Footsteps

Sandymount Strand

It was while walking by the sea that the idea came. I have often found that having water rippling quietly beside me helps in the formation of ideas, or maybe it’s just coincidental. A friend suggested that it has to do with our being made of over 97% water – and he might just have something there! A stroll along the beach, with the bubbling water a constant companion, has always been a place of reflection and solitude. And, of course, a place for the mind to wander and let the creative juices flow.

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Some time ago, on a beautiful spring morning, I was walking on Sandymount Strand when an idea floated into my mind, like a wave coming to the shore. It is one of my favourite places in Dublin to go ‘and be alone’ with my thoughts, such is the openness and calm of the wide beach, especially in the early morning. As I walked along the sandy beach towards Ringsend, I gazed over to Howth across the mirror-like water and beyond to the horizon. How often had other people looked out at this same scene, I thought, and let their ideas slip away like the spray from a breaking wave?

And then it came.

People had been coming here for years, since time immemorial no doubt, and gazed out over the very scene that was now mine to behold. For just in front of me was a line of footsteps in the sand, an image that had not changed since the first person left similar marks so very long ago. The French have a saying ‘Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose’, which translates as ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same.’ That seemed about right to me as I watched the waves rush in and cover the footsteps in their gurgling embrace, removing them so completely as to leave no sign of their short existence.

James Joyce – a strand fan

As the water receded, smoothing the sand to leave a blank canvas awaiting its next mark, I remembered that James Joyce had a fondness for this place and included it in his most famous book, Ulysses. In chapter three, the young hero, Stephen Dedalus, walks along the strand and ponders the difficult and complex topics of imagination, sensation and thought itself. The feel of the words is meant, in Joyce’s hand, to be fluid, hence the setting by the sea, portraying the move from birth to death, and finally, renewal. Transience leads to something permanent and new, and it is this cycle of renewal that held me as I stepped tentatively into the cold waters, making my own mark that was just as quickly erased.

The thought that there are things that cannot be changed had a strange but comforting feeling. Joyce understood this better than most and through Stephen asks the question, ‘Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount Strand?’ This is not something that I can answer, but I like the idea that he and all of us who walk on the strand have ‘our moment.’ We left a mark – and as to whether it will last until eternity – that will be for others to say. In the meantime, I keep walking on the strand, not so much in the hope of seeing Stephen Dedalus, but in anticipation and comfort of its soothing power and timeless, dreamy rhythm.

Timesless…

 

Dublin – A Poem (on Bloomsday)

Why do I love Dublin?   
It’s very hard to say
Is it the people or the places
Or is it the Dublin way?

It’s hard to put the words on here
The thoughts are in my head
But when I come to say the words
Something else comes out instead

I love the wit, the humour
The odd sarcastic rhyme
The way they give a word to things
And nicknames all the time

The people are the soul of it
There’s one in every crowd
Their voices maybe lilting
But basically so proud

Why do I love Dublin?
Go on, ask me if ya dare
I’ll tell you friend, I’ll tell you clear
Cause I was born right there

Acknowledgement to PJ Doyle. (Paddy Doyle)

WB Yeats – Happy Birthday

WB Yeats was born on 13th June 1865 on Sandymount Avenue, Dublin and there is a bust in the small, triangular green at the centre of the village. He is Ireland’s most famous poet, and his The Lake Isle of Inisfree is a particular favourite. 

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

 

 

Bloomsday – James Joyce’s Great Gift

From its humble beginning in June 1954, the annual celebration of James Joyce’s greatest work has grown exponentially, and the day will be celebrated in cities across the world.  Joyce, who strived for so long with his financial position always a worry, would no doubt love to see such acclaim, something that he could never really have expected. And now it’s that time of the year again and I hope wherever you are that you enjoy the atmosphere, music, conversation and craic that are so much part of the day. Cheers, Jimmy

Bloomsday – The Beginning