Filed under: Dublin
The girls were off from school 2 days last week. One day we went into town. I can’t even remember what the excuse was but I found a few pictures from the day. A couple of the pictures are taken in Stephen’s Green and the others are from Grafton Street with the pretend statue Elvis. (Pretend statues are kind of the rave in busking these days.)
Filed under: Dublin
On Wednesday we all went to Ailbhe’s house for dinner. Ailbhe is a friend of Lily. Her sister Cait is friends with Kate. They have 2 boys (Liam and Ciaran) around Aine’s age. The parents (Ann and Barney) were kind enough to invite us for dinner. It was a great night.
The kids ran around the house just like they would at home but haven’t been able to do for a while. One of the neighbors (Maria, a fellow library mom) stopped by and never left. I may have had my weight in wine. But it was a great night.
On Friday we had parties for the girls. From 3:30-5:00 we had 18 preschoolers. From 5:30-7:00 we had the 8-9 year olds. I won’t say it was fun for me but it was pretty painless.
You can get an idea of the activities with the pictures below.
Patrick was tired – from what I don’t know since I planned and prepared the whole thing; I was hungry so after the party we went for an Indian meal. I love Chicken Korma.
Filed under: Dublin
This week is arts week at Johnstown Girls School. SO the girls have had tons of art projects going all week – pottery, film, plays… The girls especially enjoyed the pottery – but really the whole week has been fun for them. (I love the idea of a whole week on the arts!) Below are 3 clips from Lily’s play:
Filed under: Uncategorized
Sunday morning I had a walk around Dromahair. It is a nice town but I could see that some suburban looking development was on its way, which is kind of a shame. In the pub I heard that folks would really like the town to remain a rural village but the development is starting to take over. Dromahair is close to Sligo so I suspect that it the draw for many people.
Sunday morning we took a boat trip around Lough Gill. The weather was perfect! Lough Gill’s most famous island is Innisfree. I suspect many people will recognize:
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade. (see more)
The boat ride was really nice. The baot was nearly empty so we could run around – those of us who felt like we needed to run. George, the boat captain, gave a nice running commentary on what we were seeing, which including some poems and music. But it wasn’t too much – and the area is really beautiful.
After the boat ride we toured Parke’s Castle, which is really where the boat docks. It was fun to tour too. The Jordan girls knew the tour by heart – but they seemed to enjoy it too. They’ve done a good job of preserving the different ages of the castle. My favorite part was the pigeon’s tower. There they kept pigeons from other castles in case they needed to send a message via carrier pigeon. However, in time of strife or famine, they could eat the pgieons. (I’d be training those pigeons to go to pick up pizza in times of strife or famine!)
After the castle we headed to Dooney Rock, which reminded me of Northern Minnesota in a lot of ways. It’s giant rock (think Wisconsin Dells) that you climb up to see a view of the lake (this Lake Superior). We had the quickest picnic lunch thanks to the bugs but a nice climb with a beautiful view.
It was just what the doctor ordered before a 3 hour train ride home.
Filed under: Dromahair
After the cemetery we headed out to Lissadell, a huge castle (nearly castle) where the Gore-Booths lived. The most famous Gore-Booth was Constance Markievicz – a patron and good friend to WB Yeats. (See the theme of the area?) The house reminded me of the James J. Hill House back home – with a ton more land.
The house was fun. The coolest thing was in the dining room the family had etched their names in one of the windows to prove that someone’s diamond engagement ring was indeed a diamond.
The gardens were amazing. We learned from the vegetable garden that 2008 is the year of the potato. So, happy year of the potato!
The strangest thing about the house was that there was a tunnel behind the house and that’s how the servants got to and from the house so that the people of the manor born would not have to see them coming and going.
While Patrick and I toured the house Mary and Paul kindly took the kids to the nearby beach. The beach was to the North Atlantic but it was shallow enough to be fairly warm – or so it was reported to me. I know the kids had a great time.
That night we had a really nice meal at their house. The kids ate hamburgers first and then the grownups had steak – and mine was a perfect medium rare! Living in Dublin we have remarked how we miss having people over for dinner or going to other people’s house so it was very nice to just relax.
After dinner most of us pretty much fell asleep after a long day. Poor Paul had to sell raffle tickets at the pub, which mustn’t have been too bad since rumor has it he came back pretty late.
