+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Links: gnu social / facebook / twitter / linkedin / g+ / instagram / medium | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | _______ | A small town that cannot support one | | ,--'.:::::.`-._ | lawyer can always support two. | | /..:::::::::::..\ | | | /..:::::::::_;::::| | | | || `---'----' _|:::| | | | || `;:::| | | | |' ==== ==== |-::| | | | |-( @ )-( @ )--|O):| | | | | ` | ` |/::' | | | . v _ |:/ jeremy@ | | | | @___@ || malcolm | | | \ @@@@@ _/| .id.au | | | \@@@@@.-'__/-.__ | | | _|@@@ _/|::.\.::-._ | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | [*] news [ ] about [ ] writing [ ] journal [ ] images [ ] guests | | +--- last 10 | | |->> archive | | `--- search | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--| Ireland |----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Whenever I travel to a new country I write a few words about it here, but | | it is difficult to know what to say about Ireland, since as you would | | imagine, it isn't that very different from the UK which I've visited and | | written about several times. That's not a bad thing, because I was able to | | indulge my Anglo-Irish-Australian food cravings (like sausage rolls, and | | fish and chips), and to steep myself in the atmosphere of a place much | | like my ancestors called home. | | | | It struck me again, wandering Dublin's cobbled streets, that America's | | cultural insecurity leads it to be a little too calculating in how it | | presents itself, misunderstanding that it isn't the outwards trappings of | | history, but the actual history that underlies them that gives them value | | and meaning. Thus most American cities might as well be Disneyland in | | their hodge-podge appropriation and agglomeration of architectural styles, | | and you're never sure if anything (or, frequently, anybody) is as it | | seems. (My thoughts may have been coloured by the fact that I was also | | reading Lolita at the time, in which a cultured European - and, yes, | | hebephile - dissects brashly barbaric America.) | | | | But so far I haven't said anything entirely new about Ireland, as I wanted | | to be able to do. Indeed it wasn't really until the evening before I left, | | on a memorable evening out with a local, that I experienced what I had | | heard others say about what makes Ireland special. Following a random path | | that took in tea by the river and dinner at the (groan) "Czech Inn", we | | ended up chatting over cider and hot whiskey at a pub where an elderly DJ | | assembled his rig (a couple of iPads) and blasted the venue with folk | | music (and pop songs in the style thereof), to which an equally elderly | | patron leapt to his feet and danced with abandon between the tables. So | | this is Irish craic. | | | +---------------------| posted 1212 days ago via news | reply (1 comments) |--+ | << Back | | page generated in 0.473 seconds sadlittlewebjournal 3.3 | | content (c) its respective creator(s) web administration | | valid html 4.01 transitional rss feed | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+