WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
We’ve been in Ireland for three weeks…three more to go. This feels a perfect amount of time to be here — enough to readjust to a new, unhinged way of living. I don’t think we could have started our journey in a better way, in a better place.
We took the very hilly walk to Union Hall (mostly the green trail) about nine kilometers roundtrip. A misty rain broke into sunshine and blue skies, lighting the soft green land, and misty, grey blue ocean. The air, as always, was fresh, tinted with farm smells and trees thinking of autumn.
In route to town, we passed the usual dogs — the big bushy Golden Retriever, Joey, who followed us for a while and we had to return to his home (turns out he has wandered as far as Glendora with strangers!); two big dogs who guard a large house and bark like crazy at Saffi; and a little yappy dog who darts to his invisible, electric fence, barks, circles and barks again, as we reach the last leg of the walk on the steep road that drops into town.
A TINY TOWN
In Union Hall, we stopped at the cleverly named “The Coffee Shop” and sat outside, coffee in hand, on a wobbly, wooden bench with Saffi sprawled across the sidewalk, all of us soaking in the sun.
Mothers were picking up their children from school and rushing them along the sidewalk. A man pulled his car over and jumped out to drop a letter in the post box. Several people went into the small grocery store next door. It was a busy time of day in Union Hall! An older man, dressed every time we saw him in a purple sweater, stood watch over the town from his doorway.
After our uncomfortable experience at Casey’s Pub, Chloe and I agreed that if the proprietor should appear, we would run and hide, which was hilarious since there is no place to hide in Union Hall.
U.S. INVASION
Much of the day, we watched or listened to U.S. news. Christine Blasey Ford was testifying about alleged sexual abuse at the hands Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
It was a tense and terrifying day for women everywhere. I thought alot about the treatment of Anita Hill when she testified at the Clarence Thomas hearings; she, the victim, being treated as the criminal and hoped that history would not repeat itself.
I can’t help but think about the Senators who sit in judgement of Ford, how many of the men may have their own history of sexual misconduct, or even criminal acts, how some may have misused their power to take advantage of women. If some are guilty, they must think that condemning Kavanaugh could have repercussions for them. It is, therefore, advantageous to accuse the victim of the crime, and clear the criminal.
Time and again, Ford was asked to explain how she could remember events from so long ago. Rebecca Solnit wrote an Op Ed for The Guardian in which she quoted a renowned psychiatrist about the trauma of rape, and it’s effects on memory. In his study, he found rape to be four times as traumatizing as war. This level of trauma, he said, burns vivid memories into the victim’s mind.
Strange to be in Ireland thinking about events in the U.S.
