Unlocking Ireland - an unprecedented thread no. 6

[CherryValanc]

A sixth thread in Craicnet!!

Who thought that would ever happen!!? Has there even been a sixth page before?

Oh the Rugby, what a match. I was expecting more of a match but oh my God what a match.

First week back at school went well. Dd is just blooming with happiness. Ds seems happy enough to be back, but at the same time I can see his stress levels have soared and he can be a little anti christ in the afternoons. I feel slightly guilty for enjoying them being out of my hair.

Bloody school declared Friday a Lá Glas and BCv I’d have popped into Penneys but we had to make go with last year’s slightly tight t-shirts because I wasn’t going to be able to get anything delivered in time. I had to dig them out of the recycling bag, so it’s just as well the charity shops are all closed too.

@Apileofballyhoo, my parents are also ‘happening’ to go for a walk on the Long Strand while visiting family graves. (Fortunately as well as close family graves in the vicinity, there’s some distant cousin actually buried in the old Rathbarry churchyard, practically on the beach, and I’d say she’s baffled at her sudden popularity, given that she was fairly poisonous when alive.)

prandial. I'd be travelling through a few counties to do it so it's pretty unrealistic. But it is there in the rules that you can visit graves with no distance given!

@Apileofballyhoo

prandial. I'd be travelling through a few counties to do it so it's pretty unrealistic. But it is there in the rules that you can visit graves with no distance given!

It is! My sister and I were considering making a break for Paris with flowers for Oscar Wilde.

That's fucking brilliant. I'm in absolute hysterics here while thinking of graves I could visit here and abroad.

What? We can visit graves no matter what distance?

I've either missed that or forgotten.

My mum's house literally overlooks the graveyard. I could have been up checking granda's grave all year 🤔😉

@CherryValanc

What? We can visit graves no matter what distance?

I've either missed that or forgotten.

www.gov.ie/en/publication/2dc71-level-5/

It’s the last listed exception to the 5 km rule, along with food shopping, farming, care for the vulnerable, attending court etc.

It may say something about my parents’ attention to family graves — which are all visited and have things planted on them etc, despite being over a comparatively vast geographical area — that my family all knew this.

Do you have to be related to the occupants of the graves? I’ve always fancied seeing the pyramids.

hooverer Is Daniel O' Connell buried in Rome?

I thought Daniel O’Connell was in Glasnevin. Mind you, that sounds fairly distant and exotic at this stage.

Let’s charter a plane and do a Grand Tour. We could do Beckett and Wilde in Paris, Joyce in Zurich, Yeats on the Riviera (as it seems quite unlikely they buried the right body, or all of it, in Drumcliffe). Who’s Irish and buried in Rome that one of us could be related to? Lola Montez (Sligo woman) is buried in NY...

Sign me up for the grand tour.

I'll organise the flowers

Sounds like a plan, I'm in. I'll look up where Percy French is burried. I think it's London. Not quite Rome but anywhere beyond my 5k sounds exotic at this stage.

Don't forget about the Wild Geese - Patrick Sarsfield is buried in Belgium. And Admiral William Brown died in Argentina. Now I have 'Don't cry for me Argentina' running through my head.

Daniel O'Connell's heart is in Rome but they've lost it. The rest of him is in Glasnevin.

I feel slightly ashamed at my ignorance about Daniel O Connell, must look it all up. I was thinking of Beckett too for Paris. Need we limit ourselves to Irish people? Is the Taj Mahal a grave?

@Apileofballyhoo

I feel slightly ashamed at my ignorance about Daniel O Connell, must look it all up. I was thinking of Beckett too for Paris. Need we limit ourselves to Irish people? Is the Taj Mahal a grave?

No, but I was basing it off the fact we might need to pretend we were relatives, so Irish people seemed easier.

I mean, we’ve literally just heard Second Cousin Once Removed Oscar (the one that had a bit of trouble) is dead, and we’re absolutely determined to leave him a nice wreath. And a Mass card. Ok, we’re a bit late to the party, but family’s family.

If Leo Varadkar would play ball, he could come too and want to visit the Taj Mahal because Mumtaz Mahal was his great-great-great etc etc auntie. And we would all go with him to make sure he felt supported, obviously. He’d probably be afraid Micheál would find out and ruin him, though.

We could go to Rome to help look for Daniel O’Connell’s lost heart? I’m fierce helpful like that.

I don't know if I want to go if Leo is going though. Would we have to watch everything we were saying in case it gets repeated?

I quite fancy looking for D O' C's lost heart. We could make a documentary about it. I'd watch something like that!

Leo would be a terrible snitch.

I have fallen down an internet rabbit hole when I’m supposed to be working. It’s so interesting, though. A documentary would be brilliant.

Heart hasn’t been seen since the early 20th c, and is possibly languishing in a vault at the Bank of Italy or was fecked by church central heating installers in 1910.

www.independent.ie/lifestyle/daniel-oconnell-losing-heart-26699406.html

That is an absolutely brilliant article, prandial. I'm grateful for lack of actual work done! Is it my imagination or is it rare to get something so well researched and written in a newspaper these days?

Do ye think Francis would do tour guide for us? It would be brilliant!

Francis Brennan! For a second I was thinking of Pope Francis

Oh my god this global-grave-visiting-trip is GENIUS!! We're Irish for fecks sake, we have relations scattered literally every inch of the world!

Can I ask that for now we focus our route through warm parts of the world. I really need to feel some heat in my bones, whilst I'm paying my respects like. Who do we know who's buried in the Maldives?...

I'm all for ditching Leo and taking Francis with us. I will have to draw the line at singing into the microphone at the front of the bus, but trust me that's for your sake more than mine