And the Days Drone On

I'm certain that I've mentioned it before, but the last time I returned to Ireland after having spent 7-8 weeks with my family, the gravity of the situation hit me hard. Once again, I've found the harsh reality of being away from my family hard to swallow. The recency of events such as holding my son and kissing my wife are still firmly imprinted upon my brain.

Over time, the imprinting will soften. The brief respites back home are hardly enough to renew them. I'll easily lose myself in work and the feelings of closeness to my family that I've enjoyed for the past seven weeks will fade. It's getting old. Let me rephrase: It's getting older.

Yet, the light is at the end of the tunnel. I'll be transitioning off the project over the next 4-5 months. I can't wait.

How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

I've often seen this book on the shelves at the book store and have always tempted to buy it. I just never pulled the trigger. Recently, when I was back in the United States (for a weekend), I stepped into the local used book store with my niece and we both walked out with an armful of books (for very little cash). My stack of books included this one by Thomas Cahill.

So how exactly did the Irish save civilization? I'll try to summarize as best I can.

At the point in history when the Holy Roman Empire was collapsing, Ireland was converting to Catholicism under St. Patrick. Ireland's geographic location aided them in their ability to seclude themselves from the barbarians in France and Germany that were one of the causes of the fall of Rome.

As St. Patrick was evangelizing Ireland, a trail of abbeys were left in his wake. These abbeys, protected from the barbarians by geography, were the seeds of civilization that fell from the flower of Rome (which had in turn, preserved civilized thought from Greece). Without these abbeys copying texts and adding their own Irish form (writing down their own oral tradition in the margins) to the newly copied texts, books such as The Bible and Plato's Republic may not have survived. The Book of Kells is the oldest existing copy of The Bible and it sits on display at Trinity College in Dublin. What St. Patrick started and St. Brigit continued in Ireland was passed on for three hundred years and the evangelistic Irish monks reached all the way back to Rome, planting the seeds of civilization along the way.

That is . . . until the Vikings came. The arrival of the Vikings in Ireland began the downfall of the Irish influence on civilization as the bejeweled texts (housed in the abbeys) were highly desired loot by the Viking raiders. Thousands of books were stolen or destroyed as Vikings raided the abbeys along the rocky coasts of Ireland. The Book of Kells survived only by being moved further inland to the city of Kells from whence it receives its name. The Vikings eventially created coastal settlements in Ireland and came to influence the Irish culture in their own fashion, but that - as they say - is a story for a different day.

As for books, I found it very informative and pertinent to all of the Irish monastic sites that I've visited. However, if you didn't find the above intriguing, you can probably do without reading this book. This book gets a 6.5 (out of 10) on the HRputer book rating scale.

Criticism

I found myself making small talk with a couple of Northern Irish and Germans yesterday amidst the project. What is surprising is that I found myself more critical of the United States than I usually am. Was I providing accurate criticism of my home country from a different viewpoint than them? Or, was I trying to "fit-in" by presenting criticisms that I thought they would agree with? Probably a little of both. My question to myself is: why?

I've found that the general stereotype of Americans (amongst Europeans that I work with) pictures us as ignorant, arrogant, and bullish. That is: we don't know much about the world outside the United States, yet we believe our culture is the greatest in the world, and we try to impose it upon others. I first recognized where this stereotype when I overheard an American wondering about why, when an Irish colleague called in sick, he kept explaining that he had a doctor's certification. The American colleague's response was "What? Is he afraid somebody might think he's faking it?" The truth is, getting a doctor's note is common practice here, regardless of the number of days you're off. Instead of mocking his Irish colleague, he might have been better served to understand the culture before making a joke about it. (Though a good jibe IS part of the culture over here, perhaps that was just a bad attempt at humor).


I've always been one to try to understand people. To do so, I'll often try to build repoire by trying to find something in common with others. When you're standing amongst a group of Northern Irish and Germans, there isn't much that you can find in the way of common ground for people to talk about. Once you get past the weather reports, you have to reach for something. I'd like to think that my mockery of our country's media and of our education system was just a way creating subjects for a diverse crowd of people to talk about.

