SLIGO
January 25, 26, 27,28,29
We flew back to Dublin from Scotland, took a bus to our hotel (we’re getting to know the system now) , gathered our stored belongings, painfully integrated what we had with what we left, called a cab and went to the train station for our 3 ½ hour trip across country to Sligo. The train was crowded. Two 10 year old Irish kids were playing train conductor. They mentioned to the real conductor that the bathroom smelled (it did) and was dirty. He said, “We only clean it on Fridays.”
We decided to get off at Carrick-on-Shannon, about 30 miles from Sligo. We were told the train station was in town but it was actually on the outskirts of town. A couple ladies had a cab coming and offered to share with us – that didn’t work since there was already a lady, Gertie, slumped in the front seat that the cabbie had taken shopping and was now apparently along for the ride on his calls. Dominic, the cabbie, said he would be back for us after dropping the girls off.
He returned and made an effort to put our luggage in the “boot”. This didn’t work too well as Gertie’s groceries were there. So he left the 2 boxes of groceries at the station and off we went, Dominic, Gertie, Ann and I. He said he would just come back for the groceries....Ann was amazed.
Dominic took us to a few hotels around town and then to a b & b, Glancy’s, which we settled on. The town, like most of Ireland, is going through major construction…cranes, cranes, cranes…the price of prosperity. The town does have small, winding streets with colorful store fronts and, of course, a beautiful church. We take a walk and check out the Shannon River from a bridge and head to Cryans, a nice pub, where we enjoy our beverages of choice and chat with the locals. We settled on Chungs (yeah, that’s right) for dinner and it was decent.
I have a hearty breakfast in the morning (if I keep these breakfasts up, I’ll be in Dublin General) and we hire Michael Glancy, also a cab driver, to take us to Sligo. He acts as a semi-tour guide and takes the most direct route, a new highway of 2 lanes, commenting that the view is better this time of year with the trees being bare.
We arrive at the Sligo Park Hotel and Ann goes in to check it out. Michael checks his watch three times – “I thought this was a drop.” I explain that her approval of the room is crucial, which she eventually does. We pay grumbling Glancy and we settle in. (I left my watch in his cab and he sent it to me in Kinsale).
The hotel was great..reasonable...gym..and a pool…buffet breakfast…with great blood sausages (think of Redd Foxx) Ann turns her head as I eat them.
Willaim Butler Yeats
This hotel is the primary venue of the Yeats Winter School, a three day symposium in which I hesitantly enroll. Ann has no doubts. We are both English majors, partially Irish, and remember a little bit about some of his poems..but a symposium? …what if they call on us?...the lecturer asks me, “What did the poet mean when he wrote “a terrible beauty”…the Yeats scholars turn to look at me, they’re peering…brows furrowed….
This hotel is the primary venue of the Yeats Winter School, a three day symposium in which I hesitantly enroll. Ann has no doubts. We are both English majors, partially Irish, and remember a little bit about some of his poems..but a symposium? …what if they call on us?...the lecturer asks me, “What did the poet mean when he wrote “a terrible beauty”…the Yeats scholars turn to look at me, they’re peering…brows furrowed….
Well, it turned out to be nothing like that. We had orientation on Friday night followed by a concert of traditional Irish music and dance performed by pre-teens and young teens from Sligo, most of whom were part of the same family, the Kellys. Many played multiple instruments: Flute, harp, banjo, violin, mandolin, penny whistle, concertina, accordion..there were two primary dancers, a 10 year old girl and a 13 year old boy. They tapped, jumped and glided while maintaining stoic expressions. A 14 year old instrumentalist also sang. She had long brown hair, blue eyes (duh)…very pretty with a voice to match her young beauty. She sang a cappella, eyes closed and warmed the room. Martin, our extraordinary guide/mentor for the weekend (5’6”, white hair, trimmed beard) introduced a local “jazz singer”, Colleen, who sings an original song, a cappella. We later spoke with her and I asked her who she listens to.."Diane Krall?", I suggest…”Oh, I like her but , to be honest with ya, I listen to the birds”…"I love the Byrds. I think Roger McGuinn is still playing”…"Well, I like them as well but I mean the birds in the trees.” Her phone rings and she embarrassingly answers it. Ann suggests that she could put it on vibrate if she would like. The conversation eventually ended with her saying “I be havin’ vibrators all over me body.”
