Ireland days two and three

Part of the fun of a trip for me is planning. I love reading, researching, and studying maps and guidebooks. I never did get around to rereading any Joyce before this trip, but I did pick up some William Trevor, and I got through most of that stack of books from the library - a book of Irish Saints by Richard Reilly for children was a favorite and useful with all the ancient ruins we drove by. Another surprising useful book was the 1990 Fodor's guide. It was written in a much more entertaining and informatve style than the Eyewitness or Rick Steves' 2017 guides.  I took it along because it had a lot of history in it, but it ended up being useful when we were looking for a place to stay one night - almost all of the numbers for lodging listed in that 1990 book were still in service!  Helpful for the traveler with no immediate access to wifi...Back to the travelogue: Rested and refreshed after a good night of sleep, we awoke ready for more adventures. Since our son had a morning class, and we had covered so much of Dublin in our first day, we set aside my original plan and headed south to Dun Loaghaire (pronounced Dun Leary), a little seaside town our son had mentioned enjoying - as well as home to the Martello Tower where Joyce spent a week and set the beginning of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The tower is now a little Joyce museum, but it was still closed. Nonetheless we had a nice little morning stroll along the coast, where we observed the bathers who jump in the frigid Atlantic every morning for their health.  We watched them emerge, bodies reddened by the icy water, and huddle together in their parkas and gossip.  I'm sure there are some restorative properties to this action, but it won't be one of my health practices.On the drive back we missed the opportunity for coffee and breakfast because first we got just a tiny bit lost, and then we lost the hubcap. But no worries - nothing we could change after making the call-in order for a new one.  So we picked up our son and decided to explore a little more of the area south of Dublin.  As I said, our original plan was to stay in Dublin for the day, and after the stress of driving through the city the day before, I didn't think my husband would want to drive very much. But Joe also highly recommended Glendalough, and I had noticed a waterfall on the map about halfway there, so we loaded up.  The drive was lovely, through winding country roads past fields of grazing sheep and rocky meadows. We hardly saw any other cars. We found the falls, just off the Powerscourt Estate. They were stunning. We walked around on the rocks in the creek a bit, and I promptly slipped and fell in the water. I protected the good camera, but while trying to rise, dropped my phone. It didn't freeze up, but I had a good excuse to turn it off for 24 hours.  After a short stroll around the falls, we loaded up in the Micra for Glendalough. Our destination was the ruins of St. Kevin's monastic settlement, a site that dates back to the 6th century. One of Ireland's oldest stone crosses still stands here, 1200 years after it was erected. Most of the buildings are from the 10th - 12th centuries, although the round tower may be older. St. Kevin was a priest who led many people to Christ, but he wanted to live the life of a hermit. So he escaped to this valley between two lakes and found a cave to make his home. He lived on a hillside for some years, but was often visited by people seeking his wise counsel.  There is a legend that a blackbird laid an egg in his hand, and he sat still until the egg hatched.   

Our guest house, The Merrion Ballsbridge Townhouse

Forty Foot, where intrepid swimmers brave the icy water year round.

Joyce's Martello Tower

Powerscourt Falls.

Powerscourt Falls before I fell in

An unusual young pine - maybe a Norfolk Pine?

A hint of fall! Note the gorse bush in the foreground. Our son apparently earned cash from a bet he wouldn't jump in a shrub.

Sheep on a hill!

From the monastic city of St. Kevin

Millennial cross

People were shorter back then!

View from St. Kevin's Kitchen to the tower

After spending most of the day at Glendalough, we had to get Joe back to campus for a lab at 10. Again, we didn't leave ourselves time for eating anything but snacks from the convenience store. To be honest, this is one of my favorite ways to save money while traveling (and lose weight): Eat only one big meal a day at a restaurant, and eat snacks and coffee the rest of the day.

