, they became thoroughly absorbed into Irish society through intermarriage, and names such as Boucicault, Maturin, Le Fanu and Trench are still familiar in Ireland today. Indeed what is now the Bank of Ireland has its origins in La Touche’s Bank set up by the Huguenot David La Touche who is well known as the subject of a cheque written in verse by Richard Chapell Whaley, High Sheriff of Ireland and father of the notorious regency Rake, Thomas “Buck” Whaley;

“Mr. La Touche,
Open your pouch,
And give unto my darling
Five hundred pounds sterling:
For which this will be your bailey,
Signed, Richard Chapell Whaley."

Richard Whaley is too connected to St. Stephen’s Green for his magnificent town mansion is now Newman House and part of the National University of Ireland attended by James Joyce and many others.

During the Easter Rising of 1916, a group of insurgents made up mainly of members of the Irish Citizen Army, under the command of Commandant Michael Mallin and his second-in-command Constance Markievicz, established a position in St Stephen's Green. They numbered between 200-250. They confiscated motor vehicles to establish road blocks on the streets that surround the park, and dug defensive positions in the park itself. This approach differed from that of taking up positions in buildings, adopted elsewhere in the city. It proved to have been unwise when elements of the British Army took up positions in the Shelbourne Hotel, at the north-eastern corner of St Stephen's Green, overlooking the park, from which they could shoot down into the entrenchments. Finding themselves in a weak position, the Volunteers withdrew to the Royal College of Surgeons on the west side of the Green. During the Rising fire was temporarily halted to allow the park's groundsman to feed the local ducks! There is a bust of Constance Markievicz on the south of the central garden.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/10/first-female-member-of-parliament.html

At the Merrion Row corner of the Green opposite the Shelbourne there is a bronze statue of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the leader of the 1798 rebellion. Flanked by monoliths, it was immediately nicknamed 'Tonehenge'. Behind Tonehenge inside the Green there is a memorial to the Great Famine of 1845-1850 by Edward Delaney

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/03/years-of-french.html


Theobald Wolfe Tone


Memorial to the Great Famine

In 1862, Benjamin Guinness bought Nos. 80-81 St. Stephen's Green and combined the two houses, turning them into the stately mansion that is Iveagh House today. It is now home to the Department of Foreign Affairs' headquarters, and therefore cannot be visited. However, just behind the house, you'll find Dublin’s secret gardens, the beautiful Iveagh Gardens, and these are open to the public. Designed in the 1860s, they offer a combination of the French and English garden styles, so while in some areas you'll find a cascade surrounded by natural landscapes; in others you'll find grand statues and fountains.


Iveagh House


Iveagh Gardens in relation to Stephen's Green



A fine Victorian town garden, with a fountain, rosarium and maze, formerly belonging to the Earls of Iveagh. Designed by Ninian Niven in 1863, the gardens are in the process of being restored. Much has been achieved but there is still work to be done. The Iveagh Gardens are among the finest and least known of Dublin's parks and gardens. They were designed by Ninian Niven, in 1865, as an intermediate design between the 'French Formal' and the 'English Landscape' styles. They demonstrated the artistic skills of the landscape Architect of the mid 19th century and display a unique collection of landscape features which include Rustic Grotto's and Cascade, sunken formal panels of lawn with Fountain Centre Pieces, Wilderness, Woodlands, Maze, Rosarium, American Garden, Archery Grounds, Rockeries and Rooteries.

The conservation and restoration of the Gardens commenced in 1995 and to date most of the features have been restored, for example the Maze in Box hedging with a Sundial as a centre piece. The recently restored Cascade and exotic tree ferns all help to create a sense of wonder in the 'Secret Garden'. The pre 1860s rose varieties add an extra dimension to the Victorian Rosarium.




Cascade



So Dubliner’s are grateful to the descendants of Arthur Guinness of Leixlip for two of Dublin’s finest open spaces, in St Stephen’s Green a wonderful example of High Victorian formal Public Park and in the Iveagh Garden’s a total contrast, a real “Secret Garden” which is a bucolic fantasy and a true hidden enclave in the heart of the city. They are today (whatever the sins of the past) in good public stewardship and have been sensitively enhanced. On a summer’s day there is no need to justify their existence as the appreciation of the many users of these refreshing and rejuvenating spaces is obvious providing an oasis of relaxation and contemplation in the middle of the metropolis. But there is a further point about their public stewardship that there is absolutely no commercialisation, no kiosks, no cafes and no deckchairs to rent. This truly preserves them as unique havens and enshrines them as “People’s Parks” for grateful Dubliner’s and visitors alike.

Nobody wants Grotty Gatwick

Few, other than the Celtic Sage himself, are prepared to acknowledge that I have the gift of prophecy but my followers the evidence is mounting up! In October 2008 I wrote in relation to the appalling privatised monopoly British Airports Authority and Grotty Gatwick Airport the following Sage-like words;

“As for BAA thinking that Richard Branson will give them £1.8 Billion before they go bankrupt for the damaged goods called Gatwick, they must be deeply delusional. Branson won’t offer anything like that and will bring in somebody with him to share the risk, He will discount the income for he’ll have to rip out half the forgettable retail clutter to make the airport work well and ease the passenger’s journey to and from the plane (the PURPOSE of an airport; make a note BAA). However the chaos which is Gatwick shows why BAA does not understand the Airport business and why this smug privatised monopoly is lacking in the core skills to run ANY UK airport. The sooner Grupo Ferrovial and the Gang of Cash Cow Gringos it has bought in the UK with its junk bond status debt goes down the better for UK PLC. Their comes a stage when it is kinder for Old Beasts to be quietly and humanely put down to end their suffering and the upset of those who have to witness their sad and jerky movements.”

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/10/grotty-gatwick.html

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/grotty-gatwick-part-2.html

Well yea, yea and yea again verily it is coming to pass although the humanitarians amongst you may not witness the humane killing I predicted, indeed in the established Spanish tradition it may turn out to be a massacre – La Matanza! For Grupo Ferrovial (Spanish Brick Inc.) is wholly dependent on the Spanish building industry and the only thing building in Spain these days are ant hills which don’t require bricks or concrete! So Spanish Brick is in desperate straits and now it can’t even flog one of its Cash Cows as the market has collapsed!!

The future of Gatwick has turned from the uncertain to the farcical after the forced sale of London's second airport was derailed by news that no one wants to buy it. Gatwick has been put up for sale after the Competition Commission ruled that BAA's monopoly ownership of it, Heathrow and Stansted is giving consumers a raw deal. However, an auction process kicked off by BAA and its Spanish owner Ferrovial appears to have fallen apart with the withdrawal from the process of the Manchester Airport Group.



The Manchester Airport Group, which also owns East Midlands and Bournemouth airports and is owned by the 10 borough councils that form Greater Manchester, has reportedly walked away after refusing to match BAA's reserve price of £1.5 billion for Gatwick. Of the original three bidders in the auction that leaves the owners of London City airport, the investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners, a joint venture between General Electric of the US and Credit Suisse which in the UK also owns the Port of Great Yarmouth and the waste company Biffa. GIP, it is understood, is also refusing to match the £1.5 billion price tag.

The third bidder, a Citigroup-led consortium, quit the bidding process two months ago. Though industry insiders believe Manchester's withdrawal may yet be a tactic to get Gatwick to drop its price, the sale of the busiest single-runway airport in the world appears to be in limbo. BAA is, in any case, appealing the forced sale of the airport. The Competition Commission ruled it must dispose of Gatwick and Stansted and north of the border, where it also enjoys a regional monopoly, either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports.


German Railways - Achtung! coming to a station near you but not visa versa!

However, Ferrovial, the Spanish Brick Company which bought BAA as a cash cow to milk, also desperately needs the money from the proceeds of a Gatwick sale. The Spanish have a £12 billion BAA debt mountain, a hangover from the hugely-leveraged £15 billion takeover of the airports group and a refinancing of those borrowings has left it with a repayments schedule of £1 billion a year.

