Category: Ireland
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Fifty-Six Years of Darkness
[Sinead O’Connor. Unknown date. Photo: Google Search.] This is probably the shortest blog I have or will ever post… I was propped up in bed on a warm afternoon. It was July 26, 2023. My iPhone was in my left hand and I making a stab at the New York Times crossword. It was a…
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The Winters Of My Life
“Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail. If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see.” –Robert Service. The Cremation of Sam Magee I live in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. I don’t live in the Yukon. But lately, I feel…
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Elegy From The North Country
The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day; The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea; The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. -Thomas Gray Well, if you’re…
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It Was 28 Years Ago Today: Changing Views
I saw him when he was born. I watched and began to wonder…even back then. I thought about what I had seen. I went to the Delivery Room window, looked out over the parking lot… and wept. Taken in the long view of human life, I had just witnessed something most men have been kept…
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Reflections in a Sad Eye
The last bus stopped running an hour ago. The publican has rung the bell in the nearby pub, calling out “Time gentlemen, please.” The night‘s action is most definitely over out here in the ‘burbs of London. The streets may be quiet and the locals are at home…but it’s still light out! It’s only a…
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Slán
THE CLIFFS OF DOONEEN You may travel far far from your own native home Far away oer the mountains far away oer the foam But of all the fine places that I’ve ever seen, There’s none to compare with The Cliffs of Dooneen Take a view oer the water fine sights you’ll see there You’ll…
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The Silent Songs of the Burrens and the Rebel Songs of Galway
I stood at the edge of the famous Cliffs of Moher. Just a short drive from Shannon Airport, this site is one of the first stops for tourists. The last time I stood at this edge of Ireland where the Atlantic Ocean pounds silently far below us, at the base of rock faces that can…
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The Swans Of The Shannon River: Limerick On A Warm Afternoon
I dropped Mariam at our hotel and drove off to find the parking lot. I made two lefts and passed two pubs, one of which was called The Sin Bin. I took note of the name. Maybe this pub had something more than pints of Guinness. I walked back to the hotel and we decided…
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Crossing The Liffey: Our First And Last Full Day In Dublin’s Fair City
I was sitting opposite my wife in the restaurant of the Arlington Hotel where we are staying. It’s just steps away from the O’Connell Street Bridge. I was making strange, odd and contorted…some would say ugly faces in her direction. She simply stared back at me. My eyes watered and I continued to wiggle my…
patrickjegan 