The Irish Homecoming: Ireland’s cafe culture - catching up with the ladies and current events

April Drew enjoying Ireland's cafes, both new and old

Later Saturday night two young men partied with drugs late into the night and both died a few hours later.  Although investigations are still ongoing, the rumor is that they took a bad batch of drugs.

In the previous two weeks a Real IRA member living in Dublin was murdered by a local drug gang for being outspoken about eradicating drug pushers, a young man in Limerick related to gangland crime was shot in cold blood at a family wedding in Co. Clare, and a mother who had psychiatric problems smothered her son the night before he was due to start school.

All of these bad news stories were discussed in depth by the lunching ladies who mainly ordered salads and light dinners. Two of the five had a glass of wine.

After nearly 40 minutes of rehashing the weekend news a woman dressed in a pink top and black jacket asked her neighbor how long it was until her daughter’s wedding. Four weeks was the response. I’m assuming by the question aforementioned the woman in pink had not received an invite.

The conversation continued on the topic of weddings, outfits (and a sale in Brown Thomas) and wedding receptions. This particular lady’s daughter was getting married in a five star hotel in Galway.

A larger group of women, who looked all to be in their early forties, laughed a lot, not loud enough to disturb other customers but enough to make us all look in their direction and wonder what all the fun was about. I couldn’t get close enough to their conversations – and believe me I really wanted to- but I did meet two “powdering their noses” in the bathroom before I left. Like any group of women they were indulging in some gossip.

A tall woman who looked to be the youngest of the group shared her dislike of one of the women’s husbands. “He is just creepy,” she told a blonde woman in a tight black dress.

“Oh, I know, yes, I was just saying that to Liz last week,” whispered the blonde while looking over her shoulder.

I’m not sure if they were aware I was around the corner washing my hands while they reapplied their lipstick and had a good bitching session.  The conversation didn’t last long, but a promise to keep their opinions to themselves was made before they rejoined the group.

Because it’s the middle of the day on a Monday, I make the assumption that most of these women, if not all, are either stay at home mothers (kids are in school) or non-working wives.

I thought about what my friends and I chat about when we are together, and something suddenly struck me. When I’m with my friends we spend endless amounts of time talking about our kids (their bad and good habits, their sleeping and feeding patterns and the joy they bring to our lives).

We also go on about our husbands or partners, set plans in motion for a night out and are always on hand to offer advice (even if we’re not asked) to one of the girls at the table about their life.

What I found interesting with these groups of women was the superficial chat or lack of personal connection. It was more like the ladies were acquaintances rather than friends. They knew and put up with each other, but when their lunch ended I wondered if they ever chatted on the phone, met up outside of lunch or even cared for one another.

​
Nster.com