Just as in the States, September is the month that starts afresh.  Here, summer isn't bracketed by Memorial Day in May and Labor Day in September but simply by months.  Summer starts in June and ends when the kids go back to school the first weekday in September.  It's not that there aren't holidays here, they just don't commemorate anything in particular, most are just called "bank holidays" and those are days when most everything but retail is closed.  It rains buckets on most bank holidays. I didn't post as I usually do yesterday (Friday) because I wanted to start afresh too, so here I am on September 1 at 4:38 a.m.

I'm excited to start this month because there are lots of new things on the calendar.  The thing I'm most excited about is starting set dancing classes.  I've identified two places that offer classes and it looks like so much fun -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj13osgy2M0 .  One starts on Monday the 12th and the other on the 16th.  I remember my mother and father's fond memories of their early days when he played accordion and she danced.  In later years she kept up in the States in a square dance group and you can see from the video that, except for the caller in square dance, set dancing is very similar.  I was inspired to do this by seeing set dancers in a pub during our trip to Dingle last week and set about finding a place for classes.  Although he has agreed to start square dancing when we get back to the States, Alan is going to pass on set dancing but, like with most dance, women are more prevalent anyway and it's acceptable for women to partner in it.  I'm delighted that my friend Mary says she'd like to come along, so I'll have a partner to begin. 

There are also two new networking groups I will be attending with monthly meetings beginning in September after a summer hiatus, Democrats Abroad and American Women in Ireland.  Since the election is coming up so quickly, there will be lots to do in the former, starting with the President's acceptance speech at the convention on September 7th.  The latter seems like a group I was involved in during my time in Milwaukee but I'm hoping not so cliquish since it should be more fluid, with people coming in and out as they arrive in the country.  The group in Milwaukee was not that dynamic since people tended to be from and stay in that city for their whole lifetime. 

After parting with our friends in Dingle last Saturday, Alan and I returned home to catch up on maintenance; lots of laundry, shopping and cleaning.  We did take a break on Tuesday and saw the movie Shadow Dancer which was quite good.  Then on Wednesday morning I met friends at the Irish Film Institute (IFI) for the monthly "Strawberry Club" outing for seniors.  We saw the 2009 movie Welcome to the Riley's with James Gandolfini. IFI is very similar to the American Film Institute (AFI) with special deals for members and this Strawberry Club is one they put on each month for the over 55 set.  It's just great because for 3.50 Euro (about $5) you get a movie that you wouldn't otherwise see and a coffee.  The last several times I've done it, I've met friends and had lunch afterward.  A lot of fun.

Our U.S. friends returned from their continued travels in the west of Ireland on Wednesday evening and we had a nice dinner in and heard the story of their travels.  The story of Sheila, the compulsive B&B operator at the Cliffs of Moher was hysterical. They left early on Thursday morning for the trip back to Madison, WI. 

It was such fun hosting them and we are looking forward to a lot more visits in the next two months.  In addition to great company, this couple brought a big bottle of aspirin tablets.  For some reason you can't get that here, aspirin only comes in effervescent tablets in a box of 12.  Our next guests, Alan's sister and her husband (or as Alan's much beloved mother called "Margenes", just and Alan and I were "Alans"), are bringing ice cube trays, the kind that makes big cubes, another thing that is not available in Ireland.  We've got a list of such items so those of you getting ready for your trip here be warned!

Today we are going to a tailgate party for the Notre Dame/Navy football game that is to be played here in Dublin at the Emerald Island Classic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Isle_Classic  .  I'm not much of a football fan so I don't expect to last for the whole thing, but Alan will likely stay till the bitter end.  Since they are Hoosiers AND "The Fighting Irish", we're both rooting for Notre Dame. 

A little late posting this week...

A little late posting this week, it's Sunday but there's a good reason.  Last week was our first hosting experience in Dublin and it was just great.  We had a lot of fun with our friends and, unless they are just saying it to make us feel good, they had fun too.  Win, win all around.  Enough, I hope, to encourage all of you who are on the fence about visiting us!

Our friends came on Saturday and we spent the first three days of their visit in Dublin.  The first day we stuck close to home because it's usually the hardest for the jet lag adjustment.  That worked out well. We took a short bus ride to the city center and gave them a general orientation.  The following day they went on their own for a walking tour of the city.  There are walking tours every day and each one is different, depending on the guide.  The guides are usually affiliated with Trinity College, Dublin so they are quite knowledgeable and opinionated.  They know stuff and don't mind inserting their own interests and biases in the tour so there's nothing rote about it.

On the third day we went with them to the Killmainham Gaol (Irish again, it's just pronounced "jail").  This was the place where the British kept Irish 'criminals' in the 19th century and political prisoners in the days of the fight for independence 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilmainham_Gaol.  

They had a lot of records and some of the criminal offenses were quite poignant, "stealing potatoes" for example.  Of course there were also larcenies of all sorts as well as prostitution and buggery.  I'm sure it's quite interesting when Americans bring their children for an Irish history lesson and the kids ask 'What's buggery dad?"  Anyway, the goal was fascinating.  It was a horrible place but apparently during the famine, people were committing crimes to get in, so one can just imagine how horrible it was on the outside during those times.  The film In the Name of the Father was filmed there so if you have seen that, you get the idea.  On a happier note, we also did the Guinness Brewery tour, ending the day in the great pub they have at the top of the building with a wonderful panorama of the city.  That was just great.

