07-21-2023, 04:21 PM
May 8 University Hospital Limerick
I had a big day planned. A quick jaunt to the Cliffs of Moher. Then breakfast at Danny Mac. We would pick up the Queen Mum and head to Quin Abbey, my favorite ruined Abbey. A quick stop at Bunratty Castle, one of the biggest tourist attractions. We would have lunch at Durty Nelly’s, a pub adjacent to the castle while also a tourist trap served really good food. The trap was well baited. Then it was off to Limerick, my town. We would stay at the Strand, where I had stayed many times before because it is just across the Sarsfield Bridge from Limerick Center. Plans were afoot to meet a friend for dinner at the Locke Bar. A day full of fun.
Except for that stop in Ennis at the walk-in Clinic.
The Queen and I did head early for the Cliffs of Moher. The Queen Mum stayed behind. Technically, the Cliffs open at 9. Well, the parking lot does. And you can’t really get to the Cliffs without parking in the lot. So, you don’t pay to see the Cliffs. You pay for the parking. In 2016, The Queen and I walked the whole length of the Cliffs from Liscannor to Doolin, a great walk I would do again, but no time in the itinerary this trip. But just seeing the Cliffs of Moher is always worthwhile. Now, you only pay for parking if the parking attendant is there. If you go early enough, around 7 for instance, the attendant is not on duty and the parking barriers are up to allow the employees to get into the lot. Well, that’s what happened the last time I did this. Luckily, that’s what happened this trip, too.
Unluckily, the Cliffs were fogged in. Usually, you stand at the limestone barrier and look down the entire lengths of the Cliffs. There is a small swath of grass and cliff top before the Cliffs beyond the wall. Back in the day, people would hop the wall and go right to the edge. But too many people have died, so hopping the wall is frowned upon. On this day, we could stand at the wall and not see the cliff edge thirty feet from the wall, never mind the miles of scenic cliff. We climbed the path up to O’Brien’s Tower, only seeing the tower when we were right up next to it. I needed the tower as a backdrop to recreate more photos of my father and my nephew. I’m pretty sure The Queen would have turned around at the bottom of the hill if the needs of the crazy photographer didn’t pressure her. Pictures taken, we headed back to the car park.
One of our long standing traditions while in Lahinch is to have breakfast at Danny Mac’s. By long standing, I mean we ate at Danny Mac’s in 2016 and wanted desperately to go there again? Why? Two reasons. They open up earlier than any other restaurant in Lahinch for breakfast and they serve chips with the breakfast. Chips for breakfast! If Chips for breakfast is wrong, I don’t want to be right. To be realistic, it’s kind of tiny place that serves a pretty good breakfast. When we arrived at Danny Mac’s on Main Street, there were still a few moments before they opened. We hung out in front of the place like crazy people that don’t enough to wait until 9am to have breakfast. Of course, when 8 rolled around and they didn’t open up immediately, we assumed the worst that they were closed never to open again. We tried peeking through the window to see what was going on in there that was keeping us from our food, but they had blinds pulled. Eventually, after an interminable five minute wait, the doors popped open and we could finally enter. To be fair, The Queen and I weren’t the only ones entering right as the door opened. Food was as good as we remembered. Yes, we had chips with our Irish breakfast. I don’t know why more restaurants don’t serve chips at breakfast.
Back at The Chairman’s House, I loaded up the car, still trying to make everything fit better in that limited space. I did have a chance to use the laundry room on the premise, so my bag of dirty laundry no longer fouled the air of the car.
The drive to Ennis and the walk-in clinic went smoothly. Finding a convenient drop-off point to the clinic did not. I made the Queen and Queen Mum walk a block to get inside the building. I then went and found parking down the street. Our goal was to arrive at 10 am just as the clinic opened so we could be served quickly and be on our way. The only problem, we had been misinformed about the opening time. The clinic opened at 9. The waiting room was already full. The receptionist told us it would be close to an hour maybe more before anyone could see The Queen Mum. We found some chairs in the hall and proceeded to wait. Thank goodness for wifi and cell phones. Well, The Queen and Queen Mum waited while I went for a walk.