While Joe was taking his second class, Dan and I split ways so that I could see the Irish Writer's Museum and a couple libraries, and he could head to the Guinness Storehouse to meet Joe for the tour.  They had the glitzy, modern interactive experience, while I gazed at old texts in glass cases. Sometimes splitting up keeps everyone happy.  We didn't really have a good plan for meeting, and their tour took longer than expected, but it worked out. I had some quiet time to catch up on notes.  I After my rush across town, and my breathless visit to the Chester Beatty Library, I was happy to sit and reflect for an hour or so.

The Irish Writers Museum

Georgian ceiling

Pretty icons of muses for each month - Edwardian?

Portrait Gallery

Sinn Fein door

St. Peter

View of Dublin Castle from Chester Beatty Library - a surprisingly amazing library.

The Library is the collection of Chester Beatty, a guy who donated his collection ancient papyri and other old documents to the state. In the collection were parts of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, third century copies of the Letters of Paul, and, oldest of all, cuneiform blocks. It was another surprise I hadn't really planned.

Oscar Wilde statue at St. Stephen's Green

Underworked nag

In front of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Nearly Christmas season

We thought we might make Evensong at St. Patrick's but the Guinness tour lasted to long, so instead we went to hunt something to eat.  We were trying to find a pub that would have live traditional Irish music, but we kept popping into pubs that had loud rock music and were packed with young singles. We finally grabbed a burger at burger bar - not a pub, but a fancy toppings kind of thing. The burgers were absolutely fabulous. Reinvigorated after a hot meal, Joe led us across the river again to another pub he had been to before to watch a ND football game, and lo and behold, here was the crowd and the live music we had been looking for! We were some of the youngest there, but the music was fantastic. (Murray's was the name I think...) Another thing I learned to love: Irish waitstaff don't bug you. You can sit and drink one beer all night long, which is great.

After a few rounds of Irish ballads and drinking songs, we caught the bus back to our hotel, another day done.  When you only have five days in a far away land, each one is precious. So on our third day, we didn't sleep in, but got up to take a long walk into the city while Joe was at class. I wanted Dan to see the library and Dublin Castle, and we both wanted to peek inside St. Patrick's Cathedral, and perhaps see the well where St. Patrick baptized people. But we arrived before it opened to tourists, and the steep admission price deterred us from waiting around just to take a quick peek, so we never did go inside the church.  Instead, we quickly peeked into the Chester Beatty Library, enjoyed a stroll through a park, and got some exercise in before picking up Joe to head west to Galway.

There is always something more to see or do, even in our own town where we have the luxury of more time. Then again, sometimes a place in the imagination is more vivid and meaningful than the real physical locale.

Dean's library behind St. Patrick's

A little fairy garden

Marker for Jonathan Swift's address

St. Patrick's by day

Ireland day one

December and the first Sunday of Advent are right around the corner, but I'm not ready to let go of November. Here is a flashback travelogue for our trip to Ireland to see our son who is spending the fall semester at University College Dublin.

Travel to Ireland from the west coast is not easy. We left at 6 am on a Tuesday PCT time to drive to LAX for a flight via Toronto, where we had a 4 hour+ layover, before arriving in Dublin at 10:30 local time. So travel time was just under 20 hours. I think there is some advantage for arriving in the morning to combat jet lag - we hit the ground running and powered through our exhaustion with lots of coffee. 

I always question the decision to fly from LAX, when we are just minutes from the San Diego airport. We aren't much more than 90 miles from LA, but travel time can take up to three or four hours. Fortunately, our trip didn't take more than two hours, but I found myself trying to calculate whether the savings was worth it. In this case, tickets were $200+ x2 less, so yes, for the frugal traveler, the drive pays off. 

Taking this trip felt like a luxury, although we did not travel luxuriously, and we planned months in advance to economize. And in the end, we were able to stay close to our budget.  Travel needn't break the bank, and the memories are priceless. An interesting topic of debate is whether travel is necessary for wisdom - or to understand other cultures. I don't believe you HAVE to travel to have the ability to understand other people - or that travel necessarily results in insights. On the one hand, you have the Emily Dickinsons of the world, and on the other, you have the Lord Byrons.

