Welcome to the third of this regular Sunday post to tease you as you have your Sunday tea and toast. All you have to do is identify the plants* and take the first letter of each and arrange them to make the name of an Irish County. My apologies for the lack of posts in the past few days but with just a week to go till I leave Ireland and lots of writing to do too things are a bit hectic.

Answer tomorrow. There is a tricky one here but if you get the rest you can guess the letter 🙂

**

Good luck!

* You need to use the botanical name of the genus, not a common name. This is because common names vary. But it is just the genus, nothing else:

For example

This is armeria, not thrift.

Only in Ireland?

If I get the chance I will post about the best bits of being in Ireland before I leave. I may not post about the less good things in case I want to come back. But this story tickled me when it was on the front of the Irish Times on Thursday. I will leave you to make your own comments. Suffice to say it was not April 1st.

‘A bachelor farmer from an isolated part of Co Kerry will not be put off the road for drink driving until December so he can get his affairs in order, a court has ruled.

In the meantime, John O’Shea (60) is to try find “a nice woman” at the Lisdoonvarna matchmaking festival to drive him around, the court heard.

O’Shea, of Derrinadin, Mastergeeha, had previously pleaded guilty to drink driving at Tarmons, Waterville, on July 25th, 2014.

John O’Dwyer, solicitor for O’Shea, told Cahersiveen District Court that football had been his client’s “downfall on the day”.

He went to Waterville for cow feed and ended up talking about Kerry’s performance in beating Cork in the Munster Football Final, drinking too much and hitting a ditch while driving home.

The accused’s alcohol-blood reading – 198mg per 100ml – was such that the offence carried a three-year driving ban, the court heard. The legal limit is 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

Mr O’Dwyer asked if his client could not be put off the road until after the summer.

Pub discussion

Judge James O’Connor said religion, games or politics should not be discussed in pubs.

O’Shea lives some 10km from Waterville and would be at a severe disadvantage if put off the road immediately, Mr O’Dwyer said.

Asked if he had “good neighbours”, O’Shea replied that they were “alright”. His relatives lived in Co Cork, the court heard.

Judge O’Connor also asked if O’Shea was “going to stay single or are will you take the plunge?”

Without transport his client would be at a great disadvantage in that area, Mr O’Dwyer replied.

“You’d never know now with Star Wars,” Judge O’Connor said, in reference to the increased visitor numbers to south Kerry due to the activity surrounding the filming of the movie on Skellig Michael.

Being off the road would make it difficult for O’Shea to care for his cows and he would have to make arrangements to get rid of them, Mr O’Dwyer said.

“Or find himself a nice woman,” the judge said.

If the extension went beyond September it would allow him to go to the matchmaking festival at Lisdoonvarna, Mr O’Dwyer noted.

Judge O’Connor said it was not the purpose of the State to “nail” people in terms of undoing their livelihood and he granted an adjournment of the ban until December 8th.

Condemnation

The decision drew swift condemnation from the Irish Road Victim’s Association.

“What planet is this judge living on?” its chairwoman Donna Rice asked.

“For a judge to give a priority to the care of cows over the protection of our families and children going about their daily business shows how out of touch he is with the reality faced by the hundred of families left with seriously injured loved ones, and family members killed, by drunk drivers,” she said.’

** Image from the web. Not mine