During my quest to find parking, I noticed the clinic was just down the street from the Ennis Abbey. Rather than sit in the hot dimly lit corridor, I opted to visit the friary. Especially since I was able to go in free with my Heritage Ireland card. The funny thing about the card is that every place has a hand written ledger where names and card numbers are all written down. The data entry takes time and I can’t imagine anyone goes around the country collecting these ledgers to make sure people aren’t abusing the cards.
The Ennis Friary claim to fame are the carvings scattered around the grounds including St. Francis of Assisi. One of the guides gave me a quick tour of the main highlights before leaving me on my own to explore with admonition to watch out for the grave markers out in the courtyard made slick by the falling rain. Probably the most interesting thing for me were the giant brass colored angels that could be seen through a barred window into the neighboring property. At one point the building I could see use to be where priests could stay but it had turned into a restaurant and the angels were part of the decorations. When the angels were no longer needed at The Cloister Bar, they were dumped out back and visible from the Friary. The docent seemed embarassed talking about them and probably wished I had better questions about the sculptures or the Friary.
At the Doctor365 clinic, things continued to move at a glacial pace. But the Queen and the Queen Mum had graduated into the better lit waiting room proper. I was told they were next in line to be seen or maybe there was one other person to be seen before it was their turn. I needed to go buy another ticket for the car, so I left and did that. I also accompanied that with a walk along the river, seeing what other sites there were to see. This included a giant sculpture of two men debating over a cow that was placed in the middle of a roundabout.
When I returned to the clinic, the Queen Mum and Queen had finished with the doctor. The Queen Mum had more than a little respiratory distress, she had pneumonia. If you have pneumonia, you get to go to the Emergency Room in Limerick. Plans for the day changed. No stops at Durty Nellys or Bunratty or Quin Friary. Our destination when we left Ennis was University Hospital Limerick. I knew the place well. The hospital was just down the street from my old secondary School, Crescent College Comprehensive. The hospital was also near Raheen Industrial estate where my father built the Verbatim manufacturing plant. Those weren’t the only reasons I knew about the Hospital. University Hospital Limerick had been in the Limerick Leader recently and not in a good way. The hospital suffered from severe overcrowding. Horror stories came out of people languishing on gurneys in the hallways because there were no rooms for them. When the Queen told me we had to go to the University Limerick Hospital, those were the stories that crossed my mind. I didn’t share those stories with the Queen and Queen Mum because I hoped those problems had been fixed. Hope springs eternal only to die a savage death.
Cars packed the dropoff area to the University Limerick Hospital. I started to fear the worst. Not knowing any better, I dropped off the Queen and Queen Mum at the main entrance while I went to find parking. The parking lot next to the front entrance seemed to be full. A game commenced where cars circled the parking lot racing to the spots where cars pulled out. I played along as well, finally nabbing a spot after about ten minutes. By this time, I’m backing the car in as well. The lots are narrow and packed and it is much easier to exit, if I can pull straight out.
I realized my mistake about the drop-off point immediately upon entering the Hospital. This wasn’t the Emergency entrance. The Emergency entrance to the hospital was in entirely different part of the hospital. I started walking the halls confused by the signs and the multiple corridors. The play was a maze. I’m sure I walked through areas I wasn’t supposed to enter. Eventually I reached the other end of the hospital and the Emergency Room where the Queen and Queen Mum waited. They had already checked in. The Queen had found a wheelchair so the Queen mum didn’t have to walk all the way from the front entrance.
A TV monitor hung from the ceiling and gave the wait times for the various stages of triages. If the Queen Mum actively bled out, she would probably be seen in ten minutes. Since that wasn’t the case, our best case scenario was for the Queen Mum to be seen in two to three hours. That wasn’t good.
