After recently watching three different series about Ireland on the SBS TV channel, I thought that I would like to write down some of my own impressions of that beautiful country and of its people. Sue also watched these T.V. programs with me. Her love of Ireland, and of Irish music, goes back a long way.
The series “From That Small Island – The Irish Story”, was a fascinating account of the history of Ireland and of the many significant upheavals which, over time, changed the direction in which this country developed.
The second series focussed on “The Irish Civil War”, recounting the sufferings of the Irish people and of their long road towards independence and the formation of the Irish Republic.
The third, and very different series, which we both watched on Sunday evenings, was titled, “A Year at Kylemore Abbey”. Sue and I loved this TV series, as it brought back happy memories from the time when we went to see Kylemore Abbey, back in 2004.
From time to time, Sue and I do listen to Irish music together, usually late in the evening, on the YouTube channel. We also enjoy watching old Irish performers, such as Foster & Allen, sing some of their traditional and well-loved ballads. They have been entertaining audiences all over the world since 1975, and it’s hard to believe that now, 50 years later, they are still “on the road” and, as far as we are concerned, that they have improved with age. I remember going to a show in Sydney, a very long time ago, when Tony Allen sang the same medley, titled: “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”, which we can still hear on YouTube and Spotify today.
Sue had travelled in Ireland, with her mother, and our daughter, well before I did and they had had a great time there. My one and only visit was in 2004, by which time I was 68 years old. I’ll admit that I still have mixed feelings about that trip, as “the luck of the Irish” was not always with me.
We had travelled there, together with our daughter, Nikki, and our son-in-law, Mike, for a week-long visit and had hired a car beforehand, with the intention of enjoying a leisurely drive through the country, and of staying in Bed & Breakfast places. However, not everything went according to plan.
When we arrived in Cork, on a Sunday afternoon in August, on a direct Aer Lingus flight from Amsterdam, we discovered that my suitcase was missing. To my great consternation, it had not made its appearance on the carousel in the arrival hall. Then, after dealing with the lost baggage desk and making sure that they were provided with the addresses of all the places where we were planning to stay, we were late when we arrived at the Herz rental car desk. There, the four of us were told to board a courtesy bus to take us to our car, which was parked a long way away from the main terminal building. Unfortunately, it was raining very heavily. In fact, I should probably call it a “torrential downpour”. When we finally arrived at our car, we loaded our other cases and all of us hurried to get ourselves into the car and out of the rain, after which the courtesy bus disappeared, back to the terminal building. There was a collective sigh of relief!
However, the “luck of the Irish” was not with us again, because it turned out that our car had a flat battery and refused to start. There was no alternative but to run back to the terminal building, which was barely visible in the far distance, to speak to the people at the Herz desk again. I must have looked like a drowned rat!
It took some time, but the car rental people were able to find us a different car, and the bus driver drove me back to pick up the others who were waiting, and then took us, and our suitcases, to the new car.
It was late Sunday afternoon, and I was sopping wet, with no suitcase and no dry clothes, when we arrived, quite late, at our B&B in Kinsale, County Cork, for a 1-night stay. There were a few other unfortunate things which happened during the rest of our trip, but I won’t spoil this happy story by relating them to you.
Despite an “ordinary” start, Ireland soon became a magical place for us again, when, waking up the following morning, we were greeted with sunshine and by friendly people, who were ready for a chat. My “walking and talking” persona was right at home. Cork proved to be a charming city and the surrounding country was beautiful and unbelievably green.
What attracts me to Ireland and to the Irish people is the history, the evidence of which is visible everywhere and some of this history is portrayed in its music and articulated in its traditional ballads.
Being in county Cork, we had to, of course, kiss the Blarney Stone, which legend says, “endows the kisser with the gift of the gab”. The stone is set into a tower of Blarney Castle, which dates from 1446. I guess that some of my readers would have seen it, and would probably have kissed it, because this is one of the most popular tourist sites in Ireland, visited by thousands of Australians. All four of us managed, with a little difficulty, to kiss the stone and I think I can safely say that it appears that the stone did “endow us kissers”, because we have never been short of things to talk about, after our visit to the Blarney Stone.