Filed under: Dromahair
Saturday morning we headed out to Drumcliffe, where Yeats is buried. I have a picture or two of the grave – his epitaph is famous:
Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death
Horseman, pass by!
The cemetery is very unassuming. The grave is nearly in the shadow of Ben Bulben, a mountain made famous by Yeats:
Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
Also in Drumcliffe is a great Celtic Cross. I hope the picture turns out, as you can really make out the scenes in the stone, starting with a picture of Adam and Eve. The grownups were talking about the picture, which the kids had trouble seeing over the wall of the cemetery. One of them (Imogen maybe) climbed up and was sorry disappointed to see that we were talking about a picture not real live Adam and Eve.
Filed under: Dromahair
This weekend we visited friends in Dromahair – the Jordans: Paul, Mary, Cliona (7), Imogen (6), and Lochlann (2). We had a great time. Dromahair is about 10 miles outisde Sligo – so we were knee deep into WB Yeats county. Aine summed up our weekend best on the train home – we hadn’t even left the station and she said, “I miss those guys.”
We took the train up on Friday afternoon. It’s 3 hours from Dublin to Sligo. Paul and his dad were nice enough to pick us up at the station. We had some food and then the grownups headed out to the pub. We were sad to see that it was open mic night, not tradition music at the pub but that was OK. Dromahair is a small town. Paul and Mary have lived there for a few years so we got to meet a few people in the pub, which is always fun.
I forgot to mention that they live in the old parsonage – it’s beautiful but best of all (for Patrick’s sake) is that apparently Yeats actually spent a night there. So we were sleeping with the ghosts of famous people.
Filed under: Uncategorized
We went to Howth the first month we were in Ireland. We saw seals on that day but other than that it was a hellacious day. The restaurant we visited was terrible and we had to tie Aine down to keep her from hopping off the pier – into the 20 foot drop into the sea.
But even that day I felt that Howth was worth a second chance.
On Monday (a bank holiday) we went to Howth with Patrick’s mom. We ate in Dun Laoghaire on the way to Howth, which I have to admit would not have been my choice but soon we got onto the DART to Howth. The DART is the train that goes around the Dublin Bay. We live fairly close to the southernmost part of the bay; Howth is as north as you can go. It is a beautiful train ride.
The weather was perfect and we took a nice walk down the pier. From Dun Laoghaire, our part of town, we can always see Howth because it is directly across the bay so it was funny to looking the opposite direction – where we ended up looking at Bray. We also had a great view of Ireland’s Eye, a small island practically a swimming distance away from Howth.
After walking down the pier, the girls played on playground and we took a walk into Howth Village.
Filed under: Dublin
On Tuesday there will be a vote in Ireland for the Lisbon Treaty. It’s a big deal. The Treaty (and I’m hugely paraphrasing here) makes the European Economic Union more unified by giving the EEU more governing power. There are huge debates about it over here – will it make for a stronger Europe? Will it reduce the power of each participating country?
Part of the reason it’s a big deal is that Ireland will be the first country to vote on it. It’s been getting a ton of air time. So I was really impressed when Lily started asking about it. We talked about it for about 10 minutes; she was very interested. I thought I had a girl political prodigy on my hands. Then she asked her big question – the real reason she wanted to know – how would this effect Eurovision?
Eurovision is an international song contest. Ireland’s entry this year was a singing turkey puppet named Dustin. While he didn’t make the finals, I thought some of the acts that did were stranger.
Filed under: Dublin
On Sunday we went to Killiney Beach with friends. Actually we went with some of the friends we saw last night: Paul & Mary and two of their kids Imogen (age 6) and Lochlann (age 2).
It was way to cold for me to go into the water – but the dads and kids had a great time in the water and Mary and I – and for the most part the younger kids had a good time watching them. Killiney Beach is kind of a funny place. It’s beautiful. It’s kind of rocky and hard on the feet. There’s a much bigger drop off than we ran into in Lahinch. And the DART (the local train) runs right behind it – but if you’re on the beach with kids that’s a big plus. Also it’s a big plus if you don’t live near Killiney but live close to a DART station – it’s a quick trip out.
We topped off the day with a stop in the The Club in Dalkey – a nice pub that at least seemed happy to have kids.
10 Questions About... 
