This trip has taught me a few things about Ireland - and Australia.
I had not realised that the Republic of Ireland has a population of about 4.5 million (about the same as New Zealand) with another 1.8 million in Northern Ireland. To put this into perspective, England has 53.5 million, and Scotland about 5.3 million. When you think about the long Ireland/England conflicts, it also has a big country/small country dimension to it.
This size also presumably contributes to a friendliness towards visitors in Ireland. Dublin is a small city after all. Every talk we received began with the words "You are most welcome..".
And the significance of the potato famine from 1845 to 1852. Blight was
a factor, but I gather that was not the whole story and it had
implications for Irish/English relations for a long, long while. People died,
and many others emigrated. It had a huge effect on the population. No
wonder there are statues and memorials to it.
Another thing this trip has done is to bring home to me the impact of the Irish in Australia. I have always been aware of it, but coming from a Scottish (and other) background, Ireland did not figure greatly in my awareness. Anything that wasn't Scottish, I tended to think of as English, or Australian, or maybe Irish.
But so often something has been heard, or presented and I find myself saying - "Oh, I didn't know THAT was Irish!"
Some examples are names of people and places: Kilrush, Kerry, Dempsey, Byrne, Shannon, Tralee.
Or songs: The Black Velvet band; Wild Rover; and the Wild Colonial Boy. Most singers know these songs and include them in their repertoire, mentioning Americans and Australians in their audience.
Or writers: We all know that James Joyce and WB Yeats were Irish - but Oscar Wilde, Jonathon Swift, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw?
And actors like Liam Neeson.
And Alan Joyce has just a standard, run of the mill, Irish accent - there is a whole nation of them over here!
