Dear Ireland - Part 1

I would despair going home were it not for the vast wealth I have stored back in the U.S. You know the wealth I’m talking about – children and grandchildren, family and friends that I could not bear to separate myself from and put such a distance between as our continent and the vast Atlantic Ocean between. Otherwise, I could be happy with you for the rest of my days because of how you opened your deep and kind heart to us.

It was the cumulative experience with you that has captured my heart. Your landscape, the climate, and your people – all instruments in your wonderful orchestra. I’m sorry. That’s a poor analogy at best and I apologize for it. While I have no doubt that you have wonderful orchestral musicians, I have to say that your traditional Irish music touched me most and fits perfectly with your towns and farms and countryside. Cindy and I whetted our appetites by sitting in a few sessions with traveling Irish musicians. And just last night I relived walking through your Abbeys and castles and strolling along when we attended a seisiun with Rattle the Knee who regaled us with reels and jigs, ballads and laments as they combined voice, uillean pipes, tin whistles, guitar, and a marvelous fiddler. I was transported and because you touched my heart it was all so very real.

Your ancientness was evidenced in every town and valley with Abbeys and castles, towers and walls, bridges, stone circles, and more – they all spoke to us of your enduring qualities as a people and as a country. We were awed by your Book of Kells with its art and the attention to detail. Your reverence to the King of kings demonstrated both on the ancient ruins and the library but was most on display with how openly we were welcomed by your people.

Of all the things I experienced while touring your country it was your driving style that was most foreign to me. This driving on the left side of the road in right-hand drive autos never really allowed me to relax behind the wheel. That’s saying a lot because I like to drive; at times I love to drive. The great thing about driving your roads was that we did not witness one accident or lack of consideration for other drivers. True, as with all places, native drivers go faster and make us visitors a bit nervous. Coming from America where our tolerance (mine included) has worn thin, it was quite amazing that I was not yelled at once, even when trying to complete a left turn into an occupied right-hand lane.

I love your rolling hills and wide valleys with the neatly sectioned off fields for livestock and crops. Your old stone walls, in town and field, create their own growing ecosystems with fern and lichen clinging to every surface, cropping out of every nook. We saw the Cliffs of Galway, marveled at the birds seen there, and wondered at the monumental cliffs running north and south of our viewing points. We pulled to the side of the road overlooking the Lakes of Killarney at the Ladies View Pub. My wife had me pose there upon the rock wall lifting my hands in blessing and worship. It did it gladly and from my heart. Time and again you gave us a 360^o panorama of beauty.

With the exception of one day we had at least a little rain fall on us as we wove along the roadways and walked your cities and parks. We are in draught here in Southern California and we found ourselves refreshed. I guess the price of being known as the Emerald Isle is the rain whenever the mood strikes Mother Nature but we reveled in it often going without our hoods up to feel the rain upon our heads and wash over our faces.

Cliffs of Moher - O'Brien's Tower

At first glance your Cliffs of Moher (Irish: Aillte an Mhothair) appear severe and inhospitable. The Princess Bride miscast them as The Cliffs of Insanity, although to great effect for the storyline. After a time of walking along the trail atop the cliffs I could see them as serene and embracing, at the same time an implacable force keeping the Atlantic from surging in to cover the greens and ensalt your beautiful loughs.

As a lover of birds for as long as I can remember, an observer of them for over three decades, I had one of my most memorable experiences with my avian friends. I was fortunate enough to lock onto a Great Black-backed Gull with my pocket-binoculars as he soared along the cliff face with his five and a half foot wings (1.7m) outstretched for an effortless glide first south toward Hag’s Head and then, with a glance over his shoulder, he banked over to head northeast where he went out of sight behind the point at O’Brien’s Tower. I was at the same time bereft of my travel with him and enriched for having watched such effortless flight along the magnificent vistas. Thank you for that, I will relive the gull’s flight over and over again.

In the city of Galway we walked through the Spanish Arch and down to the River Corrib and there watched nearly an hundred Mute Swans ply the waters to snack upon the mosses. I watched as a Grey Heron glided in to wade along the river’s bank just below the concrete embankment. I was able to stretch out and over the edge to capture what is most likely my best bird photograph.

The view of your Lakes of Killarney from Ladies View is stunning, I imagined myself spending days on end exploring the vale and lakes getting to know flora and fauna. I believe that any road we could have taken would have led us to some dale or field or copse and there to find creatures of legend where we would have been happily waylaid for an extended visit.

Thank you Ireland