of ireland

I never quite found the time to write about Ireland so after a nice night at the Italian film fest, I felt inspired to do so again. I just randomly picked some parts to write about and I hope it doesn't bore anyone.





He doesn't love you anymore.


On the train ride to Connemara (which was later re-routed due to other reasons), I saw an American couple who was in Ireland for the holidays. I found out that the husband was a businessman and it took quite an effort on his part (and his wife's part too, naturally) to come on a holiday together. They took an interest in me because once one is out of Dublin, you don't see an Asian for days, be it tourist or local. I got many questions from bewildered locals and tourists alike: "Are you really travelling around here?" (Duh, I don't even know how to answer such a question.) "Why are you travelling alone?" (erhmm, because I like it?) And just to add a little "joke" that happened. You know how so many Americans travel to Ireland in search of their Irish roots right? (cos of the famous irish famine which led to half the nation dying or migrating to America) Well, some smart ass who found out that I was studying in America asked me, "Are you here to trace any ancestral roots?"

Anyway, I think that it's beautiful to observe people. There was once when I was in France, and my parents decided that they were finally too tired (even though I carried everything) and we sat at a cafe with a cup of espresso each (to my mom's bewilderment of course; she completely didn't understand why the espresso was such a tiny cup). And there we sat while I watched people come and go. Lovers kissing. Friends pecking on the cheeks. Tourists scurrying like there's no tomorrow. Cheapos hurrying to The Louvre for the half-price deal on Wednesdays (I think) after 2pm. I thought that was a beautiful experience.

Likewise, after breaking off the small talk, it dawned on me that the husband was clearly more interested in his finance papers (I don't understand why he would bring a copy all the way from america to ireland if he's on a holiday) than his wife. She repeatedly initiated small talk like what they should have for dinner, where they should go etc. Every response was a murmur made up of hesitant and incoherent "uhhmm"s "yeees" "aaarrr"s "oook"s.

When she looked out the window in despair finally, I realized that it wasn't just me who saw that her husband didn't love her anymore.

From the look in her eyes, it was apparent to her.





"The Meeting of the Waters" by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852), Ireland's National Bard, at Avoca


THERE is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
’Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no—it was something more exquisite still.

’Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.





At Doolin, a small one street town. Atlantic Ocean in the distant. I have nothing to talk about. I don't remember any Irish bread here either. =)





I did a short trek to the Cliffs of Moher. Believe it or not, when the earth was still one piece of large supercontinent, Ireland was actually no where near UK and was probably where we would call the current Central Asia area. And then Panganea (ok, this is definitely spelt wrongly, I don't have much geological knowledge I admit) broke up and stuff like that and Ireland began its long drift up north and its whole coast was shaped by the glaciers during the Ice Age. This explains why Ireland has one of the world's most rugged coasts. I actually passed by numerous coastlines made up of nothing but hard granite rock shaped into the most baffling shapes (the glaciers do not errode the way precipitation does). I was told by an Irish that during the famous irish potato famine, "there was not enough water to drown a person, not enough soil to bury a person, and not enough rope to hang a person...." Ok, erhmm to keep the mood abit livelier, I won't post pics of the coastlines along the famine route (not that they really hint at it)





The Cliffs of Moher. Just pronouncing its name reminds me of LOTR and Mordorth (did I spell it right this time?). Made me feel like I was in New Zealand or something. I was honestly quite in awe when I got here. The scenery was breath-taking because Ireland is this landmass that faces out into the vast Atlantic Ocean of nothingness. When I was taking a plane to Dublin from London, I had the chance to talk to a middle-aged Irish woman. Being dumb and stupid, I asked her, "So, do you speak Irish?" She stuttered a little and say "yes, a bit". That made me a little confused, cos she wasn't young so I thought at least the older generation should speak it (before enforced English rule of course). Then I asked, "Then do you speak Gaelic?" Double mistake. She replied matter-of-factly, "Oh, Gaelic is Irish." (Ok, my history is bad. I thought that the Normans and Gauls and whatever Scandinavians attacked the irish coast for hundreds of years and brought in all the different influences?) And that, actually, is my PROBLEM with ireland. The irish people are, in my opinion, as alienated from their culture as we tourists are. They are tourists to their own culture. St Patrick's Day isn't what it used to be (it used to be a home meal, akin to America's thanksgiving. Thanks to the irish migrants at america coming up with the massive new york parade, ireland has seen it as the best tourism option and hence coming up with a parade of their own too). Irish people don't speak Irish. The old know a little, the young think of it as a past. So much for the IRA bombing buildings and fighting English suppression. Granted that the irish accent is incidentally alike to the american accent. But casting that aside, it's just disappointing to see a culture "white-washed" in the name of globalization. I would be very disappointed in myself if I couldn't speak Chinese or Singlish.





A watch-tower by the cliffs. Nice.





The open Atlantic Ocean where America lies some thousand miles away. Can you see the Statue of Liberty? Haha, just kidding.





Other rugged portions of the coastal cliffs.





Ok, sorry I am running out of time. A farm horse that I saw on an Irish farm. Very tame and I talked to him for a bit.





When I was at Belfast, I came by the famous Opera House. The Opera House was the IRA's favorite bombing target, simply because it was beside the hotel "Europa" where the media stayed (the media was obviously biased in their views regarding independence and the whole ireland and northern ireland issues). When the IRA finally declared the end of the liberation movement (more like violence to me), the Opera House was lavishly renovated (and some parts rebuilt because they were beyond renovation)by the government to prove their resilience in the political struggle but here it is now to remind us all that at the end of the whole IRA movement, the Irish trusted neither the IRA nor the Irish politicians nor the English bureaucrats.

You see, everyone wants power for themselves, whatever the name of the cause. And that's why history mocks itself when people see it being written. But one hundred years later when you and I have long been gone, ar, that's a sweet victory for whoever's writing history. You know, some historians are now saying that Judah betrayed Jesus because Jesus needed him to do so as a demonstration (how else better to sacrifice yourself selflessly?). I laughed when I heard that "new discovery", only to realize that who knows what else was changed to give us what we think we know and have now. Ar, change change change. May peace be with ya.




[this is added on]
ok, I realize that i made it sound like I didn't like Ireland or was unhappy at Ireland when that really isn't the case. I loved the place and what I learned there. So I thought I should talk about Irish hospitality. Everyone knows that Irish hospitality is probably one of the best in the world (unlike France where people don't help you with directions on the streets... haha joking...) and the Irish people are warm and friendly. So when I was at Dublin, I bought like a day ticket which allowed me to take the bus as often as I liked for just one price for the whole day. When I was making my way to Trinity College to see the Book Of Kells (very very interesting history about it, I feel), I decided to take a bus even though the Lonely Planet map showed it to be pretty close. After standing at the bus station for what felt like eons, I finally mustered the courage to ask someone for directions (ie. which bus number to take). Scanning the crowd, I saw this old lady in a decent outfit waiting for her bus too. So I went up to her and asked her which bus number I should take to Trinity College, in the most polite of ways I can think.

She looked at me from up to down, left to right, scrutinized my face for a while, before she noticed the Lonely Planet in my hands. Then she finally said, "There's no reason why a fine young man like you CAN'T WALK there! It is so close! I don't see why you should take a bus there! You should walk there!" *proceeds to give me lengthy description of how to walk there* (before I could even protest)

Yes yes yes, Irish hospitality is unbeatable! Whee!!!!!!!

P.S. Yes, I did walk there in the end. =(