Something Beautiful

Book of Kells online!

Trinity College, Dublin, owns the massive, marvelous Book of Kells.   After years of being notably stingy with its images, Trinity has at long last placed every single page of the Book online.  

Start here and feast your eyes.   (Note: if these early "canon tables" don't strike your fancy, just stick with it and your patience will be rewarded.)  

One of the most colorful pages is the portrait of St. Matthew, at the beginning of the Gospel attributed to him. There are two pages (here and here) where an anonymous colorist started to add decoration to the pages but left them incomplete.

Book of Kells!

The Library of Trinity College, Dublin, has just placed the entirety of the Book of Kells online.  I havent' figured out yet how to bookmark individual pages, and that may actually prove impossible.   Take a look at these pages, however, to get a feel for some of the riches now available:

14,15;
53 (symbols of the Four Evangelists);
55, 56 (beg. of Gospel of St. Matthew);
63 (Christ enthroned);
64 (carpet page);
66 (famous Chi Rho page);
226 (Christ arrested);
246;
257 (symbols of Four Evangelists);
258 (beg. of Gospel);
372, 373, 374 (beg. of Gospel);
398-402 (genealogy of Christ);
403 (temptation of Christ);
568 (a personal favorite);
579 (symbols of the Four Evangelists);
581, 582 (beg. of Gospel of St. John);
677 (last surviving side).

Irish dancing

I came across these lovely video clips of Irish dancing and couldn't resist making a record of them here.

Achill Island

I just came across this lovely-looking site about Achill Island, off the west coast of Ireland.

Ancient Ireland

You'll find some wonderful material, and excellent photos, at Ancient Ireland. 

Try, for example, the page on the Castlestrange stone. 

Skellig Michael

The Forgotten Hermitage of Skellig Michael, by Walter W. Horn, Jenny White Marshall, and Grellan D. Rourke

Beach in Donegal

Have a look at this photo of Rossnowlagh Beach in County Donegal, Ireland. Pretty amazing, no?

Irish Beaches (for Liz E.)

One doesn't really associate Ireland with beaches, but you will find some lovely ones there if you look.

You could try, for example, Smerwick Harbour Beach in County Kerry. 

Or the beach at Dunquin, also in Kerry.   I myself have wonderful memories of a morning visit to the Dunquin beach a good many years ago.   Of course, there's lots to see around Dunquin, for example, these nearby ruins (in HDR).

Kerry is in the southwest of Ireland.   Away up in the northeast, you come to Co. Donegal where you can find this beach.   Here's a more general look at the area, called Downings.

Boyle Abbey, Co. Roscommon

The ruins of Boyle Abbey are found in Co. Roscommon, Ireland.     You can read a bit about it in this brief Wikipedia entry. 

I love the old Cistercian monastery ruins in Ireland, of which Boyle Abbey is a particularly fine example. 

And I have long loved, in particular, this marvelous stone which apparently once decorated its walls.   Magical!   

Church ruins, Aran Islands

The ruins of a very old church at Kilronan, on the island of Inishmore, in the Aran Islands, Ireland. 

A slightly different view of the same church.   

And a broader view of the cemetery surrounding it.