Monday, 10/10/2011 - Waterford, County Waterford, Ireland

Time for some catch up.  It's Monday, 10/10, here in Oisin (phonetically = o-sheen) and Susan Ryan's home.  It's early, 0700, and I'm the first up. Sitting at their dining room table doing my 'catch up' blogging - I'm 2 days behind.  So....

Saturday, 10/8/2011 - Day 2:  Blarney to Cobh (pronounced Cove) to Waterford

A friend of Rosie's just outside of Blarney

A ruin enroute to Cobh

Cobh is built on a steeply sloping hillside

Downtown Cobh on the harbor to right...

To left...

Further to the left

Lots of stairs up to St. Colman's Cathedral

She made it!

Nearly to the Cathedral in Cobh

View of Cobh harbor area from Cathedral, to left...

Left of center....

Center...

Right of center.

Row houses fronting the entrance to St. Colman's

Entrance to St. Coleman's Cathedral

Huge and ornate inside.  Beautiful. 47yrs to build

Notice the priest in lower left... Fr. John McCarthy

There he is!

Unlikely meeting in Cobh

Postcard shot of the harbor in Cobh

On the Waterford Quay driving to Oisin and Susan's home

Rose, Oisin, Rosie

Dining room and kitchen area.  Meet Susan Ryan

Rachel, Caoimhe's best friend

Sisters:  Adele and Susan

The Ryan's large backyard

Back patio

Getting ready to take a tour of Waterford Crystal

View across from Waterford Crystal

Speaks for itself

Fully done out Waterford Crystal table setting

Catching up

I like the blue decanter

As well as the Black one!

Ever notice the Shamrock in the tail of the Waterford symbol?

Master glass-blower

Woke up a bit late... still not on Irish time yet.  Breakfast was being served in the Mill restaurant adjacent to the hotel starting at 0730.  Was 0830ish when we finally went down to have breakfast... another traditional for me and lighter fare for Rose and Rosie.  Over breakfast we planned our day around out target destination - Waterford.

Mom was leaning heavily to just heading straight for Waterford, a good 75miles away and ~2hr of driving.  We do have a lot planned with the Ryan's in Waterford. :-) Still, we wanted to at least take her through Cork, down to Cobh and, time permitting, up to the seaside town of Youghal (pronounced Yawl, as in the 2 masted sailing ship) where Rose used to spend the occasional teenage summer back in the day, and then on up to Waterford via the N25.

After some convincing, we finished breakfast, checked out, loaded up the Rio and off we went towards Cobh.  Before we got on the motorway, Rosie surprised Mom when you burst out with 'Stop the car, Tom!'  Rose was confused until I saw and realized why Rosie wanted me to stop - she wanted to jump out of the car just to take pictures of cows - which she did.

On we went.

Drove through the outskirts of Cork and eventually made our way over to Cobh.  Cobh's harbor is quite pretty and surrounded by steep, sloping hills forming a 1/2 bowl.  All along the sloping sides down to the harbor are homes, businesses and 1 massive cathedral, St. Colman's.  The city of Cobh was of interest to us because of the history associated with the seaside port. Probably the most notable claim to fame - the last port of call for the RMS Titanic before she departed on her ill-fated trip to the US.  On a more personal front, Rosie actually got to go sailing out and around Cobh harbor with her father, Tom, and a Dr. McMahon during one of the Mongan holiday's to Ireland in her youth.

We parked down on the harbor front facing Spike Island, paid for a parking pass and decided to walk up to the Cathedral first... the Cathedral, we tiredly discovered, was quite the climb back up the steep, sloping streets of Cobh!  It was a hike and by the time Rose realized we should have driven, we were near the top and at the Cathedral.

Rosie and I did not know that Rose actually knew a Parrish priest that worked out of this church, lived in Cobh and occasionally traveled to the US and Long Island to visit friends and family.  A Father John McCarthy - someone she'd known for the past 7 or so years.  We went in to see the Cathedral and marvel at it's architecture and say a prayer or two.  We'd missed Mass.  Noticed that Rose was intently looking at an elderly gentleman, short in stature and dressed in mostly green, tidying up the altar area.  She appeared to move towards him but stopped (it's a ginormous church) when he scurried off of the altar through the back.  Rosie and I are thinking nothing of this at the time and joined Rose to head back out of the church.

As we get to the foyer/entrance area of the church, Rose points to a picture frame hanging on the wall with what appears to be all of the Parrish priests' photos and, asks me to take a picture of the picture... thought that was a bit odd then but, took a picture of all the priests anyway?  Once out Mom tells us that she knows one of the priests that serve in this Parrish - news to both Rose and I - saw his picture in the church and wanted to see if he was around.?

