Day 16 - Halfway mark

 Day 16 - Halfway mark

Sunset last night

I can't believe this is the halfway mark of my holiday, but in honour of the occasion I decided to have the day off. There was no Mass this morning as there was a funeral at noon, so I had a lovely sleep in for starters. Then I'm just taking my time today and not going far.

But let's go back to last night for a while, because the sunset was just spectacular. I had a lovely Roast Beef dinner last night at The Atlantic, and after I finished I always walk home along the beach. But, so did half of Lahinch as well last night!!!  It was so crowded! They were even in swimming! It was a lovely day yesterday and I think the temperature reached 22℃. That was party time for the locals!!! It was a lovely balmy evening and the tide was at its fullest. The waves were roaring in a bit and the sea was just mesmerising! I stayed there for quite a while, walking a bit and watching a lot.

Sunset at Lahinch Beach

Today is also warm and sunny and the locals and tourists are once again out in force. They say this weather will last until the weekend, which is very fortunate.

People at Lahinch Beach

Marie and her family have gone off to the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska in County Laois . It seems to be a bit like our Royal Shows, but with a definite country feel. 

Patrick and friends

Marie and friend

Patrick and friends again  

The Irish Times times call it The Electric Picnic for Country Folk!

Here's what they say..

Close to 300,000 people are likely to stream through the gates of the National Ploughing Championships which returns to Ratheniska, Co Laois for the third successive year between Tuesday and Thursday. That is more than four times the number of people who went to the Electric Picnic festival up the road in Stradbally last month. It is also the equivalent to a combined sold out All-Ireland final and a capacity crowd at the Aviva in the midlands every day for the next three days.

That’s a lot of people to watch ploughing.

Well, it’s not all about ploughing, despite the name. There’s a whole lot more happening on the sprawling site, including multiple welly-throwing competitions each day, pony club games, funfairs, artisan food makers, music, dancing, fashion shows, sheep-shearing, baking competitions,, displays of cutting-edge tech and machinery, plus close to 2,000 stalls, with discussions and demos happening throughout the day.

National Ploughing championships

I remember my doctor, also called Moira, went last year with her husband and it bucketed down rain the whole time! That's the chance you take in Ireland I guess!!

Meanwhile, back in Lahinch, there was another funeral today - a local lady who was obviously well known. When the Mass had finished at the Church next door, the bell tolled and the funeral procession set off on foot down the main street of Lahinch. The coffin was carried on the shoulders by (I guess) the family and the whole of Lahinch stopped as they passed by. The traffic was held up until this procession was over - but obviously people are aware of what's going on and just wait respectfully. It's certainly a different way of celebrating a person's life and death. 

I had a nice quiet afternoon today  - didn't go anywhere, just stayed home. Did another couple of walks along the beach. Watched a few Hawks postmortems that helped to ease my soul.

Then had my half pint of Smithwicks at Danny Macs.

So not much to report today. But I enjoyed my day off.