Has the passenger experience at Gatwick improved since I slated it? Well don’t take the Sage’s word for it here is a (fair) comment left on a UK paper today;

“Gatwick is a nightmare in the summertime. Needs millions and millions spent on it to make it easier to use. Queues at check-in desks merge with each other and stretch across into those on the opposite desks making it impossible to pass through. At the incoming end the people awaiting passengers spill into the incoming passenger way. The seats that were there for people waiting to meet people have been removed to force them into the coffee shop making it very difficult for people with any sort of handicap. The walkways to and from the aircraft are far too long and not mechanised. And the queues through the security checks merge with check in and pass through traffic. About the only improvement is the car park, but even here the two park ticket machines are not adequate to clear the back up of passengers arriving to them.”


National Rail Awards - Spot the customer?

And here is the lie of the great Thatcher privatisations. Other than selling assets which we all owned at a great discount (putting up taxes for the future) there is a compelling competitive argument against creating privatised monopolies into a world where for all the pious guff about “regulation” nobody stands up for the customer. So BAA can impose its abysmal service and high charges on us, Thames Water owned by a near bankrupt German utility operator can impose above inflation charges, waste a huge amount of water whilst laughing at the derisory fines for poor customer service from the wishy, washy water regulator. On the railways the banks who bought the rolling stock companies can realise 10 times their investment in 20 months and then have the brass neck to sponsor “National Rail Awards”, an orgy of mutual industry backslapping where no customers appear to spoil the show. DBAHN, the German State Railway (and the successor of the company which ran the trains to Auschwitz and Treblinka to facilitate war crimes and genocide) can buy Chiltern Railways, EWS Freight and Wrexham and Staffordshire whilst no British company can invest in German Railways or Utilities, probably because Germany (like France) appreciates the efficiency of National Networks or indeed State Sponsored banks and a proper Post Office / Bank.


Richard Bowker - I'm off to sell railways to the Arabs!

And National Express under the incredibly self serving and self promoting Richard Bowker can walk away from the East Coast Mainline which it took over using a Special Investment Vehicle (SIV) after it took over from GNER’s SIV registered in Bermuda after they bid too much for the franchise to the Strategic Rail Authority whose head at the time was one Richard Bowker! Am I missing something here or am I just too simple a Sage?


Baroness Shriek - 46, single, poor social skills, beloved of Gordon, never run anything practical, first rate mind!

So the Great British Taxpayer will not just be impoverished for years to come by paying for monopoly profits, incontinent Bankers with short memories but also for the good work of Shriti Vadera and the other “First Rate Minds” who have ensured that Britain will be paying a premium for privatisation for years to come. Or to put it another way we will be paying money for nothing and have the economy dragged down because of Treasury Geniuses who have never even run a lemonade stall. Against this dismal perspective the fact we won’t have to deal with BAA / Spanish Brick and their abusive monopoly is only a small grain of comfort!

The Sacred Stump of Ireland

Look Holy!

Many non-Irish may have thought that my old buddies from Hot Press Magazine, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, were too far fetched with “Father Ted”, their surreal hit TV comedy of 3 Priests and a Housekeeper living on fictional Craggy Island on the West Coast of Ireland. As well as following all the traditional sitcom conventions (catchphrases, characters with extremely low IQ) the show was often like a Far Side cartoon come to life - memorably the episode where Ted, crammed into a caravan, failed to teach young Dougal about perspective by holding up a toy cow next to a real cow in a nearby field. To remind you of their mad capers here are some key quotes.

Dougal: Can I stay up tonight to watch the scary film?

Ted: Ah, no no no. The last time you stayed up to watch a scary film you ended up having to sleep in my bed. I wouldn't mind, but it wasn't even a scary film.

Dougal: Come on, Ted. A Volkswagen with a mind of its own! If that isn't scary, I don't know what is.

Father Fitzpatrick: And this is the last known photo of Herr Hitler; he's signing a few death warrants there.

Ted: Funny how you get more right-wing as you get older!

Jack: DON'T TELL ME I'M STILL ON THAT FECKIN' ISLAND!!!

Bishop Brennan: You will address me by my proper title, you little bollocks!

Ted: Hello, is that the Yin dynasty? Family, sorry, the Yin family.

Dougal: Sorry Ted. I was concentrating too hard on looking holy.

Well here in Ireland and not for the first time life has imitated comedy! Hundreds of people have been gathering to pay their respects to what they believe is an image of the Virgin Mary in a tree stump in Co Limerick. There have been nightly vigils in the grounds of Holy Mary Parish Church in Rathkeale after workers spotted the similarities while cutting down trees. Those visiting the site believe it depicts an image of the Virgin Mary and believers have come in their hundreds to pray and light candles.


May the Stump be with you

A spokesman for the Limerick diocesan office said the 'Church's response to phenomena of this type is one of great scepticism.' While we do not wish in any way to detract from devotion to Our Lady, we would also wish to avoid anything which might lead to superstition,' said Fr Paul Finnerty.

Rathkeale Community Council Graveyard Committee chairman Noel White (a job to die for?) said workmen sprucing up the church land saw the image when they cut the tree. 'One of the lads said look, our Blessed Lady in the tree,' Mr White said. 'One of the other lads looked over and actually knelt down and blessed himself, he got such a shock. It was the perfect shape of the figure of Our Lady holding the baby,' he said.


How wooden thou art!

Well no wonder the Calvinists in the North laugh heartily at the “popish idolaters” in the Free State! It ill behoves the Irish Atheist (A man with no invisible means of support) to lecture the followers of the Nazarene on these matters but I thought rejection of idols and idolatry was at the heart of their belief system. When Moses came down from the mount with the Ten Commandments did he not find the Israelites worshipping a Golden Calf and ordered that the idolaters be put to death ”though they be your own kith and kin” thereby ensuring fratricide was hard coded into belief in the one God from the very start.

Still, in Ireland they have plentiful form in this matter with Marian revelations to “simple” peasants, dancing statues, weeping statues etc; but worshipping a tree trunk – Hold me back! Maybe the pagan instincts have never really died out in Ireland, indeed Brian Friel’s wonderful play “Dancing at Lughnasa” is predicated on this very proposition. The play takes place in early August, around the festival of Lughnasa, in Celtic folklore, the festival of the first fruits, when the harvest is welcomed. It highlights the tension between the strict and proper behaviour demanded by the Catholic Church, voiced most stridently by the upright Kate and the unbridled emotional paganism of the local people in the "back hills" of Donegal and in the tribal people of Uganda.

Well as is traditional in Ireland we leave the last word to the local Rathkeale parish priest Father Willie Russell. “There’s nothing there . . . it’s just a tree . . . you can’t worship a tree.” Well we can’t argue with that but thank you good folk of Rathkeale, Co. Limerick for this wonderful insight into how Man created God!

Muslim Kos

Defeterdar Mosque

Kos and Rhodes were the two islands which experienced Muslim immigration under the 400 years of Ottoman rule and being under Italian control were not affected by the “population transfers” (or ethnic cleansing in modern language) after the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Knights of St. John (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/03/knights-of-malta.html )surrendered Kos and the mainland fortress of St. Petrium (now days Turkish Bodrum and 10 miles from Kos) , which between them controlled the sea straits, to the forces of Suleiman the Magnificent (known in Islam as Suleiman the Lawgiver) in 1523 and this began a 390 year Turkish domination. The Turks renamed the island “Stanköy” and whilst the Greeks refer to Turkish rule as barbaric and refer to it as an “occupation” the truth is that under the Ottomans Kos was for the most part benignly neglected with a toleration towards other religions and a mix of Greek, Turkish, Armenian and Jewish population.

