Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Irish Wedding

The reason we went to Ireland was to attend the wedding of Chris’ good friends Will, who is British, and Tara, who is a raving beauty of an Irish girl with dark hair, fair skin and an explosive large as life personality. One cannot help but be drawn to this woman who has a warmth and generosity about her as well as a salty as hell outlook on the world. I liked Will too, but that boy is going to be living in his wife’s shadow! From the looks of it, he doesn’t appear to mind!
They were unable to marry in the Catholic Church because of some glitch so they married in the Church of Ireland, which is Protestant (as is Will). It was a really lovely service. One of Tara’s friends sang “Mna na hEireann (The Women of Ireland)” a cappella and in Gaelic and it truly was a transcendent experience, haunting and beautiful.
The wedding was a blast. It was held at Clontarf Castle, a big imposing medieval looking place all sorts of animal heads on the wall (Can I ever look at a mounted deer without thinking of Tom Bullock? I think not!) Everyone was really friendly. Tons of Chris’ friends who I hadn’t yet met were there and they all really went out of their way to be nice to me. It was great. I enjoyed talking to everyone. It was a mixed crowd of Brits and Irish, but every last person was interested in chatting and laughing. I really felt very comfortable. And truthfully, I have never met funnier people than Chris’ British pals. These people seem to have cornered the market on wit.

The wedding went on till six in the morning with songs being sung and all sorts of hijinks. The next day Will and Tara had hired a bus and somehow fifty of us managed to go to a pub high in the Dublin Hills for an all day session of Irish music and Guinness drinking. It was a great time. The bride and groom really let down their hair as did the assembled group. We were there for seven hours…..needless to say, dropped into bed and slept like a baby afterwards.



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