Jennifer Devore

Jennifer Devore

 

A Hard-hitting Intro to the Game

Square in the right eye. That's where the pitch hit me. (I'm a lefty-batter; so, the right profile got the brunt.) Third-grade, maybe fourth-, I don't recall. What I do recall is crying a lot, then my softball coach telling me to lie down on the bench and hold a glass of iced tea on my throbbing eye.

The only thing worse than the pain, was the humiliation: lying there like a weirdo with a glass of Nestea on my face. Shaking it off pretty quickly - pride overriding pain - I went right back into play, heading to my position, somewhere in the outfield: excellent placement for me, as getting nailed by an underhanded pitch was my best performance ever, on a baseball diamond.

Softball wasn't really for me. Dance and violin were my things. I liked the activity and energy of softball; yet, the uniforms and lack of glitter left me wanting. Ballet, gymnastics and Polynesian dance pulled hard focus at that age. For this eight-year-old, there was no contest between the fantasy of tutus, rainbow leotards and Tahitian skirts, and prosaic polyester knickers and a t-shirt. Bo-ring.

Fortunately for softball, it lost its worst player the day it gave me a black eye. Wait a minute. Was it personal? Did it edge me out with force? In truth, I was bound to quit the sport eventually. Softball just wasn't jazzy enough for the likes of Moi.

My dad seemed disappointed I quit; baseball was an overriding joy for him. He was rather pleased, nay, surprised, I'd made the team at all. I suspect, though, like when I kicked karate (boring outfits, also), one less extracurricular activity and its ensuing expenses had to please him. No matter, there was enough baseball out there for him, even if I didn't play.

Aside: It turns out none of my childhood pursuits would be a match for the sport where I finally did land: Irish step-dancing. Excess makeup, over-the-top bling and Shirley Temple curls?! Yes, please!

Baseball Zen

 

What I didn't appreciate at the time, about softball/baseball, was the leisurely practice of it: the blue skies, green grass and birds and little critters on the field. What is lovelier than a halted game, dozens of grown men standing about waiting, leaning on their bats and chatting with other players, whilst the whole stadium waits for a lone bunny, or a pair of doves, to clear the field? That, and when opposing players shake hands, hug or pat each other's butts, makes me really happy. The outfield bro-hugs? Just perfection.

Tina Belcher: “I never realized baseball had so much butt touching.”

Louise Belcher: “That’s how they communicate, Tina. It’s like Braille, but with butts.”

- Bob’s Burgers, “Torpedo” (S1,ep13)

 

All of this Summer serenity was there for the taking … until those explosive spurts of speed and inertia. A body at rest stays at rest, until affected by an outside force: in this case, a bat, another player, or a ball to the right eye.

Baseball is a game of mellow excitement. Maybe that was the draw for Dad. He was a quiet man, a listener. In fact, he was/still is a renowned, clinical and forensic, child and adolescent psychologist, on both coasts: reigning champ of all quiet, listening professions!

“What do you think it means?”

Baseball is a game wherein one can sporadically sit in silence, with little noise but the scritching of a pencil on a stats notebook, maybe the persistent “Let's go, _____!” chant from an excitable child on the Upper Deck, or the distant call of a concessions vendor. Depending on where you're sitting, you might hear the measured rhythm of a groundskeeper's rake or practice pitches, and subsequent catches, in the bullpen.

In the universe of sports, it is relatively chill, akin to golf. Lots of leaning back, folded arms and brief chats with other players on the field or in the dugout … until there's that satisfying crack of a bat, the rip of a fastball and the spontaneous cheers of half a stadium, intermingled with the excited voices of the announcers in the press box. If it's a homerun, there's organ music! Nothing bad happens when organ music plays, except maybe vampires rising from their coffins as the moon rises.

In the stands, there's always enough down-time for friendly conversations, or light-hearted arguments. Sometimes, it’s sweet, baseball-movie charm, like Kiss-cams or cutie-cute Drew Barrymore in the Farrelly Brothers’ Fever Pitch. Sometimes, it's drunky-drunks blasted on grain-alcohol riot-juice and picking fights with the mascot. Hopefully, those folk are far from your seats and tire out quickly.

“Whenever there's a potential riot, I'm getting blasted on grain alcohol!”

- Mac, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “The World Series Defense” (S5, ep6)

 

Most stadium experiences are, hopefully, a good memory. Folks just want to enjoy a pleasurable game-day and dream big for their team. A childhood friend started a lifetime of love at Dodger Stadium. There she was on the Jumbotron: all long, blonde hair, cheery blue-eyes, and her wide, brilliant smile. Her husband-to-be saw her, found her and that was it. Baseball is love, sometimes.

Of course, even though there is time for convo, laughter, love and selfies in the stands, for the most serious of fans, that time is spent checking stats, surveying the field and eagle-eyeing all player movements. That fan was Dad, oblivious to all but the theater of the game.

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Do Not Disturb

 

Today, Major League games tend to run approximately two-and-a-half hours. Pitch-clocks, a timer ensuring pitchers deliver their pitches within a :15-:30 time-frame, depending on how many runners on-base, has shortened games a bit in recent years. Batters and catchers have similar time-restraints today. Games used to run longer, a lot longer, or at least it seemed that way, as a kid. I want to say, four or five hours, but that sounds wrong.

Hours and hours, Dad could spend at a game: overtime, extra innings and, wonders-of-wonders, the double-header (two games back-to-back). Heaven! Even sitting in the parking lot, inching his way out to the main road, was joyful.

In a planetary event, sometime in the 1980s, Mom's worst day and Dad's best day aligned when a San Diego Padres game went into extra innings … twenty-one innings in all. Pleading to leave was useless. Dad was pliable, malleable and patient to a fault, but not where baseball was concerned. “Thank goodness I brought my knitting,” was Mom's only relief. She talked about that “nightmare” for the rest of her life.

There was little difference at home: hours and hours on weekends, sitting in his leather club-chair, often falling asleep, watching any game televised. Two-way conversation was generally futile. Mom or I could chatter on any topic, uninterrupted, for minutes on-end, only to finally demand a response of some kind.

“An ‘ugh’ will do”, mom would exasperate.

Ugh, he would dutifully respond.

I learned then, baseball was a great time to ask for things. Ugh doesn't mean, no.

If he drifted to sleep whilst watching, and we tried to change the channel to, say, “Designing Women” he would suddenly awake and groggily say, “I was watching that.”

Mom said, he needed a hotel “Do Not Disturb” sign to hang around his neck during baseball season.

If he had to be out of the house during a game, sports radio was a faithful companion. Their faces weren't so familiar, but the voices of play-by-play announcers like Vin Scully, Bob Uecker and Dick Engberg were so familiar, it's as though they shared the backseat with my Hello Kitty backpack and me.

