An Excerpt from Celtic Spirit A Wee Journey to the Heart of it All
Enjoy an excerpt from Celtic Spirit A Wee Journey to the Heart of it All. Jeanne Crane’s love of Ireland is infectious, her extensive travel experience informative and the characters she has created are endearing and authentic.
Day One
DOOLIN - CLIFFS OF MOHER - SALMON RUN LODGE
Our tour begins with an in-gathering and orientation at the Park Inn, across from the Shannon airport at 11 am.
Luggage (remember, one bag only) may be loaded on our bus anytime after 9 am.
From Shannon, we will travel to Doolin, a picturesque sea village known for its Celtic Music festival. After tea, we will continue on to the spectacular Cliffs of Moher. Our final destination for the day is the Salmon Run Lodge, a restored hunting and fishin inn, our home for three wonderful days in County Clare.
TIMOTHY
“ ‘Tis a grand beginning to the day, meeting up with you, Timothy Mulhearn.”
“Dylan Boland, is it now? Let me get the full look of you. What brings you over to Shannon and away from the bank?”
“Meeting with the EU men. They come over checking up on us every fortnight now. At the start, I waithed for them at the airline gate, hat in hand, polite and professional and all. Now, I say I am reserving a table here at the Inn. I have a cuppa and review files whilst I wait for them. Makes listening to their huff and puff about colvency and how grand they are being to us poor Irish a wee bit more tolerable.”
“Aye, Dylan, seems I took the early retirement scheme just in the nick of time, did I not?”
“So now it looks as if you are planning to see around Ireland by coach?”
“You mean these bags at me feet? Did you not know I am now in the coach-for-hire business? Shortly after Sally passed on, Frankie rang me up to tell me of a great repo chance and encouraged me to give it a go.”
“Jaysus, Timothy, you are a brave man to take on such a new enterprise at this point in the economy. But all the best to you, man. If anyone can make a success of it, you are the man to do it.”
“Well, it helps me try to move on, if you take my meaning.”
“A new chapter so to speak then?” Dylan’s mobile plays a tune. “Aye, Excuse me but one minute, Timothy, ‘tis our men on the mobile now; perhaps they are delayed.”
Whilst Dylan talks on the phone, I ponder the twelve -day tour ahead and the story it will become for each of us on the wee journey. There is a clean start or ending to a story in real life. So does the story of this journey start at the first site listed in the brochure? Or at the point where each traveler decides to come to Ireland and experience this particular coach tour? Or will it begin at the gathering scheduled to begin at 11 o’clock?
The group’s story, of course, commences today here at Shannon. I know I got here to the Inn early, getting permission from the hotel to park near the entry. I put the big, fance printed sign the trip organizers had brought all the way from America in the front window of the coach. Celtic Spirit it says in bright rainbow colors.