I've always been close to Ireland. My wife's a Gaelic-speaker from Belfast and two of my children have Irish names ; the other an Irish middle name.
Every Easter we used to go over by ferry for a grand family get-together in different locations.
Most were well-chosen.
Dungarvan on the south coast had a great music pub not far away, The Marine, and in Spiddal we were in the heart of the Connemara Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) and at a place where The Waterboys recorded their marvellous album ' Fisherman's Blues'. In Co. Wexford we got to see the wild and wonderful Diarmuid O'Leary And The Bards perform late at night and I learnt the true meaning of 'craic' as folk danced on tables and spew flew as often as laughter.
Only once was there a disaster: a mini holiday park near Cork where the facilities were virtually impossible to use and you had to pay an extortionate deposit, even on the crazy golf!
Seeking out music sessions in pubs was usually a must and it's one thing we missed during our recent return, the first time in over a decade and so much pleasanter taking the ferry in summer.
Of course, it's hard to assess a country from a brief visit. I visited Germany briefly before living there for a year and my impressions were totally contrasting.
There were noticeable improvements in Ireland despite the initial impact of a very rundown port at Rosslare.
Motorways stretch from east to west and north to south, though we only travelled for a while on one, after Limerick; and you do have to pay tolls.
For the tourist, the most pleasing aspect has to be food and drink, though I suspect staying in Galway wasn't representative of the whole country.
In summer, Galway almost rivals Dublin as a tourist magnet for people from Europe and beyond.
Food and drink used to be as predictable as mash and Guinness, but not any more.
A small brewery not far away produced some of the best craft beer I've tasted since.....well, Punk IPA. And for a veggie like myself there one was restaurant called Powers in Aughterard which rivaled even the Felin Fach Griffin.
The portions are amazing! Think fine dining, where you need a magnifying glass to see what's on your plate and imagine the opposite.
I was delighted to meet, for the first time. my fellow Red Poet Kevin Higgins from Galway .
Kevin had kindly organised a joint reading at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop there and it was most enjoyable.
The poems he read were topical and satirical, with a Swiftian punch to them. He's got two poems in the new issue of 'Red Poets' and is coming over to read in Merthyr next January.
I felt very much at home reading there with a mic which didn't work (and wasn't needed anyway).
I wonder how people reacted to my poems about The Troubles , set in the 1970s.
I remember how my wife and her family (who had relatives 'down south') always said that the people there didn't really understand the situation 'up north'.
When I think of popular culture there were contrasting responses. Bono and the Cranberries took the predictable line which suited the 'mainland', while Christy Moore sang songs written by Bobby Sands and praised him in 'The People's Own M.P.'.
As someone totally committed to the Welsh language it was sad to see that Gaelic had not advanced.
It would probably take a Sinn Fein adminstration to act on this.
We stayed right next to the Connemara Gaeltacht, yet I only heard two assistants in a supermarket talking it.
There are schools and centres, but there are also many holiday homes ( an even worse problem in the Irish-speaking areas of Donegal) and even these 'linguistic reservations', marked out in green on my map, seem fragile and threatened.
I wonder if it's possible, now that Catholicism is far less an expression of national identity ( especially among the younger generation) that there'll be an Irish language revival? I didn't see any evidence though.
One thing that struck me was the large rainbow flag flying over the Spanish Arch in Galway City.
After the impressive 'Yes' vote in the recent referendum on gay marriage (of 62%) , it was certainly a sign of a country moving rapidly ahead.
The many scandals which have embroiled the Catholic Church have questioned its right to take the moral high ground.
Becoming increasingly secular, it has also become a far more tolerant society and the influence of important figures in popular culture such as Hozier, Villagers and 'Mrs Brown's Boys' have only accentuated this.
As to the economy, it's hard to judge.
As ever, the upturn seems to benefit the few and not the majority and places like New Ross and Tipperary reminded me of the Valleys , struggling desperately.
Yet New Ross has the Dunbrody, a fascinating historical experience.
It's a reconstructed migrant ship from the days of The Great Hunger and a tour of it gives you so much empathy with those faced by famine who were forced to leave their homes and head for the States and Canada.
Many died on the voyages and the parallel with today's plight of the migrants and refugees is obvious.
As with Cymru, music and literature seem part of an Irish way of life, never a divorced 'culture'.
I recall once on the ferry climbing to the top, near the funnel, and witnessing an Uilleann piper playing there : full of the spirits of seagulls and the blustery wind.
I must return soon, not wait another decade.
MULE FIELD
All day they graze the long field
next to the Ross Demesne,
pulling at rye grass, ripping leaves
from bushes at the fringes.
They do not look as though
they've seen the 4 x 4
which has taken the rough track
up to the bog for loading.
All day and night their braying
horn-throats laugh with pain,
so you wonder if they feel
oddly-mottled and yearn for grey.
All change of light and weather
they wallow in the pasture
with no memories of panniers
full of dark slabs of turf
heavy as winter on their backs.
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