Wolfe Tone Square

I'm posting this little image of the Grotto which stands just up the road from me, for two reasons. (1) The month of May is dedicated by Roman Catholics to Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary (see the initials on the gate) whose sacred colour is blue. By no coincidence, this month is also special to the Faerie Queen. It is imperative that you do not take the blossoms of the hawthorn into your house during May as it will bring you misfortune. (2) Wolfe Tone Square is where Dana lives in The Light-Bearer's Daughter. It is a very old neighbourhood, one of the first low income housing estates in the Irish Free State (after English rule ended), built around the 1920s-30s. Sometimes you see the residents saying the Rosary in front of the Grotto and sometimes they do a little parade around the square, carrying the statue. Times like that I feel like I am living in Spain. I like it. Even though I no longer practise Catholicism myself, I prefer tradition and community to modern soulless urbanity.