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The driver of a train

28th October 202328th October 2023 funtime65

Time flies by when you’re the driver of a train, the Chigley version rather than the Half Man Half Biscuit version.

Because whatever else changes in the world kids (and big kids alike, like my father-in-law Casey Jones) always love pulling the levers or pushing the buttons.

In the booths and cabins of planes. (back in the day), trains and cruise ships.

Don’t let kids (or often big kids) at your car, particularly if it’s your classic Fiat Cinquecento on the French Riviera.

But we should always be encouraged into the driver’s seat as part of any excursion which has transport at its heart.

Behind the wheel

Cherry on top: Cherry Tree Hill, Barbados

And thankfully my efforts at the wheel were just for fun.

On Princess Cruises in Dublin, or the highest train in Europe, the Jungfraujoch In Switzerland, or a steam engine in Barbados.

Or the flight stimulator in Turkish Airlines Headquarters in Istanbul where I crashed the plane into the Hudson while trying to land at JFK in New York.

Of course, we don’t have to go to foreign climes to enjoy being in the driver’s seat, it’s just that we deserve it.

Because we have those treats right at hand.

Model Malahide

While if you’re lucky enough to live in Dublin, are visiting, or have rellies living there.

Then you can get your ticket to ride the Casino Model Railway Museum this midterm.

And it and the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg have turned me into the kind of gricer old Casey Jones, my father-in-law would be proud.

You’ll drive a life-sized Iarnród Éireann train at the Casino Model Railway Museum in Malahide.

At its Children’s Interpretative Centre. Adult €7.50 Child €5.00 Family €22.00 (2+2) Student & Seniors €6.00.

It’s housed in the restored Casino ‘Cottage Orné’ in the heart of Malahide, north of the city.

DART hits the mark

The attraction maximises technology, with layered sights and sounds and digital screens.

On the windows of the carriage to help add to the experience.

These interactive elements deliver an educational experience filled with energy and momentum as the DART journey unfolds.

The DART you say, it’s the renowned Dublin Area Regional Transport train service we came to rely on in our 13 years in Ireland.

And there were plenty of times on my way home from Dublin to Greystones that I wished I’d been the driver of a train.

Countries, Ireland

Winter in Dublin

23rd October 202323rd October 2023 funtime65

Cult Irish band Bagatelle famously ‘remembered that summer in Dublin’, more recently Fáilte Ireland have been promoting Winter in Dublin.

For me in my 13 years an Irishman there were a couple of white Christmases.

And I remember one Snowmageddon and a slippy Leeson Street when I slipped and fell.

Dublin, and Ireland, in truth has never been as prepared as Northern countries for icy grips.

And the sight of Beamers (BMW( abandoned on the dualler (dual carriageway).

En route from plush rugby central Ballsbridge through to Chez Murty in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, was commonplace.

Ariel House of Fun

Wilde stuff: Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square

Of course, winter lockdowns were fortunately rare.

Welcome when it means you get put up in the work’s local hotel, the award-winning Ariel House, for the night.

Light frosting on Herbert Park, Stephen’s Green, Merrion Square and Phoenix Park make Dublin a picturesque winter city.

And I will be wallowing in The Fair City’s winter welcome on a whistlestop trip to my old stomping ground this week.

Night fever

Pat’s the way: At St Patrick’s Cathedral

Kicking off this month and new this year, Dublin by Night Fest is a two-day festival from November 2.

Celebrating the magic of music, arts and culture in Dublin with brass bands, buskers and circus performers to a live outdoor movie screening.

For lit lovers (guilty) The Dublin Book Festival runs from November 8-12.

While later next month The Jonathan Swift Festival will be held in the ornate St Patrick’s Cathedral.

With debates, performances and immersive tours.

Here indoors

Little belter: The Little Museum of Ireland

And because it can get chilly in the winter…

You’ll no doubt visit the must-sees, The Book of Kells, Dublin Castle, the Hugh Lane Gallery, Kilmainham Gaol and ‘the Dead Zoo’ (The National Museum of Ireland’.

But a fave with locals is The Little Museum of Ireland.

This winter it is offering late night tours with a festive tipple on Thursdays, Friday’s and Saturdays through November.

While the National Gallery of Ireland, our go-to when waiting for the Scary One doing her shopping in Grafron Street is warming up for winter.

The National Gallery has after dark events including ‘Meet the Maker’, evening concerts and Spanish themed experiences.