In October, after he'd exhausted all World Series analysis, pontification and coverage, he'd watch old games on ESPN. I didn't get it.

“You know who wins,” I'd judge.

“It doesn't matter,” he'd reply simply.

Pitchers and Catchers Report

 

By New Year’s, he'd start making his annual, happy observation: “Pitchers and Catchers Report” is coming, meaning the date the first wave of players, pitchers and catchers, report for Spring Training. Like a parrot, he would repeat it at regular intervals throughout Winter.

“Pitchers and Catchers Report. Pitchers and Catchers Report. Pitchers and Catchers Report. Squawk!”

 

When he wasn't working, watching baseball, doing yard work, helping Mom redecorate the house or taking us to Disneyland, or South Coast Plaza, he was reading.

Reading material fell into five categories: psychological books and journals; western novels; American Revolution non-fiction; baseball non-fiction; and, above all, The Sporting News.

Never was there a day I didn't see the old, analog, sports newspaper lying somewhere in the house. Even old ones couldn't be tossed until he gave the go-ahead, that he'd read every single word and stat. The Sporting News was where I first saw “Pitchers and Catchers Report” in-print.

Until recently, I'd always presumed it was a report about pitchers and catchers, not that they reported for Spring Training. Who knew “report” was a verb in this case?

pc Babe Ruth

I’d Do It Tomorrow

 

It was a lifelong obsession, baseball. As a post-WWII child, a Navy brat, Dad played in the streets of Honolulu, Brooklyn, Birmingham, Puerto Rico and, his eventual, permanent hometown of San Diego.

High school, college and the Air Force all supplied him fields and opportunities to play. Later, in his professional life, would play on the odd, hospital- or government-team. As much as he cherished his psychological work, he would've traded that professional life in mental health for a professional life in baseball, in a heartbeat.

My husband and he shared an affinity for the game: both playing in elementary school, high school and both lifelong, SoCal-team fans. Both had been young dreamers, fantasizing of the Major League life; and both were utterly disillusioned by the Major League players’ strike of 1994/’95.

During one of their regular, ocean drives down PCH, they chatted casually, whilst listenng to a Padres game, on the life of a minor leaguer: the long road-trips on a team-bus, the low pay, cheap motels, bad sleep, and the cruel elusiveness of the Majors.

My husband assessed,"At this point in my life, seeing how rough that life can be, I don't think I'd do it.”

“Oh, I'd do it tomorrow,” Dad replied without missing a beat.

He oft lamented, he just didn't have the talent. “Some guys have an arm and no heart. I had the heart, but not enough arm.”

In the 1990s, Rotisserie Fantasy Baseball became an enthusiastic addendum to his passion. The only time he would go to a bar, would be to meet his fellow owners to draft their teams (whatever that means). I'm not sure, yet, but this is likely not for Moi: so many numbers, so much math. Definitely a game of statistics, which he revered.

The last game he ever saw was a Padres home-game. The walk back to the car was longer than he remembered and he was disappointed the Padres lost, again. He carried the glove he brought religiously to every game - in case of fly-balls - and dissected the game with my husband as they walked slowly. Per usual, he channeled his inner-Charlie Brown and found pride in being a “true fan”, regardless of a team's standing. There was a strange honour in having lost, no matter how often. “Anybody can be a Yankees fan,” he'd say. Although, he did love Derek Jeter: Yankees shortstop from 1995 - 2014.

“Have you ever watched Derek Jeter run? He's so elegant, like a gazelle.”

 

Charlie Brown's everyman approach to life, baseball and dogs was his purest school of philosophy, and he knew his philosophers. Don't blame the sun for getting in your eyes, Lucy. Put on some sunglasses and “do good catching”.

True fans watch, and play, in the rain, they sit behind a pillar if necessary, and nosebleed seats are great because at least you can see the whole field.

True fans never bet against their team and they don't leave a game early “because of traffic”.

True fans are crushed when their team doesn't make it to the playoffs; or, actually worse, makes it, then fails to advance to the World Series.

True fans can still enjoy the playoffs and World Series, even sans their team, rooting for “the better of two evils”; but they never, ever hop on the bandwagon and buy a new baseball hat, “just for the series”.

In their fifty-six-year history, the Padres have made it to the National League playoffs seven times; they've gone to the World Series twice; they lost both of those.

His theory was SoCal players, including San Diego Chargers football (now, L.A. Chargers) rarely win the Big Prize because “the weather's too nice here, life is too easy”. I never thought that made sense, but he believed it.

For comparison …

In their sixty-four-year history, the Angels have made it to the American League playoffs ten times; they've gone to the World Series once, and won.

In their 124-year history, the Red Sox have made it to the American League playoffs twenty-five times; they've gone to the World Series thirteen times; they've won nine times, including enduring an eighty-six-year drought known as The Bambino's Curse, starting in 1919 when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth (TheBambino) to the New York Yankees.

So, regardless of his team's performance, at the end of each season, Dad would reiterate proudly, “Well, the Padres have been disappointing me for over fifty years. Go, Pods.”

We're Talkin’ Baseball

 

My parents call the North Shore of Boston home now. The area was an annual holiday destination: Salem at Hallowe'en is addictive, once you've experienced it. Marblehead is simply perfect. Boston-proper is heartening and exhilarating. It is as steeped in history as its harbor was in tea, in 1773. It is, for this writer, the greatest metropolis in this great nation; yet, that's another post.

So, whilst dad was never a Red Sox fan, the town was something very special to our fam. Moreover, as a Babe Ruth devotee, he respected the Sox’ first claim to The Bambino: 1915 - 1919. (Well, after his brief, inaugural stint with the then-minor league Baltimore Orioles in 1914.)

Sure, The Sultan of Swing graced New York's Polo Grounds/Yankee Stadium much longer than he did Boston's Fenway Park: 1920 - 1934, interestingly, the entire stretch of Prohibition, plus one year. Still, for whatever reason, Dad couldn't bear the Yankees. So, he stuck with The Boston Babe.

Now, as the 2024 MLB official season starts, I imagine Mom's once again talking to an open Sporting News as he reads it in his chair, or attempting conversation as he watches the Red Sox, Angels and Padres, by whatever means available, along the peaceful shores of Salem Harbor. Do Not Disturb.

It's As Simple As That

 

Like truffles in an egg carton, a child growing up with so much baseball in the air is bound to become somewhat infused. There were spurts of interest: the short-lived, childhood softball endeavour; a brief flirtation with softball in college (only to switch to Model U.N. after a professor proclaimed her disgust that I'd “waste time” on a sport); ball-girl tryouts in college; and, a longer, actual flirtation with Single-A ball (minor league): going to games with a friend, hoping the cute players would notice me in the stands.

