3 Things I LOVE About Ireland & Why Do We Celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

It’s curious that all across America, on one day each year, we celebrate a country that very few of us have roots in or have visited. Sure, we have a significant population of Irish immigrants and their descendants in America. But I’m not sure that explains our willingness – en masse – to don the green.

I can’t think of any other single country and culture that has such a wide and diverse fan club. Can you?

As I ponder why St. Patrick’s Day has become a phenomenon for people who aren’t Irish or Catholic, I think back to my trip to the Emerald Isle in 2010 (for the magical story of how I won that trip, check out this post).

Me, Enjoying Ireland

Before I went to Ireland, I'd read many books and articles about its history, scenery, and culture as research for my novel Emily’s House. I thought I knew something about the place.

But you can’t know a place or its people from photographs and books. I tried my best to capture something of Ireland in Emily’s House, but to be honest, I don’t think my descriptive powers are adequate to describe for the reader the magic that is Ireland. You have to experience it for yourself.

For St. Patrick's Day, in honor of a place – and a people – that I love, here are the top three things I love about Ireland (and why I miss it daily since I left):

1.  Real, Delicious Food. Ireland’s cuisine gets dogged by foodies. It’s true the Irish cuisine is not varied and it’s not very “serious.” But if you enjoy fresh, unpretentious food that tastes like what it is and where it came from, then you’ll love feasting in Ireland.

Lets start with cows. I was prepared to see a lot of sheep in Ireland. And to be sure, there are plenty of the woolly creatures roaming the green hills. But there are a hell of a lot of cows. And those lovely, happy cows produce the best butter in the world. Irish butter from County Kerry is so golden yellow - so buttery looking - that I thought it was artificially colored.  But the yellowy-orange color is real and comes from all the chlorophyll in the riotous green grass Irish cows eat. I think bread may exist solely to be a place to spread Irish butter. Irish butter is in and of itself reason enough to go back.

And lest you think the Irish have cows roaming every square inch of countryside just so we can have delicious butter, some of those bovines end up as the best steak and hamburgers I’ve ever had (vegetarians, you might want to skip this paragraph). I’ve eaten steak in Omaha, Nebraska and Texas. Sorry American west, but you can’t hold a candle to Irish beef. If you love the taste and texture of a good steak like I do, then you can appreciate my statement: Ireland may have the best beef in the world. And it’s not because they get massaged (Kobe style). No, the beef is delicious because the Irish cows spend their life eating delicious grass and living a blissful cow life. If you’ve been to the American west, then you know that much of America’s beef cows live in the arid and semi-arid Southwest, eating a dry diet of dry plants. I have long thought that the cows don’t look all that happy to live in a dry, hot arid climate with dry, hot plants. And now that I’ve eaten Irish beef, I know that I’m right. Happy cows produce happy butter and happy beef.

Happy Irish Cows

I could write a whole post just on potatoes but I’ll save you that – for now. Suffice it to say the Irish love their potatoes and if you love potatoes, you can have at least one type of potato dish per meal. Did someone say mash on the plate with a side of fries? Yes they did and you gotta love a place that doesn’t see anything wrong with that.

Irish potatoes whipped with Kerry butter with a side of Irish steak. Have I made you hungry yet?

2. Green. Yes, I miss green. I live in the desert which has its own kind of spiritual energy and rugged beauty. In my home environment, the plants do have green leaves. But the plants have adapted to the bright sun and intense heat by growing silvery green leaves that reflect sunlight, thus conserving their precious water.

In Ireland, water is not scarce and plants aren't into water conservation strategies. Irish plants proudly display their verdant leaves. Every color of green that you can imagine (except maybe for the silvery sage green of the desert) lives abundantly in Ireland. Ireland is so green, it really is beyond description. But the effect is of an oasis and a feeling that life thrives in every corner of the island. I think that our love of green spaces is primordial. There’s something about immersing yourself in a green forest or verdant hills that makes you feel – human. Alive.

If you go to Ireland, spend some time driving on the narrow two lanes out of Dublin and into the rolling hills of the Irish countryside. There you will be surrounded by the green hills of legend, criss-crossed with ancient stone walls and dotted with cows – happy, beautiful cows.


Ah – the memory of green.


3. The People. If there are friendlier, more hospitable people on the planet, I’d like to know where they are. From the moment we stepped off of the plane to the minute we took off to go home (a sad moment), we had not one single negative experience with the people of Ireland.





And in the land that has produced such literary greats as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, William Butler Yeats, Jonathan Swift and Samuel Becket, people are quick with  a story, a laugh. Sharing. A country filled with people happy to be Irish and eager to share their home with you.


Ireland also has a history filled with harsh conditions, famines and difficulty. But the Irish people are resilient. A country that has throughout its history been beset with plenty of reasons to make her people give up has produced instead the most affable people on the planet.


I cannot speak of the people and the land and the food without mentioning a pint – of Guinness of course. You haven’t had a beer until you’ve stepped up to the bar and ordered a pint of Guinness in Ireland. The bartenders there are serious about their beer and it will be expertly poured for you. Go, sit in the pub with your new friends and enjoy the music, the stories and the delicious pint.


And perhaps this last reason I love Ireland is the secret to why our entire country is willing to become Irish one day a year. One day when we share a tradition that the world could use more of – to sit together with old friends while you make new ones, sharing a pint, telling a story and laughing together. The Irish know how to create joy from any circumstance. Oh, and a pint of Guinness helps.

Hubby having a pint with Danny O'Donoghue,
Lead Singer of The Script
Even their Rock Stars are Good Folk

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to the Irish and Irish at heart.

Manic Monday: Looking into the Face of God

Perhaps there is no better way to differentiate our species from all other known species than to say merely that humans seek to understand their place in this vast, strange and wonderful known universe.


