Devlin's View: A taste of Ireland mixes with the flavor of Bowie on recent trip By GERARD DEVLIN For the Blade-News
Recently I returned from Ireland with participants from my nearly annual trip with 22 mostly Bowie residents led by Bowie's mayor, the estimable Gee Fred, and first lady Jackie. Along with the usual suspects from the Friends of Fred who regularly eat pizza Friday nights at Jimmy Marcos' TJ Elliott's restaurant, we had a delightful group, some of whom had visited Ireland and others for whom it was a first time.
In fact, a little bit of Bowie was left behind as the mayor and City Clerk Pam Fleming made Desmond Guinness an honorary citizen of our city. The heir to the brewing fortune sponsored a reception for the group at his home, the 12th century Leixlip Castle in County Kildare. Top that Friday Night Pizza Man Jimmy, if you can!
For the record, we now have legitimate nobility in the Friday night ranks. At the famous medieval dinner at Bunratty Castle it is customary to name a tourist couple as Lord and Lady of the Manor for the night. Chosen from the tourist ranks were none other than Bowie's indescribable Terry Devaney and spouse Mickey. Lest anyone doubt the authenticity of their status they have a certificate to prove it.
Kings in Ireland, by the way, were usually more akin to local ward bosses than to Queen Elizabeth II, so it is just possible that we are all descendants of kings.
Boston's late Mayor James Michael Curley noted that his parents came to the Untied State from County Galway traveling cheek by jowl in steerage with the mob of other descendants of Irish kings.
The more likely explanation is that the fix was in through the efforts of our driver-guide Brian Hanrahan, but you have to be cynical to believe that.
There is, of course, a timeless element to the Old Sod. The scenery is always magnificent and the signs of prosperity are everywhere. Home prices in Dublin, for example, will knock your socks off as Ireland, since her entry into the European Union, has enjoyed a prosperity all but unknown in her long and often turbulent history. It is a country where poverty and even famine have all too often been the norm. This is a far cry from today's high-tech Ireland.
The weather, of course, remains Irish, neither central planning nor EU rules and regulations can change that.
George Bernard Shaw, a native Dubliner, once wrote:
"Ah yes, I've been to Ireland
It was raining cats and dogs
There was no purple in the glens
Nor music in the bogs
As for Angel's laughter in the smelly Liffey's tide
My Irish Daddy said there was
But the dear old humbug lied."
Well, the Liffey, which divides Dublin north and south, isn't smelly any more, but it is still roughly the color of Guinness Stout. In London, Guinness, which the Brits call porter, is often referred to as "Liffey Water." The dark quality of the river is because of minerals entering the flow from the Wicklow Mountains rather than its historic role as a municipal sewer system which it once was.
The Irish, for their part, have done yeoman work in protecting the countryside (no billboards) and they are fierce protectors of the environment setting a standard we might well emulate.
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The writer is a former state legislator and direct descendant of the 6th Century High King of Ireland Niall of the Nine Hostages.
