Our Last Day

"Nil aon tintean do thintean fein."
There is no fireside like your own fireside.
Irish Proverb

Well here I sit with a glass of Jameson and water by my side, no ice, in a hotel lobby near the Shannon airport. I am going to find it hard to write this. Today we basically retraced our steps back from the west coast through Limerick. We did cross to the North of the Dingle Peninsula to find a hidden gem, too well hidden, and got caught in a major traffic jam in Tralee (40th annual Rose of Tralee festival), and Sue almost went through the windshield when I stopped to get another Irish Horse picture. Horses are plentiful in the fields; places to pull over are VERY rare. But, ach, a fine horse it was.

Well goodbye Ireland, I will cherish for the rest of my life the memories of your Heather covered mountains, your bountiful flowers, your timescapes and landscapes, and yes your forty shades of green. But most of all I will miss your warm, warm hearts, your way of ending a meeting with "god bless" or similar phrase, your trustfulness, and the beautiful melody of your voices. The beauty and history of your land may make you who you are, but it is you who make Ireland a place where all feel so welcome. So to paraphrase a song written by Ian Byrne and sung by one of my favorite Irish / American groups The Elders:

Fare thee well men and women of Erin

I will dance your memories with joy in my heart

I will go now and pray that as I traveled your land

I learned by the lessons you gave

Crioch

August 23, Sunday

"Ireland is a peculiar society in the sense that it was a nineteenth century society up to about 1970 and then it almost bypassed the twentieth century."
- Author John McGahern

We are now in Dingle, co. Kerry, probably the most interesting areas that we will explore on our own. When we get up the weather is not soft, it’s a pouring, windy rain. So we retreat to the B&B common room to key word photos and practice new water color techniques. Lo and behold, around noon the weather turned beautiful, so we began our tour of ferry forts, magnificent cliffs, picturesque, abandon stone buildings (famine cottages), old churches, plus wonderful scenes overlooking water, mountains, and fields. We visited sites that were inhabited 6000 years ago. While we have a few sites close to that age in the USA (mound builders), they are frequent up and down the coast – timescapes of Irish history. The tip of the Dingle is where St. Brendan sailed from and the first land seen by Charles Lindberg after crossing the Atlantic. Off the mainland is the Blasket Islands. They are now abandon (by government order),, but have an interesting history of people on a remote island, population never rising above 200 people, Irish speaking, and produced 3 famous writers. Sue never has got the taste for Guiness, but loves a half pint of Smithwicks every night.

Saturday

Today I will be downloading lots of photos, we are at a B & B in Dingle that has internet access. Last night they were closing the internet café before I could download. In the rush I mixed the order of days, but for the few people that are following this I am sure you figured it out. Today we drove the Ring of Kerry. Following the directions in Rick Steves’ book we only saw two buses before Waterville (the tip of the peninsula), and none after. The scenery was nice but not different than we have seen in co. Mayo earlier. We then continued to Dingle, this 200 mile trip took about 8 hours, with no lost hubcaps, Olcan would be proud. Correction; the Beara ring I believe was misspelled. Probably not the first one on my blog, but one I met to look up before posting and did not. More differences in culture:

Cheese is served with most Irish breakfasts, especially when not eating the fried \irish breakfast, but fruit the and oatmeal one, but most places you get it all!

No forests, paper is at a premium. Napkins are small, in a class hotel TP was small sheets dispensed like Kleenex. Napkins are never served with ice cream, so you eat it fast.

Ireland is way ahead of us in green technology, you would be proud of them Maddy. There are recycling bins (usually in sets of 5), even in remote sections. They are starting to practice “farm to fork” (supermarkets buying as much as possible locally, saving on transportation waste), which is only being talked about in USA.

No washcloths anywhere.

Their Prime Minister makes more than President Obama. This really irks many Irish people.

