So had a really lovely time hanging out with family and friends in Dublin, and great having Mum and Dad back from Uganda so that the family home was ours again :)
Had a great evening at The Comedy Cellar (above The International Bar) with Morgan & Becs, Matthew and Maaike. The compere was excellent – and most of the acts were well worth the 10 Euro cover charge.
Met up with friends (and unexpectedly bumped into Caoimhin) in the Cobblestone. It’s a trad-music pub – well worth a visit if you’re in Dublin (I reckon). Had a *few* Guinnesses, and didn’t do very much the next day.
On the way back from Skellig Michael we dropped in on some old friends of the family (and my old Scout Leaders) Paddy and Jane Glanville.
They have a holiday house (Bach) down on Lough Derg, so we were lucky enough to have a quick boat trip on the Lake.
Emma, their daughter, was as … sharp as ever.. when she said “if your boat is sinking – get Maaike to row”. No idea why – I think she was just lucky. That said, I suppose the Netherlands is mostly under water.
This was an absolutely brilliant trip. I’d always wanted to get to Skellig Michael as it’s the last of the UNESCO sites in Ireland that I’d not seen. It’s a very long way from Dublin to Skellig Michael. At least in Irish Terms anyway. It’s about 6 hours drive down to where you catch the boat, and another hour on the boat from there. I’m not sure where a further point from Dublin might be.
On the way down we were lucky to be able to go via Birr (Co. Offaly). A good friend from college (Angelica) is living there – and has just had a baby (Eamonn)…
It really was a very quick drop in to say “hi and bye” as her sister was arriving for a picnic.
After dropping in to see Ang, we were lucky enough to have a cuppa coffee with my Dads second cousin who was Alison (Cook-Hurle (grandfather was Davey)) – and married the Earl of Rosse. They live in Birr Castle. I vividly remember going there for a visit as a 6 year old. There were secret passageways everywhere, and a dungeon, and and and.. everything. It was amazing.
This time we had great chats about Skellig Michael (Birr is hoping to become a UNESCO site because of the Leviathan of Parsonstown which was a 1.8m diameter reflecting telescope built in 1845 by the Third Earl of Rosse (a former President of the Royal Society), and the biggest telescope in the world until 1917. It was great to drop in – and now I must get round to reading “The Gallant Little Campeador” which is a WW2 story about some older gentlemen (specifically our mutual great (great?!) Uncle Charlie) who wanted to help with his yacht in the war. The Admiralty told them to go away as they were too old – and they wrote to Churchill, who then wrote the admiralty a note saying “Age will be served” – and off they went.
I seem to be wandering. Here is a picture of Birr Castle – with the Earl and Countess of Rosse.
Next it was on down to Portmagee (Kerry) which is where the boat to Skellig Michael goes from.
It’s a beautiful part of Ireland and well worth the trip if you’re in the country for a while. The people are far more relaxed (dare I say it, Kiwilike?). I’d arranged a house to stay in (€150 for the house for two nights! – bargain!) through the boat people. Our landlady gave us these instructions:
- Turn left at Fishermans Pub (all Irish directions must include a pub)
- At the school bear right
- 5th house past “the bend”
Almost found it perfectly, but missed “the bend”. Anyways, Mary came out and leaned in through the window and shook each of us by the hand saying “welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome”. It was really warming.
Chris and Matt (brothers) drove down from Dublin that evening and it meant a lot to have them down there for the trip out to the Island. The only thing that was missing (besides my sister) was the whiskey bottle. But then that might have been a fortuitous omission for the boat ride the next day…
We were lucky to be invited to the wedding of my primary school friend (Keith Lambkin)’s wedding. He was marrying another friend (Aisling) whom I met in secondary school – and Keith properly met in college.
It was a really lovely wedding – and great to catch up with a few other friends (Ben, Barry) at the shindig. Keith is now the ‘Chief Scientist’ down in Valentia where he runs the MET Service’s meteorological weather observatory. Sounds really interesting – and he’s definitely loving it down there. Aisling is going to move down there now that they’re married – and hopefully she’ll be able to find interesting work. Still, it’s a beautiful part of the world.
At Irish weddings (I wasn’t aware of this to date), there are bets taken on how long the speeches will go on for… I think it was 37 minutes all up? – I’ve put the audio to most of the best man’s speech (Ian, Keiths brother) up here (click to play). And we were put at ‘Abel Tasman’ table too – quite appropriate I thought :)
It was great to be there – I’m sure they’ll have a lovely happy life together.
The next morning (Weds) Maaike and I headed back to Dublin – via Mount Usher gardens (just a small gardens in Wicklow – but lovely in spring). Maaike is hiding in one of these pictures. Postcard to the first correct poster (not a hard one I think).
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