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Welcome

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Welcome to Old Ireland.   My initial idea for this site was to cover only classic vehicles, but since classicireland.ie was already taken and the best alternative I could find was this one, my thoughts for the site began to broaden.   A lot of the inspiration for this comes from the few magazines for which I have written articles.   Let’s get these mentioned early, because you should not be surprised to see a little of their influence here.   Real Classic is subscription only in print, but also has an excellent site at https://www.real-classic.co.uk/ , where Frank, Rowena and a host of writers entertain and inspire.   Then there is Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, formerly in print monthly, but now only on line at http://mnmotorcycle.com / (unfortunately now obsolete.  You will need to use the Wayback machine to find it).   MMM’s archives could keep you reading happily for months, and the like it or not truths told by Thomas Day (Geezer with a grudge: see his own site at http://geez
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It's a strange world.

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 So Donny got shot in the ear.  I'll not make the comment that I have heard from some over here about the accuracy of the gunman.  No one deserves to be shot, not even Trump.  Perhaps it will make him a little open to arguments about gun control in the states.  I'm pretty sure that the founding fathers vision of the right to carry arms didn't include assault rifles, and that they would never have considered putting the right to carry into the US constitution if they had been able to imagine such weapons. Anyway, I'm sure you have seen some of the ridiculous side stories that have appeared as a result of Donny's ear piercing?  Perhaps he got shot because he was just too slow to react when his secret service guards shouted, "Donald, duck!" 1)   Trump supporters have started wearing bandages on their ears as a show of support!  I have to admit that I did a double take on this when I first saw it.  It is a sign of their love apparently!  I mean, WTF goes on in
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Not a gripe.........for once!

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 Just to prove that I'm not a completely grumpy old git, I thought I should report on two short trips that we did since our stay at The Ballygally Hotel (Hastings Hotel Group).  See this post for my rather disappointed review of that hotel:   Yet another gripe. (oldandireland.blogspot.com) . Both of these hotels were around the same price, and probably a bit cheaper than the Ballygally, yet were infinitely superior in every respect.  What's not to like? 1)  The Salthouse, Ballycastle:   The Salthouse Hotel | Luxury Hotel in Ballycastle, Co Antrim This is a new hotel set on a hill just outside the town of Ballycastle.  It has tremendous views north to Rathlin Island which is about three miles off shore, and to the Scottish Isles and coast beyond that.  Both Isla and Jura are visible on a good day.  Look west, and you will see Donegal, on the East the cliffs of Fairhead.  It is a stunning setting.  The rooms are comfortable, spacious, clean ( unlike at the Ballygally), and modern
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A Mans Work is never done

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  I mentioned previously that we built an extension onto our house last year.   The work only finished around the start of November, so this summer there has been some remedial work to be done outside.   Before I get into the project at hand, a little background info might make me reasoning clearer.   Our house was built in the early 1960’s, and when we first moved in everything needed to be done.   There was no central heating, the kitchen was the original early 60’s one, no insulation, etc. etc.   At the edge of the front driveway, someone had built (very badly) a raised flower bed with two rows of old granite cobble stones.   It was just the right height so that the car door banged on it every time we parked in the narrow drive, so it had to go.   Meanwhile in the back garden was a large mound that was covered with weeds.   I presumed it was just soil or perhaps builder’s rubble.     When I eventually got time to deal with it, the first thrust of the shovel made a distinct c
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Vote for.........

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 Today is polling day here in the UK for Westminster elections.  The picture above is real.  It is on a lamppost outside Belfast's Lanyon Place railway station, and is perhaps the most accurate comment I have seen so far about this election.   Still, the right to vote is not available to everyone in this world, and is important, so if you are in the UK  make sure to use your vote to select the least worst Muppet available to you.  Remember, if you don't vote, you can't complain about the mob that do eventually get into Westminster!  :-)
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Spot the Birdie.

