#I like Galway a lot more than Dublin

[noctilionoidea]

it was so hard being in Galway during the international arts festival and having to watch how much I’m spending. Theres so much awesome work all over but I’ve “already made extravagant purchases on this vacation” and am “going off to college really soon so I need to save money”. Bleh

Still obviously I wasn’t getting anything unless I really wanted it I’m not a fool

[somedayillbepeterpan]

I am sleep deprived from the Dublin + Galway premiere (let's face it, I've been sleep deprived for the past 2 months) and I'm already experiencing withdrawals.

So, I am ranking Luke and Nic's outfits for the press tour. This is solely based on my emotions and opinions. I have no idea about fashion at all but I do love looking at beautiful things. This is also solely the press tour 'fits. I have purposely excluded the premiere/first look outfits when they have all the cast with them. There are also some outfits I've missed as I can't seem to find where to source them other than on social media posts and the quality is bad.

I love all the outfits and I think it's what's added to this World Press Tour experience. Nicola's courage to wear some of the outlandish outfits (as per her words) sparked something in me. And waiting for Luke to smile on the red carpet was like a secret game.

But the point is-- THEY ALWAYS SLAYED.

This is ranked from lowest to highest. I've put it under the line so as not to overwhelm timelines because this has gone longer than what I thought it would be.

Excerpt - 6th rank - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

They looked like they came out of a medieval play where she is the all-powerful mage and he is the most decorated knight.

8th rank - Milan, Italy

Their outfit in here looked so sweet. The simple colour aesthetic was so easy in the eye. I especially love Nicola's headband and Luke's chiseled beard. I don't know if anyone have pointed out his elven ears but they are adorable.

I rank this 9th because I've seen them both don similar outfits before and because this was coming off from the Australian premiere, my expectations was a tad higher.

7th rank - Galway, Ireland before they went to the theatre

I love Nicola's blue coat and the nod to both the Bridgerton and Featherington colours was a nice touch. Luke looks handsome but I don't think brown is his colour as his complexion looks washed-out with this outfit. Again, just my opinion. Do not kill me.

6th rank - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

There are a lot of people I saw who had a beef with their outfits for this leg but I actually really love both of their outlandish look. I have a weakness for long coats on men so this is already a win for me for Newts' look. But Nicola's dragon-esque dress wowed me. It looks good on her but I think the beef that people have is not so much about the outfit but the place and time where she wore it. BUT-- let me direct you to Zendaya's robot-esque press tour outfit for Dune 2 so to each their own. And don't come at me with how the dress doesn't accentuate her figures. It accentuate it very much and I'm so happy seeing her curves in all out display.

They looked like they came out of a medieval play where she is the all-powerful mage and he is the most decorated knight.

5th rank - Toronto Canada

Gosh, I love NIcola's dress and red duvet (again, her words). I think, I always love it when Nicola wears a boob tube dress because let's be honest, her breast is her greatest asset. Not to be crass but I am a proud fan of her perfect breasts. I also wished that Luke showed his blue shirt because if you look at it closely, it's not your usual men's button shirt. I would've loved to see how it accentuated his long torso. I don't think full stripes flatters him because he is already looks long. But he did have that old hollywood look with this outfit.

4th rank - Dublin, Ireland

Them matching is always a treat and it happened for the whole of the Ireland leg. They looked like that cool couple that you always see on your feed and feel equally in awe and jealous of. They both looked sooooo sexy with these outfits.

3rd rank - Sydney, Australia

This was what got my attention on the whole press tour and started my sleep deprivation. I woke up and I was blasted with this gorgeous photo of them holding hands and the wave of chemistry hit me like a firetruck. What more, they were right at my backyard and I didn't know until it was already too late. That custom Richard Quinn dress on Nicola was utterly gorgeous. She looked like an angel to me. And again, Luke in a long coat with a white singlet?? Hwooo... it did wonders to my blood.

2nd - Galway, Ireland

Knitwear is also my weakness and the fact that they were both dressed by the same designer was such a treat to see. I loved that they honoured Nic's heritage. And also, cmo'n, that hat on Nic was so cute. Also, anytime a man in a sweater always make me weak.

1st - Dublin, Ireland (everyone's favourite, I think)

THEM MATCHING WAS EVERYTHING! It was like watching them on their way to their wedding. Luke's jacket, Nicola's custom dress, and the accessory nods to Bridgerton icons -- the bee and the flower-- made this matching outfit so special. Them holding hands is always a treat but seeing them so celebrated on Nicola's hometown was so touching to watch.

I have never followed a press tour like I have done this one. This is the only press tour that has managed to grip my attention and I'm very happy to have been part of the whole experience.

I NEED THEM AGAIN. I ALREADY MISS THEM.

[saintsenara]

Not from the ask list but the characters in ur fics as Irish counties and why?

anon, this has absolutely sent me. i have genuinely never seen something more up my alley.

let's start with characters we can pull from the series for ireland's six superior counties, shall we...

antrim = oliver wood

a county full of lads who've never met a spivvy tracksuit they don't think is the height of fashion, and who have a vastly inflated sense of their success at sports.

armagh = tom riddle

armagh has a [deservedly] bloody reputation. he could settle down in the murder triangle. he'd like that.

down = draco malfoy

people who live in co. down really like thinking they're better than the rest of us just because it's easy for them to get to belfast [lads, how's that something to boast about?], so they have to be the series' whiniest flop.

fermanagh = rubeus hagrid

fermanagh is full of docile lads who build things, in my experience.

londonderry = ron weasley

canonically gorgeous, gorgeous girlies live in this fine county - by which i mean, of course, that i do. we deserve to be represented by the series' most gorgeous girly. and a ginger sweetheart with six siblings [so you know which side of the sectarian divide his parents are on...] would go down a storm with our mams.

tyrone = harry potter

my brother once had his nose broken in a pub in strabane, which doesn't sound particularly interesting until you realise that my brother is a priest. by which i mean - a county filled with people who are reckless, quick-tempered, and always ready to throw hands? it can only be represented by one man...

---

and then the rest...

carlow = quirinus quirrell

the most interesting thing there is a big rock.

cavan = percy weasley

everyone i've ever met from cavan has been really boring and really tight. so there's that.

clare = ginny weasley

because it's gorgeous, in a not like other girls way.

cork = albus dumbledore

look at this canon line and tell me dumbledore's not a cork man... "In fact, being — forgive me — rather cleverer than most men, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger.” 

donegal = sybill trelawney

always away with the fairies up there... and always drunk too.

dublin = walburga black

everyone you've ever met who lives in dublin is genuinely shocked to discover that the rest of the world exists beyond the m50. it's not not giving "has never set foot in muggle london and would die before she did".

galway = arthur and molly weasley

galway is the home of the nation's sophisticated [and, apparently, sexually adventurous] culchies - which fits two people from clearly quite distinguished backgrounds who nonetheless live the way they do...

kerry = gilderoy lockhart

you will never see american tourists get scammed more glamorously than in kerry.

kildare = regulus black

considerably less interesting than - and devoid of identity in comparison to - its neighbour, dublin.

kilkenny = charlie weasley

all they do is have red hair and hurl.

laois = daphne greengrass

on account of her irrelevance.

leitrim = sally-ann perks

on account of her irrelevance.

limerick = bellatrix lestrange

limerick used to be known as "stab city". she'd fit right in.

longford = mungundus fletcher

gombeen men abound.

louth = myrtle warren

because they [by which i mean the two people i know who were born there...] are always fucking moaning.

mayo = remus lupin

perpetually mopey, unless they reckon they're great at something.

meath = cormac mclaggen

they wish they were as class as the lads in dublin.

monaghan = cuthbert binns

genuinely couldn't locate it on a map.

offaly = grawp

i mean, who fucking knows? the entire place is a bog.

roscommon = aberforth dumbledore

you can guess why...

sligo = fred and george weasley

wheeler dealers, the lot of them.

tipperary = fleur delacour

the home of gorgeous, gorgeous girlies with striking accents.

waterford = dobby

they love a good strike.

westmeath = hermione granger

not somewhere you'd expect you'd choose to live if you were a bit of a know-it-all. and yet.

wexford = neville longbottom

they love to bang on about the soil.

wicklow = marge dursley

she drives a range rover and looks down on anyone who farms, change my mind.