But here you have the Cooks on the road. We once planned to go to Ireland for our honeymoon, but having no income yet at the time, we opted for a 2 for 1 flight to the San Juan Islands where we stayed for free with nuns. 21 years later, my husband and I finally touched down on the Emerald Isle. 

Peeling my eyelids open after a short night on a plane.

Traveling to Ireland lacks the complexity of visiting a country where everyone speaks a different language, but there were a few exotic customs to overcome, such as driving on the lefthand side of the road. I didn't do any driving because we didn't want to pay for extra insurance on the car, even though I have driven in England years and years ago. And we had the same kind of car: a Micra. But we gambled on not paying the additional $250 insurance policy. Then on our second day, my husband hit a curb twice - and we arrived at our destination sans a hubcap. After a quick internet search and phone call (easy and free with Whatsapp), we had a hubcap on order, and we gave Joe's friend money to pick it up when it arrived since we planned to go to Galway. Total cost was less than the insurance, so we came out ahead!

The next hurdle was finding our way to the college and meeting our son. We were running a little late, and our maps were insufficient and road signs nonexistent. But my preliminary study of maps of Dublin when I was booking the hotel and planning our itinerary paid off, and we were able to find the parking lot where we were supposed to meet after only two wrong turns!

We found him! Hurray!

After a quick tour of campus, a peek at his dorm room, and a stop at the convenience store for bus tickets and a lunch snack, we hopped a bus for downtown Dublin. First stop: Trinity College, where one of Joe's friends from Notre Dame who is studying at Trinity got us in to see the Book of Kells for free as her guest. She didn't stick around long, although we offered to treat her to lunch, so we had more leisure to enjoy the exhibit and the Long Room, from whence come the iconic pictures of Trinity's old library, with its busts of famous writers, arched roof, shelves and shelves of old books, and display of a harp purportedly belonging to Brian Boru, the once high king of Ireland, but which only dates to the 14th or 15th century. (The same harp you see on the Guinness logo.)

On the Trinity quad

No photos are allowed of the Book of Kells, but we have fun taking pics in the Long Room of the old library. 

With Will

The harp of Brian Boru, dating to the 14th or 15th centuries, once stolen in the 1960s

 Like Washington, D. C., Dublin is home to several free national museums. We skipped the National Museum of the Decorative Arts and the Natural History Museum in order to visit the National Museum of Archeaology. This museum gives a good overview to Ireland's history, from ancient Celtic gold, Viking invasions, medieval illuminated texts, and the preserved remains of the bog people. These mummified remains fascinate, as well as cause moral anxiety- shouldn't they be buried?

On to the National Reading Room, once a haunt of James Joyce

as well as the location of an extensive collection of Yeats family manuscripts and memorabilia.

The Reading Room was right across the street from the National Archeaology Museum, where lie the remains of the Peat Bog people.

Our tour across Dublin then led through St. Stephen's Green, the lovely park in the middle of the city, and over to Merrion Square, home of another lovely green space. Our destination was the O'Connell House, where the Notre Dame students meet weekly for communal dinners and classes in Irish literature and culture.

St Stephen's Green

The O'Connell House has an interesting history - It was home to Daniel O'Connell, also known as the Liberator for his campaigning for Irish Catholic rights, which were severely limited around the turn of the 19th century. Now it is home to the Notre Dame Ireland program - prime real estate on Merrion Square with the bonus of  having been home to an influential Catholic politician.  And because the director of the program, an Irish historian, has connections, the house also has a nice wall of homage to Seamus Heaney. 

Not far from the O'Connell house is the Notre Dame Newman Center. A small chapel is being renovated by the University for use as a place of worship and study and mission outreach to young urban Catholics. Steve Warner, who, as the folk choir director, was well loved at Notre Dame when we were students there, is the head of liturgy for this new program. An opening Mass with newly composed liturgical settings was held this week, but we attended Mass there on Sunday evening and received a beautiful blessing from Fr. Enda, a local priest covering for the chaplain.

Crossing Trinity again at dusk.

Study hard, students.

