En Garde!

Lovely afternoon, as summery as it gets.

As usual I left things a bit late. I had promised to pick up my wife after work in Dublin around 4p.m., but wanted to take my camera to Conns to check with them about the battery indicator (I think it has been damaged by that fall in Iceland). I left the house after 3, having just realised that the French Embassy (with the no-doubt colourful No-To-Lisbon brigade clustered outside) was on my route. Why not check it out?

So I did, and it was party-time for the Non-voters, as I had expected. I shot quite a few frames within about 10 minutes then fled to make my appointments. On the way into Ballsbridge we were stopped by cops at the lights while the boys in black limos (or whatever) shot past in the opposite direction with their sirening escourt: Sarkozy keeping his own appointment with the various factions.

The French president had allocated an hour for the meeting, each rep (Sinn Féin, Libertas, Fine Gael, Labour etc,) to be granted a 3-minute speech. Ridiculous of course, no more than a publicity exercise, and loads of fodder for the Non-voters, who must be wetting themselves with glee: the whole shagging country is in a high, patriotic dudgeon about Sarkozy's treatment of us, his perceived bullying and arrogance. Impossible to know what the man was thinking. But politically stupid, probably a mistake to even visit at this point.

Some of the shots might have made good press photos, like this GENTLEMAN IN WHITE , but I just like the little almost spontaneous theatre of the child with the stick, not really fencing with the gorilla (or anyone), just messing, doing what bored and rather unfocused children do, while surrounded by all that awful in-your-face earnestness.

Here's some more:
TWO NON VOTERS
CLOSEUP: NON NON NON
LADY IN BLACK (possibly the mum)