More on Ireland

The only sign that all was not right in the Republic was watching an armored car make a visit to the bank next to the hotel.

The first thing you saw was a group of large men with very impressive looking guns, not the pistols you might see on American bank guards, taking up positions on the sidewalk. Only when they had the area secured did the armored car even come into view and it was followed by another vehicle. Armored car transactions are taken seriously. I recall from growing up near Boston, that the IRA, or former members of said organization on the run in the US, would occasionally rob an armored car in the area.

Another was just how green everything was. I know, people go on about how green Ireland is, but its still surprising. The one that really got me was the hay fields. Here in OH, if you see a field covered with baled hay waiting for pickup, the field itself will be the same straw color as the hay itself. Even the word "straw" is used for that color because that's the color a field of mowed hay usually here. But in Ireland, the hay fields had already seen another generation of grass start coming up, so they were green.

Maybe it never gets so hot that the grains are burnt out, or so cold that they really stop growing. In Ohio, or in Massachusetts for that matter, you get both extremes.