A Cabinet of Curiosities

An interesting day. I zoomed inland to Ballyvourney to go to a talk put on as part of National Heritage Week. The speaker was Enda O Flaherty and we had been conversing on an off through blogs and facebook for he is also engaged in a very interesting project- recording all the deserted schoolhouses of Ireland. He has an excellent blog and has produced a very attractive book on the subject too. He gave an enlightening talk squeezed into the little library  and it was good to finally meet up face to face.  

Sorry Enda but the highlight was going next door to the Gadaí Dubh book shop - a treasure trove of treats and eccentricity! Books galore - PaulaJ you would have loved it!  The house itself was enchanting - skinny and tall on four floors complete with old fireplace and kitchen.The owner, Conor, was almost as fascinating as his books and we had a good chat. Plus he served excellent coffee. Here's a newspaper article about him. The roadkill bit is also true. There are stuffed animals galore and although my initial reaction, especially to the two foxes, was urghh - he described each one most lovingly and they had been well taxidermied. We also got on to the hot topic in Ballyvourney - the felling of an enormous and ancient tree . Here's Conor again - he was hopping mad, it was grandfather who had planted that tree. He wasn't impressed at the thought of a sculpture made from it either. Another chap came in and joined in the discussion - he was eating an enormous ice cream, the best in Cork apparently. Can you spot him in the extras? I bought a book on Irish shrines and I reckon he gave me a discount. What an interesting encounter.