Irish I was There Longer

December 05, 2019

For Thanksgiving our University gave us off for the holiday. Since I only take classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I decided to take a long trip. How generous of me to treat myself. I traveled to Italy Thursday night to visit a few friends for the weekend who are studying abroad in Rome and Florence and on Sunday, November 24, me and my broken backpack left Rome for Ireland.

Ireland holds a very special place in my heart. As I went into more depth in my homesick blog post, both my parents immigrated from Ireland to America and majority of their family still resides in the beautiful country. My dad is from the West while my mom is from Northern Ireland. While my family on my moms side knew I was coming to visit, everyone on my dad's side knew I was coming except my uncle and granny. Surprise!

When I first arrived into Dublin Airport, I met up with my dads two sisters, Catherine and Carmel. My aunt Carmel lives in England and traveled to Dublin for a work trip. She was leaving a bit after I arrived, so I was able to meet up with her in the airport for about an hour or so. While this meet up was short, I’ll take what I can get if it means seeing her!

My uncle Conor picked me up and we traveled towards the North. A little side note about Conor is that he is one of the funniest people I have ever met.

The next day, my granny picked me up and we went back to her house. While I was able to see cousins, aunts, and uncles I hadn’t seen in person in about four years, I sadly still didn’t get the chance to see everyone because the trip was so short.

On Wednesday, my moms brother Petey, who's also hysterical, picked me up to take me to the meeting spot in a town in-between to meet my dads sister Sinead. She who would then take me to the West to surprise my granny and uncle Noel.

When we were about 20 minutes away, Sinead called granny to make sure she was awake, and to make sure Noel didn’t head home before we got there. At 10 p.m., we pulled into the lane leading to my granny’s farm. We closed our car doors at the same time to not give away that someone else was with Sinead. Sinead headed in first and after about two minutes, I walked in. Both granny and Noel were sitting in their chairs by the stove, also known as the fireplace. They were both shocked. They sat there somewhat in awe. They couldn’t believe I was there. I also noticed my granny subtly crying. It’s funny that they reacted that way because when Sinead forwarded the surprise video to my mom, my brothers girlfriend Alison watched it and said that’s exactly how my brother reacts to surprises. Clearly, we're all related! Noel and granny couldn’t believe that everyone knew I was coming back and had kept it a secret from them for about a month. It was so good to see them, and was even better to be able to surprise them.

That Friday, when it was time to head back to the North, Noel took me to Belfast to meet Petey there later. In Belfast I was able to meet Noel’s daughter Ellidh (pronounced like Ellie), for the first time. She’s almost two years old and if I didn’t see her this time around, I would have to wait until most likely next fall at Noel’s wedding, or even later if I'm not able to go. And I’m crossing my fingers that I’m able to go back to Ireland next fall if my classes allow it.

Heading back to the airport that Sunday, I met up with Catherine again who brought my cousin Emma. I hadn’t seen Emma since the last time I was in Ireland. So it was good to also see her for a small amount of time too. Like I said, I'll take what I can get if it means seeing family.

Saying goodbye to all my family is never easy. Especially when nothing is promised for the future. Meaning, while we plan trips to visit each other, life gets in the way and things can change. It gets harder to see everyone at the same time as much as we would like to. Even though I was only there for a week, and only saw some relatives, especially some for only an hour, it was better than nothing. The only thing I can do now is look forward to next fall.