My brother-in-law, Patrick Cooper Phelan, in 2007.
As long as I’m wishing you appropriate holiday sentiments, I hope y’all all have a great St. Patrick’s Day. I see tickets are available for the Five Points bash, and you get a discount if you buy them in advance.
I urge you to go to Yesterday’s and buy one, have a pint and remember me to Duncan and my other friends there.
However, I won’t be joining you on the day of. I’ll be in Ireland.
See how I just reeled that off so casually, as though going to Ireland is a small thing that I do all the time? Well, it isn’t. I’ve never been before. But my colleen and I will be boarding a plane for Dublin a week from today, and we’re kind of excited about it. We’ll spend a couple of days there, and on St. Paddy’s Day we’ll be in Waterford, which is my wife’s ancestral home. She’s a Phelan, which is to say she’s an Ó Faoláin.
We have tacitly agreed that while in Waterford, I won’t mention my descent from the guy the hard cider is named after. Although while in Dublin I plan to quietly go to the National Gallery and see his wedding picture, which depicts his taking Irish Princess Aoife Ní Diarmait as his bride. (And if anyone asks me, I’ll stress that I’m just as much descended from her as I am from the Norman. Ahem. So don’t blame me.)
And it promises to be a great St. Patrick’s Day, because my wife’s brother and his wife will be with us. And the most fun I ever had at the Five Points celebration was in 2007, with that same brother-in-law.
Having the two Phelans with me should give me all the cred I need among the Irish. Or so I hope.
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to it. So much so that I started reading Ulysses a few weeks back, to get into the mood. But a couple of “chapters” in, I decided that was unnecessary, and that having read Dubliners is more than enough preparation….
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I’m really disappointed with myself over the Ulysses thing. I had always read that people found it hard to read, and I thought I would NOT, being so smart and all.
Well, I’m not that smart. It was very rough going.
Also, I decided it was pointless. In those first pages, the first place I found that wanted to visit from the book was the tower where Stephen Dedalus (and in real life, Joyce himself, briefly) was living, at Sandycove. I learned that there was a Joyce museum there and everything. But my wife, who handles all the planning and logistics for trips abroad, said there was no way. Traveling out to Sandycove would take up too much of our short time in Dublin. We could either see that, or five other things.
I agreed the idea was impractical. Sometime after, I quit reading the book…
Have you ever taken a stab at Finnegan’s Wake? The book; not the ditty. It took me about half a page to determine that one of us–Joyce or myself–was incapable of a coherent thought.
Have fun over there. Ireland, Australia and Antartica are the only places outside the US I can imagine myself traveling to.
Ireland I understand. And Australia’s interesting. But Antarctica? The only thing I can think of that might recommend it is that, like Ireland (and another fave place, Hawaii), it has no snakes — or at least I assume that.
But Australia’s got all kinds of mean, nasty, ugly snakes, and I do not want to go to there for that reason…
I’m um…green with envy. We went several years ago. Aside from almost getting killed in our rental car when I turned a corner we had a wonderful time. First day it rained sideways all day but after that just a shower or two.
Have fun!!!!
I have a strict rule: I do not drive in countries where they drive on the left.
Besides, I love public transportation…
may the road rise to meet you
may the wind be ever at you back
may the sunshine warm upon your face
and the rain fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again
may god hold you, may god hold you
ever in the palm of his hand
may the road rise to meet you
may the wind be ever at your back
may the sunshine upon your face
and the rain fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again
may god hold you, may god hold you
ever in the palm of his hand
ever in the palm of his hand
the palm of his hand
https://choralmusicpracticefiles.bandcamp.com/album/irish-blessing-bob-chilcott
Thanks, Bill!