A few pictures and tales from my recent family trip.
In Ireland, we visited the 15th century Dysert O’Dea castle in County Clare, where I discovered the Irish version of how copyright came to be.
My family a mile ahead of me as I try to take photos
As Edward T. O’Donnell wrote in a 2001 column for the The Irish Echo:
One story that captures the essence of his personality involved an altercation with his mentor, Finian. Columcille loved books, especially a psalter owned by Finian. Secretly, he copied the manuscript in his room (in the dark with the page lit by light emanating from his fingertips according to one legend). When Finian found out, he demanded the original and the copy (books were extremely rare in those days). When Columcille refused to surrender the latter, the case went before King Diarmaid who issued his famous edict: “to every cow its calf, to every book its copy.” Reluctantly, Columcille handed over the book. It would not be his last encounter with the king.
Dublin is such a literary city. I knew this, because as an undergraduate at Boston College, I worked in the Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections (see beautiful interior shots here), which has a huge collection of papers, letters and manuscripts of Irish writers. My main job was organizing the letters of Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc, although I am pretty sure I spent most of my time writing my own love letters, none of which were as lovely as Belloc’s:
“….So again good night – if I could follow the night round her long whirl around the bend of the earth – at last I should come to you….”
– Hilaire Belloc to Elodie Hogan, August 6, 1890
But it’s totally different to be there and actually visit birthplaces and homes. Iris Murdoch, Marian Keyes, Maeve Benchy, Patricia Scanlon, and of course, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, and on and on. Inspired, I read Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray, and I hope to review it soon.
While in Dublin, we visited one of the many bookstores (sorry to say I cannot recall which), and an employee noticed me trying to help my nine year old son choose a book. He came over to us, sussed out our Americaness immediately (I am not sure whether it was the accents, the loud bickering, or the Adidas track pants), and proceeded to hand sell us books for 9-12 year olds by Irish authors, including The Skullduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy, which he LOVES.
In Baltimore, Ireland we stayed with friends. Who had many siblings, and nieces and nephews. We were surrounded! But it was wonderful to “come to people” as they say. One of the women, who has four grown sons, gave me three rules for parenting through the teenage years:
1. You know nothing
2. Walk several paces behind.
3. Keep hugging him, even if he doesn’t want you to.
Here’s a shot of my pre-teen and his dad playing soccer in Baltimore:
We visited the Belfast Northern Ireland area, including the Giant’s Causeway, all of which we loved. The Belfast experience was especially powerful, both in seeing the remaining chicken wire, neighborhood gates, fences, and political murals and memorials to The Troubles, and in seeing the new vitality of the city in the beautiful new shopping mall (Victoria Square, were we saw Harry Potter 7.2), hotels, shops, municipal buildings, and restaurants.
But here’s a shot of the family at The Giant’s Causeway, on a rainy windy day:
VERY windy:
London was great, too, of course. We ended up staying in a heavily Middle Eastern area, with all signs in English and Arabic, the streets lined up and down by men smoking hookah pipes after work, and most women in traditional Muslim clothing, hijabs and ankle length gowns, many with face coverings as well. So that was an entirely new experience for us, but otherwise, the boys and I had fun visiting our usual haunts while the husband researched.
I read Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Good Squad, Courtney Milan’s novella Unlocked, the Oscar Wilde mentioned above, Julie Ann Long’s I Kissed an Earl and What I Did for a Duke, and Shannon Stacey’s Yours to Keep, all of which I enjoyed.
Fantastic trip, but we’re all happy to be home. Hope your summer is going well, too.
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That picture of your family on the giant’s causeway reminds me of the Caspar David Freidrich painting ‘wanderer above a sea of fog’ as romanticist painter very apt for the literary connections you mention above. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_David_Friedrich has the pic in the article.
oh, that’s a great painting! Of course, I was shouting at my husband to not go any further while trying to take the picture. It was raining hard and very gusty, and I was terrified I was going to blink and they would be gone.
Fun to see these. Look at your boys all windblown. They look like they came out of a children’s book – it looks like invisible goblins are stealing them. Or maybe leprechauns!
Poor Columcile and his psalter. To love a book that much!
My niece really did make her parents walk behind her for a couple of years. It was the source of much amusement. My kids are teens and will totally still hug me and hold my hand in public. I think it helps that they are girls.
I still don’t know anything.
Sounds like you had a great time. I’ve never been to Northern Ireland (except for one brief dodgy car journey through Belfast many years ago). Really must go and see the Giants’ Causeway.
Welcome back.
Sounds like you had a great holiday – Ireland looks lovely.
I’ve recently started the Pennyroyal Green series by Julie Anne Long and now I’m wondering why it took me so long. I have books 3-5 on my reader ready to go!
It’s a small small SMALL small world after all! My mum’s a Dea, descended from O’Dea, and we all went to Ireland two weeks ago to see Dysert O’Dea for the O’Dea clan gathering! It’s fantastic isn’t it? Although my dad quipped, “See – there’s the flatscreen TV and DVD player so the workers in the workshop didn’t get bored.” LOL.
We stayed in County Clare though – saw the Cliffs of Moher (from above as well as below by boat), the Arran Islands and this gorgeous, flawless little teahouse in Ballyvaughan.
Oh! Dying to take the family to Ireland… I wanted to try it this year, but we did a roadtrip to the Grand Canyon instead. That was awesome, too. I’ve been to Ireland once, and I so desperately wanna go back.
Love the rules for parenting through the teenage years. How wise.
My children’s bookshelves are stuffed full of books by Irish authors. We need to have a serious cull, but we’re not good at that! They love the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer (I read the first one aloud to them and thought it was fantastic) and also Darren Shan, although he writes horror and is probably suitable for slightly older teen boys with a fascination for the grisly.