Irish in Ireland AMA

[SrSteveOskowski]

Following on from a Dane in Denmark, I'm Irish, living in Ireland AMA

Haven't thought of Frank Patterson in yonks!

That whole 'yodelling by the water's shore in a fairisle jumper' is a sadly neglected genre these days.

BeGoodTanya the bone setter fella in Carlow was Dan Neill, pronounced Nail! I was brought to him for a bad ankle while on me holidays from England in the early 90’s. My dad went to school wth him and I think I am vaguely related to him.

My friends Wexford mother died a few years ago and when sorting out her mums house, could not understand why most of the dozens of Mass cards she found in drawer had ObiWan Kenobi on them!

Anyone make a pilgrimage to Knock?

Yes! As a school tour in 4th year. I don't think they encouraged our school to come back.

potentially outing, apart from the fact there were about 150 of us

It was Dan Neill, Loaf! He cured my friend’s dad’s retired racing greyhound’s gammy leg. Apparently. Though there might have been a holy well somewhere near Bagenalstown also involved.

I have been to Knock both on a school tour and with a combined Legion of Mary and the parish altar boys trip in a very small minibus. That one was wild. NB: I’m from about as far from Knock as you can get, and we used to go and come in the same day.

Has anyone done Lough Derg, though?

Anyone make a pilgrimage to Knock?

Not a pilgrimage as such but my mother made us drive half the day there from Galway where we were on holiday. All I can remember was it was drizzling and the street was crammed with little stalls selling all manner of plastic religious tat. Oh and staring through the drizzly gloom at the end wall of a church in case Holy Mary made another makey-uppey appearance. We had lunch in a restaurant somebody's kitchen consisting of packet vegetable soup and stale hang sangidges. Knock can fuck off for itself so it can.

School trips? We went to The Aillwee Very Dark Caves. In a broken down old coach which took an eternity to get us there from Cork. I'd swear we spent about 30 minutes on a whistle stop tour before being shoved back on the coach for a look a The Burren. We weren't given anything to eat all day and, to add insult to injury, the teachers and coach driver went into a pub for dinner and, err, refreshments (it was the 1970's, before Health & Safety had been invented), leaving a busload of 13 yo boys to fend for themselves. We eventually got back to the school about 1 am to be met by the sight of our outraged parents about to lynch the headmaster. Fuck knows why I went as I hated most of my fellow inmates pupils and those that didn't go on the trip had an easy day of it while we were gone.

School tours- highlights include:

A spin to Belleek to look at ugly china
A trip to Omagh to the Folk Park
A run to Portrush to the Amusements

All involved 3 pupils
to a seat on the smelly bus, someone vomiting into a bag brought by a teacher, and no ventilation. And a feed of eggy sandwiches or cheese & onion crisps... (not envy)

Good times.

We went on a school trip to the Burren when I was in 6th class. I thought it was amazing as it was the first time I got to stay in a hotel, a 2 night stay no less. I thought it was the height of glamour. And it was the first time I got to go to a disco. Granted we were the only people at the disco.

Did anyone else do that classic Irish school trip: a day out to Drogheda to look at the severed head of Oliver Plunkett? What 7 year old doesn't want to look at the shrivelled remains of a 17th century martyr.

@Billywig - two things about getting soda bread right - sour milk and cream of tartar both help get it nice and soft - and also if you can get stoneground flour .. a lot of the "brown' or 'Wholemeal' flour on sale in England doesn't give the same brown cake - this is the kind of thing people use ... shop.supervalu.ie/shopping/food-cupboard-flour-howards-one-way-wholemeal-2-kilogram-/p-1008377000

With reference to a previous comment, can I just say that I'm Irish, from NI, and that I use the term 'southern Ireland' as do loads of people round here - we also talk about 'down south' and 'the south'. We would never say 'Ireland'.

I got dragged to Knock as a child.

More than once.

I guess I have earned my Irish childhood stripes

@c75kp0r it's really difficult to find 'proper' brown flour in the UK.

I got dragged to Knock when I was about 8 or 9. My Aunt was driving and I was in the back with my mother and brother. My grandfather was in the passenger seat and I was behind him. Being the spiteful fucker that he was (oh he was! an evil bastard) he pushed the seat back as far as it could possibly go and I literally couldn't move.

Most exciting primary tour I ever remember was when we went to Foto in 4th class. We never got as far as going to the zoo.

Did anyone here get to go to the HB factory? I've always been jealous of people who went there on their school trip.

Has anyone else done Lough Derg? 48 hours barefoot on an island, staying up all night reciting the rosary, fasting all the time with nothing to eat with just black tea and 1 slice of toast.

Strangely enjoyable in a spartan way.

Has anyone else done Lough Derg? 48 hours barefoot on an island, staying up all night reciting the rosary, fasting all the time with nothing to eat with just black tea and 1 slice of toast

No, but the should really rebrand as a Jason Vale-esque venue for the Celts

They just need to ditch the toast

I'm not sure that's my idea of a good time!

'Can I get some slippers?'
'Any chance of some jam on this toast'
'How many hail marys are we up to, is it 8 or 9?'

Just watching David Gray on Ray D'Arcy. Does everyone here have a copy of White Ladder?

Eye, my mother used to want me to do it with her. Ironically, I’d do it now, as my daily life is so involved that the idea of 48 hours of saying the Rosary barefoot on an empty stomach sounds like a nice break. But she says the humour’s gone off her. Mammies.

The Oliver Plunkett’s head trip was better than Mount Melleray, where we seemed to go every year. Where would you take a bunch of lively 11 year olds? An order of Trappist monks who get up at 2 am and are vowed to silence.

Did anyone else do that classic Irish school trip: a day out to Drogheda to look at the severed head of Oliver Plunkett? What 7 year old doesn't want to look at the shrivelled remains of a 17th century martyr.

Oh we did that.I found it quite interesting

White Ladder - one of now Dh and my first jointly owned albums. We still play it in the car sometimes. Haven't kept up with his career since though.
Saw him in Cork in the mid-nineties.

We were watching a Audience with Kylie circa 2004. Just switched to Nathan Carter.

We are the height of sophistication