Travels With My Shoes

Ireland

Waiting in Beauvais Airport, Paris on my way to Ireland, I started to get a nasty sore throat and by the time I got to Shannon I was feeling awful. It was July 31 and I was visiting my brother Winston, at Killinan House, Kilchreest, Loughrea, Co. Galway on the west coast of Ireland, a big pile of a house that was originally built for the Protestant Vicar about 200 years ago.

It was my luck to be visiting family in the middle of the country, where I could cough night and day in a far corner and not bother anyone. The first 3 weeks I did not see much of Sophie and Victoria, Winston’s two young teenage daughters as they are now well into teenagehood and were finishing summer holidays with their friends. The house still appeared somewhat shipwrecked in spite of their being a new slate roof, one reason for the shambles was outside. The magnificent old copper beech tree, a favourite sight from my window had cracked in half and fallen down, looking like a fallen mast. However, the crows that had lived in the tree did eventually return, some to stay the night in what’s left of their old home, others opting for neighbouring branches. In the evenings I love to hear the mad and incredible sound of them in chorus loudly communicating the daily news, cheering each other on, each one trying to out-scream the other, and then… they sleep, and then… off in the morning to work with a few quiet caaaawwws.

One new and interesting development at Winston’s are new cable stations. Al Jazeera UK, the English language site demonized in the US, appears to be an interesting and balanced news broadcast. I find no real anti-American or anti-Israeli slant, plus they a have some excellent in-depth documentaries, like a very worthwhile a series on Veterans from all over the world. However the Russian cable channel is laughably transparent propaganda.

After my “recovery,” which took a week, we fixed up a sturdy long table and put it in the basement so I could do some work with shoes and oil pastels. I’m up before Winston and early mornings, unless there is any early trip, I’m down there. I was glad to find an interesting young photographer, Holly Ellis, to document the shoes I had made last year.

Winston’s friend Marion, from Boston, arrived mid-August and we took a three day excursion to the Dingle peninsula. We went not only because it is a lovely area, (the beaches, and sites where “Ryan’s Daughter” was filmed) but also because Winston’s friend Ian Dolan, who works for the Irish aid agency Trócaire in Maputo, Mozambique, had rented a cottage there with his wife, Claudia and their two small sons. We stayed in a hostel, used for “stag and hen” parties. Our room had a bashed-in door, and we slept scrunched on bunks with mattress springs pushing through the fabric. All that aside, at Inch Beach Winston, Ian, and myself went plunging into the Atlantic Ocean for a good half hour, while Marion and Claudia were shivering ashore. It was exhilarating !!! And interesting for me to change on the beach in and out of my “togs” —Irish for swimsuit.

On the way back we drove to Annascaul to visit Ros from Birmingham, another friend of Winston’s, who has a Punch and Judy show that she has performed solo for many years. We also dropped by the South Pole Pub opened by Tom Crean and his wife after his amazing journeys to Antarctica with Shackleton, among others. Great photos by Frank Hurley of that famous expedition hung on the wall of the pub. The lake at Annascaul was a particularly memorable. It is surrounded by steep ultra green slopes with tiny white dots—sheep! They do not appear to move however long you look.

On our return an urgent message to call Oscar awaited me. DE PASO, my show in Santander, was to be POSTPONED! After a few days the shock vanished and travel plans were rearranged for the three week delay of the opening.

Marion was interested in music and played Irish tunes on the piano so we went to hear Winston’s friends playing in Kinvarra at a pub and to the Friday market. After Marion had left I did an overnight trip to Dublin to see Bonnie and Ann, two of the troika who run Pasatiempo in Mieres where I did some workshops 2 years ago.

Due to the delay of the show I decided to stay put here. Winston is an excellent cook, easy going, and we get on well. I suffer here from a lack of walking since we are “in the country” and there are no rural paths, only narrow roads with fast moving trucks. Despite that, I walked into Laughrea —3.8 miles jumping from each side of the road as the traffic sped by. Until the rain came it was fine. My “rain proof “ jacket from Duluth Trading: USELESS! The weather has been mild but very rainy.

I need to be better water-proofed in Ireland.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 7:39 pm