HAPPY 2ND BLOGIVERSARY

Thank you to all of you have visited giving me a total of 28,529 views for just 192 posts... in just two years.

Your favourites have been as follows...

HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY, SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE !

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY 2013

It seems you like anything to do with Australia, as these three in particular and all others with Australia or Australian references are still attracting readers every day.

Visitors come from the following main countries in order... a couple of surprises there....

United States
Australia
United Kingdom
Russia
Germany
Ireland
Canada
France
Ukraine
India

I hope you continue to visit, enjoy and leave comments... nice to know you drop by. 

I'm looking forward to seeing where we venture over the next two years...

Crissouli...from Oz!

MICHAEL KENNEALLY... the face of Ireland .... 2013

This article appeared some time ago in The Irish Times, back in March 2013. I thought it was well worth sharing.

Hill farmer who never left Ireland but featured in array of international pictorials

Pictures of Michael Kenneally travelled the world

Michael Kenneally was a Co Clare hill farmer who lived all his 82 years at the foot of Mount Callan, overlooking the road from Inagh to Miltown-Malbay. He rarely left Co Clare, and never left Ireland. He never owned a car. Yet, through a series of chance encounters, and his own charm, he enjoyed an unusual and joyous relationship with the media that spanned more than half a century.

Kenneally was 24 when the great American photographer Dorothea Lange saw him working in his fields and drew up to the cottage he shared with his mother, Nora. Lange had been inspired by Conrad Arensberg 's book The Irish Countryman , which described an intact rural society where the people and their culture were rooted in the land. Michael was the seventh generation of Kenneally to farm their 70 acres, and in his warmth and rugged handsomeness Lange found her Irish countryman.

Of the 2,400 photographs taken on Lange's trip to Ireland, Michael Kenneally appears more than any other person. He featured in Lange's photoessay that appeared in Life magazine in March 1955. At the time, Life was the biggest-selling publication in the world.

Kenneally married his childhood sweetheart Bridie McMahon in 1959. They set up home in the Kenneally cottage, and ensured it retained its reputation as a welcoming place for family, neighbours and strangers.

Kenneally was the embodiment of the Ireland we like to sell to our tourists. Although Ireland changed much in his lifetime, Kenneally and the life around him in west Clare didn't. It was those qualities that seemed to draw photographers and other visitors to him.

In 1990, New York photographer Pat Crowe came across Kenneally wearing a "'scarecrow' type of a hat and walking along the road carrying a bucket of water". His photos of Kenneally became part of a cover story in Aer Lingus 's Cara magazine.

In 1991, when 75 of the world's leading photojournalists descended on Ireland for the Day In The Life project, it seemed inevitable that one would find her way to Kenneally's home. Stephanie Maze from National Geographic was the photographer, and although her shots of the Keaneallys didn't appear in the book, they were prominent in the documentary film made about that day.

In 1994, Gerry Mullins began researching the photographs taken by Lange on her 1954 trip. His book Dorothea Lange's Ireland opened with shots of the Keneallys, and it became a bestseller.

This prompted the arrival of many photographers and journalists to Kenneally's door, eager to retrace Lange's footsteps. Subsequent articles appeared in Irish, British and American publications.

 For the full story, please go to

.

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/hill-farmer-who-never-left-ireland-but-featured-in-array-of-international-pictorials-1.1335764

For just a few further articles on Michael,  please see

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/how-story-of-a-man-who-never-left-home-travelled-all-around-the-world-on-film-26838096.html

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/interviews/interviews_ireland/vanishing_one/interviews_ireland_mickkenneally.html

http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/Famous-photographer-captured-Co-Clares-rural-life-in-iconic-images-145393155.html

THE RAJAH QUILT

It is with great excitement and anticipation that I announce the coming of the 

RAJAH QUILT

 to 

the Queensland Art Gallery

Southbank, Brisbane

 from Jun 15 to September 22

Photos above courtesy of the National Art Gallery, Canberra

If you don't know the story of the Rajah Quilt, then listen to this audio and read below.

The story of the Rajah Quilt

Thank you to the abc for the audio.

 The basis of the story is that it is one of the few surviving examples of needlework done by convict women while being transported to Australia. It is rare to have the quilt exposed as it is kept away from light in order to preserve it. Occasionally, it is on exhibition at the National Art Gallery, but lately, it has been 'allowed out' to various galleries so that more people can view it.

There are replicas on display now and then, but we are getting to see the original. As a needleworker and lover of history, it is like Christmas come early for me.

photos above courtesy of The Courier Mail, Brisbane Jun 8, 2013

You can find further articles here

http://cs.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=119802

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/03/16/3165808.htm

 See you at the Gallery!