on the road less travelled in Ireland and france

Irish-born Conal is back in Ireland. Now living in Australia, the trip is a “sort of homecoming”. Is it home? Or just familiar?

By Conal Healy

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 (Breakfast): Yesterday Dublin was 20d, and I was cursing myself for not bringing shorts. I walked down to the pub in jeans and a T-shirt. This morning it is Dublin Autumn – cold and raining. Just as we had packed for. I wake up early and sit out on the small balcony of the Cowper Road Airbnb and listen while Dublin wakes up.

I am listening for the Irish dawn chorus. Waiting for the songbird to greet the day – with gentle notes and melodic chirping. I am cradling a cup of Madura (Tweed grown) tea.

Fran comes to join me and asks: “Is that sound crickets or cicadas?”. No, I tell her, it’s bird song.

Irish dawn chorus is different to Murwillumbah (Australia) – there are no kookaburra laughing, no corellas squawking, no carrawongs warbling. Australia starts the day with noise, Ireland with soft melodies.

The Cowper Road Airbnb has a great view of the south Dublin skyline – I can see the copper dome of the church in Rathmines, the local town hall clock and landmark churches in Rathgar and Raneleigh.

For the first two decades of my life I have lived in this leafy part of south Dublin.

Is it home? Or was it just familiar?

I’ve always had an interesting relationship with Dublin. Over the years it has changed.

SEPTIC ISLE

When I was a teenager I found Dublin small and choking. I called it a Bitch City. I felt it hated me, as much as I hated it. The endless grey, rainy days. I felt it was oppressive. This was a no-fun place.

I wanted to leave. I did leave – many times.

And returned many times. I moved to the west of Ireland – Sligo, Ballina, Galway – then back to Dublin. In 1987, I took the well-trodden migrant path to London. I lived there for a year.

Then I went to the other side of the world, to Australia (in 1988).

Between 2022-2023 I had been to Ireland three times.

On my April 2022 visit, I realised the Dublin I had grown up with no longer existed.

This was a good thing. Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof called that Ireland the “septic isle” and the “the land of police and priests”. Over the decades, Ireland had changed … probably for the better, maybe for the worse.

Ireland in 2020s had become a European country, it was a consequence of going the European Common Market back in the 1970s. If the Irish wanted cheap French cheese, inexpensive German beers and cut-price Italian pasta … there would be knock-on effects. Having open borders meant people of all European nationalities could live in Dublin. And add to the gene pool.

My family home is one street away from the Cowper Road Airbnb. We drove past the now-sold house and see it is festooned with Halloween decorations. It looks like there is a young family are living there – it gladdens my heart.

AMONG THE TREES

When I was growing up Cowper Road was lined with elm trees. Then came Dutch Elm Disease and killed off the trees. They were replaced with horse chestnut trees. Now grown to maturity, the trees are bearing “conkers”.

Conkers is a traditional children’s game in Great Britain and Ireland played using the seeds of horse chestnut trees—the name ‘conker’ is also applied to the seed and to the tree itself. The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string: they take turns striking each other’s conker until one breaks.

The change of seasons is one of the reasons Fran and I are coming to Europe. I love autumn, love the trees changing from green to golden brown. Where I live in Murwillumbah, NSW, the trees are evergreen – only the maples in Knox Park change colour as winter nears.

It is a simple delight to walk Cowper Road, kicking the fallen leaves, listening to the crack and crunch from standing on dry autumn leaves.

CULTURE CLASH

We are using the Airbnb’s WIFI for communication. We will spend the first hour of most days catching up with news from the other side of the world – family, news and social media. 

First breakfast in Cowper Road is a clash of cultures: Irish Lyons Tea, Brennans Wholemeal (with waxed paper wrapping), sucre (sugar) and bainne (milk), Kerrygold butter with Australian vegemite.

Fran went for vegemite toast, I opted for toast smothered in Kerrygold butter. Yum!

This was going to be the start of a long day of sight-seeing. Would I re-connect with the Dublin of my childhood? Or had Dublin become a foreign country to me?

In Dublin (In October)

• Dawn: 7.42am
• Sunrise: 7.07am
• Sunset: 6.15pm
• Lenght of day: 10 hours 29 minutes
• Rain: 11 Rain days.
• Temps: 14-7 degrees

In Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia (in October)

• Sunrise: 5.58am
• Sunset: 7.05pm
• Lenght of day: 13 hours and 5 minutes
• Rain: 7
• Temps: 26-14 degrees