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.
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.
Filed under: Uncategorized
On Wednesday I went into town with Mom and Dad. We successfully drove into town and found parking and we got back in time to pick up the girls from school. We walked around Grafton Street and Trinity College so that was fun. We had a light lunch at Beweley’s Café – but really we scoped the ground for our night out.
We actually took the Luas (train) from Mom and Dad’s place in Sandyford into town. The Luas is super slick – I wish that we lived near it. It only took 20 minutes to get into town at 7:00! We had a really nice dinner and il Primo. It’s a funky place off Harcourt Street with really good risotto and chocolate cake. Then it was a quick walk to Whelan’s to see Kinky Friedman and the Jewboys. He is a singer, writer and former candidate for Texas Governor. His slogan was – how hard can it be?
It was a fun concert. We were lucky in that we got seats – in the balcony but seats nonetheless. Most people had to stand. The best line of the night was about John McCain – who “is old enough to hide his own Easter eggs”. I mostly knew Kinky from his profile on 60 Minutes years ago – but his stories were funny and the music was good! It was just dumb luck that I happened to see that he was playing.
Then we took the Luas home with the Manchester United fans, who were celebrating the big win in the Champions League game. They were rowdy but friendly. We were nearly nicked by the ticket police on the train. I had purchased the wrong tickets for us. I bought return tickets to and from the third zone – what we needed was return tickets from zone one to three. Luckily I caught this before we got on the train home. So we got tickets for zone one to two to match our zone three and the ticket police did get on the Luas to check. I haven’t been on the Luas before but I have to think that ticket collectors are rare. They only inspect periodically – and they caught quite a few people without tickets, including a very funny Man Utd supporter who had been sitting with us.
10 Questions About... 
