Saturday, November 10, 2007

I'm finally in...

Yow. So, here I am in Dublin, and it took me a donkey's age to figure out how to get in here using the hotel's internet system. What a royal pain in the arse! I can't post any pictures yet, 'cause there's no way to hook up my camera, but suffice it to say so far the trip has been interesting. Alas, no wool, though, unless you can count what's on the backs of the sheep, which is strictly off limits to me. Ah, well, it's not like I "need" any more yarn or fiber anyway.

Belfast yesterday was an Experience. We were in the heart of Bobby Sands territory, and had a wonderful meal put on by a local Irish (Republican) society. Irish Republicans are not to be confused with American Republicans. Think socialism and the rights of the working class. They were most kind and welcoming, as were the folks at the Roddy McCorley Society, where the guys played last night. There was an interesting museum upstairs having to do with the Troubles and the hunger strikers, and the North's struggle to be free of British rule. Unforgettable, to be sure. I expect I'll be thinking about it and continuing to form opinions for a long time to come. I was a callous, ignorant, self-centered 19 year old when Bobby Sands led the hunger strike. I certainly didn't understand it at the time. I'm not sure that I totally understand it now, either, but it still moves me. Having driven through loyalist territory yesterday in the hours before the show, I felt I had been changed somehow. More about all that when I have had a chance to think it out and I am no longer wrestling with trying to post on the television screen!

I will say that when Larry sang his song about Bobby Sands last night, I was crying before the song was half over. Partly because I had seen all that historical memorabilia upstairs, about a 27 year old man who had starved himself to death rather than forsake his principles, and partly because I knew what it meant to Larry, to be able to sing that song in Belfast. My head is still reeling, so much so that though I could have gone to Kilmanham Gaol again, I didn't. Emotionally, I don't think I could have stood it. Tonight's show should be equally intense.


We are off to the show by bus in a lttle over an hour, and I need a rest, I think. I did something weird to my shoulder a few days before I left town, and it KILLS if I stay vertical too long without rest and Ibuprofen. LOTS of Ibuprofen, and when all else fails, whiskey. [sigh] Remember how I said I was afraid I might knit myself into a silng finishng the Rogue? Well, I think I may have done it. Ouch. Still knitting on the bus, though, and have not given in and stoped at a chemist's to buy a sling.

Getting old bites, but I guess it's better than the alternative....