Sunday, June 13, 2010

Two New Travelers


Up to this point, your travelers in Ireland have been John and Heather, Tom and Carol. Two new pilgrims joined the adventure Saturday – Ali and Emily. We did not just find them under some high top in a pub. Emily is the daughter of Carol’s brother Bob – hence her niece. Ali is Emily’s husband. He is from England, a fact none of us held against him on the first day as the World Cup match between the U.S. and England approached. For those of you who did not catch the score, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. While the conclusion may have been unsatisfactory for fans of the two sides, the fact that England could not defeat America delighted about two dozen Scotsmen who stopped at the Abbey on Saturday. Clad in green and white striped soccer jerseys, the Scots flew in on Friday to spend Saturday road bowling in West Cork. “We don’t like the English,’’ one of the Scots volunteered to us, just so we’d know why they were rooting for the U.S. and singing songs about Barack Obama. Upon asking why the Scottish did not like the English, we were told that enumerating all the grievances the Scots have against the Brits would take too long and would spoil a crackling good Saturday afternoon. Anyway, Ali took great interest in the game, but, well aware of the lack of love between Scots and Brits, he watched the game quietly in the corner. The result did not please him. One Scotsman put it in the form of a question, “You realize, of course, that America just beat England 1-1?’’

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