This will short and not too sweet. As Elaine reminds me, I always get sick somehow in Ireland. I thought I had passed that obstacle with my stomach virus thingie awhile back. But no! Now a sore throat and congestion. Saturday was a lost day – we stayed in. I had scrambled eggs for dinner after we cancelled our reservations at the Half Door – no sense getting their staff and customers sick as well. It was a long Saturday night – I could hardly swallow. (By the way, I do NOT have Covid. I tested! Taking Panadol Cold and Flu which seems to help some.)
Anyway, I was much better Sunday morning (YAY!), but we still decided to take it easy. It 2 PM now. Maybe we will have an early pint at the pub before settling in for cheese, crackers, paté, and mulled wine in front of a roaring fire. We will be able to see the airborne portion of the fireworks from our window. If there are fireworks, that is. The weather has been fierce – 40-50 mph winds and bouts of lashing rain that may never hit the ground since it seems to be going sideways. I cannot imagine they will have fireworks if the winds are blowing 40 mph.
More on that tomorrow. Yikes, as I write this sentence, the sun came out. It won’t stay out.
Looking for something to do? Read columnist Dave Barry’s End of the Year Review. It’s, as usual, hilarious. I just finished reading it on the Boston Globe site. It’s also here.
Irish weather, as usual. Periods of sun. Rain. Wind. We successfully moved from 18 Ard Na Mara to Water’s Edge House. We were all settled in by 9:30 AM.
It was a do nothing kind of day. Some shopping for essentials. A stop at the pub for me. Dinner was at home – chicken with potatoes and fresh carrots with honey.
The big happening of the day was the concert we attended in St Mary’s Church is support of the Billy Riordan Trust.
The story of the Riordan Trust is sad but uplifting. Mags Riordan is a local woman who lost her son when he drowned in Lake Malawi in Africa. Here is her story:
In February 1999 my only son Billy was drowned in Lake Malawi. He was just twenty five. He had visited the small African country on several occasions and had grown to love the country, its people and in particular the village of Cape Maclear. It was ironic that in his last letter to me he referred to Cape Maclear as “Paradise”. He lost his life in paradise less than 48 hours later.
One year later in February 2000 I travelled to Cape Maclear to place a memorial stone by the Lake in his memory. I spent three months there getting to know the villagers and their way of life.
I returned to the village five times over the next two and a half years spending some time teaching in the primary school. I wanted to identify a project to undertake in the village in Billy’s memory. An outbreak of cholera and continual deaths from malaria and simple childhood diseases very soon made me realise that a medical clinic in the village was not just necessary but essential. For these people medical treatment was almost non-existent. There was no clinic, doctor or nurse here and the nearest hospital is in Mangochi, a difficult four hour journey away. I decided to return to home which is Dingle, County Kerry in Ireland and try to raise the money to build a clinic in Cape Maclear.
The Billy Riordan Memorial Trust was formed and with the generosity of the community at home, and the local chief who donated the land for the Clinic, the original Billy Riordan Memorial Clinic was opened in 2004.
22 years later the clinic has expanded considerably and today it provides a wide range of medical services to the community. The staffing structure has altered. Working with our partners to provide a sustainable and secure future for the Billy Clinic is an ongoing challenge. My personal commitment to my work as CEO of the charity and to the maintenance of acceptable standards of best practice at the clinic continues as strongly as always.
Mags is now trying to add a maternity unit to the clinic and upgrade it to a community hospital. The concert is to raise funds. The musicians are all very well known locally and perform gratis. Eleanor Shanley and Éilís Kennedy are probably the best known. The concert was grand.
Before the Show
During the Show
Some nighttime photos looking out from Water’s Edge House across the waters of Dingle Bay. The Christmas tree is in the apartment above us.
After returning from Killarney, we spent most of the day napping and getting ready to move tomorrow from 18 Ard Na Mara to #2 Water’s Edge House, another Grainne and Marion property. Dinner was at the Chart House, our favorite Dingle restaurant (No, it’s not connected to the US chain and it’s the only Dingle restaurant that is Michelin rated. We have known Susan and Jim at the Chart House since back in 2001. Here’s a potpourri of pictures from the day.
It rained off and on all day, but we had some nice bright spells. From the backyard at 18 Ard Na Mara.
Dinner was grand. Kir Royales to start. The wine was Tin Pot Hut, a pinot noir from New Zealand. We both had the delicious Chart House seafood chowder to start. Then I had rack of lamb while Elaine enjoyed her hake. For dessert it was rhubarb parfait with a ginger crust.
As we walked to O’Flaherty’s just up the street, the moon was shining brightly.
