Finding Myself on the Irish Trail

+Mucros Weavers Ruana on a horse girl

Discoveries Along the Irish Trail 

Is it Ireland for you?  It is Ireland for me. A passion that guides me and my choices.  A passion that pervades daily life.  Yet I hear this passion regularly from other people too.  Of course, I work and own an Irish store, so Irish lovers tend to gravitate towards my personal universe.  

Perhaps for me, it started with the fact that my gregarious mother was 100% Irish.  She spoke wistfully about her grandmother who emigrated with her two sisters from Ireland during the famine, and her pervasive homesickness for Ireland.  My mother confided that as a young girl she knew 3 things: 1) She was Irish.  2) She was Catholic.  3) Her family were Democrats (she actually bragged that her police uncles voted two or three times to make sure the Democrat got into office…whoops).  Thus in my earliest memories, the basis of my familial education promoted the heritage and spirit of the old country, still alive in us as their Irish-American ancestors. 

But why the love of Ireland and the Irish?  Who are we?  Who are they?  Through my experiences as an Irish retail store owner, I have come to develop a deeper sense of this land and what it has to offer.  Not only in its history, and the well-known parts of its culture, but in its vibrant arts and crafts communities and its fine goods sold around the world.  

As a lifelong horse enthusiast, I was amazed to find that the Irish, and the ancient tribe of the Celts from which they descended, had a rich equestrian culture.  It seemed that my passions were more deeply entwined than I knew.  And if there is one word often used to describe the Irish, it is "passion."  This took on new meaning for me the first time I visited.  It seemed that my past was all clicking into place.  I was overwhelmed finding myself feeling like I was finally "home" in a foreign country.  

I first visited when my children were leaving the house, and I was getting out of my corporate job of 20 years.  Awestruck by the warmth of the people all over the country, and the merging of my most vivid memories of family stories and my own lifelong work with horses, I knew that my past was meant to become integral to my present.  

I bought some samples of leather bracelets I found being sold in Galway, which I thought were really cool.  I went to a festival and the response was clear.  People back home loved them too.  I got more of them, and soon began to develop an aesthetic, based on horses and contemporary Irish crafts you can't find everywhere, a commercial market which was more than shamrocks and leprechauns.  Soon, I had a retail store, and my passion became my work.  Running a small business is hard work, so luckily for me my love ran deep.  

It is in this way I came to discover my sense of what the Celtic Ranch is.  Not only the combination of my own two personal drives, but an invigorating retail experience.  I came to see the care and expertise involved in making Irish knits and woolens.  I now source leather goods, and personalize my own Celtic horse products.  

Thursday I travel to Ireland to continue finding and promoting items that contain a part of the people and the land I am so fond of.  The land that "I am."  Is deirinn me, an Irish gaelic phrasing which translates as "I am of Ireland."  I look for things in which people can share in the majesty of Ireland, and convey their own love of the land and its people.  Beyond that, its just cool stuff.  

I want to share my experiences of "Irish" through this blog.  Let's share the ride, I promise laughs, drinks, and some great finds.  Cheers to you!  Cheers to the Irish!  Cheers to Ireland!  Slainte. . .