[other answers from this ask game]

[myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom]

I got my travel permit for my mobility scooter today. 😀 "To travel on Dublin Bus with your mobility scooter you must have a permit. This is because some mobility scooters are too big to fit on Dublin Bus buses. To find out if your scooter is the correct size and to arrange a permit, contact Dublin Bus’ Travel Assistance."

Travel Assistance Scheme in Dublin https://www.dublinbus.ie/accessibility/travel-assistance-scheme

I had another lesson today in getting on and off with my mobility scooter. This is a lot harder than my electric wheelchair which has a much tighter turning circle. There are loads of hand rails that can get in the way of turning (people on foot probably wouldn’t notice them). If you know the angles and spots to go to it is much easier. Though you still will need sometimes to ask people to temporarily move particularly if they have a buggy on the opposite side to the wheelchair spot. Also there are different types of buses on my routes with different internal layouts.

I'm going to have one more lesson but he is confident I could do it myself now.

As it says above, you need to get approved to use a mobility scooter on Dublin Bus. But even for powered wheelchair users, it's a great free scheme to build up confidence and realise for example that you may need to ask people to get up temporarily even if they're not in the wheelchair spot itself. It's like getting free driving lessons.

A lesson just to clarify is where they accompany you on the bus. So they meet you at the stop or in your home and you get on one live bus and get off it at the next stop and then get on another live bus, etc. Alternatively, as we did when I first started with my electric wheelchair: we got on a live bus (I was totally confused what to do as I didn't even know the spot or that you have to face backwards but the travel assistance helper sorted me out). Then we went to a bus terminus and practised getting on and off when a bus driver was on their break tilt I built up more confidence.

There is also a Travel Assistance Scheme in Cork https://www.buseireann.ie/inner.php?id=757 .

I heard before they hoped to start them in other parts of the country such as Galway and Limerick.

[yessoupy]

harry, i love u. (part 1)

but more to the point, i love my harriatrics.

i am home, emotionally exhausted, physically ill, and still awaiting my delayed luggage to be delivered, but here is my slane and wembley 1+2+3 review.

i spent a few days roaming around counties clare and galway prior to linking up with the ladies in dublin for slane. straight off the plane i hired a car and drove to the west. i needed to kill some more time before checking into my airbnb so i hit the cliffs of moher (again) because it was SUNNY and DRY. it turns out, the west is/was in a drought. dust everywhere.

my airbnb this time around was in fanore. perfect for one person and a nice location for what i like to do. my next day i took the doolin ferry to inishmore and rented an e-bike. rode around the island, had a lovely lunch of a salad and a coke, and hiked up to dun aonghase where it was WINDY and i almost lost my tourist hat but i have catlike reflexes. view from the fort:

aran goat cheese salad:

kilmurvey beach, where i did not get in but will next time for sure:

on my final full day, i went to the doolin cave to see the third-largest stalactite in the world. the scale is hard to convey in a picture:

it was really cool! literally and figuratively. also a pleasant 95% humidity which i needed because it was SO DRY the whole time i was there.

on saturday morning i lit out from the west and dropped my car off at the airport, then got a taxi to the hotel to meet up for the rest of my harries for breakfast. @papiermachecat did a great job of summarizing that except she left me out, which i'm not bitter about at all. lol.

marathon did a great job of organizing all of us to get to and from slane. here is an employee manning the coach pickup:

here's mitch opening!

annie mac in the "rain"!

wet leg!

inhaler!

and our boy!

it's hard to convey the size of the crowd. i took some pictures, but i'm sure you've seen overhead shots that are much better. knowing about the historical nature of slane shows ... i'm so glad i got to be there with some of my very best fandom friends. also, much like the men of easy company would say, "at least it's not bastogne" whenever they had a cold winter, after every trek home post-show we can all say "at least it's not slane."

the day after the show, @chasm2018, @aggresivelyfriendly, and i walked around dublin. we had dinner at the bank which was cool, and i got some very good fish and chips:

dublin put on a show for us, sunny and warm:

we tried to find ice cream and failed:

but eventually ended up at instagrammable cloud nine and it was very good, will try the gelato in july. no pics, because ice cream.

one environmentally regrettable thing about the impact of the 2021 grammy outfit are the molting boas. here is the day-after shot of where the coaches let us off in dublin:

after a final breakfast at our hotel (my eggs florentine below), we took a (delayed) flight to london.

my relationship with london is .... like yes, there are cool old buildings but i hate the monarchy? the one thing i wanted to do in london besides see harry was go to the british museum, which we did on our off-day. anyway. @chasm2018 and i stayed at an airbnb in fitzrovia. we had a late lunch/early dinner at wahaca (yes i know) which was surprisingly good! the rainbow bowl:

(i took a lot of food pictures for my dad and sisters, so this is what you get too i guess.)

me in front of wembley!

wembley 1 saw us in bishopsgate, which was a much smaller pod than at slane. @chasm2018 and i helped to remove an interloper (some guy who was being obnoxious and bragging about sneaking into the pod who didn't end up having a ticket at all?). look don't brag about sneaking in AND be obnoxious.

harry was incredible, of course, and when i have the energy to go through the pictures on my camera (this is ALL from my phone) i will share those with you.

london was done up for pride month:

on wednesday, @chasm2018 and i got bottomless chai (chocolate chai pictured) at dishoom and gorged on indian food.

also apparently that night (or the next? idk) my platonic baseball soulmate spent 3 hours behind olivia in line for that restaurant. she was offered a pass to go to the front of the line but refused it! what a woman.

idk what this was but it looked neat and that far building looks suspiciously like the dorm in maynooth that looks like a prison on the inside.

for wednesday's show i had seats with my friend from the leadership conference i do in ireland, so i entered separately and hanging out by the red zone was this guy

our boy was ALSO great during night 2, from the seats:

he played love of my life and i just love YELLING that at him!!!! from the seats I got a better idea of just how fucking massive the crowd is, and how full of love the stadium is when he plays. more of that later.

post-show activities included leftover indian (wow was it spicier) and harry talking to zane lowe about absolutely nothing.

thursday we had afternoon tea at the savoy (fucking delicious) with @accidentalharrie and went to the british museum to see things stolen from other places. this included THE rosetta stone (wild) and bits of the parthenon.

i really do love a greek vase!!! they can be so funny, like this one with drunk satyrs:

on the reverse is a .... kylix-stand?

she!

by friday, the hay fever had put me into quite a state. i was a bit of a drag!! we walked around the tower of london and westminster abbey. goddddddd i hate tourists so much.

here's white tower, the oldest bit of the tower of london, built by william the conqueror. my 27th great grandfather invaded england with william, so we're like family. lol.

notice not a cloud in the sky. so much sun and no rain which means .... every bit of pollen was in the air, wreaking havoc.

and i'm out of room for photos, so hang on for part 2.

[basadoir]

but also, about the new locations they named, being from ireland myself, this caught my eye;

Connemara?

REALLY BLIZZ?? 😂 that's a.... uh.... a choice, i guess?

it just gets a yikesss from me, considering the book claims even ecopoints caused public dissent, because of how it put, in the book's words, 'a permanent Overwatch military instillation effectively in their backyard.'

and it reminds me of that old phrase, 'to hell or to Connacht' (the province / state that Connemara, which is in County Galway, is in)

which btw is lovely! it's actually a nice and peaceful place to visit! it's also one of the few places here where irish is spoken a lot, too!

so .... damn ...🥴

it gets me as much as 'university of dublin' - i haven't read the full thing yet, but this was another bit that caught my eye, as i was flicking through things?

there is no 'university of dublin'

there IS university college dublin. or trinity college dublin. or technological university dublin. or like half a dozen other places.

but oh man.

the author couldn't take two mins to do a quick google search? 😂 i know overwatch has a futuristic lean, so more than likely not meaning to emulate actual places... but daaaamn .... trinity college would've fitted so well there.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 6 (+ Bonus Day 5)

Today was the most relaxed day, I would say. I was on wake-up duty and an hour almost everyone left for either Dublin or Galway. 2 of my beloved (now former) colleagues left with with the Dublin lot and I decided to take a nap after lunch as the students wouldn't return for another 4 hours.

