Life Across the Pond

Goodbye

2011-01-03T09:51:00.001Z

“How are ye keeping?’ I hear friends and acquaintances greet each other passing in the streets of Clonmel. “Grand, just grand!” is usually followed by an observation about the weather, “Brilliant day it is!” or “Desperate weather we’re having!” The Irish are not fond of whinging, so even the latter response is often followed by, “But ah, could be worse.”

As a blow-in, I'm a party to less street chatter, but I usually run into a few acquaintances about town. I've adapted quite well to small-town living and given my oft-stated preference for big cities, who would've guessed.

We return to the U.S. with our fringe, our bobbins, our wellies, and grit on the streets. Soon we'll be pushing the trolley in the store (absent the token), looking for offers, and queuing at the register. Eileen is happy to leave behind her tie, her jumper, and her pinafore to don street clothes again. I imagine we'll return to soccer blitzes on the pitch, and we'll sing from the same hymn sheet occasionally.

All the bits have been sorted, all the boxes ticked. The move will soon be done and dusted.

Banjaxed their country might be, the Irish punters still know how to enjoy the craic. Cheers, lads! It’s been brilliant.

The Stars are Coming

2010-11-11T10:16:00.002Z

Excitement is in the air as filming begins in Fethard on a movie starring Martin Sheen and notable Irish actors. Fethard is about 15 minutes from Clonmel, but it's so small it lacks a hotel so most of the stars and production crew are staying in Clonmel. 600 locals turned out to vie for the 60 extras parts. Look for "Stella Days" in the theaters next year.I think I'll venture up next week and see what I can see.

Closer to home, the Liam McCarthy Cup makes its appearance at Eileen's school today. The Cup is the All-Ireland Hurling Championship trophy, won, as blog followers will know, by our own County Tipperary this year. The post-season tradition is that the Cup and various team players and coaches tour the local schools in virtually every tiny burg in the county, in a rolling road show that is part pep rally, part motivational talks, and lots of photo opps for the kids. (And these guys aren't even paid for playing or coaching the game, much less the roadshow!)

"The Irish Are So Nice!"

2010-11-11T09:43:00.000Z

I can't track receipt of mail to the U.S. and I can't access my Bank of Ireland credit card information without Dean's permission even though I'm holding a card embossed with my name (which is a whole other story), but what people say about the Irish, "They are so nice!" is proved true almost daily.

I recently flew into the Cork airport and took the milk run bus home. Dean was to pick me up in Cahir, a town about 15 minutes from Clonmel, in order to shave 40 minutes from my bus ride. Upon boarding, I asked the driver where in Cahir the bus stopped so I could tell Dean, and he said, "I stop at the castle, but if you need to go somewhere else in town, I can stop there, too."

As we pulled into one of the villages along the bus route, a women went to the front of the bus to speak to the driver. All I heard of the conversation was "wait" and "a few minutes." When the bus stopped in town, she ran out and across the street where she knocked on a door, was admitted inside, and returned to the bus a few minutes later, thanking the driver.

Think Greyhound provides this kind of service??

And how often are castles on their route!

Cultural Idiosyncrasies

2010-10-11T22:35:00.000+01:00

A woman goes into a post office. She must mail an important document to the U.S. in the fastest manner possible. She inquires about speedy delivery and is told that for only 28 euros, her package would be delivered expeditiously. Further inquiry reveals that "expeditiously" is loosely defined as 2-3 days, not including weekends, and oh, no guarantee on the time. Lacking FedEx, DHL, or UPS in Clonmel, Irish An Poste is the only game in town, so 28 euros (dollar devaluing by the day) is paid for expeditious delivery.

"I need to track this item," she informs the postal employee, and she dutifully completes a tracking form.

Three days later package has not arrived at U.S. destination, so woman goes to visit her new friend at the post office to determine location of package. Package left Dublin two days ago she is told. "And where is the package now?" inquires woman. "I can't know that," replies postal employee, "we only track items until they leave Ireland. We can't know what happens to them after that."

Woman has been in Ireland long enough to know that it would be futile to point out the absurdity here.

From Pig's Blood to the Druids

2010-10-04T12:58:00.000+01:00

The town of Clonakilty, home of black pudding, and the Druid site of Drombeg circle, were two of the stops on our jaunt through Cork County.

Irish black pudding was originally made by rural housewives and sold to butchers in nearby market towns along with farm produce to supplement their modest household income. Following the maxim, “Waste not, want not,” blood from slaughtered pigs was mixed with a filler, such as onions or oatmeal until thick enough to congeal when cooled, then formed into sausages. Mouth-watering, hmm??

In the late 1880s, Clonakilty butcher Philip Harrington began producing blackpudding using the secret recipe of a local farmwife, and it was wildly popular. In 1976, local butcher Edward Twomey inherited the recipe and continued producing it. The customer base extended outside the local area, so Twomey created a brand and label to differentiate his product. Today, the recipe for Clonakilty Black Pudding remains a closely guarded secret, known only to Edward Twomey’s wife.

Drombeg circle is a recumbent circle of 13 of 17 original pillar stones, approximately 31 feet in diameter, with the recumbent or altar stone lying to the south-west. The circle stones have been shaped to slope upwards to the recumbent itself. The midpoint of this stone was set in line with the winter soltice sunset viewed in a conspicuous notch in the distant hills; the alignment is good but not precise. Carbon dating of evidence from a site excavation revealed that the site was active around 945 - 830 BC!

Nearby are the remains of two stone prehistoric huts joined by a common doorway. The smaller hut has a cooking place which was still in use in the 5th century AD. This prehistoric kitchen had a flagged trough in which water was boiled by dropping red-hot stones into it. Recent tests confirmed that using this method, 70 or more gallons of water could be boiled for almost three hours.

The site is believed to have been used by druids, a priestly class, who are portrayed in Irish literature as sorcerers with supernatural powers, respected in society, particularly for their ability to “forsee, to be inspired by a god.” Reputedly, they cast spells and could turn people into animals or stones, or curse peoples’ crops to be blighted. At the same time, the term “druid” is sometimes used to refer to any figure who uses magic.

Very little is definitively known about the ancient druids since they left no written accounts about themselves. While archaeological evidence has been uncovered pertaining to the religious practices of the Celtic people, no artefacts or images have been found that can undoubtedly be connected with the ancient druids.

Eating Well

2010-09-23T13:42:00.000+01:00

Tipperary County, home to Clonmel, is one of the prime agricultural areas in a country where approximately 65% of the land area is in agricultural use. County Tipp is particularly known for it's excellent dairy and meat products, and we love the local cheeses, beef, pork, and lamb. Local butcher shops still thrive in Ireland; there are at least seven of them in Clonmel. Here's an article that recently appeared in the national newspaper, Irish Times, about our favorite local butcher.

ANOTHER TIPPERARY WINNER

If you love meat, being let loose in James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel is like being a chocolate addict let lose in a chocolaterie. On my first visit, my head was practically spinning off as I struggled to take it all in. Over here, a slow-reared Hubbarb Ross chicken on sale for an eminently reasonable €11.99. Over there (excitement mounting now), a large selection of free-range and organic pork and bacon – you really can count on one hand the number of butchers that sell outdoor-reared pig meat. Then, the pièce de résistance: beef and lamb reared on their own 200-acre farm just down the road and killed at their on-farm abattoir. For any consumer weary of the dizzying complexity of the modern food chain, this is road to Damascus stuff – end-to-end meat production happily confined to a five-mile radius.

The man behind this meat-utopia is Pat Whelan, a fifth generation butcher whose aim is to maintain the traditions handed to him by his father, while adapting them for modern life. “I don’t look on this as something I have inherited,” he says. “I see it as something I have borrowed from my own children.”

