Mullingar, Ireland

The weekend found Katrina, her family, and I in Mullingar, Ireland. This is a small town about an hour outside of Dublin. Kats husband grew up here, and his Mom and Dad still have a home there. We arrived on Saturday, had a nice visit, some tea, then headed up to the Festival of Fires. This event hasn't happened in over 1400 years. Folks gathered on a hilltop that had been set up with a couple of huge, Burning Man type, wooden fires that were lit at dark.

There were more of these fires set off miles away on other hill sides across the county. As one went off, the others were lit as well. It was very pagan-esque, and very, very cool! Lot's of dancing by folks dressed in druid garb, fire stick twirlers, stilt walkers, lantern carriers, etc. 

Quite the event! One of the druids offered to carve the rune symbol for peace for me should I have a piece of wood or antler. I didn't... but I think according to druid culture, we may be promised to each other after that exchange. 

There was also some great music. I discovered a trad (traditional Irish music) artist named Sharon Shannon. Nice stuff. Mundy also played. There was some local wine, food, and craft tents. All ages attended. It was a really, really fun night with Kat and family. We drank excellent wine and danced to good music. Walked around some of the most gorgeous hill side, and watch a beautiful sunset from the center of Ireland (literally). Folks were sending paper lanterns fueled by candle light off into the horizon. I will have to post  pictures at a later date (see previous post about the Ha' Penny Pub). The night ended with the unfortunate event of getting Kats Prius stuck in the mud, but we were rescued and all ended well. 


Sunday morning started with a delish breakfast, a washing off of the muddy Prius, and a trip to the local manor house and gardens. Kat and I walked around the gardens talking about the stuff of life, and dropping some silver wishes in the garden fountain. I am fortunate to have such great friends in my life. We had a great dinner that evening, lots of stories, lots of laughter. The Corcoran men took us on a pub crawl in Mullingar after dinner. The first had a grocery store in the front, pub in the back. The sold Wellies, too. One stop shopping. Well, not one stop for us, actually. We had a pint, then headed to another pub about 5 miles away. When we got there, I realized I had left my bag at the first pub! Argh! He who must not be named was on the phone and to the rescue in minutes. We drove back to pub number one. No worries in a small town, my bag was in tact, and back in my possession. We headed back to pub number two, again, and had another pint. 


Monday found me at the train station saying goodbyes to Kat and he who shall not be named. Hugs, kisses, then on the train to Sligo, bus to Letterkenny.