This has been a quiet week, just getting ourselves organized in our new place.  Now that I look back over the last 25 days (we arrived on April 3) we have really settled in.  Yesterday we made an appointment to select a family doctor and soon I will pick a dentist.  Alan's already picked a barber and I just have to get a stylist and we will have all of the life maintenance things done.   Then on the the business of learning about Dublin, Ireland and exploring Europe.  So far, we have a trip planned to Liverpool for a conference in mid-July and I will also meet a friend in Provence early July.  We are also considering a walking tour in Majorca in October. 

Next week is my birthday and we have scheduled a walking tour of Dublin focusing on the Easter Uprising and taking of the Post Office.  This is an exciting time to be in Ireland because 2012 is the beginning of celebrations and remembrances having to do with the War of Independence and the ensuing Civil War.  I continue to be amazed at how these events had such an impact on my own family, something we really never discussed at home to my great disappointment now.  My father was born in 1912, so May 20th he would have been 100.  Of course he died a relatively young man so didn't get close, but to think of all the turmoil he was born into is really surprising.  It's odd, I know so much more about my mother's family and it's so much easier to find things out about the Gallaghers' from Donegal than the Dignams' from Westmeath.  The reason it surprises me is that Gallagher is such a common name, although much more common in Donegal than Dublin, but Dignam is well recognized as Irish (no one spells it wrong) but much less common.  I'm learning that the Dignams', as they were in my family, are a much more secretive lot.  The only thing I know for sure past my father's parents' generation is that my father's grandfather (hopefully in the Dignam side) was killed in the Boer War.  Fortunately, I also know that my father's mother was called Henson, another relatively uncommon name.  So if and when I get around to it, I will have that to start with.

The Irish have a real sense of their own past and about current events.  Most people are well informed about the issues and are quite willing to discuss them, which is a real treat for both Alan and me.  Even in Washington, it was not unusual to encounter people who didn't keep up with American political life.  That is a big difference here, even the youngest people seem to know what's going on. 

I'm looking forward to planning excursions and adventures next week and hope to have more to blog about then.  It was hard to follow through on my commitment to Friday blogging today because there's so little to report.  I read a book once in which the main character was wont to say "life is maintenance" and that was what we did this past week -- maintain.