There were flare ups in that 390 year history. In 1603 the Knights of St. John unsuccessfully tried to retake the island and Kos was looted by the Ottoman mercenaries who retook the island. It was hit by a terrible epidemic of the plague in 1810/11 and it took part in the Greek Revolt of 1821. The retribution was savage by the Ottomans with a massacre on the island of Chios in the Sporades and the Orthodox Patriarch in Constantinople (Istanbul) being executed and his body thrown in the Bosporus. On Kos more than 90 Greek rebels were hanged around the Plane Tree of Hippocrates. The Turkish rule came to an end in 1912 in the Italian / Turkish war where Italy invaded Ottoman North Africa and to Italy were ceded to Italy to “ensure the due performance of the Treaty of Cyrenia.” Well the Ottomans did “perform” by leaving the area of North Africa known as Libya (and Italy embarked on a shameful and vicious colonial enterprise in Africa) but the Italians stayed in the Dodecanese. However despite the repression at times of rebellion, trade flourished under the Ottomans, religious freedoms were respected and the rule was generally even handed but the infrastructure was neglected. (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/kos-town.html )



The indigenous Muslim population in Greece is not homogeneous since it consists of different ethnic, linguistic and social backgrounds which often overlap. The Muslim faith is the creed of several autochthonous ethnic groups living in the present territory of Greece, namely the Pomaks, ethnic Turks, certain Roma groups, and Greek Muslims, who embraced the Muslim faith mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The country's Muslim population decreased significantly as a result of the 1923 population exchange agreement between Greece and the new Turkish Republic, which also uprooted approximately 1.5 million Greeks from Asia Minor.


Turkish Cemetery, Platani

In 1923, under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne, the Muslims living in Greece were required to immigrate to Turkey; whereas, the Christians living in Turkey were required to immigrate to Greece in an "Exchange of Populations" – nowadays this process is called “Ethnic Cleansing” and prosecuted as a war crime. The Muslims of Thrace and the Christians of Istanbul and the islands of Gökçeada and Bozcaada (Imvros and Tenedos) were the only populations not exchanged.



There is also a small Muslim community in some of the Dodecanese islands which, as part of Italy between 1912 and 1947 were not subjected to the exchange of the population between Turkey and Greece in 1923. They number about 4,000 most of whom espouse a Turkish identity and speak Turkish. The community is strongest on the island of Kos, and in particular the village of Platanos.

Kos at one time had a large Turkish minority but with the tensions over Cyprus, many have left the island. About 50 Muslim families remain on Kos and they mostly reside in Platani along with a Greek minority. Everyone seems to get along just fine but the good news is the Turkish restaurants that await visitors.

Colonised by the Italians after the Ottoman administration in 1912, 12 Aegean islands were occupied by the Germans in 1942 and then by the English after World War II. The problems of Turkish islanders - or Greek Muslim citizens, according to the terminology used in Greece - who were handed over to Greece with the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1947, still affects the local political agenda. Local politicians are also sensitive about the problems of Turks and other Muslims living on the islands. Alderman Nikos Milonas, who prepared a report titled "Problems of Muslim Society on Kos Island" in the first year of New Democracy party (ND) rule, began his report saying, "We generally avoid mentioning the problems of the small Muslim society living on Kos Island. Falsely-internalised nationalistic feelings keep us silent about this issue. However, such issues should come to the agenda and be discussed within the framework of efforts to reconstruct an open democracy in our country, just like other European Union countries."



Another significant problem is language and religious education. Turkish has not been taught at schools on Rhodes and Kos since 1972. There were no problems with native-language instruction from 1912 until 1947, when the islands were passed to Greece. Turkish schools also survived from 1947 on, but the lessons were taught both in Greek and Turkish. However, after Turkey banned Greek at schools on Gökçeada and Bozcada in 1972, Turkish teaching was totally excluded from the curriculum. Children must learn Turkish at home from their families now. They learn reading and writing in their native language only after they learn the Latin alphabet in high school to learn English. Nineteen-year-old Emine, who recently graduated from high school, will study tourism in Rhodes. Emine, who currently works in sales, says: "I attended English courses after school. I could improve my Turkish after I learned the Latin alphabet thanks to English. I took private Turkish courses. I improve my Turkish by reading Turkish novels."

The problem of religion and language education forces Turkish families to send their children to Turkey for secondary and high school education. This results in the separation of the children from their families at a tender age. The integration of these children into the island community also becomes difficult when they come back to their homeland. Another way of learning Turkish is Turkish lessons from the Mediterranean studies department at the university in Rhodes. Students have the opportunity to learn their native language as a foreign language at undergraduate level in the department, which has few students.


Turkish Gravestones, Kos Town

The first immigrants of Islamic faith arrived in the early 1970s from the Middle East, mostly from Palestine, and are concentrated in the country's two main urban centres, Athens and Thessalonica. Since 1990, there has been an increase in the numbers of immigrant Muslims, fifty percent of whom come from Albania. The remainder are from various countries of the Middle East, as well as from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. The immigrant Muslim community numbers around 150,000 people.
During the last decades, as part of a Europe-wide trend of populations moving from rural areas to urban areas, many Greek Muslims, along with other Greek citizens, have left their birthplaces to move to bigger cities, most notably Athens and Istanbul. In the past, a considerable number of them were deprived of their citizenship after leaving Greece (especially for Turkey) and their properties were subsequently confiscated by the state under Article 19 of the Citizenship Law, which was repealed non-retroactively in June 1998.

Today on Kos the evidence of Ottoman rule is still highly visible and the small Turkish community struggles to maintain its identity and culture. In the main square of Kos Town, Eleftheria (Freedom) Square, one side is taken up by the Defeterdar Mosque (Defeterdar Mahmut Efendi Mosque). This was constructed in the 18th Century and is well preserved although it could do with some TLC. The Defeterdar was the Treasury minister of the Ottoman Empire. It is characterised by the minaret and the octagonal ablution fountain with its domed roof next to it. Behind it is the so called Forum Gate which leads into the remains of the walled Crusader Town of Kos. Little remains of this as it was built on the site of the impressive Roman Agora which was excavated following the earthquake of 1933.


Hippocrates Plane Tree Square

At the end of the walk (today known as “Bar Street”) you come to Kos’s most famous public spaces, Hippocrates Plane Tree Square. Under the huge and gnarled plane tree the Father of Medicine is meant to have lectured 2,500 years ago. It is huge and impressive and possibly the oldest tree in Europe but it can not be the one Hippocrates lectured under as plane trees generally live about 600 years. It none the less is a lovely space with the bridge to the Knights Castle of Neratzia, the Italian modernist court buildings and the Loggia Mosque framing it. As well as Hippocrates, the Apostle Paul is meant to have preached Christianity here in Roman times. There is a beautiful Ottoman fountain to the north of the plane tree, one of the many to be seen around Kos Town, which incorporates an ancient sarcophagus and it contains an inscription in Arabic characterising the water as “the water of Hippocrates” and giving the date of construction as 1786. Like all the Ottoman fountains in Kos this was an ablution fountain to clean the hands of the faithful before prayer and to wash their feet before entering the mosque. All the fountains, mosques and Mederessa in Kos are inscribed with the Shahaadah, the Muslim declaration of Faith “"There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."




Hassan Pasha Mosque

1786 was also the foundation year of the Lotzia (Loggia) Mosque also known as the Hassan Pasha Mosque which was founded by the Turkish admiral Gazi Irli Hassan. Ancient architectural elements from Roman remains have been incorporated into the fabric of the mosque and its minarets. The three story building is locked and unused and still bears the marks of wartime bombardment, especially in the tracery of the upper windows. The ground floor – like that of its near contemporary the Defeterdar Mosque – is taken up by several shops. The building looks sad and forlorn and is of such quality and presence that it cries out to be used better, ideally as a museum of Muslim Kos. At the east side of the square there is the more satisfying sight of an original 18th Century Hamman which has been restored with the help of EU funds. However if you leave the square to walk down to the harbour through a small park you notice on your left the site of two ancient Muslim gravestones which have been vandalised and covered with graffiti. Ahead the go ahead Mayor of Kos replaced a taxi rank with a fine fountain and public space which provides a handsome approach from the harbour to the plane tree but there is the sight of a large Hamman which has been converted to a nightclub with extract vents crudely cut into the ancient domes.


Hamman nightclub

Kos heavily touts its “Old Town” without actually telling you this was the Ottoman Old Town of Haluvazia. You enter the Old town from behind the covered Merkato on Platia Eleftherias and continue on a pedestrianised street which begins as Ifestou and then becomes Appelou before ending at Platia Dhiagoras overlooking the Western Archaeological Zone further on. It is a satisfying walk through Haluvazia; off the pedestrianised narrow main street you can see the sturdy Ottoman homes and courtyards which survived the 1933 earthquake. This was long considered an undesirable area, but while all the rickety townhouses nearby collapsed in the 1933 earthquake, the sturdy stone built houses and shops here survived. Today the area is crammed with tourist shops and cafes but if you look upwards you can see Turkish and Arabic inscriptions on the stones. There is a dry Turkish fountain where the walkway crosses Venizelou and another one juts out from the wall at the barber shop at the corner of Hristodoulou and Passanikolaki beside the minaret-less but still functioning Atik Mosque.