I say, “me”, because the friend was a dude, btw: my bestie, at the time, and fellow Disneyland cast member. I didn't need another chick pulling focus. Driving out to watch the Palm Springs Angels was good old-fashioned fun and he was an excellent wingman, helping Moi to “pass notes”, as it were. By the end of that season, I only ever talked to one player; he just wasn't that into me. The Desert League then became boring quickly. I don't like the desert anyhoo, no matter how cute the players.

Eventually, as an adult, baseball was of almost no interest: simply something I associated with visiting Mom & Dad, as it was always on, in some form, somewhere in the house.

Ergo, I'm not a complete newbie to the game; but I'm no Rain Man either. Although, I do admit to mild, OCD tendencies and am a bit of a dork. So, if I return here later this season with reports from my new, statistics journal, don't be surprised.

Also, I do have a bro-in-law bordering on savant where baseball is concerned. Moving to the next level of fandom so I can talk to him at fam events and, more importantly, irritate my sis-in-law, might be well worth the deep dive into America's pastime.

Autonomic-loyalties have lain with the Padres and the Angels, as loyalties to Dad, my husband and my hometowns: San Diego and Orange County. (The Angels, btw, - formerly California Angels, then Anaheim Angels - are an Orange County team, not an L.A. team, whatever they call themselves now. Don’t forget it, kittens!)

Anyhoo, like the Pull-Ups commercial sings, I'm a big girl now, still a California girl; but, for ineffable reasons, a Boston Red Sox girl. I've fielded some squinty-eyed queries and good-natured ribbing over it for the last year. It's been hard to explain, because I don't quite know how it hit me so hard and fast.

Maybe it was Dad's passing and his reunion with Mom in Boston. Maybe I'm taking up the relay baton, carrying on his baseball traditions. Maybe it's just damn fun and it helps me feel closer to him. Yeah, it's probably all that, said the shrink's kid with confidence.

So, I don't need to explain it anymore, to anyone. It's as simple as that.

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Well, if it ain't the Queen of Suffolk County
Yeah, best stay out of her way
Yeah, you know she's here to stay
She don't joke and she don't play
She's tough like a tiger
She's all dressed up
She's soft like a kitten
But she'll still mess you up
Here comes the Queen of Suffolk County
Yeah, she's the Queen of Suffolk County

- Dropkick Murphys, “Queen of Suffolk County”

pic jennypop jersey

 

I Get It!

 

As I learn more about the game, it's virtues and vices, it's heartbeat and history (Thank you, Ken Burns!!), it's intellectualism and it's most uncomplicated joys, I find myself oft turning to my husband and claiming, I get it!

I get it now, all of it: the gentle drone of a televised game on in the background, the greens and blues on the screen, the speculative chatter of sports-radio bros, the annoying sports-shouting at any given moment on ESPN, the search for any documentary available on your team (i.e., “The Game That Changed Everything: Yankees vs Red Sox, ‘04 ALCS”), the need for “just one more Red Sox tee”, the anticipation of Opening Day, the watching through your fingers during Playoff Season, the groans and cheers, the “What do I watch now?” lull of Winter, and, of course, the baited anticipation of “Pitchers and Catchers Report” and Spring Training.

I may not know fully what it means to be a Red Sox fan, but I'm finding out and having a blast doing so. To boot, being the history dork I am, learning allllll about the Red Sox, back to 1901, is sheer Heaven.

“Regret” is not part of the JennyPop patois. Moi is a strong believer in “You are exactly where you are supposed to be.” Regrets are pointless, as the past has passed. However, regrets can be useful to open windows on worlds you may have missed previously.

If I have one of few regrets, it is not taking advantage of baseball time with Dad. I don't know how deep I would delved into the game when he was alive, but I know now, I would've enjoyed sharing inside-baseball factoids with him, maybe even tracking stats. That is still to be determined …

One postseason afternoon in 2023, I found myself standing directly in front of the TV, hands behind my back, watching a Red Sox game. It hit me, at that moment, that's exactly what Dad would do. I always wondered why he stood there, frozen it seemed, so often.

Commenting on the realization, I asked my husband, “What is this? Why did he do this? Why am I standing here like him? So weird.”

“It's called hope,” he concisely concluded.

Dear Old Dad would be thrilled I'm finally paying really close attention. He’d be slightly disappointed I'm not a Padres fan. Yet, he'd be relieved, at least, I'm not a Yankees fan. Ha!

About two weeks before he passed, he and my husband were on one of their PCH drives. The Beatles were playing on Sirius: Dad's fave band for his lifetime. He didn't recognize the music at all, but commented only, “They're okay.” Keeping the curious conversation going, my husband then switched to MLB Radio, to talk about the Padres. Dad didn't know who they were either.

I don't think I can do The Beatles thing. Sorry, Daddy. I can, however, do the baseball thing and carry your torch.

Go, Sox, 2024! Anything can happen with a new season!! Do good catching, guys.

 

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Tessie” by Dropkick Murphys

 

2 ... 3 ... 4 …
Tessie, Nuf Ced-McGreevey shouted,
We're not here to mess around!
Boston, you know we love you madly
Hear the crowd roar to your sound!
Don't blame us if we ever doubt you,
You know we couldn't live without you,
Tessie, you are the only only only, -ly.

pic tessiie card

*Tessie in it's original form: as the Royal Rooters Fan Club rally-cry, at the 1903 World Series, when the Red Sox were still called the Boston Americans. Tessie was adopted from a 1902 Broadway musical: “The Silver Slipper”. Empirically, the alpha version is the Dropkick Murphys’ Irish pub rock anthem of 2004.

Follow all the 2024 season with Yours Truly (@JennyPopCom on IG or right here at jennypop.substack.com) starting with Opening Weekend at Angels Stadium: Boston at Anaheim! Go, Sox! Go, Angels! Go, Padres!

But, mostly, go, Sox!!!

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A Cry to Heaven, "How could this be?!"

So much she gifted us, on so much we fed

Cry again, "How and when and why was it she?"

A lifetime of belles-lettres, forever to be read

 

Sometimes a fair sky, light clouds and bright sun, most of it was rain and shadows and fog

Vienna, Rancho, Paris and Budapest

San Francisco, Amsterdam, Miami and Prague

The globe in her velvet, emerald purse, New Orleans is where she shall for eternity rest

 

A friendly voice from a Garden District dollhouse, welcoming, stoic and serene on First Street

"Please, wait just a moment," she asked; a moment, a month, happy waiting we are pleased to do

The dolls kept eye, keeping her home safe, until we, gracious strangers, may dear Anne have the chance to greet

A moment or few passed, Violin was then passed, too, onto reverend Anne, by a quiet sweetness named Sue

 

Violin sits still, signed and prized, amongst Twain, Poe, Shakespeare and, humbly, mine

Across a continent, in an old, French town, in a misty shroud of bêtes-noires and mystery

Lies a family in love, together forever, fashioned finally, by design

Anne Rice, you are gone, but also still here, in our hearts and on our shelves, today, tomorrow, for all of man's history

 

 

Rest in peace, cherished Anne. You are missed.

