Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We have just returned from singing at the Vigil Mass at Clonard for Laetare Sunday. Literally just before that, Dan, Kurt, and I disembarked from the Wexford Bus from Dublin. There were two rainbows between the bus stop and the church!
As Kurt mentioned earlier this week, we did get a good amount of time in the office together this week. It was good to get some planning in: we now have a lesson plan for the Kennedy Park 3rd class Stations, as well as some music for the Triduum. We were also able to work in the schools more frequently this week. I continued working with the Confirmation choir at Kennedy Park. Kennedy Park also had their all-school reconciliation service this Thursday. Jess and Kurt met with a Scoil Mhuire 4th class to get started on Class Mass #4! Kurt and I also attended a meeting with the Ferns Liturgy Group, whose website is almost ready to launch.
Each of us was able to spend some quality time with Steve and Michele Warner. Their visit in Wexford finished with a night at the pub and some good Notre Dame craic! They left for Dublin on Thursday, and we followed them on Friday. I appreciated how very Irish Ireland looked on the drive up to the city: mist clung to the bright green, sheep-dotted hills as airs drifted from the radio. That evening, we sang at St. Patrick’s Day Mass for the Notre Dame Dublin program and the Notre Dame Marching Band. Sporting living shamrocks pinned to our new IrelaND Dublin football game t-shirts, we piled into the hall for a lovely dinner and Celtic Twilight. The evening was full of Irish folk songs, both humorous and tragic, Irish dancing by a few girls studying abroad, Irish poetry, and the four of us singing “Falling Slowly” from the movie “Once.” As we left, who did we see but Emily Puscas, passing through Dublin on her way back from spring break! After many hello’s and goodbye’s, Jess and I hurried back to our hotel to watch the marching band open “The Late Late Show” on TV! We said farewell to all our visitors, attended the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day parade or St. Patrick’s Day Mass, and returned to Wexford, which brings this post full-circle. Good night!
