IRELAND AND THE IRISH....

IRELAND - Page 2 I have been in love with the Irish eversince I first saw Maureen O'Hara in a rather routine movie, THE SPANISH MAIN. I did not not understand what she said in the movie, for I spoke no English at the time. I did, however, guess that, had she stayed with the fat man whom she was supposed to marry, it would have been a "disaster" - not only for her, but also for me. Fortunately she was eventually rescued by the "hero", Paul Henreid. Well, the rest is history... Suffice it to say that I did see THE QUIET MAN on several occasions... As luck would have it, I ended up eventually marrying an Irish redhead from Boston whose niece, Brenda O'Hara Kingdon, for a time owned an Irish estare fairly near Ms. O'Hara's place in Bantry. Although my niece did meet my Irish "idol" on occasion, I was never that fortunate. On the other hand, as the photos will show, I have been to Ireland several times - and loved every moment.

BANTRY, Ireland, 1999 - Brenda and son William. No need to tell who's in the second photo. The third photo is just a small view of the garden, proof positive that Heaven must be a beautiful place...

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Irish Redhead at home by the River Bandon

The "simple" guest cottage in Brenda and B.J.'s estate where we stayed. The window on the bay side showed me how beautiful even morning Irish mist could be....

Someone once told me that Kenmare, in County Kerry, was somewhat on flat land. What he didn't tell me was that to get there from Bantry, one had to travel over high mountain roads that provided little protection to any car whose driver was not very good, nor too accustomed to diving on the left-hand side of the road. Nevertheless, although I had sworn the first time that I would never cross that road again, I found myself breaking that vow two years later. I even bought a marvellous woolen cap in Kenmare on that second visit... The Irish Traffic Jam (next photo) was shot in the Ring of Beare, as Kathy and I returned "home". Kathy's sister and brother-in-law, Mary-Jean, and Bill O'Hara were with us on that one trip.

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