We ended the night at the hotel bar where a troubadour was playing Suspicious Minds, Sweet Caroline, Walk of Life, et. al. and students at the symposium ,from a university outside Altanta, sang and danced.
On Saturday, we heard a lecture at 9:30 at the hotel by Nick, a Trinity College professor and published Yeats scholar. We then took a bus to the Yeats Museum in Sligo where Gerald Dawe, Trinity College professor and poet, gives (reads) a lecture about Yeats and his stature vis a vis other Irish poets of his era…gist being that the other poets were stymied because of the literary superiority of Yeats. Whether true or not, I found the theory ridiculous. Can’t Puff Daddy (P. Diddy, Diddy, Puffy) and Snoop Dog coexist and thrive? What about Beyonce and Jessica Simpson??? During Dawe’s diatribe, he mentions that there are Yeats references in popular songs by Van Morrison, Judy Collins, the Waterboys. Afterward, I corner him and ask if he’s heard of Lou Reed’s The Raven CD with all of its Poe references. Gerald, the _____ that he is, blows me off. He’s on my list. He better not be reading any of his poetry later. Oh, it’s on the program for this evening?
We ended the night at the hotel bar where a troubadour was playing Suspicious Minds, Sweet Caroline, Walk of Life, et. al. and students at the symposium ,from a university outside Altanta, sang and danced.
On Saturday, we heard a lecture at 9:30 at the hotel by Nick, a Trinity College professor and published Yeats scholar. We then took a bus to the Yeats Museum in Sligo where Gerald Dawe, Trinity College professor and poet, gives (reads) a lecture about Yeats and his stature vis a vis other Irish poets of his era…gist being that the other poets were stymied because of the literary superiority of Yeats. Whether true or not, I found the theory ridiculous. Can’t Puff Daddy (P. Diddy, Diddy, Puffy) and Snoop Dog coexist and thrive? What about Beyonce and Jessica Simpson??? During Dawe’s diatribe, he mentions that there are Yeats references in popular songs by Van Morrison, Judy Collins, the Waterboys. Afterward, I corner him and ask if he’s heard of Lou Reed’s The Raven CD with all of its Poe references. Gerald, the _____ that he is, blows me off. He’s on my list. He better not be reading any of his poetry later. Oh, it’s on the program for this evening?
In the afternoon there is a tour in the hills/mountains above Sligo. It’s around Lough (lake, pronounced Lock) Gill and it was truly extraordinary. Martin narrated it, reciting and sometimes singing Yeats poems while traveling through beautiful countryside…streams, lakes, dark lanes. This is one he did....
Oftentimes other people would join in on the singing. There was a connection to a Yeats poem in every place we stopped. Tobernalt Holy Well is a huge grotto where the people from Sligo and surrounding countryside come for prayer and meditation. There’s a crucifix scene with accompanying figures of actual human proportion on one side of the altar and the Blessed Virgin Mary on the other. On Garlic Day, 500 people attend mass here. We light a candle.
We went to Dooney Rock, Innisfree and Glancar Falls. After the latter, Martin and Stella (secretary of the Yeats Society…a beautiful cherubic like woman who spoke with such clarity) put out some Bailey’s and Irish Mist and we sampled both as a mist was falling. The tour was ending, something neither one of us wanted.
The evening Gerald Dawe read his poetry. As might be predicted, we didn’t care for it. Afterwards, Nick critiqued it by saying, “…it was extraordinary in its ordinariness.” I say it was ordinary in its ordinariness…Ann seconds this.
Before the poetry reading we ate dinner with Frances and James who lived outside Dublin. They were both about 70+ and very sweet. Frances was talking with Ann and James and I were trying to converse. He was soft spoken. I can hardly understand him and I was really trying. He’d say something to me and then stop and stare. I’m thinking, oh, it’s a question. I’ve asked him to repeat it once already. What’ll I do:
We went to Dooney Rock, Innisfree and Glancar Falls. After the latter, Martin and Stella (secretary of the Yeats Society…a beautiful cherubic like woman who spoke with such clarity) put out some Bailey’s and Irish Mist and we sampled both as a mist was falling. The tour was ending, something neither one of us wanted.
The evening Gerald Dawe read his poetry. As might be predicted, we didn’t care for it. Afterwards, Nick critiqued it by saying, “…it was extraordinary in its ordinariness.” I say it was ordinary in its ordinariness…Ann seconds this.