Thus, Whelan’s passion for tradition is juxtaposed with a willingness to embrace, for example, some decidedly untraditional routes to market. Whelan is a regular tweeter (@pat_whelan), and now has a significant online business that sells meat nationwide (with guaranteed next-day delivery). “My mother used to have her country business – she would deliver meat one day a week and we used to go with her as kids. Now our country business has returned with the internet.”

His relentless quest for innovation has brought Whelan all over the world, researching best practice in the industry. In Japan he was impressed by the famous Wagyu breed of cattle. They produce beef intensely marbled with fat, resulting in increased tenderness and flavour. Advocates claim that Wagyu beef has health benefits due to a higher percentage of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Since the visibly high fat content of Wagyu might put off Irish beef eaters, Whelan decided to cross the breed with some of his own Angus herd. The result is a new style of Wagyu beef reared specifically for the Irish palate. “The Angus influence doesn’t allow it to develop too much fat, but at the same time doesn’t compromise the flavour.”

Out on the farm he proudly shows off the in-calf Angus heifers (shortly to give birth to Wagyu/Angus calves), and other breeds including Piedmont and Hereford. Looking at the space these beautiful creatures have, living out their days on rolling Co Tipperary countryside, it’s little wonder that the end result is such a triumph.

“We have an incredible resource in this country with our climate and the grass diet we can offer our animals,” says Whelan. “Our job is to create premium products so that we are price makers and not price takers.” Consumers, he says, will pay the premium once the back-story is properly communicated to them.

The on-farm abattoir is something that marks this out as a very special operation. Over the past decade the number of small abattoirs has dropped dramatically, replaced by large industrial slaughterhouses and centralised distribution. “You can take all the care you want with your animal husbandry, but if you have them going in to an industrial process, the animals will be stressed. Sending them up a ramp on to a truck and transporting them 40 miles to an industrial abattoir is not ideal for them or the quality of the meat.”

On this farm, a small number of animals are brought down from the fields and slaughtered in the spotlessly clean abattoir every other day. The morning I visit, six heifers have been processed and the carcasses are hanging in a cold room.

The meat is dry-aged for two weeks before it appears on the shelf of the store in Clonmel. “As the beef gradually loses moisture, it develops flavour and as the enzymes break down the muscle fibres, the meat becomes more tender. The result is beef with a natural sweetness and a deep red colour.”

In 2007 Whelan came up with the idea of the Tipperary Food Producers’ Network – a collection of 30 artisan producers who put on an annual summer banquet each year called the Long Table Dinner at which every morsel of food served is sourced from within the county boundary. The idea of sustainable local economies and having a buoyant local food sector in the county is very important to him.

Ultimately, he says, it all comes back to the customer. “Our entire business is about developing relationships with customers and giving them what they want. We had a customer approach us recently looking for pork chops with the kidneys left in. We can ask out pork supplier, Crowe Farm Meats to facilitate us. Being able to do that is wonderful.”

By Hook or by Crook

2010-09-07T14:46:00.014+01:00

Dean and I recently visited Hook Head Lighthouse. Constructed in the 13th century, it is the oldest lighthouse in Ireland and England and is believed to be one of the oldest operational lighthouses in the world. In fact, mariners have been guided by a warning light here since the 5th century when St. Dubhan set up a fire beacon on the headland, which his monks kept going for another 600 years.

The tower is constructed of local limestone and burned lime mixed with ox’s blood. The original building survives almost intact at 120 feet high with walls 9-13 feet thick. It has two tiers, the first with three levels—one for coal storage, the other two serving as a residence for the lighthouse keepers—and the upper tier originally supporting the coal beacon replaced in the 1970’s by an electric lantern. A lighthouse keeper lived in the lighthouse until 1982, and the lighthouse became fully automated in 1996.

According to Wikipedia, the expression “by Hook or by Crook” refers to the local geography. It's claimed that the phrase is derived from Oliver Cromwell’s attempts in the mid-16th century to capture the city of Waterford by Hook (to the east of the harbor) or by Crook (to the west side of the harbor).

We climbed all 115 steps for a spectacular view from the top of the first tier.

The Walled Town

2010-09-07T14:10:00.000+01:00

The highlight of the recent Clonmel Walled Towns Festival was a tour of the town’s wall and a talk explaining its history and continuing preservation efforts. Clonmel was founded in about 1205 under a land grant from the English king, and construction of the town’s defensive walls began in the late 13th century. Their utility for defensive purposes ended with the Williamite peace of the early 18th century. Clonmel is one of over 50 towns in Ireland that had defensive walls built during the medieval period, and its wall is among the best preserved in the country.

Originally, the wall measured approximately 1,400 x 902 feet. As a defensive wall, it stood 26 feet high, almost 5 feet thick, and enclosed an area of approximately 35 acres. (Only the Anglo-Normans lived within the walls; the native Irish were allowed to trade within them but required to live outside the walled town.) There were at least nine towers and five gates in the medieval wall. Only the remains of two towers exist today, and none of the medieval town gates survive above ground, although the West Gate was reconstructed in 1831 on its original site.

In 1650, Oliver Cromwell laid siege to Clonmel in what was one of the bloodiest battles in his campaign to conquer Ireland. The wall suffered heavy damage, and all contemporary accounts concur that the north wall was breached.

Beginning in the second half of the 18th century, the industrial revolution generated new construction of mills, warehouses, and a quay for access to the River Suir. The south wall was demolished to make room for this development, and later, other sections of the wall suffered a similar fate.

Up Tipp!

2010-09-07T12:54:00.000+01:00

The blue and gold of County Tipperary (home to Clonmel) is flying jubilantly as Tipp supporters celebrate the County’s win in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, an Irish sporting feat roughly equivalent to the home team winning baseball’s World Series.

County Tipperary, “The Premier County,” has long been a hurling powerhouse, having won the first All-Ireland in 1888 and 25 more titles since then. The team, however, entered this match as underdogs against County Kilkenny, which was looking for an historic 5-in-a-row All-Ireland win. The game was an exciting rematch between the two teams who met in last year’s championship match.

Hurling is an outdoor team sport of ancient Gaelic origin, although play was banned by the British for many years, and play by the first set of standardized rules wasn’t until the 1880’s. Hurling is played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. The object of the game is for players to use the hurley to hit the sliotar between the opponents' goalposts—a hit over the crossbar earns one point, and under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper earns three points. The sliotar can be caught in the hand and carried for up to four steps, and it can be struck in the air or on the ground with the hurley. It can be kicked or slapped with an open hand.

Hurling is a contact sport. In the “hook” tackle, a player approaches another one from the rear and attempts to catch his opponent’s hurley with his own at the top of the swing. The “side pull” tackle is where two players run together for the sliotar, colliding at the shoulders and swinging together to win the tackle and swing the hurley with extreme force. Players may be tackled but not struck by a one handed slash of the stick, and side-to-side shouldering is allowed. Players choose to wear little or no protective padding, although a plastic protective helmet with faceguard was required for the first time this year. Hurling is played primarily in Ireland, and is thought to be the world's fastest field team sport in terms of game play. (Watch a game clip here--look for the blue and gold!. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmzivRetelE)

Two significant aspects of hurling set it apart from top American team sports. First, teams are organized by parish and county, so that players typically play together from the time they first pick up a hurley in preschool; no player trades, no free agency. Second, hurling is a game played by amateurs, in the original sense of the word. The players are not paid—they earn their living as schoolteachers, shop owners, farmers, craftsmen, and the like, while they train after-hours. The Gaelic Games Association, which administers the game and all competitions, is a community-based volunteer organization.

Up Tipp!

Connemara and Inishbofin Island

2010-06-25T18:33:00.001+01:00

This past weekend, we left kids with visiting kindly grandparents and drove a scenic loop through the Connemara area, on Ireland's west coast closer to the northern end of the island. According to one of my trusty guidebooks, it is said that "for every star God put in the sky, he laid a million stones on Connemara." I would not dispute that. Its rocky, treeless terrain resembles the moonscape, bordered by a wild and dramatic coastline and punctuated by inland lakes.

