Ultimately faith is the only key to the universe

Friday, May 20, 2016

Return to Ireland - the series

June 24, 2016

http://faith-key-universe.blogspot.ca/2016/06/return-to-ireland-people.html

June 14, 2016
http://faith-key-universe.blogspot.ca/2016/06/return-to-ireland-fleadh-nua-part-two.html

June 5, 2016

http://faith-key-universe.blogspot.ie/2016/06/return-to-ireland-mass.html

June 4, 2016

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Return to Ireland - Galway

We just spent two days in Galway. I must say we were underwhelmed with the city. We found it too touristy. Or maybe it's just because tourists go there, and one should expect this.

The downtown core is confusing since the streets run at weird angles (probably because they are quite old) and they Irish do a poor job of posting street names. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.

When we finally found our hotel, it was even more confusing since we had to go through a casino to get to it which had us a wee bit worried.

When we did get it all sorted, we actually had a lovely little one bedroom apartment, which had clearly been recently renovated called the Dominic Street Apartments. Except that people were partying both nights somewhere in the vicinity and we could hear everything.

The good news is that last night we had a super fantastic meal at the Venice restaurant. We both had pasta and I don't know, but it may have been the best pasta I have ever eaten, nice and hot and so flavourful.

We also found a lovely little coffee shop where the staff were very helpful finding out which bus to take to the John Paul II Centre which ended up being a residence for persons with disabilities, not a John Paul II Centre like Poland has or like Canada has. Oh well. It was a nice bus ride.

Me at the JPII Centre.

A few more pics below from the city. I realized on the bus ride home that I hadn't even taken in any pics from the touristy area.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Returning to Ireland - Fred's pictures

Fred took my camera downtown Lahinch yesterday to capture a busy Lahinch afternoon when everyone was out and about. Which also seemed to make the Internet super slow, and frequently not working yesterday. Fred's theory is that the WIFi here uses cell service. With gobs of people in downtown Lahinch on their phones this probably caused the service problems.

Fred captured some of the local shops in Lahinch, something I've apparently never done. He also captured something else that made me realize right away I hadn't taken the pictures. And it's not the picture of me and it's not the pictures of the crowds that struck me. It was something else.

Return to Ireland - beautiful Lahinch area

Return to Ireland - Adoration chapel

Update: A couple of people have asked me what a crying room is. So let me explain.

When we were growing up in Hull our church had a closed off room dedicated for young families with children. It would allow families to participate in Mass without having to worry about noisy children disturbing other parishioners. Nowadays you never see these rooms anymore (at least I haven't), but the Church in Lahinch obviously has one, although I'm not sure that is the name they would use for it, but it's a name we used at our Church growing up (Our Lady of the Annunciation) which is still there in Hull but it moved locations. (I know the original church we went to ended up as a night club at one point. Good grief. At least now there is an English speaking church in Hull again. I also notice that they have Fr. Fogarty listed as Parish priest from 1959 to 1973. I remember him well. He was very stern and he scared me to death. But I digress too much...)

I attended Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after Mass today. The Church has a beautiful little chapel to the left of the front Altar, that also doubles as a crying room during Sunday Mass.

When used as a crying room, the young families have a perfect view of the Mass and the priest and they can close the door which helps to not disturb the parishioners at Mass. As an Adoration chapel it is a very intimate blessed area to be with Our Lord. What a great idea.

I took a couple of pictures of it so you can see how they oriented it in the Church.

A beautiful Prayer to Our Lady of Perpetual Help at a side altar.

Return to Ireland - videos

Maureen has put together a series of videos of her and Mike's two weeks here with us in Ireland. They're lovely, grand and brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSVAOIe-ZuDLYlaDddG5uZGqr2uECQZzE

Friday, May 13, 2016

Return to Ireland - siblings head back home

Today Maureen, Mike and Jimmy headed back home to Ottawa and Los Angeles. They learned once they go to the Shannon airport that their flight was two hours late. Doh. Should have checked the flight time. But I guess it gave them one more chance to laugh themselves silly before they parted company.

It was brilliant having them here. And grand and lovely.