Before the poetry reading we ate dinner with Frances and James who lived outside Dublin. They were both about 70+ and very sweet. Frances was talking with Ann and James and I were trying to converse. He was soft spoken. I can hardly understand him and I was really trying. He’d say something to me and then stop and stare. I’m thinking, oh, it’s a question. I’ve asked him to repeat it once already. What’ll I do:
James: What do you think of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq?
Gerard: I like mine medium rare
James: Do you like Irish sports?
Gerard: Only al dente
On Sunday Nick gave a talk on “ ‘This’ and ‘That’ and ‘Here’ and ‘There” in Yeats’ work. It was actually pretty entertaining. That afternoon we toured Lissadell, the home of the Gore-Booth family and a place that Yeats often visited when he was a young man. The Gore-Booth sisters (Eva and Constance) metaphorically are referenced in one of Yeats’ poems, In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz…
The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle…..
Wikipedia has a thumb nail sketch of their fascinating lives, check it out. Constance is beloved in this country for her stand in the 1916 Easter uprising. She married a Polish Count and is referred to by all as Countess Markievicz, The Countess of Irish Freedom.
Ann really enjoyed the tour of Lissadell which was once a 26,000 acre estate, now 400 acres. I was opened to us only because we were with the Yeats Society. Throughout the house there were paintings by Constance Gore-Booth and Jack Yeats, brother of Willie, and relatively well-known in his own right. Willie, by the way, is what W.B. Yeats was called by his family.(this we have been informed of by the Yeats Society people) They also told us Michael, son of Willie, would have been at the symposium had his time not run out…he passed away in January.
On our tour we saw first hand the meaning of “Upstairs,Downstairs” .We all had tea, wine and scones in the kitchen around the open kitchen fireplace - downstairs. Also downstairs was a room where the crystal and china were stacked on shelving. When Ann turned over one of the dishes in the china set to see who made it, it was marked, “William Adams and Sons” – she thought of her Uncle Bill and all his sons and sends her love to him.
The tour ended with a stop at Yeats’ grave on this his death day.
Ann, Gerard and Willie
Gerard with the president of the Yeats Society, who also happens to be the Jameson heir
Stella drove us back to the hotel, we hugged, kissed and sadly said goodbye.
Saying goodbye at the grave site.
On Monday we took a cab to town and our driver was Jim Carty. I asked him about Martin Brennan, a bartender at the Ould Sod in San Diego, who used to live in Sligo. “Small world…I knew Martin Brennan 25 years ago…heavy set fellow (not any longer)…I used to drink with his father.” He must have called Ann “darling” six times during our 10 minute cab ride..she loves that darling thing. Jim took us to the post office ….a serious trip…not to get stamps for my post cards but to send clothes back home and on to Croatia. Ann admits to over packing and the price was the total due…she wouldn’t tell me how much it came to but her bags sure are lighter.
Ann then went to Nazareth House where she visited with the sisters and viewed their new nursing home. The grounds were beautiful and so was the spirit of the sisters she said.
Nazareth House, Sligo, Ireland
New nursing home, Nazareth House, Sligo
This house is currently the convent for the sisters. Before the sisters purchased it Yeats' maternal grandparents lived here...sister said he would come to play here as a child.
On the way back to meet me, Ann stopped in at a department store and admired all the white shoes for little girls...probably for their first communion she said
Audrey, would you like these best?
I, on the other hand, went to Hennigans, a pub established in 1787. I sat down and the bartender suggested that I sit somewhere else since the empty stool to my right was occupied by a drunken Irishman. I stand me ground as I see the Irishman stumbling over from the jukebox. He’s mumbling, “Billy Jo-El…Billy Jo-El”. “River of Dreams” comes on: “In the middle of the night..while I’m walking in my sleep”…Mickey is saying every fifth word about three seconds late. He turns to me and asks, “Do you like…do you like…Billy JO-EL?” ..."Yes, very much so...he married well“..."I don’t give a ____ who he married…it don't do me any good.” He’s right. I tell him, “Good point” He puts his head down on his arms on the bar and takes a 10 minute nap. There was a sign in the bar, “If there’s no beer in heaven, I don’t want to be there” Another said: “Alcohol, the source and solution to the world’s problems.
I meet up with Ann and we prepare for our trip down south to Cashel tomorrow.
1 comment:
Would love to visit Willie, maybe now I would appreciate him more than I did in "Literary Masterpieces". Loved the lighting in the shots. Really enjoying your reports. love, Ann & Denis & Maureen
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