PICS OF THE WEEK

Pics 1-3 are by John Patton:

Pic 1                                             Pic 2                                                              Pic 3

Dublin Theme

Visits to Dublin are always memorable and mainly for the people encountered there. Two of these (2 and 3) are street , snatched images.

1. These old jarveys are a link with Dublin  past. This guy, Joe, happily posed and chatted. We didn’t talk for long as he had work to do but there was a clear sense that he had seen it all and was not too easily impressed.

2. Your cocky jackeen in full flight is not the most attractive presence. There are , however, many people who have quietly lived their lives here and I thought that this ageing couple represented that image well.

3.  And there is the guy who enjoys a read of a Sunday morning in Stephen’s Green.

Pics 4-6 are by Perkin Warbeck…

Pic 4                                                                                           Pic 5

                            Pic 6

THREE   from   TRIESTE

PIC 4:     Trieste played host to a Science Fiction Festival recently. A not inappropriate choice, considering that the noted (social) science fiction writer, James Joyce, was associated with this city in North East Italy. It was there he went to ‘forge in the smithy of his soul the uncreated conscience of his race’, that sorta thingy. The reason why he opted to stop in Trieste was because his inner blacksmith seemingly said:

-Thus far, and no farrier.

PIC 5 :    The plaque at the feet of the statue of Il Pr–k with no Stick on the bridge in downtown Trieste which was erected in 2004. Nora Barnacle gets namechecked, she who was the unlikely model  for Molly Bloom.

PIC 6:       Anxious to record a Kodak mo of the statue with a local Mo Bloom, as it were, this proved a tad trickier than imagined. Numerous putative MB’s passed by without succumbing to the persuasive charms of Il Perko. Or even,  remotely so.

Despite his best efforts to hit their eyes with his big pizza pie of a smile. Eventually, a giovane carina donna either took pity, or was genuinely bowled over sufficiently by Il Perko’s inner paparazzo combo of pizza pie- smile and pasta fazool-like drool seemed to work. Alas, as soon as the snap was taken, she said ‘arrivederci’ and was away, pronto.

And here’s a thing: note the direction in which James Joyce is eternally staring: due south. To Slovenia, which is located just a few kilometres down the autostrada. Slovenia, of course, is the homeplace of La Melania. Could this be a case of :

-Arrirvederci, Molly Bloom, Buona Sera, Melly Bloom ?

Will Il Pr—k wth no Stick stick with Nora Barnacle ? The literary world holds its trump card.