sacredness & storytelling: Two Townies in the Country: Part I

WE LOVE SHEEP!

Wazzup friends, family, and random visitors?!?

I am about to tell you about the best weekend I’ve had in a long while. *Disclaimer*: Before, During, and After you read this blogpost you will most likely experience feelings of jealousy, thoughts of “Why-Am-I-Not-In-Your-Shoes” and other serious side effects. Hilary Korabik is not responsible for any such occurences. Please read only as directed, and if you suffer from bouts of envy, this might not be the blogpost for you.

I finally met my Irish cousins! I have known about them for only six years, but in this small fraction of my life, I have romanticized ideas of kinship and friendship. I suppose I have never admitted it before, but those of you who know me well will agree that I am somewhat of a romantic. Not romcom romantic but fanciful, idealist romantic. Ya know? I am certain this weekend was more of a novelty for me than it was for the people I visited since they tend to have distant relatives come visit them once in a while, but I had the time of my life. And I owe it all to them. Cut to Dirty Dancing: go hereeee.

I have been thinking about this ever since I got back from Westport, and I have realized that the beauty of the dream is that it could all fall apart. I realized after the fact that I was so nervous to meet my cousins because I had been dreaming of meeting them for so long and had this picture in my head of how things would be… and the dream had the potential to come true, but also had the potential to deteriorate…

This all started back in June 2005 when my mom called me while in Ireland. She said she had met our Irish cousins and that one of them, Louise, had a son named Stephen who had the same birthday as me. Exactly the same age. I have never had cousins my age before so this was extremely exciting for me. After this weekend, I must admit that my head hurts trying to figure out how exactly everyone is related to me, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Stephen and I are third cousins. And I’m not budging on that even if it’s wrong because I cannot think about it anymore. So even though we are very distant relations I still found it thrilling that I had a cousin that was the same age as me. I remember being at family parties and all my cousins would leave to go out together and leave my little self behind and I always wished I was their age so I could go with them. Basically, what I am saying is that ever since I heard about this birthday twin of mine, I have wanted to go to Ireland to meet him and the rest of the family. And this weekend, that dream came true.

Before I begin, let me explain my relationship to these cousins. My great-grandma, Nora Waters, had a sister named Sadie. Sadie was a baby when all her sisters left for America. Sadie’s son is Padraig, and he still lives in the house where my great-grandma lived. Padraig is my grandpa Barney’s first cousin. He has seven children: Louise, Fiona, Sinead, Cathy, Mary, Tricia, and Brian. That’s as simple as I can make it. All the Irish people I have met have made fun of me for visiting such distant cousins, but I’m so glad I did!

On Friday, Louise and Fiona came to pick up Amy and me. I got to sit next to Fiona’s baby Luke on the car ride and he is precious—just one month old! The whole car ride, Amy and I could not get over how fast people drive on these narrow, winding roads! But then, they aren’t used to city traffic, which we experience all the time, so I suppose it all evens out. When we finally got to Aughagower, we stopped by Sinead’s. She is Fiona’s twin sister. We didn’t get to meet her until the next day but we had to drop Fiona off to babysit Sinead’s kids, and we had to pick up Louise’s son and our new best friend, Shane.

Shane is 12 years old but he has a huge personality! He kept calling us townies and thought we were crazy for loving the sheep so much. He made fun of us a lot, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way. Friday night after Louise made us a delicious dinner, Shane and Louise’s husband Gerry took us to the top of a hill by Fiona’s house and drove us around on the quad. It was fun and a bit scary! When we got to the top we had a beautiful view and I never wanted to leave. I had never seen so much green before. Shane made fun of me for saying that, but he didn’t see the brown St. Louis grass this summer. After Shane drove us up, he gave me and Amy a chance to drive the quad. It was a lot of fun, but I was afraid I was going to kill a sheep. When the quadventures were done, we went into Fiona’s house for tea. Everyone there was talking about how we’d be dead the next day since Stephen McNally was coming home to take us out. We had never heard so much hype about a night out—as if I wasn’t already nervous enough to meet this cousin of mine!

After a while Tricia took us for a ride and showed us the town of Westport, which is so cute! She drove us back to Louise’s and we went inside to get ready for our night out… it was a little stressful since we did not know that this Westport adventure was going to be such a big deal and we hadn’t really brought many clothes to wear… the Irish people get decked out when they go out, whereas we are used to dressing for the weather. The Irish girls are always wearing short, short skirts and high heels, but Amy and I have been opting for jeans, flats, and a sweater… seriously, Ireland is chilly!

When we went back into the kitchen, who was there but Stephen McNally, my birthday twin. Ahhhhhhhh. So I know I am a very loud person generally, but I am very shy when I first meet people… especially if I have been wanting to meet them for such a long time! Sooo I was very quiet when I first met Steve. We sat in the kitchen while he went to get changed after work and then Darren, who is Mary’s son, walked in. Darren is 19 and he and Stephen are good friends. Two cousins my age?! Miracles do happen. Gerry drove us into town and we made Steve and Darren take us to the tourist pub Matt Molloy’s, even though they really did not want to go there. In my opinion, you have to do the tourist thing first to say you’ve done it, and then go do as the locals do! It was really crowded in there so it was no wonder that they didn’t want to go there. We stayed there until Amy broke a glass and then we peaced out of there and went wherever Steve and Darren wanted to go… except for night clubs… we said we would not go to a night club. I know I’ll have to go to one before my time in Ireland is done, but I really am not looking forward to it, so we’ll see when that happens.

Can you ever really explain a good time? Jokes were made, people were teased, pictures were taken, drinks were bought… all I can say is that I had a fabulous time with Amy, Steve, and Darren. It was so surreal for me to be out with cousins… As I said before, I was always jealous of my older cousins who went out together after family parties, so it was strange for me to be catching a glimpse of what it is like to have cousins my age. I’m sure that Steve and Darren were warned not to be too crazy so I think they went easy on us and we really weren’t dead the next morning like everyone expected us to be. But… Steve and I are turning 21 in December and for some reason 21^st birthdays are really big even here in Ireland… Steve said it is when you “become a man” so I guess it has some coming-of-age sentimentality behind it. So I may be heading down to Westport the second weekend in December for some birthday celebrations if the invitation still stands… and we’ll see how I am feeling the morning after that! This post is already extremely long due to the history/background so I’m gonna leave it here for now and will continue on with a part two soon! For now, here are some pictures for you to enjoy. So much love. XOXO Hilary