An Irish Experience: Travel Tales Flowing from History, Humor & the Search for Home

Through this tantalizing travelogue the reader journeys north, west, south, and east to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell the fascinating facets of a culture created by 2000 years of history amidst a geographical wonderland. And spiced with generous helpings of humor, this adventure offers an experience comprised of art and architecture, song and dance, poetry, politics, and the warm-hearted people who inhabit the Emerald Isle.

"It begins with brainwaves, an idea: I want to see Ireland. Then, like a gentle breeze, enters emotion, a curious yearning, whispering: I need to see Ireland. Add imagination, and the lady is wearing a smile. A beautiful smile. A coquettish smile.

All right. All right. So the lady is a country, you were expecting a romance maybe? Well, all right again, her name is Rachel and she lives in Sligo. But that's its own separate story, and for the moment the subject is beginnings, so as I was saying, the Lady is sporting a smile. Dressed in soft green velvet, her shoulders support a shawl of lakes and rivers and mountains. And around her neck curls a single strand of wedding-white pearls, one each for Dublin, Sligo, Galway, Limerick, Killarney, Cork, and Waterford.

On her left wrist dangles a gold bracelet, heavy with the charms of song and dance, art, and the four Nobel Prizes for Literature, all jingling sweetly beneath the smaller Claddagh brooch nestled near her heart: two arms circling to join hands in friendship, then cradle a heart for love below the crown of loyalty, while in the center, twin emeralds sparkle to speak of the two Hs -- History and Humor."