Yesterday night I snuck out with 5 colleagues and we went to the pub and it was absolutely brilliant. We played pool, talked about everything and nothing and I prolly overshared a little as they now know about this blog. Anyway, I only got 4 hours of sleep so I am glad I got to take a nap.

After the students returned I was on supervision for board games with a few, while the majority of students went to the sportshall for some ball games. It would have been very chill if some of students hadn't tried to sneak out so often. I generally cut them some slack as I know that it's like being a teenager, but some stunts were just too much. They might hate me for it but it's not like I feel guilty about doing my job.

Last night and today worked wonders for my mental health. Generally speaking a hangover and lack of sleep do a real number on me but I feel alive in a way I haven't felt in years. I feel like I belong, like I me being nervous or awkward doesn't have to be as big an obstacle as I thought it would be. Like it's worth doing things for more than just their own sake. And it's riveting! I want to hold onto these feelings and experiences and challenge myself to initiate meeting new people.

I'm looking forward to my day off tomorrow and maybe I'll even join the movie night that is scheduled though that will depend on the movie. So far I am just happy that I can look back on a week with no fuck-ups or even anything in general that I am embarrassed about or was told to improve on. Not saying I was perfect but with whatever slack I am being cut I was perfectly adaquate. I'll continue work on Monday and until then I'll just relax and maybe go to "the shop" - apparently there is a shop but so far nobody has told me what they sell lol. Anyway, I'll sign off now as I am dead tired. My song of the day is Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis. It's been stuck in my head basically the whole day and it's a fun and cheeky tune and it just feels right; it has banter, some flirting and a some melody you can somewhat recognize when someone sings it - all things that I enjoyed about the pub :)

Bonus:

Yesterday evening we had 2 hours of disco for the students. It was fun, I was technically on supervision but I also danced and took fotos with my colleagues. I also occasionally stopped students from sneaking out. They had fun anyway and I think I did a good enough job at not making them feel embarrassed for anything. They're kids and even if some of them can quite daft, they still deserve to feel empowered and some thrills - like being busted by the annoying supervisor - are just part of being a teenager (at least I think they should be).

[beneath-the-irish-sky]

June 10th

My alarm went off and I immediately got up to get ready. I cannot believe we were able to get tickets to this concert. It was sold out and we purchased two resold tickets by chance. I stopped over at my classmate's room for a few minutes to help her with her eyeliner and then we were off. This was going to be an epic adventure! Once at the bus station, we realized she forgot her phone charger so she could connect it to her battery pack. She was panicking, and so was I. We set out to find a charger. We stopped into every hotel and store, asking if they sold chargers. They did not have the kind that was needed. Luckily, right before we got on the bus she ran into a Centra and found the charger she needed! 

While on the bus to the venue, I styled my hair for the concert and my classmate got some sleep. After a 45-minute ride we were there and had to prepare for the long walk ahead. By the time we found our section by the stage, we had 13,000 steps in already. It was so worth it though because we were in the third row of the pit. It also rained on and off but it didn't matter. 

We arrived at Slane Castle at 10 am. It was beautiful and the land sprawled out as far as I could see. It would soon fill up with over 80,000 fans waiting to see Harry Styles take the stage on his Love Tour (picture 15). Harry wasn’t scheduled until 8pm. We enjoyed the music of Wet Leg, Inhaler, a DJ, and one of Harry's songwriters as we waited for him to take the stage. We caught glimpses of him standing outside the castle looking on as the crowd grew.

The long awaited intro music started and Harry Styles took the stage (pictures 1 - 10, 14). It was epic! His energy is so infectious and intoxicating. He was so close to us and he played music that I love but thought I wouldn't hear on this tour. He also played an unreleased song that is not played at many of his shows. He ended the show wrapping the Irish flag around him. Again, it was epic but the long walk back was not. After standing in the sun for 12 hours, we were tired and it was another 13,000-step journey to catch the first bus back and then the subsequent second bus. We finally arrived back at UCD at 2 am. A day to remember! One I probably wouldn’t have experienced in the States because of the rising cost of tickets. The tickets would have cost thousands more than the $300 we paid. Thank you Ireland!

June 11th

I woke up pretty late and in a lot of pain from the night before. So much walking and standing! The rush of the concert was still present as I got dressed to go to the Hurling Match. I think I may have underestimated the toll the journey would have on my body. I was so exhausted. I eventually got up and met with the group of five I was going to the game with. 

We took the bus to the stadium in Dublin, where the match was being held. It was the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship . The Leinster Senior Hurling Championship started in 1888 after a man named Michael Cusack realized there needed to be one set of regulations in Hurling. 

The match was so exhilarating (pictures 11 - 13). We sat in the front row and were right near one of the goals. The action was so close to us. We got to talking with a few fans from Galway, and they told us that Kilkenny wins every time. That made me root for Galway even more. I always like an underdog. Unfortunately, Kilkenny won but Galway played the game so well to stay in it for as long as they did. Right down to the last few seconds. I bought a t-shirt there to remember my time.

After the game, I was sunburnt and still so tired. I decided that I would go back to UCD and turn in early so I would be refreshed for the week ahead. I watched a movie, took a shower, returned the bag I borrowed from my classmate, and went to sleep.

June 12th 

I woke up feeling refreshed today! I am ready for whatever this week brings and I am excited to visit Scotland this weekend. To prepare, we decided that we would each look into things to do in Edinburg on our own and then come together as a group to figure out what excursions we would book.

Today, I am supposed to meet up with my classmates to plan for a group project. We met and divided into two groups; me and the classmate I borrowed the bag from would work together, and the other three would be in their own group. We decided to do our 10-minute video on Hurling and the match we saw yesterday. We wrote out the entire script and then decided that we would film the next week when we had more time. 

We all went our separate ways and got ready to attend the Irish Literature Class that we had that evening. Our teacher had described it as a pub crawl, and she was not wrong. We went from pub to pub, listening to our tour guide recite and sing passages and verses from various Irish books and folktales. He quoted stories from the Dubliners and took us to places that were mentioned in those stories. We were walking in history.

The night went by quickly. After the tour, we went back to one of the pubs for Baileys Cheesecake. Unfortunately, they were out so my classmate and I found something else to eat. After the pub, we went back to UCD, and I fell asleep quickly.

[alexbkrieger13]

Just got back from your home country! Loved Ireland! The green fields and sheep/cows everywhere is really accurate lol I loved the car/train rides. Cork was really nice. I was surprised it wasn’t more crowded when I was there. But I had the beamish and went to the market and had great food. I will say I was disappointed by kinsale, I didn’t think it was as great as heard online. I loved cobh more.

Dublin I enjoyed the tourist things we did(guiness was a fun surprise) . And music and food but overall the city just felt like any other city. It was way more crowded than any other we visited and more than I expected. . But my fav was Galway. LOVED it! Aran islands was beautiful drive for a few hours there. But Galway was great. Nice people, loved the busy area on quay street and around it.

I heard Irish people are very friendly and I def felt that. I’ve seen so my tik toks and stuff saying oh Americans are to friendly and nice and I t’s fake but I felt like Irish are the same. Just a friendly culture where you say hello and how are you as greetings and it’s normal. Every cab driver we had was chatty, the people we met in shops or going out super friendly.

In cork this one cab driver kept telling us how he hated Dublin and be careful and then gave us his number to call if it felt we were getting scammed lol. Just a really nice guy looking out for tourists. I want to go back and go to places in the middle of the country. We basically hit the big cities this trip only.

But funny enough we took trains and buses between cities and everyone was on time lol I’ve followed you for a while and kept thinking ahh be ready for delays or cancelled rides and nope, everyone on time. Had that Irish luck on our side for travel :)

omg love that for ye. yea kinsale outside of peak tourist season can be a bit hit or miss cause a lot of places only open on the weekends i've found the last few times i've been down there on weekdays.

