Book of Kells

Catching up after 8 days of not posting. Sorry for any confusion that may arise over the next few days before I catch up - Brexit & nasty touch of cold the cause.
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After prancing around naked in the snow last night, I suffered from an awful spell of cold/cough/bronchitis/weakness (not flu) that has made life misery.

Today the only good news was that son J and his girlfriend F had arrived safely in Dublin for another blitz tour of the fair city and the next day a 24-hour lightning stop over at his nephew & nieces pad to the north but still in the South. Those familiar with Brexit, Backstops and centuries of English injustice and imperial pig-headedness will understand.

J loves Dublin (Ireland), I think equally as much as he loves Munich (Bavaria). He tells me he loves them for the culture and history. I can't think why, his school reports never hinted at any sign of talent in these regards.

He tells me that the clue lies in the extra photo. While not a vegetarian like his sister, he isn't into hunting and I don't remember him ever saying he had done night school classes in stained glassed work. (In Blip we have a stained glass expert - Angelique  - who could give him discounted lessons)

I ought to post another Extra photo from I understand another cultural stopover point - J & F posing with glasses of a liquid also made in Scotland but in Ireland with an added "e" which could be confused with the German "Töpfelchen auf dem i (pronounced Ei as in Aye) ". Confused?

So am I and so were J & F after a Jameson's Whiskey Distillery Tour which I suspect was after the Guinness Factory Tour. J doesn't have to pay entrance - he is a certified guide. I can't post the Jameson's photo as the glasses seem to contain organic vegan growths as decorations. His mates would give him hell if he was seen with anything looking like a "Cocktail"

I'm not complaining as I still have a token holding of Diageo shares kept over from my days with Grand Metropolitan before their very alcoholic merger with Guinness. Not sure why the group hasn't bought the Jameson brand.

J's photos cheered me up as I lay horizontal all day feeling sorry for myself. Those who are somewhat less learned than J will recognise the Blip as being of Trinity College Library and the home of the Book of Kells. J likes to take in a chapter each visit to the Green Isle.

It is very surprising the English didn't steal it as they did so many artefacts in foreign countries during their great imperial years. Only around 70 days left till those halcyon day return and Britain is Great again. (The English have a wide interpretation of sales contract/receipt and payment morality)

And a Brexit thought for the day with an Irish touch:

" ....... for those invoking British history, to say that partition — the British Empire’s ruinous exit strategy — has come home.

In a grotesque irony, borders imposed in 1921 on Ireland, England’s first colony, have proved to be the biggest stumbling block for the English Brexiteers chasing imperial virility.


Moreover, Britain itself faces the prospect of partition if Brexit, a primarily English demand, is achieved and Scottish nationalists renew their call for independence.

It is a measure of English Brexiteers’ political acumen that they were initially oblivious to the volatile Irish question and contemptuous of the Scottish one.


Ireland was cynically partitioned to ensure that Protestant settlers outnumber native Catholics in one part of the country. The division provoked decades of violence and consumed thousands of lives. It was partly healed in 1998, when a peace agreement removed the need for security checks along the British-imposed partition line."

Pankaj Mishra, NYT, January 2019