Some observations:

A store display in Tralee: "Communion Dresses Now In."

A first: I was in a restaurant that had a non-smoking section. Anti-smoking billboards are starting to sprout up here.

The rules of the road: rather elastic. An improved two lane road with proper shoulders becomes a three or four lane in a pinch, with overtaking cars ad lib. Then they narrow down to single lane affairs clogged with lorries as they thread through villages. There's a general disregard for limits and following distance. Driving laws are regarded as mere suggestions.

Six radio stations in a row (two in Gaelic) are all broadcasting, live, the same horse race.

The old woman hitchiking in the rain had lingered too long at prayers, and missed the bus. "Kids now, they never walk, they just lay on the couch with their Playstations. When I was a girl, I walked everywhere, even now, 2 miles is nothing. They don't even play outside anymore." I drove her three miles off from the main road towards her house, and she got off at an intersection to walk the rest, afraid I'd get lost.

The two Mary O'Sullivans from near Kenmare (pronounced (Ken-MEER). "The non-nationals buying property, that comes up as the biggest concern on all the surveys done by the development board. These people don't even know who's on the parish development board. Can you believe that? They don't know their neighbors, they don't give anything to the community. It's 30% of the people now in Beara are non-nationals." I say, it'd be one in three hundred Americans who could name their local councilmembers. I admire how well informed the Irish are about their politics. "Well, we didn't have it for so many hundreds of years, it's precious to us, to control our own affairs."

At the end of the set dance, the band plays the Irish national anthem. Every person goes ramrod straight and silent, facing the stage. Some put their hand over their heart.

January 1999