November 24

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St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day Parade Dublin Ireland 2010

W.B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the most popular figures of 20th century literature among pro-Irish Americans.

Yeats's long and prosperous career was crowned in 1923 by the Nobel Prize “for his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation.” Amongst his most famous works are ‘Easter 1916’, ‘The Second Coming’ and ‘Sailing to Byzantium’. Besides being a poet, he also composed 26 plays, the most notable being ‘The Land of Heart's Desire’ (1894), ‘The Shadowy Waters’ (1900), ‘Cathleen in Houlihan’ (1902), ‘Deirdre’ (1907), ‘At The Hawk's Well’ (1916), ‘Calvary’ (1921), ‘The Cat and the Moon’ (1924), as well as the ‘The Words Upon the Window-Pane’ (1934). As a visionary artist, Yeats presented his rather ambiguous views in all of his writings.

“Dublin is a city full of humour, Dublin is a city full of wit. Dublin is a city full of buskers, playing old Waterboys hits.”

Vanessa Oliveira, 1114

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today, he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the tragedy of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.

Wilde's parents were successful Dublin intellectuals, and their son showed his intelligence early, becoming fluent in French and German. At university Wilde read Greats, and proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. However, he became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism.

After university Wilde moved to London, into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities; he published a book of poems, lectured America and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art" and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde had become one of the major personalities of his days.

At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays; and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity and beauty into his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, combined with larger social themes, drew Wilde to writing drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French in Paris, but it was refused a license. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London.

At the height of his fame and success, whilst his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde sued his lover's father for libel. After a series of trials, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency with other men and imprisoned for two years, held to hard labour. In prison he wrote De Profundis, a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. Upon his release he left immediately to France, to never return to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute in Paris at the age of forty-six.

Daniela e Sara, 802

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2nd February 1882 –13th January 1941) was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers of the early 20th century. James is best known for Ulysses (1922), the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

Joyce lived outside their home country most of his adult life and his Irish experiences are essential to their work. His fictional universe stood strongly in Dublin. He is both one of the most international and one of the most local of all the English language modernists.

James was born into a wealthy family in the Dublin suburb of Rathgar.

In 1891, James wrote the poem, Et Tu Healy, On the Death of Charles Stewart Parnell. In 1892, James had to get out Clongowes because his father can no longer pay their tuition. In 1893, John was dismissed with a pension. So, he started a descent into poverty for the family, mainly due to alcohol consumption by John and his general financial mismanagement. John Joyce was the model for the character of Simon Dedalus in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses, as well as the uncle of the narrator in several short stories in Dubliners.

Luís Bezerra, Joana Chaves, 802

Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh, the middle of three children, was born and brought up in Belfast, the son of working class Protestant parents Frances and William Branagh, a plumber and joiner who ran a company that specialised in fitting partitions and suspended ceilings. Kenneth was educated at Grove Primary School. At the age of nine, he relocated with his family to Reading, Berkshire to escape "the troubles".

He attended Whiteknights Primary School, then Meadway School Tilehurst, where he appeared in school productions such as Toad of Toad Hall" and Oh, What a Lovely War! At school, he affected an English accent to avoid bullying.

On his identity today he has said, "I feel Irish. I don't think you can take Belfast out of the boy," and he attributes his "love of words" to his Irish heritage. He then went on, to train at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts on a BA Fine Arts Degree.

Branagh is known for his film adaptations of William Shakespeare, beginning with "Henry V" (1989), followed by "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993), "Hamlet" (1996), "Love's Labour's Lost" (2000) and "As You Like It" (2006). "As You Like It" premiered in theatres in Europe, but was sent directly to television in the U.S., where it aired on HBO in August 2007. Kenneth Branagh was also in the 1995 film version of Othello where he played Iago. However he did not direct the film, it was directed by Oliver Parker.

Catarina Oliveira, 1006

Collin Farrell

Farrell was born in Dublin, the son of Rita, a housewife, and Eamon Farrell, a footballer who played for Shamrock Rovers FC (Rovers) and owned a company importing and exporting canned goods in Dublin City. He was raised Roman Catholic. His uncle Tommy Farrell also played for Rovers. Farrell has two sisters, Claudine (who is his personal assistant) and Catherine, and a brother, Eamon Jr. When he was ten, the Farrells moved to Castleknock, a Dublin suburb. Farrell was educated at St. Brigid's National School Castleknock followed by Castleknock College and Gormanston College. Farrell auditioned for the Irish group Boyzone when he was still unknown, but was unsuccessful. Farrell attended The Gaiety School of Acting, but dropped out and was cast in the part of Danny Byrne on Ballykissangel, a BBC television drama. Farrell appeared on the show 7 times from 1998 to 1999.

