What's in Dave's Head

The shepherding demonstration we watched on a farm on Slea Head in County Kerry, just outside Dingle, was conducted by Gabriel Kavanagh, whose ancestors have lived in Kerry for centuries. The dirt-floored, “famine cottage” Gabriel’s forebears occupied in the 1800s still stands on Kavanagh’s farm.  In addition to raising sheep, Gabriel and his brother Gordon are historians. They authored “Famine in Ireland and  West Kerry,” a history of the famines in Ireland. It’s a sobering look at what led to Ireland becoming susceptible to food shortages, and how the most infamous famine, the Great Famine, caused by the failure of the country’s potato crop in 1845, forever changed Ireland and much of the world. Other sources tell of Ireland’s earlier history, which is filled with centuries of political and religious subjugation, war, poverty, and policies that contributed to the conditions leading to the Great Famine. Centuries of English occupation England occupied and co...

Fully refreshed after a good sleep, Donna and I and Rich and Barb came down from our rooms to a hearty, excellent breakfast, although not exactly a “full Irish,” which typically includes beans, blood pudding, fried eggs, bangers and bacon). Our plan for the morning was to visit the bridge from which John Wayne’s character in The Quiet Man first spots his love interest, played by Maureen O’Hara. Rich has seen John Ford’s 1952 movie scores of times, and finding the bridge, which we knew was in the vicinity of Galway, was on his bucket list. We told the proprietor, Marie, of our intention and asked if she had suggestions on where to find it. She gave us explicit (for Ireland) directions, assured us it was easily visible from the road and was well “sign-posted.” Excellent! Except it wasn’t. We drove along the N59 as directed, never seeing the bridge nor a sign for it. We drove well past where we were told it would be until we came to a giftshop and pub. Rich went in and...

Donna and I flew from Newark with Donna’s siblings, Rich and Barb, on a Wednesday night redeye flight that put us at Shannon airport the next morning. We picked up our rental car and, unable to check into the B&B in Galway until late afternoon, headed northwest to the Cliffs of Moher, a one-hour drive that starts on the M18, a U.S.-style highway with two wide lanes in each direction. It’s a good way to become re-acclimated with driving on the left side of the road from the right side of the car.  After several roundabouts (much cheaper to build than intersections with flyovers), we turned onto the N85 and were down to one much narrower lane in each direction. We passed through beautiful Lahinch and saw the Lahinch Golf Course preparing for the following week’s Irish Open golf tournament. Morning clouds burned off and we were presented with a picture-postcard sky as we arrived at the cliffs. The massive, spectacular, 400-foot-tall cliffs abut the Atlantic Ocea...

Donna and I recently joined five of her siblings and their significant others for a trip to Ireland. The two of us went a couple days early to go to Galway with two of Donna’s siblings; we met up with the rest for a week in Dingle. I’ll be writing about this unforgettable vacation in a few installments; in the first I give you some of my random thoughts about Ireland and focus on two activities: a shepherding demonstration and our trip to Skellig Michael. Random information about Ireland  Conciseness is not a common attribute of the loquacious Irish . Nor is the direct conveyance of information. Two examples follow: One day we were searching for children’s clothing in Dingle. At one shop the proprietor said he did not carry what we were looking for, but gave us these directions to a shop that did: “Go to the shop around the corner with the dolphins painted on the side. Not that store, but the one next door. Across the street from that store is a store; the one next...

My parents gave me and my brother a pretty great childhood. They provided a loving, supportive home; taught us the value of work and determination; put us through college; and were extremely generous. We lived a short walk to the neighborhood pool; a massive park with fields for baseball and football, tennis and basketball courts, swing sets, walking paths and sledding trails; and woods with paths that led to a lake with an abandoned car, our elementary school, even downtown Rockville. I remember Saturday mornings in the winter my dad would sometimes take us duckpin bowling or to the pool hall on Rockville Pike to give my mom a brief break from us. A treat, believe it or not, was to go to the car wash afterward and watch through the windshield as the soapy water sprayed and the brushes spun while we sat inside dry but accosted by the noise. Sometimes dad would pull into the gas station and fill ‘er up, meticulously recording in a little green book with lined paper the mil...

Executive summary:     Donna and Kate sang at Carnegie Hall!      We met up with old friends      St. Patrick’s Day fun      My first NYC subway ride and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge   Carnegie Hall On St. Patrick’s Day, Donna and Kate, both alumnae of St. Mary’s College (SMC) in South Bend, Indiana, performed in Carnegie Hall in New York with a choir comprised of the school’s current women’s choir, alums of that choir, and choirs that are directed by SMC choir alums. In all, 250 women performed, under the baton, as they say, of Dr. Nancy Menk, the choir’s director for 35 years, and accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra. The singers had gotten the music months ago so they could learn it. Dr. Menk sent links to YouTube videos of the songs being performed and detailed notations for pronunciation, breathing, and technical matters way over my pay grade. Then, once the singers arrived in New York, rigorous rehe...