The Irish Wave

It usually takes the form of an index finger raise above the steering wheels whilst driving past someone you know or a partial hand raise if you are not driving. In a village like Portlaw, this can result in many finger and partial hand raises in a five minute journey. So engrained is this habit, that The Mayor (Nora) even waves at people with their back to her!

The photo below is a picture of one of the 3-4 guys whom regularly frequent a street corner in Portlaw, guarding all that enter the town. They employ the partial hand raise. Tucked behind a sign on the corner is a piece of cardboard for each of them covered in plastic that they each sit on when on duty.

County Waterford

It was a slow start to Saturday after Peggy’s shindig but I didn’t have a hangover somehow (Irish Xmas miracle). The Waterford Crystal Museum tour was very informative and you can see just about every step involved in making anything with the Waterford stamp. I wasn’t expecting to see the likes of the Pebble Beach Golf Tournament trophy being made, along with other famous trophies. Recommend it.

Next step was Reginald’s Tower, an 800-900 year old tower that tells the story of Waterford. A canon ball still remains lodged in the side of it from hundreds of years ago.

 A side note – An Irish person will pass off the wearing of a daggy track-suit out in public as “comfy”. This may be but there is no excuse for the grey or bright coloured Adidas fashion crime. EVERYBODY wears them anywhere and everywhere. My personal opinion is that it is a national disgrace and must be stopped.

The Cobblestone, Dublin (D7)

One of the best pubs in Dublin for traditional Irish music every night of the week. It was at least a 20-30 min walk to the pub in the rain (don't use their website for directions....way off). A very intimate and traditional pub, with very few tourists, except a bloody travel show film crew from the US who were recording the set and annoyingly taking control of when the music was to be played! I was told once I was in the pub that it was a rather rough area...hence few tourists, and that even some locals wouldn't walk there. Haven't heard any better didlee-i music since though.

Haven't worked out how to upload an audio file to this site as yet......so I created an audio movie. A few rubbish photos from the phone...forgot the camera.

If the video file doesn't work here, it is now on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxyKlV0-yq8&feature=youtu.be

21st June, 2012

Peggy's 70th

I'd driven from Dublin to the county of Waterford down south via Kilkenny (to visit the castle) just for Peggy's 70th birthday. Now I'd never met her before but she is the Pride of Portlaw, the village I was staying in for the next 3 nights just out of Waterford.

Firstly my hosts, Eugene and Nora Galvin (aka The Mayor), the parents of a good friend. Such lovely and welcoming people. And Portlaw itself, a small village of 1000-1500 people where everybody knows everyone! Set next to woodland, it has its own church, a tidal river and rows of terrace housing amongst five pubs. Curraghmore Estate lies just out of town, built almost 850 years ago (from memory) and is now the residence of Lord Waterford, a few employees and a lot of pheasant.

So back to Peggy's 70th. 400 people were invited and almost all of them turned up to the pub that night. Massive crowd of licorice all-sorts. A rude introduction to local Irish life but good fun nonetheless. The Mayor know everyone bar two people. Peggy seemed a woman of few word (she couldn't remember meeting me that night), perhaps overwhelmed by the ocassion and the huge turnout. The drinking pace was solid, I never saw the bottom of the pint glass (the Irish never like to see this...must be some old curse). You get half way through your drink and another is on its way. The band fired up not too long after we arrived and the waltzing commenced. The singer wasn't my cup o' tea, especially when accompanied by two organ players! The set list was mixed bag of local songs (a guess) and appalling covers of well known internationals.

Things seemed to be winding down between 12-1am until the doors were closed. It was a lock-in. With the organ band gone and Elvis (an Irishman obsessed with Elvis) warming up his vocal chords, it was time for a sing-a-long (not me of course). And bloody hell, just about everyone in Ireland can sing well too. All Irish songs and a couple local Waterford tunes (I think). This went on for three hours! As I can’t sing to save myself, I had Waltzing Matilda sung to me instead by a bunch of Irish. Impressive. They also sang some other song they claimed was Australian that I didn’t recognise (couldn’t really understand the words though). It was a great night. What a crack!

An America relative wrote and sang this song the following day. Peggy is in the bottom left.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JTY-aEFP3k

Towards the end of the night I ended up in a conversation about banking with a rather large man who had had quite a few pints. Arhh….not the country for that topic of discussion. How he already knew I worked in banking I don’t know. For a man who was supposedly harmless, he had a lot of pent up anger towards bankers. I believe I managed to deflect most of that anger towards investment bankers (don’t count myself as one of those!). Suggesting that there is always two parties involved in any transaction and that solely blaming one side for the situation that individuals and Ireland is in did not go down too well. But whomever his local bankers are, I would be scared. He made a few unsavoury gestures.