The thought of sitting in the grim waiting room drove me from the hospital. I’m sure leaving the Queen and Queen Mum by themselves makes me a bad person, but I don’t know how me waiting there with them would make the waiting any better. I decided I would spend the time walking to the Crescent College Comprehensive and back. If I made the trip, I wouldn’t have to go back with the Queen and Mum later.
I attended CCC from 1979 to 1981 which roughly corresponds to my Junior and Senior years of High School. In the Irish Education system the program is called the Leaving Certificate. It’s a tad brutal. You study for two years and at the end of those two years you take a test. The results of that one test gives you your grade for the entire two years. People lose their minds prepping for the Leaving Certificate. The joke in Ireland is that people get their Leaving Certificates and they leave the country. CCC is a historic school originally located in the center of downtown Limerick on O’Connell Street. CCC, at the time I attended, was one of the only co-educational schools in the area.
The school and the hospital were only about a twenty minute walk apart. I passed some historic landmarks on the way, including the HiWay restaurant where the Lynch family ate at least once a week despite the distance from the house. My father showed up for the goose liver pate. Sadly, the place has gone down hill in the intervening years. I don’t think I’ve been in there since 2009 with my father. I also strolled by The Unicorn pub where the Crescent Rugby team would go for drinks after practice. I went once. I believe the drinking rule at the time was if the bartender thinks you are 18 you are good to go. The Crescent Shopping Center was on the way. This was the only place to buy popcorn back in Limerick, maybe Ireland. Since 90% of my teenage diet consisted of popcorn, the Crescent Shopping center was very important to me. The area along Dooradoyle Road has built up considerably since my time at the school. I don’t remember any buildings being close to the school at all, except for one house across from the front gate. The school was in such a rural area there was a cattle guard at the main entrance.
I needed to take one picture of the gate since that was the last picture I took of the school in 1981. You used to be able to see the school from the road but now trees have grown up blocking everything. The first thing I noticed walking up the long drive to the school was CCC was experiencing a construction boom. The whole main entrance was blocked off with chain link fencing. I could see scaffolding all around the gym. I knew they were doing work from articles I had read in the Limerick Leader, but I didn’t realize it was to be this extensive.
The sign said all visitors must check in at the front desk, so I headed on inside. I didn’t want to be that creepy old guy checking out the school unless, I had permission. Usually I try to invade school grounds when no one is there, but I had mistimed it and school was still in session.
The young girl behind the glass partition in the entryway was a bit confused by my request to walk around the grounds. Part of the problem for the young lady was the sight of this incredibly ancient creature with a strange accent explaining that he had attended this same school over 42 years ago. She ran off to the back room to get further instructions. When she returned, she asked me to hold on because the headmaster wanted to talk me first.
Ah, memories. The first time I entered these premises and entered the same hall, I also had to talk to the headmaster, Father Morrisey. In order to get into the school, I had to pass an interview with him. Father Morrissey was not impressed by my transcripts from my school in California. He did remark that I was kind of big kid. He suggested that if I played Rugby, I could join the school. Sure. Love to play. Can’t wait. How do you play Rugby? Father Morrissey did allow me to join the school.
But the Jesuits are long gone from the Crescent, at least I think so, despite the fact the college still reads S.J. for Society of Jesuits. Instead of meeting a priest, I was led into the office of Diarmuid Mullins. Mr. Mullins quizzed me about my background and my relationship to the school. He then decided to personally take me on a tour of the school. Along the way, I was stopped several times to share my CCC story with teachers. I was older than everyone I met.
The school was in complete disarray due to the construction. The senior wing where I took classes, was completely blocked off. The main area where we held school functions had walls blocking off the interior so the only way to get around was around the perimeter. Mr Mullins told me the roof over the central area had been replaced. When the construction people went to do the replacement they found a layer two feet thick of straw in the ceiling. Quite the fire hazard. I got one quick peak at the stage through the construction where I starred in two plays. I told more stories.