On Friday morning we moved our tack and settled into our new digs. Water’s Edge House is where we stayed for our Christmas’s here in 2017 and 2018. Another concert tonight (in Dingle). See you tomorrow.
The Wolfe Tones have been together for 59 years! There used to be four of them, but one left to go on his own quite awhile back. They are the ultimate Irish Rebel Band. IRA Forever! Ireland Free from the Crown of England! Read about them here.
Back story: In 1985-ish, I was playing Sunday morning basketball with Bobby Messina and Billy Murphy. In the beer session at Amrhein’s in South Boston after playing, we ran into a clerk of court from Quincy. He persuaded us all to take tickets for a concert to be held that night at the Boston Teacher’s Union (on Galvan Blvd, I think). We all agreed to go. Billy and Mianne showed up as scheduled. So did Elaine and I. Bobby was a no show. The concert was by the Wolfe Tones (named after Irish patriot Theobald Wolfe Tone) on an American tour surreptitiously raising money for the IRA. We all had a good time.
So now it is 59 years since the band’s founding and 38 odd years since we saw them. They are doing their 60 Year Farewell Tour that ends next October in Dublin and Belfast. And tonight there were playing at INEC Arena in Killarney, just a 90-minute drive from Dingle. So back in September when the date was announced we decided to get tickets. Good thing we got them then. The concert was totally sold out. And we decided to stay overnight in Killarney at the Gleneagles Hotel which is part of the INEC campus. (INEC Arena is, by the way, the largest concert venue in Ireland outside of Dublin.)
We drove over early and checked into our very comfortable (if chilly) suite. And we had a nice late lunch / early dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. Fried brie bites followed by a quite good fish pie special.
Our room:
The hotel and our lunch:
Then at 7:30 it was off to the concert scheduled to start at 8:00 PM. Irish time, that is. The opening group (okay) started about 8:40. The Wolfe Tones came on well after 9:00 PM. The first floor of the arena was set up as standing room only. Then there is a lower balcony and an upper balcony plus two side balconies. We were midway up in the upper balcony. Very good seats but not great for picture taking or sound recording. The pictures are the best that I could do. Yes, that’s a selfie of the two of us. Directly in front of us sat a three generational family – grandfather, father, and son. The grandfather was a blast and could easily have been in the IRA back in the day. He was totally involved! There were bars about and they were very busy! Beer was flowing freely through the whole affair. We pretty much abstained until after the concert. (Yeah, weird for us, I know.)
The Wolfe Tones played until close to 11:30 PM. They did all their classics and many, many of my favorites. I’ll link to two U-Tube presentations by the Wolfe Tones of two of my most favorite songs:
The story of Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett is a heart breaking story. Read the story here.
Of course, they ended with the classics: Celtic Symphony, On the One Road, and A Nation Once Again. The crowd went wild. Here is the best video that I got:
The Wolfe Tones Farewell Concert Tour at INEC Arena in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland
After the concert we went back to the hotel for a quiet beer in a very busy bar and chatted with a nice family from Cork. Then it was off to bed well after midnight. We had an early breakfast (delicious!) the next morning at the hotel and headed back to Dingle. We stopped briefly at Inch Beach just to snap a picture of angry Dingle Bay. Dinner Thursday night at the Chart House, our favorite Dingle venue. More tomorrow!
Wren’s Day in the pubs and on the streets. You read about Wren’s Day in yesterday’s post. Now it’s all told in pictures. Mardi Gras meets Christmas. All in the name of fun and raising some monies for the Wren Societies charities.
Early On in the Dingle Pub
Then the bowling pins arrived.
And it got progressively wilder as the night wore on.
I went outside for a bit.
Still wild inside the Dingle Pub. Can you spot Elaine in the background?
Then it was time to move down the street to O’Flaherty’s
Ah, some videos:
A final picture. A man and his son enjoy Wren’s Day.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, we go to Killarney where we will spend the night and attend the Wolfe Tones Farewell Tour concert. We won’t get back to our Dingle house until mid-day on Thursday, so the post about the concert trip may be late.
Christmas Day was a quiet one at home after our morning drenching. We had beautful crackers and cheese (from the local Little Cheese Shop) for appetizers. Then it was grilled strip steaks with locally grown carrots (with honey) and au gratin potatoes. Wine, of course. And delicious chocolate candies for dessert,
With Kennedy’s Butcher Shop now sadly closed for good, we got our steaks from Garvey’s SuperValu. Luckily, we know John who used to work at Kennedy’s and now works at SuperValu. He cut me two nice thick Kerry beef strip steaks that were perfect.
