The 16th of June in Dublin, which happened to be on a Saturday this year, is the annual celebration of Bloomsday. That day in 1904, was the one James Joyce chronicled in his book Ulysses. We started our Bloomsday at the
I heard very few of them because I had arranged to go to County Wicklow with Danielle for the day. Miceál Ross had made arrangements to pick up Joyce Story and Doug Bland at the Joyce Center, and after seeing them off, I made my way to Connolly Station, got the Dart Train south to Glenagearry where Danielle was waiting for me.
Danielle grew up in Wicklow, and she misses the trees and the landscape. The first place she took me was Warblebank, a beautiful garden maintained by the aunt of one of her closest friends. Then we stopped for a cup of tea at Fisher’s in Newtownmountkennedy, the sophisticated boutique and tea room where her mother works when she is not painting.
We then went on to meet her mother, Patricia, who lives in the Danielle’s childhood home. Patricia had a day of painting planned in preparation for an upcoming show, and hadn’t wanted to be disturbed, but since we had her baby granddaughter, Hannah, with us we were welcomed. Danielle’s uncle, Andrew, happened 
to be there too, doing some construction for his sister.
From there we set off for The Wicklow hills are famous for their beauty, and Glendalough reflects it all like two giant mirrors. We went to the visitor’s center, where I heard the story about St. Kevin included in an earlier post. It’s small, but well done, and includes the famous Hollywood stone on which is carved a labyrinth. It was found along the pilgrimage route associated with the saint and his glen. There is a modern labyrinth in the grass on the grounds of the park.
I was waiting for Danielle and Hannah to reappear when I noticed Richard Marsh, a storyteller from Dublin, walking by outside in the rain. I waved him down through the window and he came inside. He was there with a group of teachers, from Belgium I think, serving as their guide and telling them stories about St. Kevin.
After visiting with Richard for a few moments, Danielle and I had lunch and then braved the elements to visit the round tower and other buildings on the site. We had just reached the little chapel when we turned to see Doug, Joyce, and Miceál coming towards us. I immediately cornered Miceál so that he could finish telling me his perspective on why the Cailleach would accept a challenge from St. Patrick. What it boils down to in his opinion is nothing more than a Christian recension of an old story, a recension that functions – not surprisingly – to discredit and diminish the goddess of the land. Maybe I am taking it too seriously, but that story is still nipping at the heels of my consciousness.
Danielle drove up past the lakes to the Wicklow gap, and then we made our way back through the countryside and villages to the Dart station, where she dropped me off. I got back to Dublin at 8:30 p.m., my internal landscape filled with the beauty of the external one.
Below is the upper lake at Glendalough and a little robin that Danielle spotted as we left Miceál and his passengers.
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