The Irish word for dragon is 'dris', which is a cognate of the Greek 'drákōn'. Both stem from the Indo-European root 'derḱ' - 'to see clearly'. Hence in the Irish tradition, the dragon is capable of many feats by sight alone: possession, mutilation, enchantment or corruption.

Technicolor photos from rural West Ireland & more in the mid-20th century.

Irish Thatched Cottage, Bunratty, County Clare, by Elmar Ludwig

Coliemore Harbour, Dalkey, Dublin, by Elmar Ludwig

Collecting Turf from the Bog, Connemara, Co Galway, by John Hinde

Bloody Foreland, Co Donegal, by David Noble

Glengesh Pass, near Ardara, Co Donegal, by David Noble

The Silver Strand, Co Wicklow, by John Hinde

Thatched Cottage, Connemara, Co Galway, by John Hinde

Connor Pass, Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry, by Richard Beer

Meeting of the Waters, and Old Weir Bridge, Killarney, by John Hinde

Dublin City by Night, by Edmund Nägele

Ullapool, Ross-shire, Highlands, Scotland

Ullapool, Ross-shire, Highlands, Scotland

Ullapool, Ross-shire, Highlands, Scotland

Carrbridge, Badenoch and Strathspey, Scotland

This weekend in 1872, Arthur Griffith, Irish nationalist founder of Sinn Féin and co-signatory of Anglo-Irish treaty, is born in Dublin.

Griffith, on setting up Sinn Féin, declared it a 'King, Lords & Commons Party'- one aim being the restoration of Gaelic monarchy in Ireland.

A United Ireland could best be achieved via the adoption of monarchy as the ruling political principle, according to Arthur Griffith:

Griffith at his moment of victory, Mansion House 1921. "We declare that Ireland has never yielded, but has ever fought against foreign rule"