Now, the above is not an invitation….but the words of one of the most famous songs from the place I went to celebrate my birthday recently – Carlow. Actually, Tullow’s fabulous Mount Wolseley Hotel and Spa to be exact.
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My beloved mother Peggy passed away in Feb 2014. It took me a few weeks to gather my courage to go through her “bits and bobs”. In a blanket box behind the bedroom door, I found the bundle of letters tied with a red ribbon. Forty years ago this year, my best friend Catherine and I had
One of my favourite Irish cities is Kilkenny in our neighbouring county. It’s a great pint-sized city to socialise in and many a Friday evening did I want to get off the bus as I passed through the thronged streets on the way home to Carrick from Dublin. It’s known as the marble city as the black Kilkenny marble was used from the 17th to the 19th century.
But for most Irish people over 50 like me, Co. Kilkenny …as well as being famous for hurling……will be forever tied to that well-loved fictional family from the fictional townland of Leestown in County Kilkenny, the Riordans!! Doing Your Family TreeThe wedding photo on our wall at home of Peggy’s grandparents, John Gough and Alice Mulcahy, first got me interested in family trees and genealogy. I wondered what their life had been like in Massachusetts, what had brought them back to Ireland in 1899 and what had become of their family…. especially their daughters born in America who had re-emigrated.
I got a Facebook reminder that this time ten year’s ago I was on holidays at the Riu Nautilus Hotel in Torremolinos. This particular holiday is special to me as it was the last one I took abroad with my Mammy Peggy as she passed away six months later. In 2013, this was a return trip to this hotel for both of us as we had spent a great week there in August of 2008.
Although I’m originally from South Tipperary, I have to admit that I haven’t seen a lot of the county. So, this week I jumped at the chance when I was invited to stay with my lovely cousin Rose near Thurles. We got to see the famous Rock of Cashel, enjoy Afternoon Tea in the Cashel Palace Hotel, be entertained at a great Irish-night at the Brú Ború Cultural Centre, travel down to Coolishal, Kilsheelan (Co. Waterford) where my great grandparents lived for a time before having a snack at the Horse & Jockey Hotel. This week’s blog tells how I got on.
When I was at school, one of my favourite poems was “Per Iter Tenebricosum” by Oliver St. John Gogarty (Along The Dark Way) (see the first photo below). It talks about the inevitability of death and it being “a fate that leads the natural way”. I always thought it odd that even the most practical, organised people went through life acting as if death would never happen to them. A couple of years later when I started working in an accountancy firm, I saw at first hand the upset and trauma
One of my favourite songs is by the late Sandy Denny, “Who Knows Where The Time Goes”. I find that I’m asking myself that very question a lot lately ……. a real sign that “I’m shoving on”. But I was really thinking of this song a lot leading up to last month’s Greenhill Class of ’83 40th Reunion.
Written when the singer was just 19, just a couple of years older than most of us leaving Greenhill, this plaintive song has been covered extensively down through the years. But I love the version here released in 1973. It really pulls at the heartstrings and some regard it as “one of the saddest songs ever written”. For us leaving school in 1983 it was indeed a sad time on the jobs front. John F. Kennedy on his presidential visit to Ireland in June 1963 twenty years earlier had remarked ‘Most countries send 12 Things To See & Do in Co. WaterfordSo, from my Facebook page you will see that I’ve spent the last two week’s catching up with family and friends in my hometown of Carrick-on-Suir in South Tipperary. It was a great opportunity to explore the neighbouring county, Co. Waterford – the home county of both my parents, my parents’ parents and even THEIR parents’ parents. So, you see why I have a real affinity for County Waterford!
