My Affair

Wicklow Mountain hike

St. Kevin's Church, Glendalough

Rock wall near Carrowmore megalithic tombs in County Sligo

When I come out on the road of a morning, 

when I have had a night's sleep and perhaps a breakfast, 

and the sun lights a hill on the distance, 

a hill I know I shall walk across an hour or two thence, 

and it is green and silken to my eye, 

and the clouds have begun their slow, fat rolling journey across the sky, 

no land in the world can inspire such love in a common man.

  ~ Frank Delaney, Ireland

I have loved Ireland for most of my life. I love her cities and her countryside. I love her people. I do not much love her food, but there's always her beer and whiskey and music.

In 1977 I traveled in Ireland for six weeks.* I was an innocent traveling on trust, a Eurail pass, and my thumb. My landlady in Dingle, Mrs. Farrell, told me I would bring my husband to meet her one day.

In 1981 I took DH to Ireland on our honeymoon. He was not as enamored of the place as I (he still isn't, but he humors me). I did bring him to meet Mrs. Farrell. She mentioned she would welcome us and our children in the future.

In 1997 I took my children to Ireland for a week.** It stormed and blew. We saw a bleak Dublin, Kilkenny Castle and town, and the amazing Rock of Cashel (and SNOW) before returning home. The storms kept us from Dingle and Mrs. Farrell.

In 2007 the family was in Ireland for a spring break.*** It was a mad trip. We saw amazing sights and sites - Newgrange, Cashel again, and Dingle (among other places). Mrs. Farrell met the children, now grown, and "of course, dear" she remembered me.

This September some of us were able to travel to Ireland for a few days. We walked through the streets of "Dublin's fair city"**** and Galway and Sligo. We went uphill and down. We crossed rivers and bays. The sun rose and set. The moon shown on the hills. [We did not go to Dingle this trip. Sorry, Mrs. Farrell.]

The posts that follow will be an attempt to capture some of the trip. I hope the photos***** and captions will help explain these walks and adventures and a little of the magic we always seem to find in Ireland.

NOTES:

*I recently read the journal of this first trip shaking my head. What was I thinking? But it was a glorious adventure that was, perhaps, the making of me.

**DH was in Hungary as part of the Bosnia peacekeeping forces. We saw him the two weeks before we headed to London and then Ireland. But that is another story.

***YC was studying at University College Dublin. I will use any excuse.

****"Molly Malone" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ylT6RjXst8  and a version by Sinead O'Connor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ouqhCtIh2g

*****I took about 2000 photos, give or take. I know that seems excessive (obsessive?), but I have a new camera and so was learning as I went along. I promise I won't post them all here.

Date of trip: Sept. 8 through 19, 2014.