Donegal Dreams

The bus ride took us about 4 and one half hours to get to Strabane. Luckily a man with his family realized we looked a little anxious and assured that he would alert us when we had reached our final destination.

Walking off the bus we noticed a man about 5’8” getting out of his little Nissan pick-up. He was dressed in wellies, jeans, and a flannel. I was expecting an Irish accent to come out of his mouth but much to my surprise he was British. “I’m Ian” he said. “Welcome to Donegal.” It took about 15 minutes to get from Strabane to Feddyglass (Ian and Helen’s Place). The house was in disarray but it was beautiful. It was built in the 1600’s they believe and they were in the process of putting a new roof on and tearing out all of the old stone and interior. They wanted to rebuild it to look exactly how it did when it was first constructed.

He had set up a tent for us as for two of us to sleep in and the other two would get the second camper van that their friends had left at their house for the summer. It wasn’t the best conditions we had encountered so far on our trip but it had a homey and comfortable feeling to it. I was real excited to get to work on such an old house but it turned out that Ian had other plans in mind for us Engineers.

They had a TV for us to watch DVDs and play PS2 if we desired. Helen had quite the selection of films as well. This was the first time I finally got to see “Cool Hand Luke”. What an amazing movie. I had been missing out. We also watched “Best in Show”, “Stay”, “Chocolat”, “The Big Lebowski”, “P.S. I love you”, “The Knowing”, “As Good as it Gets”, and “Dawn of the Dead”. This was the first time we got to sit around and be lazy. Ian never wanted to start work until after noon or 1 O’clock anyhow.

To sum up the work portion of the Donegal experience Ian had planned for us to build a new well for him. The well on top of the hill was their only water supply but he wanted to have more water pressure so we decided to double the volume of the well to achieve the new pressure. We spent the first day looking around to plan out our strategy and then we began to dig. The well was only a hole in the round that was covered by some aluminium sheets. It was surrounded by dirt and trees. Dirt and trees in which we needed to move out of there. We thought we could do the entire thing by hand but we couldn’t. There was one gigantic tree stump that we needed to call a digger for to come and remove it. Once the trees were out along with the dirt we began to build. Ian had a collection of stones for us to use but we had to dig up most of them by hand. It was quite the challenge trying to build a well out of non-uniformed rocks we pulled out of the ground. Ian taught us a lot about stone mason work. We spent almost every day mixing cement and lime with sand for our mortar. It was always two bathtubs worth which would get us about 2/3 of a layer down. It took us up until the day before we left to get that well finished although there were some finishing touches that Ian had to do once we were gone. I just happy that we don’t have to spend a couple hours a day siphoning water out of a well anymore or getting a pump to get the water pressure back at the house.

The countryside around Ian and Helen’s place was amazing. We went for walks along the long checker patterned farm roads on several occasions. It was rare to have sunny days but when they came it illuminated the countryside and made it quite the site to see. We went with Ian on a couple of roads trips to see the sights that were nearby their place. The first was the stone circles just outside of Raphoe. It was like another Stonehenge but not as tall and uniform. The second place he brought us to was an old fort. It was built completely out of stone and looked like a mini coliseum. There had been some work done to it but for the most part it was in really awesome shape. It was like a mini arena inside. There were several levels of wall you could take stares up. The third place Ian brought us to was the beach at a bay near the fort. It was a beautiful spot with surrounding hillsides and very shallow shores. We spent the entire time collecting mussels so we could have a mussel cookout later that night. We gathered up all of the butter, oil and garlic we could find and cooked outside on the grill. It was so delicious!

Ian and Helen also brought us to Londonderry where we got a chance to see the city wall and learn about the history of Bloody Sunday. It was more fun than I imagined it to be. We got to ride some giant cannons and get a good look of the old city of Derry. There was also a WWII monument outside the mall that had left an open spot available for WWIII. Kind of Strange... We also got to meet Helen’s mother. She made a lot of tea for us and crammed many pieces of toast down our throats which we didn’t mind. Free food is good food!

MY most favourite part about Donegal was the trips we took into the city of Raphoe, the smallest city in all of Europe. They know this because it was a question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The first time Ian brought us was right after we had visited the stone circles and he brought us to Horse and Hound for a couple of pints. The man who was working the bar told us about the traditional Irish music session that went on every Thursday next door at the Diamond Lounge. He said he played the flute and the mandolin and told us that we were more than welcome to come and be a part of the festivities. The first time we went was with Ian. It was a little awkward at first since we were clearly from out of town but the people at the bar were very open friendly with us. The ring leader, at least that is what he seemed like to me, was this small, smiley face lad who looked a lot like my uncle Tom. He could play almost every instrument there. He was a pro at the flute though. They were amazing! There were about 15 people playing throughout the night passing around guitars, mandolins, flutes, drums, and accordions.

The second trad session we went to was on the last Thursday we were going to have in Donegal. This was the last night that Linds and Ramsey would see Brandon in Ireland. It was a perfect way to spend their last evening with him too. The music was perfect and the Guinness was delicious. We got to talking with a few of the local guys before we left. Brandon and I mentioned that we were heading to Dublin for a show and one guy was very jealous. He hadn’t heard much about Avenged Sevenfold but he was a diehard Metallica fan. He said Marlay Park was a very nice place and assured us that we wouldn’t be disappointed. This just made me even more excited for the show. I couldn’t believe that we were going to see Avenged live in Dublin!

It was sad to say goodbye to Ian and Helen the next day. There hospitality was more than what we had planned on and our new friendship will last a lifetime. I hope to return one day to check in on Ian and Helen to see how the house has developed. I imagine it will be the home of their dreams. Ian brought Brandon and me to the bus station later that afternoon and with a solid farewell we were on our way to Dublin.