On Wednesday we left for Killarney by train.  Killarney is a nice city.  Initially I thought that as guests come we would accompany them on trips to places where we'd not already been, but I could see going back there -- and to Dingle -- again and again.  We had fun in Killarney.  From there we did a horse and trap/boat ride through the Gap of Dunloe 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_of_Dunloe

Half the trip was in a very small cart pulled by an overworked horse and the return was an open-topped boat through the lakes of Killarney.  On the following day we did a bus tour of the Ring of Kerry.  Both were very nice, although the Ring of Kerry bus tour was 2 hours too long.  

Following Killarney our friends got a car and we drove to Dingle.  It was pouring rain, the first time we really got a lot of rain during their stay.  I didn't like the car trip much, but took a valium at the start and was asleep most of the way.  The car thing continues and it's pretty much a nuisance but valium works good.  Still, I can't think that any kind of cross country tour in a car would be anything but torture for me, particularly since this trip was only two hours!  

Still, once we got to Dingle and checked into the hotel, Benners (good but expensive), we had a great dinner and then went to a pub in which we had the best music and dance experience we have had in Ireland.  The musicians (just a guitar and squeeze box accordian)  were just great.  We had so much fun, and THEN they started a set dance.  It was just great.  

  

The following day in Dingle was great too although our boat tour to the Blasket Islands was rained out.  We and our friends walked around town (in the rain) in the early morning, then it cleared up.  We stopped in the public library and had a good visit with the librarian who was a font of information, then when the rain stopped we continued our walk to a nearby church where a funeral was in progress.  We waited in the back while the exit procession was going on.  They sang "Lord of the Dance" and right there, I determined that I'm going to learn set dancing here.  It was very moving.

Following that, Rosemary noticed a sign encouraging us to visit an adjoining convent with noteworthy stained glass.  What a great find, the chapel was just beautiful.  I could not have asked for more by way of artistry and spiritual beauty, it more than made up for not seeing dolphins!  So, so beautiful. 

http://www.diseart.ie/visitor/harry2.html

All in all, a great, great week.  We both enjoyed hosting and the new experiences.   Our friends come back to us on Wednesday for one night and then we will rest for a few weeks in preparation of Alan's sister and my favorite outlaw, Tom's visit.  (The outlaws are those who have married Balkemas  -- you know who you are an why this in noteworthy).  Those who really know Alan also know -- the Balkemas are NEVER wrong -- still, we outlaws stick with them and with one another in solidarity.  I'm looking forward to a great visit. 

It's been a quiet week, nothing much occurred.  I went to a concert with my friend Mary on Thursday and on Wednesday we went to see the Olympic team return and get kudos from the government, but the ceremony was rained out and we didn't stay to see it.  The rain just came down and the wind was terrible.  It was a complete gale. 

The only thing noteworthy this week is my new addiction to "Big Money" the Irish  Lottery's scratch-off game.  When we were at Glasnevin last week the tour guide said that if we touched James Connelly's casket it would be lucky, so I've started buying these lottery tickets that, in addition to the 'instant win' amounts include chances for attending a TV program and another chance to win a trip to New York.  With about 20 tickets (at 3 Euro a pop) we've won about 20 Euro but also three chances for the TV show and 6 for the NY trip.  Now that I've touched the coffin, I'm sure we're going to win! So, look for us, or at least me, reporting from New York soon! ha ha

Next week promises to be much more interesting.  Our friends are coming tomorrow and on Tuesday we leave for Killarney and the Dingle Peninsula.  Hopefully next weeks post will be much more interesting.  I'm only going to post this today because I want to keep the discipline of doing it on Fridays!

This has been a mostly Olympics week.  We've been glued to our TVs watching and rooting for both team USA and Ireland.  I was sorry to have missed Gabby Douglas get her gold in gymnastics, but delighted with the win.  It was also fun to watch Michael Phelps make history.  We also enjoyed watching Usain Bolt, given our love for things Jamaican.  But, I have to say, I've had the greatest interest in boxing and eagerly watched Katie Taylor win gold against Russia. 

We're also looking forward to this evening's match with John Joe Nevin and the British contender, Luke Campbell.  It was pandemonium on the street yesterday when he won silver.  I knew that John Joe was from Mullingar, the 'big city' near my father's home of Moate, but just learned this morning that he's a 'traveler' -- better known as gypsy in other parts of the world.  Now that all makes sense.  There's a TV show here called "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" and in addition to young women marrying very, very young in very, very over the top costume, the men are also pretty scrappy.  One of the rites of passage for a young man seems to be to get pretty badly beaten up.  The whole community seems to wholeheartedly support this. My father often spoke of the 'tinkers' -- the much more pejorative term; now I understand what he was talking about.

