Travels in Eire #68

Cailin got to work on her plan. First she needed to find a location for young women to be able to get together, and a purpose for the social meetings. The flat that she lived in had a nice sized parlor on the first floor that was barely ever used. She talked to the owner who lived on the first floor across from the parlor, and asked if she could have some friends over on occasion to visit. She keep the whole idea to herself not knowing if this would work for sure.

Then she started designing a flier to attract young professional women who were looking to connect with other women for social evenings and some charity work. No sense in wasting all this talent on just socializing, and Cailin could see the possibility of tying this in with some of what Darren might be doing.

Cailin started leaving her first set of fliers at a coffee shop down the street from her flat for a meeting that following Thursday after work. She really didn't expect to have many women attend but hoped someone would be there. She chose a Thursday as payday was on Friday and everyone, including herself and Darren, often went to a local pub on Friday.

Cailin didn't want to be serving a lot so she settled on tea and cookies and called the group “Tea and Talk” for lack of any better name. With everything set up in the parlor – she figured she could always make more tea, or bring more cookies from her flat if needed – she waited for 6:00PM to arrive and see if there were any takers.

6:05....6:10.....6:15.....and then there was a knock at the front door.

“Is this the Tea and Talk place?” came the question from a young woman standing at the door.

“Yes, it is,” responded Cailn enthusiastically. “Please come in. My name is Cailin. I'm so glad you decided to come.”

“Wait, you sound American. What kind of group is this? Oh, I'm Aislin.” the girl replied.

“Aislin, yes, I'm Irish American. I'll explain everything once we sit down. I was hoping there would be a few more women here.” Cailin's disappointment was obvious.

“My friend Riley is supposed to be coming too. I don't know what has held her up. Let me give her a call.” Aislin could sense Cailin's disappointment and was trying to help.

After a few minutes there was another knock at the door and Riley joined Cailin and Aislin.

The three of them sat down in the parlor and Cailin explained the reason for the flier. Aislin and Riley were immediately intrigued. They agreed that they would like to enlarge their network of friends as both of them had just moved to Derry for work and didn't know that many people yet. The two girls were so excited to have an American friend also, even though Caiin was Irish now, to them she would always be American. After about an hour they agreed to get together again the following Thursday and see if they each could bring along another friend. They had lots of ideas of other women they worked with who were looking for the same friendship experience.

When Cailin closed the door behind the girls as they left, she smiled. Maybe this would work after all. Now she needed a better plan for the group and a better name. She hoped to have all that done by the following Thursday. She cleaned up the parlor and headed up to her flat as her cell rang. Darren was on his way over. What did she have on hand for dinner? And she laughed out loud.

My Love of Irish Music

I've always really like Irish traditional music. It's something that tells a story most of the time. Talks about life in Ireland. Shows off who the people in Ireland are. I follow a few Irish musicians and really enjoy what they have to offer musically.

But my inspiration always comes from the strangest places. I write poetry, and share that poetry as a story about what inspires me. So along the way I have been very impressed with a group called Celtic Thunder. Their music is such an eclectic mix of Irish trad, contemporary, classical, and original music written by one of my favorite Irish musicians, Phil Coulter.

I'm still not sure how all this happened. I was inspired and I started writing poetry about the Celtic Thunder group, and the individual singers last year. It ended up that I published a small poetry book called Celtic Thunder Inspired Poetry. I set up the pages so that there is a signing page for each of the guys in the group.

So I had this idea. What if I could do something really worthwhile with this little book of poetry. With the approval of Sharon Browne, I am offering the book for sale and all the proceeds from the sale of the book are donated to the Celtic Thunder supported Charity, the African Orphans school supported by the Rotary Club of Good Hope. It makes a great souvenir to have signed at a Meet and Greet, but also just to have as a souvenir if you like poetry.

I know that the shows will be starting soon and it takes about 10 days to receive a book from the online publisher that I use. If you are interested, it would be great to have you order one and while you are enjoying your poetry book, you are also support the African's Children's charity.

You can order through Amazon, or directly from the publisher I use. Amazon goes through them anyway. The cost is the same. It's $8.95 plus shipping and handling. Here are the web addresses:

Amazon Celtic Thunder Inspired Poetry http://www.amazon.com/Celtic-Thunder-Inspired-Poetry/dp/B002AD34QC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254196673&sr=1-1

Lulu.com http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/celtic-thunder-inspired-poetry/4816803