Troubles in Northern Ireland

BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND

I returned the rental car at Dublin Airport (I didn’t cry this time) and hopped on a bus to my next country- Northern Ireland.  It was only a couple hours away but it was clearly different- pound sterling currency, miles instead of kilometers and British flags draped everywhere.  I knew absolutely nothing about Belfast until I started reading about the Troubles in my guidebook.  Luckily my brother’s friend Doug was up for the task of playing tour guide as well as host.

My time in Northern Ireland was very brief- I had just one day to pack in some sights.  Doug took me for an accelerated pub crawl on our way to dinner and introduced me to a Dark and Stormy (black seal rum and ginger beer).  We took advantage of the all-you-can-eat sushi, which was perfect because my body was having withdrawals after being out of NYC for so long.  My favorite bar of the evening was probably The Crown Bar, which epitomized Belfast and its turbulent history.  It was owned by a couple- the husband was Catholic and wife was Protestant.  She got to name the bar but he got to decorate it.  So she obviously showed her alliance to the English Monarchy in its name.  However, he had strategically built a mosaic crown at the front door so that every bar patron stepped on the crown before entering.  Ah such a fine line between love and hate!

The next day I rushed through the Ullster Museum before going on a private taxi ride through West Belfast.  Our ‘unbiased’ taxi driver took us through areas where peace walls, derelict buildings and political murals were still very clear and present.  The Irish Catholic names and pious symbols on the Falls were completely overpowered by the Protestant British flags showering down from the power lines on Shankill Road.  They had more flags hanging on a daily basis than Americans do on the 4^th of July.  Although the country seems to be on their road to recovery ,  the wounds are still fresh.  You could feel the bitterness and vengeance from men and women that have seen far too much.  Our driver’s entire family had either been killed or were estranged due to the Troubles.  Although he had no hope for peace or progress in Northern Island, I did.  His generation will never admit to any progress since their hearts were so badly broken.  I believe there is hope for this country through the various private and public programs that focus on integrating the younger generations, especially through sports.  Many people mentioned that the Belfast Giants, the local hockey team, is actually one of the best forms of integration for the community.  Both parties can put their differences aside as they watch the Giants strive to maintain their #1 spot in the Elite Ice Hockey League in the UK.  

Big thanks to Doug for his killer hosting skills in Belfast!  He sent me on my way with tons of tips for my next country- Scotland!

Click on this link to see all the other great pictures from Northern Ireland (you don’t need a facebook account to view the photos): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.916327639917.2363482.1611207&l=957f035cdc&type=1

FOODS I TRIED- Dark and Stormy, crazy good assorted sushi, local cider beer

Hey BLEEP, were you recently in BLEEP? Because I think you were.

             More great look-alikes in Ireland!  I stopped by an Irish music festival in Cork when I had to double-take this woman with distinct reddish hair and tight curls?  This one MUST be our close family friend Christine. She’s usually sitting comfortably on a boat in Acton, Maine this time of year but this one seems too similar to be wrong.  If only I could tell if she had a Boston accent from this picture…

Hey CHRISTINE HANSON GAGNON, were you recently DANCING AN IRISH JIG IN CORK, IRELAND??  Because I think you were.


THE LOOK ALIKE

THE REAL CHRISTINE HANSON GAGNON!

THE DIVA VERSION OF CHRISTINE HANSON GAGNON

Hey BLEEP, were you recently in BLEEP? Because I think you were.

         Of the couple friends I made at the Guinness Factory in Dublin, one definitely looked like my cousin, Mike.  I could give my usual banter here but Mike is a Captain in the US Army and could break my little typing fingers in itty bitty pieces.  I am going to play it safe and politely ask,

Hey MIKE PHELAN, were you recently SAMPLING AMPLE AMOUNTS OF BEER IN THE GUINNESS BREWERY IN DUBLIN??  Because I think you were.

THE LOOK ALIKE

THE REAL MIKE PHELAN

ASSORTED RED HEADS ACROSS IRELAND

Vote for your favorite ginger!

