Comments on The Pensive Quill: Bulawayo and Beyond

Nuala, they were fine and were not into bible thu...

2011-11-08T16:45:08.047Z

Nuala,

they were fine and were not into bible thumping! Oyster Bay, red or white. A lovely wine

Mackers, hard to imagine you sitting there surrou...

2011-11-08T15:43:40.906Z

Mackers,
hard to imagine you sitting there surrounded by all those Catholics.
What was the name of the wine?

Blackwatertown, the wide streets of Bulawayo got ...

2011-11-08T14:06:18.797Z

Blackwatertown,

the wide streets of Bulawayo got a mention during the lecture. The reason given for their width was the need for farmers to turn their herds.

There are grand memorials - sometimes moving (er, ...

2011-11-08T11:08:03.835Z

There are grand memorials - sometimes moving (er, not like at Ballinaspittle) - to the battlefield fallen around Bulawayo. Then you realise that the much greater local dead don't merit a memorial in stone - just seen as anonymous extras.
Good place to visit though.
Last time I was there the very broad streets were easy to cross, it was so peaceful in the centre.
But hey - that's what no-one having any petrol will do for you.

Fionnchú, we would have taken you to the Martello...

2011-11-07T22:34:10.321Z

Fionnchú,

we would have taken you to the Martello rather than the Eastern Seaboard when you visited had it still been open!

AM, another thoughtful entry. One of the once-flou...

2011-11-06T21:49:46.376Z

AM, another thoughtful entry. One of the once-flourishing, now nearly-moribund orders (Medical Missionaries of Mary) featured in God's Missionaries had its vast motherhouse in Drogheda. Joe Humphreys gives a fair and thought-provoking summation of the past century's legacy, for better and worse, of Irish efforts, lay and clerical, to build the "spiritual empire." He was African correspondent for the Irish Times, so he's well-placed to write this 2010 account.

(BTW, that Martello tower's rumored by Drogheda's own journalist-scholar, Anthony Murphy, to crown the neolithic grave mound of Amergin [died in legend 1694 BCE], first bard to land on Erin's shores.)