Mayday

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Tomorrow week [I write on Fri 23 April] is Mayday, traditionally one of the chief dates in the Irish calendar of olden customs. 

Drumlin Country

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The Quaternary Period of the last 1.6m years has been marked by Ice Ages which were punctuated each 100,000 years or so by inter-glacials like the one we are presently in. 

Willy the Wisp

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I’ve told you about Geordie-Look-Up and about Jonny-Go-Slap.  One of these days I’ll tell you about Johnny-The-Go.  But today’s story is about Willie The Wisp.

Now these new-fangled scientists would tell you of a marsh phenomenon known as Will O’ The Wisp where decaying matter gives off methane gas that occasionally catches fire to emit an eerie light.  Never listen!  It happened this way. 

It has to be the bull!

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‘Me brother-in-law had a venture once with the little people.   Sure the cattle were breakin’ something awful and trampin’ down crops beyond anything.  An’ he, poor man, wus fair bothered with them an’ with cuttin’ branches all over the place t’ stop their capers.

Tilt, Wobble, Stretch Earth

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The ’tilt, wobble and stretch’ of planet Earth on its celestial path contribute to long-term variation in environmental conditions that determine whether and where on Earth life can thrive or even be sustained. 

It was a Yugoslav scientist who first closely studied these variations and proposed a theory based upon them, and named for him, the Milankovitch cycle.

Halloween: Joe the Ass

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Hallow Eve, the night when resurrected spirits roamed the earth, was, then as it is now an eerie festival designed for robust enjoyment. 

Roar of the Greasepaint

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Recent mention of the Newry Drama Festival brought the memories flooding back!

So many of my childhood hours were spent in the Town Hall devouring whatever was on offer and quite often participating.