The
Holidays in Ireland 2009
Pine
Lodge, Breandrum
Terry
and I had waited two and a half years to go back
to Ireland. This time we wanted
to spend the 2009 holidays in Ireland, and to have
first-hand experiences to tell stories about our
much anticipated trip.
We
arrived in Dublin on my birthday, December 18th,
and we had planned to celebrate at a local pub
in Mohill that evening. Everything was pretty normal
except there was a slight amount of snow on the
ground
and the temperature was a bit colder than we expected.
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Jim
O'Brien
|
We
drove into Mohill, Co. Leitrim and made our first
stop at O'Brien's Tavern. We always stopped
there
first and had a cup of tea with Phil and Jim,
and chatted for a while.
They
were telling us that 2009 was a year of inclement
weather with more rain than usual, flooding
along the River Shannon, cold, with snow and ice.
We
thought, oh, well, we're used to the cold and
snow being from
New England.
We
left O'Brien's and went to find our stone cottage,
Pine Lodge, in Breandrum, on the outskirts
of Mohill.
We thought that we may have been lost because
it seemed to be much further than expected.
We went
back to O'Brien's and Jim kindly guided
us to the property. We were on the right road
but had
not
gone far enough to find it.
The
owner of the stone cottage, Don Flynn, lived next door.
He and his wife, Pat greeted us and opened the house.
The house had central heating but it
was pretty cold as no one had stayed there in a while. It
had a peat
fireplace but we didn't have anything
to start
a fire with. They told us how terrible
the weather had been in 2009. After visiting briefly, we
took
our 'jet lag nap' at about noon. We never
woke up
until 10:30 that night, and we didn't
want to get ready and go to town so late. We watched a bit
of TV, then went back to bed. So much
for my birthday
celebration.
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Don
Flynn
|
The
next day, before going to town, we asked the Flynn's for
some more blankets,
which
they were
happy to drop off later. We went into
Mohill and picked
up some supplies at the new Baxter's
Centra grocery store. They had built
a brand new
store on Station
Road, just around the corner from the
old one on Main Street. We then went
to the Casey's
house, 'The Castle', and visited with
Maura and Irene.
We had
a lovely visit and partook in tea and
sandwiches. They told us the same story
about the severe
weather
of 2009.
Terry
and I drove out to Rynn to see Gerry Bohan at Mac Raghnaill
Court,
one of the
new condominium
complexes that was built by the company
that had purchased the Leitrim Estate.
They had
restored the old manor house, which
is now a hotel, and
started
several other construction projects
on the grounds of the centuries old
Reynolds
stronghold.
Unfortunately,
all of the construction had stopped
because of the worldwide economic
situation. So Gerry, Terry
and
I drove into Carrick-On-Shannon to
do
some shopping. On the way, Gerry
was telling about
how Carrick
had flooded and many of the downtown
shops had lost everything
and had to close. He said that people
were getting around town in boats
like in Venice.
After
we dropped Gerry back home, we went home to eat and change
to
go out
that night
and
to meet up
with Gerry. Here it was, a Saturday
night, during the holidays, and
everything was
practically dead. There was no
one out and about, some
pubs
had to
cancel their live music. And, again,
it was because of the weather ...
cold, snowy, icy
weather.
Well, needless to say, we didn't
have that great a time,
but the ride home was treacherous.
I am used to driving in the snow
and ice,
although
I don't like
to, but
I've never seen conditions like
this! There were fog banks that would freeze
to your
car if you
drove through it.
Weather
hadn't been this severe in decades and, because Ireland
does
not have this
weather problem
on a permanent
basis, they don't have the equipment
to handle it. Mohill had one
truck to plow and sand.
The main roads
were slippery, with black ice;
but the secondary roads, which
are very
narrow,
with just about
enough room for two small cars
to pass each other, were
a very, hairy, scary ride. Yikes!!
There was no controlling the
car. It just went
wherever
it wanted
to go, and
I didn't like it one bit. Once
we got home, we didn't go out
again for days.
It
wasn't bad enough that the weather conditions had put a
damper on
all of our well laid
plans, but Terry woke up sick
with the flu. We braved
the weather
and drove into Mohill to get
some cold and flu medicine,
and to stock
up on
some food
and peat
for the fire.
We huddled around the fireplace
with blankets and watched TV.
The
next morning, I woke up with the flu. We stayed in
for days
until we
had to go
to town
to get more
supplies. In the meantime,
it continued to snow and
sleet and
it got so
much colder
that the
pipes froze.
Mr. Flynn was very accommodating
and brought us pails of water
for the plumbing
and some
drinking water
for tea. The next day, the
water was back on, but
only for a day or so when
the pipes froze again. It was because
the
reservoir for
the whole
area had frozen. Mr. Flynn
was trying to make us as
comfortable
as he could but he had an
awful time competing with the weather.
So,
there we were, housebound, huddled around the fire,
draped in blankets,
sniffling and
sneezing and coughing,
and watching three channels repeat
the same programs over
and over
during the Christmas break.
What else could
possibly
happen? Well
...
then the electricity went
out. By this time, it was
obvious
that our
long-awaited
vacation
was
ruined,
and we could only laugh
about it. Mr. Flynn came knocking
at the
door, and
he stood there
in the
dark holding candles. I
just burst out laughing and we
all talked about how there
was nothing anybody could
do. It
was just a chain
of freaky circumstances
that
were nobody's fault. The
day before we left, the
water came
back on,
so we had
one good
day left
at Pine Lodge.
On
New Year's Day we said our goodbyes to Mohill
and headed
out for Kiltale,
Co. Meath
and to
see Mary and Michael
Lydon. Again, the driving was
treacherous and there
was black ice even on the major
motor
ways. It was another
one of those scary
drives. When we arrived,
I phoned Mary and
she told me where
we would
be staying. She was going
to put us into Buttercup
Chalet,
but instead
we stayed
at The Stables.
Michael greeted us and
opened the apartment.
Mary had left
out some mince tarts
and an apple pie to have with
our
tea, which
was,
as
always, a nice
treat. The
next day she stopped
over with some eggs and we had
a nice
visit to catch
up on
any
news.
The weather
was the main topic.
The Stables, Kiltale,
Co. Meath
We
really wanted to meet up with my cousin, Ania, who lived
in Dublin, but decided
we just couldn't
do it. With the weather, the roads, and neither
of us feeling very well, it was just too much.
Of
course, we were very disappointed in the way our trip turned
out, but there was nothing we
could do
about it. If ever there was a more appropriate
place for Murphy's Law to happen, it was in
Ireland during
the holiday season of 2009.