We didn't go to Moneygall last week after all.  Alan didn't want to make the two hour trip just for a house tour and pint in the pub.  I was disappointed, particularly when it turned out that the Democrats in Ireland had arranged a bus that we could have traveled on, but we didn't learn about that until too late. Instead we went to see "Riverdance" touring yet again in Ireland.  I'd never seen it live before and was surprised at how much I'd seen in snippets on TV.  It was quite energetic, I think Alan enjoyed it more than I did, but the theater in which it was performed, The Gaiety, while small for the amount of action on stage, was quite beautiful.  I'd like to see a play there in the future. 

On Tuesday we went to Glasnevin Cemetery, where almost all of the Irish patriots are buried.  That was quite a place.  The guided tour was quite interesting, including some information about a bombing there in 1970 in which the Ulstermen (the IRA's opposition) tried to blow up the memorial to James Connolly, Ireland's George Washington.  This was interesting because three years earlier -- during my time working for Aer Lingus in New York -- the IRA was successful in blowing up the Nelson's Pillar.  The Pillar was a memorial on the main street in Dublin dedicated to a British hero in the Battle of Trafalgar.  It stood for 160 years as "...the glory of a mistress and the transformation of our state into a discount office".  The IRA were much better with explosives than the Ulstermen because The Pillar is no more but Connolly's memorial survives. Like our Civil War, the War of Independence here lives on, although there is little current animosity toward the British -- except when our guy meets their guy in the ring at 8:45 tonight!

There is a titanium spire where Nelson's Pillar stood.  They call that the "stiletto in the ghetto".  Dubliners are very conscious about north and south of the river Liffey.  Even though it's a perfectly nice neighborhood, housing north of the Liffy, where this statue stands, is less posh than housing south, thus "the ghetto". There's a picture of the spire and Nelson's Pillar here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spire_of_Dublin

In the coming week we are preparing for our first visitors.  They will be here next Saturday and we are busy collecting information about things of interest in Dublin.  After three days here, we will travel with them to County Kerry to tour Killarney and Dingle.  We also learned this week that we will have our dearest friend with us for Thanksgiving.  All in all a good week.  

We've had a few adventures close to home this week, pathetically, one of them was to IKEA.  Several months ago we noticed that a bus was destined for the store.  I don't think I've even seen a public bus destined for a particular store before so we thought this must be an event that we couldn't miss in our Irish sojourn.  Sure enough, the bus terminated at the only IKEA store in Ireland; and it was a destination.  There was a large children's play room, a big cafeteria and acres and acres of retail space.  There was nothing else around.  It is in a warehouse location close to the airport.  We'd only been to one IKEA in the Washington area and it was nothing like this.  The store was packed, I was sure that there were people like us making it their day's adventure.  We bought a few things, had a bad, kid-filled lunch and came home.  It took 6 hours.  I wouldn't do it again but I have to say it was an interesting experience.  That store has everything, except what we were looking for as our excuse to go:  a butter dish and a meat thermometer, too old fashioned I guess, everything is modern in IKEA.

On a more fun note, I spent yesterday walking with a friend between two seaside villages, Bray and Greystones.  The path is one that's been around since medieval times and it was a beautiful, scenic walk.  Both are summer escape villages.  Bray is popular with the people from Northern Ireland in particular.  Seems that when the parade season (in July) happens in the north and the protestants and the catholics provoke one another with their marching many of the year-round residents flee to Bray.  I can see why, it has a wonderful beach but kind of a Coney Island feel, with rides and hucksters and fatty food vendors.  Greystones is much more upscale, no midway just what I picture when I think of a Victorian get away.  The walk between them, 6.2 kilometers (about 4 miles) is unspoiled and undeveloped it was just beautiful.  It is a cliff walk that hugs the sea the whole way.  We had lunch in Greystones and then took the train back one stop to Bray where we picked up my friend's car.  It was a really nice day and we didn't get rained on.

Tomorrow we are headed for a day trip to Moneygall, Obama's ancestral home.  He's a rock star in Ireland and he's put that little village on the map.  We will take a two-hour bus ride from Dublin and then take a tour of the home is great grandfather left and have a pint in the pub.  Tomorrow is his birthday and the Democrats in Ireland are putting on this bash.  It should be interesting.  Yesterday, during lunch I spoke to a man who asked me if Republicans ever come to Ireland.  I wondered myself.  Surely with the performance of Mitt Romney in this region last week, he'd be hard pressed to hold his own with the Obama fans.  Apparently by the time he got to Poland, he was done with Europe entirely and his press secretary told the reporters there to 'kiss my ass' when they asked him about his gaffs in England.  That didn't go over too well, although there's plenty of amusement about it. 

The other thing I've been doing this week is making arrangements for our first visit from America.  Friends from Wisconsin are coming and we will entertain them here for several days before we all go off to Kerry.  Unfortunately we will just miss the "Rose of Tralee" festival, which concludes on August 21st, but our plan is to do the Ring of Kerry and spend two nights in Killarney and one in Dingle.  In all of my trips to Ireland in the past, I have never seen this part of the country.  As anyone who has done the traditional tour of Ireland knows this is one of the 'must see' areas, so I'm looking forward to it.