Ottoman Old Town of Haluvazia

Continuing in the same direction you can make a detour west of Platia Dhiagoras to Nikita Nissiriou to the Anatolian Hamman. During the Ottoman Period this was the residence of a local pasha whose descendants emigrated to Izmir in 1950; The small Turkish bath inside (the Hamman of the name) functioned as the neighbourhood spa until 1970 or so after which the premises operated as a brothel (legal in Greece) before falling into complete disrepair. It has now been restored (since 1992) with the original cedar floors and painted ceilings and has a lovely Arabic style garden at the back and is a stylish restaurant. I complimented the waitress that the excellent Arabic style hummus – the Chef came out and it turned out he was Coptic from Alexandria hence the authentic feel to the food.






Anatolian Hamman

For an insight into what it means to be Turkish in Kos these days head 2Km south of Kos Town on the road to the Asklepion to the Greek – Turkish village of Platani. Until 1964 it was most commonly known as Kermetes (Germe in Turkish) and the Turkish community had its own primary school. But in the wake of the Cyprus crises of that year the village was given a Greek name and education provided in Greek only. Subsequent emigration to Anatolia caused Turkish numbers on Kos to drop from three thousand to less than a thousand today. Only those Turks owning real estate and businesses have stayed put but, as on Rhodes, the long term outlook is bleak.

Platani’s older domestic architecture is similar to styles in Crete from where some of the village’s inhabitants came between 1898 and 1913. There is a working Ottoman fountain near the crossroads and several excellent Turkish tavernas; Arap, Asklipios, Sherif and Gin’s Palace. They all offer Anatolian-style mezedhes and kebabs and enjoy a reputation, including among the Greeks, as the best eateries on the island. We dined at Arap where all the vegetables are grown on the owners land and the meats sourced on the island. We enjoyed an excellent meal with our Greek friends who are regulars here. I expressed my surprise to Mr. Arap that the menu included a pork chop but he said there was not necessarily a strict interpretation on this before saying he had to earn a living. Well for myself I thought Al Qur’aan was clear;

“He has forbidden you only the Maytah (dead animals), and blood, and the flesh of swine…”
[al-Baqarah 2:173]


Arap




Platani

The truth is that Kos, the Dodecanese and the Turkish mainland (Asia Minor) have since time immemorial been diverse lands which have hosted many religions and races, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Armenians, Turks, Crusaders, Italians and many more professing Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrian, Alevis, and the Gods of the Ancient World. Kos has gained its unique identity from this diversity and the sectarianism and mono-cultures are very much a product of these modern times. We need grown up discussions amongst grown up people and does a culture as strong as that of Greece really need to be so defensive? Does it have so little confidence in itself? So let us see in the 21st Century a new engagement where diversity is celebrated and embraced, where Turkish schools are reopened and Kos Town celebrates its unique patrimony with a heritage trail embracing the people’s who have made it unique in various museums; Greek, Roman, (Casa Romana), Jewish (The Old Synagogue; http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/jewish-kos.html ), Muslim (Loggia Mosque), Crusader (Neratzia Castle)and so on.

It is time to move on from the sterile nationalism of the past and the poisonous delusion of Megali Idea (Modern Greek: Μεγάλη Ιδέα, "Great Idea"), that irredentist delusion which has only ever brought disaster to Greece and suffering to Greeks from the farcical “invasion” of Asia Minor in 1923 to the disaster in Cyprus in 1974. It is time to recognise after 586 years that Byzantium had its day in the sun of history (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/fall-of-byzantium.html ) and instead of blaming everybody else recognise that an Empire where 26 out of 92 Emperors were murdered or had “unexplained” deaths and where the word “Byzantine” entered the English language for all the wrong reasons may not have been the most competent outfit and contributed to its own demise. Most of all Greece needs to look forward not to the past and decide what sort of society it wants to be. By embracing Muslim communities, many of whose people go back several generations on Kos,and being proud and confident in its diversity the special isle of Kos, which has always been a crossroads of humanity, can lead the way for a New Greece.

London 7/7 Bombings Memorial

Tributes have been paid to the victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, at the unveiling of a permanent memorial in Hyde Park by Prince Charles today. The £1 million London Bombing Memorial is made up of 52 stainless steel pillars, each representing one of the victims. Fifty-two people died after suicide bombers detonated backpacks on board three Underground trains and a bus. The victims' relatives at the unveiling said it was a "fitting tribute". Architects Carmody Groarke said the 52, 3.5m (11.5ft) tall stainless steel pillars should convey the random nature of the loss of life - how it could have been anyone travelling in London that day.

Prince Charles has paid tribute to the families who lost loved ones in the 7 July 2005 London bombings, at a memorial in Hyde Park. He said that their bravery "offered us hope for the future". Prince Charles said the date of the bombings would be etched vividly on all our minds as a brutal intrusion into the lives of thousands of people. The families of the victims, the survivors and the stout hearted emergency services remain very much in our thoughts and prayers. You are a moving example of holding together bravery in the face of such inhuman and deplorable outrage and you offer us hope for the future," he added.



The attacks by four suicide bombers on the London Transport system on 7th July 2005 were the largest mass murder in Britain in peacetime killing 52 passengers on The Tube and on the No. 30 bus at Tavistock Square and injuring 800 more, many seriously. Injured or not, and serious or not all who lived through the experience carry vivid and unsettling memories. There is a curious obscenity about suicide bombing, about the personal fascism which rationalises killing yourself and complete strangers you have first looked in the eye because you have convinced yourself it is for a greater good. There is a particular perversity, if you have religious faith, in destroying what you believe are God’s creations because you have appointed yourself as God’s representative and indeed have convinced yourself that shortly afterwards you will be personally thanked by Him.

Of the bombings the greatest loss of life was caused by a 19 year old Muslim convert living near me in Aylesbury (where he was not known to the local Muslim community) Germaine Lindsay who had married a local girl and had a young son. At 08.50 hrs a bomb exploded on Piccadilly line train number 331 travelling south from King's Cross station to Russell Square. The device was next to the rear set of double doors in the front carriage of the train. Twenty-six people, plus the bomber, were killed. More than 340 were injured. The Piccadilly line is 21.3 metres (70 feet) below ground at this point. Intense heat of up to 60C, dust, fumes, vermin, asbestos and initial concerns the tunnel might collapse delayed the extraction of bodies and the forensic operation. Being a single track deep tube line the force of the explosion was concentrated in a smaller area accounting for the high number of deaths as well as the number and the severity of the injuries caused.


Map released by a security consultancy the day after the bombings showing the original estimates of the timings (they were later revised) and the death toll then. More died later in hospital.

The 7 July 2005 London bombings (also known as the 7/7 bombings) were a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on London's public transport system during the morning rush hour. The bombings were carried out by 4 British Muslim men who were motivated by Britain's involvement in the Iraq War. At 08:50, three bombs exploded within fifty seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus nearly an hour later at 09:47 in Tavistock Square. The explosions were caused by home-made organic peroxide-based devices, packed into rucksacks. The devices were almost certainly detonated manually by the bombers themselves in intentional suicide attacks.

The first bomb exploded on an eastbound Circle Line sub-surface Underground train, number 204, travelling between Liverpool Street and Aldgate. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. At the time of the explosion, the third carriage of the train was approximately 100 yards (90 m) down the tunnel from Liverpool Street. The parallel track of the Hammersmith and City Line from Liverpool Street to Aldgate East was also damaged.



