Happy Samhain (Halloween)

 






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With Hindsight

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 See also:  Rogue State? (oldandireland.blogspot.com) And:  Two Wrongs……. (oldandireland.blogspot.com) So we have reached the one year mark in Israel’s conflict in Gaza.   Time for a little reflection. 1)     After the original and totally horrific Hamas attack, questions were asked about how the Israeli security agency had apparently managed to completely miss all the preparations that must have been necessary for the attack.   I must point out here that I am making no excuses for the Hamas attack.   It was brutal, appalling, inhuman (continue to insert your own descriptives here, none of them will fully describe just how wrong the Hamas attack was).   Any questions raised about the Israeli security agency seem to somehow to have been lost in the brutality and genocide that have happened since the original attack. I was wondering about this though.   The agency that managed to miss a Hamas breakout of that size, does not sound ...
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More of the same.

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 Sorry, I seem to be posting a lot about this conflict, but this is worth viewing, and if you are not in the UK, you may not have seen this issue.  Good journalism on the part of Paraic O'Brien.  Scary stuff! Hardline Israeli settlers gather to plan future homes in Gaza strip – Channel 4 News
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Bittersweet.

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Because the race was a victim of the current epidemic, the local BBC showed, Road, the documentary about Joey and Robert Dunlop and Robert’s sons in place of their North West 200 coverage.   You can view the whole documentary on YouTube here:   Road (youtube.com) . Having never been involved in racing, I did not know either of them, although I have met Joey on a few occasions.   The image of Joey as a quietly spoken, modest gentleman is exactly how he came across to me.   Back in the 80’s and early 90’s, we had a reasonably active motorcycle club.   For a few years during the off season for motorcycle racing, we organised a bus from Bangor to take us to Joey’s Bar in Ballymoney for the night.   By phoning in advance, we were able to arrange an evening when Joey could be there.   The first round of drink, for the whole busload of us was always on the house, and during the evening, the bar also provided a supper of sandwiches, cocktail sausage...
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Tilly.

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  In January 2010 I was idly browsing through the ads for pet dogs on Gumtree when I spotted a very poor quality picture of a mainly white dog with some black markings.   The dog was sitting looking up at someone just out of shot, as if obedient to them, (Knowing Tilly now, I suspect treats may have been involved).   The description in the ad was somewhat less than detailed.   She was described as being a mix between a Bearded Collie and an Irish Wolf Hound, and the people that had her, wanted rid of her for free.   That, and a contact number was about it.   Even in the blurry shot on the ad she looked like a beautiful dog, and I was intrigued.   It had been around ten years since our last dog had died (aged 17), but at the time, my wife was nursing her elderly mother, and with a Wolf Hound in the mix I presumed that this would be a very large dog, so I didn’t mention it, thinking that someone would soon take on a dog like that.   Shortly afte...
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Living with a 1974 BMW R75/6

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This article was originally published in the paper version of Real Classic Magazine in November 2017(There is a link to their web page on the links sidebar).  The magazine version of this article is much better laid out than I can manage here, but the info is the same.  If you are considering long term ownership of an airhead, then hopefully a) you won't have a 1974 bike, and b) there might be something in here that you find useful.  Since I recently wrote about a starter motor problem I had had with this bike, I thought you all might enjoy the bikes back story.  It's a bit of a love/ hate thing.  Enjoy. _________________________________ There has been a lot written about BMW airheads in the last few years.   So, in the spirit of if you can’t beat them, join them, here are a few thoughts from my own perspective. Firstly, a bit about my own bike; a picture or two of which might even decorate/ desecrate these pages.   I boug...
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Island life.

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OK, Islay has nothing to do with Ireland, but it is only twenty five miles off our coast, and the scenery and culture would be familiar to anyone who lives here in Ireland.  This story was originally published way back in 2008 in Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, a great magazine in its time.  I thought this was sufficiently far removed from the current Covid crisis to give us all a small reminder of better times. Enjoy. __________ My home in Northern Ireland provides scope for many good scenic runs on a bike.  One familiar and rightly popular local run follows the coast north through County Antrim from the narrow confines of the Irish Sea to the open Atlantic.  The two waters meet off Ballycastle, a harbour sheltered by the rugged cliffs of Rathlin Island 3 miles offshore.  Look west from here on a good day, and the coast winds off toward Donegal and the open ocean, look north and off Scotland’s coast, the horizon is broken by Islay, the first of the Hebride...
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Information overload.

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  HED Map Viewer 2024 (arcgis.com) The map showing archaeological sites here in Northern Ireland that I used in my last piece is well worth a mention in its own right (see the link at the top of this page).  It is a government site, but is open to the public, so there are no issues in using it.  There are many layers, from ones showing shipwrecks and aircraft crashes, to historic maps, battle sites, and even lidar surveys in some areas.   Pick on  a link that interests you, and click in.  There are often further links to other sites and even back to the original archaeological reports on many of them.  To those who don't live in Northern Ireland, sorry, you will have to find something similar for your own locality.  But here, there is a real warren of interesting information and links that will keep anyone with an interest occupied for hours. Many of the sites local to me I knew about, but there are a few that are new to me, including an intr...
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Whisky Galore - The Irish version......almost.

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This will be a little convoluted at first, but please persevere.  I first got interested in this story because of an old book I was reading.  Like me, you may think that climate change is a relatively new concept.  Google says different, and it is right, the concept may have gained popularity and significance in the last 60 or 70 years, but it is not new. This is what Google has to say on the subject:  "While the concept of human-caused climate change dates back to the 19th century, the phrase "climate change" gained prominence in the 1950s-1970s. Gilbert Plass used the phrase in 1956". The old book mentioned above is called Ulster Folklore, by Elizabeth Andrews, which was published in 1913.  I can't say that I would recommend it (the supposed science in it can't have been good at the time, and age has not helped it), but at least the book is short.  From page one, it is filled with bad science, most of which seems to attempt to link all the old folk t...
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1961 Triumph Speed Twin, 5TA - Part 1 - An introduction

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First a few disclaimers.   This is about old bikes so my apologies are due to Thomas.   I know you don’t think old bikes are worth more than their weight in scrap steel.   Hard luck; this is one of the few things we disagree on. Sorry too to general readers.   This whole series of stories relates to a motorcycle that is approaching 60 years old.   If you have no knowledge of the bits and pieces that make infernal combustion engines work, you may need to use Google on some of this stuff.   In my mis-spent younger years, my brother in law told me of an old Triumph motorcycle which was for sale.   He reckoned that the number plate on it could be sold for more than the cost of the bike, which we could then sell as well, thus making a decent profit on the two transactions.   Never one to ignore the chance to pocket a few quid, I agreed to go and see the bike with him.   That was over 30 years ago now. It turned out to be a 196...
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