Belphegor - 05-24-2006 - Updated Tue/Thu/Sat

My Trip by Declan O'Connell

It rains too much in Ireland. That said, renting a 38 foot cruise boat and driving down the Shannon River is one of the cooler ways to spend a week. Even given the rain, I had a great time. Thanks to my dad for handling all the details and for driving me around Galway, and thanks to my brothers for facilitating good times and tolerating me for a week. Particular good wishes to brother Paul, as his birthday was a few days ago. Check out his site, he's better at drawing than I.

Also, thanks to my cousin Fionan who's photo exhibition I saw in Galway. It blew my socks off. Check it out.

While I was over there, we heard three things on the radio.

Munster vs Biarritz in the Heineken Cup Rugby Final, we had the pleasure of getting to see the game while we were there. Good game. Rugby is a really terrific sport, like American Football, only the action hardly ever stops, and there are no commercial breaks. Instead, they have endorsements on their uniforms. I think I maybe prefer it that way.
Afghan hunger strikers holed up in Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin in an attempt to win asylum in Ireland. The Afghanis had nothing to lose, seemingly, so they opted to possibly die in Ireland rather than be sent back home to die. The Irish were pissed off, for the most part, saying 'Why here? To take advantage of our social welfare programs?' It all kinda collapsed when one of the strikers acknowledged that he had been a member of the Taliban, and had raped and murdered people during their reign of terror. Not a lot they could do to win legitimacy after that.
And 'Mooney Goes Wild's continuing saga of the blue tits (which are compellingly named, but fail to deliver on all the action).

We saw a thousand year old monastary the way the Vikings would have seen it (from the river, duh) at Clonmacnoise, crawled through megalithic tombs at Carrowkeel, and saw Waiting for Godot at the Gate Theater. I will have a hard time topping that vacation.