Just come back from a trip to Dublin, a city constantly on the move, teeming with people from all over the world and with the Irish themselves who have come up from the provinces or who inhabit the city itself.It’s a land of leprechauns and legends, fairies and phantoms, heroes and villains, those loyal until death and those who were traitors. The music industry is flourishing,and technology is thriving,tourism is booming but also emmigration takes a prominent role as it always did in a land plagued with famines, raids and a roaming spirit and unemployment haunts houses here as it does all over Europe since the handling or mishandling of another crisis.
Visitors travel to Ireland with a hope of finding the Celtic tiger alive or to study in a friendly ambience, to drink the tasty whiskey,Guinness, Irish beers or the spring water there, to see its lush greenery, curious bogland and beautiful valleys or to enjoy the “ Cead mila failte” ( a hundred thousand welcomes) that spills from the hearts of all that you meet. Very few come away disappointed as, even when the dark skies threaten, there is a beauty in the lights that tint the land and the rain is soft and fruitful; “growing” rain, it is sometimes called. The average rainfall there is, surprisingly, less than in Galecia.
Ireland was once known as the land of saints and scholars for, when Europe was suffering in the dark ages, this island was enjoying its golden age and spread that knowledge abroad.It is now loved for its friendliness, its devotion to music,dance and literature and its expertise in all of these,its fight to survive division through dialogue, and, its humour.
The people of Ireland and Spain share an attitude to life that is positive and resilliant.They can laugh at themselves and adversity,be ironic about problems and suffering in order to be able to stand them, love their children and their elderly and warmly open their hearts to strangers. They have a lot in common.Dublin, Galway, Cork or any of the small towns are good places to go to practise your English since everyone will talk to you wherever you are. It is easy to lose that famous inhibition- “Tengo mucho verguenza”- so why not give it a try.There, you will also find, too, sadness, poverty, crime, corruption and economic turbulance and cuts: but an overdose of “gloom and doom”can corrode the soul. The Irish have always fought back. That spirit is easily contageous.
There is a uplifting value in the country’s waters and wonders. But you have to be disposed to see it .Look out for the signs and participate in its magic. Do you see the glass half empty or half full?