Dave and I flew to Ireland on March 17, his birthday and St. Patrick’s Day. We had been warned to avoid Dublin that weekend, as there would be a lot of ruckus and drinking. Since we followed that advice, I don’t know whether that happened, but we did get in on a bit of Kilkenny’s St. Patrick’s Day festival before taking a nap after being up all night.
That evening Ireland beat England 29-16 in the final game of the Six Nations rugby tournament. Dave and I watched the game while desperately trying to educate ourselves on rugby rules. When we congratulated people afterward on Ireland’s Grand Slam, meaning they won every game in the tournament, their reaction surprised us. “Yah, well, it would have been nice if our team had played well. They played so badly there’s no joy in it except that England played worse than we did.” We were ignorant enough to just be happy with Ireland’s win!!
Later, Dave’s brother sent us this hilarious video:
On Sunday we traveled to Killeagh, Cally’s hometown in Horse Thief 1898. It was a marvelous experience which I’ll describe in another post. For now I’ll just say we discovered it was Mother’s Day in Ireland when we tried to eat at the Old Thatch Bar. We should have made a reservation! But they were generous and squeezed us in for one hour. Wonderful chowder and salmon pie!
The Old Thatch Bar has been in continuous service since the 1600s!
Have fun with Callie while there!!