Chiff and Fipple Forums

During the midst of the lockdown, last April, people all over the country started to leave signs of life, signs of hope. Often in the form of rocks, painted and left in public places. The idea caught on an big caches of these things can be found along coasts, roadsides and in all sorts of places for all to see. Cries of anguish, messages of hope, art, poetry, mundane and profane thoughts, aforisms straight off the back of Hallmark cards, the odd marriage proposal. But all of it full of humanity.

Here are a few of the rocks left on a sea wall at Clahane on Liscannor Bay, sheltered from the west by the Cliffs of Moher, just south of Hag's Head in Co Clare.

I'll add a few more batches of images later.

Some of those turned out really well! I like the cat face and the silly pun "Stone Hinge," and I have to wonder if Sinead said yes. Though, as someone who can't speak a lick of Gaelic (I'd probably horribly butcher the word Feadóg), I've no idea what is inscribed on many of the rocks.

I've no idea what is inscribed on many of the rocks.

There aren't that many in Irish, are there? Less than a handful


As an example: Tá sé ag teacht! means 'they're on the way' and goes back to a Guinness commercial that showed people sitting at the bar of an old island pub when a man comes in shouting just that after which the camera cuts to a curragh approaching, riding the waves, with a few kegs of porter on board.

'Fáinne Geal an Lae', The Dawning of the day, is the title of the tune which is set in tonic solfa below the title, try it. It's the tune Raglan Road was also set to.


It was nice to see these things growing during the lockdown, signs of life and signs of humanity. I just took a load of pictures, before the winter storms arrive and wash away the lot. I post them verbatim, undigested.

Mr.Gumby wrote:It was nice to see these things growing during the lockdown, signs of life and signs of humanity.

I agree wholeheartedly. And we mustn't forget about signs of positivity. Thank you for sharing some of those signs!

Thanks for sharing this. Though I have never been one to appreciate when folks stack or paint rocks in natural places, this, during this time and in this place, seems like just the thing.

I hate it when you walk into a natural area and find people have put so called fairy doors into trees etc. Or the idiots who build cairns and little dolmen everywhere because they have a need to post them on social media.

I have come across a few subtle things done by landowners building a drystone wall at field boundaries.

This one is a particularly brilliant one, subtly tucked away well off road:




These lockdown stones are a different sort of thing though. I was thinking about that earlier, on one level it's like the threads people tie to rag trees around here, you take your worries or problems, tie it to a holy/sacred tree and once the thread or fabric rots away, your worries will be gone. There's some of that in this, although there are other elements to it as well.

I found the abundance of creativity delightful. This one, though:



Anyone have an idea what the leftmost rock says between "I" and "lies"? I can't make it out.

'I must not tell lies'

Mr.Gumby wrote:'I must not tell lies'

Hmmmm. That's a rather strange bit of personal info, considering.

Great. Thanks for sharing.

Hmmmm. That's a rather strange bit of personal info, considering.

It looks like there was something else there that was erased/painted over. There's a story there, I am sure.

Nanohedron wrote:

Mr.Gumby wrote:'I must not tell lies'

Hmmmm. That's a rather strange bit of personal info, considering.

It's from Harry Potter.

Good catch!

Related trivia, the location is a mile or two or three away from 'the cave' in one of the Potter movies. Ofcourseboth the cave and the rock island are CGI creations layered onto the real cliffs.