Farrell has mentioned in interviews that he is uncircumcised, and also that he is against circumcision. Farrell was married to English actress Amelia Warner from July 2001 to November 2001. Farrell has a son, James Padraig (born 12 September 2003), with US model Kim Bordenave. In October 2007, Farrell revealed that his son has Angelman Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual and developmental delay, speech impediment, sleep disturbance, seizures, hand flapping movements, and frequent laughter/smiling.

In December 2005, Farrell voluntarily checked into a rehabilitation treatment center for addictions to recreational drugs and painkillers His publicist commented that Farrell had started taking painkillers due to a back injury. He was released in January 2006. In May 2006, Farrell started attending rehabilitation meetings.

It was announced on 14 September 2009, that Farrell and his Ondine co-star Alicja Bachleda-Curus were expecting a child together. Their son, Henry Tadeusz Farrell, was born on 7 October 2009 and was baptised in the Catholic Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Krakow, Poland.

It was reported on 15 October 2010 that the couple had split up.

Flávia Araújo, 1114

George Best

George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional football player, best known for his years with Manchester United. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goal scoring and the ability to beat defenders. In 1968, his annus mirabilis, he won the European Cup with Manchester United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year. When fit, he was an automatic choice for the Northern Ireland team, but he was unable to lead them to the World Cup qualification, despite being capped 37 times and scoring nine goals.

In 1999, he was voted 11th at the IFFHS European Player of the Century election, and 16th in the World Player of the Century election. Pelé named him as one of the 125 best living footballers in his 2004 FIFA 100 list and Best was named 19th, behind Gerd Müller, at the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. In his native Northern Ireland, the admiration for him is summed up by the local saying: "Maradona good; Pelé better; George Best."

He was one of the first celebrity footballers, but his extravagant lifestyle led to problems with alcoholism which curtailed his playing career and eventually led to his death in November 2005 at the age of 59. His cause of death was multiple organ failure brought on by a kidney infection, a side effect of the immune-suppressive drugs he was required to take after a liver transplant. In 2007, GQ named him as one of the 50 most stylish men of the past 50 years.

 

Yang Qi, 1110

Gary Moore

Gary Moore was an internationally highly regarded guitarist, featuring prominently in many world's top guitarists lists. He played a diverse range of styles - psychedelic, jazz-rock, melodic hard rock, heavy metal and blues rock. He started his career at the young age of 16 when he moved from his home town of Belfast to Dublin and joined Skid Row. His playing at that stage was very mature and complex - you would never think it was coming from a teenager! In his Skid Row days he got noticed by another guitar legend, and one of his own guitar heroes, Peter Green. Skid Row had opened for Fleetwood Mac in Dublin and Peter was so impressed with what he heard that asked to meet Gary and invited him back to his hotel to jam with him. While in Skid Row Gary met Phil Lynott who also briefly was a member. Gary had a long association with Phil as a member of Thin Lizzy and contributing to each other's solo projects. Gary did a brief stint with Thin Lizzy in the early seventies was a member of the jazz rock outfit Colosseum II in the mid-seventies and was back with Thin Lizzy in 1978. In the 80s Gary was a leading heavy metal guitar hero and released a string of blazing solo albums. He turned back to his blues roots in the 90s and successfully reinvented himself as a bluesman. Sadly, Garry passed away on 6th Feburary 2011.

 

Bruna Marques , 1114

The Corrs

The Corrs are a Celtic folk rock band from Ireland formed by three sisters and a brother of the Corr family: Sharon, Caroline, Andrea and Jim. All the members were born in Dundalk, County Louth (Ireland), children of musicians Gerry and Jean Corr.

The band was formed to a hearing of the 1991 film The Commitments. Jim, Sharon and Caroline had a small part as musicians, while Andrea had a talk as Sharon Rabbitte, sister of the protagonist. At that time were perceived by their future manager, John Hughes.

Gained prominence in the late 1990s and has surpassed the sixty million albums sold worldwide, with several singles reaching the top spot of the charts in Europe, Australia and USA.