Well today was; everybody together now - S O F T! Actually there was a spot were we wanted it to be soft and that was the Burren (Gaelic for barren). These are limestone rock formations, caused by the ice age, where you have many square miles of flat rocks with occasional stands of grass. It begins on the south side of Galway Bay and continues south and east. When the rocks are wet they are more photogenic. Before entering the area we didn’t do much except stop for breaks and photo ops, but nothing special. I did find the changes between Counties interesting. Gone are the sheep for the most part, there are mostly cattle farms. There are more trees. (Ireland has no forests; the Oak was used by the British to make their ships. There are occasional stands of fir trees that have been planted.) And stone walls have changed from tightly fitted flat stones, to round boulders with lime spots that give the fence a lacey appearance from a distance.

There is a small nation that stood alone, not for year or two, but several hundred years; ….that could never be got to accept defeat, and has never surrendered her sole.
Eamonn DeValera


This is a sad day since the group will all go our separate ways Thursday. I think we are all worn out from spending so much time in the van. Normally we would stay in one area for around two hours before moving on, but with the rain and mist, our plans changed.

After leaving the Burren we stopped in, Eugene’s, a pub with the most unusual décor, in a way it reminded me of a small Harrigan’s.

We have now returned to Ennis, where the Workshop part of our tour began. Tomorrow Sue and I begin our tour of southwest Ireland, a new adventure of sights, sounds, and learning to drive on the right, er left. Sue is still drinking Smithwicks, but may be on Jameson after of watching me drive.

Please remember the photos you see are untouched, I will develop them when I return

Thursday and Friday

Well its Friday and shortly I will go to an internet café and post Wednesday’s blog along with today’s which covers the last two days. I am now driving. The road from Ennis to Limerick was an “M” road like our “I” roads limited access two and four lanes with a divider, but will with an occasional “roundabouts” (where all traffic goes in a clockwise circle, leaving in one of four directions). The speed limit is 100 kmh equivalent to 60 mph. We then went to Adar by an “N” road. They are two lanes, occasionally three, generally wide aprons to pull off and let someone pass. The speed limit on these is 100 kmh. We have used extensively in the area where we are now (Kenmare, just outside the Ring of Kerry) “R” roads, wide enough for two bicycles to pass, and the speed limit on these is - - - 100 kmh. When you come around a bend and see a large truck coming your way, it takes awhile to reopen your sphincter muscle.
Adare is a beautiful village with thatched roof cottages, little shops, and lots of pubs. We then moved on to Killarney. However, being the jumping off point for so many tourist spots Killarney National Park, Dingle, and Kerry it was very crowded with people and buses (reminded me of the towns on the edge of the Smokey’s) we moved on to Kenmare. And are spending two nights in a very nice Bread in Breakfast (as Syd would say). Today we toured a small part of the Bera Penninsula, tomorrow it’s the Ring of Kerry. I am looking forward to seeing it with trepidation. The sites to see are many, but the roads are narrow and the tour buses have the right of way. Depending on which way you go you’re either sucking the fumes behind one, or backing up to let one pass. The time of year to visit is May and September when Europe and America are not on holiday. Today was NOT a soft day, and the clouds helped make great pictures. Some more differences.
Tomatoes are served, cut in half, at almost all Irish breakfasts.
Houses are paved all around the foundation, due to the soft soil.
The Irish are very trusting. When you eat in a group (or just Sue and I), you go to the register tell them what you ate and drank and pay.
When driving on the left, Americans tend to hug the left side, therefore you can tell rental cars, they have no hubcaps on the left side.
A long time ago I used to drink Scotch; I didn’t think I would like Irish whiskey, which is similarly made. Olcan introduced me to Jameson, which is quite good. Then he told me the secret, the Irish only gave the Scotch people half of the recipe.

