Cycling was a fringe pursuit for most of the period since the first crude form of bicycle, the Draisienne or dandy-horse or hobby-horse, appeared in Ireland in the summer of 1819. For a few months in this year Irish ‘dandies’, like their British and French counterparts, propelled these pedal-less machines around fashionable parks until the … Read more
In November 1897 the editor of the Irish Wheelman, J.C. Percy, surveying recent developments in the cycling trade in Ireland, declared that ‘Cycling has now found its level, which happily is a very high one. It is no longer a fad or a fancy, but an established factor in modern everyday life… The army of … Read more
Corravahan House, near Drung, Co. Cavan, is a mid-nineteenth-century glebe house of the middle size, constructed in the Italianate classical style. Thanks largely to lengthy occupation by the Leslie family, it is one of the most intact examples of its type and a fitting tribute to the Dublin architect William Farrell (d. 1851). William Farrell … Read more
Within the Black Abbey in Kilkenny stand three figures carved as one from alabaster: it is an image of the Holy Trinity. Crowned, bearded and majestic, God the Father raises His arms in blessing over the crucified Christ, emaciated and naked but for a loincloth. Above the head of Christ is the Dove of the … Read more
It does not take long to notice that the dove of the Holy Spirit on the Black Abbey Trinity has been damaged. Was it broken by accident, or was it broken deliberately as an act of faith? Damage to, or complete loss of, doves of the Holy Spirit on English alabaster images of the Trinity … Read more