Ireland

     Last night, I took a "trip" to Ireland.  I didn't travel alone this time; Luie was my travel companion.

     I started my night with an Irish cream latte, and a variant of the Irish dish colcannon (literally: white-headed cabbage), a dish consisting of mashed potatoes with cabbage and bacon.

     Then, I listened to songs that weren't Irish, but were about Ireland, and then I watched an Oscar-winning Irish short-film called The Crush.  The little boy who starred in it was just adorable.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2TL2gbcSxg

     Then, my tour of Ireland commenced with Evelyn (2002), a film based on the inspiring true story of Evelyn Doyle, whose father fought for custody of her and her brothers in a time when single fathers weren't allowed to raise their children.  I'm not sure where the film was shot, but Dublin and Kilkerry are specifically mentioned.

 

     Then, I covered quite alot of ground with Leap Year (2010), a romantic comedy about an American woman who follows her dispassionate boyfriend to Ireland in order to follow the old Irish tradition of women proposing to their boyfriends on Leap Day.  She ends up crossing paths with a hot-blooded Irish bloke, and...you can guess the rest.  The film takes place in the Dingle Peninsula, the area around the Aran Islands, Connemara, Temple bar, Georgian Dublin, Wicklow National Park, and Olaf St. Waterford.  It's shot in Dublin, and the counties Wicklow, Mayo, and Galway.

 

    

     Then I had an Irish-esque snack, consisting of a piece of toasted oat bread with a slice of cheddar cheese, and a glass of Irish cream-flavoured milk

 

     My Irish travels reminded me of a Celtic fair that I went to a few years ago.  I wore celtic-looking jewelry, and I made a wide belt out of green and gold brocade fabric, and handstitched loops on each end, and laced it up in the front with a gold ribbon.  At the fair, there was live music, a reenactment of a jousting tournament, and alot of booths filled with various products of a Celtic nature.  I bought a handmade Celtic knot earring/necklace set.

     I then resumed my journey, and ended up in Castletownbere, in the County Cork, whence was shot the film Ondine (2009).  It's a lovely, dream-like film about an Irish fisherman named Syracuse who catches a mysterious woman in his nets.  She claims to have forgotten everything up until that point, and calls herself "Ondine", a reference to the legend of the water-sprite.  Syracuse's precocious daughter Annie thinks she's a selkie (a seal-woman), and as Syracuse becomes involved with her, his sense of reality gets a bit muddled, until the truth about Ondine's past comes to light.

     During this point of the journey, Luie and I were joined by Misa, but he's not much of a traveler, and soon left us to journey on by ourselves.

     I then listened to various songs by Celtic Thunder, The Corrs, The Cranberries, Enya, and Sinead O'Connor, and had a cup of Irish Breakfast tea.

Then, my ever-obliging mum took me to the market, where I got Ben & Jerry's "Dublin Mudslide".  This delicious confection consists of Irish cream liqueur ice cream, with chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and swirls of coffee fudge.  Love.

     I finished my trip with the Celtic Women concert New Journey, which took place in Slane Castle, in the County Meath.

     So there was my Ireland adventure.  I'm all prepared for tonight's trip, which will be posted tomorrow.  I'm off to bed now.  Have a pleasant day, viewers.  As the Irish say, "May the road rise up to meet you."