Ireland At Last!

Beth and I finally made it to Ireland in late April 2024, a Road Scholar trip. It was very exciting landing on that green island that so many times I had flown over, on the way to England and other places in Europe, without stopping. We stayed for three nights in a grand hotel in Ennis, The Old Ground Hotel. Our first day we had glorious sunshine in Galway, learned its history, walked up its High Street, and later visited Coole Park, its Autograph Tree, and a small museum about Lady Gregory, friend of Yeats. That night we heard a mother and her daughters play haunting ballads in an old forge. Our second day we explored the Burren area, saw Celtic crosses in Kilfenora, and got a brief moment of clearing at the Cliffs of Moher before a giant rainstorm blew in. Our third day centered on two castles, Bunratty and Blarney. We skipped kissing the Blarney stone, Beth and I being responsible in our lives for too much gab. 

We stayed three nights in Kinsale, at the Trident Hotel. The day after arriving there we drove along a river til we got to Bantry Bay, then climbed over Caha Pass and later Molls Gap. In the afternoon we visited Muckross House, a sumptuous mansion built by an Irish couple who actually lived in Woodside, California (the estate called Filoli) and bought the home in Muckross for their daughter and new son-in-law. Our last day in Kinsale Beth and I took a boat ride around the bay. We lucked out with full sunshine, blue water, green hillsides, churches and forts, and a smooth, comfortable ride.

We left the next morning, stopped in at the Cobh Emigration Museum. Then on to Dublin, with a planned stop in Kilkenny, Kilkenny being the only place in Ireland that had a family connection for me, as it was where my great-great grandfather came from. So Beth had been amused that I talked about this fellow with the same name as my great-great grandfather (Patrick Rafter), and who was also a violinist from Kilkenny. I was hoping to connect with him, even though he was quite famous, playing with many major orchestras. But it was he who first contacted me in a genealogy forum,

asking if we might figure out how we were related. So I had his phone number, and he had asked for mine. And we emailed. I told him we had this 2-hour window of lunch in Kilkenny, and about 20 minutes before we arrived there, my phone rang: Patrick Rafter calling! So we met at a great cafe in Kilkenny with Patrick and his mother, a wonderful encounter (we would return to Kilkenny at the end of our trip). Patrick's mother stared at me and said, "She looks just like baby George....!"

So now we had three nights in Dublin, two . On the first day we had a helpful bus tour to orient us. I took off to visit Sweny's Pharmacy, which James Joyce knew and put in his novel Ulysses as a place his character Leopold Bloom briefly stops. It is now a mini-museum, and the proprietor sings you a song, plucking his guitar. He recommended lunch at Kennedy's Pub across the street, which was perfect. Other places I visited that day were the National Library, the National Museum of Archaeology, and Oscar Wilde's house. The next day we were to see the Book of Kells, but Trinity College was entirely shut down because of protests over the Gaza War. So instead we visited the Museum of Literature, and had a lovely walk across St. Stephens Park. We spent the afternoon in the National Gallery.

The tour was over, and Beth and I then headed for Kilkenny, so I could explore my family's beginnings. We got there by train, and the very first taxi driver we engaged, who drove us to our hotel, turned out to be a gem. He said yes, he could certainly arrange to drive us to Callan (where Patrick Rafter was evidently born and went to school) and anywhere else we'd like, for a reasonable sum, and he'd pick us up after lunch! So this was really a dream, I wasn't sure I could pull it off. There I was strolling up and down the main street of Callan, looking in at Patrick's school (the priory), and we even visited where he went to college in Kilkenny, and the graveyard where his brother was known to have been buried. A great beginning for our visit. Sipping a Bailey's Irish Cream in Rafter Dempsey's pub (owned by present-day Patrick's cousin) was nice as well.

The next morning we explored the neighborhood where (the original) Patrick's three sisters lived near the Friary, then walked up to Rothe House, a house museum with a beautiful garden, and finished off the afternoon with a visit to Kilkenny Castle. That night we showed up at Kytelers Inn to see a show. It was part of a "country" music festival I had read about, so I purchased ahead tickets for us to see and hear Sam Outlaw, who had once lived in Los Angeles and was actually terrific. I ended up on the dance floor with a

couple we met there, great fun. Our last morning in Kilkenny we took a relaxing boat trip up and down the River Nore. Flew home a day later from Dublin.

Can't really top this trip, except for seeing Elio in California! That was part of my sister's fun 90th birthday celebration at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in June. All 23 of us in the family showed up. A great place to catch up with the family, and take turns getting our pictures taken with Elio. A slight mishap, one day after I had bragged to my nephew Kent, the orthopedic surgeon, that I had never broken any bones, I slipped and fell near the pool and managed to break three little toes on my left foot!

