Photo's, Plays, and medical matters!

Recently two really nice things have happened.

Since she died I’ve been getting all my photos of Alicia together to put them into one album. There was one box of photos, mostly from the time she was a student at Manchester University which I just couldn’t find. I could see the box in my minds eye, and I knew where it should be… but could I find it? No way. For 6 or 7 weeks I searched high and low for it… but no luck.

Then a week last Thursday I got really depressed over something and, trying to snap out of it, decided to do some dusting….. and there it was! Right where I thought it should be and in my full view ever since before she died. My depression lifted immediately. I can only think she didn’t want me to see it until finding it would do me the most good. Thank you Alicia…. you’re still looking after me.

Then last week I went up to Dublin and spent a few days with my sister Christine. She flew over from Manchester. As often happens with me I managed to leave my camera at home…. so no piccies! --- but we had a lovely time, and except for one heavy shower of rain, we also had nice weather. Went round museums and galleries, got to see the Book of Kells and the Library in Trinity College which I’ve always wanted to see, and even went to see an excellent production of Sean O’Casey’s play ‘The Plough and the Stars’ at the Abbey Theatre, ( actually the second time I’ve seen this production.)

It was absolutely brilliant and I still can’t believe that front row seats on both occasions only cost me 15 euro’s each. There are other theatres I know where they wont even let you stand at the back of the gods for that money! No wonder the Abbey was full both performances I attended!!

We stayed at Buswells Hotel which is a nice hotel to stay at if you’re in Dublin, central to everything including Dail Eireann where the Government meet. The hotel’s bar is reputed to be one of the favourite watering holes for Government Ministers when they’ve finished trying to run the country for the day. They’re all on their summer recess at the moment, so I didn’t get to see even one. Since most of us poor voters are enjoying a year long ‘recession’ at the moment, it’s probably just as well I didn’t meet one!

This week I seem to be almost permanently in the hands of the medical profession. Blood tests, dental checkups, checks to see if I’m now a diabetic, or is that only a distant future possibility for my doctors overheated imagination to worry about? I might even have the chiropodist do another check on my big toe!!! The list is endless, but I’m hoping on Thursday to get back to Dublin for a lecture in the National Museum on Medieval Ireland, a subject I know almost nothing about. ‘Strongbow’ I’ve learned was not an Irish cider brew!!

The weather is pretty lousy at the moment, unable to decide whether it wants to be wet or dry, but I have managed to dodge between most of the showers and get in some serious weeding and tidying of borders in what I now think of consistently as Alicia’s garden! At least it’s beginning to look the way she wants it.

Feasts, Famine. and Frights.

Last week I spent three days with Michael and Eilish Kennedy at their home in Wexford. Michael, Alicia, and I taught together in Manchester between 19 and 1971, and we’ve been friends ever since.

They have a lovely house near Kiltealy, and Michael is now the retired principal of Courtnacuddy National School. I had a really great time with them, with lots of laughter, chat, and 2 barbecues at which they made sterling efforts to put some weight onto my bones. That’s the ‘feast’ bit. So where does ‘famine’ come in?

Well on the second day of my visit Michael took me for a drive around Wexford which included a trip to meet his brother Martin on his boat moored on the River Barrow in New Ross. Moored quite near Martin’s boat if the replica ‘famine ship’ the Dunbrody which I’ve read a lot about but never visited. They’ve done a great job building the replica and because we had a little time to spare before meeting Martin we went on a guided tour around it. Michael had done the tour many times with his school,so was probably a little bored going around it again, but I found it fascinating. When you think what our ancestors had to endure just to survive in this world it makes you realise how lucky we are, and how relatively insignificant many of our current problems really are.

That was the ‘ famine’ bit!

The rest of the break was really good too…including our attempt to frighten Martin and his children that night by rising from behind some bush’s with heads covered with towels and a torch under the chin while howling like a pair of banshees. That’s the sort of thing ‘retired professionals’ do!!!