healingwords: poetry for the soul

I am still stuck indoors and today was thinking of Galway and looking at my photographs from my visit in September.  This is a photograph of the Spanish Arch, built in 1584 as an extension to the 12th century Norman city walls to protect the quays and merchant ships from looting. It was once known as Ceann an bhalla (the head of the wall) and was extended by the Eyre family in the 17th century with the addition of the Long Walk, following the left bank of the River Corrib to the sea. It became known as the Spanish Arch in the 19th century, thought to be a reference to the Spanish merchant trade.  My mother told me of the Spanish Arch and her walks along the Corrib. When I walked around Galway I felt her presence in the stories we had shared. From my home in Spain I am fascinated in the historical links of the west coast of Ireland with Spain, of seafarers from the Spanish coasts and their trade across the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic sea to Ireland.

Last night I went to the presentation of a local author's new novel based on the history of my village. The novel 'Tot és una llarga nit' by Joan Elies Andres tells the story of the kidnapping of the  Duke of Parcent as he took over the Baronia in 1529 by 600 pirates who had marched from the coastal town of Altea, over the hills and down through the 'Coll de Rates' pass to the village. This story, full of details of the barbaric treatment of those captured and enslaved  added to my knowledge of the banishing of the Moorish population of this area and the violence inflicted on the peaceful and cultured population at that time. This image I saw in an olive trunk on an abandoned terrace, in a landscape developed by these people made me think what the land had witnessed from its neolithic history to our present day. 

This sculpture is in the Barrio Baix la Mar in Denia where it commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the filming of 'John Paul Jones' in this area. The Barrio was once home to fisherman and is a tangle of low cottage houses gathered around squares within sight of the sea. Now many of the homes are business premises offering meals and drinks to the many tourists but the area has a special charm. I used to sit and read in one of its palm shaded squares with a quiet coffee whilst waiting for my children to finish music at the Denia 'Conservatoire'.  © 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved.