A Tonic for the Soul

She wheels her wheelbarrow down streets broad and narrow
You never know what you'll see in downtown Dublin.
The fire limbo!

“A week in Dublin is a tonic for the soul.”

Do you know who said that?

Me.

What a great city. Reminds me of Boston,  tho’ it’s a lot older, of course, and after five days here, I’m already a great author.

It’s small and walkable and they get a lot of visitors from the Irish diaspora around the world, so the city is often inundated with tourists, but there’s a reason for that, and as they say, you pick your problems.

People here understand that people from Boston to New Zealand save up for years for their pilgrimage to Dublin and they welcome them. It’s not a show; it’s real. 

I’ve had so many wonderful experiences and met so many kindred spirits from all over the world : India, Finland, the Netherlands. Germany — even England! — at the St. Patrick’s  Festival.

The international journalists got to ride in a bus at the head of the parade. I myself would have put us behind the Lord Mayor’s carriage, but I was not in charge of arrangements.

Then Friday we heard an evening of readings by thirty of Dublin’s many, many fantastic writers at a presentation called the Dublin Swell, which might just become an annual event, and I was struck by how every author had a completely different approach to the creative process…

Then The Commitments 20-year anniversary concert in their hometown… What more can I say? One of those occasions where you casually mention to your grandchildren that you were there.

But the greatest fun, truly, was wandering around Dublin and experiencing the life of the city. It was the perfect time for it, too, because they’d just drubbed the English in rugby, nothing more satisfying than that.

Note to city planners: close off a couple of streets from motor traffic, like Grafton Street and King Street in Dublin, and you create an awesome international venue for the arts from the fire limbo to the knife juggling.

From my balcony at the edge of St. Stephen’s Green at the Fitzwilliam Hotel, I could watch the daily life of Dublin, and in the evening just join the throng.

I happened to notice that miniskirts and short-shorts are back in vogue among the young ladies, altho it might be more accurate to say microskirts and short-short-short shorts. It goes with an increase in the height of high heels.  Avagadro defined the ratio, I think.

I myself am much more concerned with matters of religion, but I was just concerned, as a dad,  that these young ladies might catch cold.