WWDOD?! (Week 2 in Ireland)

Dia daoibh! (Hello in Irish - directly translating to God be with you!)

I wish that I could say that I am learning lots of Irish, but TBH I just looked that up on the Internet. But honestly, one of the coolest things from my first full week in West Ireland was seeing two boys squabble and roughhouse together while taunting each other in Irish. It filled me with a weird combination of jealous pride. Jealousy that I couldn't speak the language of some of my ancestors and pride that it was being spoken by young people. In a way it reminded me of two teenage boys that I worked with as a fitness trainer back with Calgary Crosstrainers many years ago. The boys were from Stoney First Nation on Treaty 6 territory near Canmore, Alberta. I still remember them laughing and joking with each other in their Nakota language before one of our sessions. I asked them to teach me a few words and they did so with much pride. Even though it wasn't my language, it did my heart good to see young people reclaim a language that is constantly under threat by past settler colonialism and present neo-colonialism and its global capitalist melting pot.

Well, that's my little rant for today (if my students read this blog they would be rolling their eyes as they are used to such rants!). I'll turn now to some highlights from this past week:

Above is a pic of our kids with our hosts' child and our hosts' friends children. They are playing together outside of an awesome restaurant in Waterville, County Kerry. We had a great time meeting the parents Lou and Rash and hope to connect with them when we go to London next month.

Above is a picture of Morgan and the girls walking the well-known Kerry Way. This 200-km hike around a beautiful part of Ireland, passes right near our farm stay.

More of Morgan and I enjoying the Kerry Way together! While we look happy, it's not the complete picture. We haven't spent this much time together in a while and there have been some challenges, both as a couple and as a family. We expected this and are doing our best to get along!!

Above is a pic of the chariot that Irish Liberator Daniel O'Connell rode in the 1800s. From my understanding, in the 19th century O'Connell fought for Irish Catholic representation within what was primarily British Protestant rule of Ireland. He did this not through violence, but through policy and spoken word as a litigator. Interestingly, our isolated farm stay is mere metres from O'Connell's home and this past week the Irish PM came here to mark O'Connell's 250th birthday.

We wanted to learn about Daniel O'Connell because our hosts invited us to partake in a picketing event of the PM's visit for O'Connell's 250th birthday. While Ireland has condemned the genocide in Gaza, like many other Western nations, there has not been concrete action. Given that O'Connell fought for Irish Catholic representation within his occupied homeland, I wonder where he would land on the current struggle in the occupied Palestinian Territories? WWDOD?!

Our host Phil addressing the crowd. We have loved our chats with our hosts Phil and Chris as we share a desire to live out our faiths. Both Phil and Chris have done and continue to do great work in our world (as theology professors and international development workers) and protests like the one above is just a part of the way that they live out their faith.

The next day we went to a play featuring our host's daughter Aibhie as one of the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. We even got featured in the local Tralee news

Found this pic while traveling to County Clare this past weekend. Random, but interesting!

Clare in County Clare!! We had taken so many of these that I think Clare was over it.

Above are pics of our time in County Clare this past weekend (including the Cliffs of Moher).

Finally, above is Morgan enjoying some rays after chopping some wood (we are trying to earn our keep!).

Slan!