About eileen
I was born in County Wicklow, Wicklow Town, in the south eastern part of Ireland.
A good time ago.
I was born at a time when there wa a whole lot of nothing happening in Ireland and most young people immirgated. My parents did as well. They packed up me and my two older sister, Bridie & Essie and left one dreary with my Uncle John on my mother’s side to travel to Canada. To a small town called Brampton. The only good thing about said my mother was that Brampton was called the Flowertown of Canada. And of Wicklow was the garden of Ireland
We came back home every other year until our grandparents died, then I returned one summer to see if I could attend a theatre school. In the 70’s there were no theatre schools in Ireland, but I did get an education.
What I found out was this; everybody was a musician, everybody was a poet, everybody was drop dead funny, everybody knew their history and I couldn’t hold a candle to any of them.
I went back to Canada with a fear of Ireland well entrenched. Twenty-two years later I decide to face my fear and return. Nothing has changed, well all most nothing has changed- you can get a cup of coffee now. But nothing about what I knew all those years ago has altered.
The only thing that’s changed is me.
And I no longer give a rat’s arse about what anybody thinks.
When I arrived in Ireland I spent 6 months in Dublin and 4 months in County Clare- Crusheen, and one day I was back in Dublin and stopped into the Flowing Tide Pub and two men had a chat with me and told me to go to Leitirm. “Go to Drumshanbo” they said. “There’s more water than there is land, but the music is good. Plus,they like strangers”.
So I did. And I have to say with my hand on my heart, Drumshanbo has been very, very good to me.
Its almost ten years now. Feels like yesterday I walked into Berry’s Tavern and struck up a sing song with Dick Flynn (RIP)
