Another great weekend!!!

Ireland. What a land.

I have developing within me something of an infatuation after yet another fabulous weekend in the land of Eire.

Flew into Dublin friday afternoon after a rather cruisey but full morning at work and a very relaxed and easy trip from work into town, then on the bus to the airport (which only costs a pound! bargain!). Another relaxing wait for a couple of hours for my accomplice for the weekend, Mr Daryl Lynch, Groom to be and organiser extrordinaire! We went and found a bus to Sword - a wee town near the airport with a surprisingly bustling busy few pubs. Scored some food, scored some craic, and a few quiets at the local, then headed back to the travelodge to retire. After an early start saturday morning and excellent chow we went and picked up our car from the airport (a Renault Megane Scenic, complete with superluxury electric whizdo in the roof), and then headed for the above left. Croagh Patrick, standing at 2510 ft which is situated an or so north of Galway on Ireland's west coast. Which is only a few hours drive from Dublin... if you know where you're going and your navigator doesn't fall asleep. Such is life. So we got a little lost... scenery was fab. Nearly got to knock too - where there is some Catholic shrine... though to be fair there is a Catholic something or other in almost every town!!! Did pass through another exceedingly cool town called westport, which far outstrips its NZ namesake. Picture a small village, on a river, with really cool romanish looking overbridges, and heaps of really cool old buildings, bustling with people and a carnival like atmosphere, a bit of Greytown (on a good day) and a bit of art deco-ish splashes of bright paint. You're there. Westport. Great place.

Anyway we arrived, we climbed it we got the photo's as proof. Sparkling clear day too so another 360 degree panoramic photo is ours and may soon be on the wall... New camera has a cool stitch function too so all i need to do is learn how to work that and it will all be fine...









Croagh Patrick also doubles as a bit of a pilgrimage - it is said to be the mountain on which St Patrick fasted for 40 days and also where he rang his bell to drive out all the snakes and venomous creatures from Ireland. Clever chap really. I went to St Patricks primary, St Patricks church Paraparaumu, St Patricks College Silverstream and never learnt such things... (which to be honest is not to say they weren't taught necessarily!!!) Anyway pilgrims do it in bare feet - we saw one guy giving it a go - not for me sorry - would not have been able to walk for weeks for the blisters from both the heat and the exceedingly soft skin that covers my tootsies. Maybe next time... There are interesting we plaques at various stages up the track, a statue at the bottom and a small chapel at the top for the celebration of Mass which apparrently happens every week. I thought it would be a cool idea to get Fr Rowan or Fr Matt up there for a bit of eucharist action... but fair enough if you guys would rather stick to the flat!!! Might be a bit much climbing for the Ole ticker eh Fr Matt!

So Onwards we went adventuresome spirits that we have, and tried to get to the Cliffs of Moher before sunset... which is when i found out that even having an awake navigator is not so flash when you cant make sense of the map. So we took the scenic route, around the coast road which was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the trip - pristine rocky coastline dotted with a few surfcasters (what I would have given for my rods just then...) and the odd group of happy campers sticking up tents. It's a national park and totally beautiful - really cool twisty turny narrow road too to make life interesting.

Unfortunately I have no photos (I was driving!) so you'll have to take my word for it - it was beautiful. Picture the rocks and green of Central Otago (in spring) against a backdrop of cliffs and rolling hills like the Waikato region, against a rocky shoreline like Kaikoura or Pukerua Bay and you're somewhere near to it. Very cool. Godly even. Well evidence of His footprints anyway.

So we did make it to the Cliffs of Moher. Have I used awesome too many times already in this Blog? They are really great, picturesque, idyllic you could see they would be majestic in any weather, but on a perfectly still Saturday night with the sun setting across the sea, i doubt they'd get much better... Here's some pics...










So the sun set, and realising we were hungry - ok to be fair, realising Ryan was hungry we headed back to Galway, found the IBIS, had a quick shower and change, then off into town for a couple of drinks and some food. Galway is a great town - really thriving town, great nightlife (well what we saw anyway) and again a really friendly happy atmosphere. Saw a two piece traditional band and spent a bit of time in another cool bar with lots of nooks and crannies. Tried the new Guiness toucan brew, I thought it might have been a little easier to drink than the original (as in not as heavy) but Daryl thought there was no difference. Clearly we're not yet connosieurs and will need to spend much more time developing skills in that area. Inculturation shall we say?

Another late night, another early morning, another feast for breakfast and we were off again. Headed for Dublin and home. Stopped off along the way at an old Catholic Monastery called Clanmacnoise which was started by St Ciarin in 400ish and which is right alongside the Grand Majestic Shannon (as the Pogues so poetically put it...). Needless to say it was plundered by anyone who was anyone that could get up the river... Vikings, Normans, Henry the VIII, and plenty of other English marauders. Such is life I guess. St Ciarin actually died before the monastery was finished (of Yellow fever), evidently they were a bit paranoid about it and so in the cathedral, well actually outside the west door of the Cathedral they invented this ingenious architectural bizzo for a confessional... Idea being that it was better to remain outdoors where the air was cleaner to prevent the spread of disease... anyway the priest stands on one side with his ear into the groove you can see behind Daryl's smiling figure and you talk (or even whisper) into the same groove on the opposite side and the way the groove is it transmits the sound... Really cool - whoever thinks Christians are no brainers are well... no brainers??

So Clanmacnoise was cool, the only other thing I remember from there was that they had very good stone workers/carvers and made great big tall crosses (celtic styles) that are now displayed inside these little stone hobbit house looking dome things... Quite cool really... Hmm and St Ciarin was said to do minor miracles... He was annoyed at his mother doing the washing wrong (or something like that) so he cursed it and made everything turn white... then in his remorse he prayed and restored everything to its original blue colour but apparrently also managed to make the Dog, cat and trees blue also... interesting 'miracles' and hardly seem befitting of a saint, or in line with any kind of christian teaching i've heard, but thats what the plaque said... it's sometimes hard, I think, in Ireland to separate genuine truth from mythology... but the irish are great storytellers bless them!!

Anyway headed back to Dublin, stopped off to see Amanda and Dan who are smiley as ever, and seem to be enjoying life, busy as it may be with running the radio station (Spirit FM 89.9 Dublin) - actually we had opportunity to hear both of them live and they are very good, though Amanda something of a traitor in forgetting to mention NZ in the list of top ten places to visit... She said AUSTRALIA!!! I kid you not. However she vehemently denies this and claims she later went on to extoll the virtues of visiting the motherland which conveniently we were out of range for... Anyway They fed us which was super nice of them, then we left, got stuck in a traffic jam and I missed my flight, €60 later and five hours later and I was again winging my way back home to Nottingham and my beautiful sleepy wife.

A great weekend all round. Hope yours was too, Later, God Bless you, Ry.