So we are off to Tipperary! Finally going to see my family. Patrick knows I am coming the others do not!

As a child I remember standing on the side of this road in the Knockmealdown Mountains and looking out across the vista and thinking to myself ‘There really are more than forty shades of green!’ A song my father always sang to me….

‘I close my eyes and picture
The emerald of the sea
From the fishing boats at Dingle
To the shores of Donaghadee

I miss the river Shannon
And the folks at Skibbereen
The moorlands and the meddle
With their forty shades of green

But most of all I miss a girl
In Tipperary town
And most of all I miss her lips
As soft as eiderdown

Again I want to see and do
The things we’ve done and seen
Where the breeze is sweet as Shalimar
And there’s forty shades of green

We will be staying in the town of Cahir, a short distance from my dad’s hometown. Even though it was so close I have never been there in all the times I have visited Ireland. My dad had a total of eight brother’s and sisters and one brother having thirteen children, there was never enough time because with my dad it was all about visiting his family; and I get that.

So we will be visiting the castle and the town of Cahir, and we will also be visiting Ardfinnan, the town of my father. We will have a meal with my cousin and his wife, and we will find some traditional Irish pubs to sit and have a drink. RD will, of course, have to drink a Guinness and a Jamesons chaser!

I am excited. The last time I visited Tipperary was with my mum and dad when I was twenty-two. It’s been too long.

I know that memories will resurface and I said to RD last night I will probably have tears. Memories huh!

Poignant times are coming.

Rosie

‘It’s a long way to Tipperary
it’s a long was to go
It’s a long way to Tipperary
to the sweetest gal I know
farewell to Piccadilly
so long Leister Square
It’s a long way to Tipperary
but my heart lies there..’