You got lucky with cork cause most American tourists come over around Easter and early May (why exactly them I'm not sure but it's always really busy during that period with cruise ships full of American tourists coming in from Cobh).

We're definitely a culture of talkers.There are a few things in Irish person loves more than a good chat and especially in Cork we love taking the piss out of Dublin.

[umichenginabroad]

Week 3: Exploring Ireland and More!

Hello, hello! It’s Declan McGrath once again to update you all on what has been going on since I last updated you all on my summer at UCD program. Strap in cause a lot happened this week.

When I last posted I was on a bus with my group of friends to the Cliffs of Moher next to a crying baby, trying to get some sleep. I did not end up getting much sleep. However! The Cliffs of Moher were absolutely beautiful. The tour group that we were apart gave us about an hour and a half to explore the cliffside and the views were absolutely stunning! The sun was shining for the most part at the beginning so we were able to take some amazing photographs. We got to see where parts of various movies were filmed here. My favorite was the spot they used for the Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride. Once again, words fail to describe how beautiful this place was but hopefully these pictures will suffice!

After the Cliffs of Moher, the tour bus took us to a small pub to get some food and we stopped at a crag called Ballyryan. This little outcropping of rocks on the east side of the coast of Ireland was covered in grass and little flowers. It was really pretty but nowhere near as amazing as the Cliffs of Moher. 

Then it was off to Galway! Galway is an incredibly beautiful city with so many cool shops to browse and restaurants to eat at. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour to explore the city (most of which my group spent looking for a bathroom) so we did not get to do as much exploration as we would have liked. However, one of the places we were able to stop at was the Galway Cathedral. This absolutely massive cathedral was breathtaking. It was beautifully decorated with intricate stone details and beautiful stained glass windows. Highly recommend making a stop in Galway and exploring the city as much as you can!

We left UCD campus at around 6 AM and finally got back to the dorms at around 8 PM. Safe to say we were all absolutely exhausted. We decided to have a chill rest of the night and met up with some friends that had not joined us for the trip and played cards and other games. We stayed up pretty late as Monday was a bank holiday in Ireland so we had the day off from classes. The next morning, the exhaustion from a nearly 14 hour day trip finally caught up with me. I am going to be completely honest, I did pretty much nothing that day. I slept in until noon and lounged around. It was amazing. Just what I needed to recuperate from the weekend.

Tuesday we started classes back up again! We continued with more physics and a history lecture in the morning and then in the afternoon we took a class trip to the National Library of Ireland! The history lecture had been about a Gaelic revival that had taken place within Ireland in the late 19th and early 20th century. A major part of this revival was an author named WB Yeats. Yeats was an Irish poet and writer that played a massive role in establishing a distinct Irish literary tradition and won a Nobel Prize in 1923. A large part of the library was dedicated to an exhibit about Yeats. He is an incredibly interesting figure and I highly recommend googling him if you get the chance!

Wednesday and Thursday went by pretty quickly. We did not have any field trips these days, just more lectures and labs. Honestly, it was pretty nice. We were all still a bit exhausted from the Cliffs of Moher and needed a bit of rest before the weekend. Speaking of which! This weekend the group I had traveled to the Cliffs of Moher with (other than two other people) took a whirlwind trip to London this weekend! We had found tickets for a round trip were pretty cheap if we left Dublin late Friday night and came back from London incredibly early so we decided that there was no time like the present to live our lives so we booked the tickets! After our classes on Friday we took the shuttle to Dublin Airport and caught our flight. The flight was only about an hour long but we arrived in London pretty late. After landing we had to rush to catch the Stansted Express train to catch a connecting train in the London Underground and check into our hostel for the night. Things went pretty smoothly, we caught our train and checked into our hostel at around 1 AM and settled down for the night, only to be woken up by a fire alarm going off at 3 AM (y'all this was a rough night I am not gonna lie but it was sooo worth it!).

In the morning, we got some breakfast and caught one of the famous red double-decker buses to go see the Tower of London! This castle was absolutely beautiful and chock-full of history! We got to see the Crown Jewels at the castle (though photography is strictly prohibited so no photos, sorry!) as well as various historic places such as the White Tower and the square where many people were executed, including Queen Anne Boelyn. After the Tower we walked across the London Bridge (another amazing sight) and stopped in at a small street market to get some lunch. The food was absolutely amazing there for pretty cheap which was awesome. 

Next we walked to the Globe Theatre where Shakespeare had originally put on his plays (well the site at least, the actual theater had long burned down and been rebuilt). It was so cool to see such a historic site (only further enhanced by one of my friends deciding to do an impromptu performance of a monologue she did for a production of Taming of the Shrew in high school)! Walking a bit farther we came across the Eye! This absolutely massive Ferris wheel sits just across the River Thames from Big Ben. Both icons were jaw dropping just from their pure scale and were amazing to see! 

Continuing on we got to see Buckingham Palace in all of its glory. I am honestly running out of synonyms for “beautiful”, “stunning”, and “awesome” so let’s just say that the palace and the giant statue in front of it were all of those words and more! I can see why the palace is known all over the world. We wanted to see the changing of the guards but had to continue on to get to the British Museum before it closed.

The Museum was so cool! We only had about 45 minutes to explore the area before the Museum shut down and I spent most of my time in the Roman Empire section and also a really cool section about timepieces throughout history. I just managed to catch a glimpse of the Rosetta Stone before the whole museum shut down! The British Museum was amazing and I highly recommend making a stop here if you are ever in London (especially because the tickets are also free)!

We had been walking for about 13 hours at this point and decided we should try and get some sleep even though it was only 9 PM because we had to be up at 3 AM to catch a 4 AM train back to the airport. It was so stressful waking up that early and rushing as quickly as possible to get ready and catch a train but the rest of the trip more than made up for it! I would definitely recommend doing a whirlwind trip like this if you ever participate in a study abroad program where international travel is really cheap! The memories I made on this trip are gonna last me a lifetime (and are also now immortalized here on this blog)!

Now I am back in Dublin, having just awoken from a nap and now pounding away on my keyboard, trying to capture all that I had seen this weekend in a few words and a couple of pictures in this little blog. I hope that I have done a good job recounting all that happened this weekend because it was one of the best weekends of my life! Until next time!

[phantom-of-the-memes]

Hi! I found you looking through the Gaeilge tag - I say this with caution since you seem to get a lot of these asks but I just wanted to say Irish is a very cool language to learn knowing the history behind it. I'm American (please don't hate me 😅) but I've been fascinated by Irish culture for years, finally visited while on vacation a couple years ago and immediately fell in love. Heard a trad song I recognized in passing a pub in Dublin and heard a group of teens speaking Gaeilge in Galway at the Christmas Market. Knowing the history behind the language and how personal it is, those moments were magical and stood out to me more than visiting the tourist places like the Cliffs and Blarney Castle. I wanted to speak the little Irish I knew in Dublin but didn't out of fear of being seen as *that* tourist. I'm learning more now and hope to speak it next time. I say all this out of deep appreciation (and because I'm fascinated by other cultures and languages in general), your country has a stronghold on me and I hope you know there are a lot of people out there that genuinely appreciate your culture. ❤️

See my pinned post.

[irelandsojourn2023]

And so it begins.......

In 2014 I did a 3 month sojourn in the South of France and enjoyed keeping my friends and family updated on my adventures. So here begins another sojourn on the magical island of Ireland.

I arrived late yesterday (Wednesday, 4/27) afternoon. I was so tired having not slept on the plane. However, everything went smoothly with picking up the rental car and getting out of Dublin and on the road. Mid-way to my destination, exhaustion hit so I pulled over in a rest stop and rested for about 40 minutes and then continued on.

My little cottage in New Quay (pronounced "New Key") is attached to the main home of a lovely couple, RoÍsín and Brendan. It is 2 rooms, one on entry with full kitchen and one bedroom and bath upstairs. I am across the street from Galway Bay to my left and Lisanne's Restaurant and Bar.