TRENDWATCH- Ireland

            I want to say this guy is a local because he walked with swagger and was accompanied by a dog…but he was in a VERY touristy area when he confidently strolled past with no shirt on.  And don’t go thinking that it was really hot out- Ireland never gets HOT enough that a t-shirt would just be unbearable.  I thought it must be the trend on the Island so…when in Rome.  How embarrassing- this is not a trend to be followed and will only bring females negative attention*.

*No, I never took my shirt off.

FRIEND OR FOE FRIDAY!!!!

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1)   FRIEND!  There is no better introduction to a city than a free tour!  Meet Mik, my tour guide in Dublin.  Sure he was unkept, sure he threw around dodgey dates from time to time, but Mik made it FUN to learn about Irish history! During the three hour tour, Mik was full of energy and kept the tourists guessing on what to expect next. 


2) FOE!  How do you take a tour of the Guinness Factory in Dublin and order something else from the bar at the end?  Even if you don’t like Guinness, you have to suck it up and drink it on this special occasion.  I hope this woman had an allergy that I don’t know about because I see no other reason to be a party pooper at the Guinness factory.

3) FRIENDS!  They’re from New Zealand, of course they’re friends.  I met these brothers at the Guinness factory and ended up going out with them for the night.  The older brother works in Finance in London so we had plenty to talk about.  These guys were a lot of fun.

4)   BOTH!  I had a good time with a couple of these guys the first night but then they ditched me the next night!  Since I didn’t have a phone I had to make 1995 plans where I told them I would meet them outside of a specific bar at a certain time.  No quadruple checking!  Just have to stick to the original plan.  I guess it was too much for them though because I got stood up!  I can’t be too mad- I did the same thing to someone else the night before.

5)  FOES!  This loser couple in Fedora hats tried to take a picture of themselves with the obelisk about 15 times.  It’s as if the camera knew not to photograph two people in those ridiculous hats at the same time.


6)  FOE!  This guy looked like a real creep.  He was by far the oldest guy in the bar and just looked like the type of person that buries things in his backyard.  As you can see, he totally caught me taking his picture here.  Haha.

7) FRIENDS!  These guys were awesome!  I went into a bar alone after getting stood up by the London guys. Within seconds I started talking to these two guys from Long Island and New Jersey!  We had a great night in Dublin!  

8) FRIEND!  This woman must be a real-life leprechaun!  I’ve never seen anyone this short.  She can hardly take pictures over the protective barrier to the Cliffs of Moher.

9)  BOTH!  This is great camera work by my friend Maarja!  This guy is sitting there in a red Wisconsin jacket, red Wisconsin mock turtle neck and red Wisconsin hat.  So, naturally, I went up to him and said, ‘So where ya from?’  I thought he must coach at Wisco to be wearing so much garb.  Nope, he graduated from there about 35 years ago and just loves his glory days on the football and track teams.  Unbelievable.

10)  FRIENDS/FAMILY!!  While in Ireland, I tracked down distant relatives!  Justin and Maria Tuohy (brother/sister) were AMAZING!  They were so excited to meet for dinner and discuss the family tree.  My great grandfather and their grandfather were brothers!  They were two of nine children that all came over from Ireland in the 1920s in search of work.  Five of the children remained in the USA while four returned.   Justin has done some significant work in tracking down the genealogy and I’ll be able to help him when I get back home.  These two were incredibly nice- I still can’t get over it!  They walked me along the boardwalk, took me to dinner and surprised me by putting me up in a cozy B&B for the night.  Just when I thought my family couldn’t get any better!

11)  FRIEND!  I met Maarja from Estonia during my stay in a hostel in Killarney.  She was so cool and I was psyched that she was able to join me for my road trip along the Ring of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula.  I’m confident that she’ll be making her way throughout Europe and then onto America in the coming years so I look forward to our reunion!

