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Travel Inspires
It was my good fortune to be able to travel to Ireland in late May. It is a country filled with art and literature at every turn. It has inspired me and my writing in many ways.
I took a literary pilgrimage of sorts whilst in Dublin to check out Mary Lavin's haunts. Mary Lavin was a twentieth century Irish writer especially noted for her short stories. I was thrilled to visit a park that featured a sculpture based on one of her stories and an avenue dedicated to her. On a nearby side street, her house sits where she held many literary gatherings.
Also in Dublin, I visited the Famine Memorial sculptures and the EPIC Immigration Museum (EPIC = Every person is connected), both, moving and powerful experiences.
It was with great pleasure that I added my ancestor, Ann Brennan Ginty Campbell, to their database. After researching her story of leaving Ireland during the famine and eventually making her way to Gold Rush country in California, she inspired my novel, Campbell’s Boy.
I visited the passage tombs in Ireland World Heritage Site, Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange and Knowth), a World Heritage Site, almost 30 years ago, a visceral experience that imprinted on me. So much so that I wrote a short story about it (“Martin”, recently published by Mobius Blvd, link in under Short Stories).
Revisiting offering new and different prisms and angles of this awe inspiring place. Connecting with the ancestors indeed.
Unbeknownst to our travel planner (me), one of our locations, Ballyshannon in Donegal, was a day away from a huge convergence of folks (30,000 plus) from all over Europe and beyond for the Rory Gallagher Festival. Gallagher, a musician, was a native son and the little town is proud of that. We missed it by one day but enjoyed this great spot with nights out at the pubs where we walked around in a light- filled night sky---stays bright way beyond 10 p.m. ish. (Love that.)
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