Celtic Cross

Welcome to my blog, here you'll find my random posts from IRL, as well as my other interests including Tech, Gaming, Wrestling and more.

[celticcrossblog]

Saor Uladh, Belfast

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Provisional IRA

[oglaighnaheireann]

A friend needs help..

A few days ago I began talking to an old childhood friend from County Mayo. He left Ireland about 20 years ago, I won’t go into detail but he didn’t have the greatest of starts in life, he ended up literally leaving the country with his mother with nothing but the clothes on his back, however he now lives in the United States and he seems to be doing better for himself.

The only thing that worries me is he has suffered from being underweight his entire life and although he won’t admit it, he has an eating disorder. I know it sounds strange to say, but he’s almost been scared of food, I managed to talk him into making Youtube videos related to food, he came up with a fairly unique idea where he’s trying to find snacks and interesting foods from different countries, and he’s on a mission to try food from every country on Earth.

Now I know my 8,000+ followers are great at supporting myself and my blog. and the only thing i’m asking is that people check out his videos, maybe leave some comments showing support, he’s been through a rough start in life like I mentioned but I think he’s on the right track, he talks of returning to Ireland in a few years which is also great news.

Thank you to every one of you for taking the time to read this, I know it’s something out of the ordinary, but I know my followers have supported me in the past, and this is something that means a lot to me.

Link: www.youtube.com/snacksaloon

go raibh maith agat

[oglaighnaheireann]

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In the old Celtic calendar, today is Sheelah’s Day.

In the old Celtic calendar, today is Sheelah’s Day. In ancient Ireland, it was an annual festival to honour the fertility Goddess known as Sheela-na-gig. Naked Sheela-na-gig figures appeared in Irish churches constructed before the 16th century, but most were defaced or destroyed during the prudish Victorian age.

According to some sources, the origins of ‘drowning the shamrock’ have also been traced to this date. In the eigh…teenth century, William Hone reported on the celebrations surrounding Sheelah, who has been variously identified as the wife, mother, or other relative of St Patrick – noting that, the people of the day 'are not so anxious to determine who ‘Sheelah’ was, as they are earnest in her celebration. All agree that her immortal memory is to be maintained by potations of whiskey.’ At the end of the day, the faithful would then take their shamrocks and drop them into their respective glasses before downing the contents.

[oglaighnaheireann]

A friend needs help..

A few days ago I began talking to an old childhood friend from County Mayo. He left Ireland about 20 years ago, I won’t go into detail but he didn’t have the greatest of starts in life, he ended up literally leaving the country with his mother with nothing but the clothes on his back, however he now lives in the United States and he seems to be doing better for himself.

The only thing that worries me is he has suffered from being underweight his entire life and although he won’t admit it, he has an eating disorder. I know it sounds strange to say, but he’s almost been scared of food, I managed to talk him into making Youtube videos related to food, he came up with a fairly unique idea where he’s trying to find snacks and interesting foods from different countries, and he’s on a mission to try food from every country on Earth.

Now I know my 8,000+ followers are great at supporting myself and my blog. and the only thing i’m asking is that people check out his videos, maybe leave some comments showing support, he’s been through a rough start in life like I mentioned but I think he’s on the right track, he talks of returning to Ireland in a few years which is also great news.

Thank you to every one of you for taking the time to read this, I know it’s something out of the ordinary, but I know my followers have supported me in the past, and this is something that means a lot to me.

Link: www.youtube.com/snacksaloon

go raibh maith agat

[britishhistory]

Help me reclaim my family’s home

My family, The Staniforths from Hackenthorpe are probably the most famous family to come from the area. Hackenthorpe was originally a tiny village until it was engulfed by the city of Sheffield in the mid 20th century. Hackenthorpe went from being a part of the County of Derbyshire to South Yorkshire and today my families name still hangs over various buildings:

The Staniforths were Sickle makers, starting in the 1750s going right up to the 1980s the Staniforth Works in the above building were famous for sickles and scythes.

In fact, all of the original metalworking tools can still be found here in the courtyard:

The Staniforth estate, known as Greenside House has now gone up for sale at a whopping 300,000, and I fear that the area will go the same way as other local buildings and either be converted to flats/apartments or completely altered beyond recognition.

