OUR LADY OF DOLLIER

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She's probably more visible by night than by day. She was 22 years in the making and she now stands about 100 feet above the level of the sea below. She faces in towards the port and not out to sea, despite her official title of Réalt na Mara (Star of the Sea). She is there as a tribute to the dockers and those who worked in the port. Her pose is that of Mary on the Miraculous Medal.

Conceived in 1950, and intended for the Marian Year in 1954, it was 1961 before enough funds were raised to ensure the project would go ahead. This was a much scaled down version of what was originally envisaged, at least as far as cost was concerned. There was a lot of toing an froing over suitable sites and it took until 1972 for the project to be completed on its present site at the end of the Bull Wall.

Cardinal Agagianian was the papal legate to Ireland during the Patrician Year in 1961 and he was got to bless the foundation stone during his visit in June of that year. At that stage there was no definitive site for the monument and the ceremony took place in Ringsend.

Older readers, if they're still with us, will remember the excitement of 1958, and more particularly 1963, when the cardinal was not only papabile but seen by most people as being first in line to be the next pope if the Italians' iron grip on the papacy could be broken.

In any event, a site was finally found at the end of the Bull Wall in Dollymount and the monument was inaugurated by Dublin Archbishop Dermot Ryan in 1972.

There is a bespoke website here.

Kite Fest

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Another kudo for Dublin City Council, Kite Fest at Dollymount Strand on Dublin's Northside (22/6/2014).

The rotating snake kite (above), held aloft by an inflated Tweety Bird, must surely have been the star of the show.

There were some mean kite flyers too, as this "Red Arrows" display shows.

And you can forget the swimming, this synchronised kite flying was something to behold, and the speed of it.

We were even treated to a "Dogfight over Dollymount" at one stage.

All the while, responding to slight wind shifts, the snake was changing shape at a rate of knots, so to speak.

The newly elected Lord Mayor, Christy Burke, got to "fly a kite". Well, at least as a photo op.

And he got to start a kiddies kite race from the top of a van, in the company of Deric Hartigan, who was one of the two MCs for the day.

This one proved a slight embarrassment, as, when invited to do the countown to the start of the race, the boul Christy unexpectedly did it as Gaeilge, and there wasn't a stir at the starting line. So he had to do it again as Béarla this time, and away they went. Says something about something, that does.

Didn't take a feather out of Christy though. He was too preoccupied dealing with his vertigo mounting, sitting on top of, and descending from the high van roof. Fair dues.

Meanwhile, up the Sutton end, this young lady is quietely reaching for the heavens: ad astra.

Amazingly, the profusion of high flying, high performing, kites didn't lead to a single air crash. Congratulations to all concerned.

Congratulations too to one of the stars of the show, the tireless creature who held aloft the rotating snake for the whole afternoon without so much as a complaint.

The weather was ideal. A consistent medium wind.

And where else would you get it raining cats and dogs from a clear blue sky (broken only by the occasional white cloud - as we used to write in our school examination essays).