Aug 26
TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
going 'round the bend
when Cúchulainn his very self
steps out and tells me to
"YIELD!"
or he would
set his wolfhounds on me
now when an ancient
mythological hero
commands one to yield
then one yields
with a squeal of brakes
since the council
started to employ
old Irish heroes
from time long gone
to deal with
wilful drivers
refusing to yield
"Ok ok Cúchulainn
keep yer helmet on!"
our hero snarls at me
"No backchat chap!"
I got out and pushed
the car around the bend
"****** demi god!"
I mumble
under my breath
Bran and Sceolaun
bared their teeth
and growled
"*** on with ya!"
Cúchulainn gave me a kick
I got on with me
*
An impressive Corten steel sculpture of Cúchulainn and his hounds. It is located on a roundabout at Ballymany, Newbridge in County Kildare and close to the Curragh Racecourse. I'd encounter it when rushing back to Dublin on the leaving of The Land of Ire.
He waved his Gáe Bulg at me, meaning "spear of mortal pain/death", "gapped/notched spear", or "belly spear." Jaysus!
I wasn't going to wait if he was going to go into one of his spectacular ríastrad ( transformative battle frenzies).I had seen one before and didn't want to see another!
"The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and ***** from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless **** as big as the head of a month-old child... he ****** one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek. His mouth weirdly distorted: his cheek peeled back from his jaws until the gullet appeared, his lungs and his liver flapped in his mouth and throat, his lower jaw struck the upper a lion-killing blow, and fiery flakes large as a ram's fleece reached his mouth from his throat...the hair of his head twisted like the tangle of a red thorn bush stuck in a gap; if a royal apple tree with all its kingly fruit were shaken above him, scarce an apple would reach the ground but each would be spiked on a bristle of his hair as it stood up on his scalp with rage."
The use of mythical heroes for traffic control was soon dropped as more motorists were killed by him as were killed in crashes. It was hard to get him to go back in the book!
Completed in March 2010, the sculpture by Lynn Kirkham cost €45,000 (paid for out of profits from Newbridge Town’s car parking fees) and the figures are made of Corten steel which has turned ‘rust-like’ over the years adding time and weather to its making.
going 'round the bend
when Cúchulainn his very self
steps out and tells me to
"YIELD!"
or he would
set his wolfhounds on me
now when an ancient
mythological hero
commands one to yield
then one yields
with a squeal of brakes
since the council
started to employ
old Irish heroes
from time long gone
to deal with
wilful drivers
refusing to yield
"Ok ok Cúchulainn
keep yer helmet on!"
our hero snarls at me
"No backchat chap!"
I got out and pushed
the car around the bend
"****** demi god!"
I mumble
under my breath
Bran and Sceolaun
bared their teeth
and growled
"*** on with ya!"
Cúchulainn gave me a kick
I got on with me
*
An impressive Corten steel sculpture of Cúchulainn and his hounds. It is located on a roundabout at Ballymany, Newbridge in County Kildare and close to the Curragh Racecourse. I'd encounter it when rushing back to Dublin on the leaving of The Land of Ire.
He waved his Gáe Bulg at me, meaning "spear of mortal pain/death", "gapped/notched spear", or "belly spear." Jaysus!
I wasn't going to wait if he was going to go into one of his spectacular ríastrad ( transformative battle frenzies).I had seen one before and didn't want to see another!
"The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and ***** from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless **** as big as the head of a month-old child... he ****** one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull; the other eye fell out along his cheek. His mouth weirdly distorted: his cheek peeled back from his jaws until the gullet appeared, his lungs and his liver flapped in his mouth and throat, his lower jaw struck the upper a lion-killing blow, and fiery flakes large as a ram's fleece reached his mouth from his throat...the hair of his head twisted like the tangle of a red thorn bush stuck in a gap; if a royal apple tree with all its kingly fruit were shaken above him, scarce an apple would reach the ground but each would be spiked on a bristle of his hair as it stood up on his scalp with rage."
The use of mythical heroes for traffic control was soon dropped as more motorists were killed by him as were killed in crashes. It was hard to get him to go back in the book!
Completed in March 2010, the sculpture by Lynn Kirkham cost €45,000 (paid for out of profits from Newbridge Town’s car parking fees) and the figures are made of Corten steel which has turned ‘rust-like’ over the years adding time and weather to its making.
