IT WOULD BE HARD

A float in the St. Patrick's Day parade. We visited Northern Ireland once, flying into Dublin and driving north to Belfast. Although peace had long been restored by that time, I will never forget the violent Unionist graffiti on walls near our hotel. It was deeply unsettling. After driving around the North some more, the only way we could tell that we had returned to the Republic was that the speed limit signs changed from miles to kilometers per hour.                

Cottage and Castle

.

Almost six hours driving yesterday on the tour of Ireland's byways to get to the next destination. We stopped at the Ulster American Folk Park near Omagh, Northern Ireland. It is a detailed recreation of the lives of the people of the region, before and after they emigrated to the United States. The picture above is an effigy of one of the Mellon family of this area, posing for us in Vermeer-y light. The old man, Thomas, emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he founded the now-huge Mellon Bank and was the co-benefactor of Carnegie-Mellon University in that city, along with the Scottish industrialist, Andrew Carnegie.

We've been staying in modest places on this trip. As we swing back toward Dublin and our flight home Saturday, we're blowing it out a bit. Three nights at Ashford Castle, the baronial home of the Guinness Family, now a snooty baronial hotel. OMG, it would be nice to live like this. We're going hawking today, and I'm not talking physics.