Our Emerald Isle - Our Greeting

Our Emerald Isle – Our Greeting

As we entered the terminal we saw a man holding a sign that read “McAnally.”  We identified ourselves as being one and he said, “ Ceao mile failte, welcome to Ireland.  My name is Mike and I am here to escort you to the next phase of your journey.  Please follow me.”  I asked about our bags and he said his man would pick them up and put them on the train for us.  I was a little skeptical about letting all our worldly possessions out of my direct control and intrusting them to a stranger but what were the odds. 

We took a short limo ride to the train station and Mike was as good as his word.  He escorted us to our compartment and our baggage was already there.  He handed us tickets to, what I assumed would be De’Vere, made a slight bow and then just stood there with his hands folded in front of him.  Bev nudged me in the side with her elbow and I said, “Oh, yes.” and handed him a five dollar bill.

As the train was pulling out of the station the conductor came by, asked for our tickets and he told us to enjoy our trip to Beganborn.  I told him there must be some mistake.  He looked at the tickets again and said, “No there is no mistake it clearly says on the ticket here that you are traveling to Beganborn.”  “No I said we were supposed to be heading for De’Vere.”  “Well I understand now why the confusion,” he replied, “one has to go to Beganborn and catch the cart ride to De’Vere.”  There is no problem he assured us.  The carts run every day or two usually, on time.

About two hours later after a short stop to allow sheep to cross the tracks the conductor came around again and announced, “Beganborn, we will be here for five minutes.”  Bev and I quickly gathered our belongings and got off the train.

As the train pulled out I saw no one around and the small little train station was locked.  There was a bench so we sat on it and waited around for something to happen.  Soon a dilapidated cart came lumbering down the cobble stone path that I gathered connected the station to what I assumed would be the center of Beganborn.  The cart was pulled by the poorest excuse for a horse I had ever seen.  It was lopped eared like a rabbit, had a sway back and the two wheel cart was driven by a man that did not look much better.

“Are you Sir Snapper and Lady Bev,” he asked. 

“Yes.” 

“Toss your things in the cart here, it will only be a short ride.  Sir you ride in back with the luggage and Lady you ride up here with me.”  We then clip clopped down the road, through the little hamlet of Beganborn, which seemed like a nice little place.  I thought to myself, if De’Vere looks anything like this it will be a delightful next few months.

However the further we journeyed away from Beganborn the more bleak the country side became.  The stone walls on either side of the road were crumbling, the road was mud and ruts , the fields were over grown, what few sheep we came across looked like they had the mange, and the stone houses were deserted and in much need of repair…Brian had done it again. 

The only thing that kept me from dwelling on fratricide was that Traci was part of all this and would not do anything particularly harming and besides I would not know what to do with the body.

As I was about to tell the cart driver to turn around and take us back to the train station we came over a rise and there in the valley below stretched a lake side village that was only half as big as Beganborn but much more typical of what one thinks of when one thinks of an Irish Village.  I immediately thought of the old musical “On A Clear Day You Can See Forever” and I started humming the signature tune.

At the top of the hill the driver turned to us and said, “Welcome to De’Vere, County of O’Malley, along the Lake Donnie Man.”   There was a twinkle in his eye and a smiling face that stretched out his wrinkles and made his warts disappear.  The horse’s ears and back straightened, stone walls and houses were well maintained and both nestled up to clean well kept green fields.

Bev and I proceeded down the path and entered the village of De’Vere to what was to be our next great adventure.