August 18

I am writing this on the way to County Donegal, the city of Donegal. It’s a two hour drive and I tried to listen to my IPod, but was missing too much of Olcan’s dialogue when he saw something of interest. So I switched to the computer. I have been able to keep up with writing the blog, but way behind on publishing. We have one Apple Computer at the house, and it is the only way to connect to the internet.
Most have their own computers, but to send or check email it’s the Apple, and we have only one person proficient in Apple usage to teach the rest. I can check and send emails without help, but to get on my blog page and transfer the stuff I have photographed and written is a problem. We are riding North and Olcan has just tuned in a Gaelic radio station. There is also a Gaelic TV station. All public signs and many private (menus etc) are written in both Gaelic and English. There is only a small part of the population that speaks the language, but it is taught in schools. I am glad they do; language is a heritage to preserve just as much as the abbey towers. Wow, looking out the window, and are the fields green here! We are stopping at the burial place of Yeats, more later. Back in the van, today you are traveling with me as long as my battery holds out. We are in County Sligo and stopped in Drumcliff where we observed an original Celtic cross. Most originals are gone from their sites, stolen or in museums.
The group is fun and interesting, all helping each other with equipment or other things not brought along. We have female Episcopal Priest, 2 college professors, a small business woman whose husband was recently laid off, plus Becky and Mary who do make money with their painting. We have two Northeasterners, with very southern names, Billie Mae, and Buba, and in addition to Sue, another Linda who goes by her middle name. We enjoy a lot of laughter. Later I will give you a summary of our day.
Unfortunately, the battery went out on the computer and I left my electrical converter back at our house. The Hotel internet charges are very expensive so it is Tuesday and I am just catching up. Besides stops on the way up (including “tacky town”, Olcan’s name for Irelands version of Virginia Beach), the last three days we visited, small villages, large seaside cliffs next to beautiful fields of Heather, mountain waterfalls, sea caves, and numerous other picturesque scenes. Unfortunately, we saw everything but the sun. However, Monday was PERFECT, beautiful blue sky and clouds that provided enough cover that we did not get harsh shadows.
Today, August 18, it again was soft, very soft. All day we had an Irish mist, sometimes thick, coming at us. It also was the most fantastic day of picture taking yet. I have yet to see any pictures that Sue or I have taken, but I took over 300 myself. As I have said before, it is holiday time, but we seldom see tourist buses or vans. Olcan is showing us his Ireland. The places are so off the common tourist map, I am glad I bought a camera GPS system, so I can trace our travels. For cars they do not sell Garamond or Tom-Tom here but they do have Pat-Pats. The instructions are in a beautiful Irish voice that tells you to “turn right past the next sheep pasture,” or “go left at the second pub.”

Monday

"It only rains twice a week in Ireland, the first time for three days, the second time for four days." Olcan

I now am more convinced than ever of my Irish heritage, they love to tease with a twinkle in their eye, and they cannot spell worth a damn. Clew Bay is spelled as Clewbay on some directional signs, and the town of Mulranny can be found spelled 5 different ways on road signs. Of course if I had to spell in Irish (Gaelic) I would be really confused. That may be the reason I believe “spell checker” is man’s greatest invention.
Today we go to the Island of Achill, Ireland’s largest island. There we find graveyards, castles, flowers, cliffs beaches, villages, sheep, boats and landscapes to paint or photograph. We start a little slow since we spent the evening before listening to Olcan in a “session” at a local pub. There were 6 musicians altogether, including a famous harpist who was on holiday from Dublin to visit her parents. A wonderful evening.
Our typical day is to find on interesting spot, spend an 1 ½ to 2 hours sketching and shooting and then move to another. Frequent stops to potty or grab a snack to eat. Yesterday, our last stop was at a Pub in a village on Achill. Conversation: Me to Olcan, “What were you drinking last night?” Olcan, “Ginger Ale, I had to get up early for the group.” Man listening, “Were you in a Public House?” Olcan, “Yes.” Man, “Then you drink.” Unfortunately, I can only record my visual experiences; I really wish I could record my audio too. The wonderful lyric voices of the Irish and their simplistic way of putting things cannot be replicated in the written word nor in movies or on TV.
There are a lot of abandon homes and buildings here. Property is very expensive; my home would be worth at least three as much in Ireland. So why so many abandon homes? They were left, and still owned, by families who emigrated during the famine. Olcan is teaching us to read the landscape. He calls this Timescapes. They are the Celtic mounds, famine ridges, standing stones, along with the obvious abandon abbeys and ancient cemeteries and castle ruins. No wonder the Irish enjoy life so much, they are constantly reminded of how brief life can be.
It was a wonderful day, very overcast, perfect for photographers, and if the painters want clouds and blue, they can add it later. The day ended with the three photographers projecting their images on a screen for Becky to critique, all eight attended. The critique was good but the craic was better, the next day Billie told me her stomach ached from laughing so hard.