Well ireland has always appealed. How could it not with its folklore, leprechauns, faeries, stunning coastline, charming locals and picturesque countryside, and friedly atmosphere. Personally I had not thought about what I wanted from the trip at all before we headed there on a three day shamrocker tour. First stop was Dublin, then the next day we headed off across the middle of ireland across the river shannon, over to doolin then down to the dingle penisula, dingle istself, cliffs of moher, then onto kilarney, blarney and blarney stone/castle before returning to dublin.
Well the irish people are a funny lot, seriously superstitious which I could relate to, but they are to the point of the extreme, while on tour I was introduced to quite a lot of folklore including:
Faeries and Faery trees (yes its spelt this way not the other way) - basically the irish believe in the magical land of the faeries, and that they live underneath faery trees. Faery trees are distinguished by standing alone on their own in a field away from other trees and have a slight magical feel about them. The theory is dont mess with the faeries and they wont mess with you. They take this so serious in fact, that in one county in ireland, they had a faery tree which was in the middle of a area that was marked for a new road. The locals revolted an protested and eventually the local government had to build the road around the tree, costing close to £2million just to go round it. Quite funny when you think about it.
Leprechauns: they are described as mischevious little beggars, who will do their best to steal your gold and valuables, the chance of someone actually getting a pot of gold off a leprechaun is practically impossible and they have been seen from time to time about and are mainly miserly little creatures and love getting up to mischief.
The banshee: the legend has it is that the banshee is always crying and sad because she is greiving for the lost sons of ireland and feels every death as if it is her own son. If you see the banshee then it means that either you or someone close to you is going to die so not good news at all.
white horses: if you see a white horse its good luck and if you see 50 it means the next man you will meet will be your husband or man of your dreams.
More little sayings:
It is not safe to pick up an unbaptized child without making the sign of the cross.
It is unlucky to accept a lock of hair from a lover.
If a chair falls when a person stands up, it is an unlucky omen.
If you possess a four-leaf shamrock you will have good luck in gambling, good luck in racing, and witchcraft will have no power over you. But, you must always carry it on you. You cannot give it away. You cannot show it to anyone.
If chased at night by a ghost or an evil spirit, try to get to a stream of running water. If you can cross it no devil or evil spirit will be able to follow.
Do not turn off a light while people are at supper. If you do there will be one less at the table before the year is out.
If you want a person to win at cards, put a crooked pin in his coat.
If the palm of your hand itches you will be coming into money. If it's your elbow you will be changing beds. If your ear itches and it is red and hot, someone is speaking bad of you.
If you want to know the name of the person you are to marry, put a snail on a plate sprinkled with flour. Cover the plate and leave it overnight. In the morning the initial of the person will be on the plate, traced by the snail.
Sticking a penknife into the mast of a boat while under sail is considered unlucky.
It's unlucky to have a hare cross your path before sunrise.
To take away lighted sod from a house on May days or churning days is unlucky. To do so takes away the blessing of the house.
and theres many more, but those are the main myths and superstitions of county clare, a highly superstituous yet equally charming county in Ireland that is home to winding roads and gorgeous valleys and landscape.
Doolin which is the home of a rather famous irish music festival, is not far from it is Lisdoonvarna, which is home to the The Matchmaking Festival where basically hoardes of women come to the city and men too to get it on, and pash and meet and find love. Mainly all that happens is lots of random shagging but its now become a monumental event that they are consdering cancelling it because it puts too much of a strain on the little town of 500 when over 10,000 people converge on it for one crazy lust filled month each year.