During the summer we stopped on our way to New Hampshire in New Jersey, to visit with Maxine and her husband Jay. Jay passed away a few months later. No Chester gathering this year. Drew Farm packed with all the Radoses and dog Phoebe. On the way home we stopped in Middlebury where Clare was beginning her sophomore year. A scenic drive home, the Fort Ticonderoga Ferry, and down the Hudson.

Back to California we flew in October for my Stanford 55th reunion. Enjoyed seeing Holly, Cindy, Audrey, and other class of '69 pals. Some very nice lunches at our class headquarters, some excellent lectures including one about Mississippi Summer, and a fun class party where there were only Cindy, Betsy and Marlene and I up on the dance floor, until they started playing Louie Louie (my request) and about thirty more people streamed onto the floor. The last night was our traditional Italy XIV dinner at Vaso Azzurro in Mountain View. Some new people came we hadn't seen since 1967! The last morning of the reunion Holly, Betsy, and I showed up for the Class of '69 Authors event. Although it was mostly just our friends and relatives (an exaggeration, the audience numbered about 7...!) we had a great time. On Sunday night we stayed at an airport hotel looking over San Francisco Bay, and flew home on my birthday.

Thanksgiving was really special this year. My second cousin, Kathy Hopps, whom I had probably not seen since we were children, found my article about Patrick Rafter on the Internet and wrote an email asking if I was her cousin? Then it turned out that while we both thought the other person must still live in California, where we were born, we lived not that far apart, me in Annapolis and she in Silver Spring. In trying to figure out a time to get together with her family, she proposed having us come for Thanksgiving. We had a lovely day with them and seem to have made new, lasting friendships.

As they say in Wordle, having just completed this by the end of the year, Phew!

My How Time Flies!

Hard to believe it's been almost a year since the last post. Last summer in Chester, Connecticut we finally had all of our members together for a long-overdue poetry conference. At its conclusion we rushed off to New London to pick up very special arriving passengers, Corinne and Owen, who visited Drew Farm with us our first few days there. 

In October I got my birthday wish to return to Chestertown and the Great Oak Manor, where we had stayed way back in 2007. It was picture-perfect fall weather. We hadn't planned anything but happened to be there during Tall Ship weekend. There was also a Halloween parade downtown for which we were able to grab frontline viewing from our lunch spot. And later we were sitting on a bench near the river, and got talked into boarding a boat for a one-hour tour past all the tall ships that were anchored there for the weekend, a perfectly easy way to view them.

Late October, October 31 to be exact, arrived the newest member of the family: Elio Maro Marangi, born in Berlin, Germany. Photos of him come frequently, so we almost feel like we are watching his steady journey from day one to the arrival of his first curls. We are looking forward to seeing him for the first time in June, when we travel to California for my sister's birthday.

In December we had a quiet Christmas, but a few days later my sister arrived, her first visit to us since we had arrived in Annapolis. She seem positively impressed with BayWoods. She got to meet quite a few of our friends over lunch in the Bistro. Dinner was at Jalapeños, then I stayed with Janet overnight at The Graduate, and the next day we drove her back to DC, stopping for lunch at Harvest Thyme.

In February I was busy rehearsing for the three acts in which I was involved in the Variety Show. One was a skit I re-wrote so three of us could perform the famous "wall scene" from Midsummer Night's Dream. The second was a goofy dance our aqua class did to the tune of the 60s song "The Swim." I was most proud of my (almost) flawless performance of a line dance called "Seduced." Got to dress up a little and swing our boas.

In March I went with a BayWoods excursion to hear a group called The Suits, who sang 60s-80s doo-wop, Motown, and disco tunes. At one point they asked for a volunteer to come up on stage with them. There were hundreds of us in the audience, and I was in the second row. Behind me I imagined lots of people with their hands up, so I stuck mine up, too. It turned out I was the only person volunteering! So of course I went up on stage, introduced myself, and sat on a stool as they took turns singing to me different verses of "My Girl." The audience thought I was singing, too, but I was only mouthing the words, as it was one of my favorite songs. They say I danced, too, but that was only briefly...

Today I happen to be off to Ireland. Road Scholar trip with my friend Beth, staying near Galway, in Kinsale, and Dublin, finishing off with a private trip to Kilkenny, where my great-great grandfather Patrick Henry Rafter came from. So stay tune. This blog should become more timely soon!