Photo selection

Last night I roamed through the several hundred photos I took and picked out the ones I liked that and put them in categories. The idea, ultimately, is to make disks for my friends and send them out, but also to be able to illustrate my posts here. Initially, this blog will be about the trip, but I'm hoping it can develop into something more as I move forward. Discussions of Irish history and life, the impact of the Diaspora elsewhere, and things like that. :)

Some quick thoughts about Ireland...

• I went with €500 and I pretty much spent €500. So it’s a good thing I took that much… it’s also probably a good thing I didn’t take much more.
• I ran in a crowd where I heard We Made You by Eminem and Poker Face by Lady Gaga pretty much every day.
• The rules of the road in Ireland are not simply the horizontal flip of the rules of the road in Canada.
• You need a license for your TV set, but you can buy hard liquor in the same stores you buy milk, cereal, and toothpaste.
• Country Roads by John Denver is a surprisingly popular buskers song in Dublin.
• I never once heard Ireland’s national anthem played in my entire week there; rarely did I see an Irish flag, even on public buildings. I did hear the Angelus played at 6 p.m. on RTÉ once.
• Whatever it may once have been, today the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is completely invisible.
• The name of the American medical-themed TV series, E.R., is pronounced by RTÉ professionals as "Eeyore", the name of the mopey donkey from Winnie the Pooh, which leads to such unintentionally-hilarious announcements as, "Tonight, don't forget to catch George Clooney on Eeyore!"
  
• If something’s a bargain, especially one involving your own financial prowess, you got it “for buttons”.
• Beer really is everywhere.
• Having seen it for myself, I’m convinced the green of the Irish countryside really is singular.
• Ireland might be the only place in the English-speaking world where a North American can be told his accent is “lovely” (I was).
• For the first and only time in my life, I heard crooked politicians referred to as "a shower of hungry cunts" — pardon my French.
• Anyone previously mentioned in a conversation is subsequently "yer man" thereafter, until the subject of discussion changes... in which case, a name is inserted, and that person is subsequently "yer man".
• Electrical plugs in Ireland are simply GIGANTIC — two or three times the size of North American outlets... and double the voltage. Ouch!
  

Statement of Intent

This blog is being established by me, a Canadian of Irish descent (and dual citizenship), to present my impressions of Ireland, initially starting with my recent trip there. I do this to record my thoughts for my own benefit, and to share with my friends and my Irish-extracted family, and most of all in recognition of the debt I owe the friends I have, and made, while I was over there... to give them a look at their home through another's eyes. This is for you all, and thank you.