Once unpacked, I headed back into Kinvara for food provisions at the local Spar. The village of Kinvara doesn't have much - a pharmacy, Spar, beauty shop, few restaurants/pubs and small hotel, an old castle ruin, Dunguaire Castle, around a little port.. By the time I got home I was famished. Too tired to cook I wandered over to Lisanne's for fish and chips and a glass of wine. The former were delicious, the latter not so much :-(. A long hot hot shower and I finally collapsed by 9:30p.m. just as the sun was setting.

Had quiet time this morning with my coffee, newspapers and readings. I had purchased the fixings for hamburger soup so I set about getting that prepared. OMG the knives were so dull I couldn't cut through the onion. (Note to self: afternoon activity to find knife sharpener). Once the soup had simmered for a while, I packed up to find the knife sharpener and a small bluetooth speaker. The radio/cd/tape player here is out of the 80's and with no CD's provided seems useless. TV only has about 5 stations, but the internet works and I can stream on my iPad.

No luck in Kinvara for the items I was searching for so I ventured farther afield and closer to Galway to Orcombe where I found a Tesco - much bigger grocery store (more like Carrefour in France) and a few small appliances and limited clothing selections. I scored the speaker for 20E and the knife sharpener for 11E and headed home.

The weather is hovering around low to mid-50's and is overcast. We have had spitting showers today intermittently. I got back from my errands about 2:30 and made short shrift of my soup with some warmed baguette purchased at Tesco. I decided to do another walk along the Flaggy Shore. Before I did though, I drove all along it first to see where it went and how far it was. I love meandering down the country roads looking at houses, stopping to talk to the cows and sheep. I came back and parked the car and began my walk.

I have to admit I am having a lot of pain in my knee while walking. I think it's more from the bursa behind the knee rather than the meniscus or arthritis in the knee. I walked about 1 1/2 miles very slowly and am now home and icing. No swelling and the pain doesn't persist when stationary. I did a good bit of stretching when I got back and have been given more stretching exercises from PT. Bottom line is that I will not let this keep me from walking. However, Roísín mentioned she might be able to find me a bike which is lower impact for the knee.

I keep referring to the Flaggy Shore. It's a lovely walk around Galway Bay where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. You have Connemara across the Bay and the Limestone Mountains of the Burren behind you. Seamus Heaney immortalized it in a poem, Postscripts, which I will add and hope you enjoy!

Postscript

Seamus Heaney

And some time make the time to drive out west

Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,

In September or October, when the wind

And the light are working off each other

So that the ocean on one side is wildWith foam and glitter, and inland among stones

The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit

By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,

Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,

Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads

Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.

Useless to think you’ll park and capture it

More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,

A hurry through which known and strange things pass

As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways

And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

[kianmcgrath]

Head hung low, a smirk working its way onto his lips, Kian shook his head. He lifted his gaze to meet the other man’s own, arching a brow at the seeming innocence behind his question. Kian didn’t know this fella from Adam, but he would wager his life’s savings on the fact that there was nothing innocent about him at all. 

“Nah, sorry. It’ll take more than a glass of whiskey for me to tell you that,” he teased, awarding the stranger with what he hoped was a flirty smile, and not the haunting grimace that Davey insisted he usually wore around attractive men. 

Patience was a virtue that Kian didn’t quite have – though one might argue it was necessary when working in a customer-facing role – but he found himself waiting with great restraint for the brunette to deign to make his request. Predictable as ever, he opted for the bottle of Jameson, Kian’s accent not lost on him as he reminisced over some Stag that the Dubliner couldn’t give two shites about. 

“Uhuh, yeah. Brewed it myself, like,” Kian remarked, rolling his eyes while he had his back turned to the stranger. 

He was cute enough, and Kian certainly hadn’t been shying away from a little harmless flirting. He’d actually been wondering if he could manage to impress the posh bastard enough to take him home, but doubts were already creeping in. Horny or not, he wasn’t sure he could listen to some swanky Yank blabber on about how much he knew about The Emerald Isle. Busying himself, he grabbed two of the cleanest glasses he could find and filled them with a generous amount of whiskey. 

“Dublin, I assume?” he mused, setting the glasses down, he slid one across the bar and winked. Sure, maybe his patience was already wearing thin, but with his attention back on the man once more, he was reminded just how gorgeous he actually was. He could probably persevere. "I mean, Galway’s an absolute winner for Stag Nights, but I can’t imagine the aul’ American’s stretch much further than the capital. But sure, maybe you’ll prove me wrong.” 

Taking a sip from his glass, Kian listened intently as Mr Sculpted-by-the-Gods prattled on, amused by just how unbothered he seemed by his own pompous attitude. Maybe Kian was in dire need of a boat load of therapy and some serious self-respect, but the guy’s total lack of self-awareness was doing a lot for him right now. Given that his own track-record had resulted in him falling head-over-heels for a man who would go on to beat the living daylights out of him and shatter his femur, he shouldn’t be too surprised by his own abysmal taste in men. Still, the man before him might be quick to grate on his nerves, but it was unlikely he’d have Kian laid out on his back anytime soon. Or rather, if he did, he hoped it would be because he had his head between the Irishman’s legs and his mouth wrapped around his cock and not because he was planning to give him a career-ending injury to match his other one. 

He blinked, suddenly, drawing himself back to reality as he tried to regain the thread of the conversation, lips parting slightly as it occurred to him just how close the two of them were. They were both positioned quite cosily, leaning across the bar, bodies angled towards one another, faces mere inches apart. A braver man might have simply leaned across and kissed the stranger there and then, but Kian was nothing if not a coward when it came to romance. 

“You’re grand. You can call this place a shithole all you like,” he laughed, his voice low, suddenly all too aware of their proximity. He crossed his heart with one hand, as though to accent his point. “I won’t be offended, sweetheart.” 

He didn’t want to pull away. If he couldn't outright make a move, Kian thought the least he could do was make it as obvious as possible that he was interested, even if the only way he could translate that was through flirty glances and free drinks. 

“How old’s your little brother?” Kian asked, arching a brow in disbelief. As immature and entirely insufferable as Davey and Luca could be, he hoped that neither of them would be so ignorant as to throw around such juvenile bets. Kian figured that if you couldn’t last a simple hour in a place like the Black Dog, then the stick up your arse had to be so finely lodged up there that it could double as a DIY colonoscopy. 

Still, he couldn’t give a rats arse about the fella’s maturity so long as he was interested in lodging something else up Kian’s own – well, you get the idea. 

“I’d say you’re passin’ with flyin’ colours,” he shrugged, his index finger lazily tracing the rim of his glass. 

He watched, entertained, as the man’s gaze trailed to Kian’s bare arms. Years of pucking sliotars across a field and snatching them clean from the air meant he had a nice enough physique. He’d been a little slack since the injury, his mandatory physio just about the only bit of exercise he’d been getting in for a fair few months, but he’d gotten back on the saddle – figuratively and literally – and taken up cycling again since moving to New York. The scenery wasn’t quite as satisfying and the traffic was feckin’ murder, but it kept him fit. 

“Yeah, well. The company was just gettin’ ready to leave when you walked in,” he admitted, huffing out a laugh. For extra measure, he found himself subtly flexing his bicep, hoping to draw out a blush or two in the process. Kian didn’t consider himself the most attractive guy out there, but if arms were doing it for the pretty brunette, he certainly wasn’t about to complain. 

“Y’know, if you do fancy gettin’ out of here, makin’ an early exit... I won’t tell your brother’s friend. I hear my company’s even better when the place doesn’t smell like a puddle of Clarence’s piss,” Kian snorted, nodding towards Ivy’s least favourite regular. 

Ezra raised an eyebrow at the man’s reply. 

“What sins are those?” he asked, directing all his attention towards acting coy, rather than pointing out that the sins in question must be pretty awful to have landed the man on this particular level of hell. Ezra would have thought that the duty of working in a bar like this would fall to the undesirables who had been sentenced to community service, or perhaps just had a horrifying penchant for working in grimy, dirty hovels. Saying this, should Marianne press him for his opinion on the bar, he’d only sing its praises in order to prove her wrong.

Predictably, there was no Blantons to be found in the bar. Ezra had already figured as much so he wasn’t as disappointed as he might have been if he had stepped foot in the bar with the hopes that it might be possessed by some degree of familiarity with civility. No, he’d already decreed it to be no different than a poverty-stricken alien planet just with more… belching.

