#Mourne Mountains

[triflingthing]

tourist in the mourne mountains

[whateyesaw]

What I Saw in an Irish Forest:

Jan 2024 - Fujifilm X-T30 - Kodak Gold Film Simulation

[velovelo]

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Spotted This Beauty In The Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland

Photographer: visionKid

[stairnaheireann]

Ballynoe Stone Circle, Ballynoe, Co Down

The Ballynoe stone circle is a large circle of over 50 standing stones, some as large as 2 metres high and is located near the town of Ballynoe in Co Down. It is thought that the site dates back to around 2000BC and was begun in the Stone Age. The original site was modified during the Bronze Age when a burial mound was constructed within the main stone circle. Its location with superb views of…

[panoramicireland]

Green fields with long shadows of low afternoon sunlight in the Mourne Mountains, Ireland.

A little ice and frost remains after a week or more of sub zero temperatures.

Tollymore Forest sits between the valley farmland and the mountainous uplands.

[swishyclang]

the trees were having a disco

[tempest-melody]

Geoff Visits Ireland

[desiresofdarkness]

⛰️ Mourne Mountains ⛰️

[wizardsimper]

Climbed a mountain and made a friend

[imaybe5tupid]

Time’s arrow neither stands still nor reverses. It merely marches forward.

[velovelo]

[felixs-voice-makes-me-wanna]

what for Mr. Choi?

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in Irish History | 25 November:

1713 – The second Irish parliament of Queen Anne sits from this date to 24 December. The Whig Alan Brodrick is elected Speaker for the second time, in place of John Forster, after a stormy contest with the government’s Tory nominee, Sir Richard Levinge. 1764 – Birth of Dublin town head of police, Henry Sirr, in Dublin Castle. In many later Irish nationalist plays Sirr was portrayed as a generic…

[immediatebreakfast]

I love how Renfield is the oldest (59) and Mina is very likely the living youngest, and yet they bond so well. (It reminds me how well Mina befriended the 99 year old Mr Swales that he sought her company and felt care for her.) It probably contributed that Jack may have experience with interacting with "madmen" and studying, Mina had lived with and loved a "madman".

It's truly incredible how a simple conversation between an old man in physical cell, and a young woman in a mental cell put such a dent in the Count's plans that he had to flee to Transylvania once it was clear that nothing would stop the crew.

Even if the repercutions were huge in the narrative, in between the horror and the action it was just a visit (probably the first visit that Renfield had in a long time) to talk.

Reading again the entry I noticed how hostile Renfield is towards Mina at first,

"You're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry, are you? You can't be, you know, for she's dead." - R.M. Renfield, september 30.

and even with everything one can say about sexism, and the building infantilization of Mina, let's remember that this is the first time Renfield meets someone that is specifically associated with Jack. Renfield's remarked abuser in both authority, and personhood in general. Also by probably being informed by Dracula himself that both Mina and Jonathan are the key players in this continuous attacks against his plans in England, on top of just almost correctly assuming that Mina must share the same opinion towards the mentally ill that society has.

Three strikes against Mina that she switfly defeats by treating Renfield like the person he is, and talking to him in a normal manner. After taking care of her beloved Jonathan, and being at Lucy's side most of her life Mina is aware of how the Other is viewed. Maybe as she saw Renfield, Mina thought of a worse reality where the man on the bed was her Jonathan in Budapest, maybe she saw how Seward reacted to Renfield's words, and realized what was actually layed out in the room. Or maybe Mina just saw an old man in need of an ear, and she just listened.

This is the first time that Renfield puts a face on a victim of the Count's games, he puts a voice on the young victim whose life is going to violently end in what he thought was supposed to be eternal bliss. Lucy is a distant dream for Renfield, the revenge against these people who dared to put up a fight against this old ancient evil that goes beyond all of their years combined.

Renfield never knew Lucy, but he knows Mina now.

Renfield sees the young Mina Harker, entering life with her equal young husband in hand, and trying to solve the murder of what he knows now was her best friend, and he reflects. He reflects on everything he has done, on what has passed, and what he can do tomorrow.

Mr. Renfield asked if he might see me. Poor man, he was very gentle, and when I came away he kissed my hand and bade God bless me. Some way it affected me much; I am crying when I think of him. This is a new weakness, of which I must be careful. Jonathan would be miserable if he knew I had been crying. - Mina Harker, october 2.

And the man is devastated to see how he is helping orchestrate the murder of another young lady to please the Count. He becomes desperate to leave (a request that is denied by both Seward, and Van Helsing), so the Count can't have access to the inside of the asylum. It doesn't matter if he looks like a coward by the time's literary standards because if the only way to at least save that young lady is by acting like one? Then Renfield might as well do it, he has nothing to lose sans his life.

I think that the key difference between Mina, and Jack when it comes to Renfield is empathy, and the ability to simply treat the other person with the same humanity you should be treated.

Jack may have studied, and climbed until he got to be the head of an asylum, but his own biases, mental problems, and ableism blurred the lines between patient and doctor so hard that he made Renfield's life a boring hell. From when their dynamic was introduced, to Renfield's death, the narrative dictated how Seward was putting both into a deep spiral in which, not even with Renfield's manipulations, none of them were going to come out in victory.

In contrast, Mina has cared for Jonathan without any restrain, and has lived in service of what the situation demands of her at all times. She knows, as a young victorian lady, how to balance herself without trying to compete, or win the other person in the room with her. Mina only needed to genuinely talk to Renfield to break his heart because she gave him the respect, and honestly she expects for herself when talking.

[panoramicireland]

Golden winter sunlight in the Mourne Mountains on Saturday, just at the end of the current cold weather.

It was cold but a fine day, and surprisingly I had the viewpoint to myself, photographing the empty landscape.

More to come from this outing.