 

 

 

 

May the leprechauns dance over your bed and bring you sweet dreams. - Irish lessing

 

To this day, across much of the Western Isle, the lore of fairies remains so strong, farmers will divert crops, homebuilders will adjust property lines, hikers will swing wide of their treks and the burliest and beardiest of men dare not trifle with the environmental curiosity known as, the fairy ring, a.k.a. fairy fort. In Irish, they are called lios or raths and at the end of the 20th Century, there stood, it was believed, some 40,000 fairy rings spotting the Irish countryside. Archaeologists believe the oldest of date to c. 600 BCE. These earthen mounds, sometimes notable only as remaining stone-circles or ancient, circular impressions around raised soil, are generally believed to be the evidence of pre- and early-Celtic dwellings: from the late-Iron Age to the beginnings of Irealand's Christian Era, c. 5th Century CE.

The Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fir Bolg, Ireland's earliest inhabitants of Ireland, were thought to possess mythical abilities and kept supernatural congress with banshees, leprechauns and fairies. These mythics considered fairy rings, also known collectively as tumuli, to be not only domains of the fairies, but portals to the supernatural world. It also remains a claim that fairy forts are where, if you dare, you might seek to find a leprechaun's gold. Repercussions of disturbing a fairy fort, even plucking a flower or cutting or brush within its bounds range from general maladies and acute melancholia to freak accidents and even death. However, curses present themselves in many forms. Of the more deceptive and heinous is "The Dance": Any human who dares to enter a fairy ring or fairy fort, thus disturbing it, must "dance with the fairies until they go mad or perish with exhaustion". Well now, I must have dared to enter a fairy ring, if not on my most recent holiday on the Isle, perchance in a past life, because I am exhausted ... and loving it. If going mad is for you, follow me into the fairy ring and keep reading.

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As with so many things Irish, The Dance has a long history, largely emanating from the Celts and Druids. Pagan entities, dating a good millennium before the entrenchment of Christianity on the Isle, focused their religious ceremonies on the natural world; this included dances-in-the-round and, often, around trees: symbols of life and vitality. Initially, accompanying music was that of the earliest forms: drum and song. The pinnacle of these ceremonies was Aonach, or Óenach: originally (c. 3,200 BCE) a congregation of Ireland's kings, called by the High King, usually to commemorate a notable death in the community. High King Lugh held the first of these ceremonies, to commemorate the death of his mother, Tailtiu, after, legend tells, she died from exhaustion, on August 1st, whilst clearing the family land for farming. This funerary event, held at the sacred Hill of Tara - seat of the High King - in County Meath, just north of Dublin, became an annual tradition, later known as Óenach Tailten and was celebrated about the same time each year: the last fortnight of July through the first fortnight of August. Eventually, this commemoration of death became a celebration of life, known as the Celtic festival of Lughnasadh: from the old Gaelic meaning "assembly of Lugh".

Lughnasadh transformed and extended over the years into four, cross-quarter festivals: (Imbolc: the beginning of Spring; Bealtaine: the beginning of Summer; Óenach Tailten, or Lughnasadh-proper: the OG of Celtic festivals, halfway-mark between Summer and Autumn solstices, and the beginning of Harvest season; and, finally, Samhain: the beginning of Winter). In a rough and dark existence, these gatherings of song, dance, feast, drink, trading, truces, dispute-settlements, sport, games and hook-ups, attended by folks from across all the land, were exciting diversions to plan and anticipate throghout the year, kind of like Comic-Con and WonderCon today. Millennia later, these festivals would give way to today's Irish Dance competitions, known as feis However, the feis of today, dotting small towns and metropoli across the globe, are dedicated to the competition of dance and song, with the added cheer and communion of hanging with old friends and new.     

As for the fairies? They've been there all along, dancing around trees in magical circles with the Druids and Celts, flitting and mischief-making along seaside cliffs and grass mounds of Samhain and Lughnasadh festivals, and treble-hopping and leaping in ballrooms and convention centers from Orange County to Dublin at modern feis. All mad, too, I tell you. All mad from the fairies' curse.

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After all that, What is Irish Dance, JennyPop? you might wonder. Well, what it's not, is clogging, but it has elements; it's not tap, but it has elements; it's not square dancing; but it has elements; it's not ballet, but ... yep. What it is, like the Irish themselves, is an amalgam of peoples continually contributing to the Emerald Isle's continual, cultural evolution: Celts, Gauls, Vikings, Normans, English, Romans, Silicon Valley developers. Irish Dance is a combination of ballet and tap dancing. Although, it can be said that tap dancing originated from Irish flat down dance technique.

The neolithic Celts and Druids danced for religion. The Christians settled in and borrowed bits of pagan dance, changing flowers and fairies to penance and Jesus, but continued to incorporate dance into ceremonies; and Irish monks, the smarty-smarts of the day, notated much of this in illustrated manuscripts, like The Book of Kells. If you observe carefully the motifs and decoration on modern, Irish dancers' dresses, you'll see the borrowed imagery of Medieval manuscripts. During the 10thC, as was their wont, Viking raiders invaded and burned the fuck-all out of most of Ireland's books and manuscripts. As the Irish are wont to do, they overcame this adversity by keeping their traditions alive via song and dance, and drink, to be sure. After a harsh raid, who doesn't want a bit of whiskey or mead?

As Ireland slowly recovered from the Viking Era, mainly by living amongst their invaders as generations meandered on (much like this post), Nordic infusions gained a hold in Irish culture and the mons went back to documenting Medeival life. Of course, it wouldn't be Ireland without more uninvited guests. In the 1thC., the Normans crossed the Irish Sea, kicked in the door and kicked up their heels. Unlike the Vikings and their metaphorical vineagar, the Normans used honey, proffering land grants and pretty English girls to the tribal Kings, and soon speckled the landscape with magnificent castles, keeps and fortresses. Within a generation, the Normans introduced their customs, including dance, into Irish culture. One such introduction was the "carol": a circular dance wherein the dancers "follow" the voice a solo siger, standing in the middle of the circle. Over the coming centuries, the carol would evolve into three, altogether new dances: the Irish Hey, the Riinca Fada (a.k.a. the Long Dance, featuring a long line of dancers) and the Trenchmore. These were no longer circle dances, but line-dances and they became all the rage by the 17thC.. Simple songs and bodhrans (a goatskin drum played with, essentially, a single drumstick, called a tipper) grew into great accompaniments with tin whistles, concertinas and the Irish bagpipes (a.k.a. uilleann pipes). Witness, the beginning of true craic.

 pic - Irish dance graphic

A Brief (for JennyPop) Note on the types of Irish dance

 

Traditional Irish Step Dancing : only the legs and feet move in Flat Down technique male and female dancers in long lines, circles, squares or as partnered reels. Traditional Iris Step Dancing consists of dances set to traditional Irish music with a fast tempo 

Modern Irish Step Dancing : full body movement with Ballet Up technique female dancers performing ballet up dance movements like leg swings, hopping and jumping or sashaying to the music. The female dancers perform in soft ghillies

Irish Set Dancing : with Flat Down technique

whole choreographed dance performance that is broken up into several separate parts. The set usually requires dancing in couples in four sets.