Light up, light up

The city and many venues around it will host light events including Wonder Lights at Malahide Castle from November 10.

Wild Lights” will also return to Dublin Zoo from November 16.

And many of the events, activities and markets take place from November.

And carry all the way through December into January.

Ice, ice maybe

Which all budding ice skaters (fave family memories) in Dun Laoghaire and Blanchardstown will run well into the New Year.

So I’ll be packing my scarf in my hand luggage and taking a deep breath to inhale again the Irish air and my winter in Dublin.

Countries, Ireland

Farewell and travel well, Mum

13th August 2023 funtime65

Farewell and travel well, Mum.. and you’ll have got to your destination straightaway seeing I’m not navigating you.

I’ve had a lifetime of trips to her homestead of Co. Donegal.

Starting from when I was still waiting to come a-blinking out into the world.

When she would take the ferry from Glasgow to Derry, the nearest town to her hamlet of Brockagh.

Easter arising

The gang: Teasy, third from right, Ronnie, second from right

She would regale us in later life of how she wouldn’t sleep for weeks ahead at the prospect of getting back to see her family.

And then when she would take me over to Brockagh at Easters.

When my brothers would stay at home with my Dad to study.

And then when I had relocated for my 13 years in Ireland when I’d take her up on an annual trip from Greystones in Co. Wicklow.

A trip through the ages in Ireland

There were many adventures along the way with me, my brothers, Dad and a swathe of Irish family.

And there was double trouble the year we took her wee sister Ronnie with us with me driving her automatic sports stars.

Of course, no quicker were we out of the driveway than my Mum started pressing random buttons on the dashboard.

Avoiding the temptation to look out at every house and field along the way the real drama started around the border.

When Teasy gave up the cry: ‘We’re in Bandit Country, Ronnie, tell him Ronnie.’

All along the border

By the time we’d got past Monaghan and their country roads we were back on track and the gabby grannies were back in full voice.

And pointing out the various villages and who they knew who had lived there and passed through their lives.

There would be other journeys and stories, to our American family in New York and around Britain and to Europe.

While she enthralled everyone she met on her travels around the world with my Dear Old Dad after they had empty-nested.

Rest easy, Teasy

But we’ll take that final journey to the family plot in Brockagh, Co. Donegal.

And should I hear an echo of a familiar Irish voice in the car then I’ll just do what I did then and turn the radio up.

Farewell and travel well, Mum.

Teasy McNulty Murty (1928-2023), the last of the McNultys of Brockagh, Co. Donegal.

Countries, Europe, Ireland

St Veronica wipes out King Billy on the Glorious 12th

12th July 202312th July 2023 funtime65

Now at the last count we found 22 saintly contenders who share this day but today we focus on how St Veronica wipes out King Billy on the Glorious 12th.

St Veronica, we know from one simple act of humanity from the Passion of Jesus Christ.

When she wiped Our Lord’s sweat and blood-splattered face on his way to Calvary.

For which she was sanctified and given this day for Christians to mark every 12th of July.

Though some in the North of Ireland prefer to bedeck themselves in orange and march in memory of Protestant saviour King William of Orange.

And burn effigies of the Pope upon towering pyres of tyres.

The Donegal exodus

All of which leads to an exodus of Catholics to bordering Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.

Our own Veronica here in our family, our beloved auntie who used to take me on childhood holidays there and in Co. Galway, now lies for eternity there in her home county.

And I was able to return the favour to drive her and my Dear Old Mum, her big sister, up to Ireland’s northernmost county, in her sports car, with both women chattering and pressing buttons on the dashboard.

Veronica’s, or Ronnie’s as we all knew her, was well-named and such was her devotion to her faith I remember her especially this day, her patron saint’s day.

The virtuous Veronica

The holy of holies. At the end of the Francigena in Rome

Of the other Veronica, well, little is known of her after her act of kindness.

But more is known of the cloth she handed to Jesus with it believed to reside now in the Vatican.

There is reference to it coming into the hands of Pope John VII in the early eighth century.

While its legend became popular in the 13th through 15th centuries when the veil was on public display.

Indulgences were granted for people who performed devotions before it.

The trail went somewhat cold around the Sack of Rome in 1527.

There are believed to be six known copies in the world with the original kept in St. Peter’s basilica.

Portrait of a saint

Hands up for King Billy: UIster Unionism

So, if you want an alternative to Northern Irish unionist triumphalist on this day.

