Music festival Saint-Malo

Each year in July /early August we have the "Music Festival" which brings together orchestras and choirs in various states of readiness, if you get my meaning. The one constant is Herr Brall of Dusseldorf who with a rod of iron cajols and teases the best sound from a wonderful collection of guy's and doll's of various ages from his home city and environs. The musicians come to St-Malo as much out of respect from Herr Dr. Brall as for the money. Many bring their families and indeed several have kith and kin who sing in the choir. They also come because they like the beach and the sea and when you visit the landlocked city you understand why. St-Malo opens its gates from this group each year and is rearly if ever decived by the results of the work put in.

I hope one day the city authorities realise the great good done by this man and his group and make an effort to recognise the fact with a Legion d'honneur, or at least the medal offered to many by the Ministry of Culture.

Herr Brall is a huge man with a huge ability to bring happiness to others. I hope he shall continue to come here for as long as he wants. I for one will be always happy to see him.

DUSSELDORFS (IRISH) GERMAN JAPONESE BRIGADE

Naoka is one of life's wonderful people, she is Japanese, artistic, ( she plays the most awkward instrument )and above all a lover of humanity. Humanity in the form of Gernot, a french horn player in the Dusseldorf opera orchestra.

This Gernot is a strange lad, although German he was brought up in Dublin and he has never lost the Celtic boyish charm that plagues us Irish until old age and can make some of us insuportable.

The two of the above have started taking Irish dancing classes in Dusseldorf and from what I saw the Riverdance company might as well start looking for new jobs.

While out to dinner in a typical dusseldorf kneipe we had schweinehaxen mit kartofflen und saurkraut and a reasonable quantity of very local beer.

Out in 'God's sweet air' afterwards, I noticed a gentleman of the roads huddeling in the cold and wished him good night. His immediate reaction was to ask where I was from in near perfect English and when advises of my Hibernian connections he offered to sing his favorite irish song. The rendition aided by his guitar was spectacular and suggested that we should not judge the homeless/sans abri too quickly.

As he sang his soul shone bright on that dark and cold night.

Paris by Day

This is the painting I had tried to put up for my visit to paris during the weekend, better late than never.

Ships In

I just been down town in Saint-Malo to take the picture of a 100 year old gentleman. I am going to sent it to his nephew who is for the moment in Florida working on a book, and unable to attend the celebrations. The man in question is an ex diplomat, son of a French diplomat of good family who served as French consul in Dublin at the time of the opening of the first Dail(Irish parliament) at the Mansion House (residence of the Lord Mayors of Dublin).

My daughter yesterday gave an exposé at school on the subject of the irish who faught in the British army during the first world war using the family photographs and material available she outlined the subject well. She spoke of Big Jack DUHAN her paternal great grandfather, a sergent major in the Royal Munster Fusaliers who was born in 1877 and served in India and South Africa before WWI.

That the man I was just with was active in Dublin( his University career in Trinity ) at the same time is wonderful. The world in which he finds himself so far removed from the Edwardian time in which he spent his youth. Let no man say "Thus far and no further"

Tomorrow we're off to Dusseldorf for five days. I'll let you know how we got on. Bye for now and sing Happy Birthsday for Mr. Alfred Blanche probably the last man alive who sat in on the birth of a great nation.

Paris by day

A quick run up to paris yesterday, so quick that I did not see much of the capital but the insides of trains albeit the TGV (the newest generation which are splendid and comfortable), the metro and the exhibition halls at the Porte de Versailles.

CONNEMARA SEA SCAPE

When the waves crash on the west coast of Ireland they send vibrations throught the whole island and beyond, these vibrations eventually get as far as me here in Saint-Malo and I rejoice.
The light shining on the Aran islands is difused by an ambiant humidity which is so like the early morning light here in Brittany that sometimes I loose sight of the fact that I am in one place and not the other. The solidity of the rocks and the liquidity of the sea sometimes seems to inverse in my minds eye as I sense the vibrations of both.

This painting I did on the Aran island called Inismor, or the big island, in English. I was the guest of two wonderful people and their family who lived in a beautifully build modern round house made of the local stone. Their welcome made the Irish formula "Cead Milé Failte," which means, a hundred thousand welcomes, seem as real as it is in such places.

TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY

The centre of Dublin is crowned by college green, the Georgean facade of Trinity faces the old Parliament building which now houses the Bank of Ireland.

If you wander into Dublin someday make the effort to walk under the large portico of the College and as you do you will step into a space which is as vital today as it ever was, the square in front of you is splendid and relativly silent after the cars and buses of Dublin. The bell-tower stands solidly at its centre inviting you to walk under it and do a 360° turn.

The library contains Brian Boru's harp and the magnificent Book of Kells.

Not to be missed!