Days 13-17: Discovering Our New Irish Life

Days 13-17:  Discovering Our New Irish Life

Our second weekend allowed for some much needed hang out time.  Friday Dinner at the Italian place just a short walk from our apartment.  Fish and chips at Beschoffs in City Centre followed by Avoca for Easter clothes shopping for me and then dinner and live traditional music at the Old Storehouse in Temple Bar. 

Then, Palm Sunday Mass at St. Marys, City Centre with friends.  The city was busy because this was the start to 2 weeks of holiday for the school children.  Spring Break falls at Easter time to allow for Holy Week and EasterTide celebrations.  Easter Monday is an official National Holiday.  With Niall, Mel, Alex and Evie, we had lunch and then headed over to the National Museum of Art which is always FREE!  Mel took us directly to her favorite piece of Judas’s kiss…appropriate for the beginning of Holy Week.  Room after room of delectable sights for the eyes and soul.  There was a notable absence of stuffiness that is probably due to the lack of fee to the museum, but which is quite refreshing.  People were talking, children were moving around, laughter and casual conversation mixed with personal interpretations and sharing amongst people.  I noticed that the security guards were much more relaxed about the place.  You could point at will to spots on the paintings that you wanted to mention to another, albeit with care and respect for the art, without a stiff man in a suit swatting your hand away.  The place was full of people and of life.  We plan to go back time and again because it is wonderful that you can just pop in to study and enjoy a piece or two thoroughly.

Finally found a shop to purchase art supplies.  That has been the biggest challenge….figuring out where to buy things.  There are no Targets, Hobby Lobby’s, or Bed Bath and Beyonds here.  Enjoyed a stroll through St. Stephen’s Green, where Sam got personal with a goose.

(Lucy has taken on the chore of folding clothes.  What 

a great helper!)

Monday – Wednesday the kids and I felt like we were back in the suburbs of Austin.  The kids attended an Easter drama and music camp.  We had seen a flyer for this at St. Marys the first day we were there, and it turned out that the youth minister and the director of the play was the man that we met last week whose wife homeschools!  It was interesting for the children to go to a regular suburban Catholic parish center and have a camp with regular Irish school children.  Kids are the same….just different accents.  The Irish kids found it fascinating to ask Lucy and Sam questions about America…American candies and foods seemed to be a favorite theme.  The camp was well run….a good mixture of prayer, work and play….familiar Christian songs were sung, the kids had fun playing fun camp games inside and out, and it was obvious this camp was full of talent.  The Spirit seemed alive there.  I was surprised, as this does not match up with the image of Irish Catholic church youth programs today as we hve understood them.  I definitely think Patrick has had a hand in that, as well as the music director, Rosemary.  They are both alive with the Spirit and on fire for their Catholic faith.  Rosemary taught the children a bit about reading music, and in particular about reading chant.  I was impressed.  Rosemary returned to the Church in her adult years and her conversion is apparent.  She and I really hit it off.  We had great conversations at lunch, etc, about the state of the Church and Catholic schools in Ireland, as well as about the history of the Republic and Northern Ireland.  She is single, with no children, but she has worked with children a lot, and has a strong positive opinion of homeschooling, and was quite knowledgeable about it.  I volunteered to help if they needed me, and ended up working all three days on costumes, some with Rosemary, but mostly with a mom named Tarney and her daughter, Ashling.  It was really interesting hearing all the names of the children as they came in for measurements, to pick colors, etc, and actually having to write their names down!  Names like Roisin (with a “fada” above the o and the second i) and Aoife (“ee-fuh”).  Tarney and I had some fun discussions about my impressions of Ireland and what was different, as well as some good chats about her newly found authentic belief in God.  Just three women in a room cutting and sewing.  Very simple.  Very normal.   Very real.

There were only 2 boys in the camp after the first day (and 17 girls!), so Sam, along with being a disciple and money changer, shared the role of Jesus with his new friend, Jack.  Sam was chosen to be the one to sing Jesus’s painful mourn in the Garden of Gethsemane, and no one could dispute that he has been gifted with a gorgeous and inspired voice.  Rosemary was moved by his singing, and said she hopes he will sing with her at Christmas.  She also invited Lucy and Sam to join her Wednesday Schola group that learns traditional Gregorian chants, then prepares the altar, and then has a half hour of adoration with chant

After only three days of rehearsals, the play was amazing.  Energetic and engaging, the songs were musical and in tune, the kids stayed in character and were joyful and expressive.  Lucy delivered about the strongest line in the whole play as a high priest.  She also played an angel.  She really comes alive on stage and finds her voice.  She absolutely LOVED camp.  She couldn’t WAIT to get there each day, and she was so proud of what they accomplished.  The whole thing was inspired and a great way to enter into the Triduum.  The storyline and script were very well done, and I assumed that it was purchased, but I later learned that Patrick and his assistant director, Sharon, actually wrote the script AS THEY WENT ALONG, based on the kids’ abilities!  Talk about Holy Spirit!  They were so calm and never let on at all that they were scrambling around putting this play together.  A few things struck me during this experience: 1. The leaders of the camp (Patrick, Rosemary, Sharon) seemed to put people first.  The relationship with the children or whoever they were talking to (i.e. me) was of utmost importance, and they didn’t seem to let the “work at hand” get in the way of being present to people. 2. They strove for excellence, but not perfection.  They didn’t insist they kids take lines and music home to cram over their Easter break.  They remained joyful despite the “mistakes” and forgotten lines, even allowing kids to take scripts up here and there.  The expectation was reasonable and fun and joyful, rather than rigid and driven to perfection, and as a result, the kids had fun, grew, and felt loved and accepted.  3. They were spontaneous and flexible.  They had a loose idea of what they wanted to do, but didn’t over plan, and just rolled with it.  My kind of planning and people!  I loved the freedom.  I have spent a lot of my life feeling that I must be a planner in order to fit in and out of fear of failure or letting other people down.  I am hopeful that I may be able to let my hair down a little bit during my time here and liberate that spontaneous, carefree part of me that I know is still in there somewhere!  The “Irish” part of myself!