Our trip began in Galway, southeast of Connemara, and we followed the coastal route out to Cleggan on the western tip where we ferried across for an overnight stay on Inishbofin Island. The scenery is breathtakingly spectacular; neither my words nor Dean's pictures do it full justice. Connemara is sparsely populated, even by Irish standards. That’s likely due to the harshness of the environment, being exposed to rough weather from the Atlantic. It's hard to make a living farming here, and except for Galway (largest nearby city), there is no large industry.

The island of Innishbofin is about 5.8 km x3.5 km. Sheep outnumber people. It is gloriously wild and remote. We took about a 5 km walk around the west quarter of the island, and our bonus was the best weather we’ve had since our arrival. Low 70’s, coastal breeze, and sunny the entire weekend.

The large ruined fort on Inishbofin Island is Cromwell's Barracks. Built in 1656, the fort was used as a prison for Catholic priests when the English Statute of 1655 declared them guilty of high treason.

The house is a "fixer" with a grand view.

see more photos of Connemara and Inishbofin Island

Wicklow Mountains

2010-06-24T22:04:00.000+01:00

Recently I took me, myself, and I on a weekend jaunt along the eastern coast of Ireland. Leaving Clonmel, I headed due east to the port town of Wexford, then jogged slightly inland up to the port town of Arklow, which is just south of the Wicklow mountain range.

County Wicklow, immediately south of Dublin and hugging the eastern coast, “the garden of Ireland,” is characterized by forests, lakes, waterfalls, and country estates. It is a quiet, lush, and serenely beautiful landscape as contrasted with much of Ireland’s western coast, which has a rugged and tempestuous beauty. Two valleys, Glendalough and the Sally Gap, cut through the Wicklow mountains.

On my own time, lacking a chorus of “When will we be there? I’m hungry, I’m bored….”I toodled along, stopping where so inclined and lingering as long as interested. The Powerscourt Gardens, was a preplanned stop—these gardens have been described as the finest in Ireland, both for their design and dramatic setting at the base of the Great Sugar Loaf Mountain. The photos show two of the different garden areas, the Italian and Japanese gardens.

Next stop was the village of Avoca, home to Avoca Handweavers, established in 1723, and now the oldest working woollen mill in Ireland. Purchases were made.

I spent several hours exploring Glendalough and walking some trails in Wicklow Mountains National Park. Glenn Da Locha is Irish for “valley of the two lakes;” it is the setting for a 6th century monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin, a descendent of royalty who rejected his privileged life to become a hermit in a cave in this valley. Glendalough grew to be a thriving monastic settlement, housing 500-1,000 by the end of the 8th century. The main features are its round tower and the ruins of the monastic buildings, the latter which date from the 12th century, as well as the requisite graveyard.

Spring Has Sprung!

2010-04-25T12:56:00.000+01:00

Spring has sprung, and we're all basking in the (relatively) warm weather and sunny skies. Here's a taste of springtime in Clonmel, including ladies' fashion headgear for the horse races..

Seaside Ardmore

2010-04-25T12:44:00.001+01:00

Spring has sprung here in southern Eire, so we journeyed to the seaside town of Ardmore to bask in long-awaited sun on the beach. Today, Ardmore is known as a seaside resort, but ancient history claims it as the oldest Christian settlement in Ireland. St. Declan lived in the region 350-450 AD and Christianised this area before the coming of St. Patrick.

Declan founded a seminary in Ardmore circa 416, and the holy well nearby served as a baptistery to the primitive Christian missionaries. Declan retired for greater seclusion to a little cell he had made himself at the spot where now is the ruined church beside the holy well. There is no uniform date for this church; the western section is the earlier construction, whereas parts of the eastern end show signs of 14th century work.

Situated overlooking Ram Head and the Celtic Sea, a single-storey, single-room look out was constructed by the Irish Government in one day in 1940. It was used during World War II by ships and aircraft which passed and had a telephone connection to the village post office.

Along the Cliff Walk above Ardmore beach, we had some spectacular views of the Celtic Sea.

Paris, c'est magnifique!

2010-04-16T18:35:00.035+01:00

Paris, being Paris, was magnifique! We packed in as much as the stamina and interest of a 10 and 15-year old could handle, and we set out on our own a few times. Our apartment was on the Canal St. Martin, a cozy neighborhood, and we watched boats going through the locks from our windows.

Walking around Ile de la Cité, a small island in the Seine River-- in medieval times the center of political power and the home of church and law—we visited the Nôtre Dame cathedral. Wandering around, we discovered the Marché aux Fleurs, a large, beautiful outdoor flower market. Lunch was at a small crèperie on the adjoining Ile St.-Louis.

One evening, we ventured out to see Paris and its famous monuments illuminated at night. The Arc de Triomphe, a stroll down the Champs Elysées, and on to the Eiffel Tower, intending to go to the top. The 3-hour wait dissuaded us, however, so we remained at ground level. It is spectacular at night, all lit up, and every hour for about 10 minutes, illuminated by thousands of twinkling lights, all the more beautiful.

Since Eileen really wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, she and I set out to be there at 9am, planning to wait an hour or so. The line looked reasonable, but little did we know it was only the first of several lines (line to buy tickets, line for elevator to 2nd floor, line for elevator to top, etc.). At noon, we joyously arrived at the top!

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

The neighborhood of Monmartre is crowned by the basilica of Sacré-Coeur. In its heyday at the end of the 19th century, Monmartre was the haunt of artists, writers, and poets who gathered in its bordellos and cabarets, such as the famous Moulin Rouge. Toulousse-Lautrec and his cohorts are long gone, and the charm of the neighborhood lies in its narrow, winding, stone streets climbing the hill to Sacré-Coeur and the incredible city view from the top.

Alison and I enjoyed window shopping in one of the grand department stores of Paris, Galeries Lafayette… très chic! Aside from the goods offered at this seven floor shopping emporium—I was in seventh heaven wandering an entire floor devoted to shoes until I realized that I could only afford the Birkenstocks!-- the building itself is worth the trip. Built in 1906, it is an exquisite example of glittering belle époque architecture.

On to the chateau at Versailles, about a 25 minute train ride from Paris. Adjectives such as opulent, grandiose, and over-the-top don’t do justice to its display of wealth. Every square inch of the floors, walls, and ceilings appear to be decorated or adorned, much of it in gold. Once housing 20,000 people, Louis XIV began construction in 1668 on what became the largest palace in Europe. Today, it’s known as the site of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors, a 233-foot hall lined with 17 great mirrors facing tall arched windows. There are several smaller royal buildings situated in the sumptuous gardens.

The girls chose the Pompidou Centre, which houses a modern art collection, as the museum to visit. The design of the building itself is very modern. Described as a building “turned inside out,” much of the infrastructure—escalators, lifts, water ducts, steel struts of the building’s skeleton—is on the outside. Riding the escalators inside clear tubes on the outside of the building was a highlight for Eileen.

The artwork inside was interesting, to say the least.

There was a special exhibition of paintings by Lucien Freud, the grandson of Sigmund. The focus of his work for this exhibit is the distinction between “nude,” those rosy, cherub-like bodies depicted by Ruebens and Titian and “naked,” a painting vérité of the lifelike human form; his paintings are a study of the effects of time and the human condition on the body. Witnessing firsthand the effects of time on the human body, I’m sticking with the nudes. After viewing the video of a naked woman hula-hooping with a barbed wire hoop, we decided that we’d had our fill of modern art and naked people for the day.

A fabulously sunny spring day brought many Parisians and myself to the Jardin du Luxembourg, a 60-acre park in the heart of the Left Bank. The gardens are centered around the Luxembourg Palace and dominated by the octagonal pool as seen in this photo.