That’s where I, and my followers come in. I would like to purchase the property and to turn it into a local museum so that future visitors, and residents of the area will be able to learn about the history of the area, learn how Scythes and Sickles were constructed back in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and to keep my family name alive in Hackenthorpe.

I have setup a donation page and I can only ask that you help if you can, I do not expect a penny from anyone but all I can do is put my story out there:

https://www.gofundme.com/hackenthorpe

[oglaighnaheireann]

A friend needs help..

A few days ago I began talking to an old childhood friend from County Mayo. He left Ireland about 20 years ago, I won’t go into detail but he didn’t have the greatest of starts in life, he ended up literally leaving the country with his mother with nothing but the clothes on his back, however he now lives in the United States and he seems to be doing better for himself.

The only thing that worries me is he has suffered from being underweight his entire life and although he won’t admit it, he has an eating disorder. I know it sounds strange to say, but he’s almost been scared of food, I managed to talk him into making Youtube videos related to food, he came up with a fairly unique idea where he’s trying to find snacks and interesting foods from different countries, and he’s on a mission to try food from every country on Earth.

Now I know my 8,000+ followers are great at supporting myself and my blog. and the only thing i’m asking is that people check out his videos, maybe leave some comments showing support, he’s been through a rough start in life like I mentioned but I think he’s on the right track, he talks of returning to Ireland in a few years which is also great news.

Thank you to every one of you for taking the time to read this, I know it’s something out of the ordinary, but I know my followers have supported me in the past, and this is something that means a lot to me.

Link: www.youtube.com/snacksaloon

go raibh maith agat

[celticcrossblog]

Eating Snacks from Every country on Earth to overcome eating issues

I want to thank everyone for following, and supporting me, I want to make everyone aware of my project, I am about 40 countries down at the moment on my quest to eat snacks from every single country on Earth. If you would like to subscribe, comment or to simply support me, please check out my videos:

www.snacksaloon.com

[celticcrossblog]

Anxiety

Sucks.

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I’m sobbing omfg

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Kitties are solar-powered. It’s true.

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i haz a warm

[celticcrossblog]

My story growing up with an alcoholic mother, finding her dead, dealing with depression

I need to get this off my chest.. I’m currently 23 years old, living in the United States, I was born in Ireland, grew up in England and here’s my story of depression, growing up with an alcoholic mother and how I ended up finding her dead on her bedroom floor… Firstly, like I said I was born in Ireland, on the west coast in County Mayo, my mother and father apparently had some dispute that I’m still not 100% sure about by it resulted in them divorcing, my mother brought me to England on a small boat, with just the clothes on my back, luckily my grandparents (her parents) had already moved to England and so I was pretty much raised by them.

At around 5 maybe 6 my mother that was having some health issues ended up remarrying and I lived with her and my step dad. He wasn’t the greatest person, he was very violent towards my mother and it ended up driving her to drink. She’d always drank a lot before this due to her prior heartache but it got to the point where she never left the house, she drank morning till night, on top of this she was taking medication for health issues so you can imagine how ‘loopy’ it was making her. I would often walk in from school to find her on the floor, one time I even called the ambulance and the first thing they asked when they got here was “Have you been drinking” as she was laid out of the floor mumbling.

Anyway long story short they ended up separating, I was 16 at this point and my mother ended up becoming even more of a hermit, this time in a small apartment by herself, literally never leaving the house, she was only in this apartment a total of 6 months when one day my grandmother said it was weird she hadn’t had a phone call from her… she usually called every day without fail.

My grandfather had taken her a bottle of milk the morning before as she was complaining of feeling unwell and he said she looked awful when he got there, anyway like I said they hadn’t heard from her, we phoned her but there was no answer. We left it a total of two days before we decided to go to her apartment, we knocked on the door and there was no answer, we could see through the window that the milk she’d received days earlier was stood in the kitchen on the counter. We decided to leave it another day just incase she’d gone out. Another day passed and we decided we had to do something, we went back, looked through the window and the bottle of milk was now on its side (We later realized the milk must have gone bad and literally fell over due to the pressure inside). We deiced we had to call the police as we all felt something was wrong. Anyways the police came and tried knocking, they asked us if we wanted them to break down the door, we all agreed it was for the best and when they knocked it down there she was, in a puddle of blood on her bedroom floor. The one thing I always remember is that I had actually looked through the bedroom window and she must have been laid just close enough to the window that I couldn’t see her.