Being a very talkative folk (another stereotype), the Northern Irish volunteered their own stereotypes (car bombs and civil unrest - yikes!) and the Germans remained silent and granite-faced (yet another stereotype). Though I know the Northern Irish can become just as granite-faced as the Germans and the Germans can be just as talkative as the Northern Irish.

So, I guess that I've answered my question. I was trying to get people to open up and talk. If I was overly critical of my home country, I apologize. I didn't really mean it. I was just trying to find common ground for some Germans and Northern Irish (who had never met) to talk about.

RJ Visits the Castle

Today we took RJ out to see Trim Castle. This castle was featured in the movie Braveheart. You might remember it from the scenes where William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson, gets hung drawn and quartered by the English. What we found was that a 3-story castle presented little room for RJ to (safely) run around. Did I mention that RJ loves to run? He loves to run. He needed his "Freedom!" (the quote is to be read with a bad Mel Gibson Scottish accent).

Since I had been on the tour before, I let Beth continue on the tour and I exited with RJ before we even got off the first level of the castle. RJ had plenty of fun running around the castle grounds. As I have probably mentioned before, RJ likes to run down hills more than he likes to run up hills. Thus we ended up spending most of our time on the river-side of the castle as opposed to the curtain wall side of the castle.


We ended the day with Spaghetti Night in Navan. As you can see, RJ likes spaghetti. He even finds that it's in fashion to wear his spaghetti.

Navan House

We've now been settled into our new abode for about a week and the verdict is in. I've gotten two thumbs up from my wife and a plethora of dolphin chirps from RJ. I did well this time.

As with my last experience securing Irish housing, this one was fraught with many stumbling blocks. Having been through the experience once already though, I was much better prepared to take on the challenge.

Our home-for-a-month has 4 bedrooms, has a garden in back (see picture below), and is well decorated. On top of that, it is actually cheaper than my apartment on the North side of Dublin (I still have to pay rent there, too). However, it is a 30-40 minute drive to work in the morning. I can't complain, though. At home, my commute is one hour each way. I'vegotten spoiled the last few months with my Dublin apartment being a 5-minute walk to work.


So now I get to see my family for 7 weeks straight. What a concept! I love getting home and spending time with Beth and RJ. We put RJ to bed a little later because the sun sets at 10pm. He doesn't like to go to bed when it's still light out (yet he has no problem sleeping-in in the morning).

Mostly, I'm glad that this time I got the dwelling space right. My apartment isn't a good fit for a family of three (or two even). I guess there's hope for me yet.

Irish Hospitality

Since my apartment in Ireland is unacceptable to my wife (it is small and falling apart), I've been hunting for a place for us to stay when she comes over in a couple of weeks. I had found a place up in Navan that seemed pretty decent, but the people who were renting it out seemed a little dodgy. So I went up to Navan to get everything straightened out.

I have spent a couple of weekends looking and finally settled on the place earlier this week. I called up one of the ladies that was renting the place (two sisters rent it out) and I agreed on 750 Euro for the month that we'll be staying there. As I was confirming the price and the dates via email, I got a text that it was actually 800 Euro for the month. Dodgy. I didn't see the text until after I'd sent off the email, so I waited to see what the response was be email.

This morning I got an email back from them confirming the 800 Euro and a different address than the one that I saw. Dodgy. So I called them back and she laughed when she realized that she gave the wrong address (her address, not the rental address, which happens to be on the same street). Then I asked about the 800 Euro and it was explained to me that this was the price that I was presented when I saw the place two weeks ago. It could be, but I don't remember. Under the guise of going up to pay the deposit, I decided that I wanted to go up and meet these people, because I wasn't sure that I trusted them. If it still felt dodgy after meeting them, I would have left without paying the deposit.