Fountain and Grand Canal at Versailles (below)

For more photos, go to http://lifeacrossthepond.shutterfly.com/

La Vie Juive in Paris

2010-04-10T22:46:00.000+01:00

An exploration of la vie juive in Paris led us to a progressive bilingual synagogue, matzoh ball soup, and several memorials to Jewish children killed in the Holocaust.

Alison and I wanted to attend Shabbat services in Paris;in searching for synagogues, I found Kehilat Gesher, a “progressive bilingual Jewish synagogue serving the French and Anglophone Jewish Community,” founded by Rabbi Tom Cohen, a native of Portland, Oregon. We attended the Friday night Shabbat service, and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that most of the melodies were familiar to us, so we joined in without hesitation. Hebrew is, of course, Hebrew, so we were somewhat surprised that the transliterations often looked unfamiliar; but in thinking about this, I realized that the way French speakers would recognize the sounds and form them would be different from the way English speakers recognize them. As the only Jews in Clonmel (and likely some of the few outside Dublin), we do feel the lack of a Jewish community, so it was wonderful to be among fellow members of the tribe even if only for a few hours.

On Sunday, we went to Rue des Rosiers, in the Marais district, the historic center of Jewish settlement in Paris. Jews first settled here in the 13th century, with a significant wave of immigration from Russia, Poland, and Eastern Europe in the 19th century. Sephardic Jews arrived from Egypt and north African countries in the 1950’s and 60’s.

We strolled the narrow street lined with small shops, bakeries, and kosher restaurants. Fo lunch, matzoh ball soup, latkes, and matzos were a welcome treat. Not to mention the desserts of dark chocolate cake and gourmet white chocolate. The only disappointment was the absence of bagels (due to Passover prohibitions), which we cannot seem to find in Ireland.

The girls wanted to bring home some boxes of matzoh, but aside from the question of how to fit them in the suitcases, I was certain we’d arrive home with matzoh meal. We settled for bringing back several packages of matzoh ball soup mix.

As I walked through ours and nearby neighborhoods, I was struck by how many memorials to Jewish children killed in the Holocaust that I saw. They were on several schools and in two parks. The memorial in the Jardin Villemin states that 11,000 Parisian children, 700 of whom lived in this district, were deported by order of the Nazis.

Another memorial on the school Lucien de Hirsch, states (in rough translation): “You Will Remember. Here in this school on the 24 July 1944, one month before the liberation of Paris, 71 children and 11 teachers were arrested and deported by the German police. They went to a certain death in Auschwitz-Bikenau.” Following is a list of the children and teachers and their ages.

For photos of Paris, go to: http://lifeacrossthepond.shutterfly.com/

Guiness Wins

2010-03-26T15:10:00.000Z

Within hours of the court decision paving the way for Good Friday drinking, Limerick traders rushed to cash in on the move with special T-shirts. But the garments are sure to rile some Catholics, such as one that reads "Officially bigger than the Catholic Church, Munster Rugby".

Bars will open on Good Friday evening in Limerick following a ruling at the city’s district court. Judge Tom O’Donnell ruled yesterday in favour of the city’s publicans, allowing them to open because a Magners League rugby match is taking place that day, April 2nd. Judge O’Donnell said Thomond Park would be serving alcohol as it held a special arena licence. “It is somewhat absurd that pubs in the locality should be closed when there will be available to 26,000 people the possibility to buy alcohol, if they so wish, in Thomond Park.”

Publicans estimate that the decision could be worth between €6 and €7 million to the city. David Hickey, the owner of South’s bar on O’Connell Avenue, said the ruling was “history being made”. “It is the first time in the history of the State that pubs will be open on Good Friday in any part of the country. It was a common-sense decision. You couldn't have 30,000 people going around the streets on Good Friday and no place to go to," he said.

The move to open on the holy day had sparked controversy in the city and the issue has been hotly debated. Franciscan friars, whose friary is located in the shadow of Thomond Park, had called on Catholics to boycott the game. They are considering holding a prayer vigil outside to bear witness, they say, to the true meaning of the day. Prior to today’s ruling Brother Shawn O’Connor said they may re-enact the stations of the cross outside Thomond Park as up to 26,000 fans throng the stadium. “

He warned that those who attended the game had no right to call themselves Catholics. “Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are the most solemn days in the whole Christian calendar. I don’t think you have the right to call yourself a Catholic if you go to this match.”

Castles Tour

2010-03-14T23:21:00.001Z

My sister and brother-in-law recently visited us and indulged me in one of my favorite Irish pastimes, castle visiting. Castles in Ireland run the gamut from a pile of stones that at one time formed part of a castle wall to spectacular fortifications with furnished interiors, or, according to Eileen’s castle taxonomy, “outdoor castles” and “indoor castles.” Although my children now suffer from “castle fatigue,” I still find it hard to pass one up.

Our castle tour took us to the Rock of Cashel, Cahir Castle, Kilkenny Castle, and Lismore Castle. I wrote about the Rock of Cashel in my blog entry of September 24, 2009, and there are several pictures of it on my Shutterfly site.

Cahir Castle is one of Ireland's largest and best preserved castles. It is situated on a rocky island on the River Suir and dates from the 13th century. This is an “indoor castle,” which retains its impressive keep (living quarters), tower, and much of its original defensive structure. The castle was once the stronghold of the powerful Anglo-Norman Butler family, who extensively renovated and extended it in the 15th century; it remained in their family until 1964. The battle scenes in the 1981 movie Excalibur were filmed at Cahir Castle.

Kilkenny Castle dates from the 12th century, was remodeled and decorated in 1830's splendor, and was occupied until 1935. It was the principal seat of the Butler family (why limit yourself to one castle when you can have several!). Click on the link to take virtual tour of Kilkenny Castle. Tour Kilkenny Castle

Alas, lacking the requisite €24,000 Euros for a week’s stay (and 20 friends with whom to share the cost!), we were unable to gain entry into the reportedly fabulous Lismore Castle. For a mere €8, however, ordinary mortals may tour the Castle gardens. Situated in a panoramic position overlooking the Blackwater Valley it looks out over rolling, wooded hills to the Knockmealdown Mountains beyond.

There has been a castle at Lismore ever since 1185 when Prince John built a "castellum" on the present site. In 1589, it passed into the possession of Sir Walter Raleigh until 1602, when he sold Lismore and its 42,000 acres for £1,500 upon his imprisonment in the Tower of London for high treason. Lismore Castle has been the Irish home of the Dukes of Devonshire since 1753 when the Castle and its lands passed to the fourth Duke of Devonshire; it was the sixth Duke (1790-1858) who undertook the most extensive restoration of the Castle. Fred Astaire's sister, Adele, married Lord Charles Cavendish (the 10th Duke) and lived in the Castle from 1932-1944. When her husband died, she returned to America but continued to visit Lismore for a month each summer, during which time Fred Astaire was a frequent visitor. The present duke is Peregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish, 12th Duke of Devonshire (b. 1944), a very interesting guy as the following article attests. Duke of Devonshire

When the Duke is not in residence at Lismore (currently, he is hands-on engaged in a £14 million restoration of his 297-room castle in England), private groups of up to 23 guests can rent the castle. Lest you balk at the price tag, be advised that two meals per day are included, and “Guests enjoy all the splendour and privacy of living in the Duke's quarters of the Castle and are looked after by his own personal staff. ”
Live like a Duke

See more castle photos at http://lifeacrossthepond.shutterfly.com/153.

St. Patrick and the Clonmel Jewish Connection

2010-03-14T17:19:00.000Z

St. Patrick’s Well, one of the largest wells in Ireland, is situated in a sheltered glen fed by a freshwater spring continuously welling up from underground. It has long been a popular place of pilgrimage, likely used by pagan worshippers before being appropriated for Christian use. The waters from the well pour into a large circular pond and supposedly have great healing powers.

The Celtic cross mounted on a plinth in the center of the pond dates back to the 6th or 7th century, and the remains of a 17th century church incorporate Romanesque fragments of an older church. Within the church is the Alter Tomb of the White Family, containing the remains of Nicholas White who died in 1622.

