March 17, 2021: Dreams

When I was in college studying literature, I had a teacher whose main subject was Linguistics. I took his class because my Dad’s brother Don, who died young, had taught Linguistics and I wanted to understand it. Turns out he also taught an occasional class on Irish Literature because he was Irish, and one of a small number of Irish Jews. We didn’t study Yeats or Joyce or Shaw; we read the stories of Peig Sayers and Tomas O Crohan, who wrote about their lives on the Blasket Islands.

He showed us his collection of slides from a trip he’d made to Ireland, and spoke so enthusiastically about the people, the land, the language, and the culture that I determined to visit as soon as I was able.

I felt an identification like I never had for any place or thing.

But life has a way of taking us along, and I didn’t travel to Europe until I was in my forties. Finally at almost sixty, I had an opportunity to visit Ireland. By then, I knew much more about the history of Ireland and of myself. I was about 90% Scots-Irish, so even though my ancestors were primarily in the north, it seemed more understandable that I might have this strong affinity.

Even more so, it seems to me that something that is taught to us or that we learn at a certain age can become a lifelong passion. I spent nearly a month there eight years ago, and hope to return. I wasn’t able to visit the Blasket Islands, but I visited the gravesite of Peig Sayers and it was like a pilgrimage.

CLICK HERE for a brief video about the Blasket Islands. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!