Earl Street, Mullingar, Co Westmeath. 1900.

Interesting how the lady dressed in a shawl and bowler hat resembles the women of the high Andes. (Lawrence Collection, NLI)

A family takes a break by the roadside. Co Donegal, 1892.

The province name of Leinster comes from the word 'Laigin', referring to a tribe of Gauls who settled the region in 600 BC. The latter part of the word (-ster) comes from Old Norse 'staðr' - meaning place, city, or town.

Leinster - [Laigin-staðr]

The Gaelic name for Dublin is ‘Baile Átha Cliath’ which translates as ‘town of the hurdle ford’, a denoscription of the bank of wooden forts built up on the river Liffey by the Vikings. An earlier name for Dublin is Dubh Linn (Irish) or Dyflin (Norse), meaning 'black pool'.

County Wicklow gets its name from the Cauci tribe who originated beyond the Rhine - They called the land 'Wick'. The Vikings added the word ‘-lo’, to this, which means ‘meadow,’ thereby creating the name ‘Bay of the river meadows.’

County Louth is named after Lugh, a god, hero, and king of the ancient Irish. Historically, the placename has had various spellings: 'Lugmad', 'Lughmhaigh', & 'Lughmhadh'. Lú is the modern simplified form.

[Castle Roche, Dundalk]

County Wexford was called 'Waesfjord' by the Vikings - meaning 'fjord of the mud-flats'. Its Irish name 'Loch Garman' refers to a legendary warrior called Garman Garbh, who was drowned at the river Slaney by a wicked enchantress.

[Pikemen of Wexford, 1798 Memorial]

11 February: Feast of St Gobnait, 6th c. Irish patron saint of bees and beekeepers. Her connection to bees began when an angel told her to find her “resurrection place” - Important as in Celtic mythology the soul departed the body as a bee or a butterfly.

Mistake in deletion.

Bees have always been known as special creatures - In the Bible the epitome of Eden-like fertility is a "land of milk and honey": bees are symbolic of God's perfect order & paradise. Similarly in Irish myth, vessels of sacred mead comprise the food of the gods and immortality.

A favourite delicacy in medieval Ireland was 'milsén', a thickened butter that was cooked with honey. Today the term survives as milseán ('sweet, candy') a word people use to describe their favourite sweets.