The Irish Homecoming - Enjoying the brief glorious summer and reconnecting with the family

A brief bout of summer weather has APRIL DREW very happy with her decision to move back to ireland

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Colum Mooney hanging out in the glorious sun in Ireland

Photo by April Drew

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So we had a few beautiful days – or should I say afternoons -- in the Limerick/Kerry/Clare region last week. The farmers on my road were out with their Massey Fergusons in force. They took full advantage of the weather to do whatever they do this time of the year.

In fact the whole country grabbed onto the sun, and in between watching our Irish athletes in London perform people had barbeques, went to the beach and swam in Irish waters. Others cut the grass, took the kids to parks and pounded the roads to get some fresh air (and if they were lucky, a suntan).

John and I were off work last Friday so we decided the night before we would take a trip to Kilkee in Co. Clare.  I’d never been, and John spent many summers as a child playing on the sandy beaches there.  It’s about an hour and a half from Limerick.

We fought the whole way down about opening the windows, closing them, putting on the air conditioning.  It was muggy for Ireland.

Upon arriving at the seaside town it was overcast and humid.  Several people were out walking their dogs and children. The beach was quiet enough. Being overcast wasn’t appealing to the sunbathers.

The streets were busy, the little beach shops were doing okay and the local restaurants were getting ready to open. We parked up on the main street, hauled the cranky kids out of the car and joined the dozens of enthusiastic walkers along the promenade.

After a nice long walk – John was showing me various houses he stayed in when he was younger and he relived many memories as we strolled -- we grabbed some lunch in a small, cozy café. It was nearing 3 p.m. when we came out and the streets had gotten a lot quieter.

The sky was 100 percent blue, the sun blazed down on Kilkee, and down the road on the white sandy beach hundreds of people began to set up sun-chairs, towels, picnic baskets and all that good stuff that comes with a day by the sea.  Costa del Kilkee we joked.

Kids pulled shovels and spades out of their mommy’s oversized totes and teenagers congregated in groups flirting with each other in various spots on the glowing sand.

And then one by one people braved the cold waters – later reporting “it really wasn’t that bad.” Kids, accompanied by parents, older siblings and babysitters, dipped their toes.

The bigger ones and the teenagers showed off splashing around in deeper waters and older folks swam lengths of the Atlantic Ocean, possibly inspired by the Olympic swimming they were watching on the TV that morning. John took Colum down to the water as I stayed put on the sand with Sadie in the shade.

It happened that some of John’s cousins were in Kilkee on holidays for the week, so we met up with them on the beach and had some fun in the sun for the afternoon.

Although the sun kept shining loudly in the sky, people quickly began to gather up their things and make their way back to their homes or the places they were staying late afternoon.  Katie Taylor’s fight for her gold medal was on at 4:45 p.m. and no one was going to miss it.

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