On Sunday, George and I took the ferry to the Great Blasket Island. We did not set foot on the island. It was a beautiful day agian with calm seas ... otherwise I would not have gone out! It takes 20 minutes to do the crossing. We enjoyed and voyage. I had been on the island about 6 years ago wiht a walking group. At that time we hiked around the island. It takes about 4 hours to do the full circuit.
Neili and Pankej led the first dance of the evening. The weddign ceremony started at about 2.30. We stayed until midnight, dancing and chatting. It was most pleasant.
Eimear Black and her husband, Tonu from Beijing, Mary Sheahan and myself, Mary's husband and Mary Black. (Mary and Eimear Black are George's first cousins). The two Mary's, Eimear and myself were all in UCC with Eileen in the 1970's. We all did B. Mus with Prof Fleischmann and Sean O Riada. The Blacks now live in Dublin and both teach music. Mary S lives in Munich, having spent about 6 years in Beijing where they met Tonu. I had a very interesting chat about Beijing with Tonu.
was served in the marquee tent. We had a four course buffet meal. It was delicious.
Afterthe ceremony guests were treated to a refreshing drink and Murphy's ice cream.
The couple pose for photographs outside Tigh Mheani (Meanie's cottage) where Eileen and Neili lived. Meanie was a relative on Tomas who lived in the gottage until she died as an old woman. Eileen continues to own the cottage.
Pankej's brothers welcome Nrili to their family. The Great Blasket Island lies calmly in the background.
The wedding ceremony was conducted by a lady called Blaithin. The script refeleted both the Muslim and Christian traditions and was very moving.
The wedding ceremonies took palce in a specially erected marquee in the field behind the family cottage in Dun Chaoin, on the edge of the ocean, in Ireland's most westerley, southerly place. It was a magnificent day, warm amd dry without wind. A very special day indeed in this wild part of the world!
This is my friend Eileen Gleeson (in the middle). We studied music together in UCC many years ago. In about 1975 he went to the very end of the Dingle Peninsula, to a place called Dun Chaoin for a summer holiday. SHe met and married a local ficherman, Tomas O Cathain. They had a baby girl whom they called Neili (Nelly). Tragically, Tomas was drowned in the bay between Dun Chaoin and the Blasket Islands three months ater Neili was born in 1976. Tomas' body was never found. Eileen and Neili continued to live in Dun Chaoin while Neili was in school. Neili eventually moved to Dublin to studt photography and Eileen moved to live in Killarney. This weekend, on June 9th, Nrili was married to an Indian man in Dun Chaoin. We were invited to the wedding ....
You could take a horse-drawn carriage tour around the town. We preferred shank's mare!
The house in which Marie Curie is born in 1867 is now a museum. She left Warsaw aged 24 and went to Paris. Within 7 years she hd become internationally known as the co-founder of a new branch of science, radioactivity, with her husband Pierre Curie. They discovered radium and polonium. She was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for science in 1911.
