15,000 Views

Summary

The ‘Blazar’ (Did you notice the subtle change?) has climbed to 15,000 views and I present the statistics here in a form of personal audit.

Each time I do this, usually following each period of 1,000 views, certain interests come into focus.  This time, the Statistics represent both the period since last reported, together with the overall period of eight years of publication.  This places the following Posts (and their comments) in the five most-read positions.  It seems that, although political discussions may be frowned upon, my Followers focus onto that subject … which is quite satisfactory ... I suppose.

By the way, I have embellished my sidebar with more global photos representing places where I have lived and worked, i.e., not including vacations (Except Ireland).

2018

• Put Up, Shut Up, or Get Out  http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2018/08/politics-20-put-shut-or-get-out.html
• The Power, Jesus, and a Life Force. http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-power-jesus-and-life-force.html
• The Demise of NATO. http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-demise-of-nato.html
• Mr. Putin Takes A Question. http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2018/05/mr-putin-takes-question.html
• ‘Don’t Step Out Of Line’ Confidential Report ….  http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2018/01/dont-step-out-of-line-confidential.html 

2011 -2018

• Percentage Formula.  http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2013/08/politics-8-percentage-formula.html
• Multiculturalism.  http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2011/08/politics-2-multiculturalism.html
• Vladimir Putin, A Question.  http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2015/01/politics-10-vladimir-putin-question.html
• South East Asia (Bangladesh).  http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2012/08/travel-5-south-east-asia-bangladesh_5.html
• A Ticking Time Bomb.  http://berniesblazon.blogspot.com/2014/11/education-10-ticking-time-bomb.html

Note:  Photos and Quotations, etc., are not included in the above statistics.

Views by country (Leading five):  

• Canada
• United States
• France
• Russia
• United Kingdom

Leading browsers

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Safari
• Opera

Operating systems

• Windows
• Macintosh
• Linux
• iPhone/iPad
• Android

Travel 14 - Dublin

There’s a general saying, “Milk it for all its worth.”  So, I will.  Having, already, written about a day in Baltinglass … then, that's grand!  It is probable that, although most of you live with a few drops of Irish blood in your veins, you have never been to Ireland and, although I was there for just a few days, I may be able to introduce more colour into your existing picture.

Exiting the Dublin airport’s Terminal 2, I was surprised by the complexity of the public transport system.  There were double-decker buses (both airport express and local city), comfortable coaches (both airport express and long distance), small limo vans, limo cars, and taxis.  You would be well advised to use the frequent and inexpensive (€7) airport express coaches.  It should be noted that only the limos and taxis will have an hotel drop-off, which could be a consideration if you have checked heavy baggage.

Trinity College (Library Square) - Dublin

If touring the country, hotels should be booked ‘with a view’, but in Dublin a quiet room would be the preferred choice.  Additionally, choose a location within a reasonable distance of Trinity College (Dublin University).

Trinity College Main Entrance

This is not going to be a 'grand' review of Dublin.  Phew!  There is the valuable Lonely Planet guidebook for that.

The Irish Great Famine Memorial - Dublin

Free city maps are available in abundance but, from my experience (and other’s) they do not illustrate the city structure.  Therefore, my initial advice, for the first day, would be to use the frequent Hop-on-Hop-off buses.  There are numerous city buses with complicated routes not designed for tourists, not to mention a rapid-rail system, and taxis are expensive.

An example of the ships that took emigrants to North America

I’ve often described myself as ‘living-to-eat’, thus, before my journey, I studied the Internet with that in mind.  Gone were my thoughts of Irish pubs serving Guinness and fish-n-chips.  (Perhaps one regulatory visit to a pub and the Riverdance show would be sufficient).  There are many Micheline-starred restaurants in Dublin and, here, was my greatest disappointment of the whole trip.  Most restaurants in the haute cuisine category were not open for lunch, those that were would not accept reservations for less than two people (which also applied to dinner reservations) and, together with my hotel's reception, I was unable to find one good restaurant that would take a reservation within one week.  I, honestly, felt like jumping into the River Liffey.  But, I can assure you that I never entered the swing doors of any McDonald’s. 

Well, who doesn't know Molly?

