Ireland

TO ALL,

I’m sure this comes as a BIG surprise, but I have been out exploring the world AGAIN. Deanna and I have just returned from 10 days in Ireland. This was a really extravagant trip (at least by Strohm standards). It was a package tour. We traveled by motorcoach with an Irish guide and stayed in really nice hotels. Horrors – surely the Strohms would never do that!!!! Well, not all of us did – just Deanna and I. Mike was supposed to be in Texas at some kind of Family Life event while Deanna and I were in Ireland, but in June he got tasked to do something else instead. Then at the last minute the “something else” fell through and he ended up being “home alone” for 10 days. I feel really guilty --- I think.

Anyway the reason for the package tour was that some long time friends from Colorado were in Ireland on a tour and we decided to join them. Our friends (the Hesters) were celebrating a 25^th anniversary (Rick and Lisa) and two graduations: Joy graduated from college and Laura from high school. Rick didn’t think that driving on the wrong side of the road for 9 days coul d rightly be called a vacation - hence the tour. We had a lot of fun reminiscing about old times (Deanna and Laura don’t seem to remember that they fought like cats and dogs when they were little) and getting to know Joy and Laura again as adults. After Ireland, the Hesters went on to Great Britain for another 10 days – probably NOT riding on the subways, however!!!

Taking a tour definitely has its advantages – efficiency being the main one. It’s nice to be
escorted by someone who knows exactly what sights are worth seeing, how to get there, where to park and which backroads to take to avoid traffic jams. It seems like you accomplish a lot more each day and end up less worn out. There were times when I really wanted to stop and take a picture of something and couldn’t, but that wasn’t a big issue – and we did do some photo stops. We also had some blocks of time to explore on our own and that was nice. My conclusion is that the main drawback to a tour is the cost -- if you stay in hostels or camp and eat cheap food you can use the money you save for another trip. But a tour is definitely worth doing at least once in a lifetime.

Our tour started and ended in Dublin and we basically went counterclockwise around the lower half of the Emerald Island: Dublin, Clonmacnoise, Galway, the Connemara coast, Inishmore Island (one of the Aran Islands), the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher, Killarney, Kenmare, Garinish Island, and Blarney Castle. If most of those names are foreign to you – join the crowd. They were foreign to me until I started “reading up” for this trip. In fact one of the interesting things about Ireland (as opposed to most of the rest of Europe) is that I had NO preconceived ideas about what I “needed” to see (there don’t seem to be many famous landmarks associated with Ireland) – or about what Ireland would be like (all I knew was that it was supposed to be beautiful and green.) I somehow had Galway linked with classical music and I’m still not sure whether that is because there is a flutist named John Galway (who may or may not have any connection to the town of Galway) or because there is a music festival in Galway or what. I knew there was a potato famine in Ireland and I knew a little bit about St. Patrick and about "how the Irish saved civilization” and there ended my knowledge of Ireland. I’ll refrain from telling you about everything I’ve learned but here are a few highlights.

Dublin was the least interesting part of the trip, but a couple of things are worth noting. The churches / cathedrals (including St Patricks) in Ireland are all made of grey stone. Some have turquoise domes and trim. They are attractive but generally more austere looking than those in Germany. No elaborate paintings on the walls inside. Actually I sort of liked that.

Galway Cathedral

I also liked the Georgian row houses in Dublin, which the wealthy British landlords built and lived in prior to Irish independence. Today they are professional office buildings – lawyers, accountants, doctors, etc. Each block is basically one large building that is divided up vertically into a dozen or so units. Each “house” is fairly narrow but 5 floors high. The main door to each house is painted
a different color – every color imaginable – pink, purple, orange, green, red, etc. (Why? Possibly -- if you come home at night too blurry-eyed to read the house numbers you have a chance of finding your door by its color). Each door also has a window above it – either half circular or triangular in shape – with a unique latticework design.

As you go west from Dublin trees become more and more scarce and rocks dominate the landscape. The rocks have been piled up everywhere to form fences. There are lots of sheep in Ireland and some cows, but I am convinced that many of the fences are NOT there because a fence is needed, but because there is a need to get the rocks out of the way in order for the land to be useable. Sometimes the fences enclose a plot of land the size of an average house lot in a subdivision, sometimes a much larger area. The end result in many areas is a very large, squiggly, irregular checkerboard where all the squares are green.

