Meeting and greeting

Well, I did my very first meeting and greeting session at the Dublin Tourism offices yesterday. It was a last-minute thing: someone was ill so they called me to see if I could come in.

Modesty aside, I think I'm going to be FANTASTIC at this job -- in fact, I think I'll be BETTER than any native Irish person could be, because after more than a year here, I have an insider's view on Dublin, but I can also still remember what it was like arriving, not knowing about anything or anyone, and having to discover Dublin for myself.

So I was a bit disappointed when my first interaction, with some American tourists, stated off with them being put out about me not being "a real irish Colleen". However, I turned this around by telling them all about how my ancestors had settled in Newfoundland two hundred years ago, and how exciting it had been to rediscover the land of my forefathers and -mothers. Despite the fact that these folks were African-Americans, it turned that they were also Irish-Americans, and by the time they'd finished talking to me, they were quite excited about going to Co. Clare, where their great-grandad had come from, to check out the family homestead. Incidentally, did you know that some of Muhammed Ali's ancestors also came from Co. Clare, Ireland? There's an Irish connection most places, it seems to me.