After meeting the two sisters for half an hour, I decided to pay the deposit. Half an hour later, I was invited over to their other house for tea. Two other sisters joined us there and the hospitality was wonderful. Very nice ladies. It turns out that their family owned all the property that the subdivision was built on, so they have a couple of houses in the subdivision. One of them owns a golf course and offered up a free round of golf. They even offered to lend us their SatNav while we were renting from them. Good people, great hospitality!

Co. Cavan: The Life of Reilly

Along with County Leitrim, County Cavan is part of the medieval kingdom of Breifne and was ruled by the Ui Raghallach clan, commonly known/pronounced in English as O'Reilly. The O'Reilly's ruled out of Cavan and were in constant competition with the O'Rourkes who ruled over County Leitrim to the west (also part of the kingdom of Breifne). The O'Reilly's did so well for themselves that the term "Living the Life of Reilly" was born . . . or so claims the museum in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan.

Though there isn't much to do in County Cavan, I found the aforementioned museum quite informative, as well as affordable. For three Euro you learn quite a bit about the county. For instance, prior to the potato blight (circa 1847) the county had about 250,000 residents. When the blight was over, the numbers were reduced to around 170,000 people. Today, there are just over 50,000 residents and boasts to be the most sparsely populated county on the island. This was mostly due to economic reasons. Thus, living the life of Reilly is no longer as lavish as it once was.

The above picture is from the museum as well. It is known as the Corleck Head - a stone carved with three different faces one on each side. As the exhibit rotates the stone, you can see the distinctly different expressions on each of the faces. The meaning and use of the object is unknown, but reinforces the Celtic belief in the power of the number 3.

Finally, I discovered that County Cavan is the home of Edgar Allen Poe's ancestors which emigrated to the United States in the mid 1700's. The ancestral home is at Kildallon, Killeshandra, County Cavan. I did not drive out to visit it. As far as I know it's not open to the public.

So, though I wouldn't place County Cavan high on my recommendations list, if you're in the area (or if you're an O'Reilly) I'd definitely stop by Ballyjamesduff and visit the museum.

County Monaghan

In my quest to do something "touristy" in every county of Ireland. I hit two counties this weekend: County Cavan and County Monaghan. These counties constituted a small detour from my house-hunting efforts (trying to find a place to rent for a month that's a little bigger for when Beth and RJ next come over) in County Meath. Both counties are north of Meath in the Province of Ulster, though still part of the Republic of Ireland (most of Ulster is part of Northern Ireland).

I had a hard time finding something touristy to do in County Monaghan as there really isn't much to do there. I settled on driving up to the village of Tydavnet, just north of Monaghan town. Why Tydavnet? Because there is a story there and I love stories. This story is about St. Dymphna.

St. Dymphna's father was King Damon who, when his wife died, looked long and hard for a replacement that was as beautiful and virtuous. It turns out Dymphna, his teenage daughter, possessed all those characteristics that the king found beautiful in his wife. Damon made sexual advances at his daughter, who then fled her incestuous father and ended up in Gheel, Belgium. Unfortunately King Damon tracked her down and when she did not return to Ireland with him, he had her beheaded.

St. Dymphna is the patron saint of those who suffer from mental illness, nervous system disorders, epileptics, mental health professionals, incest victims and runaways.

In Irish her name is Davnet, hence the village named Tydavnet is named in her honor. The parish there is also named after her. The picture that I've posted is of a old celtic cross in a cemetery that also bears her name.

I also tried to get out to her shrine a few miles outside of Tydavnet, however, the directions were hard to follow and I ended up driving around rural Monaghan for about an hour. By the time I arrived at Dympna's Well, it seemed to be closed. I did glimpse it from a neighboring hillside (while lost), but didn't get any good pictures.

Later that evening, I got tossed out of a pub in Monaghan town for bringing my take-out food inside. All I wanted to do was to have a meal, a pint and watch the US World Cup match. The bouncer, however, thought that since they had a restaurant upstairs, I shouldn't bring in my own food. After telling him I would have ate at their restaurant if they would have showed the match on TV, he proceeded to tell me to take my food elsewhere.

