A Bit O' Blarney

“Summer Lovin”

An Irish Date!: We finally made a social breakthrough with Sean, one of our fellow picklers. After we met Sean and his wife Edel for lunch, they invited us to dinner at their home in the remote seaside village of Dooagh. (Sean drives an hour to play pickleball each week!) After we described our previous dating failures, they explained that the Irish tend to be clan-ish and don’t as a rule invite people to dinner, so we considered the invitation to be a special privilege. Despite being told that an Irish dinner is often a very casual affair, Sean and Edel went all out on a beautifully plated gourmet dinner with garnished cocktails. We will be hosting them next for Taco Tuesday. I’m sure they’ll be just as impressed with our Ortega pre-formed taco shells! 🌮

Olympics – Team Ireland: It was fun rooting for team Ireland, which sees itself as the perennial underdog. Ireland had 7 medals to the US’s 125 (although by population, they kind of kicked our butts). Our favorite Irish Olympic story was how a fellow passenger gave the Irish gold medal rowers a lift home from the Dublin Airport after finding out they had no transportation plans and were going to take the bus to Cork, nearly 4 hours away. They hadn’t told anyone they were returning home from their gold medal win, so no one met them at the airport — no family, no fans, no media. One of them is a doctor and returned to work the next day. It’s an endearing story of Irish humility which would NEVER happen in the US. Very Irish — no airs and graces, as they say.

Our Tour de France: While we mostly toured Normandy and the French countryside, Eric and I spent a day at the Paris Olympics. We got to watch beach volleyball on a warm summer night beneath the Eiffel Tower — fabulous! LA is going to have a hard time competing with Paris venues (although we do play beach volleyball on an actual beach). We also had tickets to table tennis. Imagine watching ants from the highest room in the tallest tower. Still, the skill of the ants was remarkable!

We were struck by the difference between the French countryside and the Irish countryside. Country roads in France are sufficiently wide (thank you!), and rural areas of France are more pristine. It’s the French aesthetic: “our villageez zeey are more booutifool, our cows zeey are well gwoomed”. Sean mentioned that Ireland, by contrast, is not a visual culture and doesn’t place much value on aesthetics. While it’s sad to see so many beautiful old Irish buildings in ruins, it’s also part of the country’s cultural identity. It speaks to the history of hardship that the Irish want to preserve.

Friends: The biggest highlight of the summer has been making great memories in Ireland with longtime friends, which we can’t sufficiently capture. It’s meant a lot to us to spend time with those we have missed across the miles.

Monica and Tod, party-est couple. Tod at ~6’5” was piggybacking a 20-something around the pub. One of the great things about pub life in Ireland is that people in their 20s enjoy having the craic with people 20-30-40+ years their senior. There’s a much greater sense of cross-generational community, which is lovely.

Dave and Nicole, most enthusiastic. They embraced every moment, lashing rain and all — cold, wet day watching horse races on the beach, castle hunting through mud and sheep poop, boat tour in waters rivaling the splash zone at Sea World. They loved the Irish-ness of it all.

Bobbe, tea and travel. After spending a couple days near Westport, including a day having tea at the lovely Ashford Castle, we took a road trip to Kerry to attend the anniversary party of Bobbe’s sister Bette and husband Fintan whose B&B we stayed at Oct-Jan. In true Irish spirit, they had music, dancing, and limericks in an old sheebeen (speakeasy).  

Eric’s Canadian Friends Mike and Ros, longest road trip. They drove to Ireland from their new home in Alicante, Spain! They are an Irish/English/Canadian couple who consider the world to be one big open road, oceans a mere technicality.

With a little over six weeks to go, we have started the countdown to our move to England. Time is moving fast, and we are already starting to miss Ireland.

We hug you tightly!

The Leprechauns ☘️
Rosbeg Gate Lodge, Westport, Co. Mayo F28 V564 Ireland

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