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: 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.
Filed under: Dublin
On Saturday, we went into the docklands for the maritime festival. The weather was amazing. The festival nearly made up for the fact that we’ll be missing Grand Old Day this year. There were loads of booths set up with different crafts and food. We tried the paella, which Patrick and I always liked backed when we lived in Spain. This paella wasn’t quite a good.
The girls went on the merry-go-round. I think the big girls decided that they are officially too old for merry-go-rounds, especially if the horses don’t go up and down. The girls did a craft project and we just sat and enjoyed the day.
We also met up with a friend from home – Shelia, who recently got her PhD in art from University College Dublin. (Patrick goes to UCD.)
At night we met up with some of Patrick’s friends from years ago: Paul & Mary, David, Des and Tom. Well, they went to see iKeano and I met up with them later. We stayed out way too late but had a great time at Café in Seine. It’s a loud pub/disco with lots of people looking for love but it’s a fun place to go with a crowd.
After the pub we ended up at Eddie Rockets, the girls’ favorite restaurant.
Filed under: Dublin
Monday night we went out with some of Patrick’s friends from school. Sophie was traumatized over turning 23. I hated to tell her that my kids were closer to her age than I am.
On Tuesday Kate’s class got their Communion pictures done. It took all morning. Everyone looked great again but I have to say that I prefer the option of getting the pictures done on the day of the event.
But we were OK with hanging out since Lily had a music performance soon after the pictures. Her class had been studying African music for a few days and was doing a performance for the younger kids. I was very impressed with the girls’ ability to watch a screen for cues while playing their instruments. They did a great job!
I don’t know if you’ll be able to make out Lily in the video because she was naturally positioned behind a tall girl with good posture – but I thought it would be fun to hear her anyways.
Filed under: Dublin
Sunday was Africa Day at the Dublin Castle. The weather was amazing! And either the weather or tourism season seems to have people coming out in droves. There were swarms of people.
There were information booths, great music, food and drinks. Sadly we missed the Republic of Loose and Sinead O’Connor at the end of the evening but the bands we heard we a lot of fun. It was great to see some of the African dancers. You can see some pictures of Aine on the dance floor.
Filed under: Dublin
Saturday was Kate’s First Communion. It’s a much bigger deal here than it is at home – but it was very nice. She looked beautiful and it was fun to see all of the girls in their best. There was one little girl who had a fur jacket sort of thing. Many girls had their hair done and several had been tanning or had manicures.
Kate did a reading and did a great job!
After the First Communion w went to lunch at the Herbert Hotel in Dublin. It was very nice. We were the only table for the first tow courses, which worked out very well for us since they were able to give us full attention.
After a nap we then headed to Bray. The tide was in and the waves were really high so it was fun to be on the beach.
Filed under: Dublin
Thursday night we went for a nice dinner at a place called the Beaufield Mews. It’s not far from the house in Stillorgan, which is an area I usually associate with the bowling alley, not nice dinners but this restaurant was like a place in the country.
There was an art gallery upstairs. We saw one painting that cost €10,000. There was also a big garden in the back – in fact we saw a fox in the garden.
The food was good and the waiter was a character. We had a very nice night.
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