Response to Comments

It won't let me reply in the comment box for the last post so here's my response.
Mom - Yes, I believe I've had a better time of it since I talked to you that first time!
Ashley - Honestly, the only thing that stopped me from going back to the airport was the thought of dragging my suitcases all the way back there!
I love Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore, too. The version I have is by the Young Dubliners.

I quite like ending these posts with song lyrics. Here's Ireland by Garth Brooks:
They say mother earth is breathing, with each wave that finds the shore
Her soul rises in the evening, for to open heaven's door
Her eyes are the stars in heaven, watching o'er us all the while
and her heart it is in Ireland, deep within the Emerald Isle.

We are forty against hundreds, in someone else's bloody war
We know not why we're fighting, or what we're dying for
They will storm us in the morning, when the sunlight turns the sky
Death is waiting for it's dance now, fate has sentenced us to die

(chorus)
Ireland, I am coming home.
I can see your rolling fields of green and fences made of stone.
I am reaching out, won't you take my hand
I'm coming home Ireland.

Oh the captain he lay bleeding, and I can here him calling me
The men are yours now for the leading, show them to their destiny
And as I look up all around me, I see the ragged tired and torn
I tell them to make ready, cause we're not waiting for the morn.

Chorus

Now the fog is deep and heavy, as we forge the dark in fear
We can hear their horses breathing, as in silence we draw near
And there are no words to be spoken, just a look to say goodbye
I draw a breath and night is broken, as I scream our battle cry.

Ireland I am coming home, I can see your rolling fields of green and fences made of stone
I am reaching out, won't you take my hand
I'm coming home Ireland.
Yes, I am home Ireland.