Artist

Alexander Averin

Saturday 11 October 2008

County Kerry, just pics and a poem.

Header picture, Connemara Farm is an oil painting by Elizabeth Ryan




"A Kerry footballer with an inferiority complex is one who thinks he's just as good as everybody else."
John B. Keane


"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."
Flannery O'Connor



"You know it's summer in Ireland when the rain gets warmer."
Hal Roach










I discovered the artist Alan Cotton while leafing through a Country Life magazine in the library and was delighted to see a print of a picture of County Kerry - The High Road from the Bay, oil on canvas. That one is not on here but I have found some of his Irish paintings on his website and just had to share them, they are so beatiful.

To continue the Kerry theme, here is a poem by the late Sigerson Clifford, who was born in County Cork of Kerry parents.




The Tinkerman's Daughter


The wee birds were lining the bleak autumn branches
  • Waiting to fly to a far sunny shore
    When the tinkers made camp at a bend on the river
    Coming back from the horse-fair in Ballinasloe
    The harvest being over the farmer came walking
    Along the Feale River that bordered his land
    'Twas there he first saw her 'twixt firelight and water
    The tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann

    Next morning he woke from a night without resting
    He went to her father, he made his claim known
    In a pub in Listowel they worked out a bargain
    For the tinker a pony, for the daughter a home
    Where the trees shed their shadows along the Feale River
    The tinker and the farmer inspected the land
    And a white gelding pony was the price they agreed on
    For the tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann

    With the wedding soon over the tinkers departed
    They're eager to travel on south down the road
    The crunch of their iron-shod wheels on the gravel
    Was as bitter to her as the way she'd been sold
    She tried hard to please him, she did all his bidding
    She slept in his bed and she worked on the land
    But the walls of that cabin pressed tighter and tighter
    On the tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann

    White as the hands of the priest or the hangman
    The snow spread its blanket the next Christmas round
    The tinkerman's daughter slipped out of his bedside
    Turned her back on the land and her face to the town
    It's said someone saw her at dusk that same evening
    As she made her way out o'er Likelycompane
    And that was the last time the settled folk saw her
    The tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann

    Where the North Kerry hills cup the Feale o'er Listowel
    At a farm on its banks lives a bitter old man
    He swears by the shotgun he keeps at his bedside
    He'll kill any tinker that camps on his land
    Whenever he hears iron-shod wheels on gravel
    Or a horse in the shafts of a bright caravan
    Then his day's work's tormented, his night sleep's demented
    By the tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann


  • Sigerson Clifford






Bye for now,
Cait

16 comments:

Lane Mathias said...

Those paintings are stunning!

Thank you!

Irene said...

Beautiful paintings and as to the poet, with a name like Sigerson, you would suppose he had Viking ancestors. Is that common in Ireland?

Cait O'Connor said...

Glad you like the paintings Land and Irene.
The anme Sigerson I have not heard before but will do some research Irene. I know the Vikngs were rooted in the East and Dublin area.

Cait O'Connor said...

Sorry LANE.

toady said...

The landscapes by Cotton remind me so much of where we lived in Brittany. I have never visited Kerry, or Ireland for that matter, but I'm sure there are many similarites.

Norma Murray said...

It's interesting how he's restricted the colour.

Fennie said...

I love Kerry. But when I was there - a great many years ago - the sun shone and I remember climbing - was it MacGillicuddy's Reeks in bright sunshine - about this time of year too!

Pipany said...

Golly, it could be Cornwall in those paintings Cait. The area around where my Gran came from - Cobh - is also very like parts of Cornwall too xx

Dresden Plate said...

Beautiful scenes Cait. I can see why you are enthralled by this artist. And yes, there is a similarity to certain parts of Brittany, too.

Frances said...

Good morning Cait, and many thanks for the lovely paintings and the provocative quotes and poetry.

If those paintings of Kerry do indeed also remind folks of Cornwal and Brittany, then I think that I really will some day have to see each of those places for myself. Just beautiful!

xo

snailbeachshepherdess said...

Lovely paintings Cait, I still cnt make my mind up which part of Ireland I love the most but the wild moorland areas and the peat bogs around Galway I think may just have the edge....but then again...

Faith said...

Love the pics, and its a long time, too long, since I was in Ireland. Felt quite sad that I'm here and not there.

Casdok said...

I just love those paintings. A great find!

Helen said...

Really love his style. Thanks for the poem too.

Anonymous said...

A great post Cait -thank you!

CAMILLA said...

I do love those paintings Cait,I had not heard of that artist before.

The Tinkermans Daughter is a beautiful Poem.

xx