I did this little sketch while having a cup of tea at an outdoor cafe in Ennis. 
This is my fourth trip to Ireland. The first was 16 years ago. We revisited some of the same places we were acquainted with before, and they haven’t changed too much, other than a small “suburban-style” development on the fringes, a cell tower here and there, and a few new windfarms. We had heard all about the boom and bust of the Irish economy since our last visit, but compared to New York state, the roads were in better shape, and there were fewer closed businesses. And the people are just as charming and warm as ever.
I’ll close with a line we read somewhere: “May the roof of your house never fall in, and those within it never fall out.”
