UnearthingTara:Becoming an Archeologist in Ireland: Into the West

Failte!

I'm excited to share my adventures with all of you! I want your first taste of my life in Ireland to be this poem that I wrote very late one night when I was a Junior in College. Its meaning seems eerily prophetic now. More than anything, I've created this blog to make the actualization of this life-long dream of mine visible to those I love: my friends who are my foundation, my endlessly supportive family, my mentors and co-workers who inspire me, and my former students who have given me enough satisfaction and fulfillment to last two lifetimes... Have the courage to believe that your wildest dreams can come true.

Is fhearr fheuchainn na bhith san duil, (It is better to try than to hope)

Mourn (A Seaside Peak in Southern Ireland)

The dark, earthen sod saturates her fair feet,
but briefly since she frolics fast in knee high
blades of greenest grass that blow dizzily in the Celtic-sea air.

Her wool skirt, stiffened by ware of evenings past
is splashed by cresting waves that break
against a beach blacker than her hair.
Those once stiffer fibers were loosed by nights upon nights
of hanging perfectly on his line before being wildly blown dry
by the crisp Hibernian salt air.

The pair sits to rest a while instead of dodging
breakers or skipping paler stones.

"Indian summer's here," he says softly,
but all of summer here feels like the edge
of autumn to her, even though she grins in agreement
as she dangles her pale, soft feet off Achilles' peak,
where Erin's vermillion-gold sky meets
an ocean that is grey with years.

She sleeps with her eyes closed tight most nights.
He asks her if she believes in Tier-Nan-Og,
and she asks him if he believes in anything eternal.
Outside the tide is rising, or it's receding—
She never can tell but for the strengthened smell of
salty freshness strained through his light, lace curtains.
She thinks to herself that he is like trying to hold the sea 
and she imagines the water running between her fingers--
clenched so tight.

And so, the night calls her out of her sleeping,
like daytime chides her into dreaming.
She slips her white fingers through the holes of an old loose scarf
that affords her more company than warmth
on these newborn autumn evenings. She is off-- 
Night clouds reflect emerald from land to sea,
And the tara that she never eyes from long hours of
staring too far into star blanketed skies,
feels cool against the thickening pads of her pallid feet.

Elisabeth Lewis (2005)

17 January 2012

Into the West

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

- George Bernard Shaw

This is the first week of class, and last weekend was spent on a GLORIOUS trip to Galway, the Aran Island, and County Clare with my friends from college: Candace, Rachael, and Liz. Words can't really describe the trip, so I'll post what pictures I have from my phone, but they will hardly do justice to the beauty and fun that we experienced the last few days. I hope to bring you some of Candace's DSLR pictures from our trip later this month.

I'll speak to the places we visited briefly, to serve as travel suggestions. First, Galway was so quaint and charming, and nothing at all like Dublin. We had such a good time on our pub crawl around Eyre square, and a lovely stay in Snoozles.

We woke up early and witnessed a beautiful sunset over the Atlantic and a lovely drive along the Connermara coast to our ferry that took us to the magical land of the Aran Islands. The Islands are made up of three: Inismor, Inishere, and Inisman. We stayed on the largest, Inismor, where all of these pictures were taken. We spent the day hiking to the hundred-foot cliffs, broken off of the Cliffs of Moher thousands of years ago. And unlike the Cliffs of Moher, there are no guardrails to keep you from the edge here. We had a great tour of the Island, and sat in a warm pub, sipping pints before we turned in early at our beautiful B&B, Clai Ban.

Sunday we drove to the Cliffs of Moher--One of Ireland's most famous and breathtaking treasures--We had a great time and completed the trip with an amazing seafood lunch at Vaughan's in a sleepy valley town called Kilfernora.