43 Wednesday, May 7th, 2008: Canoeing with Eoin

Laura and Eamonn had Donal, Eoin, Maires (Maura) and Eamonn. Their childhood was spent in Ballybay town center living in the apartments above of the pharmacy the O’ Mathuna’s owned. Laura and me walked around the lake and passed their old pharmacy. Originally their apartment had been small but when the surrounding apartments in the same building went on sale they bought it. After the extension their series of apartments became like a mansion. They must have had 7 rooms.
Eoin is the youngest and he lives in a renovated 300 year old house for the caretakers of a nearby stable in Ballybay. His house is situated behind their old apartment and pharmacy. Eoin purchased their old property and is planning to knock it down to create a clinic and apartments. Eoin likes canoeing, camping and kayaking so he offered to take me canoeing down a river and lake system right in Ballybay. I accepted. He came to pick me up in his Boy/Girl Scout monster truck and said that I could not wear jeans and a cotton t-shirt. The semi-OK outfit I ended up in was Laura’s old bright turquoise sweatpants, a super tight elastic black top that Eoin found, a helmet and hiking shoes with no socks. I looked like MC Hammer or a Genie.
We jumped into his monster truck and pulled up next to a field. There was a formidable problem: how to get the canoe over a barbed wire fence. We backed the truck against the barbed wire fence and Eoin was going to ease the canoe (from the top of the truck) over. As Eoin was going to push the canoe over the barbed wire a meddlesome large horse stood in the exact position that the canoe was being placed. Eventually the horse moved but followed us across the entire field. The horses ignored me and were fascinated with Eamon. To get into the field I had to go through a barbed wire fence...it was intense!
Eoin nudged the canoe into the river and we jumped in. Eoin directed the boat and I was the brute force that propelled it. Thankfully the weather was excellent and the wind and current was behind us. The two elements were making are journey easier. The thought did not arise that the elements would be against us for the journey back. Surrounding the river were fields with lazing cows and sheep. The cows here differentiate with Ohioan cows by the being smaller with shaggy hair. Irish cows come in all the colors of the rainbow just not as vivid. We saw the huge flock swans. He said that it could be the indigenous endangered swans that live in Ballybay.
Eoin talked about how his Scouts went to Greece, Czech Republic, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and many more European countries. He also talked about the climate change in one of the European mountains he climbed. The climate there was abnormally warm he said. The most difficult river he has canoed on was the River Liffey which runs through Dublin city. The canoeing journey was very relaxing. The silence and rythmatic oaring was perfect for reflecting and contemplating the past and future of my travels in Ireland.
After this I and Laura went to the Cahans Church that was built in the 1700’s for the Presbyterians. The sarcophagus of Elizabeth Nesbitt Clark who had died with her son 6 months after his birth is placed in the graveyard behind the church. The Cahans Church is under renovation due to structure deterioration. The construction company erected a fence to ward off looters in the only entrance. Up the road there was a large ruined stone house (nearly every building in Ireland is made from stone) and we tried to enter the church from its backyard but a wall of thorn bushes (also very common) prevented us. Down the road I spotted a rustic but ornate iron gate hidden by foliage. Through the gate I could see thorn bushes and no path. I was scared of getting cut by a thorn bush or even worse, a nettle. Laura who has insisted that Celtic women are fiercely strong trumped through the plants and thorn bushes without a losing a nerve. Laura is a very strong woman. I followed her. Finally we got to see the church and the graveyard. The sarcophagus was intact except for a dislodged stone as big as my head. It was a sunny day and I could have easily peered through. Inches away from looking in I felt scared and intrusive and stopped. I did take a picture. The flash did not penetrate the darkness of the tomb for some reason.
On our way back to the house we stopped at field that has a dolman. The dolman (proper term, portal tombs) is a marker of an ancient burial that was originally in a mound. Mounds were desecrated and unearthed for the precious offerings people left for the dead. This particular portal tomb was in a field on a slope. It was reported that there is a bull that sometimes grazes in the field. I was tempted to climb over the gate but the senior risk factor can only be taken so far.