The Set Dance begins with all four couples dancing to the same choreography. This is followed by each couple performing the same sets as individual couples.

Irish Ceili Dancing : with Ballet Up technique very traditional dance form. It originated in the 1500's and is always performed to traditional Irish music. The Ceili Dances consist of quadrilles, reels, jigs and long or round dances. These were the most native Irish traditional folk dances.

Irish Sean Nós Dancing : with Flat Down technique

one of the oldest of the traditional Irish dance styles. It is the only one performed as a solo. It differs from other Irish dances in that it allows free movement of the arms and it is flat down with the heavy weight on the accented beat of the music.

Sean Nos Dancing is the only Irish dance that also allows the solo dancer to improvise the choreography simultaneously as the dance is performed. The taps consist of shuffles and brushes as the dancer moves across the floor.

Irish Two Hand Dancing : with Flat Down technique

Irish socializing. It is performed much like Irish Set Dancing with the exception that is it danced to polkas, Irish hornpipes, waltzes and jigs. Like the Irish Set Dancing, it is performed by couples with specific choreographic dance patterns, although in Irish Two Hand Dancing the patterns are repeated.

In Irish Two Hand Dancing couples dance in a relaxed style

*Flat Down technique refers to

Flat Down Irish dance steps, the dancer's foot strikes the floor in a twisting shuffle of the right foot while hopping into the air with the left foot.

There are also combinations of Irish dance steps that include the "1-2-3", shuffle, stamping the whole foot and tapping one toe behind the other foot that holds body weight.

Ballet Up refers to uniformly performed steps. The first comes from the ballet step, "chasse," "cabriole" which is to leap into the air while the left calf beats under the right calf that is extended forward in the air.

From the Neolithic to the Modern Era, Irish dance has weaved, zigged, zagged, leapt, slid, rocked and kicked its way into what we know today: a bright, cheerful jig seemingly designed for little bt sheer pleasure. Folks don't "dance a jig" when summat bad happens. Next tie you get happy and do a little dance, watch your feet. Religious rites in a circle, in a wood morphed into everything from happy, plywood-tapping, small-town pub patrons, to Saturday morning classes with bewigged little girls and vest-sporting little boys kicking their own bums in dance studios East to West, to the top-shelf of dancers, Riverdancers, forming the longest of line-dances, gracing the finest stages across the grandest cities of the world. 

Whilst Riverdance produced world-class spectacle, Irish dancers you see at a pub, a festival, etc., are generally a solo to a small group. If you;ve ever wondered how that much footwork can stay in one spot, the emergence of dance saw many an 18th and 19thC dancer utiliing the limited space of a room, but dancing on barrels or tabletops. (This is also a common occurraece at Malarkey's in Newport Beach, The Dubliner Irish Pub in Copenhagen and Dick Mack's in Dingle. 

By the 18thC, an era in which formality ansdstructure held reign in most aspects of life, Irish dance parameters became notably stringent and rigid, thanks to the new reed of Dancing Master, giving rise to the recognizable form we know today. "Dancing Master" was a prestigious vocation, a teacher who travelled to villages and towns across Ireland, holding group lessons for the peasant and privileged classes alike; though, the students were largely of the peasant class, taking advantage of these opportunities when they came to town. The best dancers would have been awarded solos, to perform for the town and, as dancefloors did not grow in the wild, some villagers would sacrifice their doors, giving the soloist a better platform on which to perform. What did grow in the wild, was the human nature to compete. There grew grand competition not only within a Master's group, for solo positions, but also amongst rival Dance Masters' and their groups throughout neighbouring counties. This fierce spirit gave rise to more competition throughout the counties and country; today we have even more fierce feis and competition, ranging from local to regional to national to international to professional, i.e. Riverdance. World Irish Dance Association, a.k.a. World's, and Oreichtas are premiere levels for sompetition. From toddlers to pro principal-dancers, don't let the guys' charming caps, suspenders, pressed vests and dress pants, or the girls' sweet dresses, shiny tiaras, mile-high, ringlet-wigs - I still don't know the tradition behind those wild wigs - and schoolgirl socks fool you ... dem folks is badass. Irish Dancing: like any other sport, only much harder.  

The pursuit of Irish dance is natural for this writer. A far-reaching background in dance and sport is a natural impetus: ballet, Polynesian dance, gymnastics, track, fencing and yoga, Of all these endeavours,fencing and yoga stretch well into my adult life. (Although, my mad yoga skills are far deadlier than my fencing skills. Why the self-centered disclaimer, JennyPop? Nobody cares, the fair reader contemplates. I state this because, it is the most brutal, joyful and rewarding athletic endeavour I've ever done.

What I can conclude, is at some point, my ancestors (MacPhersons, Grimes and Marshalls) must have fecked with a fairy fort; or I did, unwittingly, three years ago (for that is about when my Step Dancing journey commenced) on the road from County Clare to Dublin when our travelling party happened upon the Kilmacduagh ruins in Co. Gort, and wandered about the lands for a good spell. The only other explanation for chasing a curse, is one Kathleen Fitzpatrick: she who introduced me to The Dance, gave me my first lesson and my first hard-shoes, shared with me my first, impromptu pub-dance, on a very tiny dance floor at O'Sulivan's in Escondido, CA, and is my one and only Step-sister. Come to think of it, she was there, at the ruins ... I think she's a fairy, I think I blame her, for catapulting me into this dancing madness. Of course, it could have been anyone around me, for, as Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat observed, "We're all mad here."

 

 

 

"Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter, lullabies, dreams and love ever after. Poems and songs with pipes and drums, a thousand welcomes when anyone comes. That's the Irish for you!"



Folow @JennyPopCom

 

Princess, Senator, General, Commander

Organa or Skywalker, born to Breha or Padme, a fantasy in gold

Superior, Rebel, Royalty, Huttslayer

A Madonna in white, honey buns iconically rolled

 

Whip-smart wit and brazen with a blaster

Heart as fragile as her soul rests stolid and bold

In love with a rebel, a rake, a rover

I love you. I know. No need to be told.

