Flight: Sarsfield Street

The name was familiar but I had forgotten who Sarsfield was till I looked him up. Neither did I know this was Sarsfield Street till I googled:

'Patrick Sarsfield led the second flight of the Wild Geese. After the Treaty of Limerick, He marched to Cork with 11,000 soldiers and embarked for France. He died in the Battle of Landen in 1693.' (Sean Ryan, Wild Geese Heritage Museum). So.

As I was taking this, a young girl, perhaps six or seven, came up the street and began to chat to me. I was cautious (too cautious perhaps), very aware of already being one of those oddballs who take photographs of apparently nothing in particular, though I did explain that I was trying to capture the flock of pigeons that was circling endlessly overhead, hooped on an airy roundabout. She was very friendly and my son got out of the car and said hello, far more shyly. She invited us to play with her. I would have taken her portrait if I hadn't been so aware of being framed by all those windows and faced by all those closed doors, any of which might suddenly be flung open to emit some hyper-suspicious adult. 


Driving home, my son said: 'She was really nice. I would have played with her.'