As you can see, there really wasn't much to do in County Monaghan. It is a beautiful county to drive through, with rolling green hills, but I wouldn't advise stopping. So far county Monaghan has been my least favorite county, mostly due to the fact that I got tossed out of a pub for wanting to eat and watch a sporting event. Apparently they don't have the concept of "Sports Bars" over here.

Knocking Off a Few Counties

I’m one of those people who make checklists. A few months ago, I made a checklist of counties that I’d visited in Ireland. At the time, I decided that I would like to do something touristy in each county to be able to say that I’d been there. In other words, I
can’t check off a county by just driving through it.

There are 32 counties on the island (i.e. Republic of Island & Northern Ireland combined). Before this weekend, I had checked-off 13 counties. After this weekend, I now have 15 counties checked off . . . I’m almost halfway there. This weekend, I visited County Carlow and County Kildare.

Neither county can be considered to have high tourist value. Kildare ranks slightly higher than Carlow - specifically if you are into horse racing. It is the home of the Irish National Stud – a museum about horse racing and breeding. Additionally the Irish National Stud has two garden areas that children appear to love (RJ was not here to enjoy). However, from a standpoint of value, skip it. It’s 11 Euro a head (children are about half that) and it’s nothing more than gardens and horses. The museum is anemic and the guided tour is a let down. It might be a grand day out with children, but if you’re aren’t with any, head over to The Curragh and wager on some horses instead.

A Mare and Foal at the Irish National Stud

What can I say about Carlow town? Nothing really, except that they have a fleet of swans living in the Barrow River. Seriously, there are like 25-30 of them swimming around next to the park. There is an interesting story about a doctor who dynamited the walls of Carlow Castle to make it a more suitable insane asylum and ruined the entire castle in so doing. I’d recommend that you drive on past and head for Kilkenny instead.

Carlow's Fleet of Swans on the Barrow

List of Counties Visited: Antrim, Carlow, Clare, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Roscommon, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow.

List of Counties Not Visited: Armagh, Cavan, Cork, Derry (Londonderry), Donnegal, Down, Fermanagh, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Monaghan, Offaly, Sligo, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford.

Completion: 47%

I love Irish culture, but it just may kill me

I'm kidding . . . but I'm not. Tonight marks the third consecutive night that I've been out drinking with my project team. Last night was a rough one, but Tuesday night and tonight, not so bad.

Last night we had a project social event. I left at 11:30 pm before . . . before the singing started. If you know me, which many of you do, you know that I love to be everywhere and experience everything. I have a little regret about missing the singing, especially because I do love a good karaoke night (even if it's a capella).

However, I like to think that I've learned a few lessons while I'm here. The first of which is to not try to out-drink anybody. Have a few drinks, have a good time, quit while you're ahead and go to bed. I quit last night while I was ahead.

The second lesson is beware of free beer. I'm usually too cheap to get drunk. I mean, come on, a beer over here cost 5 Euro ($6.50 US). You buy a round or two and you're busted for the night. However, when the beer is free - as it was at last night's social event - I need to be careful. As cheap as I am, I love a free beer (or two, three, four, five).

So, even though, I have been enjoying the social life in Ireland, I have been much more responsible in my consumption habits. In fact, I was even the first into the office the next day.

Free at Last!

It's vacation time! I'm not sure if we're going to have much internet or cell phone access out in Connemara. We head out tomorrow and will be there through Saturday next week. I'm missing a couple of project team parties (Wednesday was just the HCM stream) to commemorate the transition from Detail Design phase to Build phase. One of them is a trip to the Jameson Distillery. I suppose I'll have to stop there by myself some weekend.

If I don't have internet access, I'll see you in a week with a bunch of pictures to share.

One More Day Until Vacation . . .

. . . it must be time to get sick. All three of us are coming down with something. I think that RJ caught it first, then passed it to Beth and I. I'm hoping it goes away before we drive out to Connemara this weekend. I hate being sick on vacation!

