HOLIDAYS in IRELAND

 My very own holly tree, in my very own garden. How nice is it to live in the country?

There are many great advantages to living in the country and this has even become more evident since this pandemic hit our world. We are surrounded by open spaces, open farmland, cattle and sheep in the fields, close to Kinvara Bay, which opens into Galway Bay, and the lovely little town of Kinvara, just three kilometers away. We have a lovely beach close by, where we can swim anytime we like, and where my wife is still swimming almost every day and where Fionn , our beautiful Golden retriever does likewise. We have our doctors, our pharmacy, our post office, our supermarkets, our church, and many wonderful local friends. Most of our friends are farming people, people who were born and raised here, and who welcomed us into their community when we moved here twenty one years ago. They are old stock, people who grew up in an age when people wanted to get to know their neighbours and were happy to engage with them. People who were always ready to help in the event of you needing help, which sadly is not the case nowadays, as people are much more inclined to keep to themselves these days. Things are not as safe maybe as they were back then, and you cannot blame people for being cautious. Most couples are rarely at home anyway as they are both working  and the kids are absent until late in the day when the parents make their way home also. The world i grew up in, was so different and not the type of life people have today. It is not the the life i would have chosen if i had a choice. I arrived home from school to a piping hot meal, cooked by my mother, who spent all of our childhood days minding five of us. What a wonderful mother she was, and how i miss both her and our father. He was gone most of the time, sometimes for a few days at a time, but he had to provide an income sufficient to look after all of us. I can honestly say that i never felt that i was missing anything, and we were never rich. All was well until in later years my Mom took up golf. We were all old enough by then to heat up our own dinner, which was always left in the oven, but it was not the same as having her there. God forgive me for feeling i was suffering due to her golf. She was nearly fifty years of age when she took up golf ,and what and amazing golfer she turned out to be, as she was the best lady golfer, in not only our own golf club but one of the best in the country. When i started to play, i teamed up with her in competition, and we won quiet a lot of competitions together. She was so good she was able to carry me. i could go on and on about those days but sadly they could not last. 

Back to today, and the way it is here now. We are in lockdown again, and will be for another two to three weeks. So much for reopening virtually everything so that people could celebrate their Christmas? Anybody with an ounce of common sense knew that this would result in this virus taking hold again, and that is exactly what happened.

The public who cried out for these relaxations can now look back at what they condemned themselves and others to, so much suffering and so much tragic pain. Do we need to do this again when we get back to "nearly there" with this horrible disease. I hope not. We have a vaccine now, but when will we get to the stage where we have enough done to rid ourselves of this plague. 

Many of you know me well, and know how much i have enjoyed being the one you chose to chauffeur you around our magical country. My last tour was in February 2020, and i really am finding it hard to control my impatience. It is not in my nature to do nothing, and i apologise for my lack of dedicating more time to keep all of you up to date on my Blog, especially those of you who have already booked tours with me for this year, 2021. I am here, i am committed, i am so looking forward to meeting you and taking you around our lovely country, as i have done for so many Americans over many years, and as i hope to continue doing now for many years to comes. I have to keep giving thanks for being as well as i am, and not stuck in a hospital bed or gasping on a ventilator. I am being careful, i wear my mask and keep my distance and try to stick to the rules. It is not easy, but knowing that i am doing the right thing in order to be here, and ready to go as soon as we get the green light keeps me focused. You always will feel better when you do what is the right thing to do.

What is my real answer to this covid  situation? The same answer we had for hundreds of years of oppression here in Ireland, the same answer we had for the great famine which killed one and a half million people and caused another few million to abandon their country, the same answer we had to our tragic history since our independence, our civil war, our troubled times. That answer is prayer. We Irish always had that, and it got us through again and again. I may be old-fashioned, but i an so happy to be that. 

I just have to think about the really difficult time that you, my American friends, are going through right no, and know that we have it so much easier here. We have three sons in your country, and i feel for them also. They have made their homes there, and want to stick with their lives there. They all have their own families there now, and when i pray for them, i will pray for all of you and hope that you can all put these sad times behind you, and unite once again, and be happy and grateful that once again you can proudly call yourselves, 

The United States of America.

God bless you all.

Fionn heading in for his daily swim.