"I'm Giddy with Irishness"

County Donegal, Ireland

To recap: I stayed with Pip at his friend Joe's cottage in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

This was last Saturday. We woke up, very leisurely, and decided that we should make the most of what was actually going to be a really sunny day. We drove over to pick up Joe and Pip's friend Chy, and the four of us thought about what we should do, over a hearty Irish breakfast of sausage, eggs, bacon, beans and toast.

Somehow, someone mentioned Donegal. My ears lit up. My friend Sarah McFadden's family is from Donegal, and I had promised her that I would try to get up there and see that county. I'd heard it was spectacular (although she might be a little biased).

Donegal is the West Virginia of Ireland. I've heard people make "sheep shagging" jokes about Donegal. It's very rural. No trains connect up there. It's overwhelmingly Catholic and a traditional stronghold of Gaelic culture. Much of the county is in what's called the Gaeltacht, or Irish-speaking region of Ireland, where Irish is the predominant language at home. It's separated geographically from the rest of the Republic, rugged and independent, surrounded by sea and Northern Ireland. It's a wild and wonderful place.

We piled into Joe's car, with Little Pip of course, and made our way north-westward, out of Northern Ireland, and into Donegal. The roads weren't great. The scenery was. You're never very far from the sea in Donegal, and as we drove along, little villages and sheep farms seemed to slip down the cliffs into the many bays and inlets of the coastline. We wound our way up into the mountains to get a better view. We pulled over more than a few times and pulled out the cameras. It was spectacular.














We were heading toward Sliabh Liag (pronounced Slieve League), which is the name for some of the tallest sea cliffs in Europe. 2000 feet high, straight down into the ocean. We got lost along the way, finding instead some of the little villages of the Gaeltacht. (There was no trace of English to be found in any of the road signs. That was our excuse for getting lost.) I'm glad we did.

I felt like I was seeing Ireland for the first time. The others laughed at me with my head sticking out the window, taking pictures of everything: from thatched roof cottages to bog lands, to the sheep that were literally standing in the middle of the road. Sheep dogs chased our car down narrow dirt lanes, and wooden and stone fences stretched down the steep slopes to the sea, which seemed to be on all sides of us now. And all the while, the mountains of Slieve League towered above us.














We parked and got out of the car. Little Pip ran up ahead, as we hiked up the tight pass, up the slopes of Slieve League, winding around the cliffs, to the very top, where we were greeted with one of the most beautiful (and dangerous) things I've ever seen.











Incredible.

By the time we walked back down the mountain, we had missed the first half of the Ireland vs. South Africa rugby match, but since Joe was especially interested, we found a little pub to stop in and see if it was on. None of us wanted to be the one to ask, in the Gaeltacht, if they could put on rugby (as English a game as there ever was). Luckily though, since it was the Irish national team, the pub we found already had it on. It was one of those little places you walk into and everyone turns and looks at you. And they weren't especially friendly about it.

But Ireland won! They're undefeated this year. What a ridiculous sport. I have to say: the players are pretty well-behaved about it, considering they could be out there gouging each others' eyes out. They have an old saying here: "Rugby is a hooligans' game played by gentlemen, and football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans."

Pip and I drove back to his parents' house that night, and I met his family, who are just so nice. His mom made sure that we were well fed, with tea and porridge, and his sister made us homemade macaroni and cheese, which was fantastic. Pip's other sister had made brown bread, and by the time we got to sleep, I think I'd eaten a week's worth of delicious, homemade food. It's been so long!