Oct 18

Oct 18 The Giant's Causeway

All 3 of the amigos were to be reunited in October of 2018 for Gina and Matt’s wedding. Our dear friends, party buddies and charcuterie chefs from Bangkok were getting hitched and we were NOT going to miss it.

The timing was fortunate, in that Rebecca had just been diagnosed, and it gave me an excuse to stay in Ireland for 3 weeks longer than expected.

The wedding was divine; emotional and loving. It was held in Rathmullan, in Co. Donegal. Rebecca had finished 1 round of chemo, and was eager to be a ‘real person’ for the weekend. We told nobody (bar the bride and groom) that she was sick.

On the way back from Donegal, we detoured up the north coast of Ireland to see the famous, mystical and very lovely Giant’s Causeway.

We brought some beer and toasted the shores of Ireland, thinking back to all the times we’ve said goodbye at departures, or cried as we descended into Dublin airport. We are a family of emigrants in a long legacy of the departing Irish, and on this day we were happy to be home.

I played the haunting old folk song “The Parting Glass” as we drank to the scenery and each other.
To Rebecca, I cheers’d the shores of Ireland, our previous partings and momentary synchronicity.
To myself, I grieved for the finality of that time, knowing that I would rise, and she would not. That in all probability, this would be the last time we would ever see Scotland across the waves, or Ireland from a cliff.

According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn MacCool was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he is. Fionn's wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the 'baby', he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down

- Thanks Wikipedia