The second bomb exploded on the second carriage of a westbound Circle Line sub-surface Underground train, number 216. The train had just left platform 4 at Edgware Road and was heading for Paddington. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. There were several other trains nearby at the time of the explosion. An eastbound Circle Line train (arriving at platform 3 at Edgware Road from Paddington) was passing next to the train and was damaged, along with a wall that later collapsed. There were two other trains at Edgware Road: an unidentified train on platform 2, and an eastbound Hammersmith & City Line train that had just arrived at platform 1.


Mobile photo image of commuters trapped underground on the Piccadilly Line

The third bomb exploded on a southbound Piccadilly Line deep-level Underground train, number 311 travelling between King's Cross St. Pancras and Russell Square. The bomb exploded about one minute after the train left King's Cross, by which time it had travelled about 500 yards (450 m). The explosion took place at the rear of the first carriage of the train (car no 166), causing severe damage to the rear of that carriage, as well as the front of the second one. The surrounding tunnel also sustained damage.


Tavistock Square

The fourth bomb exploded in Tavistock Square on the No. 30 a Dennis Trident 2 double-decker bus, fleet number 17758, registration LX03BUF, two years in service at the time, operated by Stagecoach London Stratford (SD) depot, travelling its route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick. Earlier, the bus had passed through the King's Cross area as it travelled from Hackney Wick to Marble Arch. At Marble Arch, the bus turned around and started the return route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick. It left Marble Arch at 09:00 a.m. and arrived at Euston bus station at 09:35 a.m., where crowds of people had been evacuated from the tube and were boarding buses. The explosion ripped the roof off the top deck of the vehicle and destroyed the back of the bus. Witnesses reported seeing "half a bus flying through the air". The detonation took place close to the British Medical Association building on Upper Woburn Place, and a number of doctors in or near the building were able to provide immediate emergency medical assistance.

The bombings killed 52 people and the four bombers, injured 700, and caused disruption of the city's transport system (severely for the first day) and the country's mobile telecommunications infrastructure. The series of explosions constituted the largest and deadliest terrorist attack on London's transit system in history.

The effects of the bombs are thought to have varied due to the differing characteristics of the tunnels. The Circle Line is a "cut and cover" sub-surface tunnel, about 7 m (21 ft) deep. Because the tunnel contains two parallel tracks, it is relatively wide. The two explosions on this line were probably able to vent their force into the tunnel, reducing their destructive force.

The Piccadilly Line is a deep tunnel, up to 30 m (100 ft) underground, with narrow (3.5 m, or 11 ft) single-track tubes and just 15 cm (6 in) clearances. This narrow space reflected the blast force, concentrating its effect.


The bombers on CCTV at Luton Railway Station on their way into London on the morning of 7/7

The following men carried out the attacks:

Mohammad Sidique Khan (30) - Edgware Road Tube 8:50 a.m. Lived in Dewsbury with his heavily pregnant wife and young child. (Hasina Patel miscarried August 2005).

Shehzad Tanweer (22) - Aldgate Tube 8:50 a.m. Lived in Leeds with his mother and father working in a fish-and-chip shop.

Germaine Lindsay (19) - Russell Square 8:50 a.m. Lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire with his pregnant wife.

Hasib Hussain (18) - Tavistock Square 9:47 a.m. Lived in Leeds with his brother Imran and sister-in-law Shazia.

A representative of the bereaved families' group said: "The memorial is a fitting tribute, honouring the 52 lives lost on 7 July 2005, ensuring that the world will never forget them. It represents the enormity of our loss, both on a personal and public level. "We hope this memorial will speak to visitors so they can understand the impact of these horrific events." It is located between the park's Lover's Walk and Park Lane. The stelae are grouped to represent those killed in each of the four sites. Thanks to the open casting process used to make the columns, with molten stainless-steel being poured into sand moulds, each one has a unique finish.


Location of 7/7 Memorial

But the memorial is only part of bringing closure to the many affected by these cruel and heartless bombings. A full open public enquiry into the bombings has long been a demand of the families and others involved. As Rachel North (See Rachel from North London in my Blog Roll) wrote in the Times on the 18th December 2005;

“The attack on the Tube trains and the buses that summer morning was an attack on all of us, anyone who lives and works and travels in this busy, bustling city. About 3,000 people were directly affected: 52 died, hundreds were injured and thousands hurt in a way that cannot be seen from the outside. “


Bombed Aldgate Tube Train

“The public were the targets, not politicians or those in power. Ordinary people continue to feel they are the targets of terror attacks, every time they use public transport.”

“But there is also anger at the perceived lack of help, suspicion about what the government may be trying to hide and frustration that despite repeated claims from politicians that they speak “for the victims”, victims’ voices are not being heard.”

“If the government feels the threat of terrorism is so great that it needs to introduce laws that severely compromise our civil liberties, why does it feel that it is not worth a public inquiry?” asks Kirsty Morrison. “Laws will not stop this from happening again. Understanding why it happened might just begin to.”

The redoubtable Rachel expands further in her Blog;

http://rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.com/

“It's not about blame, or politics, I say, it is about saving lives. I truthfully don't think all the lessons of 7th July have been learned and shared amongst all the agencies and people who need to prepare for and respond to disasters and terror attacks - which include the public itself. And until the learning’s are shared, as publicly as possible without compromising the safety of the realm, how can the public feel any safer than they did on 7th July?"


A victim being led away

"I would love to step away from the devastation of 7th July that still haunts my dreams. Campaigning for answers is not something I do to bring "closure"; it is tiring and it is hard work. But I strongly believe that it is the right thing to do. I couldn't help the people who died and were hurt on the train but I can try to help people now, to tell what happened so that people can learn from it, understand, and be safer.”

Coincidentally, the most far-ranging parliamentary inquiry into the 7 July bombings and other terrorist incidents in Britain was also launched by MPs today. MI5 and MI6 chiefs, as well as terrorism experts, will be asked to give evidence to the Commons home affairs committee. As a monument to the victims was unveiled in Hyde Park on the fourth anniversary of the London bombings, MPs said the Tube remains “extremely vulnerable” to attack and warned against complacency.

The inquiry will re-examine what security services knew before 7/7, what should have been done and the Government's response — including the emergency Cobra committee. MPs will assess any “common threads” between 7 July, the failed bombings on 21 July and other terrorist incidents. These include the Crevice case, which saw five men jailed for life for an al Qaeda-linked bomb plot whose targets included a nightclub and shopping centre. Some of the Crevice plotters met two of the 7 July suicide bombers. The inquiry will re-open questions over the report by the intelligence and security committee, which cleared MI5 and the police of blame for 7/7, despite new evidence revealing their knowledge of some of the bombers.


Emergency services at King's Cross

The ISC said it was "understandable and reasonable" that the terrorists had not been detected before the attacks, in which 52 people were murdered by four suicide bombers. But survivors and victims' relatives dismissed it as "a complete whitewash". Members of the security and intelligence services may be more guarded with MPs on the home affairs committee. So while the inquiry will be more wide-ranging, it may have more difficulty obtaining information. Another focus of the inquiry will be the Cobra committee after Andy Hayman; the former head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism operations, recently described it as "a nonsensical system". Mr Hayman was at Cobra meetings during the London bombings.

(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/07/bend-it-like-andy.html )

The former counter-terrorism chief criticised Cobra as too bureaucratic, overly political and cumbersome. Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a member of the home affairs committee, said: "This will be the biggest inquiry into July 7 and terrorist incidents in Britain." Mr Mercer chaired a home affairs sub-committee whose report on the Government's Contest counter-terrorism strategy was published today.

While praising the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, the committee issued warnings over measures to protect the Tube and the 2012 Olympics in London.
Perhaps I should leave the final word to Rachel North describing the actions of the Piccadilly Line train driver on the 7th July;

(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/walktalk.html )


Edgware Road

“The train driver stayed behind on his train and once the front of carriage one, where I was, was cleared of frightened passengers, he was able to walk into the horrific aftermath of Europe's most deadly suicide bomb attack. He has never spoken publicly of what he did, what he saw. But I know now how he stayed for nearly two hours, trying to save lives. I dare not imagine what it was like. I wish I had known how many were hurt. I wish I had been able to help them.”

