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Little instrument suitable for learner, traveling music teacher, dance instructor, etc

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Men break (and lay?) stones, women carry them. Only the lucky ones have baskets

Rocking around Connemara by National Library of Ireland on The Commons Via Flickr: True hardship! Relief work for those who were starving where those who were being "relieved" were applied to grinding, mind-numbing tasks like stone breaking and carrying. It might seem inappropriate to be showing such an image at this time of year, but a wee reminder that not all are living high on the hog would not go astray! Photographer: None Date: 1898 NLI Ref.: BB5145 You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

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The Wall of the Wars by National Library of Ireland on The Commons Via Flickr: Herbert Ward's Studio in Paris looks like something from the days of Empire, as no doubt it was indeed? The selection of what appear to be weapons is extraordinary, and would appear to come from Africa and Asia, and perhaps some other continents in there for good measure. Who was Herbert Ward (a friend of Casement and an explorer of the Congo) and why would he have had such a collection? Photographer: Unknown Collection: Roger Casement Photographic Collection Date: 1899-1916 NLI Ref: NPA CAS27A You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

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Printmaker Kristiina Sandoe's experiments with Risograph

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A time to kill? by National Library of Ireland on The Commons Via Flickr: A rather callous title on this Hogan Wilson photo - "Killing Time at the Prison"! An army chaplain with Mass servers lounging about casually smoking while some poor devil(s) await execution. We've probably found this a bit late as last year was the anniversary and a lot of detail resurfaced regarding the brutality on both sides in the Irish Civil War. What can we find on the trio? Photographer: W. D. Hogan Collection: Hogan Wilson Collection Date: Circa 1922 NLI Ref.: HOGW 146 You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

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Consultation on closing all rail ticket offices

#SaveTicketOffices

Have your say in the consultation before September 1st

(hint - even Singapore, with one of the most advanced public transport systems in the world has ticket offices in stations)

bit.ly/saveticketoffices

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Crooked House (Glynne Arms)

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Rail Ticket Offices to close - consultation extended to 1st September 2023

Passengers queue to use ticket offices because there are NO practical alternatives BUT for them to use ticket offices. Plans to close ticket offices all come from the stupid toffs of the Department for Transport and the government response to a petition that they are "modernising" by removing staff from behind screens is a blatant bare-faced lie They are consulting with Trades Unions to make two thirds of Ticket Office Staff REDUNDANT - Not redeploying them

Take part in the consultation (before 1st September 2023) via links below https://www.londontravelwatch.org.uk/ticket-offices-have-your-say

https://www.transportforall.org.uk/campaign/ticket-office-closures

It's not just the elderly, or foreign visitors, or the disabled, or the vulnerable, or those being sexually or physically harassed, who need ticket offices. Ticket offices have closed on the London Tube network, & look at the consequences. There is no way for me to buy a ticket with Senior Railcard from London Travel Zone 6 to Reading (I get free travel up to Travel Zone 6), in Whitechapel despite the Elizabeth Line running non-stop from Whitechapel to Reading.... So already, by closing the ticket office at Whitechapel - they have thrown away billions and billions of pounds building Crossrail/Elizabeth Line to Reading - because I can't use it.... ....an earlier "cunning plan" by Department for Transport ideological morons

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looking ever-more likely

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Necropolis Railway

This railway provided access to distant Brookwood Cemetery after all central London graveyards were closed, by Act of Parliament, in 1851

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Beep Beep - the Acme corporation about to become very rich!

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William Shatner on Space, and us ruining our only inhabitable space, the earth

“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration."I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced."I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet."This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/07/william-shatner-earth-must-live-long-and-prosper-aoe

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Beattie Orwell, veteran of the Battle of Cable Street, dies at 105yrs old

From https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023/06/26/so-long-beattie-orwell/  

“””Beattie Orwell died last Thursday at the fine age of one hundred and five

Portrait of Beattie Orwell by Phil Maxwell

It was my delight to accompany photographer Phil Maxwell to visit one hundred and five year old Beattie Orwell and sit beside her in her cosy flat while she talked to me of her century of existence in this particular corner of the East End.

A magnanimous woman who delighted in the modest joys of life, Beattie was nevertheless a political animal who is proud to be one of the last living veterans of the Battle of Cable St – a formative experience that inspired her with a fiercely egalitarian sense of justice and led to her becoming a councillor in later life, acutely conscious of the rights of the most vulnerable in society.

In spite of her physical frailty, Beattie’s moral courage granted her an astonishing monumental presence as a human being. To speak with Beattie was to encounter another, kinder world.

“I am Jewish and both my parents were East Enders, born here... ...I was nineteen in 1936. I was there with all the crowds at the Battle of Cable St. I am Jewish and I knew we must fight the fascists. They were anti-semitic, so I felt I had to do it. I was not frightened because there were so many people there. If I was on my own I might have been frightened, but I never saw so many people. You could not imagine. Dockers, Scottish and Irish people were there. It was a marvellous atmosphere. I was standing on the corner of Leman St outside a shop called ‘Critts’ and everyone was shouting ‘ They shall not pass!’....”

From Cable Street to Brick Lane - 74 min - 2012 from Hazuan Hashim and Phil Maxwell on Vimeo.