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 There was a little discussion on Grandad's site last week ( One for the birds – Head Rambles ) about how versatile and intelligent some birds could be.  I had added a comment about birds enjoying cat baiting as a spectator sport at the bottom of our garden: " They are smart though Grandad. We heard a racket at the bottom of our garden years ago, loads of small birds chirping in what sounded like excitement. When we went to look, there were loads of sparrows, blue tits etc (at least 30, possibly more), all as high in the canopy as possible. Below them, much lower, and in complete silence was a magpie, carefully monitoring a cat that was a few steps behind it. Every time the cat moved, the magpie enticed it further and further up the tree. This went on for half an hour or so until the cat was on tiny branches that were much too small for it, where one eventually broke, and the cat fell (with no apparent harm). The audience of small birds were there the whole time calling their
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2020 - The year of Covid

 I found this old article of predictions for 2020. Boy, that really didn't work out did it?  It is completely out of context, so I have no idea where it was originally published.  Instead of moving entire towns around the globe, we were stuck in them come rain or shine because of all the lockdowns.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so this makes interesting reading today.  Enjoy.  :-) 20 Hilarious Predictions about the year 2020 made long ago  "We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."    It’s hard to fathom that we’re just 14 months away from the year 2020. There’s something about those four numbers together that just sound futuristic, like a date that George Jetson or Flash Gordon would have signed on their checks. If you asked us ten or even twenty years ago what we expected in the year 2020, we probably would’ve guessed that we’d all be eating synthetic food pills and being served by robot butlers. But ask us the same question now and our best prediction is that 2020
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Yet another gripe.

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"In the four parts of the earth are many that are able to write learned books, many that are able to lead armies, and many also that are able to govern kingdoms and empires; but few there be that can keep a hotel."    Omar Khayyam (Poet, philosopher, mathematician and genius in many other fields.  He lived in what is now Iran from  18 May 1048, to  4 December 1131)    It seems to me that in many respects, little has changed in the last thousand years or so.   I'm not really that grumpy a person by nature, although I suppose you might need to get a second opinion on that statement.  Yet, looking through past posts here, a hell of a lot of them are complaints about services.  Oh well, here is another one. We booked a short hotel break at the end of January.  It wasn't far away, but we were looking forward to a good meal and nice surroundings for a few days, and to having the beaches and scenery of the Antrim coast within easy reach.  We could have done day trips to this
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Joining the dots.

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  WW2 was still a big influence on life when I was born.   I suppose it wasn’t much more than a decade and a half earlier, but its effects were still all around.   Many of the houses near my childhood home were inhabited by single women, and many of those had been widowed by the war.   Local fishing boats often lost nets when they snagged old mines.   There were constant stories of these being shot to make them explode, resulting in complaints from the fishermen who lost nets as a result.   There were occasional problems with the souvenirs (Well, it was assumed to have been a souvenir, but I do wonder about that), that the servicemen brought home too, as below.   By the mid 70’s when I was in my teens but still at school, the troubles were of course at their rampant worst.   You would think that in such a situation, our local Police would take explosives seriously, but …….. On a beautiful summer’s day during the school holidays, I arrived home to news that the Seacliffe Road, clo
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Rogue State?

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  West Bank settler expansion: a year on the frontline – Channel 4 News   Have a look at this Channel 4 report about a Palestinian farmer trying to live on land he owns on the West Bank.   It is scary, horrifying, and ridiculous all at the same time.   I said before in a previous piece about this damned conflict that Israel must take the moral high ground and live by the law.   If not, then how much better than the Hamas terrorists is it? The report looks at a Palestinian family who lost their land when Israel was originally set up in 1948, but who managed to buy a plot in what is now the West Bank, to the south of Hebron.   So then the 1967 war happened and the family once more found themselves at least nominally in the stare of Israel.   That would be fine if the state actually treated all their citizens equally. The report shows how numerous incursions by Israeli settlers are taking land by force from its existing owners, and how owners like this family have been trying for
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The First Million Dollar Movie - 1924

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  Just to get in slightly ahead of time (for once!), the world's first million dollar movie was released almost 100 years ago on 18th March 1924.  How do I know about it?  Well, many years ago, a friend and his family were moving to England, and I went round to help them pack the van they had bought to move their stuff in.  It was relatively small, and a lot of their things were being left behind.  One of the things they were going to dump was a copy of the rather classic movie poster shown above. I asked for, and was given the poster for my help.  Then, some years later, Channel 4 showed a series of historic movies, including this one, and since I had an interest in it because of the poster, I watched it.  Channel 4 included a short presentation on the movie before showing it. Of course these days, it is freely available on YouTube if you want to see it.  The visual effects which seem so crude now must have been stunning to audiences back then.  The silent overacting does seem par
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