“Hm, typical,” he mused, eyebrows raising as he sighed and let his eyes scan the labels on the bottles behind the bar. Nothing that he would dream of touching. Even the wine was less than impressive, boasting names that he’d have Kim checked into the psychiatric ward if she ever admitted to drinking it.

As the man listed off what was available to him, it didn’t go amiss to Ezra that he had slipped behind the bar himself after only just stating that he was off the clock. While it was something that Ezra had acknowledged, he failed to feel any sort of gratitude for it. Here this man was, no longer working, yet still putting in a shift to get Ezra a drink that he was probably due to turn his nose up at anyway. Anyone else would be tripping over themselves to thank him but Ezra, who was used to people doing things for him, barely gave it a second thought. His parents had spoiled him and the rest of his siblings rotten, although he knew that they probably had varying opinions about how each of their children had turned out. Since then, Ezra had lived a life of luxury, fed with a silver spoon and wanting for nothing. He’d never had to struggle to make things go his way - although the one blip in his argument was, indeed, the situation with Harry right now. Still, that was something he was steadfastly trying to soldier on through. Everything else continued to fall into his lap, which was why he barely gave the bartender’s kind act a second thought.

“Jameson will have to do then, I suppose,” he lamented, as if drinking one of the most popular whiskeys in the world was a great hardship. “Say, their distillery is probably from your corner of the world, isn’t it? I visited it once for a bachelor party.”

The weekend spent in Dublin with his friends from school was interesting, to be sure. He’d never quite stopped being impressed by all the ways a bunch of men could display such thinly-veiled homophobia without giving him any solid proof that he could actually be mad at them for it. He hadn’t stayed in contact with them after that, but he did remember downing more than his fair share of drinks at the whiskey tour.

When the bartender leaned forward, Ezra couldn’t help but unconsciously mimic the motion. Even if it did mean that the elbows of his blazer got splashed with some unidentifiable liquid from the bar top.

“You’re right, it’s certainly not my vibe,” he agreed hastily, as if anyone in the general vicinity of the pair of them would lay eyes on Ezra in his Oxfords and cashmere and declare him a regular. Perish the thought! He shook his head as if to dispel the very notion before leaning back towards the bartender again.

“But just because I go elsewhere for my alcohol, it doesn’t mean I’m opposed to coming somewhere…” He glanced around, wondering what the least offensive turn of phrase would be to sum up The Black Dog. “With such character, shall we say?”

The piss-stained man across the room stuck his hand down his pants and gave himself a good scratch to drive his point home. Ezra pursed his lips and turned back to the bartender. “I bet my little brother’s friend that I could stick it out somewhere that doesn’t sell Blantons and I think I’m lasting alright so far, don’t you?”

He couldn’t help but let his eyes flick up and down, lingering a little too long on the bartender’s bicep rounding out perfectly from the sleeve of his shirt. “Can’t say the company is all that bad.”

[queenshelby]

My Friend’s Father (Part Nine)

Pairing: Cillian Murphy x Reader

Warning: Age Gap, Smut, Domestic Violence, Angst

Words: 3,064

Please comment and interact...it's what keeps this blog going

***************************

Almost a week had passed since you stayed with Cillian at his unit in Galway and, despite the fact that he was away, things had further developed between you as emotions grew with every day.

He was different to any man you had ever been involved with and, whilst your involvement with each other stemmed from purely sexual lust and hunger, you had evolved from this to something different entirely within a matter of days.

Of course, you knew each other for years and, whilst you had a crush on Cillian for as long as you could remember, you never thought that it would be like this and, for Cillian, this feeling had never been mutual.

Whilst he always considered you to be attractive and very intelligent and kind, he never felt any emotional connection or sexual attraction towards you, at least not until that weekend when you visited Denise, which was also the first time he saw you again after six months had passed.

On that night during which you slept with each other, he let his sexual hunger take over his reasonable thinking mind after he saw you, in his kitchen, making pancakes and you had since, quite openly, talked about it. He saw sleeping with you as a mistake but, ever since that night, he couldn’t get you out of his head.

For you, things weren’t just sexual anymore and you began to feel strongly for Cillian which worried you especially since he was open about the fact that he didn’t know where things were heading with you. The fact that you are his daughter’s friend and much younger than him clearly bothered him and he sometimes admitted to you that he felt strange about building such a strong connection with you. A relationship was not what he wanted but he liked you, a lot.

As such, during the past week, Cillian called you every day after he finished filming and you were talking to him more frequently than you were talking to Denise.

During his breaks, he would also text you and check in on you as you were in the middle of exams. He always remembered when you had a test and asked you how it went and, when you told him that you didn’t feel confident with your results, he reassured you that you probably did well and, even if you didn’t, it wouldn’t matter. According to him, a pass is a pass and you needed to lower your expectations of yourself just a little.

To your surprise, he also remembered appointments you had scheduled and things that bothered you which meant that, unlike other men you had been with, he was actually listening and was interested in what you had to say.

Some nights, you had spent hours on the phone or Skype, joking about things you had encountered that day or talking about books, literature and music, which is something you both enjoyed.

Politics and social issues were other matters you could discuss endlessly and, even when you were of different opinions, you would be able to argue in the most satisfying way. Cillian always treated you as an equal and even opened up to you about his divorce from Denise’s mother recently.

Another thing you learned from Cillian was that Denise was brining along her friend Amalie to Manchester to stay at his apartment and, when you gave him a warning about her and her intentions, he reminded you that he only had eyes for you. In fact, he always showered you with compliments and all of his compliments were genuine and came natural to him, helping you immensely with your self-consciousness.

Unfortunately, whilst you enjoyed how engaging Cillian was with you every day, like a teenager in love, with the constant text messages and calls, your father soon got suspicious and confronted you about.

****

“Dad, I am almost 22, you don’t need to be spying on me” you said somewhat frustrated as he asked you who you were talking to every day.

“You live under my roof and you answer me young lady” he said harshly and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes just as your mother stepped in, trying to calm him down. Your father was much older, approaching sixty and fairly old school in the way he expected you and your sister to behave.

“A friend…I am talking to a friend” you explained and your father asked again, telling you not to lie to him because he would know.

“And this friend of yours, you can’t meet him…you just text and talk? You can’t bring him to our house and introduce him?” your father asked along with a million other questions.

“No, I can’t. he lives in Dublin and I, most certainly, wouldn’t bring him into this…” you said somewhat irritated by the interrogation.

“Dublin, huh? So, you met him when you visited Denise?” he asked and you nodded.

“It’s not her brother, is it? Because I really don’t want you to get involved with him. I don’t like this family and their views” your father said harshly, causing you to chuckle.

“Their views?” you asked somewhat surprised and your father nodded.

“Yes, their views on what’s right and wrong. If I recall correctly, this girl you call your friend was going out with someone of the same gender for a while. God didn’t tell us to do this but her parents obviously didn’t have an issue with it which, apparently is called new age parenting. Everything is pro choice and lets their children decide what is best for them even if they lack experience” your father went on to say and you couldn’t help but shake your head at his absurd commentary but, he continued and you soon learned what had happened between your parents and Denise’s parents many years ago, before which your mother had called Denise’s mother her friend as well.

According to your father, Cillian had voiced his opinion to your father when it was found out that your sister was pregnant following a short affair with a man she had met through university.

Cillian’s ex wife had told your sister that she had options, causing your father to get rather angry with her, which is when Cillian stepped in, supporting what Denise’s mother had said.

She had offered your sister help but your father considered this to be a betrayal and, whilst your mother maintained contact with Denise’s mother for a while, your father refused to get involved with Denise’s family thereafter.

Cillian’s often all so public views angered him and he made this very clear. He didn’t want you to be involved with his children and you couldn’t help but laugh about the irony of it all when you found out about this incident.

“Jesus Dad, that was years ago and not everyone has to have the same views as you” you said before confirming that you weren’t seeing Denise’s brother.

“No, they don’t, but I am just looking out for you and, instead of acting the way you do, throwing yourself at guys with new age ideas, I would much prefer if you met a nice young catholic man” your father explained, causing your mother to fume in anger with him.