Before you knew, Mr. Mullins and I were at the back of the school looking at the mobile units being used for classrooms on the gravel pitch where we used to play soccer at lunch time. I had the feeling that Mr. Mullins had better things to do and wanted me out of his school. I asked if I could walk around the outside and he agreed, which I did. Yes, I did sneak into the gymnasium. Last time i was in there, I was taking my Leaving Certificate exams.
At the hospital things were much the same. The Queen and Queen mum still waited for a doctor to see them. There was no indication of when that would happen. Again, restlessness drove me from the waiting room. For this venture, I took the car from the parking lot out to Raheen where my father built the Verbatim Plant. Only this year, did I learn that Raheen means small ringfort, an appropriate name for the industrial park since Verbatim was built on land that included what could have been a ringfort. Aerial photograph showed the circular ring of trees on the property and when planning for construction was underway lots of consideration was given to what was to be done about the ring fort trees. Mostly the consideration was not to touch the ringfort. Everyone told my father how much bad luck would be generated if the ringfort where to be harmed. Most people would site the cautionary tale of another foreign start-up, Ferenka. Ferenka put in a big plant in the early 1970s to manufacture steel for steel belted tires. Ferenka had all sorts of problems including the kidnapping of the managing director of the plant, Dr. Hirema. Many of the locals laid the blame squarely at the foot of Ferenka destroying a ring fort when they built the plant out in Annacotty.
The Raheen ring fort still stands in the center of a large field surrounded by industrial building. Although there was a section of trees that led to the ring fort that I couldn’t find so something must have happened. As for the Verbatim plant, it changed hands multiple times as various companies including Mistubishi and Kodak bought out Verbatim. The plant was vacant for many years and you could go online to see urban explorers pictures of the graffiti covered interiors. When I visited the plant in 2014, all the Verbatim signs were gone. Curran Aluminum now occupies, at least the main building, of the former Verbatim plant.
If you are going to shoot a ring fort, it’s best to do it from the air, to show the circle of plants. Otherwise, you are just photographing. So, for the first time this trip, I broke out my Mavic Pro drone. I love the photos from the drone. Every trip I wish I used the drone more. Every time I look at the drone case, I know I’m going to add another thirty minutes to the stop just getting it out of the case. But the photos are always worth it. Yet, here we are on day 8 of the trip and this is the first time, I’m taking the drone out. I even had to take a test and pay for a license to use the drone. Cheap as I am, you would think I would want to fly the drone more often to get my money’s worth.
I had to try two stops before I found a safe place to launch.I flew from the parking lot of the Curran plant. This end of the industrial estate was quiet. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road and I was able to wander around freely as I flew the drone back and forth across the ring fort. Clouds obscured the sun the entire time I photographed. As soon as I landed the drone, the sun popped right out. I should have left but instead I put the drone back up for more shooting. I even photographed the Verbatim building for old time’s sake.
By the time I returned to University Hospital Limerick, The Queen Mum had graduated to gurney in the hallway. The Queen had to come into the ER waiting room to escort me to where the Queen Mum’s gurney was located. As the horror stories, foretold, the gurney was in the hallway along with plenty of other patients on their gurneys. So many gurneys.
Since we were never getting out of there, I called my school friend Mike McMahon and cancelled our plans for the evening. He was very concerned about the Queen Mum. Everyone was concerned about the Queen Mum that I talked to during the day.
The Queen Mum was in for the night. They were going to try and find her a bed but they didn’t know when that would occur. The Queen was not going to leave the Queen Mum without an advocate so she was going to stay in the emergency room with her. My job was to go to the hotel and check us in. Or at least check me in. We weren’t going to be needing two rooms.
Our hotel for the night was The Limerick Strand Hotel right at the end of Sarsfield Bridge on the Ennis Road. I’ve been staying at this hotel since the 2009 visit. I keep thinking I should find a different hotel but I can’t find one that beats cost or location or amenities. I live for their breakfast buffet. When I told my father where we were going to stay on that 2009 trip, he was against it because the Strand sits on the location of the old Jury’s hotel which my father hated with a passion. I think he swore a blood oath never to set foot in that Jury’s again. But that Jury’s was torn down and brand new hotel put in it’s place. He eventually came around and really liked the Strand as well.
