Restore Your Soul in Saint Patrick’s Heavenly Ireland and Via Eire’s Exports

Arthur Shiels was inspired by the Giants Causeway. Photo by Harrison Shiels

As St. Patrick’s Day approached, Bono, and his Irish rock band U2, were on stage in Las Vegas about to perform their song “Peace on Earth” in the globe-shaped, dynamic new concert venue called The Sphere. “We are a Saturday night/Sunday morning kind of band, so I think it is okay to confess in this ‘service’ how religion can so enrage us sometimes,” Bono preached. “I understand how ridiculous ‘love thy enemy’ sounds right now, but we cannot live with just ‘love thy neighbor.’ It is a divine commandment – not advice…but almost impossible to enact.”

A Dubliner, Bono grew up through an era of sectarian violence to the north – which the Irish referred to as “The Troubles” – depicted in U2’s song “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”

“In Ireland we now have a fragile but beautiful peace that we are grateful for. It’s not perfect but we are proud of what we have in Ireland. Tonight, we pray for the peace that passes all understanding.”

Irish musician Patrick Browne grew up attending Mass on St. Patrick’s Day in the little village of Ballingarry (“town of gardens”), County Tipperary. “Father Lyons was an unforgettable character of a priest who lorded over our village for decades, but I liked him. He used to play football and was known to be nasty on the rugby field,” Browne revealed. “After Mass my mother would always have a roast chicken stewing while my dad, sister and I loved going to a shrine to pray to Our Lady – Jesus’ mother. My father said, ‘If you want somebody to do something, ask their mother.’”

Harrison Shiels visited Ireland with his father Michael Patrick “Paddy” many times. Photo by Harrison Shiels

Browne, at age 16, left home to study medicine in Galway, a city and county along Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way. It’s a region Garrett Kenny, an Irishman who developed the Balmoral Vacation Home Resort near Orlando, Florida, said he finds soulful. “Galway has rich culture, beautiful scenery, lovely beaches, and great people. I know a few literary types who went there to write books amidst its peace and quiet.”

Kenny’s countryman and colleague Chris Follenus dispenses Irish hospitality representing Visit Central Florida but meditates about the medieval Christan history at Glendalough and incredible places to walk and hike back in County Wicklow just to the south of his hometown of Dublin. “Wicklow is the ‘idyllic Ireland’ due to the waterfalls, woolen mills, a rolling mountain range, old estates,” Follenus said, before citing another form of inspiration and commiseration. “Wicklow is also home to Ireland’s highest pub: Johnny Fox’s.”

Ashford Castle Hotel & Resort. Photo courtesy Red Carnation

The Guinness family, “Irish royalty,” once lived in what is now Ashford Castle, a Red Carnation, five-star luxury resort on 350 heavenly, green acres 27 miles from Galway and accessible via Shannon Airport. Golf, falconry, boating, and fishing are paired with gourmet, white-glove elegance at Ashford Castle, which has hosted nobility and prominent figures as one of Ireland’s most celebrated landmarks. One can only pray to polish-off a traditional, savory, “full Irish” fry-up breakfast and wash it down there with a creamy a pint of “mother’s milk:” Guinness Stout.

Michigan’s largest pub is erected each September in towering tents during the Michigan Irish Music Festival at Hertiage Landing in Muskegon, the West Michigan, lakefront, beach town that also holds a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March. One of the festival’s massive tents along the lake hosts Sunday morning Mass with live, authentic Irish songs played by musician who travel in from the Emerald Isle to perform throughout the weekend.

Art Shiels poured a pint in a Belfast Pub. Photo by Harrison Shiels