Where Once We Were

Vienna Woods Hotel, Glanmire, Co. Cork; ours 1985 - 1988

We lived by the woods with

Once with paths of cobblestone, where 

Lords and Ladies strolled.

Summer leisure house, 1756

Lord Barrymore

Path through the woods (now covered and inaccessible with debris by current owners)

Our children sat on milk stools
By the fire.

These were found in muck where a stable once stood.

We wandered, heads to the sky,

Through the Rock of Cashel

Once called Rock of Patrick.

Nearly 900 years ago.

Watched as tides ebbed and flowed,
Of the Glashaboy River and beneath
Spire of St. Mary's.

Our children made memories
Forever 
Shaping their lives.

Town of Glanmire

Our children by a shelter in the woods (Now bulldozed by current owner)

Our youngest by a tree, two hundred years old (This and others were removed by current owners)

Road leading to Vienna Woods Hotel

Weddings and love were celebrated

In banquet rooms elegant.

Now it was our hotel, our responsibility.

A small wedding room in the hotel--now completely re-modeled.

Blarney supplied stone steps and

A stone to kiss,

A tree before a grand house

Where an elite lives.

Home of Sir Charles St. John Colthurst, Baronet

Where are

we now? 

Will we go back?

When?

Now, in 2018, thirty years after we lived there. Fitzgerald Vienna Woods Hotel

The Power of Love

Another daughter, Mary (who will be visiting from Switzerland in 10 days, bringing husband and grandsons) was only four years old when we moved to Ireland.  She was a sprite and not at all shy even then.

Erin, Mary, and John

When the school year started, Mary was 4.5 years old and ready to enroll in Junior Infants/pre kindergarten at New Inn School, Glanmire, Co. Cork. One of the greatest ideas of all time is school uniforms.  Pants, skirt, and vest were polyester which meant they could be washed each night, worn the next day, and then repeated.  Wore like iron, they were awesome.

We went shopping at Dunnes Store where everyone shopped thirty years ago and scouted for grey with blue shirts.  Mary ran off sprite-like and soon was found.

One thing about Mary was/is that she has a piercing and loud voice.  Anywhere she went, we could find her easily.  On this day, Mary was standing by the tri-mirror next to the changing rooms and was singing with all the gusto and joy that a four year old has.

She had ripped into a Celine Dion song "I am your lady" with chorus lyrics, as interpreted by a four-year old:

'Cause I am your lady/You are my man/ Whenever your reach for me/I'll do all that I can.

I do not believe that most Irish people had ever heard their children singing that song or singing with such passion. Dunnes was silent as Mary moved to the last lines (again as translated by a four-year old:  frightened became fighting:

We're heading for something/Somewhere I've never been/Some times I am frightened/But I'm ready to learn.

YouTube is amazing.

We drove home with school uniforms and with Mary still singing.  I just smiled. The power of love.

Note: Older daughter had a cassette tape of top music from mid-1980s. Mary sang along with her sister.  In the car, Mary started singing "Like a Virgin" by Madonna. Sigh.