As we were going over our plans and our map with him, I asked him about the demeanor of the Irish in general; what sorts of people would we meet? His eyes lit up. "Let me tell you a story," he said...
A young man from the town of Tipperary walks into a Dublin pub, sits down, orders a pint, and asks the bartender "Excuse me sir. I've just moved here to Dublin from Tipperary and was wonderin' what kinds of folks I might meet here."
"Well," the bartender responded, "what kinds of folks do you have there in Tipperary?"
"Greatest people in the world! They'd give you their last penny and the shirt off their back if it'd make your life easier for just a moment."
"Well son, I've got good news for you: you're going to find the exact same people here in Dublin."
Not long after, a young man from the town of Limerick walks into that same Dublin pub, sits down, orders a pint, and asks the bartender "Excuse me sir. I've just moved here to Dublin from Limerick and was wonderin' what kinds of folks I might meet here."
"Well," the bartender responded, "what kinds of folks do you have there in Limerick?"
"Oh, the most dreadful people in the world! They'd steal your last penny and the shirt off your back if given just a moment to do so."
"Well son, I'm sorry, I've got some bad news for you: you're going to find the exact same people here in Dublin."
Over 10 years and that story still sticks with me. Like attracts like. You have no one but yourself to blame for your friends. Your actions and thoughts are constantly telling the universe what you really want from life and people. Pick one or all; they're all true.
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There's a great book by Patricia Monaghan called "The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog" where she talks about the challenges of asking for driving directions in Ireland. The responses always seemed to be poetic and fanciful and not terribly linear. She learned not to worry about getting places but just to enjoy wherever she happened to end up after trying to follow the instructions!
Crap, now I'm going to start going on about Ireland...
When we were in Galway's city-centre, we were trying to find a pub in one of our books - Canavan's - but the nice gentleman who overheard us and offered to walk us straight to the place took us to Garavan's.
"Meh, they've got Guinness," we said.
As soon as we sat down we were quickly joined by Pauly (or Paddy) and his father, a curious pair of rural origin. They were already drunk. It was 11am.
I say Pauly (or Paddy) because between the thickness of their accents, inebriation, and occasional slipping into Irish as opposed to English clouded things a bit.
At first we were VERY leery about the situation; are we their mark? But we relaxed and were glad for it.
Pauly and his father came into town to get a chicken for Pauly's mother for dinner - it was in a plastic grocery bag off to their side. They were fascinated by us Americans, hated Bush, and repeatedly said Bin Laden was hiding in the hills of Connemara.
A great craic and 4 pints later we were lucky. The only thing that saved us from sitting there all day was that the pub actually cut Pauly and his dad off from buying or consuming any more beer. So we said our goodbyes, traded lighters (Cleveland Indians for an Irish hotel) and emerged, drunk, about 2pm.
It was the most memorable part of our trip, all because of a friendly gentleman and a mistake. And we had such a good damn time, we forgot to take a picture of us with them. Only regret of the trip.
i.e., Exactly!
Well ain't it the truth!
I'd never heard it put that way, and it really resonates with me. Thank you!
Pearl
p.s. Had a very similar experience in Philadelphia (The Town That Loves You Back), spending a full day in a bar while my boyfriend played an obscure video game. I sat with a friendly and talkative group of gentlemen and it was one of the highlights of the trip!
Hahahahaha! But I wouldn't have wanted to eat that chicken after it was sitting, unrefrigerated, in a pub all day!
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