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Broithe

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Posts posted by Broithe

  1. This is alleged to be the only close-up photo of a Concorde flying supersonic.

    It was taken in 1985, from a Tornado, over the Irish Sea (it says, but probably a bit further south, I suspect).

    It was slowed up a bit, to around Mach 1.5/6 for the event.

    Here's the only picture of Concorde flying at supersonic speed

    A Lightning was a fairly rough device. Not the most reliable aircraft ever built.

    As with many things, it was notable that they never really sold any. The Saudis had some, but you sort of have to pay them to 'buy' anything....

    • Like 1
  2. 5 minutes ago, Georgeconna said:

    You must of had a few Lightning then for sure!

     

    Wow link worked for me, Some damage!!

    Lots of Lightnings - including one on a stick at the gate - and the front of one used for a flight simulator.

    Plus loads of other stuff, Vulcans, Canberras, Meteors, Argosies, Belfasts, etc - and loads of stuff passing through.

    The link I posted works, but the link on there to further pictures gets a 404 for me. About forty married quarters were rendered uninhabitable, plus loads of other damage- it looked like someone had run a Hoover over a life-sized model layout...

    • WOW! 2
  3. I often casually mention that we had a tornado at Akrotiri in 1969. People, of course, dispute this, not spotting that I have said it with a lower case t, rather than a capital T.

    https://www.limassolchamber.eu/En/26/articles/238/2016/10/07/Massive-disaster-in-Limassol-in-1969

    There was a page with further pictures on there, but the link seems dead.

    The event was very violent, but with no fatalities on the base itself. There had been a tremendous hailstorm just before it came on land, so few people were outside when stuff started flying around and falling back down. Quite a few houses were demolished and we had a family billeted with us for a few weeks, whilst things were patched up.

    • Informative 1
  4. 29 minutes ago, Flying Snail said:

    ... surely we should be changing Kilkenny McDonagh to Cummins instead? Give it a nice blue and white paint job too while we're at it? 

    Mmm, she might have to live south of the border, but it should be Portlaoise or Ballybrophy for her, I think.

  5. 1 hour ago, Flying Snail said:

     

    Naming after celebs could get controversial very quick ... would Mullingar get renamed for Joe Dolan or Niall Horan????? 🫣😀

    Tralee Cummins.

    It could be changed every year...

    • Like 1
    • Funny 1
  6. Sorry for the late reply...

    We went to Emo yesterday and, chatting to the Information Officer, this photo was mentioned. She was unaware of it and I said I would source it for her. I found it in the book here, but it doesn't seem to exist publicly online anywhere.

    DSC_0517.thumb.JPG.7d3fe49a467b405b137b98ada3d14a28.JPG

    In Father Browne's Laois - on page 105.

    • Like 3
  7. 7 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

    Even by Kerry standards that’s a strong accent!

    The chap across the road is from Kerry and he struggled with it.

    I love the fact that that was a genuine evening news item and it might as well have been in Klingon...

    Some my remember the old Pirelli tyre adverts. They were much easier to follow.

     

    • Funny 3
  8. 48 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

    On more than one occasion I’ve had American tourists ask me if people we deal with around the Ring of Kerry or dingle peninsula are speaking in Irish!

    To be fair, it can be a bit of a challenge...

     

    • Funny 3
  9. 52 minutes ago, Irishswissernie said:

    Not a picture but I've just been watching the Port Of Dublin Live webcam and 2 tugs are berthing a large empty Ore Carrier in the Dock where the Tara facility is. Has the rail traffic resumed?

    Galmoy Mine, in the north of Co Kilkenny, is in the process of reopening. I have heard talk of the fairly 'strong' ore from there being mixed with other ore from elsewhere, to achieve a more saleable product.

    I have an inside woman in there, I do know that she has been up to Navan recently. I might slightly interrogate her, if it doesn't rain tomorrow evening.

    Having escaped from 'industry' a while back, I don't generally get too involved with what she is doing there.
     

    One amusing thing, which happened recently, was that, being German and with a strong history in shipbuilding, she was surprised to come across a term in the waste water treatment plant which she didn't recognise. Goul Pump. Wanting to know what sort of specialist pump this might be, she made some enquiries, but Google was completely unhelpful, and it took her a fortnight to find out, without asking any of the generally older males in the organisation.

    There is a company in England called Gould Pumps, but their stuff is fairly ordinary and it is spelled 'Goul' in many places in the paperwork, so it was not that.

    It turns out that this may be the only Goul Pump on the planet.

    Eventually, she did find out what it meant and felt safe asking me on one of our hiking expeditions.

    "Do you know what a Goul pump is?"

    "Not really, but that'll just be the pump that sends the waste water into the River Goul, I presume".

    If I'd been listening carefully, I might have learned the German word for "Bollocks!".

    • Funny 7
  10. 1 minute ago, jhb171achill said:

    That's the one..... known for the fact that every single locomotive, wagon and coach they ever possessed, ran in the wrong livery, and on the wrong gauge track.

    And the chassis were black.

    • Funny 4
  11. A crematorium that I have frequently attended in England has a sign on the last side-door, just before you enter the 'main arena' - it proclaims the availability of a defibrillator.

     

    To be fair, my informant there tells me that it has been used twice - but on audience members, rather than the main act.

     

    It also has smoke detectors in the apex of the roof.

    • Like 1
    • Funny 2
  12. 1 hour ago, Flying Snail said:

    Here's a couple of mining branches that did manage to get built around that time

     

     

    I have a set of the 1910 revision of the 1" maps, covering the whole of Laois/Queen's County and extending into the necessary parts of the adjoining counties.

    It shows the coalfield railways and I will (one day) create an overlay above the current Google Maps output.

    There is always a risk with maps of that era that they can show things that were intended, but may have been different in reality, or even never have happened at all.

    I have an old UK OS map showing the railway that ran behind my house in England, until 1976 - it shows it crossing the road via a level crossing, which it never did, it ran parallel to the road all the way, never crossing it. Presumably the intended route was supplied and the maps were printed before the revised route could be amended.

    • Like 2
  13. I learned a long time ago that, unless there is a very clear reason to believe otherwise, then, when dealing with media people, journalists, presenters, etc., the end result will usually have little of reality involved in it.

    They generally only care about the 'look' and filling the time/space that they need to, in a way that will entertain people with little real interest in the subject anyway.

    That basic rule is even stronger today than it ever was.
     

    It's a bit like discussing conspiracy theories, etc - just not worth the bother most of the time.

    • Agree 2
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