County Waterford (Irish: Contae Phort Láirge) is in the province of Munster. The population of the county at large, including the city of Waterford, was 127,085 according to the 2022 census. The county is based on the historic Gaelic territory of the Déise, hence my blog title. 😊 Over the two weeks visiting Co. Waterford, I’ve seen some great places and met some great people. This week’s blog is therefore on “My Déise Dozen - 12 Things to See & Do in Co. Waterford”. There are a few places I visited which I have omitted from this post that I actually think are “Must Sees” in my opinion e.g., the Waterford Greenway, the Nire Valley, Melleray Abbey and Mount Congreve. But I reckon that they are so popular that you may have heard of or seen them already. So, my Déise Dozen are the less well-known sights. Enjoy! (And apologies to those who’ve seen my Facebook posts over the last two weeks! 😊) Books 73 to 80 So, in my Bucket List quest to read at least 80 books, this is my 10th (and final) list of 8 books that I've held onto. As explained in my blogs previously, my lists are an eclectic mix of book types. Hopefully you'll see something that you might read on your summer holidays. (See Blog 16 , Blog 22, Blog 32, Blog 38, Blog 48, Blog 65, Blog 76, Blog 86 and Blog 96 for my previous book-related blogs). Enjoy! ❤️
One of my mam Peggy’s favourite songs was “Danny Boy”. I remember it was one of her party pieces and can still hear her soft voice singing it. I think that it reminded her of her time as an emigrant in Leeds and Cardiff in the late 1940s. It also reminded her of her younger brother, Danny, who worked laying gas-pipes in the UK. I too love “Danny Boy”. Nowadays. But there was a time in the 1980s when I dreaded it.
You see, I got a Stylophone as a gift one Christmas. For those too young to remember, the iconic gadget Stylophone was a pocket-sized battery-operated synthesiser used by everyone from David Bowie to The White Stripes. You played it by tapping and sliding the connected stylus along the touch-sensitive metal surface. Each segment on the surface played a different note, the same as different keys on a piano. But unlike the piano, it was so simple to play that anyone could have a go - perfect for beginners! Like me! Now, I’m no David Bowie, but to please Peggy, one of the first tunes I learned on it was “Danny Boy”. To my teenage mortification, she insisted I play it for any visitors to the house. With lots of requests for “one more time”!! I even remember the late Paddy Farrell being obliged to listen as he was delivering our weekly box of messages (groceries) one Saturday morning. Anyway, in this week’s blog, I delve into the origins of “Danny Boy”. I also have a link to the late Eva Cassidy’s beautiful rendition of it. I think Peggy would be delighted. If there are harps in heaven, I’ve no doubt she has some poor angel pestered to play “Danny Boy” … one more time! Enjoy! I came across my 4th class school photo recently from the Presentation Convent, the late Mrs. Connolly's class, and the memories of getting it taken flooded back. I’m balancing, aged 10 ¼, on top of a wooden school desk trying to avoid the ink well scraping my knee. Dressed in my navy-blue uniform gymslip and white blouse. My poem about trees is hanging on the classroom wall over my left shoulder. I’ve taken my long hair down from its usual ribboned pony tail and I’ve discarded my recently acquired glasses. I really hated those glasses back in the day!
NYC - April 7 to 11, 2006I was looking with envy at all of the great photos shared on Facebook recently of the Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society’s run of The Phantom of the Opera. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it down to experience it in person. Knowing the amazing musical talent that exists in my little hometown, I wasn’t at all surprised to hear the rave reviews and that there were standing ovations every night. I would expect nothing less knowing the wonderful people involved. “Phantom” is one of my favourite shows ever. I was lucky enough to see the Broadway production in April 2006 at the Majestic Theatre on West 44th Street in New York. It was truly spectacular. That whole trip with Charlie, being his first time in New York and my second, was so memorable. In this week’s blog post I share a little of what we did and saw. Enjoy!
Miami Beach is one of those places I always wanted to visit ever since I got hooked on watching Crockett and Tubbs on TV 40 years ago. So, in 2019, at the end of a Caribbean cruise, we added on an extra 4 nights in Miami. It happened to be in the middle of Spring Break, that time when college kids in the US go crazy. I thought I’d seen it all, having worked in Temple Bar for 18 years; the stag/ hen (bachelor/ bachelorette) party capital of Ireland. Not a week went by but I’d hear the partying going on outside my office window with the singing, dancing and frolicking starting in the early afternoons. But Miami at Spring Break was a whole other level of crazy!
Our 2019 Western Caribbean CruiseIn April 2019 we cruised the Western Caribbean onboard Harmony of the Seas out of Fort Lauderdale. We had a lovely few days staying near Fort Lauderdale beforehand where we had enjoyed exploring the Everglades and were looking forward to taking things very easy on-board. Over the week we docked in Labadee (Haiti), Falmouth (Jamaica) and Cozumel (Mexico) as well as having three “At-Sea” days. It was bliss. This week’s blog tells how we got on. Enjoy!
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AuthorMy name is Mary and this is my bucket list blog ...having survived a near-death experience. I hope it encourages you to "live your best life". See how I'm completing my own bucket list items. And let me know how you're getting on with yours! Archives
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