2004 Europe

The Tea Junction in Bally Vaughan



June 22 – Today we head back to Ennis by way of the Burren and The Cliffs of Moher. The Burren is an area in Northwest Ireland that is made up of a huge limestone outcropping. In many places there is not soil at all and in others the soil is only inches deep. It was here that the potato famine hit the hardest. The county lost over 60% of its inhabitants. One third died, one third emigrated and one third remained. It’s weird to see stone walls running up the side of totally barren, limestone hills. The walls were a WPA type project by the wealthy residents of the area to give the poor some income to help sustain them. Make work of the highest order as no animal or crop will ever be constrained by these walls. They run up the face of steep, rock slabs where no grazing or farming is possible.



We stopped for tea (above) in the little village of Ballyvaughan at the Tea Junction. I ordered a sausage roll, expecting something like a pig in a blanket and got a large roll with sausage, sautéed mushrooms, Irish style bacon (more like ham) and onions. It was great, but I was still full from breakfast!! Somehow I managed to eat it.



The Cliffs of Moher are the area where the Burren meets the Atlantic Ocean. Steep stone cliff faces run straight down into the ocean. The day is cold, windy and rainy and sets an appropriate mood for the landscape. Almost everyone braved the elements to walk up the hill for the good views of the cliffs. The wind was blowing so hard that it ripped the pacho Diana wore for the walk up the cliffs. About half way down I found a bench to stand on that have me a fair perspective on the cliffs while still able to see the walkway. I stood up there taking pictures of people from our group as they went by. One of my fellow travelers offered to climb up and take our picture (below). As you can see I was dressed for the freezing rain in my shorts. Yikes!!



We had lunch in Paddy Murphy’s Pub and Grub (below). I had fish and chips and Diana had vegetable soup both were very good. Paddy himself waited on us from behind the bar. He was a man of great humor and style. He kept asking if we wanted more to eat, offering to refill Diana’s soup several times, and the perfect host for an Irish public house. The ‘Off License’ sign to the right of the door means that he will sell take-out alcohol right now.



After that it was back to Ennis for our last night on the tour. This evening we have a farewell dinner at the Friar’s Well Pub. Our group makes up most of the patrons although there are a few suspicious looking types in the bar. There’s a singing/dancing group to perform for us, one woman dancer, two violinists (one woman and a man, who also dances), one guitarist (also the main singer) and an Irish drummer (who also dances). They played some traditional Irish music, Galway Bay, Danny Boy, Wild Rover, Black is the Color, etc. They also invited audience participation, mostly voluntary. They had 5 people to come up and accompany them on the spoons. That was hilarious. Five people keeping 5 different tempos, only one of which was in any way related to the song being played. One member of our group, Tom (who owns and operates a B & B in Kennebunkport, Maine), sang Danny Boy accompanied by the guitarist.



Diana kept volunteering me to sing and I thought I’d avoided doing it until they sang ‘East Side, West Side. That’s the song where the guy is asking the girl to marry him but he can’t afford a carriage so he says, ‘You’ll look sweet, upon the seat, of a bicycle built for two.’ Well there’s a little known verse to that song that gives her answer to the proposal and when they’d finished I asked if they’d ever heard it. They said no so of course I had to sing it for them. It’s the type of comedy lyric that is somewhat suited to my vocal style and I couldn’t believe the response it got. Whistling, cheering, laughing, clapping, maybe I’ve missed my calling. The evening was great fun and I finally got Irish stew. It was very good.



Then it was back to the hotel for our last night in Ireland.

(c) 2004 Rod Longenberger