 

Bow down, out of her way, you walking carpets and Nerf Herders

You're in this only for the money, her loyalty cannot be sold

She irritates easily, Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper

Fall in line and take orders, Rebel scum, and there'll be no need to scold

 

Alderaan's not far away, from her heart and soul, never

Solo is closest, though, by the Empire he was taken from us, from her

Now Han and Leia, forever in the stars, Solo and Fisher, lovers ne'er shall grow old

 

 

Rainy morgen on Alisal Road, California's Danish burg begins to start and stir, as Mormor's oven begins to wake and warm

Dreessen's Bakery, long since awake, busies and bustles, so many treasures to bake
 
Kringle, dream cakes, butter rings, æebleskiver and kaffee

Morning treats so luscious and fine, "Hygge!" he might exclaim, the Old one once called Gorm


Yet the charmed life is not so placid, on Solvang's sunny field

Treachery and conspiracy hang palatably in the air

Like the arresting, hovering waft of Ingeborg's chocolate cloud

Mystery slowly peels, here and abroad, giving way to scandal, someone's fate is already sealed


Dagmar Dreessen, Solvang sixth-gen, for little does she know

In her Danish ancestors' pioneer town, this California København

Intrigue decants and patiently breathes, like a Fergalicious, prodigious red

Notes of saddle, pepper, smoky plum and murder float on the wind, the piquant mistral of mystery is just starting to blow



*Solving Solvang: The Copenhagen Murders is the working title of author Jennifer Susannah Devore's sequel - a murder mystery mis-en-scène in Solvang, California - to her contempo novel, The Darlings of Orange County.


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Dunluce Castle

87 Dunluce Road, Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland BT57 8UY

Sea-sprayed and lichen-coated, the seaside ruins of this 14thC., round-tower fortress rests dauntingly atop the Antrim Coast cliffs. Dunluce claims as residents, a winsome White Lady, ghostly tower dwellers and mischievous spirits who, reportedly, play in the gift shop overnight, rearranging books and turning on radios for the morning staff's arrival.

The White Lady hails from Dunluce's origins, the foundations and two round towers built by the MacQuillan sept in the 1300s. A daughter of the family, the now-known White Lady was forbidden by her father to marry the man she loved. As sad, beautiful, medieval nobles were wont to do, she died of a broken heart soon thereafter. Now, she roams the stones, forever young, beauteous and melancholy: the very best look for sporting a long, flowing, white gown as one aimlessly roams castle ruins, atop a jagged cliff overlooking a stormy sea, in an Irish mist, for all eternity.  

By the 16thC., inter-family usurpations, kidnap and murder plagued the MacDonnell sept, notably Sorely Boy MacDonnell. After his inheritance of the estate in 1556, his brother-in-law Shane O'Neill captured and imprisoned Sorely Boy during the Battle of Glentaisle. Only after Sorely Boy's posse retaliated and murdered O'Neill during a festive banquet, was Sorely Boy installed again as the rightful occupant and heir to Dunluce. 

In 1584, Queen Elizabeth I's Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir John Perrot, attacked Dunluce sans provocation and garrisoned an army there. Once more, Sorely Boy was ousted from the premises and, in this place, Perrot positioned Peter Carey as castle constable. Queen Elizabeth, however, seems to have known nothing of the attack and, upon learning of it, granted Dunluce back to Sorely Boy. Resurrected, again, Sorely Boy celebrated at Dunluce with a lively banquet and a hanging, of Peter Carey. 

As the 17thC. dawned, Dunluce had earned a reputation for desolation and doom. In 1635, Sorely Boy's grandson, Randall MacDonnell, brought his new bride, Catherine Manners, to the castle. Catherine was a widow of the Duke of Buckingham and a dyed-in-the-silk Lady of London. From the moment she stepped onto the Western Isle, Catherine loathed the countryside. The farther north she travelled the deeper her loathing burrowed. The isolation, the placid landscapes and the quiet life set in a madness for the city girl. Most of all, Catherine claimed "the constant boom of the sea drove her to distraction". 

On an exceptionally stormy night in 1639, as the family sat to yet another boring dinner in the banquet hall, the north wall of Dunluce's kitchen court crumbled suddenly into the sea, far below. Several of the kitchen staff fell to their terrifying, rocky, briny deaths. From that night, understandably so, Catherine refused "to live on that rock" ever again. As her husband commissioned a new home to be built on the mainland, Dunluce saw fewer inhabitants, less activity, sliding maintenance schedules and, as the years passed, slowly became the spooky, salty ruin it is today. 

Most notably, Dunluce Castle features in the origins of the fictitious O'Connor family, as it relates to Miss Erin Tara O'Connor, a prominent, supporting character in author Jennifer Susannah Devore's Savannah of Williamsburg: The Trials of Blackbeard and His Pirates, Virginia 1718 (Book II in the Savannah of Williamsburg Series of Books)   

 

*Dunluce Castle is currently closed, due to Covid, but is usually open for admission and self-guided strolls. For updates, visit their website or phone directly at +44 (0) 28 2073 1938   

 

Carrickfergus Castle

Marine Highway, Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, BT38 7BG

The house that self-fulfilling prophecy built: In the 12thC., Anglo-Normans roamed the Ulster countryside, oot 'n' aboot, king for land they fancied. When they found just the right bit, they took it. In 1185, a Norman Lord, John deCourcy, heard a prophecy that "a white knight from a foreign land, riding a white horse, with birds of prey upon his shield" would, one day, conquer all of Ulster. "Hey!" deCourcy he thought to himself, "I'm a blond knight from France and could totally get a white horse and make a shield with birds on it!" Because audiences were way easier to convince back then, he assembled an army and led a twenty-five year conquest over Ulster. On every chunk of land he conquered, he built a castle. Carrickfergus is one of those monuments to victory and unfathomable confidence. Today, it is one of the oldest, in-tact, stone castles in Ireland. However his conquest was short-lived. In 1210, England's King John claimed it for himself and it served as a government building for nearly 800 years. 

During that time, in the 18thC., consistent military installation oversaw centuries of not only bloodshed but heartache. In 1760, a case worthy of Project Innocence played out at the castle. Infuriated by a duplicitous fiancée, one Betsey Baird, a Carrickfergus soldier known as Robert Rainey rooted out Betsey's illicit paramour, one Col. Jennings and ran him through with his sword. Undaunted and self-satisfied, Rainey returned to his barracks, wiped clean his sword of Jennings' blood, changed shirts and went about his day. Unfortunately, also stationed at Carrickfergus was a soldier named Timothy Lavery. Lavery was a fine fellow who went by the nickname of Buttoncap, for the large, non-issue button he'd attached to his cap. Liked by all, Lavery really had only one fault: he bore a striking resemblance to Rainey. As Jennings lay on his death bed, dying from his sword-wound, he mistakenly identified Lavery, instead of Rainey, as his assailant. Lavery was arrested and sent t the gallows. Claiming innocence to the end, as the noose was pulled over his head and tightened around his neck, he vowed revenge and to haunt the castle forevermore. Today, his sad, vengeful spirit is seen on occasion at a castle well he was known to frequent. It is called Buttoncap's Well. 