The Irish Crescendo

KILLARNEY, IRELAND
DOOLIN, IRELAND
GALWAY, IRELAND

My Irish luck started to turn around when I rolled into the friendly town of Killarney.  I met a 28 year-old girl from Estonia named Maarja in my hostel.  She had been living in Sweden before finding a job in Ireland.  She worked there two days and realized she didn’t like it so she took a different job in Poland and now had a couple weeks to kill.  She had sold her entire apartment and now everything she owned was stuffed in two suitcases weighing 45 kg.  Incredible.  We went for a drink around 23:30 (yes, I’ve submerged myself in the European culture by speaking in military time) and were completely SHOCKED by the Killarney bar scene.  It was Sunday night and the bar was packed.  The live band was really good and the crowd was decked outp.  Perhaps I shouldn’t have worn skinny jeans with hiking shoes?  Yeesh.  Someone is probably featuring me on their Trendwatch blog.

Maarja was really cool so I invited her along for exploring the Ring of Kerry.  Throughout the car ride, she taught me a great deal about growing up under control of the former Soviet Union.  We ferried across to the Valentia Island where we saw very modest dinosaur imprints and hiked an impressive lookout.  I couldn’t help but think just how much Ireland encompassed the color GREEN!   It looked green, it smelled green, it tasted green, and just FELT green overall.  It’s the only place where I needed sunglasses while it rained.  The showers would end just as quickly as they began and they really were worth it- they left the terrain so enriched.  I was able to see and enjoy so much more of the ride since I had my trusty navigator, Maarja.  Roadtrips are definitely more fun when you’ve got good company…not ANY company…but GOOD company.  And Maarja was good people.  We especially enjoyed the hike that overlooked the rock formations near the Valentia Island bridge as well as the Lady’s View towards the end.  Overall, the Ring of Kerry was fantastic- what else can you expect with a name like that?!

Maarja at the Lady's View

Maarja and I went out again that night (slightly more dressed up) and, again, found a great crowd and a lively band.  We had met a 37 year-old German woman who was visiting Ireland for the 7^th time!  She loved it so much that she drove her van all the way from Germany each year and spent weeks driving along the countryside.  The only other country she had been to was Denmark.  When Maarja asked the obvious question of why doesn’t she move to Ireland if she loves it so much, we were surprised that the woman had no answer.  It was like she had never thought of the idea before.  It was kind of strange. 

The next morning Maarja and I hit the Dingle peninsula and I enjoyed it even more than the Ring.  The streets were definitely getting even narrower with each passing day in the old sod.  The speed limit was 100kph but I had trouble breaking 75 while still feeling like I was in control.  The weather was dare-I-say WARM by Irish standards so we stopped at one of the few sandy beaches in Ireland for a swim in the sea.  How sad that they consider this weather summer!  J Maarja was much braver in the water but she’s from Estonia!  That must have felt like bath water compared to what she grew up with!  We saved room for a giant plate of fish and chips in the fishing village of Dingle to get us through the drive toward the17th century beehive huts along the way.  We timed the ride perfectly that we caught a nice sunset as we took the ferry across to Shannon.  We hadn’t arranged accommodations for the night and it turned out to be a good thing.  We were heading for Ennis and banged a uey in search of Doolin.  It was situated very close to the Cliffs of Moher so it would be a good starting point for the following day.

We stayed at the Rainbow Hosted that surprisingly didn’t have a homosexual vibe despite its name and the fact that we were the only girls in the place.  It had a strong hippy vibe though that broke out around 1:30am when they all gathered around the wood-burning stove in the cozy common area and started beating their African drums.  The Four Non-Blondes’ version of ‘What’s Going on’ was much better than their rendition.