“Throwing myself at guys? Listen, I am not sure what slut you think I am but it’s nice to know that you think so little of me” you said before storming upstairs and into your room.

Having to deal with this crap bothered you and you knew that, when this semester came to an end, you could be moving out now that you saved enough money for a bond and rent.

*****

As the evening went on, you spent all of your time in your room, reading a book until, finally, at around 9 o’clock you saw a notification on Skype.

‘Hey Beautiful’ Cillian said as you picked up and popped in your headphones.

Cillian apologised for calling through so late and informed you that he was finally able to speak to Laura, the woman he was seeing before you.

He knew that you wanted to know about it and he had no problem telling you what you needed to hear while telling you that you had absolutely nothing to worry about.

It was Laura’s first day back on set after a week-long break and Cillian told you that she wasn’t exactly impressed when he stood her down.

‘She probably likes you…I can understand that’ you said calmly but Cillian told you that he was pretty clear with her about what this was between them.

‘Well, in retrospect, I shouldn’t have gotten involved with her’ he went on and you were quite happy to change the topic by this point and told him that you were aching for him.

‘Well, I am not sure that I can help you with that’ Cillian chuckled.

‘We could have Skype sex I suppose’ you giggled.

‘Skype Sex?’ Cillian laughed before telling you that he didn’t think that this would be a good idea since you were at home with your parents and you had previously complained about the thin walls of the house.

‘Oh Jesus Cillian, my father already thinks I am a slut, so I personally don’t care if anyone hears me getting myself off. I’ve got my earphones in and am the only one who can hear you and my door is locked’ you chuckled.

‘Your father thinks that you are a slut? Do you want to talk about that?’ Cillian asked concerned but you shook your head.

‘I rather not. You met him and know what he is like’ you explained.

‘I do. He takes God very seriously’ Cillian said before continuing on. ‘But, if you have problems at home you need to tell me please. You can stay at my apartment. I can get my house keeper to meet you there with the key’ he offered.

‘You said you were going to stay out of stuff between me and my parents just as I would stay out of matters between you and Denise’ you then said, reminding him on the conversation about your respective roles which you had three days ago.

‘Yes I did, but I can’t if I have to worry about you’ Cillian said firmly.

‘There is no need to worry Cillian. I promise’ you reassured him. ‘Well, actually, I need you to worry about my sexual needs right now’ you then went on to say with sly grin.

‘Through Skype?’ Cillian asked again somewhat concerned.

‘Yes’ you said with a cheeky smile as you settled more into your bed with your laptop.

‘Alright then, show me what you are wearing” Cillian said as he cut straight to the point.

‘Can you see?’ you asked as you adjusted the cam and showed Cillian your dark blue lingerie.

‘Very nice…but…I think you would look even better if you were naked, don’t you think?’ Cillian said somewhat nervously and you nodded in agreement.

‘Well, I suppose I should strip for you and you should strip for me’ you giggled as you seductively took off your bra slowly, showing Cillian your perky breasts through the camera.

You heard him inhale sharply as he watched you and took his t-shirt off at the same time, leaving him in nothing but his CK briefs.

Without words you then scooted back on the bed and removed your undies, allowing him to watch before you sat down on the bed, spread eagle and naked, giving him a good view of your mound.

‘Jesus Y/N, you are so fucking beautiful and sexy…touch yourself for me, nice and slow’ Cillian breathed out and you let his soothing voice wash over you, knowing what he was trying to do and happily helping him succeed.

‘Like this?’ you moaned as you began to run circles over your clit with your fingers.

‘Yes, just like that babe’ Cillian groaned as he shuffled down his briefs and you were finally getting a good look of his hard cock.

‘Oh god, I want to stroke your cock so badly’ you moaned as you seductively opened your pussy lips with your fingers, opening yourself up before reaching for the black vibrator you kept in your bedside table.

‘Well, someone's particularly horny tonight’ Cillian chuckled as he watched you play with your pussy, and you could hear the smirk in his voice.

You mumbled a small "mhm," and he laughed.

‘Good, that's exactly how I like you, so naughty and needy’ Cillian said as he slowly began to stroke his hard member.

You barely registered his words enough to answer with another "mhm," but your subconscious managed it. Your weak answer elicited another delicious chuckle from the other end of the line.

"Why don't you show me how this little toy of yours works?” Cillian then asked as he watched you eagerly.

“I was just waiting for you to ask” you giggled as you began to run your fingers along your stomach and back up to your chest, leaving a trail of goosebumps their wake before reaching for the vibrator and turning it on.

“Put into your sweet pussy babe, let me see it” Cillian groaned and you moan in response, barely processing his words but still understanding enough to answer and do what he asked.

"I bet your pussy is already dripping” he said as you slid the vibrator into you slowly. He was right, you could feel your wetness pooling.

“I am so fucking wet and I wish it would be your cock inside me” you moaned as you began to stroke the toy in and out of you.

Cillian was groaning on the other side, his eyes full of lust and desire for you and you let out a quiet moan as you watched him with the same desire and hunger while you were pleasuring yourself.

“Good girl, keep going…” Cillian tells you and you moan again hearing it.

“Tell me how much you are aching for my cock” he then said you moaned again.

“I want your cock so badly, fuck…I want your cum inside me, dripping out of my wet little pussy” you moaned, eliciting a groan from Cillian as he began to stroke his cock harder and faster.

“Such a naughty needy girl, aren’t you? I can’t wait to be inside you again and make you cum over and over again” Cillian said with a laboured breath and you are barely listening at this point.

“I want you to cum for me and show me this dripping pussy when you do…I fucking love hearing your moans, so fucking sexy…common babe….let go” Cillian said, knowing that you were close and your orgasm rolled over you as soon as the word 'cum' left his lips, and although your sensitive clit was screaming at your hand to stop, you couldn't.

‘Oh god fuck, yes…’ you moaned as you came hard and fast.

“That’s it babe, don’t stop” he instructed as your moans continuously spilled from your mouth, and you were not even sure what you were saying or if you were forming words at all. The only thing in your head is a deliciously heavy fog and Cillian’s voice guiding you to do what he wanted.

“Don’t stop, keep fucking your sweet little pussy babe” Cillian ordered as he knew you weren’t done and, just as he did, you let out a high-pitched moan, bordering on a scream, as an even stronger orgasm washed over your body.

‘Cum for me babe…I want to see all this cum’ you moaned in return, focusing on the delicious image in front of you as Cillian was stroking his cock and, just when you finally come back down you heard Cillian groan loudly.

“Fuck” he groaned as he stroked his cock hard and fast you watched rope after rope of cum spurt onto his stomach.

‘Oh god, what a waste, I want to lick your cum off your skin so badly” you breathed out as Cillian came down from his high slowly and used a tissue to clean himself up.

‘Stop saying those things or you have to stay on the line for another twenty minutes at least’ Cillian chuckled as he could feel his manhood stir again.

‘Well, I think you shouldn’t cum again until you come to visit me in Galway the weekend after next…I want you to save it all for me’ you said, causing Cillian to cock an eyebrow as he pulled his briefs back up.

‘Fat chance babe’ he chuckled, knowing that going without an orgasm for nine days would be rather difficult for him.

Eventually, after a lot of begging, he agreed to try but he wouldn’t be able to make you any promises to this effect.

***

The following day, you went to work and then university thereafter but, when you eventually returned home, your father was in a worse mood than ever before.

‘Can you explain this to me?’ he asked angrily as soon as you walked through the door and you couldn’t help but gulp when he pointed to a white box which he had placed on the living room table.

‘You went through my personal belongings’ you huffed out as the box contained some lingerie and intimate items, including toys, that you were hiding in the bottom of your dresser.

‘Again Y/N, this is my house, my rules and I don’t want my daughter to own filth like this’ he said, after having heard small pieces of your conversation with Cillian on Skype the evening before.

It was obvious to you that your father was appalled and you were outraged that he had been snooping through your room and, as you would later learn, had even tried to access your computer.