During our trip we stayed in quaint little villages and hostels which was fun, as we got to have a pint with the locals and hang out and chat to them,. Kilarney was a definitive highlight, it has a ratio of 5 men to every girl. So needless to say we were popular women lol. But the funniest thing was kate and I stayed out til about 3am and danced the night away. Irish boys are hilarious, instead of random pick up lines you get ' hello you look well' and 'well arent u a sight for sore eyes', ' arent u a heauty' and other lines , it was quite lovely and poetic to be honest, in between fits of gigles. I just couldnt help it. You heard it here first. Irish men are the funniest dancers I have ever seen. Even to popular music they do a jig. Thats right a michael flatelyesque gig. Can you picture it? Grown men jigging to Jay z and fifty cent? I was in hysteriscs, while they definitely were cute and adorable, they were funny all the same. My stomach hurt by the end of it from all the laughing. They mainly bounced up and down kicking their feet about and shouting really loud. Their accent just makes you swoon its adorable and they know their affect on foreign women and they love it. Lets just leave it at that!
We stopped in at a whiskey distillery which was an experience, i tried some of their killer liquor and it was good i have never been a big whiskey fan, but after that I am now an admirer of sorts. I certainly would have loved my dad to have been there so he could have appreciated it with me. It made me think of him and just to let you know dad I sent you a mini bottle for you to taste at xmas with your pudding.
I got quite caught up in the scenery and culture of Ireland, it felt like it stirred soemthing in me. With my family's Irish and English roots it felt surreal to be in the country that some of my relatives used to live in before bording the boat to Australia.
And the irish have all their little ways of doing things as well, for example, they have no post codes, or street numbers even in places outside of dublin, belfast and derry. all the rural or small town areas u just put the family name and suburb and it gets delivered. and if you have a new person living in the palce or someone visitng who is getting mail there, it gets around and the mailman figures out which place to deliver it to. Just remarkable!.
Of course there is a not so nice side to irish culture and thats the culture of drinking, we saw more than our fair share of drunks at 10am and 11am in the morning on some days and it was really sad to see how much the drink had affected their lives.
But on the whole the irish are a hearty, healthy and happy bunch. Always smiling always up for a chat and they adore australians and talking about australia. Another person they love is bill clinton and america, they are obsessed with america, i was there during the obama election results and there was obama coverage everywhere and everywhere u went everyone was talking about it. The irish have strong ties to america even now and they clearly get very invovled in the politics of it all.
Ireland was rather rainy and cold and miserable but it doesnt rain on your spirit, in fact, the weather is its only downside and it seems to bring out the better in people there rather than the worst. People smile and make an effort and they certainly show why it is that makes Ireland such a lovable country. The irish brougue, the hearty food, I had a stew and guiness pie and fish and chpips and lots of irish tucker, i tried guiness a the guiness factory ( which was surprisingly good, they say the further you are away from ireland the worse the guiness tastes and i think this may be true as I liked it in Dublin), visited the prestigious trinity college and also st patricks cathedral and took in a tour of the book of kells, which is held at Trinity Universisity. Ireland's equivalent of Cambridge or Oxford. The book of kells was something else, being a hopeless bookworm and enthusiast, I was transfixed by the library in the Trinity College and the book of kells, which is an highly illustrated and illuminated manuscript in Latin , containing the four gospels of the new testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was transcribed by celtic monks ca. 800. now im not religuious in anyway but it was awe inspiring, the colour, the detail, the intricacy of the book, the celtic calligraphy, the words, written centuries ago, it was just mind boggling. I was overwhelemd by it and it felt incredible to have seen this, it was as old as some of monuments i have seen, it had a special significance in being on such fragile paper and illustrated and written so delicately.
I want to go back, as i say of nearly every place i visit, but i want to visit belfast and derry and see giants causeway, im intrigued by the polical and bloody turmoil of irelands past, i have seen a beautiful, cultural stunning side to ireland and now i want to see a bit more of its underbelly.
all in all ireland was a colourful character, much more than I though it would be and of course charming and beguiling, I can see how this green green land could capture the heart of many a wayward traveller and how they could end up never leaving its windswept and gorgeous shores. When you are in ireland the irish eyes are always smiling and you can't help but smile along with them.
The whole time I was over here I thought of you nanna and your family's history, I will get to tiperary to visit our original roots soon.
xx
jess