In short, wistfully, I concentrated my visit to Trinity College, focussing my dream of being there in a previous life.  There was a queue of hundreds in Library Square hoping to look at the Book of Kells, such that I strolled to College Park to watch a lazy game of cricket.

I could visit again.  Probably … in my next life.

Religion 12 - Celibacy

Once again, I find myself compelled to comment to this morning's media essay about celibacy in the church that seems controversial enough to suit the pages of this Blog.

Celibacy is, of course, an issue.  Whether it is the most important issue, or not, is irrelevant.  The Church should respond to the issues of the twenty-first century, and sexually-related issues are written about on the front page of all newspapers, both in terms of, for example, adult rape and paedophilia.  

What is religion?  Is the married Anglican priest that is only allowed to become a deacon in the Roman Catholic church any less religious than an unmarried priest?  Would it lead to married bishops, and … sacré bleu, women too?

Certainly, celibacy needs not to be mandatory. 

When asked, many people describe themselves as spiritual rather than religious, and I wonder if there may be a stigma by admitting to be religious, which begs the question, again, what is religion?  After all, isn't everyone religious (spiritual) in one form or another.  Being agnostic is acceptable, but no one has the intelligence to be an atheist. 

Could we ask, what is God?  Would the answer begin with, “She ….” (in Los Angeles) or “It ….” (in a science class)?

Is this too personal to reveal your soul (or qi)?

Travel 13 ― My Irish Village

I have always known of my Irish ancestry.  How could I not know with the family name of McCann (Clan of Anna).  But for many years, it was possible to only know that my family had links to the city of Liverpool in England, just a short trip across the Irish Sea from Ireland.  In the past, that was it — no records showing an obvious connection with Ireland, until earlier this year, when ancestry.com found additional records showing that my great-grandfather (x4) was born in 1781 in a little village called Baltinglass, in County Wicklow (62 km SE of Dublin).

Thus, this was a good reason to make my first visit to Ireland, via Reflavik (Iceland) to Dublin.  In the past there was a local railway which, unfortunately, was got rid of, and the station building still remains today as a political statement for tourists.  Now, a comfortable coach winds its way through main roads that seem like country lanes, in a little more than one hour.

(Click to enlarge)

The next day, I awoke very early, enjoyed a good Irish breakfast, and boarded the coach to my destination.  Upon arrival, I found my way to Saint Joseph’s Church, a 15-minute walk from the bus stop (The bus, actually, couldn't drive into the village).  Walking through the entire village centre, I met a total of about five friendly nodding villagers.

“Good morning”, I would say.  “How are you?”

“Very grand”, she said.  “What are you looking for?’

“The church”, I replied.

“Is it the Protestant one you need?” she asked. (I was obviously from away).

“No”, I said, “The Catholic one”.

“Oh, that’s Saint Joseph’s”, she said.  “T’is a grand church”.

“Thank you”, I said, realizing that simply everything is ‘grand’ in Ireland.

Walking through the village, I had an interesting feeling that I had been there before.  The church seemed quite large, probably the largest building in the village … no doubt it would be described as ‘grand’.

The priest was away (But not in another country), but the church secretary was available and, now, I was to get some bad news.  The church records went back to about 1850 — 70 years after my great-grandfather was born — built upon the ruins of an earlier church.  It was noted that there are Stone Age ruins in the area.  I was advised to visit the cemetery as it contains graves older than the present church but, unfortunately, such graves were in a state of ruin and unreadable.  I met an old cemetery caretaker who told me that he remembered the McCann family who owned a hardware shop in the village … but they left about 50 years ago without any trace.  Questions at the local inn confirmed their presence there too.  Today, I guess that they would just be very distant cousins.

It was time to have lunch at the restaurant where I was persuaded to try a Guinness (One sip was enough and the bar girl agreed with me) and, then, I walked to the the other side of the village to look at a tourist attraction, the ruins of the old Cistercian Baltinglass Abbey that dates back to 1150.  It was destroyed by King Henry VIII’s campaign against the churches in 1536.  Incidentally, one can walk from one far side of the village to the other side in about 30 minutes, which was useful when the last coach back to Dublin is at 3:00 pm (Outside the village).  I had a grand day.