*Carrickfergus Castle is currently closed, due to Covid of course - stupid virus - but is usually open for admission and self-guided strolls. Call or visit site updates. Phone: +44 (0) 28 9335 1273. 

 

Killakee House (a.k.a. Dower House)

Below Hellfire Club ruins, 12 Killakee Rd. Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, Dublin D16FT51

 

Ask Stephen King: some pets are just scary, no matter how much you try to love them. If you've ever had a cat that stalked you, and not playfully, Killakee House Restaurant may not be the dining experience you wish to book. Though the main house - a large, gracious, Regency-era, country home built in 1806 by prominent bookseller Luke White - fell into ill-repair over the last two-hundred years, what does remain today is The Steward's House (a.k.a. Dower House), built circa 1750 -1770. Since the early-2000s, it has stood as a casual dining establishment in the dark and moody hills of County Dublin, overlooking the bustling hub of Dublin Town. 

Dower House has been long-reported as haunted. Just above it, up Montpelier Hill lie the wicked ruins of Richard Parsons' Hell-Fire Club. In the 1700s, Satanic and myriad evil events occurred at not only the Hell-Fire, but also inside Dower House. The vile deeds are believed to have included, but are certainly not limited to, devil worship, animal sacrifice and torture (primarily black cats), witch burning, prostitute murders and the deathly beating of a dwarf, as amusement. Evidence of this final "amusement" is the long-forgotten skeleton of a badly deformed dwarf which was found by Dower House renovation workers, in the bell tower, in 1970.

Reported hauntings include sightings of, at least, two ghostly nuns, the spirits of two murdered men, extreme Poltergeist activity, black clouds moving about indoors and various, unsettling, unexplained noises. However, Killakee is best-known for The Killakee Cat. In 1968, Margaret and Nicholas O'Brien purchased the dilapidated Dower House with the intention of refurbishing it into a grand, Fine Arts center and intellectual retreat for writers, dancers and artists of all sorts. In paranormal terms, words like "construction", "renovation" and "refurbishment" are synonymous with "stirring up the spirits". As Dower House underwent renovations, it seems spirits indeed were stirred. Work crews reported, in addition to "general Poltergeist activity", seeing a large, black cat in the gardens. Later that year, Dublin artist and interior decorator Tom McAassey, claimed to see a black cat, "large as a Dalmatian dog" outside the front door.

According to McAssey's personal account in Frank Smyth's Ghosts and Poltergeists, after closing up for the night, one of two workmen on-site with him noted aloud that the heavy, front door was open, even after having locked it. Noticing a dark figure outside the door, McAssey thought it the other workman: the two of them pranking him. He told the figure, thinking it the second workman, "It won’t work, I can see you, so get in". McAssey claimed he then heard a "low voice" reply, "You cannot see me, leave the door open". McAssey turned aroud to see the two workmen standing behind him, well away from the door. In a flash, the two workmen fled the scene in a great fright. Not one to turn tail, McAssey investigated what must be clearly another worker or neighbourhood teen playing a joke. He walked toward the door and, there, now sitting in the foyer, was a black cat, "large as a Dalmatian dog with amber colored eyes" and ears flattened in attack-mode. Thinking the workmen had the right idea after all, McAssey fled out the back door of Dower House, never to see the cat again. Later, as artists do, he painted that which haunted him.

Today, McAssey's famed and spooky Killakee Cat painting hangs in the foyer of Killakee House, greeting guests and workers every day. Some have tried to toy with the painting (or the Cat, one in the same, some say), hanging it upside-down in jest. Yet, each time the painting is vexed, power outages and drained batteries immediately ensue. In a Ghost Adventures episode "Leap Castle & Hell-Fire Club" (S9e4), host Zak Bagans and Killakee House owner (2000 - present) Shay Murphy see a black cat, although domestic-size, dash past the house as they areon-camera discussing the Killakee Cat.

"Now, there's a black cat right there," points out Zak Bagans.

"There is a black cat. Really! Look, look! No way, no way!," Shay Murphy exclaims in true surprise. "No. Genuine. I have never seen that cat before. On my child's life, I have never seen a black cat in Killakee in fourteen years. And yous guys turn up. That is eerie."

"And we're talking about the Killakee black cat. Is it a weird coincidence?" Bagans ponders. "Yes, but we've learned that coincidences also mean something."

Indeed, they do.

*Killakee House appears to be open for lunch and brunch, Thursday - Sunday 11am - 4pm. Dress is casual and restaurant is dog-friendly and offers vegan/vegetarian options for diners. Call to be sure they are open, due to fluctuating Covid-restrictions: IRL country code (353) 14947087.  

 

 

Leap Castle

Coolderry, Co. Offaly, Ireland (north of Roscrea on the R421)

 

Easily boasting the title of Ireland's Most Haunted Castle, Leap (pron. leh-p) is a spirit world in its own league. Archeological evidence suggests Leap's earliest foundations may have been laid for a 12thC. fort. The castle, as it stands today, has its origins in the late-15thC., built under the supervision of John O'Carroll, Prince of Ely. Starting with John's death by plague in 1532, Leap Castle would bear witness to centuries of insidious turmoil, heart-wrenching despair, conniving ambition, unfathomable torture and veritable cartloads of heinous demise. Of course, if we've learned anything from Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist, (1982), building a home on ancient burial/sacrificial/pagan ground is never a good idea.

Legend recounts that centuries before Leap was constructed, sometime after the missionary work of St. Patrick and Palladius, but well before the arrival of John O'Carroll, the land where Leap's main tower stands today, was sacred ground for Druidic worship. Further, it is believed a sect of the High Kings summoned from the Earth during a sacrificial ritual, an elemental: a primitive, malevolent, supernatural being, neither spirit of a passed human, nor minion of the devil, but a powerful, insidious creature comprised of natural elements and which attaches itself to the place of its "birth". Therein lies the basic trope/origin story for any good, supernatural horror film. 

From 1541 to the 1660s, there occurred a slew of intra-family O'Carroll slayings at Leap. Of those slayings, the murder of an O'Carroll priest, mid-mass, by his own brother, Tyne O'Carroll, seems to be of the most lasting consequence. Slain in what is today known as The Bloody Chapel, the priest's murder was just one of many betrayals in an epic, ongoing power struggle amnogst the O'Carroll sept to secure Chieftainship, after the death of Mulroony O'Carroll in 1532. 

