Monday, May 13, 2019

Gratitude Monday: Irish connections


It’s Gratitude Monday, and I’m on a flight back to the States after a week in Ireland. I’m so grateful that my friend John goaded me into taking this trip. I have a lot to tell you about, but for today, here’s my very full load of thanks:

The tour of the sectarian neighborhoods of Belfast—so much to be hopeful about, and so much to lose if Britain screws the pooch with Brexit.

Choosing the Pearse Lyons Distillery out of all the options as my Irish whiskey experience. The enthusiasm expressed by every employee I met filled me with lightness, which I sorely need. Also, a long chat with James, the tasting master, led to a couple of recommendations for other Dublin attractions, which led me to…

14 Henrietta Street, a museum devoted to the history of—mostly—the tenements in Dublin, but it takes you from the original single-family English colonial occupants of an elegant Georgian townhouse, through a period as commercial/civic premises and then to the conversion to a tenement; where once there was a single family in 15 rooms, there were now 17 families, with double digit members, in 17 single rooms. I’ll write more about it later, but even as a historian, this was a stunning experience.

And, finally, meeting up at the National Gallery with someone I know from Twitter. I wouldn’t have gone to the Gallery this time, except she suggested it, and I had time to view some extraordinary works that weren’t on display the last time I was there. But primarily the more-than two hours that we chatted gave me super insights into changes that are taking place in Ireland, the pall that Brexit uncertainty spreads over everything and what she hopes for the future of her children. Who did very well during what must have been a tedious Sunday afternoon with their mam yakking with some weird American.

Those experiences were worth the expense of this trip. And I’m grateful for having just busted loose and taken it.

And, apropos of nothing, really, I’ll leave you with one of the flower beds from Merrion Square.





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