These are the ordinary Londoners and visitors whose lives were cruelly destroyed on the 7th July 2005. These are the people who are missed by sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and partners of all races and religions. They were innocents going about their everyday lives and represent the diversity and dynamism of this great World City. The bombers looked them in the eye and decided their lives were not important. Londoner’s in their refusal to be cowed by the bombings have effectively said these were important lives, lives that cast a real shadow and count. The memorial in Hyde Park is a tangible reminder that we will not forget and that diversity and tolerance are what makes London special.

King's Cross bomb


Tube staff paying tribute to the victims at Russell Square Station on the 1st anniversary

James Adams, 32, a mortgage broker who was travelling from his home in Peterborough to London through King's Cross from where he called his mother.

Samantha Badham, 35, had taken the Tube with her partner, Lee Harris. The couple usually cycled to work but caught the Tube because they were planning a romantic dinner to celebrate their 14th anniversary.

Lee Harris, 30, an architect who died after receiving treatment at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London. His partner, Samantha Badham, also died in the attacks.

Phil Beer, 22, a hair stylist, was on his way to work at the Sanrizz salon in Knightsbridge with his best friend, Patrick Barnes, who was injured.

Anna Brandt, 41, a Polish cleaner living in Wood Green. She had 2 daughters.

Ciaran Cassidy, 24, of Upper Holloway, north London, on his way to his job as a shop assistant for a printing company in Chancery Lane. He was a keen Arsenal fan.

Elizabeth Daplyn, 26, an administrator at University College Hospital in London, left home in Highgate with her partner, Rob Brennan, before taking a Piccadilly Line train.

Arthur Edlin Frederick, 60, from Grenada, living in Seven Sisters, north London, on his way to work at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Karolina Gluck, 29, from Poland, said goodbye to boyfriend, Richard Deer, 28, at 08:30. The IT consultant was travelling from Finsbury Park to Russell Square.

Gamze Günoral, 24, a Turkish student, left her aunt’s house in north London to catch the tube to go to her language college in Hammersmith.

Ojara Ikeagwu, 55, a married mother-of-three from Luton, was on her way to Hounslow where she worked as a social worker.

Emily Jenkins, 24, from Richmond. Having just returned to the UK from Australia, she was waiting to hear whether she had been successful in her application to become a midwife, on the day she was killed.

Adrian Johnson, 37, a keen golfer and hockey-player with two young children. He was on his way to work at the Burberry fashion house in Haymarket where he was a product technical manager.

Helen Jones, 28, a Scottish (London-based) accountant who had previously escaped death in 1988 when wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed upon Lockerbie. Her family, from Chapelknowe, Dumfries and Galloway, said: "Helen will live on in the hearts of her family and her many, many friends".

Susan Levy, 53, from Cuffley in Hertfordshire, the mother of Daniel, 25, and James, 23. She had just said goodbye to her younger son.

Shelley Mather, 26, from New Zealand, a tour manager with Contiki Tours.


Forensic investigators on the bombed Piccadilly Line train between King's Cross and Russell Square

Michael Matsushita, 37, left his fiancée, Rosie Cowen, 28, at the couple's flat in Islington for his second day at work as a tour guide. He had lived in New York at the time of the 9/11 attack.

James Mayes, 28, worked as an analyst for the Healthcare Commission and had just returned from a holiday in Prague. He was heading from his home in Barnsbury to an ‘away day’ at Lincoln’s Inn and was thought to be travelling by Tube via King's Cross.

Behnaz Mozakka, 47, an Iranian biomedical records officer from Finchley who worked at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Mihaela Otto, 46, from Romania, known as Michelle. A dental technician from Mill Hill, North London.

Atique Sharifi, 24, an Afghan national who was living in Hounslow, Middlesex.

Ihab Slimane, a 24-year-old I.T. graduate from Lyon, France, who was working as a waiter at a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus, was said by friends to have caught a Tube from Finsbury Park.

Christian 'Njoya' Small, 28, an advertising salesman from Walthamstow, east London.

Monika Suchocka, 23, originally from Dąbrówka Malborska, in northern Poland, arrived in London two months earlier to start work as a trainee accountant in West Kensington. A flatmate named Kim Phillip said whilst she was still missing: "This is her first time in London and she is really enjoying the excitement of it all".

Mala Trivedi, 51, from Wembley was manager of the X-ray department at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Rachelle Chung For Yuen, 27, an accountant from Mill Hill, north London, who was originally from Mauritius.

Edgware Road bomb



Michael Stanley Brewster, 52, a father of two who was travelling to work from Derby. He died in the arms of fellow passengers who tried to help.

Jonathan Downey, 34, an HR systems development officer with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea from Milton Keynes, had just said goodbye to his wife at Euston .

David Foulkes, 22, a media sales worker from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was on his way to meet a colleague. It was his first ever journey on the London Tube network.

Colin Morley, 52, of Finchley, marketing consultant. He was originally from Crosby, Liverpool.

Jenny Nicholson, 24, daughter of a Bristol vicar, who had just started work at a music company in London

Laura Webb, 29, from Islington, a PA. Laura was the youngest of three children.

Aldgate bomb



Lee Baisden, 34, an accountant from Romford who was going to work at the London Fire Brigade.

Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, an Italian-born business analyst from Norwich. One of three sisters, she was due to marry her Muslim partner in a ceremony which was to have joint Catholic and Muslim rites.

Richard Ellery, 21, was travelling from his home in Ipswich to his job in the Jessop’s store in Kensington, via Liverpool Street Station. He texted his parents, Beverley and Trevor, at 8.30am to say he was on his way to work.

Richard Gray, 41, a father of two young children, who worked as a tax manager. He was from Ipswich. At the remembrance service for the victims of the bombings in November 2005, Richard's daughter, Ruby, was chosen to present a posy to the Queen.

Anne Moffat, 48, from Harlow in Essex, who was head of marketing and communications for Girl guiding UK.

Fiona Stevenson, 29, a solicitor who lived at the Barbican, London. Her parents, Ivan and Eimar, of Little Baddow, Essex, described her as "irreplaceable".

Carrie Taylor, a 24-year-old graduate from Billericay, Essex. June Taylor, her mother, said: "We have a little farewell ritual. Carrie gives me a kiss goodbye". The day before the bombings, she had written on the bare plastered wall of her parents kitchen (which was about to be redecorated) 'Carrie Louise Taylor, 6/7/05, we got the 2012 Olympic Games on this day'.

Tavistock Square bus bomb



Anthony Fatayi-Williams, 26, a Nigerian-born executive with an oil and gas company based in Old Street, had been living in the UK for eight years.

Jamie Gordon, 30, from Enfield, worked for City Asset Management and was engaged to be married to his girlfriend Yvonne Nash.

Giles Hart, 55, a BT engineer from Hornchurch and father-of-two, was travelling to Angel via Aldgate.

Marie Hartley, 34, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was in London on a course. She was a mother of two young sons.

Miriam Hyman, 32, from Barnet, North London, a picture researcher. She had spoken to her father by phone after being evacuated from King's Cross station and reassured him that she was all right.

Shahara Akther Islam, 20, from Plaistow, East London, a bank cashier who lived with her parents, and was both fully Westernised and a devout Muslim. Shahara was of Bangladeshi origin, she was the eldest of three children, her parents having moved from Sylhet, Bangladesh to the UK in 1965.

Neetu Jain, 37, was evacuated from Euston and caught the bus to take her to work as a computer analyst. Ms Jain was planning to move in with her boyfriend, Gous Ali.

Sam Ly, 28, from Melbourne, died at the National Hospital of Neurology - the only fatality of ten Australians caught in the bombing.

Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30, a post office worker travelling from Kensal Rise to Alder Street.

Anat Rosenberg, 39, an Israeli-born charity worker who called her boyfriend to tell him she was on the Number 30 bus moments before the blast. John Falding, 62, her boyfriend, said: "She was afraid of going back to Israel because she was scared of suicide bombings on buses".

Philip Russell, a 28-year-old finance worker at JP Morgan who lived at Kennington in South-East London.

William Wise, 54, an IT specialist at Equitas Holdings in St Mary Axe.

Gladys Wundowa, 50, from Ilford in Essex, a cleaner at University College London. She had finished her shift and was heading to a college course in Shoreditch. Her body was taken to her homeland of Ghana for burial.