In 1969, thanks to the efforts of then-mayor of Los Angeles, Sam Yorty, whose mother was born in Clonmel, the Irish Israeli Society of South California and the St. Patrick's Day Society Clonmel did much needed restoration and landscaping on the site. It has now become as well-known as a tourist attraction as a place of pilgrimage.

BLOOD SPORT

2010-02-05T23:36:00.000Z

As the following article in the 2/4/10 Irish Times describes, blood sport is alive and well in Ireland and evidently very popular in our neck of the woods.

“ABSURDLY MACHO” was how a columnist in The Spectator recently described hurling. Britain’s right-wing weekly should have dispatched a correspondent to Clonmel yesterday for the coursing, such was the level of testosterone in the Powerstown Park air.

For the uninitiated, coursing involves greyhounds chasing live hares in speed trials which aficionados find hugely exciting. Fans include Dublin hurling manager Anthony Daly, who explained its attraction in an Irish Times interview last week. He said he loved “the thrill of the chase” and “watching a hare making an eejit out of two greyhounds”. His advice to sceptics was: “If you can twist a day sick or something, go to Clonmel, go up into the stand and just watch the atmosphere.”

Thousands, including Daly, were in attendance for the final day of the annual three-day “national meeting” of the Irish Coursing Club. Founded in 1916, the club now stipulates that “all hares must be released back to the countryside after each coursing meeting”. They say “it is not the object of a course to kill the hare” and remind critics that the “muzzling of greyhounds was introduced to coursing in 1993”.

Outside the venue, a small group of about 25 protesters from various animal rights groups held posters and banners deploring the event. The Irish Council Against Blood Sports issued a statement saying they found it “incredible that in this, the year 2010, in a so-called civilised country, such a barbaric activity, having its origins in the Roman amphitheatres, still prevails”.

Inside, a crowd estimated by gardaí at 13,000 (and 30,000 over the three days) was having a whale of a time. Among them was well-known developer (and master of the Ward Union Hunt), Mick Bailey, who sipped hot Powers whiskey from a paper cup and observed that hunting was one of the traditional freedoms “our grandparents fought for”. “There’s no cruelty here,” he said.

Hare coursing has been banned in Britain since 2005, so the Irish meetings attract a strong contingent from across the water. In the shadow of Slievenamon, there was a noticeable stream of “estuary English” among the babble of Irish rural accents.

Greyhounds revel in the most splendid names: Mucky Eamonn, Cushie Cher and Begorragh, to name but a few, were among the shooting stars in races which last about 13 seconds. The overall champ, and Derby winner, was Adios Alonso. All the hares seemed to escape.

Behind the stand, a makeshift souk did a roaring trade in cod liver oil for dogs, DVDs of Big Tom and The Mainliners and mugs decorated with colourful coursing scenes. T J O’Donnell from Newcastle West, Co Limerick, was selling the latest “must-haves” for doggy men – jacuzzis and “endless swimming pools” for greyhounds.

The crowd wasn’t entirely male. Enough women follow the sport to justify the inaugural “best-dressed lady competition”. The winner, Heather Kent (30) from Waterford, a “regular” coursing goer and a Bord Bia farm inspector, received a voucher entitling her to a spa day worth €500. The sponsor, Elaine Byrne, who runs a health and beauty clinic in Naas, appealed to men to avail of treatments and acquire “hands that won’t ladder” women’s tights. She appeared to have her work cut out. The male dress code was farmyard catwalk. Wooly hats, of a type popularised by Benny, of TV’s Crossroads fame, seemed to be de rigueur .

A new organisation, Rise! (Rural Ireland Says Enough!), which is campaigning in support of “traditional field sports and rural pastimes”, claimed it had collected thousands of signatures. Willie McCann from Enniscorthy, who has been attending the event every year since 1986, said he was “here to totally enjoy” himself. Eileen Healy-Mulvihill, a schoolteacher from Glin, Co Limerick, was there to “follow in the footsteps” of her late father who attended the Clonmel meeting for more than 50 years. “Long may tradition be followed,” she said.

SEX, MONEY, POLITICS… AND THE ODDS

2010-01-09T15:50:00.000Z

What better to boost newspaper circulation than a titillating political scandal? When the subjects include a high-ranking politician, his 59-year old wife, and a 19-year old male barista, what’s not to like? And the political couple are leaders of a party with a powerful “moral majority” constituency. Gets better all the time.

“Robinson Clings on in Toyboy Scandal,” screams the front-page headline, followed by six pages of indepth coverage. Well, the actual sex acts aren’t described, but that’s about all that’s missing.

The focus of the scandal is Iris Robinson, a Member of Parliament in Northern Ireland, and her husband, First Minister of Northern Ireland Peter Robinson, which the closest equivalent to a president or prime minister in a country that is still mainly governed from London. Peter Robinson is the money part of the scandal since it’s alleged, but he denies, that he assisted his wife in shady financial dealings as a fallout of learning about her “inappropriate extramarital relations.” The barista lover is of no interest save for the age difference between him and Iris.

The betting industry is poised to reap earnings from le scandale as well. A leading bookie agency is now offering 1-2 odds for and 6-4 odds against seating a new First Minister before the end of the year. Odds are also set for several potential First Ministers-in-waiting.

TIDY TOWN...more

2010-01-05T11:06:00.000Z

Good news on the litter front. Clonmel was deemed to be the fourth-cleanest city in Ireland at the annual Irish Business Against Litter awards in Dublin yesterday!

This year, a record 39 out of 60 Irish towns were classed as "litter-free". All the major cities were in the bottom third with Limerick branded a litter blackspot.

Dr Tom Cavanagh, chairman of IBAL, said current spending cutbacks should not impact on the fight against litter. “In particular we need to rid ourselves of the idea that enforcement is about fining an individual for dropping a sweet wrapper,” he said. “It’s more about taking local businesses and other organisations to task for not keeping the areas outside their premises free of litter – areas such as car parks and pavements.”

Christmas Eve Day

2009-12-24T16:59:00.000Z

Christmas Eve day, and I’m feeling unusually reflective about the holiday season this year. Christmas in Ireland is all-Christmas--no pretense at political correctness with the language of the “holiday season” nor any separation of church and state in the public sphere. Shop owners, advertisers, and the public airwaves all exclaim “Happy Christmas!” (“happy” being the adjective of choice, perhaps since “merry” can refer to excess consumption of alcohol).

A decorated Christmas tree adorns the entryway in Eileen’s school, and there’s another one in her classroom; they decorated their window with signs of “Happy Christmas” in many languages (that would be the nod to cultural diversity); and they had a Santa coloring contest. In both girls’ schools, there was a school day Catholic mass at the nearby church, although they both opted-out of that event. There were also school-sponsored Christmas carol services, which Alison but not Eileen attended. Eileen spent a lot of music classes learning the carols and practiced them frequently around the house, so perhaps it was the act of performing in public, not the content of the performance, to which she objected.

Christmas consumerism here in the Irish hinterland does not appear to have reached American levels. While advertisers started promoting Christmas earlier, lacking the Thanksgiving day marker for the season, the noise level is still lower than in the U.S. And from what I glean from conversations with other moms, the volume of gift-giving may be lower. Santa is HUGE here--kids Eileen’s age still believe--so maybe gift volume is limited by his carrying capacity.

The Irish also celebrate St. Stephen’s Day, December 26th, as a national holiday. Traditionally, the entire country shuts down for both December 25 and 26, thus depriving the Irish of that peculiarly American custom of the pre-dawn awakening for the post-Christmas shopping spree. This year, there has been much controversy and newspaper editorializing decrying the decision by some large Dublin retailers to open their shops on St. Stephen’s Day.

