The 29 horses coming out for the grand national:
The horses approaching the jump at the grand national:
Irish people say "that's grand" or just "grand" when Americans might say good or ok. I think it's a lovey phrase, particularly the way they say it. I also like the way they say lovely, which sounds much nicer coming from an Irish person. And my third favorite new phrase is "your man" which they often say instead of he or instead of a persons name. I do have some trouble understanding people on a fairly regular basis, and I wonder if they thing I'm slow because I'm often asking people to repeat things. But it's a lovely variety of English to listen to, so over all, it's grand.
I've been quite busy since Saturday afternoon in Galway - Saturday evening I went to a 'session' in a pub - where a group of musicians sit around and play together, with people rotating in and out as the evening goes on. It started out with what sounded like traditional Irish music to me (at least) - with the Irish pipe / flute and some impressive singing, and ended up with more modern or popular songs. Sunday I rode the bus back to Dublin and went to bed early to catch up on the sleep deficit from staying in the hostel.
Monday I went to the Irish Grand National horse race at Fairyhouse racetrack in Meath, which was a short bus ride from Dublin. All but the last race, including the Grand National, were a couple miles long with jumps - I have never seen live racing with jumps before so that was interesting. I think the track was about a mile long, so the horses went around a couple times during each race. They had cameras set up so you could see what was happening when they were far from the stands, and an announcer. Horses fell landing jumps during several races, and one pileup looked quite bad, but as far as I know no people were hurt, and the horses usually seemed to get up immediately as well. The other interesting thing about the races was the clothing - some of the women were competing for the 'best dressed lady' prize - which was a 10,000 euro diamond necklace - so I suppose worth some effort. The dresses were quite feminine and formal, but the really fun part was the head wear. I saw all manner and colors of hats, miniature hats, headdresses that looked like a segment of a hat, and little feather headpieces. I think American women could benefit from more feathered head wear. A lot of the men were dressed in suits and ties as well.
Monday night I went to a Kaylee (this is a phonetic spelling, the actual spelling is entirely different, but I don't know what it is) with Eilish and her friend Phil. A Kaylee is an Irish dancing night, and it was held at a small hotel a few blocks from Eilish's house. I was probably the only person there under 60, and they let me in free when they heard I was an American student who didn't know any of the dances. But of course everyone was quite friendly and one woman was my leader for several dances (there were more women than men so women often danced together.) She told me what to do during the more complicated parts of the dances. Most of the dances were with 4 couples in a square so I imagine it was similar to an American square dance. My hosts were very kind and said I was doing well - I doubt I was doing well, but I did manage not to mess the rest of the dancers up too much.
I took Tuesday night off. Wednesday I went to see a play, "The Cavalcaders" with Eilish and Phil at The Abbey Theatre which was established by W.B. Yates amongst others and has been around for over a hundred years. The play centered around friendships and romances in a small Irish town, many of which were not working out well, so it wasn't what you'd call a comedy, but there was also a lot of singing and it was enjoyable. Last night Dr. McQuillan took me to another play, at the New Theatre which is a small theatre you enter through an anarchist book shop. This play was called "Shadow of a Gunman"and takes place during the Irish war for independence, examining whether or not the people fighting the war were heroic and what the impact on civilians was. Dr. McQuillan said the Northern Irish accents were quite poor, but of course I didn't notice that, and I enjoyed that play as well. I've decided not to take the 4 hour train ride to Killarney this weekend, so I will probably visit Belfast and Newgrange (one of the worlds best dolmen) and may go on the musical pub tour tonight.
I've been quite busy since Saturday afternoon in Galway - Saturday evening I went to a 'session' in a pub - where a group of musicians sit around and play together, with people rotating in and out as the evening goes on. It started out with what sounded like traditional Irish music to me (at least) - with the Irish pipe / flute and some impressive singing, and ended up with more modern or popular songs. Sunday I rode the bus back to Dublin and went to bed early to catch up on the sleep deficit from staying in the hostel.
Monday I went to the Irish Grand National horse race at Fairyhouse racetrack in Meath, which was a short bus ride from Dublin. All but the last race, including the Grand National, were a couple miles long with jumps - I have never seen live racing with jumps before so that was interesting. I think the track was about a mile long, so the horses went around a couple times during each race. They had cameras set up so you could see what was happening when they were far from the stands, and an announcer. Horses fell landing jumps during several races, and one pileup looked quite bad, but as far as I know no people were hurt, and the horses usually seemed to get up immediately as well. The other interesting thing about the races was the clothing - some of the women were competing for the 'best dressed lady' prize - which was a 10,000 euro diamond necklace - so I suppose worth some effort. The dresses were quite feminine and formal, but the really fun part was the head wear. I saw all manner and colors of hats, miniature hats, headdresses that looked like a segment of a hat, and little feather headpieces. I think American women could benefit from more feathered head wear. A lot of the men were dressed in suits and ties as well.
Monday night I went to a Kaylee (this is a phonetic spelling, the actual spelling is entirely different, but I don't know what it is) with Eilish and her friend Phil. A Kaylee is an Irish dancing night, and it was held at a small hotel a few blocks from Eilish's house. I was probably the only person there under 60, and they let me in free when they heard I was an American student who didn't know any of the dances. But of course everyone was quite friendly and one woman was my leader for several dances (there were more women than men so women often danced together.) She told me what to do during the more complicated parts of the dances. Most of the dances were with 4 couples in a square so I imagine it was similar to an American square dance. My hosts were very kind and said I was doing well - I doubt I was doing well, but I did manage not to mess the rest of the dancers up too much.
I took Tuesday night off. Wednesday I went to see a play, "The Cavalcaders" with Eilish and Phil at The Abbey Theatre which was established by W.B. Yates amongst others and has been around for over a hundred years. The play centered around friendships and romances in a small Irish town, many of which were not working out well, so it wasn't what you'd call a comedy, but there was also a lot of singing and it was enjoyable. Last night Dr. McQuillan took me to another play, at the New Theatre which is a small theatre you enter through an anarchist book shop. This play was called "Shadow of a Gunman"and takes place during the Irish war for independence, examining whether or not the people fighting the war were heroic and what the impact on civilians was. Dr. McQuillan said the Northern Irish accents were quite poor, but of course I didn't notice that, and I enjoyed that play as well. I've decided not to take the 4 hour train ride to Killarney this weekend, so I will probably visit Belfast and Newgrange (one of the worlds best dolmen) and may go on the musical pub tour tonight.
1 comment:
Céilidh.
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