Posted in Zaragoza, Spain, History, Ireland on Feb 14th, 2008 1 Comment »
There´s a charity shop on Calle San Pablo, around the corner from where I live, where I like to spend my free time. (I live on Calle Las Armas.) The Spanish - well, at least the Aragonese - do not go in for tiendas de segunda mano. I´ve only come across one second-hand book shop, […]
Posted in Zaragoza, Spain, football, Ireland on Nov 20th, 2007 No Comments »
The name of the village is El Centenillo. It was once home to a mining community. The company that ran the mines was English. It was called the ‘New Centenillo Silver Lead Mines Company Limited’, and in 1898, along with the opening of the mining company, the British workers sent to start the new venture […]
Posted in Zaragoza, Spain, Ireland on Nov 18th, 2007 7 Comments »
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
My harp also is turned into mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.” (Job:30:29-31)
Sometime around the early 1980s I had a primary school teacher who made it quite […]
Posted in Spain, politics/world, Politics on Nov 11th, 2007 8 Comments »
This is the moment when the Spanish King Juan Carlos told Hugo Chavez, basically, to shut the fuck up. The altercation took place at the Ibero-American summit, which was being held in Santiago, Chile. Chavez had been berating the former Spanish prime minister, the right-wing José María Aznar, calling him a “fascist”, and “less than […]
Posted in Zaragoza, aesthetics, Spain, Ireland on Nov 10th, 2007 No Comments »
The Osborne bull is 51 years old. Regarded as the unofficial symbol of Spain, it began life as a roadside advertisement for a sherry produced by the Osborne family group. The iconic silhouette was designed in 1956 by Manuel Prieto Benítez, and in 2005 they were declared a national monument by Spain’s socialist government.
I […]
Posted in Zaragoza, Spain, Ireland on Oct 29th, 2007 No Comments »
Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the white boards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living for ever, and we must be satisfied.” (Riders to […]
Posted in Zaragoza, Spain, Ireland on Oct 16th, 2007 2 Comments »
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with August
Over the grass in the West garden –
They hurt me.
I grow older.“
(From The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter, by Li Po. Trans. Ezra Pound.)
Ghosts, I have found, travel light, and for free.
Last week was festival time in Zaragoza. Classes were […]
Posted in Zaragoza, Spain, Ireland on Oct 8th, 2007 No Comments »
- Are you Irish?
- Yeah. I am.
- Thought so. It’s the accent. Well, I should say, “are you Oirish?” ‘Cos you all talk, “loike dis”. Hehe.
- (Silence)
- Ahem. Are you sure you don’t want to try?
His name was Philip. He was from Sandbridge. he had been in Zaragoza for seven […]
Posted in Zaragoza, irish culture, Spain, Ireland on Sep 27th, 2007 3 Comments »
Los libros están encima de la mesa. Yo tengo un telefono móvil gris. Las profesoras de Gregory se llamas Paula y Linda. Is mise Conor. Is maith liom Pollo.
It happens all the time. Today, my teacher asked me the Spanish for ‘window’, and I answered, ‘fuinneog.’ With each class, I’m re-discovering aspects of the Irish […]
Posted in Zaragoza, Spain, Ireland on Sep 12th, 2007 5 Comments »
Zaragoza is a compact place. At the moment I’m living on the outskirts of the city, in a place called Torrero. In terms of location that makes me Fettercairn, Tallaght. In terms of actual distance from the city centre, I’m just past the canal in Rathmines. My (shared) apartment is a thirty minute walk […]
