The Ireland Dispatches

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Kerry didn’t feel right. From the moment I got off the ferry, on the south side of the Shannon, something wasn’t right with me. Or with the place. Or with some mysterious internal compass that was guiding me, and alerting me to who knows what. Or maybe I just didn’t like the weather on this side, and it depressed me. It could be anything, and nothing. Robin has this ability to take wherever she is, and go, "Fine. Now what?" I have no such equinimity to my surroundings. None whatsoever.

I drive onto Foynes. Perhaps it’s the industrial feel to this part of the Shannon. The power plants, the cement works, the aluminium (remember, that’s five syllables over here) plant. I didn’t want New Jersey to intrude into my Ireland. I am misdirected multiple times. The workshop is in here. No, in the pub. The workshop starts at five (that’s peculiar, I think). The ceili is three miles down the road. It’s in the Shannon House. No one is particularly gracious. I miss Clare.

The only lodging is above the pub. A dank, dark, tiny bedroom, barely room for the single bed, with a view to a gray stucco wall a few feet away, and a bath and toilet at the other end of the building. I drop my dance shoes on the nightstand, then think better of it (I don’t want to leave anything of me in that room unless I have to), and drive about to see if I have other options. I do not appear to. I think, though, that there’s a dance on in Ennis. The thought cheers me up considerably.

I go to return my key, but the workshop is in progress (it ends at five, it turns out). I hesitate. Now what? My typical response to multiple choice questions is to freeze. All options sound good. They all sound bad. There’s that cute German girl from the other night. "Get your dance shoes," the man says. They’re learning some obscure set I’ll never apply. But they’re dancing now. But it’s such a depressing room they’re in. GAAAH.

I step outside to reset my brain. Home, I want to go home. North of the Shannon. I’ve made a decision. I return my room key, and drive off.

3 February 2002

Foynes, Co. Kerry