Traveling To Kinsale

Not much happening today. We are driving from Tralee in County Kerry to our final week's stay in Kinsale, County Cork, that town the Whelan Clan likes to hang out in.

We had to drive through the passes of another small mountain range that separates the two counties, but this was all on pretty good roads.

Our only delay was going through a few towns along the way that were having busy Saturday morning activities. Here's the busy town of Macroom in the photo below that took us almost twenty minutes to get through since they don't have any by-pass.

After a break midway for lunch---pizza, of course---we got to our apartment in Kinsale with plenty of time to walk into town to pick up groceries for the week and do a little shopping.

And after Sue looked all these weeks for "just the right" sweater, she walked into the first shop we came to and found what she was looking for. She still can't believe it was that quick and easy.

With only a few photos from the day, this might be a good time to get back to the "Nuns Having Fun" book we saw in a Galway bookstore a few weeks back.

The book was just a series of photos of Nuns in enjoyable situations like riding go-karts and roller skating.

The book led us to believe that the people here might have enjoyed the article we saw in our Journal/Sentinel newspaper just before we left. It was just a small article that announced that a Father Antonio Rungi, a priest and theologian in Rome, was planning on holding a "Miss Sister 2008" contest where people could nominate and vote for their favorite Nun who would then be selected as the winner of the "Miss Sister 2008" contest on his web site set up for this purpose.

(How could you make up a story like this!) (And isn't it interesting that it's easier to remember the details of off-beat stories like this than being able to remember where I put my glasses this morning?)

Apparently, the priest earnestly believed that he would be honoring Nuns and there was something in the article where he was quoted as saying that "Nuns should be recognized for their beauty outside as well as inside."

Maybe the fact that he was a theologian put him a little out of touch with the rest of us, because it was only a few days later that a smaller article appeared in our newspaper stating that the "Miss Sister 2008" contest was cancelled and an apology was issued by Father Rungi if he had offended anyone. We assume that the priest got a lot of outraged calls/letters and realized the contest wasn't in keeping with the goals of many religious orders.

But in the few days between the first article and the second retraction, the thought did cross our minds that we should be keeping an eye out for Nuns in Ireland to nominate---with the hopes that they might get a laugh out of the story.

We were thinking of starting by asking our dear cousin (and author) Sister Josephe Marie if she'd like to be nominated. But, thinking it over, she might have said "no thank you" and then have felt the need to get a restraining order as well ;-).

Well, the "Nuns Having Fun" book gave us hope that it might have been a good "conversation piece" and good for a laugh with people we would meet on our travels.

We never did get to make any nominations for the "Miss Sister 2008," but we expect to see a discussion of the issue at the next "Late Night Catechism" play we see.

It also reminded us of a certain Sister Sarah from Dublin who came running into her Mother Superior's office, all out of breathe.

"Well, my goodness, sit down and rest," said the Mother Superior, "did you have trouble doing the shopping in town this afternoon?"

"Oh no, it was much worse than that," said Sister Sarah, " I was attacked in an alleyway by a drunken, old man with a long knife who said he was going to have his way with me and then told me to lift my garments!"

"Oh my goodness," said the Mother Superior, "and so what did you do?"

"I was so frightened I did what he said and lifted up my garments," said Sister.

"Oh my, and then what happened?" asked Mother Superior.

"Well, then he dropped his trousers!" explained Sister.

"Oh no, I'm almost afraid to ask, what happened then?" asked Mother Superior.

"Well, since I had my garments up and he had his trousers down," said Sister, "it was a real easy decision---I'd have an easy time running and he wouldn't, so I ran and got back here safe and sound."

(And that will be two "Hail Mary's" for any of you who thought this was going to be a dirty joke.) [;-)