I told them my tale of woe at the front desk. They were concerned for the Queen Mum staying at the University Hospital. They were nice enough to cancel The Queen Mum’s room and not charge her for it. They also were going to put a hold on the room so when the time came she would have a room to stay in.I just had to cancel the room as soon as I knew she wasn’t coming in for the night. My only let down was our rooms were not on the side that faced St. John’s Castle, instead we had the lovely view of the broken down Cloynes factory. I did ask for a change but they couldn’t accommodate my request. Since, I had already made enough requests, I let it go. On the upside, I was on the executive floor and although I had not paid to get into the executive lounge where there were all sorts of snacks and beverages, my key worked to open the executive lounge door. I immediately grabbed a bunch of waters for the room.
Lily Kelly was the long time receptions at Verbatim and is probably one of the first Irish people I met when I came to Ireland back in 1979. When I picture the welcoming spirit of Ireland, I think Lily Kelly, although she did get married and now goes by Lily Goggin. I try and see her every time I go to Limerick. But finding her is a bit tricky. She had an email when she worked at the Limerick Institute of Technology, but she retired and that email no longer works. I don’t know why I have never gotten her phone number or written down her address. But I do have a picture of her house with my father standing on the steps which I use to get her number. Then I just pop by and hope she is home.
Like many times before, that is what I did this time only with an unexpected result. When I knocked on her front door, no one answered. A perfectly reasonable occurrence. I’m sure Lily wasn’t sitting at her house waiting for a strange American to pop over for a visit. But as I turned to go back to the car, I noticed a for sale sign on a post at the edge of her front yard. Had she moved? I decided to ask the neighbors. They were home. The nice lady there informed that Lily and Mick had moved about six weeks ago. Well, crap. The nice lady did not have a number where Lily could be reached. More crap. I went back to the car. The nice lady tapped on my window before I could leave. She mentioned that the people across the street probably had a contact number for Lily.
I got back out of the car and headed to house number two. I once again told my crazy American story about knowing Lily and how I stopped by to see her. Nice Lady number two probably was thinking I was really crazy and why didn’t I have Lily’s number if I knew here so well, but eventually she gave me the number.
I called Lily from the car. She was very surprised to hear from me and sad that she was no longer in Limerick. She had moved with Mick down to a little town in Kerry called Ballyheigue. I told her I was going to be in Kerry on Thursday. She informed she was heading off on vacation on Wednesday. C’est la vie. No Lily on this trip.
At this point I’m hungry and decided to go to one of the other pizza places I was determined to visit on this trip, Happy Dough Lucky. They were just down the street from Lily’s house. I had a bit of a problem finding the place mainly because they didn’t have a sign. Google took me right to where Happy dough lucky was supposed to be located but all I could see was Fun World and The Hungry Lyons. Well, I went into Funworld which turned out to be an arcade for teens and I felt badly out of place as the oldest person in there by about 45 years. I’m sure the creepy old guy alert went out to the gardai as I made my way for the exit.
I sat in my car and pondered where to find Happy Dough Lucky, because now I was on a quest, when I spotted what looked like a sign for Happy Dough Lucky inside Happy Lyons. Happy Lyons is a Limerick specific fast food restaurant serving chicken and burgers and other things. And now it turns out they carved out a spot in the restaurant for Happy Dough Lucky. I ordered my pizza with garlic knots to go with it. Diet be dammed. I called the Queen and asked if they needed some food. They did desperately. They wanted a couple of pieces of chicken and some chips. I moved over to the Hungry Lyons sides of the restaurant and got two orders of chicken. With the food in hand, I made my way back to the other side of Limerick eating garlic knots along the way. They were quite good. The whole car reeked of garlic.
