Why Ireland?

Gallarus Oratory

All the ways you wander, all the ways you roam
All across great oceans, all across the foam
Through the faraway houses, through the sunsets on fire
Searching for the island of your heart's desire

~ John Spillane, from All the Ways you Wander*

"Why do you keep coming back to Ireland?" asked the young man in the pub.

How do I answer that?

I come back because I am always welcomed like family.

I come back because there is always a new experience and something new to learn about the country and the Irish people.

I come back to visit with the taxi drivers - the most entertaining in the world.

I come back because there is always one or more fortuitous event that makes me continue to believe in magic, the magic that is Ireland.**

The Dingle Peninsula has long been one of my favorite places in Ireland. Dingle is special. I cannot remember how I knew to visit there. It was likely a combination of the cinema*** and my friends in Dublin who, upon returning home from the states, had started to discover and rediscover their homeland.

Whatever the draw, the journey was hard. The weather was dismal. I had little money. But what I saw I loved.

Oh, and I loved Mrs. Farrell. She was my landlady. She tutted and fussed over me as if I was her own. "Oh my. And what a brave girl ye are!" she said. When I left her, in her corner house, she told me I would bring back my husband to meet her. And I did in 1981. And I brought my children in 2007. **** By  that time her children had stopped her B&B. "Of course I remember you!" she said when we came to her door. And she hugged us all.

On this trip I knew I would have to ask. Our first driver was my victim. And he confirmed what I already knew in my heart. Mrs. Farrell had died a year or so before. May she rest in peace. She lives on in my heart.

Immediately after my 1977 stay with Mrs. Farrell I had met Mary Maloney, in Shannon. The manager of a guesthouse, Mary said she had a room for one night only as she was going to be on her holiday and would be traveling to her house in Dingle. At breakfast she told me that I was welcome to return to Dingle as her guest ("Suit yourself," said she). And so I did, portraying a "rich American" interested in purchasing her house. This was a bit of an underhanded way to get her neighbor to make a decision about purchasing the house (they had been discussing it, but there had been no progress towards an offer).

Mary took me on a tour of the entire peninsula. We drove across Conor Pass (the only time I have made that drive). We went to the beach and to the schoolhouse where Ryan's Daughter was filmed. In fact, the film company had rented and stayed in Mary's home. She had photos and autographs and a film script. And she had many a story about the cast. We also went to the Gallarus Oratory.***** For that trip it was my holy grail.

Since the first trip we have experienced magic everywhere - in Dublin, Meath, Wicklow, and Sligo. And on this trip we found magic in Skibbereen, Doolin, Portumna, Birr and Cahir.

Recently a friend told me that there are other places to go, other countries to experience.

"Yes," I said. "I know."

"But why would I want to go anywhere else?"

This is the island of my heart's desire.*

A bird kept coming to the window at Gallarus. I waited until it was calm enough for him to perch.

 Notes:

*John Spillane, All the Ways You Wander, words and music by John Spillane, Universal Music Ireland is the label. The more I read his lyrics the more I admire him. He's a genius, I say.

**http://walkinthepark-padimus.blogspot.com/2014/09/i.html


***Ryan's Daughter (1970), a film I loved for the scenery as much as anything, was filmed there. I suppose it is like young people who travel seeking the P.S. I Love You (2007) bridge in Wicklow (been there too - nothing to write home about, but the hills and gorse and heather!).

****A blizzard kept us away in 1997. We only got as far as Cashel.

***** http://www.voicesfromthedawn.com/gallarus-oratory/


Comment - I am writing these posts as the spirit moves me. Different stories have come together and organized themselves. I can see this will be a long time, writing of the month's walks.