Ireland: Shades of Green

Our writer rediscovers his roots in Ireland—the land of saints and scholars.

Ireland exists in shades of green. There’s the fairway green of rolling hills, broken by hunter-green clumps of oak. The tender green of a moss-covered wall. The emerald green of a transparent raindrop as it beads on a leaf. And the green of a morning after late nights at the pub. Until I drove through Ireland, I never knew they were each so unique.

During my childhood, Ireland was always in the background: in my grandmother’s accent; in the fragile blue airmail letters that arrived in our mailbox; in the sound of my name. I only thought to ask about these things when I was older, but by then my grandparents were gone.

As I drove through the little town of Ballyclare, where my grandmother was born, I recognized the squat brick of the town hall from a faded postcard she had saved. In the nearby hamlet of Glenwherry I found the church where she married my grandfather before they boarded a ship to a new life in Canada. But no one was around and I couldn’t get in.

I don’t know what I was hoping to find in those places. In truth, they raised more questions than answers. Who am I? Where did I come from? How much of my nature could be traced to this strange island? And it is a strange place—a place where everyone is a poet, gifted with a silver tongue, and where every hill is rooted in pre-Christian myth. What aspects of that place shaped my life, an ocean away?

When my job as a travel writer finally presented me with an opportunity to visit, I decided to find out for myself. I met up with photographer Colin O’Connor in Belfast to take a road trip of the geographic north of the island. I was searching for some connection to the spirit of place—a sense of my own cultural DNA—and we both hoped to indulge in our shared passion for hiking. Ireland would have something to offer us both.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 2:19 pm and is filed under web archives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. Add to del.icio.us.