Family Connections and Eating Well

                    

While in Ireland, I am visiting cousins on my mother’s side, children of her younger brother, Michael Bergin. I’ve mentioned Kay and Alan in Quinagh, and Breda and her husband, Tom, who live in Rathnapish, Co Carlow. After the Sinn Fein event in Dublin on Friday, we had dinner with Mary Bergin and her boyfriend, Liam Gallaher. On Saturday, we had a family brunch in the coastal suburb of Sandymount, where my parents were living when I was born.

Another cousin, John Bergin, and his wife, Hazel, were there as well as Mary and another of their sisters, Siobhan, who had flown in with her children Sebastian (12) and Lili (9) from London, where they live.

Sebastian & Lili on Pigeon House slide

Siobhan has the distinction of being the first female brewer in Ireland, working for Guinness Brewery after she graduated with a degree in microbiology. The weather has been cold, windy, and wet, but we took a walk after brunch to the old Pigeon House power station where my father worked as an engineer around the time I was born. A squall blew in and soaked us, but we had a nice rainbow over the station afterwards.

Pigeon House Power Station, Sandymount Strand, Dublin

Irish food has a reputation for blandness but we’ve been eating very well on this trip. My cousin Kay, who we stayed with in Carlow, is a wonderful cook and we enjoyed fantastic Irish salmon and lamb dinners there. We’ve also eaten out at favorite Italian restaurants of two cousins and at a fantastic tapas place in Dublin, called La Bodega, with great Spanish-Irish fusion dishes like lamb kidney in a tomato cream sauce and scallops with Irish black pudding (a tangy blood sausage).

Brad at Kay's

Alan at Kay's

Kidney tapas!

We are using Airbnb in Dublin and Rome. In Dublin, we are staying in Beggars Bush in a complex called Haddington Barracks, a former British Army barracks turned over in 1921 to Michael Collins on behalf of the Free State.

         

The barracks are now condominiums. Our host, David Timoney, works for a cell phone company and advocates on behalf of cyclists in Dublin. Here is David (in the blue vest) with the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sinn Fein councillor Críona Ní Dhálaigh (foreground).