BLAA BLAA BLAA COFFEE

Before reading you absolutely must  google “The Irish Pub Song” by High King and listen to it while reading this post.

My house-sit is an easy train ride to Dublin and I visit Trinity College. It is one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1592.  I tour the long room and the Book of Kells.  It dates back to 800 AD and contains the 4 gospels of the New Testament in Latin.  Very impressive.

It is opening week at the college and the outdoor lawn area is plastered with wall-to-wall tables set up to entice students to join a club. They have 50 sports clubs you can sign up for and 120 societies. I stop at a table called Camogie and ask about it.  It is a women’s Gaelic contact sport similar to hurling for men. You have to be able to swear in Gaelic (Irish) to join. The hurling team boast that Johnathan Swift, “Gulliver’s Travels” went to Trinity and that he was on the hurling team- probably not! But he did attend Trinity college.

LAST CHANCE TO DOWNLOAD THE SONG!!!

But the best adventure of the day is going home.  As I stroll down a main street in Dublin I pass a bus stop and decide it might be interesting and fun to just hop on a local bus, see a different part of the town and then come back to this spot and continue my walk back to the train station.

 I ask the bus driver how long of a ride his loop is to bring me back to the same spot.  He informs me that this is not how the bus system works in Dublin. He states that he does not have a “loop”.  Then he asks “Where do you want to go?”  I tell him nowhere in particular, I just want to take a ride on a local bus.  

He shakes his head a bit confused and about then someone taps me on the shoulder.  I turn and see an elderly lady about my age and she says “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” I don’t hesitate.

Her name is Susan. She is 84 years old. American, born and raised in Chicago.  She studied theater at the University and met her future husband there who also studied theater. Both were actors. Her husband’s first cousin was Charlton Heston.  Remember “The Ten Commandments”, “Ben Hur,” “Planet of the Apes,” just to name a few?

Charlton of course became a famous actor and moved to Hollywood. Charlton was  in a position to obtain very good bit parts for his cousin, Susans husband, in every movie he ever made. They soon moved to LA and lived in Hollywood. Susan stayed home and raised their three daughters.

The marriage ended after about 25 plus years and with the children grown and gone Susan moved back to the Chicago area. Now in her early 50’s she found new friends and a new life. She and a friend went out for dinner one evening and decided to step into  an Irish pub/bar on their way home. When they walked in, a man sitting at the end of the bar shouted “Ladies, I’ve been saving these seats all night just for you, come sit down”.

It was love at first sight! They talked all night and began seeing each other on a regular basis.  He soon confided in her that he had a terminal illness and was given about a year to live. His only wish was to move to Ireland, live in Ireland, die in Ireland and be buried in Ireland. All this from a man who did not have a lick of Irish blood in him, that they knew of, but he loved all things Irish.

So, they moved to Dublin, rented a flat and had 4 more “glorious” years together– her words- before he passed on. And of course, as promised, she buried him in Ireland.

That was almost 30 years ago and she never left. Her daughters threaten to come and close the apartment and bring her home, but she won’t leave her true love.

She contends that as she was walking down the street, finished with her shopping, she suddenly heard an American accent. She stopped, looked over and there stood an older American woman who was apparently traveling alone. She was fascinated that the woman told the bus driver she did not have any place in particular she wanted to go.  She thought “Not your typical tourist!” Her curiosity got the best of her and she wanted to know my story, and invited me for a cup of coffee.  We sat and exchanged stories and her story, much more romantic than mine, convinced me to start visiting Irish Pubs where ever I travel.

We parted and I went back home and googled Charlton Heston movies and watched a few on YouTube.  Now those were movies!!

P.S. The coffee was not Blaa!

P.S.S. Visit an Irish Pub in your area – the song says they are everywhere!

Susan

Everything is written in Irish first, then English.

I learned the “O” before a name means they are from the area named- from Toole

The MC or MAC means son of- son of Cormack

Book of Kells