Blogs

Dark tourism can be defined as tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death, suffering and tragedy. One such place hoping to take advantage of the increasing trend towards 'dark tourism' is Sligo Prison (Irish: Príosún Shligigh) in Connaght (Connacht) in the west of Ireland. This weekend the Friends of Sligo Gaol, hosted a conference on Crime and Punishment in 19th and 20th Century Ireland to mark the gaol's bicentenary.  The voluntary community group has been working for a number of years to promote the gaol as an important part of Sligo's heritage.

Yesterday was the anniversary of a significant event in Welsh history. On September 8, 1936 Saunders Lewis, Rev Lewis Valentine and D J Williams, a university lecturer, Baptist minister and school teacher, set fire to the partly built RAF aerodrome, near Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula in north-western Wales. Welsh newspaper the Daily Post recounted the events of that day in an article yesterday. 

''Irexit Freedom'  is the name Hermann Kelly from County Derry intends to call a new eurosceptic political party in Ireland. Around 300 people attended a conference held in a Dublin hotel yesterday where a case was put forward for Ireland leaving the European Union. The plan is to now seek 300 registered voters and register 'Irexit Freedom' as a political party. They want to field candidates in the European elections and then in national elections.

If you are going to be a pensioner in these Islands off the coast of Europe apparently you get a better deal if you are Irish (ie 26 Counties).

Natixis which compiles a Global Retirement Index places Ireland in the top ten at No 7 in its 2018 index up there with Switzerland and the Nordic countries. The Republic had been at No 14 last year but has shot seven place up the list in contrast the UK which was ranked at 18 and has moved one place to 17:

I can be somewhat zany I have an irrational habit of hurling any missives from government immediately into the pedal bin which can have unforeseen consequences. Some of the offspring have remonstrated with me over this and I suppose it is a tad irrational. However just as I start to think that I’m slightly loopy some really zany individuals appear.

I mean of course ‘Travelwitch’ and I could have put money yesterday (and won) on the fact that they would pop up on Manx Radio today after yesterday's Liverpool berth announcement by Ray Harmer:

The Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival took place between 31st August and 2nd September. Around 55,000 people attended the event this year and capacity is to be increased by 2,500 to 57,500 people next year. After the Festival was over, 650 sleeping bags were left by those attending. This prompted volunteers from Portlaoise Action to Homelessness (PATH) to request community help to launder the sleeping bags they collected from the festival site. The aim is to wash and dry the bags so they can be handed out to homeless people. The public response to the PATH appeal has been fantastic.

Lockerbie (Scottish Gaelic: Locarbaidh) is a town in southwestern Scotland. The town has been in existence since the time of Viking influence in the period around 900AD. This part of southwest Scotland, including the ancient Gaelic Kingdom of Galloway, had increasingly fallen under Norse-Gael control during the 9th to 13th centuries. Sadly, the town came to international attention on 21 December 1988 after Pan Am Flight 103 crashed there following the awful terrorist bomb attack aboard the flight.

Brick to the Past, is a team specialising in historically-themed Lego models, Using about 35,000 pieces they have built a model of Dùn Deardail Celtic Iron Age hillfort in Scotland. It was commissioned by the Fort William-based Nevis Landscape Partnership. It was built by Dan Harris of Brick the Pastand over a period of nearly seven months. Once built it had to be disassembled into smaller sections, in order that could be then re-assembled Glen Nevis Visitor Centre.over the course of four hours. 

Fitting snugly into a knapsack, this new publication encapsulates the memory of a short-lived 3ft gauge railway line which served the expanding Knockaloe Internment Camp, situated on the west coast during World War I.

Acting as a spur from the main line in Peel, it became a veritable work horse for the burgeoning camp which eventually housed a population of approximately 26,000 internees and guards.

Kernow

6 Mys Gwynngala 2018

With the news that another house developer in Cornwall has gone through (Nova Construction) and that a Parish Council at Crantock is now taking Cornwall Council to judicial review over the imposition of additional houses that they do not want, you have to feel sorry for the people at the bottom of this disastrous 'food chain', notably the house buyers. 

Many have come to Cornwall as part of their dream and that dream is fast becoming a nightmare for more and more.