The Irish Christmas menu replaces some familiar American items—cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and apple pie—with Irish delicacies, such as bread sauce, sausage stuffing, and Christmas pudding. Traditionally, both turkey and ham and both mashed and roasted potatoes are served in the Christmas meal. Seasonal indulgence calls for roasting the potatoes in goose fat and stuffing the turkey with a pork sausage mix.

It’s a White Christmas in Clonmel, a rarity. The one inch of fallen snow has sparked a level of conversation, excitement, and traffic disruption that Seattleites would recognize.

Happy Christmas!

2009-12-04T18:43:00.000Z

The lights are up, Santa is popping up everywhere, and the pre-Christmas festivities are well-underway in this overwhelmingly Catholic country, where the adjective of choice is "happy" rather than "merry." The Christmas tree stands prominently in the lobby of Eileen's school, and in her classroom, they are painting Christmas greetings in many languages on their window. Eileen helpfully offered to find out how to say "Merry Christmas" in Hebrew. Now I'm thinking that this greeting is not used much in the Hebrew-speaking country; however, here it is...

חַג מוֹלָד שָׂמֵח

hag molad samate!

The Water Rises

2009-11-28T11:19:00.000Z

Clonmel lies on the River Suir, which overflows its banks somewhat frequently. This last week, we had both rain and high winds (which overturned our BBQ and moved our staked-down trampoline a few inches), so the river rose swiftly and fiercely. Unfortunately, large sections of downtown Clonmel were under water, and Alison’s school, situated next to a bridge crossing the river, was closed for 1 ½ days as water coming over the bridge impeded access to the school. Fortunately, new flood control works—a sturdy new wall and removable flood gates—prevented water from entering the school itself. Some buildings in town were flooded not from the river overflow itself but from water seeping up through the ground since the water table is relatively high, and the ground was extremely saturated from a lot of wet weather over the last few months.

Not to worry about the Campbell household. We are about a mile from the river on a slightly elevated site.

Photos are a downtown street before and after the deluge. The swift-flowing river gives new meaning to the store sign "Suds 'n Surf."

Barcelona and Girona

2009-11-16T22:51:00.000Z

Barcelona was absolutely fantastic—would return in a minute! Barcelona is a wonderful city in which to enjoy a leisurely stroll, gaze at the magnificent architecture of its buildings, and observe the street life while relaxing at a sidewalk café with a café con leche and a French pastry. We spent a week in Barcelona , including a day trip to Girona. Highlights include: La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Barri Gotic, the chocolate museum, the Picasso museum, and the patisseries and café culture. Barcelona is a city of well-preserved historical buildings and great cultural attractions, and I could easily spend several weeks exploring them.

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia has to be seen to be believed. It was the life’s work of architect and artisan Antoni Gaudi (he lived like a recluse on the site for 16 years and is buried in the crypt), the leading exponent of the school of Catalan Modernisme. Modernisme artists favored curved lines and parabolic arches rather than straight lines; organic forms derived from nature, such as animals and plants; ample decoration and ornamentation, often with vegetal themes; experimentation with varied mediums such as ironwork, stained glass and stone; lots of color; and use of then-contemporary construction techonology. Modernisme buildings appear to be very fanciful, over-the-top designs.

Construction of the temple began in 1882, and 117 years later, work is ongoing; it is now approximately 60% complete following Gaudi’s original plan. Our tour guide told us that the estimated (or maybe unrealistically hoped-for) date of completion is 2026, the 100th year anniversary of Gaudi’s death.

La Sagrada Familia was a highlight for Eileen as she and Dean took the elevator to the top of one of the eight spires and walked across an open-air bridge to another spire. From there, they descended 400 stone steps of a spiral staircase to return to the ground level. Alison and I watched from below.

Parc Guell, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is another product of Gaudi’s imagination and talent. He was commissioned by Count Guell in the 1890’s to design a garden city on 50 acres of the family estate. Little of the grand design was ever realized, but huge fanciful sculptures, many encrusted with mosaic tile designs, grace the large green space and pathways.

Check out this website for photos of Gaudi’s work. http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Antonio_Gaudi.html

Dean and I both took a walking tour of the Barri Gotic, the oldest part of town, settled by the Romans in the first century. Some remnants of the Roman wall encircling the town remain, and this area houses some of the most exquisite, most imposing buildings in town, including the Cathedral, the Royal Palace where the King and Queen of Spain received Christopher Columbus after his triumphial return from America, and the remains of the oldest synagogue in Europe (see “Jews in Spain” posting). The narrow, stone streets house a multitude of small shops and cafes with apartments above. They open onto large plazas with lots of human activity. I could have wandered for days and never been bored.

Barcelona is about 2 hours from the French border, so there are some French influences in town, namely the patisseries. They inhabit every block, each one tempting us with the look and fragrance of French pastries; we were often unable to pass one without sampling.

In Girona, we wanted to see its historical center—one of the most well-preserved Roman walled cities in Europe. We loved wandering its streets, many of which might be all of 12 feet wide, and walking along the ancient wall. I was particularly interested in visiting the museum of Jewish history there,and I was not disappointed. (See “Jews in Spain” posting for detail.)

See Shutterfly site for more photos.

The Jews in Spain

2009-11-16T15:12:00.000Z

An interesting facet of our recent trip to Spain was learning about the history of the Jews in Barcelona and Girona. The sum of my prior knowledge was that I knew there was a significant Jewish presence in Spain before the Inquisition. Turns out that both cities housed significant Jewish populations until the 15th century.

In both cities, Jews were required to live within their own community, called a “call,” the word deriving from either a Spanish or Catalan word meaning “narrow street” or “lane.” In Barcelona, the Jewish community outgrew their original call, and expanded into an adjacent neighborhood; at one time, there were three synagogues in what became known as the Major Call and the Minor Call.

In the late 1980’s, the medievalist Jaume Riera y Sans began exploring what he believed might be the partial remains of the Sinagoga Major on a site which has been used as a dry-cleaners and electrical supply warehouse in modern times. In 1995, the site was put up for sale for use as a bar; however, an associate of Mr. Riera purchased it to continue the archeological exploration. Several years later, it was definitively identified as the remains of the Sinagoga Major.

The ruins, remains of Roman walls, date to about the 2nd century, making it the oldest synagogue in Europe. The temple’s main facade faces southeast towards Jerusalem, and it has two large glass windows; this design conforms to the demands set by the Tosefta (part of the collective body of Jewish religious law), which requires synagogues to have a façade oriented toward Jerusalem, with two windows allowing for the passage of light that had already passed through the Sacred City.

The Girona call is one of the best preserved in Europe, and the exhibitions in the Museu d'Història dels Jueus show the historical trajectory of the Catalan Jewish communities. By the end of the 9th century, Jews had formed a semi-independent town within Girona, becoming an important influence in the area’s development. It was here that many texts of the kabbala, the Jewish school of mysticism, were developed. Under the protection of the Spanish kings for centuries, the Jews prospered until an attack on their community in 1391 began a wave of persecution that did not end until 1492, when they were compelled to leave Spain.

Sited on the location of a 15th century synagogue, the museum contains the most accurate information about medieval Jewish communities in Spain and provides a picture of Jewish traditions and daily life in one of the region’s most influential calls. The Hebrew tombstone collection is considered to be one of the finest in the world.

Photos of entrance to Sinagoga Major and a street in the Girona call.

See http://www.calldebarcelona.org for interior photos of Sinagoga Major and Shutterfly site for more photos of Girona call.

Cork and Kinsale

2009-10-12T11:29:00.000+01:00

Invasion and subjugation by invaders is a prominent theme in Irish history. From 795 with the arrival of the Vikings to 1920 when the island was partitioned and the ruling British sent packing from what became the Irish Free State, it’s a history of battles over land, culture, and religion. This weekend we visited Cork and Kinsale, a picturesque harbor town on the southern coast of Ireland, which has a long history as an important port.

