Around Ireland with 2 Aussies - By Michael Finnegan

October 21 - November 8 2006

Hi, my name is Michael Finnegan. I’m a leprechaun! I grew up in Dublin, a fair ole city in a fair ole country called Ireland. I used to live in a house with all my cousins, brothers, sisters, friends and relatives. We all looked exactly the same. I think it was because of our diet. We lived on Guinness and dibidedeeh-potatoes for breakfast, lunch and tea, so we all grew up looking the same.

One bright and sunny day when it only rained a little bit, these two crazy looking Aussies came into my house and kidnapped me. It made me very happy because now I live in Felsted on a bookshelf without any of my family or friends, just the two crazy Aussies. I love it! We’re a strange breed, us leprechauns, you might say…

Anyway, we set off for the craic of a lifetime. I became the official mascot for Davo and Fi’s tour of Ireland.

First stop, the Guinness Factory. Second stop, the old Jameson distillery. Third stop, the pub. Fourth stop, another pub. This paints the picture of our trip around Ireland. Suits me, said I, the leprechaun. Dibidedeeh potatoes.

A few Irish stews and countless pints of Guinness later, we were in our hire car on our way to Belfast. Don’t be fooled, future tourists driving from the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland. The road signs are in km/h in the Republic and miles/h in NI. So when cars are piling up for ‘miles’ behind you, you know why!

Then to Galway for the first of the International Rules games. It was a great craic. The atmosphere at the game was awesome. It was like a big country footy game with 30,000 people there. At half time a Warrick Capper look-a-like ran out onto the ground from the crowd along with Superman and Osama Bin Laden and they all met up and did a bit of a lap together. No one really cared, they weren’t causing any harm, just entertaining, it was great! Only in Ireland, I say.

We got into a local music festival not far away in a small town called Gort with Aussie friends Jess and Pete. The festival involves bringing an instrument into a pub, sitting in a corner and jamming away. They had accordians, flutes, whistles, guitars, drums, you name it. Oh yeah, it also involves drinking a bit of the black stuff.

I loved the amazing and unique scenery of driving around Ireland. Especially the rocky plains of the Burren, the Giants Causeway (where I nearly got blown of the cliff with Fi), the beautiful hills and farm land of Kerry (where Davo nearly fed me to some sheep), the cold and windy peninsulas with beaches almost as nice as home (where I took this photo of Fi and Davo looking cold).

We had a look at the Waterford Crystal Factory and saw some amazing skills and techniques of glass blowing. We also got a look at an exact replica of the Ashes trophy which is made at the factory. We’ll be taking that back shortly.

After having a Kilkenny in Kilkenny, our trip ended back in Dublin where we stayed with Louise, a friend who Davo met in Panama. Greville and Louise showed us the sights of the non-touristy part of Dublin. Unfortunately Fi had to go home and work, while Davo and I stayed and saw Wolfmother, The Living End and the brutal second International Rules test which had the Irish media whinging for days.

No time for that, say I Michael Finnegan the leprechaun, get me a Guinness, to be sure, to be sure. What time is it? T’ree T’irty? Dibidedeeh potatoes.