Then try the patron saint of laundry workers and photographers… and thank you for my own award-winning snapper, Mrs M.

Because now you know, St Veronica wipes out King Billy on the Glorious 12th.

Countries, Ireland, UK

Hospitable Hugh’s invitation

16th August 202216th August 2022 funtime65

Ireland’s fáilte is famous the world over and history records especially one Hospitable’s Hugh’s invitation in Fermanagh.

Hugh Maguire replied to his English visitor thus in 1539: ‘Your sheriff shall be welcome, but let me know his eric, that if my people should cut off his head I may levy it upon the country.’

That English visitor being Queen Elizabeth.

Poster boys and girls: With the Travel Circuit in Dublin

Perhaps best not look too closely then at her Tripadvisor entry or whether Eric ever did stay.

Thankfully Elizabeth’s modern namesake is now a friend to all Ireland following her historic trip in 2011.

Castle and keep

King (or queen) of the castle: Enniskillen

As are Hibernophiles from all across ‘the other island’.

All something to soak up then on your trip to Hugh’s fortress, Enniskillen Castle, and on your boat trip around the island town.

Where you truly will be afforded the best hospitality, and all at the best prices.

For only £20.75 per adult, £14.25 per child, with the Island Town and Castle Pass which guarantees hours of fun!

Going underground

A little-known fact here too and one worth telling all those Brexiteers as they try to wrestle with hard and soft borders.

The Marble Arch Caves is where trace the Owenbrean River runs free under Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Tickets are £12 per adult and £6 per child for a 75-minute tour.

C’Mahon round to our place

These days, of course, the hospitality has moved on from Hugh’s castle to…

The family orientated Mahon’s Hotel situated in the quaint town of Irvinestown.

Walking options, golfing and water activities are all within reach with breaks starting at only £95 per night.

A different kinda lodge

Now not all lodges in Northern Ireland are so welcoming…

As the Killyhevlin Lakeside Hotel & Lodges which has a September Saver offer with prices at £175 per night.

The best resort

You’ll Erne your R&R: With a little watersports

If resorts are more your thing then make your way to the 5* Lough Erne Resort.

Nestled on a 600-acre peninsula, it boasts spectacular views of the Fermanagh Lakelands and the world-renowned Faldo Course.

Enjoy the best available B&B rate with £70 Complimentary Credits from £149.

So get yourself out to Fermanagh Lakelands… and that’s me saying it, not Hospital Hugh’s invitation.

Countries, Ireland

Boing, boing for the Boyne

12th July 202212th July 2022 funtime65

Happy (or unhappy depending on whose side you’re on) 12th July, so for the day that’s in it let’s go Boing, boing for the Boyne.

And for those of you who don’t make the Battle of the Boyne the centrepiece of their existence a quick recap.

The battle was fought between Protestant Dutch King William of Orange, the new monarch of the UK and the deposed Catholic King James II in 1688.

Never mind that it was really fought on July 1.

And was moved forward when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted.

Or that the Pope, for political reasons, supported Protestant William against the French-backed James.

Red alert

Red alert: How Carson skewed the argument

This is the holiest of holy days for Northern Irish protestants.

And they spend all year honing their marching and musical skills.

And building skyscraper-sized bonfires on which they burn effigies of Il Papa (well, there is an energy crisis).

So, it’s party and holiday time in Northern Ireland for Edward Carson and his protestant sons and daughters.

While the Catholic population flee to Donegal across the border.

But what of the Boyne itself?

Well with the special logic that is uniquely Irish, the battlefield is in the southern Republic.

It’s in the South

Soldiers are we? And they fought in Ireland

The Boyne has been meandering peacefully through Co. Meath, 30 miles north of Dublin these past 332 years.

With the blood of 2000, Irish, Scots, English and foreign mercenaries (there were 12 nationalities in all) long since washed away.

What remains is the Battle of the Boyne visitor centre.

Now over I3 and a half years living in Ireland I passed the Boyne on countless numbers of occasions.

But I have yet to venture in.

The centre that is, not the river!

But I have vowed to, and will.

And, of course, I will give the Orangemen a thought today when I fly over the site on my Ryanair flit to Dublin.

Us bonny fechters

Should you be in the vicinity of the Boyne, or are heading either up to Belfast, or down to Dublin, pop in.

Times have changed and you’ll be made to feel very welcome with free self-guided tours.

It’s fun too to imagine being actually on the battlefield and indeed your ancestors very well may have been.

