A short walk through Dublin on longest day

A SUMMER solstice celebration connecting Dublin residents and spanning the ages and distance between Ireland and South America will take place next Sunday week.

Musicians dressed as Aztec sun dancers called for good weather as the summer solstice walk was launched under hazy sunlight in Dublin Castle’s yard yesterday.

On June 21st, hundreds of participants are expected to walk through 1,000 years of Dublin’s evolution through Viking, medieval and Georgian times before returning to the castle for a multicultural party.

Dublin City Council is calling on people from all cultures to join the ramble. “The summer solstice . . . predates all political and religious differences,” said Dermot Kirwan of Dublin City Council.Dublin was historically a multicultural city and only “retreated into itself” during the early 20th century, said historian Pat Liddy who designed the walk’s route. “In medieval times, there were seven or eight different languages spoken in Dublin, including French, English, Irish, some Spanish and still Norse from the old Vikings,” he said.

In the past Dublin prospered because of its cultural diversity, from French Huguenots to Italian artisans, Dutch merchants and German and Spanish traders, he added. “So now we have opened up again to the world and have so many nationalities we want to share it,” he said.

The event is in aid of Friends of the Elderly and Dublin Simon Community, as walkers will have the option of raising money for one of the Dublin charities.

Participants will receive a guide to the hour-and-a-half walk which begins at 6pm on June 21st at Dublin Castle’s upper yard.

SOME nine decades after John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown flew across the Atlantic and landed in a Connemara bog, their historic non-stop flight is to be celebrated this weekend with an air show in Clifden, Co Galway, writes Lorna Siggins.

The world’s only “formation” wing-walking team, a jet display and a visit by a replica Vimy Vickers model used by Alcock and Brown are among highlights of the event, weather permitting, according to Connemara Chamber of Commerce.

“Today we take transatlantic travel for granted, but in 1919, these men undertook a dangerous, life-threatening trip which in time opened the skies for us all,” the chamber says.

“Imagine for a moment the hub of activity that was Connemara 90 years ago, when these two men literally dropped from the sky into the bog, and were able to send a message from Marconi’s wireless radio station to inform London they had made it across the Atlantic – thus assuring themselves their rightful place in history,” the chamber says.

Galway airport is supporting the festival, which will include an Alcock and Brown exhibition by Connemara historian Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill, and a ground display by the Defence Forces, along with guided walks and lectures.

The Vimy Vickers replica will be flown from the Brooklands Museum in Surrey, England, to Connemara, by John Dodd and Clive Edwards, later this week, where it will land at Galway airport before flying west to Clifden. More details are at www.connemaraairshow.com