Wren’s Day Morning
Wren Day, also known as Wren’s Day, Day of the Wren, or Hunt the Wren Day, is an Irish celebration held on 26 December, St. Stephen’s Day in a number of countries across Europe. The tradition consists of “hunting” a wren and putting it on top of a decorated pole. (Wikipedia)
It’s a dying tradition in many places. Not in Dingle! The Wikipedia link in the last paragraph explains the day in full. This article explains it the local Day version well.
It all starts in the afternoon. But this morning we took a nice (overcast but mercifully dry) morning. We stopped for a takeout coffee for Elaine and a hot chocolate for me. It was pretty quiet in town. We stopped in St Mary’s to light candles. I took lots of pictures as we walked. And we met Jacky, a local resident who is a tour guide by trade. Enjoy the pictures. I think they are mostly stuff you have not seen already.
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Joe and Jacky
More to come on the Wren and his day in tomorrow’s post. Alas, there is a yellow flag warning for rain late in the day.
I was back to 95% of myself, so we went into town on Sunday. We stopped in for an early lunch at James Long Gastro Pub (again). It was very busy. Elaine had a Pizza Margherita – not bad, but not like pizza at home. She took half home for Christmas breakfast. I had a cottage pie – also, not bad but too much potato and not enough meat.
Then we stopped in for Christmas cheer at Curran’s pub. Christmas drinks on the house for Christmas! – Guinness for me, Smithwicks for Elaine. Then on to the Dingle Pub where we had a nice long chat with world Irish dancing champion David Geaney, just back from a two month dance tour of Japan. Guinness for me, Hophouse 13 (made by Guinness) for Elaine. On the house for Christmas! Cheap day out.
Then it was home to relax for Christmas eve and await Santa. He came early. I got three books about Dingle and County Kerry. That will keep me busy until the plane ride home in two weeks. Elaine got a mulled wine kit (which we’ll use NY Eve), a lovely bottle of local chutney, and a turf candle. Nice cards too. We sat around the fire and enjoyed cheese and crackers and wine for dinner. You saw the fireplace picture in yesterday’s post. Here it is again – two versions – and the tree in the solarium as well reflections of the tree in the window.
Christmas Morning (Monday)
It wasn’t raining so we decided on a Christmas morning walk in a very quiet Dingle. As we left the house, there was a white rabbit there to wish us a Happy Christmas.
Everything in Dingle is closed on Christmas, even the pubs. It’s almost surreal. (Well, Moran’s Texaco Station is open until 1 PM, and they have a very nice market and lunch counter – we didn’t stop in.) We did stop in the church (which is also open) to light candles. Took a potpourri of pictures along the way. Find our reflection in the store window. Find the reflection of St Mary’s Church in Dick Mack’s Pub window. See the very deserted Main Street- Christmas is the only day you can get that shot with no one in sight.
After the picture of Main Street, we headed up the hill through fields and houses until we get back down to our street (Ard Na Mara). Naturally halfway up the skies unloaded and we got drenched with lashing rain. We were drenched through and through when we got home. Pneumonia, here I come!
Hot showers and a change of clothes. Jeans into the dryer. Shoes stuffed with newspaper to help dry them out. The rain stopped exactly when we got home. Then it was a quiet Christmas at home. Good dinner coming up. More on that later (or tomorrow).
I felt better as Saturday wore on. My food for the whole day was one piece of toast and a cookie. No Guinness. No Cocktail, Egad. We did briefly go to SuperValu to buy our Christmas Day dinner – two nice thick strip steaks. And to get some more wine. Otherwise we stayed home.
Tonight was the “12 Pubs of Christmas” experience. The young in Dingle travel to their choice of 12 different pubs with at least one drink in each. Think major drunkenness. We usually do our own special “2 Pubs” version, but given my bad tummy, we skipped it altogether.
It’s Sunday AM now. Christmas Eve. And I feel 98% again. We’ll go out to lunch and stop at a pub or two to wish our local acquaintances a Happy Christmas. Tonight we’ll have hors d’oeuvre and wine around the Christmas tree and open our presents.
The weather was improved somewhat so we went for a walk into town including a stop in the church to light candles. Snapped lots of pictures.
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After lunch at home, I went into Currans’ for one drink and took one picture. Back at home the sun actually came out for awhile. Dinner was a repeat at Solas followed by a quick drink at Nelligan’s Pub. Then home to bed.
Alas, I either got some bad food or a stomach bug and I was up all night throwing up. Yuch. So Saturday will be a lost day as I recover. No Saturday post will be forthcoming. My meal for the day was toast and cola. Feeling better as a the day went on, thank goodness.