I wish I could say that was the most interesting part of our evening but it wasn’t.  Earlier, we had drive the car down to the closest put that ended up being a stone’s throw away from the hostel.  We schmoozed with a cool American from Alaska while a talented 11 year-old piper was piping!  He was incredible on the flute!  We headed for our car around 11:45pm and I noticed there was an old man trying to get into it on the passenger’s side.  I had asked what he was doing and soon realized that he was the drunkest man I have ever met in my life.  He was probably about 75 years old and he couldn’t even stand.  He was so obliterated that he thought it was his car!  His 60 year-old friend was only slightly less drunk and neither of them would let us near the car.  When the older one took his hand off the car and came toward me, he fell and almost cracked his head on the pavement.  We went back in the bar for our Alaskan reinforcement and he tried to coax the old timers away.  The 60 year-old tried to start a fight with him and insisted that he was drunk but he had a pee stain around his crotch about the size of a grapefruit that made us all think otherwise.  Have you ever vehemently denied your drunkenness when you’ve already peed your pants??  Hopefully this Irish trait is not in my family tree.  With the help of a few locals, we were able to assist the old timers to the NEXT car over where they could hold on for dear life until the spins ran their course. 

We had some phenomenal weather the next morning at the Cliffs of Moher!  We walked along the ridge and looked over at the many cliffs of shale and sandstone that dramatically dropped into the oceanic abyss.  I was embarrassed when I finally asked Maarja, ‘Soooo, is that it?’  It’s not that they weren’t impressive- it’s just that it wasn’t clear if the Cliffs referred to the impressive cliff to the left or the impressive cliff to the right or the entire coast that was in view.  She was thinking the same thing!  I sheepishly asked some nearby tourists and they admitted it too!  I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know.  In case you’re in the same predicament in the future, the Cliffs of Moher refer to the entire area in view- all were over 600 feet above the water and all were inspiring.

Maarja and I continued on through the beautiful Burren region near Ballyvaughan where the stones seemed to be sprouting up right from the patchy grass.  There were many camps and tents independently set up along the coast and I was reassured that this was a good life indeed.  Waking up in a tent next to the ocean in the FILL IN THE BLANK region would knock the socks off any 5 star all-inclusive resorts.  Well, it would knock mine off.

Thanks to my Uncle Jimmy’s devotion to our family’s genealogy I was able to track down some of our ancestry in Ireland on my mother’s side!  My father had always insisted that my mother descended from leprechauns....there was no better explanation for her shortness. J  I was interested in putting the rumors to rest!  I didn’t have an email address but I knew this woman taught at the University of Galway.  I sent a hopeless email to the default address for her department and it actually got to her!  And she answered!  Maria Tuohy was SO excited that I had reached out and she insisted that we get together in Galway during my visit!  I cannot believe that I was able to track down family and set up dinner all within 3 days of a random email.  I knew they were going to be great from the very beginning!

They surprised me by reserving a lovely Guesthouse for my last night in Ireland- incredibly thoughtful.  It felt SO nice to have my own room and organize everything the night before my next move!  I set out to explore the vibrant college town of Galway and wrote a couple postcards while I anxiously awaited the arrival of Justin, Maria’s brother, who would join us for dinner.  Upon first impression, Justin could have served as the stunt double for Liam Neeson…so we could be related to Liam too!  He was incredibly warm and welcoming.  We picked up Maria and they took me for a walk along the pier before settling down for dinner. Maria was so sweet and it was remarkable to see the family resemblances in just a few hours of getting acquainted.   Justin politely waited until after dinner to bring out the extensive family tree he started working on only three days earlier when he received my email!  Those O’Hara’s know how to work hard and smart!  We traced back the tree and discovered that my great-grandfather and their grandfather were brothers.  Of the nine siblings that left Ireland in search of work in the USA, 4 of them returned.  It was a really fun night and I felt so lucky to be related to such kind and generous people!  And smart!  Oh and good-lookin' too!  Check out the photo :)

Justin, me and Maris with our family tree!

                              Click on this link to see all the other great pictures from Northern Ireland (you don’t need a facebook account to view the photos): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.915265897657.2363180.1611207&l=89eddb9a9b&type=1

FOODS I TRIED- Guinness, Coddle Stew, Dark and Stormy, crazy good assorted sushi, local cider beer