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
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