Looks like we'll have good weather, too! (at least for the first weekend)

Sorry for the short post, but I don't want to barf on my keyboard.

The Gang's All Here

The HR reference group (executive team) is in town this week to approve all the work that we've done designing the software solution for our company. So I had dinner with them and a few drinks at the bar after dinner. We were joined by a few more team members from other workstreams.

Leaving the bar at midnight to get home, I'm still amazed at how many people I left at the bar with drinks in their hands.

Looks like our work has been signed off and we can progress to the build phase of our project. Sounds like a good reason for a drink to me.

Planning for Connemara

After months of hard work on the project, I'm finally getting a break. Next week (starting this Saturday), Beth, RJ and I will be spending a week in the Connemara area of County Galway. I did not take the picture on the right, but it's the kind of landscape that we expect to see while we're there.

We rented a cottage near Ballyconneely for the week which helps with the gluten free control. Instead of relying on our luck in finding gluten free restaurants, we have the ability to buy gluten free groceries before we go and cook for ourselves at the cottage.

The cottage is right across from a beach. Though, the weather here hasn't been beach weather. We're hoping that it's good enough to at least go out for walks on the beach in the morning before loading up the mini-van for more adventures in Connemara.

Here is the first official heads-up: the blog may be a little slow over that week, but I'm writing up a few pieces in advance for the times that I'm gone. I don't believe that we'll have internet access while we're in our remote cottage, so you may have to come to the blog site directly as I won't be able to re-post to facebook.

On My Own

There's only one day to go before the Detail Design phase of our project is completed. That one day, however, is Good Friday. Most of our consultants are off on Good Friday and on Easter Monday. My company gets Easter Monday off work (at least the Irish do - I figured I'd commit myself to taking both Irish and American holidays while I'm living over here).

Most of the people, even from my company, are on the 3-4-5 schedule. That means that they stay in Dublin 3 nights and 4 days, then the 5th day is remote. So Fridays in the office are quite quiet because we don't technically have an office in Dublin. The halls get pretty quiet for those few of us who are resident in Dublin. Tomorrow it will be even moreso.

My two usual Friday companions from the HCM team will not be there: One is in Norway skiing, the other has been sick for the last few days. That leaves me as the only person on site for our team on the last day before a deadline. I don't like where this is headed . . .

Wish me luck.

The Butcher

The last three nights Beth and I (and to some extent RJ) have been eating meat that we bought from a butcher shop. Butcher shops are much more common over here and have (what I perceive) better prices than you'd find at a butcher shop back home.

I'm curious if this has to do with the perpetuation of mass distribution in the US, or if it is more of a cultural thing. Here, there are two butcher shops in the local mall. The smaller towns are likely to have one or two butcher shops along their main streets.

Needless to say, the meat is much better than the frozen stuff that we're accustomed to buying at the grocery stores back home. Then again, we rarely buy food from the butcher counter at the local Jewel.

So, we're enjoying good, fresh meat on a daily basis. Maybe this weekend, I'll stop by the fresh fish market where you can actually see the fishermen carry the fresh fish from the boats to the store.

Your Country, Your Call

Here is another reason that I like Ireland: YourCountryYourCall.com. The economy isn't doing so well over here. Yes, some people are crying in their Guinness, however, I love the government's response: Somebody give us an idea.

The competition asks you (the common man) ". . . to share your creativity to give life to new industry, revitalise or revolutionise an existing market, or even change the way we do business entirely." The goal of the program is to "pick two truly transformational proposals so big that, when implemented, could secure prosperity and jobs for Ireland."

The competition is open to anybody from any country. Two winning entries will be chosen to win 100,000 Euro each. So get those pens moving and check out the site. I just gave you a chance to win 100,000 Euro. Don't say that I've never done anything for you. Wait, that's a double negative. Say I've done something for you.

Here's another question for the peanut gallery: Do you think that the US would ever do something like this? Or do we already sponsor programs like this in the form of grants?