As the sun began to set, we had a few more sites to see before dinner. These were mostly civic buildings on the north side of the River Liffey, which splits the city of Dublin into North and South, such as the imposing Customs House and the General Post Office, central to the Irish Revolution or Easter Uprising in 1916, led by political poets and writers. And I wanted to walk back across the wrought iron Ha'Penny bridge, so we took a meandering route across the river, up to the GPO, and back across.

Night view of the harp bridge across the River Liffey

I apparently don't have a good photo of the GPO, but this shot of the Customs House shows the busyness of downtown on a Wednesday evening. 

Crossing the River Liffey

We had done all of this and it was still only about 5:30, but we were beginning to get hungry and had been tired.  Joe had a pub in mind, The Brazen Head, purportedly the oldest in Dublin, so we started off in that direction, which took us past Christ Church, dating to the eleventh century, just as Evensong was about to begin. Delight! I was ready to sit and reflect while listening to the beautiful Church of England prayer service sung by the Girls Choir, but my husband needed fortification, so he popped into a pub across the street for his first Irish Whisky of the trip before joining us.  The music was uplifting and the church awe inspiring, but no photos were allowed inside. We sat next to the tomb of Strongbow, a Norman lord of the twelfth century who helped restore and Irish king once ousted by the British (a long feud). The service was only sparsely attended, sadly enough - a reflection of secularization? busyness? no time for beauty and prayer?

Christ Church

And then at last, food and beer! Exhausted and hungry, we decided we had the best beef stew and the most refreshing pint ever. This was my first beer to share with one of my kids, a milestone of sorts, I guess. He is not yet 21, although this son is responsible and moderate in most things.  He was a little disappointed that we weren't up for staying at the pub another hour or so to listen to the live music, but after being awake for 30+ hours, we just couldn't.  And we needed to rest up for the next few days, so we hopped a double decker bus (part of the fun), back to the south suburbs to drop off Joe and reclaim the car from campus. Thank goodness we only had to drive a little over a mile to our little guesthouse, which was very comfy and bright; sleep never felt so good.

Family Life Committee notes

Before heading off on our trip, I wanted to make a few notes about the Family Life and Spirituality Committee that we are on for our parish. This committee was formed after the Diocesan synod on Amoris Laetitia last year. A few parishes were chosen as pilot parishes to observe, to be witnesses, to plan, and to host events to help strengthen families and communities  - in other words, to share the joy of the gospel of love.  Our parish picked three populations to focus on: young adults, married couples with or without children, and divorced or separated people. Someone mentioned we don't have a focus on singles, so that is something we will probably add in the future.

Our parish already offers an array of programs that offer opportunities for fellowship and catechesis, but we talked about making sure we get the word out and make personal invitations to these events, but also that we focus our attention on having just one or two events per quarter in each of four areas: fellowship, social outreach, catechesis, and spiritual life.  So each group is supposed to plan some events or help promote already existing ones.  So we've had a date night with a concert, a talk by a couple on attachment theory in marriage, an Oktoberfest for families, a food packaging event for social outreach, and then a blessing for couples celebrating their anniversaries this quarter. An evening of Taize music and adoration is planned in Advent. The challenge is not to overload people but to offer enough events that if someone misses something, they can come to the next thing. And the bigger idea is not to offer events just to have a full social roster, but to offer opportunities to deepen our friendship with Christ and our neighbor and to strengthen bonds among family members so that they live the joy of love.

A challenge for our parish, I think, is to encourage people to take advantage of the sacraments more - come to daily mass, or confession, or one of the small groups that prepare for Sunday's Mass with a gospel reflection, come to the rosary prayer group, come to adoration, which is always offered on Wednesday and Thursday morning.  People in our community have rich social lives, but may need an invitation to enrich their spiritual lives.

Last Saturday the Diocese had a review session for the pilot parishes. It was an opportunity for idea sharing and review of what works and what doesn't. The diocese has hired four new staff members to work on outreach to young adults, those preparing for marriage, married couples, and divorced/separated. The Diocese also just held a mass in honor of the anniversary of "Always our Children" for families of those who identify as LGBT.  The man who organized it was very moved by the responses he received to that event.

