Ireland is well known to be a friendly, welcoming place full of cheerful people. Unfortunately, even good stereotypes don’t tell the whole story. Ireland is also the home of many who have simply lost hope, even if they continue to put on a good face for others. This is proven by the fact that for many years, Ireland has had one of the highest suicide rates in Europe. You can read more about that by clicking here. With all of this in mind, our church is hosting an event on the 22nd, where a former pastor from Northern Ireland will share his personal story of suicide in the family, and point people to the only hope that can be a firm foundation through life and loss: Jesus Christ.
Category: Ireland (Page 4 of 21)
Last Friday, Ireland voted by a 62% majority to change our national constitution to include gay marriage. The ‘yes’ campaign framed the issue around “equality”, while the ‘no’ campaign emphasised the purposeful removal of at least one biological parent from children. Both sides would agree that cultural transformation in Ireland has been breathtakingly fast. Both sides would also agree that this vote marks a definitive break from Ireland’s long-standing ‘marriage’ (pun intended) to the Catholic Church. Although most people in Ireland will continue to call themselves both Catholic and Christian, they are increasingly resistant to the actual teachings of the Church, and increasingly individualistic and self-guided in their spirituality. What this vote means for the future of families, freedom of conscience, education, and the evangelical church in Ireland remains to be seen. There are already many who are saying that those who will not support the new definition of marriage have no place in modern Ireland. But whatever happens, we will continue to keep our conduct honourable, “so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12)
One of Seth’s dorm mates from college is in Ireland now for a visit, and staying with us this weekend. We love seeing old friends, and we also love showing off this amazing island. It’s great to see someone enjoy the beauty of this place with fresh eyes. It helps us appreciate again where we live.
One of the things we struggled to learn when we first moved to Ireland was how to pronounce Irish names. We quickly learned that there was no point trying to sound them out, unless you just wanted people to laugh at you. The rules of pronunciation for Irish Gaelic are very different than English! Here’s a fun video of other Americans making some of the same mistakes we did (but thankfully, we didn’t make all of these):
Today the children of Youghal are happy, knowing that they have the next two weeks off for Easter Holidays. It’s kind of like Spring Break in America, but it’s always tied to Easter so the dates change each year. Our churches use the opportunity to run three camps for different ages, and Seth will be helping with the intermediate camp (for 12-15 year olds) next week. You never know if Easter camp will be wet or dry, hot or cold, but sure that’s part of the adventure. As Charles Dickens once wrote: “It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
This week we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by going to the parade in Youghal, and Seth was actually in it this year with the Youghal Musical Society. They even won a trophy for being the ‘Best Culture Group’ in the parade! The same day, we had some friends from America come who are in Ireland for a holiday (vacation) and made time to spend a couple of days with us. It was wonderful to see them (there’s nothing like old friends, is there?) and we had beautiful sunshine to show them around a bit as well. Ireland looks good all the time, but when the sun shines, it’s incredible! Jessica also had her birthday this week, so tomorrow we’re going to the Cork Opera House to see a Rat Pack tribute band. It’s a good week!
Ireland may not be a big country, but that doesn’t mean everyone here sounds the same. There are actually huge differences in the accent depending on where you go in Ireland. This short video does a brilliant job explaining those differences (once you get past the bad use of language at the beginning):
As Americans living in Ireland, one of the differences we had to get used to was in how we get rid of things. We were used to putting trash in the trash can, and letting the garbage truck pick it up regularly. Now we put rubbish in the rubbish bin, and let the bin lorry collect it. The bin lorry comes once a week, but it only collects rubbish fortnightly (every other week), in a green bin. On the other weeks, we put out a blue bin that is only for recycling. Some folks also have red bins for glass, or brown bins for compostables. We found out quickly that the recycling bin is very important: if you don’t fill it with everything you can possibly recycle, then the rubbish bin will fill up long before the two weeks is up and it’s ready to be collected again. And don’t even think about putting out an extra bin. They won’t take it. In fact, we’ve had messages before saying that they won’t take the bin if it’s too full for the lid to fit down properly (thankfully they seem to be a bit lenient on that rule these days). All this adds up to Seth occasionally looking over his shoulder to make sure the neighbours aren’t watching while he jumps on top of the green bin to try and squeeze just a bit more in…
This is what happens when you turn down a cup of tea in Ireland:
If you’re reading this in America, and if there’s not a layer of white over it, you can probably look out your window and see plenty of brown grass. They say the grass is greener on the other side, and if you’re talking about the ocean, than in this case it really is true. One of the most obvious differences about living here is that the grass never turns brown. In fact, it never even stops growing – every year we have to cut the grass in January or February because of the winter growth. But that’s not to say there isn’t a difference in the way things look when Spring comes. There is. It may seem impossible for a place to be more green than it is right now, but the buds are on the branches, and very soon the impossible will be busting into a thousand new shades of green that had almost been forgotten. It’s no wonder they call it the Emerald Isle.
