Tag Archives: Dublin

Christmas in Dublin




We arrived back in Dublin to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Rhona. We set out into the cold dark night to walk to her college for Christmas Eve Mass. A small group of us gathered around the alter, leaving the main body of the Church empty. There we sang and prayed and welcomed the light into our lives. We returned home to the warmth of Rhona’s apartment and while Niko and Sam snuggled into bed, Santa went to work wrapping gifts and setting them under the Christmas decorations in the living room.

It is a simple Christmas. A few small gifts for each of us. Nothing more. No big Santa surprise gift or extravagant gifts for each other. Small gifts that fit our overstuffed luggage and that allow us a little surprise to open on this day of giving. The real gift for all of us has been spending this cold, dark season in the light of this amazing experience. No physical gift can begin to compare. So we sit by the electric fire and sip our whiskey or hot cocoa and watch the Polar Express and smell the turkey in the oven and give thanks for the sweet gifts of home here together.



Hill of Tara






From County Cavan, we drove to the Hill of Tara. I had told Niko we probably would only need to stop for a few minutes, as it is so cold outside and the day is getting late and we want to get to Dublin before Sunset. I guess I wasn’t expecting much. We found the town of Tara, parked the car and went into a small shop to finish our Christmas shopping and to ask for directions. As we left the shop, dusk was settling in. We followed the path behind the shop and up the hill and there it was, the Hill of Tara. The view was amazing. The sun was setting and the sky was pink, purple, red, yellow and orange. Sam climbed up and slid down the Hill of Hostages. We were delighted in this unexpected winter wonderland and the expanse of sky and snow and beauty. Sheep grazed nearby and Niko and Sam were silhoutted against the sky as we wandered back to the car, totally satisfied by this final tourist adventure in Ireland.

Dublin: The zoo

Yesterday afternoon, we arrived at the zoo at 4:15, only to discover it had closed at 4. Sam was one sad boy. So we promised him we would come back today. My friend, Anne O’Sullivan joined us. This was a total act of love on her part as the weather is bitterly cold and animals are just not her thing. The great thing was that we had the zoo to ourselves, no one else was crazy enough to tromp around the zoo in this weather. Many of the animals were not visible either, they too knew it was way to cold to be out tromping around.
Ann and I eventually went inside and had tea and let Niko and Sam continue on. It was wonderful to sit with this powerful and beautiful woman who drinks in her life with gratitude and grace. Anne was a member of the Tacoma L’Arche community from 1989 to 1992. She then left our community to go back home to Ireland and start the L’Arche communities in Ireland. She has just retired after successfully establishing 4 communities.
The highlight of the zoo for all of us was the baby rhino. It was less than a week old and so, so precious.
From the zoo, we headed to the airport to pick up a car and begin our adventure. I am so excited. Dublin is a great city, but everything in me yearns to get out in the countryside and to experience the intimacy of Ireland. We are headed to Kilkenny, down through Cork and then on to the Dingle Peninsula.

Dublin, Ireland

We arrived iun Dublin on Wed. afternoon and were greeted at the airport by Rhona, the aunt of my friend, Jacqui. Rhona is a nun of the order of the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception. She is here studying at All Hallows Universtiy getting a Mastgers in Supervisory practice. All this sounds very serious, but Rhona is not. She is a spitfire, who kept us going…taking Sam out for a walk so Niko and I could get ourselves settled, then taking us into Dublin to the tourist information, to buy bus tickets and shopping on Henry Street. Then back to her apartment for homemade porkchops and whiskey.
We start our meals with Rhona with a whiskey. Throughout the meal she has us laughing. Sam actually fell on the floor he was laughing so hard as she told us story after story of foods she cannot stand. Like the time she was invited to a special meal by some African friends. They presented her her plate with much enthusiasm and when she looked down, there was the head of a fish, eyes and all. To her friends it was a delicacy, but she thought she was going to die. Instead she drank her whiskey and downed the fish head.
It is not the story themselves, but the way this elderly nun tells thenm that keeps our sides splitting with laughter. She has this twinkle in her eye and an earthiness, mixed with a deep spirituality,that catch us off gaurd and make everything so much funnier.
Rhona embodies hospitality. She has welcomed us into her world, having never met us before and treated us like cherished family members. She is amazing with Sam, and perhaps a bit of a kindred spirit. She definitely keeps up with his 12 year old boy energy.
Sam has determined that his favorite time in Ireland is dinner time, when Rhona sits down with her glass of whiskey and tells us her stories and has us crying from laughing so hard.