A magic morning in Nicholastown

Well, Noel Scullion's magic worked once again, writes Brian Byrne, though it was touch and go as the sun played tag with the clouds this morning for this year's autumn equinox.

The actual equinox was last Friday, but there's a window of a number of days on either side of it when the special effect built into the spear sculpture in Kilcullen by Noel does its thing.

Weather can get in the way, but it really was a beautiful morning when I got the shot above. Waiting for the sunrise over the Wicklow mountains also gave me the chance to get some other nice morning sky photographs (and a bird even decided it should get into the spirit of the day).

The Spear was created by local artist Noel Scullion and is a highly technical interpretation based on a spear head found during excavations at the Dun Ailinne archaeological site back in the 1960s. The monument was commissioned by Kilcullen Community Action, which developed the Dun Ailinne Interpretive Park where it is located. It was put in place in 2008.