Tuesday, November 01, 2011

The Far Flung Diaspora

Last week while you guys were raking leaves and carving pumpkins, a sextet of Irish Festers made up of festival president Barney Walsh, his wife, volunteer coordinator Sarah Walsh, fest executive director Keli O'Neill Wenzel, her husband tech committee chair John Wenzel and Mrs. Bloggy and myself headed for the warm beaches of Roatan Island off the Honduran coast. We went on official Irish Fest business of course, tasked with investigating whether or not we should start serving Honduran beer and rum at our beverage tents. After much intensive research, results, and our heads remain murky.

Photo by Barney Walsh
However we did find a wonderful example of the far flung Irish diaspora on the white sand beaches in the form of Bill Connor, a gregarious islander who befriended us, brought us fresh lobster he'd caught by hand himself and key lime pie baked by his mother, took us snorkeling near a 110 year old ship wreck and sang us American country and western songs on his battered blue boat. He didn't know anything about how he came by his Gaelic surname but judging by his personality and love of a drink and a song, he was a Irishman, sure enough. He left us with great memories and fledgling plans to go back and start the Honduras Irish Fest with him as our headliner.  We left him with some well-earned American dollars and our left over beer, which shockingly there wasn't much of.

If you ever find yourself on the north coast of Roatan, wander the beach and he'll find you. Be sure to ask for a song.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Man, Barney is looking good, the Roatan Island does wonders for that boy!