August 2009
Last month my wife and I went to Ireland, as we have many times before, to stay with a friend of ours at her home in Kilmacanogue, a village in Co Wicklow about 12 miles south of Dublin. The name Kilmacanogue comes from the Irish Cill Machaenog, "The Church of Machaenog" (a sixth-century Irish saint). The less reverent locals translate it into English as "Kill the mechanic!"
There were many things that told me we were in Ireland: the eerie emptiness of the peat bogs, the clear river water stained amber from that same peat, the soda bread freshly baked by a neighbour, the eggs freshly laid by another neighbour's hens, the 12-mile bus ride from Dublin that only cost £2, the works of fiction known as bus timetables.
While we were there we visited the ruins of the monastery St Machaenog came from at Glendalough (Glean Da Lough - "The Glen of the Two Lakes"). It is set in a beautiful wooded valley. We walked up to one of the waterfalls that feed the lakes.
On another day we did one of our favourite walks, along the cliff path between Bray and Greystones. It suffers from erosion. The local council closed it a couple of years ago because it was dangerous. They've repaired it since. This being Ireland, though, no one has bothered to take down the signs saying "Danger. Closed by order. Proceed no further." Naturally, this being Ireland, the signs are universally ignored.
Of course, it helps to have the local knowledge that tells you the signs can be safely ignored. Indeed, my wife and I ignored them even when the path was officially closed. It was still passable if one could cope with the two-metre stretch where half of it had fallen into a gulley.
A little extra bit of knowledge can come in useful to homeless people. Being homeless can be perplexing. What is the best way to go about getting into social housing? How do I apply for jobs if I have no fixed abode?
Perhaps your special knowledge could be useful to homeless people as well.