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#142900 11/27/04 08:09 PM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 603
Gecko
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Gecko
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 603
Tralee in the 70s had 80-odd pubs. One would wonder how a town with 18,000 people could support so many pubs. Tallaght, on the outskirts of Dublin, with a population that would have made it the 4th largest city in Ireland, had two pubs. In Tallaght, if you wanted a cup of coffee early in the morning, forget it. In Tralee, coffee, sandwiches, and yes, even liquor were available from dawn til midnight and beyond.
In these early morning establishments, every corner was full of people planning the day. It was abuzz. People were cheerful, optimistic, and friendly. There was business to conduct, no matter what the weather or the official prognosis for business from on high. Tall tales abounded; there was no such thing as a small tale. Little stories were simply punctuation. Characters were there in plenty: The man who bought his way into a card game with a seagull wrapped in tinfoil (the grand prize, a chicken?).The man with the trap and mule who could find his way home in conditions that might defy the present satellite placement system was another character.

Everyone was greeted as an individual and this was a natural way of responding to an awareness that we are all of us equal, at least in our presence for this time in this magic place.
The countryside around the town, where smoke from many fires rose vertically in the still fall air and the curlew flying over the Blennervile bridge on its way to feast in Fenit with its cry that you just knew was heard in a parallel dimension were all reminders that you were a priviliged visitor in a zone between the town and heaven. In such a place ones sense of wonder and zest for living were simply a natural response to the deeply moving and haunting essense of the countryside. It's not something one could ever forget.
Sweeney

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#142901 11/29/04 11:33 AM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 29
Newbie
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Newbie
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 29
What are we Irish women, mute or incapable of community? So many of your postings are lyrical and expository, yet so few respond.

Let's each just say something; whatever comes into our heads when we read a recent post...we can pretend we've just met some very interesting women at a friend's home and delight in the opportunity to chat.

Perhaps we could begin with a discussion of our family dynamics, backward and forward:

I'm the middle of five children of a couple who met in grade school and never knew another romantically. Perhaps they were too wrapped up in each other, for we all feel that we were far from first in their thoughts.

Contrast that with the love and attention we lavish on our children and grandchildren. Yet I, for one, find myself telling my grandchildren of the times around the kitchen table with my brothers helping me and me in turn helping my younger sisters. I wonder if my generation had a greater opportunity to develop independently because we weren't held so close emotionally.

Any thoughts?"

#142902 12/01/04 09:42 PM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 603
Gecko
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Gecko
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 603
I think your parents were unique in this. Though there were nearly a dozen of us, and I know our parents were daft for each other, there was no hanky-panky when we were around. Quite a feat! We were always around. In fact, we practically weren't allowed out of the yard. I still don't know where we all came from. <ROFL!>
I think that privacy thing is very Irish, though. It's a bit better now, I will occasionally receive a little quick hug in public, but when we met I thought they made up that "No PDA" (No Public Display of Affection) to cover the Irish. One would have to be very secure to be sure they were "held" in any esteem at all if there was any company around or likely to show up. Pathological, I tell you, absolutely fanatical. My cure for this over the years was the family institution of "Group Hugs!" Everybody gets in on the hug, husband and all.
Thank heavens for the times when there's no one else around at all...
Mary Ellen


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