‘I can’t fucking believe you dad. These are my personal belongings and you have no right to go through them’ you huffed out and, just as you did, you could feel a sharp strike across your face.

‘Get this shit out of my house and talk to me with some respect’ he said harshly, leaving you speechless and in tears as he walked away, leaving your cheek burning red.

   Tag List:

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@peaky-cillian​

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[multifandomfanfiction]

Fightin' Irish

TITLE: Fightin' Irish PAIRING: Druig/OC RATING: T CHAPTER: One-shot SUMMARY: Druig and his girlfriend Clara have been vacationing in Ireland for the past week.

[A/N - Written for @writer-wednesday. This is my first time writing for Druig, so I hope I've done him justice.]

The alley was covered in orange, green, and white pennant banners, the only coming from the light bulbs above their heads and the cafés that lined the alley.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Druig told Clara.

“Oh come on! You’ll fit right in with your accent.”

“I didn’t choose the accent.”

She knew everything about Druig and the other Eternals. In fact, Druig had been very forthcoming about his past unlike some of the Eternals. “I know. Doesn’t make it any less cute though.” Clara placed a kiss on his lips.

They’d been sight seeing all week.

The Cliffs of Moher and Galway City. Of course that had caused Clara to hum “Galway Girl” by Ed Sheeran all day.

A tour of Dublin and horse-back riding. Druig had used his powers for that one to allow the tour guide to let them share a horse.

Dublin Castle and Trinity Library (which Clara kept calling the Hogwarts Library). Druig had thrown in his own little fun facts about the castle and the times he had been there over the years.

They traveled to Belfast so Clara could see where the Titanic was built and Druig told her how guilty he felt about that tragedy. He felt that maybe if he had known (and if he had been on the ship), he could have prevented it from happening by compelling the passengers to abandon the ship sooner than they did. Clara had soothed his sadness by buying him some chips from a vendor not too far from their hotel.

And of course Clara had to kiss the Blarney stone. She had joked that Druig didn’t need to because he already had a smart mouth. He didn’t need any help with that.

It was their last night in Ireland, so Druig was taking her out to dinner in a pub.

Druig didn’t care for bars and pubs, but Clara wanted to experience everything she could.

They entered the pub and Druig leaned into Clara. “Grab us a table, would you love?”

Clara found a table, but unfortunately they would have to stand because it was crowded and all the tables with chairs were occupied.

Druig eventually joined her with a basket of fish and chips and a pitcher of beer.

Clara and Druig were both quiet by nature, so they were enjoying just people watching.

“You want some more beer? Or some more food?” Druig asked her.

She shook her head. “I’m good, but if you want another pitcher…”

As an Eternal, it took a lot for Druig to get drunk and he didn’t even feel buzzed yet. He kissed Clara’s cheek before walking over to the bar. The moment he stepped away, a guy walked over to Clara, who was leaning up against their table.

“Haigh, rud milis (Hey, sweet thing),” he said.

Clara frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t speak Irish.”

The guy smiled and leaned in with his elbows on the table. “That’s okay, sweet thing.”

“Please don’t call me that. Besides, I have a boyfriend.” Clara looked to the bar.

The man followed her gaze and scoffed. “You with that string bean?”

“He’s much stronger than he looks.”

“I doubt that. Come with me, sweet thing. I’ll show you a real man.”

“No, thank you.”

The man grabbed Clara by the arm.

She looked around, but no one was coming to her defense. “Let me go!” she yelled.

Druig heard her scream and started to make his way back to the table.

“Fine, be that way bitch!” the man yelled. He let her go and Clara stumbled back into the table.

Druig, in the heat of the moment, instead of using his powers to calm down the fight, punched the guy in the face.

“Druig!” Clara yelled.

“Don’t talk to her like that!”

The man clutched at his nose, which was probably broken.

Clara wouldn’t be surprised if the man’s cheekbone was shattered due to Druig superhuman strength. She wasn’t lying when she said that Druig looked stronger than he looked.

Clara grabbed Druig’s arm and pulled him out of the pub.

“I’m sorry,” Druig said.

Clara shook her head. “Don’t be. It was hot.”

Druig smirked. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Clara grabbed onto the lapels of his leather jacket and yanked him down into a kiss.

Druig smiled, returning the kiss and dipping her.

Taglist: @autumnleaves1991-blog @clydesducktape

[arcturusreads]

Shoulder to Shoulder - Merhayes

In which Hayes talks of home and Meredith tells him about her own time in Ireland

“So come on, tell me about Ireland.” Meredith's eyes held a glint of playfulness as she looked up from the body cavity to the paediatric surgeon.

“Ireland?”

“We have time to kill.”

It had become a sort of tradition between the two of them that when they were in surgery together, they would end up sharing stories with each other. Cormac couldn’t help it, storytelling was in his Celtic blood and for Meredith… well she had enough stories to last them 100 surgeries.

Meredith would be lying if she was to say that she wasn’t curious about Cormac’s time back in Ireland. He had shared a lot about Abigail and the boys, their years in America and his short tenure in Switzerland but Ireland hadn’t come up in conversation at all.

“What do you want to know?” Cormac’s Irish accent had become surprisingly soothing to Meredith.

“Where in Ireland are you from?”

“Athenry, it’s not far from Galway.” A nostalgic smile was placed upon Cormac’s lips as he thought about his hometown. “Beautiful place and thankfully was never privy to the tourists Galway had to suffer with.”

Meredith continued to work rhythmically as she listened to Cormac.

“Full of fields that were miles long. Ma would have to tear me and Aoife away from them when it was time for dinner.”

“Aoife?” Meredith asked about the unfamiliar name.

“My little sister, pain in my backside most of the time,” Cormac answered with an eye-roll.

Meredith’s laughter filled the OR room, “Must have been nice growing up with a sibling though.”

“You should know, with Maggie.”

Sometimes, Meredith forgot how much Cormac didn’t know about her or this hospital. She felt like she had known him for years but there were moments like these when Meredith remembered that Cormac didn’t know her entire life story like everyone else in the hospital. It was refreshing to know that there was someone who didn’t know how many times she had been admitted as a patient into the very hospital that she worked in.

“Actually, I didn’t even meet Maggie until a couple of years ago,” she said sheepishly.

Cormac arched an eyebrow at her, ready for her to continue but Meredith just shook her head. “My family history is… messy, it’s a story for another surgery. I want to hear more about Ireland.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Grey.”

The playful glint in his eyes made Meredith’s stomach do flips and she felt like she was a teenager all over again. She quickly moved her eyes back to exposed organs in front of her, not trusting herself to look back up at Cormac.

“Do you miss it?” Meredith finally asked when she managed to control her butterflies.

“Home? Every damn day.” Cormac’s voice held a sense of longing. “No place like it. I’m planning on heading back there when the boys are off for Summer. My ma’s going to kill me if she goes any longer without seeing her grandsons.”

“You know, I’ve visited Ireland before.”

“Oh really?” Cormac was always a little sceptical when people told him they’d be to Ireland. The most they’d seen was Dublin, a lot of pubs and the Guinness Factory and whilst they were great places to visit, Ireland was a lot more than all of that.

Meredith smile as she thought about her trip made the corner of her eyes crease. It felt like a lifetime ago. “I did a gap year before Med School and went backpacking around Europe with a friend. Spent a week longer in Ireland that we thought we were going to. It was beautiful though, did a few days in Dublin and then headed to Killarney. Kilkenny was just out of this world and then did a few days in Kinsale before we headed to Galway.”

“I’m impressed, Grey, most people just see the inside of a pub whilst they’re there.”

That elicited another laugh from Meredith and Cormac suddenly found himself in awe of the spitfire that stood opposite him. She’d been through a lot in her life and yet still laughed so freely, the darkness she had faced had not overshadowed the hope she had in life.

“I wouldn't be too impressed, I did spend an awful lot of my evenings in the pubs. Gave a lot of the men there a run for their money, they didn’t think I could keep up with their drinking games.”

“And naturally you proved them wrong,” Cormac smirked.

Meredith gave him a smirk of her own in response before continuing with her sutures.

“So, are you going to tell me more about this gap year of yours?”

“Only when you tell me about that electric fence story.”