Shortly after I sat down at my desk this morning, I looked out the window to see quite a beautiful sunrise lighting up the sky.
The top of the sky was a cool blue, moving to dark cloud lower down, then melting to a lovely orange and yellow colour before the sun rose over the distant hill.
Today saw the biggest rally supporting Palestinians happen in Cork this afternoon. Groups from all over Munster descended on the city and the rally walked down St. Patrick’s Street, chanting and singing. They doubled back through Winthrop Street and back up Oliver Plunkett Street before assembling in the Grand Parade for a number of speakers and singers.
I was walking up the street behind a man dressed in blue and this photo presented itself to me. Pink and blue and a man in a baseball cap. All gone within seconds.
Down a side street in Valencia I spotted five ladies looking in the windows of a tourist shop selling T-shirts, fridge magnets, kitchen towels, bags and all sorts of other knick-knacks.
She took a photo of me while I was on a tram passing by on this street in Lisbon, Portugal. I took a photo of what, I think, is a much more interesting scene.
Those are the words of a Palestinian poet killed by an airstrike in Gaza. I saw them printed on a small white kite on the Palestinian flag carried by a man at the pro-Palestinian rally in Cork today. The rally was organised by the Cork Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Last week another poet, Refaat Alareer, was killed by an airstrike. Alareer was a professor of English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he taught Shakespeare, among other subjects. One of his latest works widely shared, again on X, concludes with the words: “If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.”
The city of Lisbon is infamous for its hills, and the Escadinhas Damasceno Monteiro is a fine example. It is down the street from where we were staying. It’s got lots of steps. So many steps.
One afternoon while we were in Valencia we visited the Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe on hire bikes. There were huge crowds there, taking selfies and hanging around, but with a long 20-second exposure they all (mostly) disappear into a blur. In the photo above you’ll also see the Pont l’Assut de l’Or bridge and CaixaForum in the background and, of course, the clear blue sky.
What good has it done to kill over 28,000 people in Gaza? Hamas must free those hostages, it’s not like their presence is stopping the Israeli army from reducing the country to rubble. Let’s have a ceasefire now. This struggle has only caused misery, suffering and hate on both sides.
In 2006, Israel stopped an attack after 37 children were killed. Here’s the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper with that headline. I happened to photograph it on the streets of that city in late July that year. They’re not stopping now, are they?
It’s still cold, but following up on my recent photo outside a gelato shop, here’s another one, on the corner of Patrick’s Street and Winthrop Street in Cork.
I love ice cream too, but maybe not enough to eat it on a cold wintery day, outside!
Aperture
ƒ/2.8
Camera
ILCE-7M3
Focal length
24mm
ISO
500
Shutter speed
1/500s
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