Recently, I came across a copy of The Irish Times for October 29th last year. Like all old newspapers, it was much more compulsive reading than today's edition, and it told of great things to be done along Dublin Bay on the seafront between Dun Laoghaire and Blackrock.
Apparently, there will be a "maritime playground, the layout of which will be based on sea legends, pathways using wavy, serpentine alignments edged with driftwood and washed boulders, and steel railings along the DART line in the shape of waves".
"These poetic and artistic influences," The Irish Times went on, "are to be commemorated in motifs depicting sea nymphs and ancient gods like Neptune".
Neptune was indeed the Roman god of the sea. He would surge across the waves in his golden chariot, surrounded by dolphins and other creatures of the deep, wielding a trident, the symbol of his power.
He was capable of summoning terrible storms and taking the lives of those he thought were disrespectful. Yet he could also calm the waters if he wanted to.
He does just that, for example, during the famous voyage of Aeneas and his fellow Trojans after the siege of Troy. The emigrating warriors were making good progress along the Mediterranean, heading for the spot which one day would be Rome, when they were seen by Juno.
This wife of Jupiter had a score to settle with the Trojans and saw her opportunity. She hurried to Aeolus, he to whom Jupiter had entrusted government of the winds, and instructed him to organise a storm. Anxious, no doubt, not to offend the boss's wife, Aeolus did, and the Trojan ships were stranded on the rocks.
Neptune, however, saw the incident and seems to have resented this intrusion in his bailiwick. In any event, he dismissed the winds immediately, brushed the clouds from the face of the sun and personally prised the Trojan ships from the rocks with his trident. Thus, to quote the poet Edmund Waller:
Above the waves did Neptune show his face,
To chide the winds and save the Trojan race. This god of the sea, however, was not so obliging in Irish waters on this day 138 years ago. He did nothing to quell the violent storm of February 9th, 1861 which caused the loss with all on board in Dublin Bay of a sailing ship named after him.
A reminder of the Neptune tragedy is still to be seen on the East Pier at Dun Laoghaire, in the form of a memorial to six men from another ship, the Ajax, who perished in their gallant efforts to save the Neptune's crew.