In the following days whilst listening to the radio (every station is more talk than music – driving me nuts) it was clear that just about everyone is angry at the banks and public officials. Public officials apparently get paid way too much, and banks, well there is not a good word they can say about them, not helped by the Ulster Bank (owned by RBS I believe) technical failure this week that left 100,000 people without access to their money for a whole week.

One public official has donated half his salary this year towards his local school. But based on the opinions of people who called the radio station that day, this meant that he was paid too much and that all public officials should take a 50% pay cut. It’s ridiculous the conclusions being drawn, not helped by ignorant radio hosts who spread misinformation to win the ear of disgruntled listeners.

For those that have only heard about the ghost towns of Ireland, left behind following the property crash a few years ago, it’s true. They exist although from what I have seen they are pocket within towns, often small cul de sacs of near or completed houses that lie uninhabited and unmaintained, perfectly liveable if fitted out inside with nobody willing to buy them at seemingly any price. To give you a feel for the devastation, a property down south that was selling for €300,000 at the peak might sell for €60,000-70,000 now. Extraordinary. I don’t know who owns these now, I assume the banks but they don’t seem to be doing much to either sell them or maintain them. Give them a few more years and the degradation will be such that they will need to be knocked down.



On a similar theme, there is an amazing number of grand old residences that are being abandoned and left in ruins, beyond repair. There is an opportunity to own a stately mansion at a great price and do something meaningful with it. Just a thought.

22nd June, 2012

Guinness and Whiskey

And what trip to Dublin could be without a visit to The Guinness Storehouse and The Old Jameson Distillery.

The Guinness Storehouse

What a smart man Arthur Guinness was. Buying a 9,000 year lease over an old brewery site at St. James in 1759 for an annual fixed payment of 45 pounds. The government official who negotiated that contract clearly didn't know about the concept of inflation or earned an unhealthy guinness payment under the table.

Fast facts:

- Over 10,000,000 pints of the stuff is drunk every day
- First Guinness brewery outside of the UK was in Nigeria
- Guinness aides recovery of cavalry during Battle of Waterloo in 1814 (reminds me of a Tour de France stage win)
- Tour includes a free pint at the top of the building which has the best view in Dublin

A beer tour is a beer tour at the end of the day but it's still worth doing as the view from the bar is almost 360 degrees. Could see Croke Stadium where Westlife were to play their last concert ever a few days later. I wont miss them.

The Old Jameson Distillery


After walking here from the Guinness Storehouse, past the Leprechaun Museum, by the time I got there I couldn't be arsed with another tour. I was suffering badly from my cold, not helped by the pint of guinness earlier and patchy memories of drinking Jameson as a teenager, so I decided I would just sit in JJ's Bar (John Jameson) and try a Hot Irish Whiskey instead (shot of whiskey, lemon lice studded with cloves topped up with hot water). It was pretty good.

21st June, 2012

Can the Irish play cricket?

Was out for a run around Merrion Square Park and St. Stephens Green last night (hoping it would help get over any jet-lag) and ended up at Trinity College. Had noticed earlier in the day that there was a running track marked out on an oval. To my disappointment there was a cricket game being played so I couldn't do any laps. Decided to sit down and see how the Irish play cricket.

Set the scene (Wednesday evening)....well cared for oval with a hill at the east end sporting a very grand club house. The cricket whites are out in force with ages of the players ranging from 20 to perhaps 40. Crowd of 500+ uni-students arguably more interested in who is getting the next beer than what's happening out on the pitch. The match is mid-way through at a guess...there is no scoreboard. I sit down to watch my first ball....a three stride, rain-maker that bounces at least thrice before passing the batsman. It's a wide and a no-ball! Oh dear. Maybe his fingers were a bit sweaty? The bowler waddles up again, employing the extra-short "walk-up" to preserve energy (or perhaps restricted by lack of fitness) and dribbles one along the ground way wide of off stump. A wide. The captain shakes his head and offers some encouragement. Next ball, another looping bent-arm extra slow ball...it hits the centre of the pitch! A cheer goes across the ground (from me)...it's dispatched over square leg for six! This is not going to be a good over, and it wasn't.

I stayed for 20 comical minutes. Dropped catches, grubbers, wides, no-balls, miss-fields, run-outs, chicken-wing throws, you name it, it happened. I concluded that there were no future cricket stars playing that day. At best it was like watching a bunch of grown men with the cricketing ability of six-year olds. But they were enjoying themselves.

June 20th, 2012