The Battle of Kinsale in 1601 was a pivotal point in Irish history. In about 1500, with Spain and Portugal squabbling over new world discoveries and trade routes, the pope divided the world between them. As Reformation decreased Rome’s power in Europe, countries such as England began ignoring the pope’s grant to Spain and Portugal. Spain, having an economic and religious reason to defend the pope and Catholicism, saw Ireland as valuable real estate from which to protect their interests.

On the pretext of rescuing the Catholics of Ireland from the treachery of Protestant England, the Spanish Armada landed 5,000 soldiers in Kinsale in 1601. Soon thereafter, they were pinned down by English troops occupying the high ground around the town. Two powerful Ulster chieftains marched southward to help the Spaniards eject their British occupiers; however, the Irish were defeated by the English troops. England made peace with Spain and went on to rule the seas as well as Ireland.

The English built two star-shaped forts in Kinsale—Forts James and Charles-- one on each side of the harbor. Fort James is largely ruined, but in the photo you can see a portion of it at beach level and the remains of a wall on the top of the hill. Fort Charles is very well-preserved and made for an interesting tour.

We also took a walking tour of Kinsale with a guide who shared many fascinating stories about the town’s history. The book Robinson Crusoe is based on the real-life adventure of a Scottish privateer, Alexander Selkirk, who departed from Kinsale in 1703 and was later marooned alone on a desert island.

Also, the passenger liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915 just ten miles offshore from Old Kinsale Head; this was one of the events that prompted America’s entry into World War I. The courthouse in the photo is the building in which the Germans were tried and found guilty of an act of war.

The Grey Hound tavern is the oldest in Kinsale, having been in continuous operation since 1690.

Highlights of our visit in Cork included the English Market, a maze of stalls selling produce, meat, fish, and bakery goods. Think Pike’s Place Market or the Granville Public Market. We gorged ourselves appropriately.

We meandered through the downtown shopping district, a mix of wide boulevards and narrow pedestrian alleyways. Lots of good window-shopping and people-watching.

We wandered along the river for a ways and stumbled on St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral (1865), which I’m sure will be the first of many churches we visit. There was a sexton inside doing some work; Eileen asked a few questions and he happily explained some of the unique features of the cathedral. I love church architecture and can’t walk by an old church without looking in. At some point, my children will likely be waiting outside twiddling their thumbs, but they thought this one was interesting.

See more photos on Shutterfly.

TEA AT THE HALF

2009-09-28T11:43:00.000+01:00

Eileen played her first Gaelic football blitz this weekend. A “blitz” is similar to a tournament, except it’s played in a round-robin form, and winning is not necessary for advancement. I thought that Gaelic football would be somewhat akin to American soccer; however, the similarity begins and ends with players trying to propel a ball across the opposing team’s goal line. Both hands and feet are used to move the ball in Gaelic football, and a goal is made by drop-kicking a soccer-like ball into a net or over a goal post. We, including our player, are still unfamiliar with the rules, and watching 9-year olds play the game does not appear to be the best way to learn them. Eileen’s team trains weekly, however, so we hope to understand the game soon.

I took Eileen to the field, and as I watched players and parents enter, many of them were carrying large containers of food. It seemed an indication that we might be there longer than I had expected since it hadn’t occurred to me to bring sustenance. After the second game, the coach announced that we would break for tea and resume play in 30 minutes. An army of parents began setting food and drinks on several long banquet tables—sandwiches, cookies, cakes, nuts, rice krispy bars, juice, and of course TEA! There were hundreds of players and parents there, and as quickly as food was eaten, it was replenished. After 30 minutes, coaches called the girls, and play resumed. How civilized.

SEE PHOTOS ON EXTERNAL SITE

2009-09-25T17:08:00.001+01:00

See photos on Shutterfly site at http://lifeacrossthepond.shutterfly.com/.

HILL WALKING

2009-09-24T18:17:00.000+01:00

I went on my first outing with the Peaks Mountaineering Club in Clonmel. “Hill walking,” as it’s called here, is a popular recreational/sporting activity in Ireland, and almost every weekend, there seems to be a hill walking festival somewhere in the country. Walks are graded by difficulty—A, B, and C—and I started (and based on this one experience, will likely continue at this level) with an “A” level walk.

Although the fundamentals of hill walking are the same as hiking, there are some significant differences in how the activity is practiced. First, there are very few designated trails in Ireland. Several of the people on the walk had visited state and national parks in the U.S., and they all raved about the quantity and quality of our trails. Ireland has only a few national parks, and outside those boundaries designated trails are almost non-existent.

Here, people just walk through fields, meadows, and other natural landscpape features, virtually all of it on private property. The general rule of thumb and walkers’ etiquette is that if it’s not fenced, it’s okay for walking. Since one is not walking on a path, one is clambering through low (and not-so-low) vegetation, climbing over rocks, walking across small streams and ditches, and picking one’s way carefully through bogs.

It was great fun. There was a small group that day, about 12 people, ranging from mid-30’s to late 60’s, about even count of men and women, and they were very friendly and talkative. It was enjoyable to both talk with people as well as to listen to the conversations around me, many about politics and politicians.

A WAY WITH WORDS

2009-09-24T18:07:00.000+01:00

The Irish do have a way with words, and I am greatly enjoying reading both the national and local newspapers. The language is much more colorful, and their journalistic tradition appears to value a direct style of writing, using what we would consider colloquialisms, even in the well-respected national papers. The reporting also appears to be more explicit about expressing a viewpoint than U. S. newspapers, which makes for more interesting reading.

Here is an excerpt from an article in the weekly community newspaper.
PEAKS MOUNTAINEERING CLUB...The club notes are short this week due to the great exodus of people to shout themselves hoarse in the cradle of sport in Dublin on Sunday in support of the lads from the Premier County. It was all in vain but we pulled The Cats’ tails a number of times and very nearly did the job and brought back the silverware. We will have another day on the hallowed turf.

Sunday in this part of Ireland was a messy affair with high winds and driving rain in the Galtees. Conditions were very bad as the Galtees are a hell’s kitchen for weather, with little shelter from the wind and driving rain.

Translation: The all-Ireland hurling championships were played in Dublin, and they generated Super Bowl-level excitement nationwide, and even more so here since the local team played in the national championship match.The trophy is extremely large silver cup. Croake Field in Dublin hosts all-Ireland championships in several sports. The Galtees are a nearby mountain range.

TIDY TOWN

2009-09-24T17:57:00.001+01:00

Clonmel won a gold award in the annual "Tidy Towns" competitionin which towns are evaluated by overall development approach; the built environment; landscaping,wildlife and natural amenities; litter control; waste minimisation; tidiness; residential areas; roads, streets and back areas, and general impression.

Here are some excerpts from the judges' report.

Clonmel is blessed by having a natural landscaped backdrop, which is ever present, and needs no

maintenance from a committee.When one arrives from the golf club, one is welcomed by the two beds of dwarf dahlias in full colour. All around the town outskirts, one experiences the labour of landscaping love, often just a pleasure to the eye and on other occasions to soften the harshness of industrial and retail buildings. One enjoys the ‘Welcome Clonmel’ chiselled hedges at the roundabouts, the quirkiness of the ‘Slán Clonmel’ evokes a smile. Clonmel is not only blessed with a river that looks benign in June and is a wonderful leisure resource, but it is blessed by its location in a valley surrounded by verdant hillside forests; a wildlife paradise. The walkers along the riverside show how much pleasure the river on a summer’s day can bring to the locals. The flood relief works are testimony to the menace of the river.

Clonmel is a mix of the modern and the established, reflecting the general image of the built environment of
the inner town. The older, more settled estates are generally presented with pride. The newer estates have their grander entrances, fine open space, modern design and attractive landscaping. But the many older terraces of Clonmel reflect the heartbeat of the town in their cosy, cared-for, colourful intimacy, for instance the delightful houses at Princes Bar. But the newer terraces are not to be outdone either with their mainland style balconies, their dormer facades and their bright, fresh colour. The contrast between Davis Walk from 2000 and the 1912 terrace up the road sums up how old and new can contrast, but not clash.

