Meanwhile in the streets

Gottfried Helnwein

Visiting Saltee Island was a pleasure, but it is the time to return and check out what we have missed while we were away. There are some street scenes and the events that took place in Clonmel and Waterford.

Clonmel Junction festival is the most eventful week in July, filled with live music, street performance, theatre and visual art. Installations of the works A Child for sale by a world renowned artist and Kilsheelan resident Gottfried Helnwein could be seen in various places in the streets of Clonmel.

In my blog post Cry for the Last Child, I wrote about Gottfried and his beautiful castle. His granddaughters Croí and Éala are regular models for his paintings.

Gottfried Helnwein

Lords of Strut  – very talented and very positive comedians from Cork gave a brilliant performance in Clonmel.

clonmel junction 052

clonmel junction 028

‘Over styled and under dressed’, silly but charming  characters Strut brothers Sean and Seamus,  won the hearts of young and old with their hilarious show, acrobatics, satire and dance.

clonmel junction 077

The streets of Waterford were not always as deserted as you might think after looking at this picture.

minimalist

Historical reenactment of 1916 Easter Rising gathered quite a crowd and took us a hundred years back.

reenactment

minimalist

reenactment

reenactment

There is a video of the Reenactment I found on Youtube – I even caught a glimpse of myself in it 🙂

 

All sorts of transportation in The Quay, side by side. I love this street, and I think that most of my Waterford pictures were taken there.

captain

Irish United Nations Veteran meeting was held in Cathedral Square, just a minute walk from The Quay. Thank you for your service!

meeting 025

meeting 054

meeting 075

Waterford Spraoi festival is one of a kind. Theatre, music, art, dance and much more is happening in the streets of Waterford on the first weekend of August. Here is my Spraoi 2015 post. I will share only a few pictures this time.

Spraoi orchestra string quartet.

Spraoi

Morbid&Sons, a brand new undertaker business. Way to go, guys!

Morbid&Sons

Tango for all! Dance until dark!

aspraoi tango 090

aspraoi tango f 137

The sun is setting down and it looks like we are having a rainy day tomorrow 🙂

Waterford

Melting gold of the setting sun flows behind the horizon. Darkness comes instead.

night

It is a perfect time to see the famous Spraoi monsters in the streets of Waterford City…

SPRAOI

… and listen to the monster style music 🙂

SPRAOI

Don’t be afraid of Spraoi monsters. They are a little bit crazy, but all they want is to have fun.  The only really scary and ugly thing in this world is hate.

Thank you for stopping by and for your interest in Ireland. In my next blog post, we will return to the Ocean and take a very unusual walk 🙂

inesemjphotography Have a wonderful weekend!

155 comments

  2. I love the way you capture the vibrance of the street! I love eclectic festivals like these. There’s so much persona on the street. The undertaker shot was my favourite. 🙂

    1. Thank you so much! It was my last weekend in Ireland. I have got a picture with the undertakers, but won’t publish it 🙂 Their show was hilarious.

  4. A perfectly Irish adventure, Inese. I really enjoyed the visits in present and past, and of course your lovely photos. I love the shadow photo of the shop window and chicken.

  5. Two amazing festivals, Inese, and fabulous photos of both. I’ve been to Clonmel but not Waterford, and next time we come over there, I intend to make it to Waterford! Are you the lady in black (with the big gun!) in the photo and at the end of the parade of volunteers, or were you one of the ladies in the middle of the parade? The lady in black doesn’t look like your gravatar image.
    I’ll have to go and look up about Spraoi monsters now. Very intriguing… 🙂

    1. Thank you Millie! I do have a picture with a gun somewhere, probably even more than one, but I have never killed any creature 🙂 I have mixed feelings about ‘necessary violence’, and don’t want to promote it in my pictures 🙂 I’d rather learn from history instead of repeating it.

      1. Oh, I know you would never use a gun to kill or harm anything, Inese, but weapons are all a part of reenactments. I just wondered which of the ladies was you in the video. It would be wonderful to think that we all learned from history, and perhaps we do, to a degree. Unfortunately, some things/mistakes are repeated over and over. Have a great weekend. 🙂

          1. Ah, that explains why I didn’t find you! Lol I’d convinced myself that you must be in the parade of volunteers. I’ll hop over later and see if I can find you shooting you camera. 😀

  6. Waterford… is that the city where Waterford Crystal comes from, Inese? Dancing until dark and parading with monsters sound like an amazing adventure! What fun festivals you have in Ireland and fantastic to capture them in color and b&w! xo

    1. Thank you so much! Yes, it is the same Waterford. The undertakers performed right in the front of the Waterford Crystal house. Spraoi festival is one of a kind. Dead D would be a guest of honor, and might even lead the parade 🙂

  9. What fantastic photographs — even shifting to black and white to signify the past — excellent effect! I’d have loved to frolic in the streets with the rest of the monsters. Absolutely mad and wonderful. I am in awe of your talents, Lady Inese. 💐

  11. Those paintings/photos of those children are beautiful ~ your opening shot I admired for quite a while, your perspective and processing fantastic. And then all the activities in the streets and what seems to be a wonderfully spent day being involved in the local scene and then capturing the spirit with your photographs.

    1. Thank you so much for stopping by! The paintings are very impressive indeed. There are many art festivals in the area, but this summer I had no time to edit more photographs for the blog, so I just made a potpourri of everything 🙂

    1. Thank you so much for your kind comment. It is probably the same thing that I feel reading your blog posts – I seriously consider a trip to Thailand 🙂

  14. Art in the form of paintings enlarged of young children was beautifully presented. Humor and unique gymnastics with costume designs made those 2 young men very entertaining, Inese.
    I am always happy where music and dancing is part of a festival. The formal quartet and the tango were both fine elements of a lively, interesting day. The golden glow in the background of the city scape made me smile. xo Robin

      1. I love that sentence, Inese! You should put this in a “best quotes section.” ❤ Thank you for including such beautiful photos and descriptions!

  15. How wonderful! The paintings are amazing, and your shots of the vets are very moving and honorable. I only got to watch a few minutes of the re-enactment. I might go back for more… or more to the point to find you. Are you near the beginning, middle or end?

    1. You probably won’t recognize me – I am standing on the top, in the end of the video. It is where I took the picture with the pointed gun from, looking down at the reenactors. 🙂

  16. Oh, Inese, that does look such tremendous fun. There was so much there I’d love to see first-hand. The more you show me, the more I want to visit Ireland one day, if only I could teleport there as I’m not a good traveller when it comes to long journeys!

    1. Thank you, Sarah! I know how it is – there are so many places I would love to see… Hope they invent the teleportation before we are too old 😉

Comments are closed.