Poem of the Week: Us
Centuries of centuries on from Lemaitre's Bang,
Through scatterings and gatherings,
Glacier, fire and gas,
Some slippery thing crawled onto land;
And, through twists and failures, became us,
Set in this glowing place beneath the sun.
Pádraig J Daly's most recent collection is Us Is from This Glowing Place: New and Selected Poems (Scotus Press)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Poem of the Week: Us
Centuries of centuries on from Lemaitre's Bang, Through scatterings and gatherings, Glacier, fire and gas, Some slippery thing crawled onto land; And, through twists and failures, became us, Set in this glowing place beneath the sun. Pádraig J Daly's most recent collection is Us Is from This Glowing Place: New and Selected Poems (Scotus Press)
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Eye on Nature: ‘I have found a beautiful queen ... bee in the polytunnel in my garden'
We found these under a tree in St Anne's Park. We were wondering what they were. – Senan, Eoghan and Darragh Quill, Dublin These are the cones of a cedar tree. Squirrels have been eating the seeds contained in the cones and what you found are the stripped remains with just the bottoms of the cones left. They probably ate them during the winter as squirrels do not hibernate, but forage on the ground during bright, dry winter days looking for things to eat. Large carder bee, supplied by Klaus Harvey. For the third year in a row, I have found a beautiful queen moss/large carder bee in the polytunnel in my garden in mid-April. I understand that they are on the Red List of endangered bumblebee species, so I am thrilled that she/they are surviving and hopefully thriving somewhere close by. – Klaus Harvey, Cork Yes, this is indeed a large carder bee, distinguished from the common carder bee by having no black hairs at all on its abdomen (they are all an orangey-yellow). Queens emerge as early as March and build a nest of moss above ground in vegetation. They prefer to visit flowers of the pea family and will visit clover flowers, among others, in search of nectar and pollen. It is described as near-threatened on the 2006 Red List, but the most recent data from the All-Ireland Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme (2024) show that it is still in serious decline nationally. READ MORE Ruby tiger moth, supplied by Michael Fletcher. On April 9th, which was a very warm day, I watched this moth emerge from a cocoon while climbing over rocks on the beach at Ard Forest, Creeslough, Co Donegal. Can you identify it? – Michael Fletcher, Donegal I presume it was you rather than this ruby tiger moth climbing over the rocks on the beach. It overwinters as a caterpillar in a hairy, silken cocoon, emerges to feed for a short while, and then spins a cocoon in which it changes into an adult. This emerges as the first adult generation, flying from April to June. It lays eggs that hatch into hairy caterpillars, which feed on dandelions and docks. Pupation happens soon after and the second generation will be on the wing from July until October. [ Eye on Nature: 'An alderfly is usually found resting in large numbers on waterside vegetation' Opens in new window ] Goldcrest, supplied by Brendan O'Donoghue. I saw this bird that I did not recognise. I got fleeting photos of it. This is the best one, sorry about the quality. Hope you can identify it. – Brendan O'Donoghue It seemed a bit stretched out for a goldcrest, but Niall Hatch of Birdwatch Ireland confirmed that it is indeed so. He says that it is a female, judging by the yellow, not golden, crown-stripe and suggests it is stretching for an insect. It is our smallest bird, weighing a mere 5g. The highest densities are found in broad-leafed and coniferous woods and gardens with good vegetation. It feeds on spiders and small insects and builds its nest under thick cover in conifers or dense ivy. Wild rhubarb, supplied by Mairead Loughman. We are drowning in giant wild rhubarb this year – all over the gardens and hedgerows. Can you advise how to get rid of it? I have tried cutting it back and pouring boiling water over it, but it just grows stronger. – Mairead Loughman This plant – Gunnera tinctoria – is a South American species with huge spreading leaves that can grow up to 2m across. It was originally introduced into Ireland as an attractive herbaceous plant for large gardens, but it has entirely lost the run of itself as conditions here suit it so very well and has become invasive. It leaves bare soil exposed and liable to erosion as it dies back in autumn. Dig it out then. Please submit your nature query, observation, or photo, with a location, via or by email to weekend@
