A Presidential Moment - Meeting Michael D. in Lismore

Meeting the President - local Labour Councillors and wives!
(Dan McGrath photographer)

Tonight was very special as it marked the visit by our President, Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina to Lismore for the first time in his new role. We had a visit in 2004 from President Mary McAleese, his predecessor, who came to unveil the Tidy Towns' commemorative plaque in the Millenium Park. That was a special occasion too and we all enjoyed it. This time it was different - firstly as a former Labour Party President, this was a whole new elevation to the President of our Country for the very affable and much-liked Michael D. He is a poet, politician and academic, and he is an erudite speaker and a wonderful orator. At previous Labour Party Conferences I have seen him hold the audience spellbound while he debated some moot point. Now of course he is apolitical in his Presidential role, but I think Labour members will always lay claim to him as one of our own!

The Tricolour flying over the Castle

Lismore Castle Courtyard

We were privileged to be invited to the reception in the Pugin Room of Lismore Castle where he was attending the dress rehearsal of the Lismore Music Festival's The Barber of Seville, which is running for two nights this weekend, as the main part of a broader festival. A number of guests were at the reception from Lismore and the surrounding area, and we enjoyed a chat and a glass of wine or the Castle's own delicious apple juice while we waited for the Presidential party to arrive. He had a busy day, firstly going to Clonmel where he was made a Freeman of the town, and thence to Waterford where he opened Waterford nature park at Kilbarry on the site of a former landfill, and finally to Lismore for the Opera and reception. Here's his official engagements for last week - exhausting to even read it!

Jan presenting the Immrama Book to the President

It was a beautiful balmy evening, with cloudless skies as we entered the castle grounds via the Greenroad, or the tradesmen's entrance round the back where the old sawmills once whirred and where locals could go to buy vegetables from the head gardener back in my childhood days, David Montgomery, a taciturn Welshman, long deceased. I used to go there with my mother to get lovely early salad and veggies from the Paxton greenhouse which is now sadly defunct, awaiting a substantial grant-aid to restore it to its former glory.

Jan sharing a laugh with the President

Me and Ann Hanley with Sabina Higgins

We passed the marquee housing the punters at the Opera, a wise move given our unpredictable weather, and heard some of the lovely arias. We weren't able to crash the gig though so we continued down to the Pugin Room and chatted out in the courtyard until we were ushered in by Denis, the head butler, who announced the arrival of the President in both Irish and English. It was lovely to meet Michael D in this role, and we were delighted last year when he was elected, as he was the only candidate to retain his dignity and while he's apolitical in the role, it's more than ceremonial as he has to sign off on new legislation.

President and Sabina Higgins with Robert O'Byrne, art critic

We were lucky to meet him as it was a bit of a scrum like a Jedward concert to get up close to him, and as we chatted to him he remembered us from his former Labour life, and hubby Jan presented him with the book the Immrama Festival Committee published this year to mark the 10th Immrama Festival (more of which anon!) and he seemed pleased to get it. We had a longer chat with Sabina, his wife, and I managed to get a photo with her, and we could tell her we'd met their daughter at a Labour function in Dublin some months back. We had a press photo with the President which might be in one of the local papers next week.

Altogether it was a very pleasant evening and we are delighted that Lismore featured on the Presidential itinerary, and maybe Michael D will make it back here another day. Meanwhile enjoy the photos and share the event with us all!

The guests at the reception for the President

The Irish Indian Summer - at last

After what must be the worst summer in Ireland on record we are finally having a break. The weather for the past few days has been sunny and warm, and while the nights are cool, I can live with that if we have such beautiful days.

It must seem bizarre to those of you living with normal weather with a fairly predictable seasonal pattern, but in Ireland we can get very exercised over a fine spell, especially after what seems like months of unrelenting rainfall.

Ireland isn't called the Emerald Isle for nothing you know, there's a price to pay for all the greenery, it's called the Irish Summer!

It makes a day's work more productive and enjoyable when I don't have to dodge the showers and duck in and out of the car on my calls around my work area of Ring and Old Parish. We get extreme fog when the weather is bad and as a large part is upland moor and forestry commission plantation it can disappear in the fog in a heartbeat, leading to disorientation for those unfamiliar with the area. When I was a student public health nurse I got so lost that my preceptor had to guide me by mobile phone from house to house using whatever landmarks we could identify in the fog.

You can see what it's like in good and bad weather from these photos, and I included two contrasting views of my health centre - in sun (last week) and snow (last February) - weather extremes that we rarely seem to see these years!

I had to go to Dublin for a meeting yesterday, so I took some photos of the Vee - the mountain pass about 8 miles north of Lismore which is one of the most beautiful scenic spots in Ireland and is unsurpassed when the weather is like this. Of course it begged to be photographed and I duly obliged - even the sheep were co-operative! It looks great now as the heather is in full purple bloom, and I love that when I leave home within 10 minutes drive through thickly wooded roads I am in the heart of the open mountain wilderness.

A bit of trivia for film buffs - Kubrick's adaptation of Thackeray's Barry Lyndon with Ryan O'Neal had a battle scene filmed on location in the Knockmealdown Mountains you see here, near the sheep! The area is covered in gorse and heather and is very wild and sparse, open treeless moorland, and any rhododendrons there were planted in the colonial era and have become a nuisance invader, a bit like giant rhubarb (Gunnera) which has become a real Triffid in some parts of the West of Ireland.

The only shame about the bounty of our Indian Summer is that it's dark by half eight most evenings now and autumn chill is in the air, so evening BBQs are probably not an option. Unless of course you have one of those patio heaters that are so global-warming inducing - something that's very tempting if you live in Ireland of the noughties, where the long hot summer is a distant memory and we dream of a spell of warm weather on our too-green island.

Top photos show the Vee - a gap on the Knockmealdown Mountains between Waterford and Tipperary where 4 or 5 counties can be seen from the lookout points. Sunset and daytime view of same spot.


Bottom photos show Old Parish and Ring in fog and sunshine (except for the snow, all taken in the past month!)