Just a brief posting today from a stool perched before the very green walls in Paddy's Palace hostel, right in downtown Dublin. The walls of this lounge are painted kelly green, the walls in our hostel room were a pale lime green, the curtain on the window was just plain green, the elevated train running outside the hostel is grass green, the leftover St. Patrick's Day decorations hanging around the hostel are shiny green, and the lampshade is made up of metallic four-leaf clovers. Green ones, of course. I do love green, but it could all get a bit nauseating except for one thing--it's so fun! Just in case I missed it, I am in Ireland, and the green is here to tell me so.
I've found, though, that tourist trappings aside, Ireland truly is a verdant, lush, velvety green, even in March. We flew in yesterday to Dublin, picked up a rental car and promptly drove to Newgrange and Knowth neolithic sites. These burial and ceremonial mounds were built between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, and it was truly thrilling to visit them and marvel at the stone age carvings on the massive stones holding the mounds up. It was terribly windy and cold, with intermittent sleet showers, but when the sun came out it was simply gorgeous. I stood in the midst of the mounds gazing at the brilliant green carpets around me. (I'll post photos once I get back to Nottingham).
We drove back along the coast and stopped for a pub dinner in Skerries, an old Viking port. We arrived at low tide and clambered out on to the beach, shivering all the while in the fierce wind, but marveling at the purple and pink sunset clouds and the rainbow rays cast upon the whitecaps. Warmed by a hearty meal of pub burgers and fish 'n chips, we returned to Dublin to crash in our green, green room in this green, green land.
Now to see the Book of Kells and sundry other wonders!
My concern about Ireland is that it does not have ardent environmental and wildlife conservation activists like England does. If people continue to emigrate to Ireland, I hope the nation embraces sustainable development policies that safeguard ecosysyems, biodiversity and wildlife habitats.