We found out her liver had failed due to the alcohol and her esophagus exploded which caused the blood. The weird thing is she had a photo fo my father, from back in Ireland on her bedside table. This is very odd as she never mentioned his name at all throughout the 17/18 years she spent ‘raising’ me. In a way I was relieved that her pain was over, she couldn’t hurt herself anymore but obviously I was left extremely depressed, I was always a very axious person and this was always commented on by doctors when I’d have checkups and when I ultimately had to attend CBT. I also suffered bad weight issues all my life, I’ve never been over 130lbs and still to this day cannot keep weight on.

I’m not sure why I typed out my story, maybe I thought it might help get things off my chest and maybe it will help others. But whatever the reason I got through it and I like to think it made me who I am today, I just started a little project on Youtube in the hopes that it will help with both my social anxiety and weight issues, I’m trying to eat food from every country on Earth: www.youtube.com/snacksaloon

Well thank you for reading my story, and feel free to ask me any questions or leave general comments.

[oglaighnaheireann]

Today in Irish history: May 22nd

1805 - Michael Doheny, poet and Young Irelander, is born near Fethard, Co. Tipperary

1849 - Novelist, Maria Edgeworth, dies in Mostrim, Co. Longford. She is laid to rest in a vault at Edgeworthstown Church. The Great Famine which decimates the people she loves mars her last years. Even though in her late seventies, she worked strenuously for the relief of the stricken peasants at the height of the famine. She shows the same involvement and generosity throughout her entire life and devotes her best talents to the betterment of the people of her adoption. Her books on the Irish people bring her world fame and the acclaim of such writers as Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, Byron and the Russian writer Turgenev.

1859 - Birth in Edinburgh of Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle was the eldest son of 10 siblings born to Irish parents Charles Doyle and Mary Foley

1870 - Birth of Eva Gore-Booth, poet, trade unionist and feminist, on the Lissadell Estate in Co. Sligo

1920 - Birth of Oliver J. Flanagan, Fine Gael politician

1932 - Death of Augusta Persse, better known as Lady Augusta Gregory, Irish dramatist, folklorist and theatre director; also a co-founder of the Abbey Theatre

1941 - Caitlin Maude, Irish language activist, is born

1944 - Birth of Betty Williams, former peace activist and 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner

1946 - George Best, the greatest player of his generation and the world’s first superstar footballer, is born in Belfast

1950 - Bill Whelan, musician and composer, is born in Limerick; he is best known for composing the music to Riverdance

1955 - Mary Black, singer, is born in Dublin

1971 - Members of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement defy the law by bringing contraceptives bought in Belfast into Connolly railway station in Dublin

1972 - Death of Laois man Cecil Day-Lewis, one of the English language’s leading poets of the early part of the 20th century, and father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis

1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton approves a visa for Irish nationalist leader Gerry Adams to enter the United States

1997 - Pneumonia causes the quiet passing of Dr. Noel Browne in the University College Hospital Galway at the age of 81. As Minister of Health, Dr. Browne had lain the foundation stone of the same Hospital almost fifty years before

1998 - The Good Friday Agreement is overwhelmingly endorsed in referendums North (71%) and South (94%)

2000 - A survey shows that half of Ireland’s small and medium-size businesses have their own website

2003 - Hurling reaches its highest peak when Gerard McDonnell from Limerick brought the spirit of the GAA to Mount Everest; he sent a ball flying above 29,000 feet

2003 - The Official Languages Bill 2002, introduced by the Minister for the Gaeltacht, Mr Ó Cuív, will give citizens the right to conduct their business with any State agency or Government department, in Irish.

[oglaighnaheireann]

‘An IRA unit - Including a female volunteer - allow Willie Curran to photograph the Greenwalk area of Creggan in the 1970s. In one shot, the female volunteer can be seen pointing her rifle directly at the photogropher, prompting him to admonish her’