As an astronomer and photographer, I love "big skies"
. My selected images
have that in common, but they convey two very different aspects of
"Saoirse"
, of freedom. I captured Comet NEOWISE 2020 F3 in the dark skies
of Connemara, with the sky above the northern horizon coloured by the
twilight which lasts all night in July. This was at the 20 km limit that we
were then allowed to venture from home...Covid public health measures
necessarily curtailed our freedom. But what an inspiring vista of freedom is
presented by a starry night sky like this! My other photo shows the
Normandy American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in France, where
thousands died on D-Day. Each grave marks a soldier who gave his life for
OUR freedom: the freedom of a united, peaceful, human-rights
underpinned Europe. Many of us in Ireland take that freedom for granted
nowadays; neutrality is not a magic shield, so we must be willing and able
to defend it, and also to give every assistance to our Ukrainian brethren
who, 80 years later, in another part of Europe, are now the ones fighting and
dying to maintain their freedom from a tyrannical invasion.
Photographer Ray Butler - Member
Posted by Photography Soc on Sun, 08-03-2026