The Crap You See at the Zoo

Today, we went to the Dublin Zoo in Phoenix Park. It's quite expensive - 15 Euro per adult (about $20) , but kids under three are free. So it's a little more expensive than Chicago's Brookfield Zoo (at $13.50 per adult), yet it's not nearly as big. We did enjoy the day at the zoo and RJ now has a favorite animal - The Red Panda (see photograph).

The one thing that will stick out in my memory, however, was the gorilla exhibit. I'll warn you now that if you have a weak stomach - or are easily grossed out - please don't read any further and definitely don't look at the picture below.

Beth and I were trying to get some pictures of a huge silverback gorilla when another younger gorilla walks up next to him and takes a dump . . . in its own hand. Photo evidence below. At that point I thought it would be funny, because I expected I was about to become witness to the oft mentioned, but rarely seen monkey dung fight. I was wrong.

The gorilla proceeded to wipe the shite on the wall and licked it like an ice cream cone.


You're welcome. Enjoy your dinner.

Jerpoint Abbey

Continuing on the freakish theme one more day, I've been wanting to visit Jerpoint Abbey for a few months now - ever since my last visit to Kilkenny in November. Why? To see the grave of St. Nicholas. Who wouldn't want to see that?

So Beth, RJ and I stop at Jerpoint Abbey, just outside of Thomastown, on our way from Kilkenny to New Ross on Sunday. We have a little lunch, pay our 3 Euro for admission and begin walking around. What I found were some absolutely beautiful ruins of an abbey that served as an Irish-Norman launch point for the crusades. What I didn't find, was St. Nicholas' grave. I soon learned that the supposed grave is located on private property just west of the abbey.

Legend has it that a band of Irish-Norman knights returned from the Crusades having seized St. Nicholas' remains and buried them in the Church of St. Nicholas in the town of Newton Jerpoint. The church and the town are now in ruins, but apparently the grave still remains. You can find a better account of it here.

I was not in the mood to knock on a stranger's door and ask him if I could see St. Nicholas' grave, so we packed up and headed on down to the land of the Kennedy's in New Ross. However, Jerpoint Abbey was quite a site to see. And at 3 Euro, it is a bargain for what you get. If you find yourself in Kilkenny, take the scenic drive down the R700 towards Thomastown and see the abbey. Here are a couple more pictures.

So You Want Freakish?

Wally made a comment that I was "like our very own history channel...but slightly more freakish." So I thought I would present you with freakish. A few weeks ago when I was touring around County Meath, I stopped at St. Peter's Cathedral in Drogheda. Why did I do this? Please see the accompanying picture.

That is the 300 year-old decapitated head of St. Oliver Plunkett. Where else are you going to see a shrine to a saint that includes his/her actual head? So I took a knee, said a prayer for Kiowa (who we put down the day before), bought the all-inclusive book on St. Oliver Plunkett, made the sign of the cross, then left. There weren't any signs keeping me from taking pictures, but I didn't feel comfortable doing it, so this picture is from the Archdiocese of Armagh website.

So who exactly is St. Oliver Plunkett? No he didn't play quarterback for the Oakland Raiders (that would be Jim Plunkett) St. Oliver was, in fact, the Archbishop of Armagh who went into hiding in 1673 due to religious persecution of Catholicism.

St. Oliver was eventually captured. Local courts failed to prosecute him of any crimes, so he was sent to London where perjured witnesses could be brought to testify against him. He wasn't given time to sail his witnesses from Ireland over to London and was thus convicted of treason. He maintained his innocence and refused to save his own life by perjuring himself against other priests.

He was hung, drawn and quartered (think of William Wallace's death sentence from Braveheart) on July 1, 1681. He was canonized as a Saint in 1975.

So though this shrine may seem freakish, it puts into perspective the freedoms that most of us enjoy. Thank the good Lord, or whatever deity you choose to believe in that you have the freedom to practice (or not practice) your religion of choice. Things were different in times past, in fact, they're different in times present in some countries.