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D & T’s saoire den scoth (excellent holiday)!

I actually welcomed my first visitor from the states in September, lo these 14 months since moving to the ould sod in the middle of a pandemic! My intrepid brother TJ braved two airports and mass transportation on either end to travel from Maine to my County Clare home. We spent 10 days together, didn’t revert to childhood form, were cordial and considerate adults as well as friends. I took him to the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, holy wells, village walks, local places I’ve written about in past blogs. It was wonderful to bring my sibling to some of…Continue Reading

Addendum: even MORE Irish books

So, around the time I published my most recent blog about Irish authors, I put out an APB to the members of my book group and asked them to list some of their favorite books/authors. I wanted to get my blog out as soon as possible, so published. Soon, though, the answers from the group started trickling in. Some of the books they recommend are repeats of mine (so will not include again), including The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan and This is Happiness, by Niall Williams. Others are by authors I don’t know, and still others are by authors…Continue Reading

Looking for a good (Irish) book?

Greetings from Corofin, and my apologies for the long hiatus. Blame it on summer, a rather unplanned move to new digs in town, and a quick trip back to the states to meet my daughter and work on her wedding in Maine next summer. Whew! Life has a way of deciding its own route. As late summer eases into fall and the great outdoors call us less and less for the warmth of a cozy house, the written word inevitably begins to cast its magical spell. A book come autumn is often pure delight, a companion, friend and educator, a…Continue Reading

Rugged, unapologetic, sublime west of Ireland

Not long ago, I was fortunate enough to give the sermon of a given Sunday at my “home” church, South Church Unitarian Universalist in Portsmouth, New Hampshire – this accomplished, of course, by Zoom and YouTube. Perhaps not surprisingly, I was asked to speak about Ireland, what brought me here, what spiritual nourishment I find here, what keeps me here. I was lucky to have as a partner that Sunday our director of music ministry, a former music teacher in my hometown who directs two very successful regional choruses. Joanne sings like an angel – perhaps an overworked metaphor but…Continue Reading

A tale of two countries, or homes sweet homes

The swans are back! I was not expecting them yesterday when I brought my book down to the banks of Lake Atedaun for a bit of sun and reading on a glorious, warm afternoon. Perhaps it was the tinkling sound of gravel under my foot, perhaps it was only the intake of my breath when I saw them so close to me near the shore, hunting for morsels of food. Startled, they took wing, not to flight but only to skim the surface of the lake, and thus escape this human intruder. Their great wings made such a sound as…Continue Reading

Weathering winter in a wonderland

Here on the west coast of Ireland, it is not only possible but expected to speak in very nearly human terms about the weather. Whimsical, moody, surprising, grumpy, glorious, mercurial, it is all of that and more. For instance, just now I was sitting at my desk in the living room looking out of the window at a perfectly and rarely blue sky – time for a walk while the gods bless me, I thought. But mere steps away, I was greeted at my kitchen window by darkly ominous clouds. Oh, oh, I thought. Best wait a minute. By the…Continue Reading

Mother and Baby Homes: a dark chapter comes to light

Let’s say it’s 1952, or 1963, or 1945. You’re a 15-year-old girl, growing up in rural Ireland. Control of your life, that of your parents, neighbors, community; the parents, neighbors, community in the next town over; and indeed in every hamlet and city in Ireland is ceded in its entirety to the Catholic Church. You are a cog in the wheel of a society that lives by uncompromising strictures. Shame is quickly earned and hard to erase, guilt is a bedrock value, life is confined to a narrow set of principles, the parish priest is God, or nearly so. Of…Continue Reading

Ireland is on coronavirus fire

Well, readers, I have managed thusfar to avoid writing “The COVID Blog.” But I’m afraid that time has come to an end. Ireland is certainly all of its beauty and antiquities, its music and its lilting laughter. However, it is today also a country in trouble, with a strained health care system, weary people, and spiraling cases. COVID is not only the only conversation around (Brexit coming in a very pale second), it’s a damned depressing one. And while I’ve kept it at bay in my writing these last six months, the time has come to share some thoughts. Not…Continue Reading

Of holy wells and spirituality

Spirituality is at the ancient heart of Ireland – a spirituality at once chimeral and tangible, a profound blend of pagan beliefs and traditions that have survived  scores of millennia, coupled with a Catholic narrative deeply imbedded in the country’s psyche. This is syncretism at its most elemental, in which the mysterious is as likely manifested in the sidhe, the fairy folk, as in the patron saint. Indeed, these are not necessarily mutually exclusive concepts, but are easily entwined. That the early, polytheistic system comes down through the ages at all and is not lost to the mists of time,…Continue Reading

No, I didn’t miss the pre-election hype!

It is 1 a.m. Wednesday morning here in Ireland. I have a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, Barry’s Irish Breakfast Tea in my mug. My television is blaring CNN. I compulsively scan the Facebook feed on my cell phone. And I sit here, wrapped in a throw on a blustery early morning, totally awake and writing to you – who are all likely living in a much more civilized time zone. It is US election time in Ireland. It has been a somewhat surreal election season for me here on the other side of the pond.  I have…Continue Reading