GOOD FRIDAY - REMEMBERING SHANE WITH LORCAN COLLINS

Family and friends of Shane MacThomáis were treated to a rather special tour of the 1916 graves at Glasnevin Cemetery by the inimitable Lorcan  Collins of 1916 Rebellion Walking Tour fame, http://www.1916rising.com/. The Good Friday tour was in lieu of a month's mind for Shane.... The bauld Lorcan was on fire and had us all eating out of his hands. Warm, witty and irreverant (I don't know how he gets away with some of the stuff he says!)... it was a great way for us to commemorate Shane, as raw as his loss still is.

SAME SEA EXHIBITION OPENING

I'm currently  showing some Cuban work at Noshington Café, on the South Circular Road, in Dublin. I've called the exhibition "Same Sea" after an inscription I noticed on a plaque mounted on the junction of O'Reilly Street in Habana Viejo.

It reads "Two island peoples in the same sea of struggle and hope - Cuba & Ireland."

The exhibition will run until June 30th. Drop in and view it!

REMEMBERING SHANE

My old friend Shane MacThomáis died recently and while searching through my archive for pictures of Shane, I rediscovered these photographs of a commemoration parade for 25th year anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes.

The event was held in West Belfast, during the summer of 2006, and as Shane had to travel up for work, I went along for the trip, hoping to make a few interesting images. I was studying in Newport at the time and I was using a medium format camera with a waist level view finder. It's my favourite way of looking at the world.

As Shane was off networking and politicking I scratched around looking for picture opportunities, trying my best to be unobtrusive. These four are what I took home from the trip.