Sara Araújo, 1114

Happy Merry Xmas!

Thanksgiving at School

Ghoul-Graveyard Cake

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE:• 250ml milk
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 225g plain flour
• 50g cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teapoon bicarbonate of soda
• 200g caster sugar
• 110g butter or soft margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

FOR THE ICING :• 300g icing sugar
• 60g butter
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 60ml milk
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon black colour paste black sugar sprinkles
• Hallowe'en-themes jelly lollies, at least 1 per child

METHOD

Serves 12 zombies

by Nigella Lawson

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170C. Grease and line a 23cm springform tin. Mix the milk and vinegar together and set aside.
2. Make sure all your remaining ingredients are at room temperature if you can, but since no one's going to be overly worried about the cake, you shouldn't be either. If the ingredients are cold, the worst that can happen is that the cake will be heavy. But you do need soft butter (or the cake won't mix), so substitute marge if that's not a goer. Put everything for the cake, except the vinegary milk, into a food processor and blitz to mix. Remove the lid, scrape down with a rubber spatula and then put the lid back on and with the motor running, add the vinegary milk.
3. Scrape, spoon or pour the brown batter into the tin and spread to fill it evenly, baking it for 40-45 minutes until it is well risen and springy to the touch.
4. Remove the cooked cake, in its tin, to a rack and leave to cool for about ten minutes, then spring open the tin and let the cake get completely cold.
5. To make the icing, first sieve the icing sugar. Boring, but it's got to be done. Melt the butter in a saucepan and when it's bubbling add the cocoa. Let it dissolve into the butter, stirring with a little hand whisk, then add the syrup, milk, vanilla and colour paste. Stir or whisk well and let it bubble for a few minutes and then take the pan off the heat and whisk in the icing sugar.
6. Put the pan back on the heat and whisk again to help the sugar dissolve and the colouring disperse, then take it off the heat to let it thicken to the right consistency - thick enough to coat, but thin enough to trickle down to cover the sides too - as it cools slightly (but only slightly: it thickens fast). Put the cake on torn-off pieces of baking parchment to form an outline of a square to catch the excess icing. Place the cake just on top of the torn pieces of parchment so you can pull them away once the icing has stopped dripping. Hold the pan of icing over the centre of the cake and pour over it so that the top is covered and the icing has dripped over and down the sides. You will not believe the incredible blackness of this. You'd have to pay me to eat it (good though it tastes) but my children, and all the children I've made it for, can't get enough. You can imagine what their mouths look like afterwards.
7. Working quickly, throw over the black sugar sprinkles to cover the top and sides of the cake before the icing dries.
8. Trim the lolly sticks, so that you have a stem of about 3-4cm to stick into the cake, and then plunge the sticks of the foreshortened lollies into the cake so that the ghoulish faces leer out from their black-frosted graveyard.
9. To be honest, this cakes serves as many children as you can stick lollies in for, if that makes sense. You could certainly find room for 12.

Watch This!

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Time to celebrate

Halloween, celebrated each year on October 31, is a mix of ancient Celtic practices, Catholic and Roman religious rituals and European folk traditions that blended together over time to create the holiday we know today. Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity and life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. Halloween has long been thought of as a day when the dead can return to the earth, and ancient Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off these roaming ghosts. The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas period of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children's holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.

History Channel

Earth Day April 22, 2010

Forty years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future.
Earth Day 2010 can be a turning point to advance climate policy, energy efficiency, renewable energy and green jobs. Earth Day Network is galvanizing millions who make personal commitments to sustainability. Earth Day 2010 is a pivotal opportunity for individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. Join the more than one billion people in 190 countries that are taking action for Earth Day.

TAKE ACTION
Drink from a glass at work. NO MORE [PLASTIC] WATER BOTTLES.
Unplug all chargers.

Turn off computers.

Take shorter showers.

Turn off tap water while brushing your teeth.

Pay bills online instead of receiving bills in the mailbox...
Use reusable water bottles...

Use environmentally friendly cleaning products.
Use green products that will change consumer behaviour in a positive way.
Reduce, recycle, reuse.

Try to pick up any garbage you find around town....
Stop wasting the resources and bring upon their maximum utilisation.
Turn off all lights when not in use.

Use recycled paper.

Say no to waste! Go green!