Us Murtys and McNultys (Ma’s name) for example got everywhere which is probably where this peripatetic gene stems.

I found my great-uncles in the cemeteries and memorials of Flanders.

And in the building wall in Barbados.

Whose side are you on?

I dare say too that we were at the Boyne but on whose side?

My Dear Old Dad might spin in his grave up in Donegal at the result.

The good folks at the Boyne help us all to find out the truth about our ancestors.

So today I’ll be weaing some orange (hell, I like the colour and the Dutch, and who says I’m not allowed?).

And I’ll be going boing, boing for the Boyne.

America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Ireland

Five republics to escape the Platinum Jubilee

2nd June 20222nd June 2022 funtime65

And continuin our series, and because we’re not all pliant subjects, here are five republics to escape the Platinum Jubilee.

There are 159 republic in the world and only 43 sovereignty ikstates with monarchies. Go figure.

Vive La Republique

France: Mais oui, there were republics before the French, only they shout Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité a little louder.

So much so that the French are onto their fifth since We the First in 1792, followed we should remember by Emperor Napoleon.

And there is more than a touch of the regal about the French President’s official residence, the Élysée Palace in Paree.

The Battle Hymn

Mr President: Issy Conway, George Washington and the Pres’s right-hand man

America: And some 16 years before the then-royalist French helped the colonies form mthe Republic.

George Washington and his Vice-President John Adams had discussed how the new Pres should be addressed.

Adams had leant towards His Excellence but Washington insisted on just Mr President.

And he rejected his pal jGeneral Lafayette’s idea to erect an ornate monument in DC to him complete with horses.

Instead he had an obelisk, the Washington Monument installed instead. Pure class.

Italy’s republics

Rome: Now La Citta Eterna is credited as the cradle of Republics although Athens might have something to say about that.

We all associate Classical Rome, of course, with the Caesars, but the Republic ran Rome’s affairs from 509BC to 27BC.

While the lyCaesars looked down from their plinths from 46BC-476AD.

YNow I was more a Latin student than a maths expert but that seems roughly the same and the Republic won out in the end.

The Irish Republic

On a pedestal: With Charles Stewart Parnell in Co. Wicklow

Ireland: And because the Free State didn’t scream self-determination (OK, it was a bit more complicated) they became a republic in 1949.

They had formed an ya constitution in 1937 with an elected non-executive president before breaking with the crown in 1949.

After a fractured relationship in the 60-odd years after the Irish brought back the Queen… but only for a visit in 2011.

Barbados, the new Republic

Barbados: And on November 30, 2021, Barbados took the momentous decision to replace the uQueen with a Bajan, President Sandra Mason.

Y the After 396 years, although Barbados had taken the first step with independence in 1966… and I even saw the seal in the Archive Offices.

The date, November 30, was arbitrary but in my wee country it is our national day, named for St Andrew, our patron saint.

Just returned from a third visit to Barbados I reacquainted myself with our joint heritage which includes a region of the island called Scotland. I

We sang Scots and Soca songs, ceilidhed and jumped and toasted the Barbados republic with rum and whisky.

My reason for going, well I didn’t need one, but it was to celebrate the renewal of the Barbados Celtic Festival.

And thought dreamily of a Scotland having their day one day.

Countries, Cruising, Ireland, UK

P&O no no, Stena’s who to know

18th March 202218th March 2022 funtime65

We’re loath to diss operators here but there’s no defending torpedoing of staff… it’s P&O no no Stena’s who to know.

Like many of the Fiftysomething Irish-Scots variety I knew my way around a ship long before I stepped on a plane.

And Townsend Thoresen from Cairnryan to Larne were as familiar a transport provider to me as the 44 bus across Glasgow to school.

P&O took over TT in 1987 by which time I had disembarked to England and started flying to Ireland.

A different ship

And with Ryanair emerging to fly us at budget prices ferries were reserved for family holidays and house moves.

When Stena had emerged as the protectors of la famille Murty from Scotland to Ireland and back.

Now ships have certainly upgraded from the Seventies when I would run the toy cars on deck which I had bought from the ship shop.

I have been fortunate enough to be hosted by Stena in dock in Dublin, viewed their cabins and cinema hubs, bars and restaurants.

Treat your staff well

Child’s play: Better than running toy cars

I pride myself on the courtesy I was taught by my parents never to look down on staff.

If only the same could be said for P&O.

Stena offers a sample three-day return from Cairnryan to Belfast from £119.

