Glad to be Irish Cont’d.

Remembered some grievous oversights when I woke up this morning:

* Gallarus’ Oratory–1200 year old classic
* Inis Tuaisceart ( _an fear marbh_ )
* Mary Lavin
* Mary Robinson
* Flann O’Brien
* Beckett’s _Murphy_
* Ciaran Carson’s poetry
* Damian Rice
* Jack B.
* Lard-cooked chips
* Cool regional accents, especially from Ballymena, Donegal, Wexford, Kerry, West Cork, and Louth.
* Conor McPherson, in the Project and on Broadway
* The NMRC(National Microcomputing Research Centre) in the Maltings, Cork

But this is the list of an old fart. I’ve come up with hardly anything from the last ten years for this personal glad-to-be list (though plenty gets filed on my cranky list). Suggestions and outraged reminders welcome, especially from Bernie’s students at the Tipperary Institute, who were commenting away yesterday.

7 thoughts on “Glad to be Irish Cont’d.”

  1. Chips from Burdock’s

    Running into people you know on Grafton Street

    No more than three degrees of separation

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  4. * Coalmen with horse-drawn carts — still.
    * The conversational phrase, “Come here to me…” followed by “Go away!”
    * That moment in early March when everyone starts to say, “There’s a grand stretch to the evenings now, isn’t there?”
    * The scent of March hyacinths in St Stephen’s Green
    * St Stephen’s Green
    * Dinner in L’ecrivain
    * Political gossip
    * Leisurely coffee in The Merrion Hotel’s beautiful, art-filled lobby

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  5. * Toners
    * The mystery that is Fitzwilliam Square
    * The hilariously tiny Powerscourt Falls, the tallest waterfall in Ireland
    * The Temple Bar Market
    * The absolutely dire UGC cinema on the north side (I hear they’re renovating it)
    * The Screen Cinema, with its thousand year old ticket-taker

    And, my favourite place in Dublin:

    * The strange and wonderful Natural History Museum. I wrote about it here: http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/2003/03/18.html#a181.

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  6. The Gallarus Oratory – oh dear God, yes. What a wonderful, peaceful, moving place.

    And at the opposite end of the spectrum – McDaid’s of Harry Street (from 1988 to about 1994).

    Also – O’Flahertys in Dingle. At one o’clock on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. With the local Gardai coming across the road after their shift to join in the craic. And sleeping with my head out of the tent that night – my collie, Tara, snuffling beside me.

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  7. Darren would be keen to know that the Dublin Natural History Museum is now a museum in its own right — it’s a perfectly preserved example of what they were like at the turn of the century.

    “hilariously tiny” Powerscourt Falls? Damn Canadians with their fancy igneous landscape and big waterfalls!

    (also: mental note: Karlin eats in L’Ecrivain. Must hang out with Karlin when I get back 😉

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