I am almost finished the first drawing in a second series of drawings; the first series, called “Things Are Alive,” was the one that brought forth this blog. The title of the series is “Art in the Making:Entering the Void with the Eyes Open.” The purpose is to find the mystical in the ordinary. It’s kind of scary, but I’m looking forward to the journey. The picture was given to me by a man in Cushendall whose identity I do not know. I love it because I feel it shows who I am at this point in time. Thank you to the anonymous  photographer!

 

The tower is pumping up for St. Valentine’s Day. Thanks to Ben for the pinkifying!

 

Maybe St. Brigid blessed us with an extra portion of snow this year!

“In You We Trust”. The People of Cushendall. The ancestors. John Hirst. Zippy Kearney and Family. Hugh and Winnie McAteer. The Glens Hotel. Blaine’s Art Supplies. Charlotte McFadden at Cushendall Library. Anne McCambridge at Cushendall Library. George and Debra at Side Street Espresso. Liz Weir. Brian. Ben. Anda. Aravel Garduno. Nina Stehr. Elizabeth Romig. Leon Webber. Raymond Watson. Terry and Renee Keenan. Kiran Dempsey. Kay at Celtic Crafts. Dominic Kearney. Musicians of Cushendall sessions at Johnny Joe’s. Mara Freeman. Keith McDowell (my uncle, recently deceased). Ann McDowell Neier (my aunt). Christine Augusta McDowell (my sister). Martin McCarron. Modern Dwellers. Karen Ely McHenry (my aunt). John O’Connor. Grace Merritt. Frances Logan Saylor (Brian’s mother). Lois Ann Ely McDowell (my mother). Teeka Ballas at F Magazine. The hot dog vendor. Vincent at Glens Computers. Eddie Lenihan. Laura Simms. Ann McDowell La Plant (my cousin). Tricia Brennecke (my cousin). Una. Julie Graham. P.J. Hill. Alex Fife. Marian at The Pepper Mill. Charlie. Henri Cartier-Bresson. John Bennett. Marcus Patton. Joseph and Vivi Ferris. Sam Ruscica. Natalie Goldberg. My spiritual teachers. And many others… on both sides…

The book is finished! It took a while to: draw the front cover, find a way to make the pictures stick to the pages properly, and do the handwritten portions. I will send this copy with John Hirst back to the tower. I will finish the second copy, which I will keep.

The Fairy Tree on Tiveragh, the fairy hill, is the perfect cover drawing. It represents both the culmination of my project and the kickoff for the next project. I was lead directly to the mystical world as I pursued this project. The next series will dive right into that world. I don’t know where it will take me, and that makes it exciting!

Wednesday was St. Brigit’s Day. After weeks of extreme cold, St. Brigit’s Day brought warm winds– thirty degrees felt balmy! I built a special fire in St. Brigit’s honor, adding a piece of the turf that Terry had given to us. As the smoke entered the night sky, I imagined that the smoke made its way to Cushendall.

SAINT OF THE FLAME
…she shall arise like a shining sun… — Lives of Saints, The Book of Lismore

Map of the North Pole

http://www.history-map.com/picture/000/North-Pole-Map-of.htm

It’s about nine and a half hours from Anchorage to Frankfort over the pole, versus “you don’t want to know how long” flying via the “Lower 48.”

 

 

 

Here’s Ben Saylor, Maura Walsh, John Walsh, Denise Martin, Jim Kerr at this year’s Anchorage Folk Festival:

The story continues… While Brian and I went to Ballymoney and then back to Cushendall for one last night in the tower, Ben and Anda went to Galway to meet Ben’s flute maker. Anda went on to Sligo to see her/our friend Colum while Ben played in sessions in Galway.

 

Una drove Brian and me to Belfast in her taxi (she had picked us up at the airport when we arrived). Una was infinitely patient with the rush hour traffic and just a joy to be with. We had dinner with Markus (in his incredible Victorian house) — good food and great stories before spending the night in a hotel (sorry USA– the hotels and restaurants  here were cleaner in Ireland than any I have ever stayed at in the USA– not to mention the service!).

The next day we  met Ben, and then Anda and Colum in Belfast, and had dinner with Colum before he headed back home; Colum had driven 6 hours round trip in order to see us all! That was one special dinner! Ben and Anda stayed with Sam, and we picked them up at Sam’s the next morning. We all headed for the Belfast Ferry Terminal to embark for Stranraer, Scotland, and thence south via train to Glasgow. Anda had left something at Sam’s place, and he biked the whole way to the terminal to deliver it!

We experienced such generosity of heart in Ireland– unparalleled.

When we left for Stranraer I felt we were re-tracing the journey made by my great grandparents David McDowell and Ellen Connelly when they left Northern Ireland for Glasgow to work in the shipyards in the early 1870’s. They would have left from Belfast or from Larne (farther south).

When I left the ferry to walk onto the shores of Scotland, a man whisked by me on the ramp and took a piece of luggage for me that I had been having trouble with. To me it was a sign that this was home territory and that these people are my people. In the Stranraer train depot I saw a woman that looked in profile exactly like my cousin Janice, who had left us much too soon–  she would have LOVED knowing I had been able to make this trip).

 

We made it to Glasgow, transferred trains, and headed for London. The stops we made on the train trips echoed familiar names: Carlisle, Berwick, Lancaster. I grew up in York, PA, close to the namesakes of these places. This sewed in my mother’s side of the family for me.

 

Then there was London!

 

From London, a flight to Frankfort, and “home again, home again, riggedy-jig.” Over the pole, past Mt. McKinley (Denali, The Great One) again. When we landed in Anchorage, I was thrilled to see the towering white peaks, Cook Inlet, and the approaching spruce and birch. But something was different for me. Anchorage is still home, but Ireland is Home. Ireland is where my heart is.

There’s work left to do. I am determined to find out more about my Northern Ireland roots and to locate family in Ireland. Good news is that some of my cousins are interested as well. Kevin is planning a trip to Ireland in the spring!

Speaking of cousins! Thanks to my cousin Annie, who provided information about our ancestors. Thanks to Tricia, who sent me letters she kept from our Northern Ireland cousin Geraldine McDowell Jones! Thanks to Michael, who has the death certificates of David, Ellen, John Paul, and Archibald (brother of our grandfather John Paul).

I’ll repeat this quote from an earlier post:

A few of you have already come to see us, and we begin to hope that one day the steamers across the Atlantic will not go out full, but come back full, until some of you find your real home is here, and say as some of us say, like Finn to the woman of enchantments: “We would not give up our own country– Ireland– if we were to get the whole world as an estate, and the Country of the Young with it.”

– Augusta Gregory