One of the treats of a visit is the network of streets that connect the town centre, making access to the
Heritage Trail or to the shopping areas a joy for the outsider. St Catherine’s Street provides such a conduit,
and is well maintained. A stroll around Morton, Gladstone, William, Kickham streets and St Mary’s Road is a magical mystery tour of visual variety with buildings from different eras, modern like the Day Care Centre, old like the convent and its adjoining red brick Church, ancient as in St Mary’s cemetery, restored as in O
Muineachán’s, the renovated and the ruin, the derelict and the delightful, all feast the eye.

I took the photofrom walking path along Suir River, which runs through the town.

DRIVING IRISHLY

2009-09-24T13:05:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I successfully executed 2 driving maneuvers well-loved by the local populace. The SWERVE PARK--swerving across the other lane of traffic to parallel park on the opposite side of the street facing the wrong direction--and the SIDEWALK PARK--parking halfway on the sidewalk, halfway on the street, useful in the absence of legal parking slots.
I was relating this to Alison, and she observed that I must have been successful since I was still in one piece and there were no dents in the car.

INJURY BY ELECTRICITY

2009-09-24T13:00:00.000+01:00

Judging by their electrical code, Ireland must have experienced a spate of “injury by electricity” accidents at some time. There are no electrical outlets in the bathrooms. All electrical outlets have an on/off switch. One cannot buy an electrical extension cord (to solve the problem of how to use the hair dryer when the cord does not reach the nearest outlet outside the bathroom!) except perhaps on the black market. One can (and one did), however, purchase the electrical parts to make one’s own extension cord. Go figure.

GOD IN THE SCHOOLS

2009-09-24T12:41:00.001+01:00

School is going well for the girls, and while “school is school,” the daily environment is very different. Both girls are at single gender schools, which are more common than coed schools, and both schools are “sponsored” by the Catholic Church. We’re still sorting out the implications of the latter; the short story is that there is no formalized concept of separation of church and state in Ireland, and for many years, the Catholic Church provided free education to most residents. In the 1980’s, the state stepped into a more active management role in education, and the influence of the Church waned significantly in regards to curriculum and teaching staff. Additional educational reforms occurred throughout the 1990’s, the outcome being that in virtually all schools, nuns have left the classroom in favor of accredited professional teachers, and the curriculum in the Catholic schools is 21st century mostly-secular.

There are a limited number of schools sponsored by Protestant churches, some private schools (most of which are boarding schools), and a small but growing number of “national” schools, the latter of which are sponsored by secular groups. “Sponsorship” refers to the governing body of the school. The state mandates the composition of the governing body, and for a school sponsored by a church, the local religious order is represented on the governing body along with representatives from the teaching staff, parents, and the general community.

There are no school districts as we know them in the U.S. Each school is it own separate entity; however, the academic curriculum is decided top-down from the state’s department of education, leaving little room for curriculum choices at the local level. Interestingly, schools are required to provide religion classes in their curriculum, although students are allowed to opt-out. We chose not to opt-out completely but to see what’s taught and let the girls participate to the extent with which they feel comfortable. Both their schools approach the religion curriculum from the perspective of moral and character development as told through Bible stories and parables.

Alison has religion class once a week for 38 minutes, and other than sometimes saying a generic prayer to support community and good works in her English class, that’s about all the religious content in her school. She’s also quite secure in her Jewish identity, wearing her Star of David necklace daily and announcing her religion to most of her classmates during the first two weeks of school.

The religion issue is testing the boundaries a little more for Eileen. Her school building itself has more Christian religious iconography (Alison’s school looks like any found in any American suburb), and a short prayer is said every morning. She’s more self-conscious about her religious identity and appearing different from the other girls. We’ve talked with both her principal and teacher who are very supportive in letting Eileen participate/not participate as we deem appropriate, but Eileen is understandably reluctant to “stick out.” Two-three times a year, the school holds a mass in the adjacent church, and Eileen has decided to opt-out of the first one. There will be several other girls in her class opting-out as well, and I think the school has a reasonable plan that is sensitive to the girls’ feelings—they will go help out in the Junior Infants class (4-5 year olds) that afternoon since that class does not attend the mass. Part of this experience is the opportunity for the girls to learn more about Dean’s religion (Episcopal), so he is going to take both of them to a service soon.

I must admit that religion in the schools is testing the boundaries of my comfort zone as the member of a religious minority. Even though I’m still in the minority in the U.S., at least the separation of church and state is a widely-accepted principle (although George and his cronies tried to make inroads on it!) if not always executed flawlessly in fact.

CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS

2009-09-24T11:39:00.000+01:00

On the surface, Ireland does not seem that different from the U.S., but many routine things are done differently here, so often I feel incredibly incompetent. English is the primary language, but many words have different meanings in the U.S. and Ireland which can lead to misunderstandings. For example, at the government office where we went to get the Irish equivalent of a social security number, the worker told us to call back for our cards the following day. We asked what phone number to call, and she looked at us blankly until we figured out that “call back” means to show up in person and “ring back” means a telephone call. So now I’m shopping with a trolley; wearing trainers; enrolling in schemes; eating crisps, rashers, bangers, and mash; and supporting the campaign in England to “ban the budgie.” (“Budgie “ is a man’s speedo suit and evidently many English people believe that there are too many budgie-ineligible men on their beaches.)

Driving is a whole new world, and driving on the left side of the street is the easiest part. The Irish have a quaint (or annoying, depending on my mood) custom of not naming their streets or numbering their buildings. So, when one asks for directions to a place, a typical response is: “Take the Fethard roundabout past the pub, then turn left on the first street and look for the yellow bungalow in the corn field.” (directions I was given to a woman’s house, which I found on the first pass) or this: “Turn left after the Marks & Spencer roundabout, then just before the river, you’ll see two rows of apartment houses with a street between them. Turn left on that street, drive around the back and our office is in a building between the apartment houses and the river.” (directions to the doctor’s office, which I failed to locate on the first pass). If they do give their streets a name, the street sign is in 9 point font posted on the side of a wall.

One-way streets are not always marked (or else marked in a way only the Irish can decipher) and there appear to be few clues to distinguish them. One can’t judge by the width of the street—street widths here come in “narrow,” “narrower,” or “hug the hedge” sizes. The direction in which parked cars are facing provides no clue—cars are parked anywhere and everywhere in every which way; favorite forms of parking include double-parking, parking halfway on the sidewalk, and my personal favorite “Look, it’s a flat surface…think I’ll park here!”

TOUCH DOWN IN IRELAND

2009-09-24T11:33:00.003+01:00

We left MN on August 12, 2009.

We stopped over in London for 2 days on the way here and packed a lot in during that short time. We toured Buckingham Palace, which the kids thought was great (what’s not to like about a palace), we took a short boat trip on the Thames River, walked through St. James Park and around Parliament Square, and the kids saw iconic buildings they’d only seen in pictures before. The buildings are incredibly beautiful and much grander than any photo can convey. We walked through Harrod’s and ate lunch in one of the cafes. As we wandered through the food halls trying to decide what to eat, I asked an employee what the choices were and felt quite the dumb tourist when informed that there are 30 restaurants/bars/cafes in the store!

The day following our arrival in Ireland, we toured a local historical site—the Rock of Cashel--situated on a steep and imposing hill, which houses the remains of several buildings, variously used as fortification, church, and archbishop’s residence. The buildings were built between the 11th-14th centuries, so the kids immediately realized how young the U.S. is in comparison and how short our recorded history.

The Rock of Cashel is living history since part of the site—the graveyard—is still in use today, and we saw the remains of fresh flowers from a burial done the preceding Thursday. Many of the graves are marked with flat, ground level stones, and Eileen started picking her way gingerly between them when she realized that she was stepping on the remains of dead people!

Photo shows the Tower of London.