The land in the western part of the island has very little topsoil and isn’t suitable for crops, although the Irish did manage to grow potatoes on it after the British took over the island and forced them westward (studying Irish history doesn’t exactly make you feel warm and fuzzy about the British). They actually hauled in sand and seaweed to create soil. In spite of all the rock, the land is VERY green – everywhere. The rocks are not indicative of a dry climate, but the result of recent glacier activity. Topsoil takes time to accumulate. Much of the ground is lumpy and squishy when you walk on it. There are lots of peat bogs. As you drive along there are places where they have cut out the top 6 or 8 inches of turf to make peat bricks to use for fuel.Like the rest of Europe there are flowers everywhere – wildflowers in the countryside and hanging baskets (instead of windowboxes) in the towns. The land is fairly flat in some places, more mountainous in others. There are lots of sheer cliffs on the western coastline – as much as a 650 ft dropoff into the ocean – rather like walking along the edge of the Grand Canyon.

The Cliffs of Moher

In addition to the walls, there are lots of other stone structures here and there – houses, forts, churches etc. - some still being used, others long abandoned, many of them a thousand or two thousand years old. Some of the stone structures have thatched roofs.




























Everyone in Ireland speaks English but, like the Brits, they have there own version of English. For example, they use “wee” a lot instead of “little” or “tiny.” And “th” is always pronounced as just “t.” (So 3:30 would be “tree-turdy.”) Some Irish also speak Gaelic. Some areas are designated as Gaeltachts – places where Gaelic is the first language – sort of a national park where the traditional culture is kept alive. All signs everywhere in Ireland are in both English and Gaelic. Typically, when we visit a new country I go online before we leave and find something that summarizes the rules of pronunciation for that language and put it on my PDA. I kind of enjoy knowing how the names of things are pronounced. I did find some information about Gaelic, but was so intimidated by what I found that I didn’t do anything with it. My sole accomplishment for the trip was to figure out that “failte” means “welcome” – and I never did figure out how to pronounce it. The rules of pronunciation for Gaelic are fairly complicated. Phonetically it is even more messed up than French – if that is possible. For example, there is a little town south of Dublin on the east coast called Dun Laoghaire that is pronounced “Dun Leary” – go figure. Also, there are literally NO cognates between Gaelic and English.

On the other hand there are LOTS of well-known Americans that either are Irish or have Irish ties of some sort: JFK, Henry Ford, Charlie Chaplin, Maureen O’Hara, etc, etc, etc. And lots of American movies were filmed in Ireland. There are two older ones that I plan to rent and see – “The Field” and “The Quiet Man.” There are also a number of well known authors that were Irish – Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, etc. And then of course there is Guinness beer and Jameson whiskey – both produced in Dublin.

We had really good weather the whole trip. We have had some really serious hot spells in Germany and with NO air-conditioning anywhere there is nowhere to escape. Ireland was significantly cooler and it was SOOO nice. We wore jackets at least part of every day. We had a little rain occasionally but not enough to have any effect on our activity.

We did not go into Northern Ireland at all. I would like to go back and do that some day – also hit a couple of places in the Republic of Ireland that our tour didn’t include – but after 10 days Deanna and I were definitely ready to come home. Hopefully I will have a chance to go back with Mike before we leave Europe.

Here’s a quick update on the Strohm family before I close. Deanna will arrive in Tacoma on August 25^th for a youth retreat and then be at Covenant High School when school starts the following Tuesday. Amy is still in NY but her job ends Sept 1. She plans to be back in Tacoma sometime before school starts at TCC the end of Sept. She is looking at transferring to WWU in Bellingham either in January or next fall. She is planning to live with the Parkinsons while in Tacoma – they have an empty uptairs. Alan is continuing to settle in at Google in Kirkland – trying to survive all of the surprises and growing pains that come with a rapidly growing company. He is going to a PCA church in Queen Anne that he really likes and he has made some friends there that keep him busy on weekends. Mike is surviving. What more can I say? - he really doesn’t like his job. Actually it’s more the soap opera going on around him that he doesn’t like. He likes counseling and doing retreats, etc. Unfortunately there isn’t much hope of a change anytime soon. There is a shortage of Family Life trained chaplains in Europe and he has been told specifically to plan on staying right where he is, even after he’s promoted.

So that’s the news from Heidelberg.

Nancy