I'm thinking... what the heck are the chances that my mother-in-law, 3,000+ miles from New York, grudgingly visiting a small harbor town, Cobh, with a ginormous Cathedral and 11,000+ parishioners, in the southeast of Ireland on a random Saturday morning in October, would actually run in to a priest this morning whom she knew?  As I'm thinking these thoughts and sharing them with Rosie, Rose is dashing off to the back of the church looking for the small man in green.  Lo and behold (she's 50yds in front of us), we turn the corner at the rear of the church and she's rushing up to that very same gentleman coming out of the back of the church and, begins to have a conversation with him.  It seemed to be going well and he was gesticulating as much as Mom was as he lead her to a row of 4 small, connected bungalows just off and behind the Cathedral.  There was a modest, reasonably priced car parked in front of 3 of them.  As he pointed to one of them, a man - who appeared to have the demeanor of a priest comes hurrying out of house #4, with a hang-up clothing bag in his arms to load into 1 of the cars.  Mom does a bee-line right for him and starts talking!  I'm looking in absolute amazement that this could possibly be Fr John McCarthy... Rosie and I walk up and, it's him!! OMG, literally.

He was just as surprised as we were.  We introduced ourselves, made some rapid fire small talk about the where/whys of how Mom knew him and vice-versa, exchanged incredulous opinions of the chances of this unlikely encounter and, without batting an eyelash, Fr. John asked Rose if she would mind delivering a package to New York for him!  Why not?  :-)  He ran back into his house, brought out the package and offered up a ride back down to the harbor - which we readily accepted!  He was running a mite late for Mass at another church.

Father John dropped us off at our car, we bid him goodbye, went in to a nearby shop for some road beverages and jumped into the Rio for our 1+45 trip up to Waterford.  Left Cobh at ~1035, just over 1hr since we'd arrived.  Took the N25 north.

I had input what I believed to be Oisin's home address into the Garmin and when we arrived at the address, it just didn't feel right - and wasn't.  The GPS dumped us out in a neighborhood on the wrong side of the St. John river and ~5miles from the Ryans.  Turns out had Oisin stressed Kilkenny town instead of Waterford, we'd have found him straight off... who knew?  I didn't. :-)

Finally got to Oisin and Susan's home on the other side of the river a bit after 1300. Nice, relatively spacious neighborhood with <40 families resident.  Oisin was there to greet us since Susan was out with their daughter, Caoimhe (phonetically pronounced, Quee-va, which means 'grace & beauty' in the Gaelic), getting lunch for us all.  She's a doll.  Rosie hasn't seen Oisin, her cousin, in over 30 years!  I only knew of all the Ryan's via stories and photos when everyone were young children.  Couldn't have been happier to have finally gotten the chance to spend just a little time with all of them - and there are quite a few Ryan's who I'll mention a bit later.

Lunch was grand and included whole scallion stalks - which I personally love - and other lunch fare that would be easilty recognizable in the States.  The bread's incredible, odd shaped and tasty.  Although we'd just arrived, Oisin and Susan had a very packed rest of the day for us.

After lunch they took us, sans Caoimhe who was at a friend's birthday party/sleep over, into Waterford for a tour of the famous new/old Waterford Crystal factory - to start.  Recently, Waterford Crystal was purchased by foreign investors for the brand name and the new owners moved most of the manufacturing to other countries, such as Poland.  Most Irish employees lost their jobs and now, only a fraction of the output is created and crafted onsite by a few dozen Master glassmen.  During the tour, Oisin, who apparently knows nearly everyone in Waterford - started to chat up one of the Master Cutters, a gent named Tom Carr.  That conversation turned into a personal tour of the cutting and engraving work done in the building with all of Tom's 42yrs of experience creating one of a kind, unique, pieces of crystal coming to bear.  What a treat and such a good guy!  Both Rosie and I got to hold some pieces in interesting crystal in work:  the superbowl trophy and People's choice awards crystal - just to name a few.  Unfortunately, we were unable to nick off with any pieces. :-)  Waterford Crystal just didn't feel right to me anymore due to how little involvement the Irish have with the product.  The brand name is still certainly there but, the associated product has lost it's luster in my eyes due to it's even greater commoditization and no longer unique location.

