Changing Ireland
I’m well into my 10th year of living in Ireland, and I often wonder about what changed during those years. A long list builds itself in my mind on people, mentality, culture, politics, nature, life… Writing about everything would result into one very long blog post that will eventually bore everyone, so I will try to keep it rather short. After all, I’m here to be entertained myself. During my first weeks in Dublin I was house hunting and it’s fair to say that I saw serious differences in what was up for grabs. Apartments with bright blue carpets, surely there to blind its tenants and with hallways like a maze. Now how should I find my way out here? I can’t even find my way out of a cereal…
The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls
The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls As if that soul were fled. So sleeps the pride of former days, So glory’s thrill is o’er, And hearts that once beat high for praise, Now feel that pulse no more! No more to chiefs and ladies bright The harp of Tara swells; The chord alone that breaks at night, Its tale of ruin tells. Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes, The only throb she gives Is when some heart indignant breaks, To show that still she lives. (poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore 1779-1852) (for more info: http://www.knowth.com/tara.htm) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012.
Irish Gaelic you say? Sure! Why not!
As I sit here watching the Tour de France on TG4, the Irish-language TV channel beaming its television rays from the west of Ireland, I have no idea in the world what they’re talking about. Obviously it has to do with the Tour de France it, but other than that they could just as well be selling Lycra on TV instead of trying to cover as much French ground as possible. Now, I don’t mind my non-existing knowledge anymore of the Irish language. When I just moved to Ireland in 2002 though, I signed up for Irish language classes in the local library, hoping to do something about that non-existence of what is in my belief, a very beautiful language. Suffice it to say that I was one of the…