Another "Day At The Races"

Before our "Day at the Races," we spent the night before at the "National Folk Theater of Ireland" that is based right here in Tralee, even though they travel regularly to various parts of Ireland. It is called "Siamsa Tire" (she-EM-sha TEE-rah). They are attempting to preserve Irish history and culture by presenting songs and dance from Ireland's past that focuses on what life was like in the "Good Old Days."

This year's show is called "San Am Fado" (son ahm fah-DOE) or "The Long Ago." It was a musical with a small house orchestra of mostly Irish instruments that included much dancing too.

There was no narration and all the songs were in Gaelic, but you could follow along quite well with the story based on the action and a brief program guide that explained traditions and work in the old days of "cutting turf in the bog," "children at play," "courtship," harvesting in the fields,"  "skirts of straw to celebrate a good harvest," "milking the cows," "churning the butter," "making ropes of straw," "patching the thatched roof," "the shoemaker at work," and "the old superstitions."

No photography was allowed, so you'll just have to take our word that it was avery  talented group of singers, dancers, and musicians. You can go to their web site at siamsatire.com/, but it doesn't show much of their program.

So, the next morning we headed north for the races at the town of Listowel (liss-tool). We were early, so we drove a little further north to the town of Ballybunnion to get another look at the Atlantic. Here's a view down to the beach from the city park at the top of the cliffs.

This is "Lady's Beach" below and it is certainly well maintained (or else they don't get much seaweed floating in).

Here's another view towards the southwest.

On the way back to Listowel, we noticed a little sign for a "famine cemetery," and so we stopped to see what it was all about.

As the monument notes, the small field is a mass grave of those who died in the Listowel area from the famine, either in their own homes, along the roads, or in the workhouses. A TV program we watched last week noted that so many were dying that they would have to just haul the bodies outside the town and attempt to bury the bodies or at least cover the bodies with lime to prevent the spread of disease.

All this while the British government debated just how much aid should or should not be provided to the Irish under their rule, while they shipped grain and cattle out of Ireland to England under soldiers' guard. (Think "Darfur," but so much more subtle.)

Here's the field of the dead. It makes you think of John F. Kennedy's quote: "What's the use of being Irish if the world doesn't break your heart?"

But that sad sight didn't stop us from returning to downtown Listowel to look up the "John B. Keane" Pub. We couldn't find a relative in the place, even though the place was packed.

And just because it looks like I'm walking out of the place with a bigger "beer belly" than usual doesn't mean I was consuming anything of the kind. It must have been that big breakfast we've been getting as part of the package at our hotel.

Just up street where we parked our car, we thought we could get a discount at Whelan's Shoe Store by telling them we had Whelan Cousins, but the place was all locked up and we assumed they were at the races already.

So, it was "off to the races" just at the edge of town. When we noticed on the sign that it was the 150th anniversary of the fall races---just like the 150th anniversary at Lourdes---we thought we should immediately check the race book for a horse name "Lourdes" and bet every cent we had. (Fortunately, there was no such horse for us to be making a sacrilegious bet like that.)

The place filled up fast, and even though there were clouds off and on, the rain held off all day. There's more of the big hills and fields of County Kerry in the background.

Since the Sunday and Monday horse races had been called off because of a "too wet" racecourse, it looks like everybody showed up today.

We found Mr. Flood's bookmaking booth again that we had good luck at in Galway, but this time we got to return our Galway winnings to him here in Listowel. We only won on two out of the six races of the day.

We worked just as hard studying the "race book" and then looking over the horses before each race. But we just didn't make the best picks. (You'd think we were rookies or something.)

But we enjoyed the day and the excitement anyway. There were some very pretty horses and all the races were "steeple chase" on a grass course. Each race was about two miles long. You could even sit back and watch the race on the giant screen live while the horses were running in front of you.

And you should know by now how hospitable and accommodating the Irish are. They are so thoughtful that they even back in a trailer with two ATM's on the back to help you get to more money right there at the race track.

Well, we hopefully learned our lesson and will mend our gambling ways---at least until the next horse race comes along.

We got back in time for dinner and a swim back in Tralee, so we will hopefully be ready and able to take a scenic drive out around the "Dingle Peninsula" if the weatherman's forecast for a sunnier day for tomorrow is accurate.

"Slan Abhaile"   (slawn ah-bale) "So long for now."