Big World Small Feet: Sing a Jubilant Song

On the second day I wound up with a bit of a head cold. I had a friend give me some nasal spray after breakfast so that i could function. the soda bread was bland, but the instant coffee and rhubarb yogurt were damn good.

Later on we went to the cliffs of Moher, detailed in a separate post. In a word, they were spectacular.

The Burren, an area we visited on the way back, was the first thing to decline in the potato famine. Blighted American potato seeds killed what was left of the burren villages and their potatoes, until the famine ended in 1921. half of the country's 8 million inhabitants died in that timespan.

The rock formations in the Burren extend back to the Ice Age, and the rare orchids that grow in the limestone were affected by the attempted rescue of the land. There was also Limina castle outside of Allwee cave, owned by a woman named Myra Rouas, who had four husbands at various points in time. A lot of history surrounds these parts.

The rock climbers that come to this area enjoy a wide variety of B&B's, cheap pubs, and other cheap amenities. This area is very friendly to eco tourists.

The accents of the locals are adorable. I love learning their slang and dialect, as it is so unique yet synonymous to only them. You can also chat an Irish person up about literally anything and everything with an open mind. As such, I told a few of my new mates at the bar that my home state of PA, at 120,000 square kilometers, was actually bigger than all of Ireland, at 85,000 square kilometers. In exchange, they told me that the first and most important sentence kindergartners learn is "An bhfuil cead agam dul amach go dtí an leithreas?" This translates literally to "Do I have permission to go and use the toilet?" Aside from Fáilte (welcome), Dia duit (Hello), Conas atá tú (How are you) and Tá mé go maith (I am fine), Go raibh maith agat (Many thanks ( and the response 'Sé do bheatha ( Not a problem), and Slán (farewell), It is one sentence I was instructed to use the most.

Upon our return to the campus, we saw the opening concert for the Limerick Sings International festival. M'ANAM , an all male choir directed by Michael McGlynn of ANUNA, directed beautifully arranged music, including Scottish mouth music, Icelandic, Irish, and English. It was a fantastic show.

The Irish folk who leave to go to Australia and America, as I found out, are often unlikely to ever return home. Irish folk are very family oriented, which makes the departures harder. It is sad because they bond together, especially to disparage over the English. One person at a bar told me that the English had an old saying of things barred from the UK: "no blacks, no dogs, and no Irish". They claim this saying to show how Irish were treated as bottom barrel creatures, which is why they fought so hard through famine and strife to separate from England and the UK. Needless to say, these were very passionate people with a lot of stories to tell.