HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Opposites
Posted on September 17, 2022
Thanks to Tina for this week’s challenge. Tina’s great post (and pics) are available HERE.
In September 2017, MB attended the wedding of a Lebanese friend in one of the oldest towns in the region, Byblos, on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast. The wedding venue was the Saint Jean-Marc Cathedral, built by the Crusaders in 1,115 AD, a few hundred meters from the Crusader Castle of the same era. i
The church was originally built in honour of St John the Baptist, but a name change followed in later years to honour the Saint who introduced Christianity to the Byblos/Jbail region.MB made a post of that wedding trip which can be viewed HERE if followers wish to see more of the church and ceremony.
MB has chosen a shot from that wedding to try to meet Tina’s ‘Opposites’ theme. The shot shows the bride disappearing into the church where the groom awaits.
And so begins their married lives, leaving their opposite, so to speak, ‘single’ lives behind.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Your Photographic Groove
Posted on August 7, 2022
Time for MB to get back into the swing of the weekly photo challenge!
This week the photo challenge is to show a shot, or shots, of the type of photos you most like shooting. Your photo groove, so to speak.
Thanks to Anne who set this week’s challenge and whose post can be viewed HERE.
Rather than pick landscape, or streetscape, or people, or whatever, MB will narrow it down even more.
To one single shot.
Read MoreLens-Artists Photo Challenge – Old & New
Posted on June 3, 2020
St Stephen’s Basilica, Budapest
Posted on April 19, 2019
Speaking of damaged religious buildings……………… Read More
Six Word Saturday
Posted on June 9, 2018
Thanks to blogger friend J for informing MB of the Saturday 6-word challenge set by blogger Debbie of blog site ‘Travel With Intent’. Really decent of them both to adopt lost-puppy MB and allow him to partake, following the demise of the weekly photo challenge.
And following an exchange of communications between J and MB (see below) MB has done a little rewrite of the post, which you are now reading if indeed anybody reads this! This week, in MB’s first attempt at the challenge, he has taken the 6 words used by J and just had a go. Now that he knows the rules (but “there are no rules” according to J) he may set his own 6 words in the future. Maybe.
Anyway, to this weeks challenge………………..
If MB gets up at 5.30am, and if he happens to be in Istanbul, and if he happens to wander down Istiklal Avenue from Taxim Square to the Church of St Anthony of Padua, perhaps because he has lost something, as St Anthony is the patron Saint of lost stuff and finding it again, then maybe, just maybe, after grabbing some Simit bread from a street seller, MB might catch the sun rising over the top of the adjoining buildings and behold the spectacle of the early morning rays illuminating (not Illuminati) the church spire.
If.
The Wedding of David & Myriam (5)
Posted on September 7, 2017
The Wedding Ceremony.
As MB has already mentioned, the wedding ceremony of D&M took place in the Christian Maronite Church of St Jean Marc in Byblos, which is part of the modern day Lebanese town of Jbail. MB’s previous Lebanese wedding experience in December 2016 witnessed a Christian Orthodox ceremony in which the bride and groom do not utter a single word throughout. There was no “I do”. But, for the information of those who may not know, the Maronite Church is a branch of the Roman Catholic church, so the ceremony on Sunday last was similar in most respects to a Catholic Church wedding in Ireland – but no pictures of St Patrick were evident!
Anyway, the church interior and its floral decoration were stunning, as followers can see:
The Wedding of David & Myriam (2)
Posted on September 6, 2017
The Guests Arrive (1 of 2).
MB lodged himself just inside the church entrance under some foliage to protect his follically-challenged head from the warm August rays. He had arrived at the church grounds some 30 minutes before the wedding ceremony was to take place to capture the location and the guests as they arrived. Despite wearing an open-neck shirt, minus any tie, it was still perspiration weather due to Jbail’s summer humidity, a consequence of its juxtaposition next to the adjacent sea.
And so the guests arrive:
Weekly Photo Challenge – Transmogrify
Posted on October 28, 2016
“To change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.”
MB will not post anything strange or grotesque, but will instead focus on the ‘transform’ element of this weeks challenge.
Our local churches back home at Grange & Patrickswell are almost exclusively used for daytime and daylight activities throughout the year. Living in a very rural location there is no great, or hardly any, need for the opening of the churches after dark, save an occasional evening funeral service.
But at Christmas time each year the churches host Christmas carol services, or midnight masses which are actually on at approx 8pm (an Irish midnight!).
Anyway, it’s interesting to see them in their transformed Christmas state.
Grange Church
Patrickswell Church
Ireland Trip Photos
Posted on June 10, 2016
MB was back amongst his own two weeks back and was shooting anything that moved. He gives you some random shots from his HX locality:
Happy Easter
Posted on March 27, 2016
A fresco at the Church of the Holy Saviour at Chora, Istanbul.
The Greek Orthodox church (& frescos) at Chora, in the Fathi district of the city, dates from approximately 1,300AD, but a number of churches have stood on the site since the 5th century. MB’s shot dates from a March 2015 visit to Istanbul.
Happy Easter to all.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Transition
Posted on November 27, 2015
One day you’re single. Next day you’re not!
Friends of MB get married at ‘Our Lady of the Rosary’ Catholic Church in Doha, Qatar. June 2015.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Monochromatic
Posted on September 14, 2015
Weekly Photo Challenge – Intricate
Posted on May 1, 2015
Church of the Holy Saviour at Chora, Istanbul. Visitors view the famous intricate ceilings frescos.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Ephemeral
Posted on March 27, 2015
For MBs HX blog followers who are not native English speakers (& for a few who are) the word ‘Ephemeral’ means short-lived or temporary or brief. Capiche! Read More
Weekly Photo Challenge – Wall
Posted on March 13, 2015
The HX region has over 5,500 years of continuous human habitation dating to the neolithic period. On the road between HX crossroads and the nearby lake of Lough Gur lies the ruins of an old church called Teampall Nua (New Church – in English language), which dates from the 17th century.
From The Lough Gur website (loughgur.com):
New Church replaced an older chapel which was used by the Earls of Desmond. The present structure dates from 1679 – a simple rectangular building. It was endowed with a chalice and patten which bear the inscription: “The guift of the Right Honourable Rachel Countess Dowager of Bath to her chapel-of-ease Logh Guir, Ireland 1679” The famed poet harper Thomas O’Connellan who died in 1698 in Bourchiers Castle is buried here in an unmarked grave as is Owen Bresnan (1847-1912) local poet and historian who composed Teampall Nua and Sweet Lough Gur side.
A piece by Thomas O’Connellan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Blt9B16TIQ
Pics by MB!
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