Sunday Aug 23- Through Tuesday Morning - Dublin Drumcondra, Croke Park, to Counties Monaghan -Armagh

 

Awoke to rain here in All Hallows on Sunday morning, and I decided to walk into town to see what I could find.....Good exercise, about a 30- 45 min walk to the Liffey. 

Traditional 4 story buildings from Georgian times (1600-1700 's) South of the Liffey.

 

Statue of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square where I walked in the neighborhood

 
A stop on my pilgrimage to visit Oscar Wilde's image on the rock here, where I lot of writers hung out. Courageous man when there was huge religious intolerance in Europe for the spectrum of GBTQIA men.




 Half Penny - hey penny Bridge across the Liffey in the rain on my walk back to Croke Park.

At Croke Park, in Drumcondra, Dublin, I met up with Patrick McGinnity who was able to get some nice tickets for the game.  We met up at a Garda Checkpoint and went in. The Price was right...Free!!  Opening processional of the teams and flags,Tyrone in the north is near Armagh, and who Patrick was rooting for.  I am very interested in how short the men's shorts are here! In America, at least in basketball, not as revealing so the poster below caught my attention!


The kind of adds for Guinness and sports here.  Irish Football, mostly an amateur sport and Hurling the game with the stick very traditional.  And I do rather find the short shorts much more attractive than the bulky stuff American footballers wear. 


Here is how Croke Park occurred as the match started between Kerry and Tyrone, the semi-final for the Gaelic Football Championship.

 
Here is Patrick, pouring tea after a satisfying meal Monday overlooking Muckno Lake on a partly cloudy day.  He is having mashed potatoes for dessert. and me Apple pie with chocolate ice cream in County Monahan. 

 
The view from a Country Club where we had lunch at Mukno Lake, 15 minutes from the farm. I returned here for Wifi and coffee most late mornings I stayed at the farm.

 
Here is the country lane we drove up to the house of Patrick's Uncle Mickey who died a few years ago.   I was concerned about how narrow it is and the slipperiness of the road. Easy Does it Driving.  Patrick was patient with me, just breathe and remember I am driving a stick shift on the left side of the lane.  No worries!  :-)

A couple of animals Patrick takes care of on his uncles farm land.  Two males, left, was castrated...a steer?  And a bull with a full set of testicles.

Patrick McGinnity and his neighbor Pat Farrell, who milks many cows in this parlor. Met Monday  evening when after I drove to the farm led by Patrick.


 Nissan QashQai, never heard of such a car AND the folks at Enterprise, looked at the size of my body,,,and oh, well, it is what it is. .....and here is how narrow the iron gate is near the farm house.

 
This is one of the images from Uncle Mickey's farm living room.  I recognized JFK, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, from the 1960's and Patrick clarified that the archbishop of Ireland and the Pope are on either side.  Patrick was raised in nearby Derrynoose and attended a Catholic Christian Brothers School not far from the Cathedral in Armagh City, taking a bus in from his home in the country by Derrynoose.

 
Ripening blackberries around the farm house, that I added to my morning porridge (Oat Meal) to have my own hearty breakfast,with  2 boiled eggs, toast with jam, and instant coffee.  I have been driving to a cafe overlooking Lake Mukno east of Castleblaney to get onto the internet and email and blog!  Happy that my old MacBook still works.....:-0

 
Picked up a pair of Wellie's Wellington Boots, to wear on the on the farm with the wetness and the mud and even some manure.   

 View of the farm house from the south east.

 
Super Valu store in Castleblaney where I picked up the groceries here in the trolley (cart).

 
And my new Wellie's, rubber Dunlop boots for farm life, a bit small and only 15 Euros....in Castleblaney at RB Coogan, like the local Fleet Farm of Ireland. 

 Country Breakfast cooked in the farm house.  Whole wheat toast fried in Kerrygold Butter, boiled eggs coffee and juice I also cooked oat meal (porridge) with fresh blackberries added from around the farm house.

 On Tuesday I drove over to the north of Ireland to Derrynoose where Patrick still manages a farm home, and keeps a few animals.  He led me down a country lane to this pasture where he keeps six horses. They are so new they are not named yet.  His sister and his 2 nieces stopped by while I was there.

Another view of Patrick's new friends, the horse, sunka wakan oyate in D/Lakota.  Seem like a very gentle lot.