Alas, The Scary One insisted our last Stena trip to Scotland was a single!

If you tolerate this

So, if you want to protest against P&O, and in the words of Manic Street Preachers…

‘If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.’

Then sail with our go-to ferry company, you won’t be disappointed.

So from us it’s P&O no no Stena’s who to know.

Africa, America, Countries, Ireland, UK

A town called Patrick

17th March 202217th March 2022 funtime65

Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone and here off pat around the world we celebrate you if you’re from a town called Patrick.

And there are surprisingly few too.

There are only eight Patricks across three countries.

McCool kid

And even more startlingly none are in the country where St Patrick is most celebrated, Ireland.

But in an island in the Irish Sea, all right, the Isle of Man.

Patrick (population 1,576) is in fact more of a parish, in the west of the isle, than a town.

The Isle of Man, of course, is a well-trodden soil for the Irish…

Mighty craic

And the craic there is always 80.

Of course it was invented when Irish giant Finn McCool was chasing a Scottish giant across Ulster.

He picked up a handful of earth and chucked it at him…

The sod created the Isle of Man and the crater he left behind is now Lough Neagh.

Moving on, and such was the footprint that the Irish have left on the USA that you won’t be surprised to see some Patricks there.

Off Pat in the USA

And so you’ll see a Patrick in Mississippi, Nevada, Arkansas, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas.

Whisper it but the Patrick commemorated isn’t our snake-chasing saint.

The Nevada one is an American soldier Patrick McCarran, who bought the land and also begat a US senator.

The Texas a postmaster Patrick Gallagher.

Both obvs Irish-American.

Now we can only imagine Patrick and its region St Patrick (see we got one) in Lesotho is the Irish missionary influence in Africa.

The land-locked mountainous country is completely encircled by South Africa.

But it is timely to mention that it resisted the interference of South Africa and continues to do so.e

Even if it that means a continuing water dispute.

Water of the good life

Of course, today is more about the Guinness than the water.

And so if you’re a Patrick, come from a place called Patrick, or a region St Patrick’s.

As in the region north-west of Sir Grantley Adams Airport, Barbados.

Then you’ve got an extra reason to celebrate today on St Patrick’s Day.

We celebrate you if you’re from a town called Patrick.

Countries, Ireland

Dublin hub from hub for Ukrainians

13th March 202213th March 2022 funtime65

It was a home from home in my 13 years in Ireland which is why I’m flagging up a Dublin hub from hub for Ukrainians.

Ireland has been as good as its word as the land of a hundred thousand welcomes the refugees from war.

And Ukrainian families arriving in Ireland are immediately made to feel at home with the biggest Failte.

Nappy days

Child’s play: And Dublin Airport helps out.

Dublin Airport has given over room in its old terminal for facilities and provisions for its new guests.

More than 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have already arrived, with children comprising a third of that number.

And the kindly Irish have filled it with toys, baby food and nappies.

All very necessary with two-thirds of the entrants children, with the menfolk staying behind to fight for their homeland.

20,000 welcomes

Ukrainians welcome: Ireland’s famous fáilte

Of course there are the pressing matters to of accommodation, public services and medical care and that is also being processed without fuss.

In all Ireland is set to welcome in 20,000 and upwards in Ukrainean refugees.

And that is more than commendable for a population of 4million.

That neutral Ireland is so welcoming should come as little surprise to those with long memories of world wars.

And for those of us who lived a decade and a half in Ireland.

Operation Shamrock

Operation Shamrock was a joint Save the German Children Society and Irish Red Cross initiative after the Second World War.

And 500 children were fostered out to Irish families for three years with 50 staying or returning from Germany.

Tourists ambling through St Stephen’s Green in the centre of Dublin, or indeed on their lunch hour probably miss the memorial.

The Three Faites fountain which was donated by the West German government.

There is another more living, breathing legacy of Operation Shamrock in Glencree.

Centre for peace and reconciliation

The clearing house for those children in the verdant hills of Co. Wicklow.

Where there is an exhibition from that time at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.

While you can also visit 134 graves of mainly German Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine forces nearby.

All of which proves that no matter whether our countries are on the frontline or not we cannot and should not stand on the sidelines.

Charity begins at hub

And as we continue with normal life and the Irish and their friends pass through Dublin Airport this week in their numbers.

For St Paddy’s Day and later with money from their Cheltenham winnings they will fill those charity boxes.

At a Dublin hub from hub for Ukrainians.