November 22

Today the november project is delighted to present a very special guest report… yes, Brendan is here to provide an eyewitness account of his trip to his ancestral home, birthplace of his EU passport – Ireland. Ireland – a land that has given him so much, yet to which he could give so little...

To be sure to be sure… my first trip to Ireland was not done under ideal circumstances: I didn’t know I was going until Monday afternoon, I had to prepare and deliver a client presentation, I would only be in the country for about 6 hours and the offices we were visiting were not even in the Dublin city centre. Still I was determined to make the most of the trip.

Touching down at Dublin airport I had the mildest sense of homecoming. As I passed through customs flashing my Irish passport I was expecting some sort of acknowledgement from the customs officer: a nod, even a wink would have been nice. But no, my homecoming was greeted in the usual non-interested customs officer style with a grunt and a head tilt that meant ‘move on’.

In Dublin infrastructure is a bit of a problem – road congestion is now more common than beer. You actually see remarkably little between the airport and the business premises we attended. I’m told the real Ireland begins outside of Dublin. Shame no one told my client that. Going from the airport to the client’s offices I felt I could have been anywhere (Tullamarine springs to mind) – houses, shops, parks, etc – but that’s probably our fault as we didn’t request the scenic route option.

After a successful meeting, my colleague and I did what must be done. Before our flight home we plonked ourselves in a bar and enjoyed a few pints of strong Irish Stout: ‘Try a Beamish’, the man behind the bar suggested so we did, and liked it so much we had another and another....

Enjoyable as this was, as I flew back into London the main thought I had was about returning to Ireland again and how next time I promise I’ll give Ireland a bit more of my time…. To be sure to be sure.