As far as we know anyway, we are the only ones asking questions like "Were we created or are we a cosmic accident?" and "Why are we here?" and "What came before us? Before our universe was born?" and "What happens to us when we die?"


It is interesting to me that these questions are approached by humans in two apparently opposed ways: Through science and through faith.


Science looks to the very large using infrared, microwave and radio telescopes, trying to peer ever further back in time to see how it all began. And science also looks to the very small by smashing tiny particles (not even whole atoms mind you but mere pieces of atoms) into each other and observing the aftermath. They have said they want to find the 'God particle.' 


Faith, by definition, does not require a formula or visual proof.


I am fascinated by both ideas and am frequently saddened by the rancor on both sides. Sometimes even violent conflict. Ask Galileo about that. Don't we, as a species, have room for both? Can't we have science and faith?


To each his own path of discovery.
To each his own form of faith.


Last week I sat in my garden and noticed something amazing. Spring blew a warm kiss over the high desert I call home and the season's bounty has begun. And as I walked around my yard I noticed a single poppy had poked her head out of the dry, rocky ground.


A singular pleasure. A beautiful miracle.


The life we are surrounded by every day is neither micro nor macro in nature. It is neither as large as a galaxy nor is it as small as a particle. Yet within a single flower lives a universe of beauty to explore.

"You won't find faith or hope down a telescope,

You won't find heart or soul in the stars." 

     - From Science & Faith by The Script

And the mere existence of us - of these bags of water and bones that we call home - a lifetime of wonder to explore.

"Take my hand and lead me to salvation
Take my love for love is everlasting
And remember the truth that once was spoken
To love another person is to see the face of God."
                 From Les Miserables, The Epilogue

Do you ask big questions from time to time? What inspires you? Do you seek answers "out there" or within? Have you ever had a moment when it all seemed clear to you?

Trip to Ireland Research on Setting for forthcoming novel "Emily's House"

At a writer's conference in 2009, I heard famed author Richard Peck say that he never writes about a place that he hasn't been.  As I heard that statement, I was in the midst of writing a novel, the good part of which takes place in Ireland, but I had never been to Ireland.

Despite the fact that I'd never been to Ireland, I purchased books, read articles online, viewed hundreds of pictures and videos and continued on with my writing.  I finished the first draft of Emily's House on August 25, 2010, still hadn't made it to Ireland.

Three days after I finished the first draft I got a call that I'd won a trip for two to Dublin to see the band The Script.  Less than two weeks later hubby and I were on a plane!  "Ask and ye shall receive."

We were able to extend our trip and visit each of the sites in Ireland that were settings in my novel.  I think it was important to visit these places and I think it will make a difference in the final novel.

A picture may be worth a thousand words but the pictures of the bucolic Irish countryside don't include the smellivision that reveals the powerful oder of cow dung so prevalent!  For anyone who lives in Ireland or has been to Ireland, I think I got a few details that they'll pick up on and they might say "Hey, that's right."  But will the verisimilitude of these details be lost on someone who has never been there?  Or will those details, even for someone who has never been, enrich the story anyway?
My trip to Ireland gave me sensory details to include that I think will enrich the story for all readers (such as the smell the cow dung in the fields or the smell the rain on the road or the newly fallen leaves).  A writer can't get these kind of sensory details from a photograph.

Monasterboice

I only hope that I can capture in the words the feel of the place.  Like Monasterboice.  It's the site of an old monastery but is now a historic graveyard dating back to the 12th century.  Before going there, I thought it would be creepy, but it really wasn't.  Maybe it's because it was a sunny day.  Maybe it was the lovely lady volunteers that greeted us at the door.  Or maybe it was the rolling green hills all around it.
But then the clouds began to form and I looked up and there were crows circling around the tall round tower and suddenly it reminded me of a Vincent Price movie.  And that was the feeling I needed for my novel so I took it in and then imagined what that scene would feel like for three teenagers there in the middle of the night.

Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland

That same afternoon we visited a megalithic site called Loughcrew.  This site is a setting for part of the "story within a story" in Emily's House that takes place over a thousand years ago.  In my first draft, I had a rather non-descript setting.  But when I went to Loughcrew, I knew it was the setting I needed.  It was up on a hill and there were only two other people there (brave enough to travel the twisty, turny narrow Irish roads and to come face to face with large sheep and dodge sheep shit!).  In my first draft, before going to Ireland, I had envisioned a marriage "bed" made of stone for Saorla and the King to sit on.  As we rounded the stone circle, there it was - a large stone slab that looked like it might have been an alter (or maybe a bed?!).  Perfect.  When I re-wrote that scene, I could totally picture a Druid priest performing a ritual amongst the stone circle with the bonfires and feasting in the valley below the large hill.  And the spritual energy of that place!  I can only say that I have never before felt such energy.  It was almost electrical.

St. Brighid's Well, Kildare, Ireland

The last site we visited was the Well of St. Brighid.  In Emily's House, she must enter a portal to another world at the Sacred Well.  In my research, I found out that there are "sacred" wells  dedicated to St. Brighid all over Ireland.  But there was one in Kildare that looked particuarly promising and legend has it that it had been a sacred well even before Christianity.  It had once been in a grove of trees and is known for its healing waters.  It is visited regularly by devotees of St. Brighid.

I hope that I have captured in the story the feeling of these places.

Not all of the trip to Ireland was walking in ancient graveyards!  We got to meet the band The Script at a concert at the Guinness Brewery as they kicked off their world tour promoting their CD "Science and Faith."

Danny O'Donohue, lead singer, with hubby
Gravity Bar, Dublin, Ireland

So why is it that hubby is the one who got to meet cute Danny and get his picture with him but I didn't?!