We were in Ireland in the middle of the summer, and tourists and tourist buses were everywhere. To this day, I can still remember some very “hairy” moments, while driving along the “Ring of Kerry,” a scenic tourist route, where we had big buses meeting us from the opposite direction, on very narrow winding roads, in rainy weather. Sue assures me, however, that it was a beautiful drive, and I take her word for it.
Another moment in time that I will never forget was our visit to the Cliffs of Moher. These cliffs rise vertically from the sea in the southwestern corner of Ireland and are advertised as one of Ireland’s favourite visitor experiences. For me, however, the highlight of this location was that on the path climbing upwards on these cliffs, we unexpectedly found, and heard, harpist Tina Morissey, who was singing and playing her Irish Harp. She was standing at the side of the path, and as it was overcast and raining, it was a very atmospheric encounter. We were so surprised and mesmerised by this that we bought a CD from her, which we still have. The title of it is simply “Tina”, and the album features 16 songs and harp solos. When we were there, 22 years ago, she had already been performing live for visitors to these cliffs for 18 years.
Irish folk music has, of course, existed, in some form or other, for a very long time, but it appears that it (especially its ballads) became very popular again in 1959, when the Clancy Brothers started singing and performing in the USA. The three brothers, Paddy, Tom and Liam, together with Tommy Makin, became famous and influenced many other artists like, for example, Bob Dylan. One of their popular songs, “The Dutchman”, is a story about an old, confused man who is being looked after by his partner, Margaret. This song touches me, as the lyrics refer to Rotterdam in Holland and the words evoke memories of my own seafaring days, many moons ago.
Music is to be found anywhere and everywhere in Ireland, as we learned when we made our way to Galway. We came across many scenic places and small towns, where we were able to visit the pubs and listen to local musicians performing. Our visit to Galway, in 2004, reminds me of “The Dubliners”, another band which was instrumental in making Irish music popular again in Europe. They performed for 50 years, until 2012, and they produced a huge repertoire of folk songs, and traditional street ballads.
One of their best-known ballads, which is also “a popular and emotional anthem for Irish sport supporters, and a symbol of Irish history and spirit”, is The Fields of Athenry, sung by Paddy Reilly, a ballad which Sue and I were able to listen to on YouTube.
It tells the story of a man from Galway, who, when his family was starving during the Great Irish Famine in the 1840s, stole some corn and was caught, convicted and sent to Botany Bay (just as James Davis in post 83 had been, in 1824). His wife was left behind, alone with their children, and the song is about her faith and her love for her husband and her sorrow “amid the lonely Fields of Athenry”.
Another famous ballad of The Dubliners was “Grace”, sung by Jim McCann. It is a song about an artist, Grace Gifford, who married an Irish poet, Joseph Plunkett, who was a signatory to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and who took part in the “Easter Rising”. Grace had purchased a ring and had persuaded a priest to allow her to marry Joseph in prison. Seven hours later Joseph was executed by firing squad. The ballad expresses Joseph’s love for Grace and his love for the cause of Irish independence.
The Irish have excelled in documenting some of their history in the form of ballads, which express their emotions of love and loss. For me, this makes Ireland a special country, a country with a turbulent history which has left its mark on the Irish people, and which has shaped and influenced its literature and music. I can’t begin to do justice to any of it. I am therefore content to restrict myself, in this post, to some musings about our travels there and to point you to the lyrics of some of Ireland’s well-known ballads. You may even want to listen to some of them again.
I leave you with a few lines of “Maggie – We’ve outlived our time”, as performed by Foster & Allen. The lyrics were written by a Canadian schoolteacher, back in 1864, but Tony Allen’s mellow Irish voice has brought it back to life, for us to enjoy. I used to love this song when I was 15 years old, and I still do so, now that I am nearly 90.
I wandered today to the hill, Maggie,
To watch the scene below –
The creek and the creaking old mill, Maggie,
As we used to, long ago.
The green grove is gone from the hill, Maggie,
Where first the daisies sprung;
The creaking old mill is still, Maggie,
Since you and I were young.
Chorus:
And now we are agèd and grey, Maggie,
And the trials of life nearly done,
Let us sing of the days that are gone, Maggie,
When you and I were young.
O.P.
P.S, If you enjoyed this story and would like to receive an email every other Sunday with new stories, please fill in your details on the Join Us page. On Sunday morning, 1 March, the story will be about the “Brisbane Roar” soccer club and its Dutch migrant origins, as well as about my own migration experience.