Friday, December 10, 2010

CHRISTMAS IN KILLARNEY - PART ONE

First, let me state clearly that I have never spent Christmas in Killarney.  Wished to?  Yes.  Planned to?  Ditto.  Done it?  No.  The call of the holidays always pulled me home to the States even during the three years when I spent as much time as possible in Ireland.  There's just something about family.  But I longed to see Killarney as Christmas approached, with Dunne's Department Store decked out in lights, horses hitched to jaunting carts, covered with blankets of red and green, and well-insulated swans still sailing peacefully on the increasingly frigid waters of Muckross Lake.

 
At least, that's how I pictured it.  Never saw it, though.  The closest I came was spending Halloween there.  That was a still-warmish time of muted fall colors when tinker children begged money from me and earned a good scolding for "bothering the Americans."  Funny, at the airport in Newark several travelers to Ireland  thought I was Irish (it's the face, you know), but as soon as I got to Ireland I was pegged as indisputably American.  Maybe it's because Irish women of a certain age don't wear jeans, but American women apparently don them until shortly before they shuffle off their mortal coil.  I rather expect to be buried in mine unless I can talk someone into tossing my ashes from the Cliffs of Moher, thus retracing my grandmother's journey to America.

Next week:  a history of Killarney.

8 comments:

  1. Christmas in Killarney sounds WONDERFUL! You MUST make plans to do it!

    I have a dream of my own coming true this holiday season. I'll be in Edinburgh for Hogmanay!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG, Alexa, that's wonderful! A friend of mine really wanted to go and we checked prices, but unfortunately we weren't able to do it. So EAT, DRINK and BE MERRY for both of us!!! And do everything we wouldn't do! (Although there's not much we won't do, actually.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great, now I'll be humming the song all day :-)Your longing comes through loud and clear, Miriam. I've never spent Christmas anywhere but in New England. Maybe some day. Nothing like the smell of burning turf on a chilly Irish day. Looking forward to Part Two!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, I've had the song in my head for at least a week, so you won't be suffering alone, Pat!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Miriam, I know just what you mean, though Galway would be my celebration spot of choice. And yet, I can't imagine spending Christmas away from home. Still, there are other holidays, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Easter ... oh, heck, I'd like to spend any time at all in Ireland! I look forward to learning more about Killarney!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This sounds wonderful and I hope you will be able to do it one day. I was wondering, what about the face is an Irish distinction?

    ALEXA- the green monster has come out!!!! Can I stow away in your luggage?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Truthfully, Sarah, I have no idea! Everyone tells me I "look Irish." I'm sure it's stereotyping, but I don't even know in what manner. When I look in the mirror, I just see myself! Yet I hear this from other people all the time and it was funny--kind of poignant--that two people from Ireland came up to me in the passenger lounge at Newark airport and asked me if I was going home, too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. LOL! I don't know, Sarah. I don't plan on taking much luggage with me. You could try, though!

    ReplyDelete