Mary’s Postmortem

[Written by mary, edited and published by brian]

Well, we made it home safe and somewhat sound. Strange to think a week ago, we were in Dublin, enjoying our first daylight savings, yep a last night another fall back!

So, many of you are asking yourselves (and sometime us), why Ireland (again?), why so often. It’s a small island, haven’t you seen it all? Well, I have three answers to all of that. 

First, it’s the people. The people of Ireland are the most giving, generous, helpful, fun loving, quick with a joke, and just plain nice. And in today’s world, nice is a very good thing. We are always pleasantly surprised with the nicety of the folk, Especially in the smaller villages. We were in the town of Tullamore, looking at a pub’s lunch menu, when a local tells us, the food’s good, as we enter, he tells the waitress to treat us well, we are guests. the guy wasn’t the owner, just a local. In Kenmore, we were looking at google maps on our phones, when a lovely woman asked what are we looking for;  we tell her and of course she sees us off in the right direction. We run into that all the time, and pubs are the best for conversations with locals. And they speak English, although some of the  different regions with the differing dialects can be challenging to understand – but they are a very patient people. On the roads, the politeness is evident, they patiently wait for us (everyone) to navigate the round-a-bouts, narrow roads, unpaved roads, and then when they pass you, they give you a thumbs up, how pleasant is that! Oh, and it’s not the middle finger…

The second reason is the absolute beauty of the Island. We continue to find beautiful waterfalls to photograph, dense forests to walk in, lovely villages, rivers and mountains to take you breath away. And how could one not love the names of some of the places, the Mountains of Mourne, The forest of Antrim, Macgillycuddy’s Reeks, Giants Causeway, Clonmacnoise, The Burren, and the cliffs of Moher, all with different landscapes. always another beautiful view down the road. 

But to me – the third and most important reason is Ireland restores my soul, and refreshes my faith in humanity. The churches, from the small villages to the large cities, are all magnificent, beautiful, and truly awe inspiring. I can’t help but feel the presence of the Lord himself. The simple masses that the Irish Catholics practice; (no grand entrance by the Priest, little or no music – just the mass), is refreshing and a reminder that all the hoopla is not necessary for an engaging, and moving experience. And we haven’t attended one mass that a local hasn’t welcomed us, and asked where we were from, and yes, take as many pictures of our church as you’d like. 

So, yea, we are already planning our next trip, we found 2 new spots we’d like to visit again. And maybe then, (when?) Brian will get to the Forrest’s of Antrim!