Down by the Sally Gardens

“Down by the Sally Gardens ” is one of my favorite traditional Irish songs . I’ve always wanted to learn to play the Irish Whistle and now, thanks to my on-line tutor, Antonio Putzu, frontman of the “Irish Quartet”, the dream has come true.

My nanny was an Irishmaker?

My mother often told me that my first nanny was Irish. Considering how much I love Eire, I wonder if she spilled a little whiskey or Guinness in my baby’s bottle, when I was a child. In the picture you can see the last Guinness I drank far from Eire.

Two Homelands, One Necklace

Any weeks ago, when I started planning my moving in Eire, I asked two friends of mine to make a necklace, something representing my love for the islands of my heart, Sicily and Ireland. Sicily is often related to a solar symbol, the “Trinacria”, a mythological monster with three legs, that reminds the irish Triskell. So I asked them to insert Sicily as a shape in a Triskell and  to make a string, a macramé, that weaves the colors representing my Homeland, red and yellow, and Eire, green. Dario D’Arpa made the design, Cristina Buccellato created the pendant and the string. This is their page on Facebook.

The Italian “Quiet Man Crazy”

I watched this famous film played by Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne so many times that I lose count.

Without knowing to be a “Quiet Man crazy”, I had to visit Cong last September, when I went in Eire for the first time. It’s hard to believe that, in a way, now I move to Ireland and I harbour the same dream of Sean Thornton. The only difference is that Sean Thornton had a home to come back to, by contrast I chose Eire as my new Country. The reason is very simple, I already wrote it, in Eire I feel at home. Sure I’ll visit soon again the site where there was the White O’Morn Cottage, even if the old cottage is no more, I can see there a place to call home, like Sean Thornton.   

Moving to Eire

When I was fourteen I was unhappy at school. One day I listened for the first time the voice of Enya. It was a tv promo about her latest album “The memory of trees”. I bought the cd and listened it so many times that I needed to know more about her and her music, so relaxing. So I discovered she was Irish and I began to listen more Irish music artists and to read Irish writers. So I fell in love with Eire and last September I was for the first time in Ireland during my holydays. In these cases, when you’ve dreamed for so much time about something you love, there is always the danger to be disappointed. It just was the opposite. So I immediately decided to move to Eire, not only to find a job, not only to live in Eire for all my life, but also to fulfill my dream: becoming Irish in the Country where I felt at home. Eire exists not only as a place for me, Ireland is in my soul.