t�m�n tarina nimi on gaelin kieless� "tir na n�g", suomeksi se on "nuoruuden maa".
oisin on mets�ss� mets�st�m�ss�. oisinin is� on finn, finn on surren armeijan esimies irlannissa.
oisin nakee kauniin naisen. naisen nimi on niamh. niamhin isa on meren jumala. niamh k�velee oisiniin vierelle ja he juttelevat. niamh valitsee oisinin puolisokseen. h�n suostuu, he menev�t nuoruuden maahan heid�n taikahevosella. se on taikahevosen kosta se voi k�velee meren p��ll�. oisin ja niamh matkustavat nuoruuden maassa kolme sataa vuotta. t�m�n j�lkeen oisin haluaa menn� kotiin. niamh antaa oisinille taikahevonen, mutta niamh sanoo "ei jataa hevosta". oisin matkustaa meren p��l�� irlantiin hevosella, kun h�n saapua h�n nakee ett� irlanti on muuttunu, se on erliainen. muut eiv�t muista h�nen is�n armeija. kaikki ihmiset ovat pienempi� ha heikkompia. oisin nakee yhden miehen joka yritt�� liikuttaa kive�. mutta mies on heikko. oisin auttaa miest�, mutta oisin kosketaa maata. heti, oisin tulee vanhaksi ha keikoksi. oisin on maassa ja hevonen juoksee nuoruuden maahan. nyt, oisin on vanha mies ja ei voi menn� takasin niamhiin.

oisin was one of the few mortal men to ever be invited to tir nan og. he was the son of finn, chief of the fenian wariors of ireland. one day while hunting, he was appproached by a beautiful maiden. she was niamh, daughter of manannan, the god of the sea. she chose oisin to be her lover and to come live with her in tir nan og. they rode together over the sea on her faerie horse and visited many strange and beautiful places. at one of them niamh asked oisin to free a tuatha de danann damsel from a fomor demon, which he did, defeating the fomor. oisin spent 300 years with niamh in tir nan og, before he became homesick for his people and birthplace. niamh provided him with a faerie steed and warned him that he must not set foot on the earth. arriving back in ireland he noticed that much had changed, the fenians were only a myth, and the men were smaller and weaker. while observing, he leaned down to help a man lift a boulder, as he did so he slipped from the saddle and landed on the sand. instantly he was transformed into an old blind man. he wandered ireland for many years before st. patrick took him into his house and tried to convert him to christianity. oisin refused saying that he could not hounour a god who would not count finn amoung his friends, and would rather spend eternity in hell with the fennians living in death as he had life, than go to st. patrick's heaven.

ninety dollars is a lot to pay for a city walking tour. but theatre enthusiasts are flocking to see deborah warner's performance piece "the angel project"

with its nod to the wim wenders 1987 film, "wings to desire", in whihc angels look out from berlin's high-rise buildings and occasionally swoop down to help people in distress. ms. warner's theatrical walk is a ticket into some of new york's hidden treasures. it begins on roosevelt island, in a field that offersa magical view of manhattan which few people - even new yorkers - will have seen. from there, it is a short subway ride to the first site, an abandoned and miserable walk-up apartment with a broken electric heater- next is a 27th floor loft space carpeted with white feathers which are lit by naked bulbs, and there are also two rows of metal lockers each marked with the name of an angel. propped up in a corner is a worn postcard depicting the baptism of christ.

instead of the to-be-expected pornography in a 42nd street peeporama, large boxed of bibles and korans invite the visitor to contemplate the temptations of religion. in the balcony of the disused, yet still beautiful, liberty theatre, a winged angel appears. an elderly bearded man stares, saint like, into the middle distance while on the floor lies the body of a man. dead or asleep, one does not know.

