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Local History of the worst possible kind! The story of Carnage Hill.

This post is shamelessly copied from a local history book, now out of print, that is also available in pdf format on line: http://www.bayburn.com/29128%20Helen's%20Bay%20&%20Crawfordsburn%20History.pdf .   It is one section only of a much larger and more broadly based book.  All credit is then due to the book's author, and to the team at bayburn.com. Those who have travelled the main road between Bangor and Belfast will know the corner known as ‘the Devil’s Elbow’, which is located just before the junction leading to Seahill/ Rockport.   On the left side of the road when travelling from Bangor there is a small road leading up into the Holywood hills.   It is now called Carney Hill, but according to this article that name derives from Carnage Hill.   To see where it got this name read on.   Many thanks are due to Sam, my friend and avid local history buff.   It was he who originally showed me a paper copy of this book.   Unfortunately it is not a proud episode in
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The next time you have to buy Magenta toner/ ink for your printer, think of this.....

The Battle of Magenta took place near the town of Magenta in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire on 4 June 1859.   The dye was discovered in 1859 and named in honour of the event.  Now here is the Irish bit; the leader of French forces was of Irish descent.  According to Wikipedia, his family his family originally had land in Munster, lost it because of Cromwell, and then eventually emigrated to France after 1690. Patrice de MacMahon (Paddy to his mates) joined the French army in 1820 and distinguished himself fighting for Napoleon.   After winning the Battle of Magenta, he was made Duke of Magenta, before eventually becoming President of France!
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Foot-Loose in the British Isles, by Harry A. Franck - The Irish chapters.

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The following scans are from a book called ‘ Foot-Loose in the British Isles’ by a traveler called Harry A. Franck. First published in 1932, it shows Ireland at a time when the two new states were still finding their identity, while also dealing with the financial consequences of the great depression.   In his career, he travelled to a good proportion of the world’s continents.   His exploits are well worth reading, even though they display many of the more repressive attitudes prevalent at the time (as you will see on the first page of these scans).   Get past this, and you will find an intelligently written, entertaining snapshot of our little island, in a time now long gone.   Many of his books are available free on Project Guttenberg ( https://www.gutenberg.org/ ).   Look up Harry’s entry on Wikipedia; he led an interesting life. I will post these scans by chapter over the next few weeks as I get time to process them.   Since I will use Harry’s chapter names, this should also
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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 Hebridies islands, and by the h
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XXII - Harry A Franck - Across to Ireland - 1932

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This is the first of the Irish chapters from Harry A Franck's 1932 book, 'Footloose in the British Isles' .  You can see my introduction to these chapters here:  https://oldandireland.blogspot.com/2019/11/foot-loose-in-british-isles-by-harry.html __________________________________________
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The Irish Rebellion of April 1916

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Happy Easter everyone.  I thought it would be good to post this since it is both timely, and has absolutely nothing to do with the current crisis..  It comes from one of a series of books published by The Times newspaper (The Times History of the War).  These were published as WW1 was still in progress, so give a good contemporary account of events that were still then withing Britain.  There is a lot of detail here. Enjoy.
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All dressed up and nowhere to go.

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I have to say that during this Covid lock down I am not missing my daily commute to work.   Even on a bike it is pretty hateful.   Still, the Suzuki needed a little TLC before I have to start weaving between the traffic to Belfast again, and the sunny weather that we were having was an excellent opportunity to do this maintenance. There were two linked things that needed to be done. Change the worn out rear tyre. Change the exhaust so that removal of the rear wheel would be much easier in the future. The Burgman with one lower panel removed.  you can see where the exhaust disappears up behind the bodywork and one of the frame tubes. I have complained about the inaccessibility of the Burgman’s rear wheel in a previous article.   Rear wheel removal on this bike should be easy since the scooters engine and drive train are in essence a single sided swinging arm, with three nuts holding the wheel onto this assembly.   Unfortunately, Suzuki’s designers then destroyed thi
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Buyer Beware!

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Let’s face it, when you are buying second hand it pays to be cautious and to look for faults that the buyer may not have declared.   I have no problem with this, although I do try to be as honest as I can when selling anything.   What I do have a problem with are undisclosed problems that would be dangerous, but which would be impossible to find on any inspection without both prior knowledge of what to look for, and disassembly of the item being bought. Old and new sprockets from the Funduro.  The gearbox output shaft should be a good fit in the splines shown on the new sprocket on the right.  Instead its splines wore quickly to almost non existence. If you have read my last two motorcycle related posts here, you will have followed the tale of me buying and fixing up an old 1994 BMW F650 Funduro for winter transport.   You will also have read of the numerous faults that these bikes are afflicted with and the ones that I suffered.   I have no doubt that if BMW had produc
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Social History - Part 1 - Growing up in Ireland in the 30's and 40's

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My mother died earlier this year, so while her stories of growing up and making her way her in Ireland are still fresh, I thought I would write a few down.  I hope you enjoy them.  _____ We all know that the last 40 years or so have been a time of massive change throughout the world, not least because of technological change.   The transformation of Ireland from insular island to outgoing European state has been no less spectacular in that time.   Go back another 40 or 50 years beyond that, a time still in the living memory of many of our older citizens, equally great influences like the great depression, world war and the birth pains of the Free State itself were making their mark.   Into this maelstrom, in 1929, my mother was born on a small farm in the Ox Mountains of Co. Sligo, right on the border with Mayo. The middle child of three, they seem to have had an idyllic upbringing. My grandfather was obviously in love, for at some point the family moved to a farm near Coolane
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