A Steamy Day in the Chiltern Hills

Last Sunday was a perfect sunny summer afternoon in the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) just 30 miles north west of London. (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/rupert-brooke-and-chilterns.html ) AONB is one step down from a National Park designation and provides tight control on development and farming. This was an aspect we certainly appreciated as we headed down the lovely Missbourne Valley towards Prestwood, a hamlet in the hills about a mile from Great Missenden (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/roald-dahl-museum-and-story-centre.html )on the road towards High Wycombe. First order of business was to work up an appetite by visiting the Steam Fair at Prestwood followed by a superb barbie prepared by a Suid Afrikan Braiemeister washed down with oodles of Pimms No. 1. Dankie as they say in Cape Dutch!

The Prestwood Steam Fair is something of a Chiltern institution held at the beginning of July in the scenic environs of The Hangings at Prestwood and organised by the Chiltern Traction Engine Club. It is very much a major event for the aficionados with Steam Engines arriving all week beforehand with their “Living Vans” in tow. Don’t show yourself up in the presence of steamers by calling them “trailers”!





There is considerable variety at the fair with the attractions including around 40 Traction Engines, and Vintage vehicles including Cars, Motor Cycles, Lorries, Tractors and Stationary Engines. There is a Model and Craft tents, a Children's fun fair, a Children’s Farm and a large market with stalls selling clothes, toys and games, bric-a-brac, tools, auto jumble, etc. A working area with Steam Traction Engines demonstrates how they would have been used in days gone by when they would have earned their keep on the farms, estates and highways and byways of Britain. On site catering includes a licensed bar, burgers and fish and chips, a hog roast, doughnuts and jacket potatoes so there is a real fair athmosphere with many camping on site for the weekend in tents, caravans and trailer homes so Prestwood becomes a village and marketplace for the preservation community. Indeed their enthusiasm is catching for the whole event is avery real and dynamic exposition of an important part of Britain’s heritage in engineering and industrial design, a heritage which created our modern world.




A Living van


Morris delivery van

From time immemorial, the fastest way to travel on land was on horseback - but the advent of steam power for the mining industry in the later 18th century led to its adaptation to the movement of goods and people across the world. Britain was at the forefront of this technology and the first successful self-moving machines were introduced on the mineral railroads for iron and coal mining 200 years ago. The rapid development of steam technology led to the age of railway mania in the 19th century when many thousands of miles of railways were built in the UK alone.





The same technology was applied to road transport and the first self-moving traction engine was built around 1860. Rapid development saw many traction engine builders spring up, though most were in the east of England, with others in the industrial heartland of Yorkshire. To improve the roads, steam rollers were made. From the 1850s to the 1930s, steam was applied not only to roads but to agriculture as well, many engines - self-moving or not - being used to mechanise farming.



Meanwhile, steam power's hold on industry was growing, with huge beam engines used to pump out deep mines, or to raise fresh water or foul. Massive horizontal engines drove cotton mills, mainly in Lancashire and Yorkshire, while steamships plied the oceans of the world; all this made Britain 'great'. Around 100 years ago, the steam engine was adapted for leisure purposes and was a boon to travelling fairgrounds, both hauling and driving their rides.


Foden Steam Waggon


Foden Estate Tractor

After the First World War, a glut of surplus petrol-engined Lorries became available and these gradually took over road haulage from the 1920s, especially as steam was legislated against. Later, the diesel engine took over from petrol, and road haulage from rail as the country's rail network was slashed. This has left a legacy of superbly restored 'classic' Lorries which we can enjoy today while we wonder at the progress made in only a few short decades.


BMW Iseta Bubble Car


Blackstone Stationary Engine



We are fortunate that much of Britain's rich transport, agricultural and industrial heritage is preserved in working order, and many enthusiasts give freely of their time to keep it so. Every weekend in the summer numerous shows and open days are held around the country where many thousands of visitors can enjoy these superb relics of a bygone age and marvel at the engineering which once put the 'great' into Great Britain in the days when Birmingham claimed to be the workshop of the world, Wolverhampton the toolbox of the world and a quarter of the world’s ships were built on the River Clyde alone.




Steam Carousel


"Local Bus"

The Prestwood Steam Fair is a joyous family celebration of this heritage. Indeed even the wonderful carousel and organ is steam powered as are many of the side attractions. I did wonder about the Stationary Engines display which consisted of engines pumping water nowhere, milking machines powered by them with no cows attached and sheep shearing clippers with no scared sheep in sight. Behind these stationary engines were the proud owners and their families in tents inhaling the benzene fumes from their little motors! More satisfying were the displays of vintage cars including a BMW bubble car and nearly every model by Morris Garages in Oxford or MG as the marque was better known.





But for me the highlight was the exhibit of these fine beasts of the steam world actually earning their keep with a belt on their huge fly wheels harnessed to fearsome band saws, crushers and threshers which allowed you to appreciate their power and utility. Finally to the ring for the Grand Finale – the parade of these wonderful engines in all their finery like a herd of hissing mechanical Leviathans. Seeing them in all their finery and power I could understand why the steam enthusiast’s magazine is titled “Old Glory.”




The Grand Line Up




As I walked away from the Fair on this glorious summer’s afternoon in the Chiltern Hills the thought occurred that there are worse ways to work up an appetite for a barbie. There is something about steam which people identify with – I think this is because it is the last advanced technology whose inner workings are visible and easily understood by everybody. if you fancy a unique and fascinating event on the first weekend of July next year in the lovely Chilterns you could do worse than make a beeline for the Prestwood Steam Fair.

The Chiltern Steam Rally is held at Prestwood, on the A4128 between Great Missenden and High Wycombe

The Hangings, Honor End Lane, Prestwood,
Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, HP16 9HQ

Thanks for the photographs to a talented architect, designer and photographer who let me use his shots. (www.tri-linear.org ) This was not the intention but when I took out my camera I had forgotten to insert a power pack. Modern Technology!

Bend it like Andy

You may remember the case of the Policeman who came over all shy? He was a former Chief Constable, a Deputy Commissioner of Scotland Yard responsible for discipline and anti-corruption and head of the anti – terrorist squad making life and death decisions (not necessarily a metaphor) when he suddenly become bashful, sensitive and upset. Yes, this sensitive soul was Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman of Scotland Yard who was responsible for the Metropolitan Police’s unit in charge of the fight against terror. In December 2007 he decided to retire immediately from his £180,000-a-year post, thereby avoiding a disciplinary inquiry or other action in relation to a number of matters. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) examined Mr Hayman's conduct after the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station and later accused the Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner of misleading colleagues and the public. Mr Hayman, who has spearheaded the fight against Islamic extremism since 2005, has also been questioned over allegedly “inflated” expenses claims and trips abroad with Sergeant Heidi Tubby, his staff officer.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/policemans-lot.html

His decision to step down was another blow for Sir Ian Blair who recruited Mr Hayman after taking over as Metropolitan Police Commissioner in February 2005. Mr Hayman's former colleagues at the time rallied to his support, claiming he had been the victim of a 'dirty tricks campaign' at Scotland Yard. Ian Blair has since gone and Sir Paul Stephenson has taken over with a stated mission to regain squandered public trust and return Scotland Yard to the basics of policing. As such he is in the tradition of respected reforming commissioners such as Robert Mark and Paul Condon but it has to be asked if the stables need to be shovelled out with such frequency is the design wrong? Just how bad the stables still are can be garnered from this report in the Observer;

"Auditors who have examined the American Express accounts of 3,500 officers involved in countering terrorism and organised crime have reported almost one in 11 detectives to the Metropolitan Police's internal investigators. A senior officer appears to have spent £40,000 on his Amex card in one year, without authorisation. Items bought by others without permission include suits, women's clothing and fishing rods..."

"Sources have told the Observer that some detectives had fallen into the habit of withdrawing hundreds of pounds at a time from cashpoints. Other officers appear to have filled in blank receipts from restaurants to account for cash payments."



Hundreds of Metropolitan Police Officers have been investigated for fraud after widespread abuse of corporate credit cards was revealed. Indeed those who have cards withdrawn equates to 1 in 11 of all Scotland Yard’s plain clothes officers, so there is definitely something badly wrong with the Yardie’s culture of entitlement and basic honesty.