mozart booms from speakers at the last destination - the 63rd of the magnificent chrysler building - while a black angel sleeps swetly on the floor. in one room a table is voered with stacks of bibles, korans and milton's "paradise lost". a middle aged man sits by an open window, and stares out. a young man crouches by another open window, suggesting a possible suicide or mabye an angelic flight. the vista from the top of the building is overwhelming - at once beautiful and terrifying. the feeling in these rooms, filled with the exalted voices of a choir and the presence of the young men, suggest the quietsioning, tormented world of a dostoevsky hero. most shocking are the open windows. an open window high up in a skyscraper is most uncommon - perhaps even illegal. but it is for each member of the audience to decide if it is open to let the angels in or out

gun law
on a dark and cold thursday night last january, a mercedes taxi sped across dublin's north inner city. it careered through red lights at the north circular road, causing a six-car pile-up at the busy junction with dorset street. when the drivers of the vehicles got out to assess the damage, little did they know they had murder in their midst.
the driver of the taxi, niall mulvihill, lay slumped at the wheel, bleeding from fresh bullet wounds.
mulvihill, a well-known dublin gangster, had been shot minutes earlier at spencer dock bridge, on the north side of the liffey, while he sat in his car. a gunman had stepped from another vehicle, pumped three shots into mulvihill's upper body and fled the scene.
the quick-thinking victim battled in vain to save himself. he sped across the north inner city, trying to get to the mater hospital, before passing out and smashing into traffic just hundreds of yards from his intended destination. he was taken from his car by an ambulance crew and brought to the mater, where he died a short time later.

how booing bertie has become a new sport
as a non-violent form of protest, booing could be considered harmless, even quaint. but it can be a deadly weapon, as mick mccarthy discovered last autumn. so although it has been well known for a while that the government is as popular as sars, it was still shocking to hear bertie ahern booed by fellow dublin supporters in clones last sunday. and no surprise when maurice ahern felt compelled to defend his sports-mad brother during the week, writing poignantly of how the taoiseach, as a boy, "picked and snipped gooseberries" for ticket money.

saving muslim women from a piece of cloth
nothing is as certain to make you unpopular in a french gathering - whether left- or right-wing - as saying you don't understand the fuss about le foulard islamique.
i recently committed the faux pas of asking: "if a muslim woman wants to wear a headscarf, what's the problem?" the decibel level of the dinner conversation exploded. normally rational french men and women, including one of arab origin, tried to outdo each other with denunciations of islamic fundamentalism.

never again...but only if the price is right
never again, we will not stand idly by, not on our watch - the world has many ways of promising it will intervene to prevent the commission of evil. but as samantha power's compelling account of the last 100 years of crimes against humanity, a problem from hell: america in the age of genocide, shows, the truth is very different.
power, an irish-born journalist-turned-human rights researcher, takes her readers on a tour of 20th century genocides, in the process demonstrating that the western powers knew about the horrors being perpetrated but chose not to take any meaningful action.

sigur r�s - �vers�gn (2:09)
justin timberlake - rock your body (4:31)
the cardigans - you're the storm (3:53)
the duplo! - summer of '99 (2:32)
the white stripes - seven nation army (3:50)
k - os - superstar part zero (4:11)
liekki - pienokainen (4:23)
mates of state - proofs (2:17)
the sounds - rock n' roll (3:55)
the hidden cameras - golden streams (4:31)
the divine comedy - my lovely horse (1:26)
pink - feel good time (3:42)
super furry animals - run! christian, run! (7:20)
sigur r�s - �skab�rn �j��arinnar (4:45)

dijkstra concentrates on single portraits, and usually works in series, looking at groups such as adolescents, clubbers, and soldiers. her subjects are shown standing, facing the camera, against a minimal background. during a visit to portugal in 1994, she made portraits of four bullfighters immediately after the fight. in the same year, she photographed three women who had given birth, one hour (julie), one day (tecla) and one week (saskia) after the event.
the raw immediacy of these images captures something of the contradictions inherent in this common and yet most singular of human experiences. the women appear at once vulnerable and invincible, traumatised and self-composed. dijkstra draws a parallel between the two groups of photographs. both bullfighters and mothers are pictured after an exhausting and potentially life-threatening experience, relating to society's deepest-held ideas of masculinity and femininity.