Clare Island IV - Eatin & Dhrinkin

From the Rugby it was straight up the hill to the Gill compound. I’m still not sure how many people stayed in the house on Saturday night but it was probably enough to field a team. The hospitality was only splendid! God bless his mother for welcoming a host of beastly men into her family home.

Straight down to the community centre where a meal worthy of far more esteemed guests than us was laid on. The plates were returned as spotless as they were first received. Even an eater as pick as myself cleaned his!
There was an almighty lull then as the days’ football and the big meal took its toll. Fortunately it was interrupted by an exhibition of irish dancing (set dancing?). Top notch stuff. We sat there in awe at the footwork and control. Still, they couldn’t sustain that for the night so enter Colin Byrne and the Jaegerbomb(s). What happened thereafter will go down as yet another great night in Belgium G.A.A.!

If I ever manage to upload the pictures, they will tell the story of Clare Island. My only regret is we didn’t mix enough with the Clare Island lads more. As our travelling party grows we tend to stay within our own company more. I don’t think it’s a conscious thing but we’re all good friends now so the banter is good.
We rounded each other up somewhere around 5am to head back to the compound. The first 100m didn’t bode well as we all stood bamboozled by the stars. I’m used to it from home but when you live in a city you forget about them. Crusher couldn’t hold back the emotion; “some night, savage craic, you wouldn’t bait that with a shtick”. He was still ranting when we got back to our bunk.

The story goes that I recalled the previous evening’s activities to Olof’s mother the next morning in the kitchen, stood there in my towel! A magnificent breakfast was presented to us and set us up nicely for the 11am boat back to the mainland. Myself and Crusher trudged off down the hill in awe of our surroundings.

I headed for Shannon in a convoy with the bomber, Clare, Sylvia, Jane, Caoimhe, Grainne and Laura. The countryside up there is fairly impressive. I hadn’t been there since I was a nipper but will definitely be paying the place another visit in the not too distant future. All in all, it was a great weekend, despite it being too short.