Easter in Ireland

Many family house holds would prepare their homes for Easter Sunday by doing what would be better known as “spring cleaning”.

On Good Friday people would attend confessions have their hair cut, and would also shop for new clothes to be worn to Easter mass.

Holy Saturday would be a day that Irish people take a vow of silence but also attend a special ceremony to have their Holy water blessed but would also attend the Easter Vigil which usually starts at 10pm with the Church decorated in purple colored banners to celebrate the arrival of the King. All lights in the Church are extinguished at 11pm with a new flame being presented to the altar of the church which is a Paschal candle, a symbol of the Risen Christ and the celebrations of the Holy Flame.


After attending mass on Easter Sunday everyone would make their way back home to start the Easter feast which is usually made up of servings of potatoes, vegetables, meat, stuffing, bread and anything else that makes up a good proper Irish feast.

Riders in the Sky

For much of their career, the group was a trio; lead singer/guitarist Ranger Doug (Douglas B. Green), singer/fiddler Woody Paul (Paul Chrisman), and singer/bassist Too Slim (Fred LaBour). In the 1990s, the group re-added Joey the Cowpolka King Joey Miskulin on accordion, who had been with the group for a brief period in the 1980s. They usually introduce themselves as "Ranger Doug, the Idol of American Youth", "Woody Paul, the King of the Cowboy Fiddlers", "Too Slim, the Man of a Thousand Hats" and "Joey, the Cowpolka King".

The group has performed in more than 6,100 concerts in all 50 states and 10 countries.

Clint Dempsey

USA striker, Clint Dempsey has 21 goals overall this season. He is fifth in the Premier League in scoring. His wife Bethany is a educational psychologist and model.

Ehhh, soccer can do this to a man.

Monarch of the Glen

Dawn Anne Steele (lass on the right) is the house cook @#!$&

A favorite BBC series.

"The Stolen Child" by William Butler Yeats

WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

.....


Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

.....

Devotion Candles

At the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes about 800 tons of wax is burnt annually in devotional candles

In the Middle Ages there existed a practice whereby a person would light a candle or several candles which equaled his own height; this was called "measuring to" such a saint. The Middle Age belief held the beeswax symbolized the purity of Christ; the wick, the human soul of Christ; and the light, His divinity.

Giorgio Chinaglia

Bravo Giorgio!
born January 24, 1947 – April 1, 2012