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert design and communication graphics (DCG): ‘True to form with something for everyone'
Today's Leaving Cert higher level Design and Communication Graphics paper had 'something for everyone'. Overall, Rob Kiernan, DCG teacher at The Institute of Education, said it was a paper that students should be really pleased with. One challenging moment came in the form of an 'unorthodox' question B-1, which might have caused some candidates to wobble as they moved through the paper. However, he said the general tone of the paper was one of familiarity, testing things that 'should be in everyone's arsenal.' READ MORE Leaving Cert, DCG higher level, Section A Section A Starting into the short questions of Section A, Mr Kiernan said every student will have found omething that suited them. 'For the more artistic visualisers, A-1's question on axonometric axes was pretty standard,' he said. 'This year the examination of axonometries was limited to the short questions as the examiner seems to return to form from previous years after last year's surprising reappearance in the long questions for a second year in a row.' The more mathematically minded will have been pleased with A-2's conics question, Mr Kiernan said. 'It is rather rare to see the elliptical outline as the hyperbolic/parabolic is much more common, so some might be kicking themselves for leaving it off their revision,' he said. A-3 on an oblique plane should have been familiar to anyone who has looked over past papers as it has been a 'meat and potatoes' question since 2009, he said. A-4 continued the trend of interpenetration of solids becoming more prevalent on the exams, and so those who had been monitoring how the papers had been progressing will be pleased. Section B Moving into the longer Section B questions, Mr Kiernan said students will have been thrown by a 'curveball' appearance of dynamic mechanism. 'This is a topic that typically appears in Section C and is totally optional in the exam, so some teachers might not have covered this specific material recently,' he said. Leaving Cert, DCG higher level, Sections B and C 'Students could still attempt the question as it was very fair and reminiscent of rotation, which is part of Junior Cert. transformational geometry. But this would have pushed students to really stretch into a corner of their memories that they were not anticipating, so many may simply skip this question and thus commit to doing B-2 and B-3.' Thankfully, he said, B-2 was a 'standard but all-encompassing question' on intersecting planes. 'All the key co-ordinates were given – sometimes they omit some for added challenge – and the tasks would be very familiar to those who had looked at previous questions,' he said. B-3 was a question on perspectives which Mr Kiernan many will welcome, not least because it reaffirmed the old relationship of a short axonometric question means a long perspective question and vice versa. 'These topics are often studied in tandem and firmly under a student's belt by the end of fifth year, so students will be happy that they are back in such familiar territory.' However, B-3(C) will have been trickier for some depending on how they comprehended the material. 'For those who can fully conceptualise the object in their minds it will be fine, but those who stick strictly to the procedural processing of the numbers and lines on the page will struggle to see how to procure the answer,' he said. Section C Students only needed to attempt one question from Section C, so will have been heavily influenced by what they covered in class. 'Schools which include engineering will tend towards C-4 on dynamic mechanism and C-5 on assemblies,' he said. 'The latter is strict test of draftsmanship in which the conventions are held to a very high standard of precision, but it really suits some. For many C-2 and C-3 will be their area of choice.' Those who had looked at trends of previous papers and anticipated this year would be the time for hyperboloid of revolution to appear will be 'thrilled'. 'This takes the basics of conics from A-2 but adds the 3rd dimension for lots of more complex geometry. For those who had prepared this task, it was a nice chance to shine,' Mr Kiernan said. 'C-3 was a standard take on surface geometry using a mocha jar as an example. This overlaps with the material of B-2 and really shows the value of transferable skills.' He said that both B-2 and C-3 looked for dihedral angles and while C-3 specified 'one-piece surface development', this was just a synonym for 'true shape' in B-2. 'If this was an area of the course you had any comfort with, this was a lovely question,' he said. Leaving Cert, DCG ordinary level, section A Leaving Cert, DCG ordinary level, sections B and C
