weekend
there was a full moon this weekend.
We went to a peace rally in Skibbereen. And we marched around and blocked traffic, with lots of old hippies with rainbow kintwear and dogs with neckerchiefs and babies on shoulders. I met a lady tom knows who is a spry young woman of 80 or so, who knew tom when he was a boy and he came to her with two chestnuts that he had sprouted and asked her to take care of them because he was going away to live in america. the trees are now as big as her house.
And then we went to visit Bill and Rain and Noah, and we watched the video that noah shot of the rally. It was very well done, lots of artistic shots and very clever camerawork. One especially good shot was of bill talking on the phone to the radio station, who interviewed him about the rally the morning before it happened. As bill is going on about why there should be a rally in the first place, noah spotted a sticker on the wall, and zoomed right in on it. It was a peace sign, with a rainbow behind it, and the words “give peace a chance”. “How long has that been there, Bill?” “Oh that, that’s always been there.”
On saturday night we went to Connollys, which is a country pub in the middle of nowhere in a town called Leap (pronounced Lep). In its heyday, it was THE place to be. major bands played Dublin, Cork, and Connollys when they came to Ireland. Saturday night was the last techno night in a while, and everybody was out to celebrate. Sarah was about to leave for thailand on sunday morning at six am. “Come on, let’s party…I don’t have to be there till 6!” There was a girl on stilts dressed like a viking warrier goddess, with a goat helmet on. I met Nima’s friend Ollie who works in electrical equipment and knew about three-phase electricity. something in common! The club has a very cool atmosphere, and I can tell why it was so popular…dance floor, good stage, balcony upstairs, funky posters all over the ceiling, a treehouse secret club atmosphere. There were two books on a speaker, amidst lots of random audio bits = “Elvis, a Biography” and “A Brief History of Time” by steven hawking.
On sunday we went to visit Sally, who is a fishmonger. clem and tom were fixing her computer, I was just there to get out and visit with people. sally is a very interesting person…strong and honest about herself. not particularly inspired to keep things in an orderly fashion, but an amazing sense of humour. We knocked on the door, and she hollered down the stairs… “I’m being terribly obtuse, but I’ve just run the bath and I’m going to have a quick wash. I put the kettle on though…” and so we made tea and wrote poetry with her fridge magnets while we waited. When I went to the bathroom later, she had a giant poster with “desiderata” on it. This is an inspirational passage, especially suited to posters. I’d seen it before and never really had any reaction to it, but this time it clicked. “do not worry yourself with dark imaginings” and “most fears are born of fatigue and loneliness”.
After visiting sally, we went to see an old ring fort near her house. It is a circle made of thick stone walls, meant for shepherds. The sheep could be kept inside the circle, and there was a hole in the middle with a space underground for sleeping/cooking/getting out of the rain. According to clem, the hole turns into a passage which goes all the way down to the sea. At the door of the fort, there was a standing stone with a cross etched quite deeply into it. This amazed me.