Blood begets blood and, in an ill-fated yet unsurprising act of violence, the last-reigning O'Carroll was slain by an Englishman called Darby: the next family to rule Leap all the way through to the 20thC. The Darbys had owned Leap briefly during the English Civil War: the seized property being awarded to Jonathon Darby I in 1649 for his service to Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarian army. However, after the Restoration of England's Stuart monarchy in 1660, Leap was returned to the O'Carrolls, in 1664, by King Charles II, for their service and support of his father, the previously ousted King Charles I.

Never a family to be subdued or shamed, the O'Carrolls were nothing if not cunning and vengeful to all whom opposed them, or were simply perceived to be oppositional. The notorious Oubliette in the Bloody Chapel is proof of their mad vengeance and inhumanity. In the northwest corner of the chapel nests a small chamber with a dropped floor. Embedded in that floor is a series of nauseatingly large, iron spikes. Derived from the French verb oublier (pron. oo-blee-ay and meaning "to forget"), it is where the O'Carrolls dumped the dead, dying, living, guilty, innocent and unsuspecting, forever to be forgotten. The lucky ones fell properly on a spike and died instantly. If one was unlucky enough to miss a spike in fatal fashion, one lingered there in pain and obsolescence until infection or madness mercifully ended their suffering. Those who missed the spikes altogether festered away until hunger, thirst or death by shock took them away from their hell. To add some twisted psychology to the torture, the Oubliette had an arrow-slit window, just large enough for the trapped to view all the lively cavorting in a lovely landscape they could never experience again. There were also vents so that tasty food smells wafted up from the dining hall into the dungeon. What a bunch of bastards. Few made it out alive.

One such fortunate soul to escape was the Englishman, Captain Jonathon Darby III (a.k.a. the Wild Captain). In Romeo and Juliet style, but with a happy ending, an O'Carroll daughter fell in love with the Captain, and he with her. Free of any spike-damage, the captain subsisted breifly on food smuggled to him by his love. When it was deemed safe, she would bust him out of there. When she finally did free him, she and her captain headed down the chapel stairwell to ground-floor freedom; yet, on the way down, they happened upon her brother, on his way up the stairs. In a heartbeat, the Wild Captain Darby fatally slew the O'Carroll brother. As the last male heir of Leap, the dead brother's property passed to his sister ... and to Captain Darby and the whole Darby line. Hey, look at that, Karma works sometimes.

Hauntings kicked up at the turn of the 20thC., when Mildred Darby - wife of Charles, last of the Darbys - delved deeply into the Victorian fad of séances, holding several at the castle and dabbling in various occult practices. It is believed she unintentionally invited, amongst a host of other malevolent spirits, the elemental begat by the Druids so many centuries ago.

" ... standing in the gallery looking down at the main floor, when I felt somebody put a hand on my shoulder. The thing was the size of a sheep. Thin, gaunt and shadowy ... its eyes, which seemed half-decomposed in black cavities, stared into mine. The horrible smell ... gave me a deadly nausea. It was the smell of a decomposing corpse ... ," claimed Mildred in an article she penned for Occult Review  in 1909.

After a fire gutted Leap in 1922, reconstruction crews discovered the O'Carroll Oubleitte. Workers removed three horse-carts flush with human bones from the Bloody Chapel's hidden dungeon. For decades, as Leap stood uninhabited - by the living, at any rate - locals claimed to see the Bloody Chapel's window brief cast a bright glow of amber candlelight in the night, seen across the fields. Witnesses described the sudden glow, "as if someone lit a great number of candles, walked through the chapel's upper room, then blew out all the candles and left". Others who dared to explore the ruins at night during this period reported a wandering woman in a long, red, billowing gown. Funny how they're always in a beautiful gown. One never hears of a ghostly lady in yoga pants or bell-bottoms.

Today, a few broken bones and some unsettling "accidents" later, owners Sean and Anne Ryan seem to have earned their keep. Whilst the spirits "may make nuisances of themselves occasionally", they are largely non-malevolent, but very much still present. Perhaps it's Sean's music (he being a professional musician), the friendly, personal tours or the festive gatherings and feasts that have calmed the spirits. Or, perchance, most important of all, it is the atmosphere of a loving and cheerful home, free of fratricide, torture, deceit and violence that has set the Leap spirits most at peace. For,, when you take all the rough history out of it, the Irish countryside is nothing, if not peaceful.

*Leap Castle is generally open for guided tours; although due to Ireland's changing covid-restrictions, please, contact Mr. Sean Ryan for availability. Phone: +353868690547 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

     

Thoor Ballylee

Nr. Gort, south Co. Galway, Ireland

Sprouting from idyllic, pastoral fields, like the distant focal point of a Turner landscape, stands proudly the 14thC. Hiberno-Norman tower which Irish writer William Butler Yeats called his Summer home. Essentially a ruin by 1917, Yeats shrewdly purchased Islandmore Castle, as it was hitherto known, for a mere £35. Yeats renamed it Thoor Ballylee, Gaelic for "Tower Homestead". As writers love to do, he played with words and the sounds they create, choosing the Gaelic Thoor specifically because, I think the harsh sound of Thoor amends the softness of the rest. One might assume "the softness" Yeats meant, was the tranquil land on which Thoor stands. 

Within two years, in 1919, after considerable refurbishment, Yeats not only inhabited Thoor in the Summer months, but Thoor Ballylee inhabited his spirit, always. A stolid believer in the supernatural and intrigued by the occult, Yeats found Thoor fed that intrigue. With certainty, Yeats was convinced an Anglo-Norman soldier haunted his home. This belief, or concern, depending on your viewpoint, was shared by later residents. This included a woman who reported a ghost frequenting the tower stairwell often enough, she refused to trod the stairs once night fell. Apparently, her dog shared her concerns, regularly cowering from an unseen presence in the downstairs areas of the tower. 

Photographic evidence in 1989 exposes the form of a young boy staring directly at the camera, as a guest took pictures in Yeats' sitting room. The guest, one David Blnkthorne was the only person in the room, as the tower had closed for the day, just as Blinkthorne and his family arrived a bit too late in the day, after a long carride. Blinkthorne entreated the curator to stay open just long enoough for hiis family to take a quick run-through and snap some photos. She allowed the family a few moments as she closed up shop. Blinkthorne's wife and children were in another part of the home; David explored the sitting room alone, or so he believed. The boy has been seen before; he is thought to be Yeats' young son.

 

Blessed be this place, more blessed still this tower. A bloody, arrogant power, rose out of the race. 

- from William Butler Yeats' "Blood and The Moon", reference to Thoor Ballylee and its haunted staircase

 

*Thoor Ballylee is generally open April - September for tours tea and hearty welcomes. Failte Thoor Ballylee! As with everything in Europe, the UK and the States, please, double-check for availability and hours.

Phone: +353 (0) 91 631436 (weekdays 10am-2pm, weekends 11am-5pm) or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Happy Irish-American Heritage Month and safe travel to all, when the time time comes again that we may. Sláinte, kittens!

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