After the Waterford Crystal facility, we walked out of the building and took a right and walked down to the confluence of the rivers St. John and Suir.  At this location stands a renovated stone castle tower called, Reginald's Tower.  It's about 3 stories high and could tell you epic stories of the history of Waterford.  The Tower's location today stands right across from a modern hotel that bears it's name.  Back hundreds of years ago, the tower established the apex of a triangle of real estate that came to be known as the Viking Triangle.  Like Tribeca in New York City (triangle below canal street), the area still bears that name and relative shape.  However, unlike then, it contains shops, offices, churches, mostly empty apartments above businesses, malls and a myriad of bars and restaurants. We enjoyed a nice tour of the tower and climbed the 56steps to the 3rd level to watch a brief video on it's history before leaving for more touring.

Enjoyed a pleasant tour of the waterfront quay with Oisin providing the color commentary along the way.  While the girls stolled ahead, I was happy to lag behind with Oisin.  Was a great opportunity for me to get to know him and he, I.  Also got to get to know his lovely wife, Susan, a bit better and for Rose and Rosie to just catch up.  As we walked, it became apparent to me that Oisin was getting thirsty and I admitted to being a bit parched myself... so, we were happy to let them lead us to one of their preferred establishments, T&H Doolan's for some refreshments.  :-)  The place has a ton of history and atmosphere.  I/we immediately liked the place.  I'm guessing we got there around a little after 1800 and we ended up enjoying a couple of beverages of our choice.  Mine and Oisin's being, Guinness!

Back in the States, I've tried to enjoy a Guinness on occasion but, I've never enjoyed the taste... always reminded me of the taste of burnt soy sauce.  Not good.  HOWEVER, the Guinness coming out of the tap in T&Hs was smooth, creamy and yummy!  Went down easy and leaving me wondering where it went?  Sadly, we could not linger long in T&Hs.  We were cordially invited to have dinner with some of the other Ryan's at their mother, Peggy's, home around 1900.  We got there a wee bit late ~1930 and were warmly welcomed.

What a great family!  I've been hearing stories/exploits of the Ryan children for years now.  On this evening (not counting Oisin and Susan) we got to meet Peggy, her son Diarmait, her daughter Una and Una's son Robert, and Una's dog, Jasper, a white bichon full of personality!  After dinner enjoying a variety of heavy hors d'oeuvres and tasty Chinese food -- I know what you're thinking... we had to fly all the way across the Atlantic to find some good Irish/Chinese food :-) -- I would get to meet another one of the brothers, who had only recently moved to Australia for work.  Gearoid, his wife, Kate (the Australian in the family) and their 2 small children, Maeve and Sam via Skype.  Who doesn't like Skype that uses it?  Really changes the nature of long distant relationships and, even though you may miss whomever, makes one feel your loved ones/friends aren't that far away when you can see and speak with them.  Really cool.

Enjoyed a very pleasant evening chatting, telling stories and looking forward to meeting the rest of the Ryan's on the morrow.  We reluctantly left for Oisin and Susan's around ~2300 and got back to the house at ~2310. Well, I was ready for bed but, Oisin wouldn't let me retire for the evening before having a nightcap of Guinness... or 2, or so.  :-)  So, after solving world hunger (and forgetting about it in the morning), Oisin called it a night and I attempted to blog until I went up to rest at 0230.  Still on US East coast time.

Waterford sanding/grinding craftsman prepping large beer mug!

That's 1 big beer glass

Holding some precious crystal

Tom Carr, Master Cutter, friend of Oisin's, explaining some of the craft

Holding the NFL's crystal trophy

People's Choice Award

Part of our private tour

Rosie and Tom Carr

Crystal commemorating 9-11

Plaque on crystal

The showroom and some factory

Reginald's Tower at the apex of the Viking Triangle in Waterford

View out of the tower to the Quay and Millenium monument

Outside the Tower

Oisin and Susan

Nice B&W

Posing outside the multi-use Ryan Office in Waterford

Monument to shipping along the Quay

Enjoying each others company

Downtown Waterford

Clock Tower on the Quay

Dunnes Stores are all over Ireland

Post Box painted green

Enjoying my 1st Guinness in a pub

Susan doesn't mind a good stout either

A relaxing evening in T&H Doolan's

Our names on a Us $1 bill in the pub

Outside the pub

Closer shot of cousins

Peggy Ryans home

Peggy and Rose

Oisin and Diarmait

Skype'ing with family in Australia

Trevor!

Some Ryan's and Roses

Another fabulous day and just a porten of things to come on Sunday!

Oiche mhaith (Good night) for now.

I'm going to work on the commentary for Sunday, our 3rd day in Ireland, next before attempting to post more photos.  Appreciate all of your patience blog followers.

Fuji