James Joyce – Writer, Irishman
Ireland - Land of heroes and dreamers, artists and writers, musicians... those who upon beauty and intensity shall ever feast. James Joyce, perhaps the best known 20th century Irish writer and a self imposed exile from his native land, offered these words:
“This race and this country and this life
produced me, he said. I shall express
myself as I am."
-- James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Verba volant, scripta manet… (spoken words fly away, written words remain). Joyce’s words, in his elegant Irish voice, are likely to remain for a good long time.
Multicolored on black unisex tee shirt. Sm-2XL $19.00 |
W. B. Yeates – Writer, Irishman
Ireland is a land of heroes and dreamers, artists and writers, musicians... those who upon beauty and intensity shall ever feast. And few writers have ever captured the intensity of Yeates in his poem, Easter 1916.
“We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead.
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse --
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born."
Verba Volant – Scripta Manet?
(What is spoken flies away, what is written remains)
Multicolor on deep forest green unisex pre-shrunk cotton. Sm-2XL $19.00 |
Erin gra mo chroi
It’s Gaelic for Ireland of my heart. Before it was the lovely sad song of a young woman in New York, part of the Irish diaspora, longing for her island home, it was the heartfelt cry of hundreds of thousands of others driven from their homes by the cruelty of the British Empire as it usurped Irish land and Irish resources for her own insatiable appetite for gain and went so far as to outlaw our language and our faith – upon penalty of death.
Nearly a hundred years after establishment of the Republic of Ireland, we still long for Erin gra mo chroi, but with a new hope. The IRA remains unarmed and Sinn Finn is working hard toward reunification in 2016. Ireland, left to the Irish, could enjoy peace and freedom and once again, at long last, determine her own destiny.
Green and white distressed on green tee shirt. Unisex sizes Sm – 2XL. Price $19.00
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Beltane Wreath
Beltane (pr. bel tan' ya) was the Celtic festival celebrating what we call spring. Sacrifices were made in hopes of a fertile and abundant growing season. Participants would adorn themselves in garlands of flowers and other plants and it was a time of wedding for couples who had expressed that intent in the seasons since last Beltane. Beltane, like Sanhaim is a ‘thin’ time – a time when the veil that separates the worldly from the other-worldly stretches and grows thin in special places. Sometimes so thin that it’s possible to slip from one side to the other unnoticed.
In this design a wreath of mistletoe-like vines and berries surround a five lobed knot. It did not escape the Celts that although there were surly four seasons, each was only part of a larger whole, hence the five lobes to the Beltane knot – one for each season and one for the whole.
Medium dark earth green shirt with black design overprinted with crystalina. This on really sparkles in the light. Unisex sizes Sm – 2XL. Price $19.00 |
Bru na Boinne – New Grange
Bru na Boinne – bend in the (river) Boyne - early in ancient Ireland a river sacred to the goddess Banbh (pr. Bive). This amazing construction is astronomically as complex and accurate as Stonehenge, yet much older. The enormous kerb stone at the entrance to the Mound is inscribed with a lunar calendar in a code that took centuries to rediscover. New Grange, Knowth and other sites of profound antiquity speak of the amazing role played by the people of the Celtic islands in the history of the world. To gaze upon these marvels instills simultaneously a deep sense of pride and humility at being a small branch issuing from the mighty roots of Ireland's beginnings.
Earthy tan washed shirt with black, gray and white. Short and long sleeve. Unisex sizes Sm – 2XL Price short sleeve $19.00. Long sleeve $21.00. |
Snail Trail
After the rain, especially in the spring, there come a legion of greyish-brown little creatures, leaving their silvery trails behind them on the cobbles and walkways. Snails. In Ireland, children call them Shellichee-buchie and sing this nursery rhyme to them:
Shellichee - shellichee - buchie,
Come out with all your horns...
All the ladies are comin’
to see-eee ya!
I was always fascinated by the slippery little fellows and spent a good deal of time (instead of studying arithmetic) considering their travels. This design is the product of some of those musings. Spiraling intersecting lines that lead in and out in a labyrinthine path begins to suggest the structure of the snail’s shell. It’s another unexpected lesson in the inter-connectedness of creation - the
snail’s glistening trail being part of the glue that holds this whole grand, mad wonderful world together.
On earthy green in greens, cream and black on 100% preshrunk cotton unisex tee.
Sm-2XL $19.00. |
