Hey, People!
Ireland is fecking amazing.
It’s strange when you are on a trip. I feel like so much has happened since I’ve last written. Like I’ve had an entire life here in a week. I guess the last time I wrote I had just landed in Dublin and we were there one night.
The next day we drove up through Northern Ireland into County Donegal. We rented a house up there for a few days and used that as our base. The weather was crazy. Squals and insane winds and then moments later—nothing. Stillness. Chill.
Our first day out we went to Giant's Causeway. I feel like I’ve been seeing pictures of those rocks all of my life and I always wanted to go there. It was not disappointing. Strange and beautiful octagonal natural rock formations that step down into the water and a wall of octagonal pillars of rock. We got pelted by insane winds and rain just as we made it back to the car. Good timing.
Also, it turns out I’ve literally been seeing those rocks almost all of my life because they are the rocks on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Houses of the Holy.’
The next day we drove to Slieve Liag. CRAGGY CLIIFFS. Fucking unbelievable. We were told by many people that they were more stunning than the Cliffs of Moher. I don’t know, we didn’t go there, but they were very awe-inspiring which is more impressive than just awesome. And sheep.
We drove a 100 mile loop called the Inishowen 100 through Malin Head, the Mamore Gap, and we cut out to see Grianan of Aileach, which is a circular ruin that sits atop a small mountain with an insane panoramic view of the world and sheep.
I bought a tweed vest in Donegal. Sheep.
We drove through many towns, ate black bread, fish, potatoes, cabbage, lamb, scones, blood pudding, eggs, and cooked for ourselves too. We made our way to our second rented house in Westport and from there went to Galway for the day, walked around the Connemara National Park, saw the Killary Fjord and sheep.
I made bog-mined peat fuel fires in a solid fuel stove that burned for hours.
I feel deeply for this land for some reason. It feels so connected, so raw and authentic to me. Like the entire island is a damp, living organism, a mound of rocks and entangled roots, that carries the eons of living history and darkness in every brick of bog-mined peat fuel that I turned into heat and smoke drifting up. The people here are hard and beautiful.
You can see some of my Ireland pics on IG @marcmaron.
Today we go to Spain for the Gijon Film Festival. Spain. That should be nice.
Today on the show I have a talk with Nathan Lane that was a long time coming. It was great. He needs to know it was great. On Thursday I talk to comedian Louis Katz. He’s been around for a while. He opened for me years ago and I always meant to talk to him but it just got away from me until now. Great talks.
Enjoy!
Boomer lives!
Love,
Maron