My Inspiring Trip to Ireland

For me, going to Ireland in the late summer of 2004 was a dream come true. It was a belated college graduation gift to me from my mother. I have always been fascinated with Ireland. It has always struck me as a mysterious place, with an intriguing yet not widely understood native mythology. There is a certain spiritual connection I felt when I went there. It's hard to describe or even really justify, but it's real for me.

My trip there started in Dublin. I went with a tour group, and we spent our first night in Dublin in an ultramodern hotel with a Japanese-style décor. The modern style was not something I was expecting, nor was I expecting to see that Dublin was a relatively cosmopolitan city. At the time I went there, Ireland was experiencing immigration from other countries at quite a rapid rate for the first time in its history, and there were all kinds of people populating the streets, from China, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Eastern Europe, in addition to the Irish. Our group toured the city that evening, and it was wonderful to see the old streets and medieval monuments. Being from the US, where nothing manmade is over a few hundred years old, it was quite incredible and humbling to come face-to-face with structures that had been in existence for a thousand years.

Our next stop was County Mayo, in the northwest corner of the country. From County Mayo we took a bridge over to Achill Island off the west coast. The green hills and rural feel of the island made me feel as if time could stop. We walked to the ocean and just sat there while the waves came crashing up the rocky shore. It was an almost hypnotic experience. If someone had started drumming on a bodhran, a traditional Irish drum, we could have easily been put into a trance.

Next came Galway, a charming, bustling little city on the west coast that according to our tour guide was the fastest-growing city in Europe at the time. This fact was an odd juxtaposition given that the city is in the heart of the western Gaeltacht, a region of Ireland where the ancient Irish Gaelic language is still spoken by many of the people there. Tradition and modernity appear to meet in Galway with no contradiction.

It was a clear day when we drove around to the Ring of Kerry, a road that travels along the southwest corner of the island, oftentimes in view of the ocean. This was the most memorable place I went on this trip. There is something so chilling to me about seeing the area's desolate rocky outcrops jutting up out of the Atlantic Ocean, into one of Ireland's rare clear skies. The openness, the wildness, the feelings of being so peaceful and alive at the same time, the feeling of being so close to nature yet so awed by it culminated in this spot.

My trip to Ireland five years ago was one of the best experiences of my life. It was humbling and life changing for me to come to such an ancient place and connect with the earth and the history there. I plan on going back soon to experience it all over again.