The morning review was very positive. There are lots of exciting things going on and LOTS of people excited to share Christ and the blessings of a vibrant parish community with others.  It was an encouraging event, and the room buzzed with the energy and enthusiasm of these people dedicated to encouraging the Joy of Love in action.

Here are some notes I made from the day:

Every church has a slightly different charism so no one model works everywhere BUT

1. One church has a family catechesis breakfast every other month. They also have date nights and do a book study with married couples. Several parishes were promoting date nights with or without a program (videos, adoration, meet the clergy were some suggested). 
2. Scheduling activities around Mass seemed popular
3. Having family service projects was popular idea - I concur
4. Another church had a praise and worship concert for families that was well attended
5. Involving young adults/youth in liturgy keeps them coming to Mass
6. One parish has a young adult dinner with the priest - 6-8 young people once a week by personal invitation it sounds like.  Another group did this with young married couples, but dinners were hosted by deacon and wife.
7. Need for charismatic leaders was emphasized - need to form leaders.  Diocese is trying to train more young adults to be leaders with a retreat coming up.
8. Marriage mentors was an idea that was shared by a couple groups
9. Another parish has a welcoming committee to welcome new families
10. Welcoming separated and divorced to come to Mass is important.  Having a BBQ suggested, reaching out to parents and kids. 
11. Spirituality also important to address - helping people get to know Christ and welcome Him into their homes: Adoration, Bible studies, and small groups all seemed to be successful events to foster prayer life. 
12. One idea on a poster from the divorced/separated table was the suggestion to teach ongoing relationship skills.  Another was to offer workshop on healing
13. After going to the marriage prep day last Saturday, it struck me that most of the couples were looking for practical advice more than theology, so maybe offering talks or workshops on things like Financial Management, Practical Parenting Skills, Communicating Effectively, Anger Management, Managing Social Media  - but with a Catholic perspective might be helpful.  
14. Another thought I had - Find ways to celebrate events in the Church calendar in a small way to help families make Catholic traditions a part of family life. This is something home schooling families do well: Have special saint day celebrations with foods associated with the saint. The All Saints Day Mass is a great witness of this, and May Crowning - any way to involve the parish in the school event or have an additional parish May Crowning? And the St. Patrick's Day dinner and Oktoberfest events are a great example of this - so maybe nothing new is needed. Perhaps other ways to celebrate: give kids something for Epiphany or Pentecost: red balloons? Special donuts with little flames or doves on them? Crowns for the kids on Christ the King? Something special for Feast of Sacred Heart?  Something - coffee and donuts or cookies? - to celebrate on each of the Holy Days of Obligation?  Nothing big but a little reminder of feasts and fasts - kids quickly pick up on special traditions.

This Saturday we were going to observe the Diocese's new marriage prep program, but the presenters on marriage and military life cancelled, so we got to give a little testimony. It went much better than the last time we had to give one, but we still need to work on our message.  We spent too much time at the beginning on introductions and telling our story and ran out of time to summarize the "lessons" we have learned - which is what they want to hear. As my husband and I were talking it over on the way home, we came to the conclusion we need to start with the lessons and then share little stories to illustrate how we learned them.  Our lessons were based on something I had posted on this blog before, but I think we need to revise them for an audience of people just starting out.  Anyway, another lesson for marriage is that doing things like marriage prep and sitting on spirituality committees makes you realize how much you need to live your own advice. Another lesson: constant education and review is helpful for keeping track of what's good in your marriage - and what needs work... usually in your own self. 

Cuairt ar Eirinn

I'm having trouble deciding where to go - we only have 5 days on the ground. (And two in the air.)  We'll spend a couple days in Dublin with our son at University College Dublin, and then head west first to Galway, then the Cliffs of Mohrer, then I want to go all the way to Killarney, but my husband wants to spend less time in the car...

What to do, where to go!  Too much to see, too little time.

It will all be wonderful.