Now you would think Shy Andy would have stayed shy having failed to give an account of himself but no sireee, you would indeed be wrong. For in the greatest transformation since Ernest Saunders cast off incurable dementia Andy “I don’t want to give evidence” Hayman has triumphed over his shyness and then some! For one thing he has appeared in the columns of The Murdoch Times as a “security correspondent” giving his opinion on all and sundry to do with policing, Law and Order. Now those of us of Hibernian origin remember that throughout the Northern Ireland conflict the Sunday Times always had security correspondents who pedalled British Security Service disinformation and smears, all the time quoting unamed “Security Services”. Never mind most of their “splashes” were wrong, no retractions, apologies or corrections were ever forthcoming.


Community Policing

Well Shy Andy continues in this proud tradition of Murdoch Press Integrity, giving forth with his “expertise”. The Government crisis committee that deals with events from flu epidemics to terror attacks was condemned by him as a “nonsensical system.” He said the Cobra committee dragged people away from their real jobs when dealing with a crisis. Mr Hayman, who was head of counter terror operations during the 7/7 bombings in 2005, gave details of Cobra in his book The Terrorist Hunters. He was particularly critical of the shambolic operations of the committee, which he revealed meets in a fortified cellar beneath Whitehall. Senior officials who are dealing with the immediate aftermath of a major event are suddenly dragged into a meeting with politicians, he said. “There's a bomb attack and all hell breaks loose. Everyone scrambles — emergency services, police, intelligence agencies, Government departments — and rushes around trying to deal with it. But within an hour we're pulled off the job and summoned to Cobra.”



He says the meeting room is stuffy and often senior officials wander lost beneath Whitehall trying to find it. He adds: “Of course a meeting should be called to co-ordinate the response, and the role of senior people is to detach themselves from the detail and plan ahead. But in my experience, Cobra fails to do that. The first time I attended, I was in awe. There were more knights there than at King Arthur's round table.”

He said politicians are often plunged into meetings on issues they know little about. Speaking about the 7/7 attack he says: “Take Alistair Darling, who was then Transport Secretary. He was on my case all the time, telling me the Underground needed to be reopened. And I kept asking: Do you want me to secure the crime scenes and get the evidence to prosecute the terrorists, or do you want me to get the traffic moving?'”


7/7 attack on The Tube

Speaking in the Times (where else!) to publicise his book he said: “Sometimes the meetings worked but more often they didn't. People would jockey for position in front of influential ministers, squabbling over places at the table. At times Cobra appeared to be little more than a stage for those looking to impress.” Mr Hayman calls for Cobra to be replaced with a committee made up solely of operational officials.

Well now the publication of the book The Terrorist Hunters by Andy Hayman has been blocked by the Attorney General. Baroness Scotland stepped in at the last minute to obtain an injunction preventing The Terrorist Hunters from hitting the shelves today. The book focused on the struggle against Islamic terrorism in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 attacks on the London Underground which killed 52 people.

(http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/walktalk.html )

It also looked at the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko and gave a behind-the-scenes glimpse of top-level political and intelligence work. An advisory notice highlighting the injunction, granted by an unnamed High Court judge, was circulated to news-paper editors at 11.45 last night. Further details of the reasons behind the injunction cannot be published for legal reasons linked to continuing criminal proceedings.

Thousands of copies of the 372-page book were delivered to bookshops nationwide ahead of its publication today. Large sections of the book, co-written by former BBC home affairs correspondent Margaret Gilmore, were also serialised in The Times. Sources close to the publication said it was vetted by officials at the Cabinet Office, MI5 and MI6 but no copy was passed to Scotland Yard.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has complained that he was not given a preview of its contents. He told a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority last week that he was reluctant to give the book more publicity. But Sir Paul said members of the force's watchdog might like to consider whether senior officers should be allowed to publish such books. He said: “I find it surprising as commissioner that I have no right on this occasion to have access to the book before it is published. It is troublesome and it does not help good conduct.”

One senior police insider said: “There is quite a lot of anger in the Met about the book's contents. No one else's memories of some of the events he describes are the same."

Anyway I leave the final word on Shy Andy to one of his former colleagues in the Blue Brotherhood who left this comment on an Evening Standard article;

“Oh Please! I am no supporter of the current status quo, but we really don't need any advice for Andy Hayman as part of his campaign to publicise his book. This light-weight individual was, by common agreement, one of the most ineffectual heads of counter-terrorism we have had in recent years. He left the post hurriedly with an enormous cloud over his head, so his comments should be taken with a shed full of salt.”

The Blooming Tube

At this time of year on the Tube staff are feverishly planting, hoeing and watering to prepare to enter that hardy perennial the “Station Garden Competition.” Amongst other things it serves to remind us of the impact the Tube has on the fabric of London.

For instance few realise that Underground trains run across 220km of overground track on 10 different lines. The Underground is one of the biggest landowners in London and as around 55 per cent of the Tube network is above ground it manages approximately 10 per cent of the wildlife habitat in London. Over 1,000 different species of plants and animals have been recorded on LU land since 1999. The 200 sites on the Tube network have been identified as Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation by many of London's local authorities. Indeed the famous (or notorious!) Underground mouse is actually a protected species even though many Tube staff harbour thoughts of Mousecide! It has fastracked the evolutionary process by developing characteristics in around a 100 years (a mere pimple on the face of evolution) which have adapted it to live in Tube tunnels and live on the eeerr, eeerr food!


The mice on the Underground are famous!

Anyway back to station gardens or Underground in Bloom as it has been rebranded as part of the overall London in Bloom initiative. Images released today hail the biggest ever Underground in Bloom competition as the Mayor of London and Gardeners' World's Joe Swift toasted the handiwork of the Tube's green-fingered staff. Images which show the Tube as an exotic and colourful location were released to herald the launch of Underground in Bloom, the Tube’s gardening competition. Pictures of commuters going about their daily lives in stations have been transformed into dramatic and striking urban oases - revealing the Tube in a way passengers have never seen before.

Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food, who visited a station garden today, said: 'The standard of gardens being created at London's Tube stations for this competition is just incredible. These gardens are showcasing to millions of people the pleasure of gardening and even, in some cases, showing how easy it is to grow fruit and vegetables in the heart of an urban environment.'



Some entrants have, for weeks, been working on their blooms in their spare time, while others are just beginning the process. Many devote weekends and holidays to tend to plants and flowers and bring the Underground into bloom for summer. Most staff are novices, adding to the challenge of creating plant life in a busy public space. Many of the Tube’s green spaces are some of London's best kept secrets as they are not accessible to the public for safety reasons, and are home to over 1,000 different animal and plant species. The work of staff for the Underground in Bloom competition helps to protect and enhance the life of this bio-diversity.


Pinner Station Garden - Winner 1966

Tube Staff are encouraged to use methods which protect wildlife such as minimising the use of pesticides as well as being water efficient and keeping a note of the wildlife they see. London Underground Chief Operating Officer, Howard Collins, said: 'The Underground in Bloom competition shows that there is a lot more to London Underground than tracks, trains and tunnels.

'The work of staff, beyond the call of duty, helps to create a more colourful and pleasant station environment, which can benefit passengers while protecting and maintaining the variety of wildlife and plants on the Tube for the benefit of London as a whole.'

The Underground in Bloom competition is a well established tradition on LU. Ever since Tube stations started running above ground, wildlife habitats and gardens have formed part of the stations and the competition has been run to judge the efforts of staff who spruced them up.




Canary Wharf -Inside and out with the "Green Roof"

Indeed the Underground is happily one of the last bastions of these initiatives in the whole railway industry in the UK. In their heyday the competitions on the railways were legion between station Garden competitions, Best Station, public speaking, debating, choral, etc; A lot of these took place in a more benevolent periods where enrich the lives of staff and the public was a question of duty, not obligation. It is good to see this initiative being maintained on the Underground along with other less visible initiatives to maintain bio-diversity of which the “Green Roof” at Canary Wharf station is but one example. Nobody can say the World’s Oldest and Greatest Metro doesn’t grow on you!

See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html