I handed over the food at the hospital. By this point, I had learned there was a parking lot underneath the emergency room wing with a dedicated elevator. I got a lot of hungry glances from other patients in the Emergency Room corridor as I handed over the food. I ate my pizza at one of the gurney while the Queen and Queen Mum picked at the chicken. Two orders of food was way too much for them. Nothing says vacation like eating fast food in an emergency room corridor.
I left them for the night and went back to the hotel.
I had a big day planned. A quick jaunt to the Cliffs of Moher. Then breakfast at Danny Mac. We would pick up the Queen Mum and head to Quin Abbey, my favorite ruined Abbey. A quick stop at Bunratty Castle, one of the biggest tourist attractions. We would have lunch at Durty Nelly’s, a pub adjacent to the castle while also a tourist trap served really good food. The trap was well baited. Then it was off to Limerick, my town. We would stay at the Strand, where I had stayed many times before because it is just across the Sarsfield Bridge from Limerick Center. Plans were afoot to meet a friend for dinner at the Locke Bar. A day full of fun.
Except for that stop in Ennis at the walk-in Clinic.
The Queen and I did head early for the Cliffs of Moher. The Queen Mum stayed behind. Technically, the Cliffs open at 9. Well, the parking lot does. And you can’t really get to the Cliffs without parking in the lot. So, you don’t pay to see the Cliffs. You pay for the parking. In 2016, The Queen and I walked the whole length of the Cliffs from Liscannor to Doolin, a great walk I would do again, but no time in the itinerary this trip. But just seeing the Cliffs of Moher is always worthwhile. Now, you only pay for parking if the parking attendant is there. If you go early enough, around 7 for instance, the attendant is not on duty and the parking barriers are up to allow the employees to get into the lot. Well, that’s what happened the last time I did this. Luckily, that’s what happened this trip, too.
Unluckily, the Cliffs were fogged in. Usually, you stand at the limestone barrier and look down the entire lengths of the Cliffs. There is a small swath of grass and cliff top before the Cliffs beyond the wall. Back in the day, people would hop the wall and go right to the edge. But too many people have died, so hopping the wall is frowned upon. On this day, we could stand at the wall and not see the cliff edge thirty feet from the wall, never mind the miles of scenic cliff. We climbed the path up to O’Brien’s Tower, only seeing the tower when we were right up next to it. I needed the tower as a backdrop to recreate more photos of my father and my nephew. I’m pretty sure The Queen would have turned around at the bottom of the hill if the needs of the crazy photographer didn’t pressure her. Pictures taken, we headed back to the car park.
One of our long standing traditions while in Lahinch is to have breakfast at Danny Mac’s. By long standing, I mean we ate at Danny Mac’s in 2016 and wanted desperately to go there again? Why? Two reasons. They open up earlier than any other restaurant in Lahinch for breakfast and they serve chips with the breakfast. Chips for breakfast! If Chips for breakfast is wrong, I don’t want to be right. To be realistic, it’s kind of tiny place that serves a pretty good breakfast. When we arrived at Danny Mac’s on Main Street, there were still a few moments before they opened. We hung out in front of the place like crazy people that don’t enough to wait until 9am to have breakfast. Of course, when 8 rolled around and they didn’t open up immediately, we assumed the worst that they were closed never to open again. We tried peeking through the window to see what was going on in there that was keeping us from our food, but they had blinds pulled. Eventually, after an interminable five minute wait, the doors popped open and we could finally enter. To be fair, The Queen and I weren’t the only ones entering right as the door opened. Food was as good as we remembered. Yes, we had chips with our Irish breakfast. I don’t know why more restaurants don’t serve chips at breakfast.
Back at The Chairman’s House, I loaded up the car, still trying to make everything fit better in that limited space. I did have a chance to use the laundry room on the premise, so my bag of dirty laundry no longer fouled the air of the car.
The drive to Ennis and the walk-in clinic went smoothly. Finding a convenient drop-off point to the clinic did not. I made the Queen and Queen Mum walk a block to get inside the building. I then went and found parking down the street. Our goal was to arrive at 10 am just as the clinic opened so we could be served quickly and be on our way. The only problem, we had been misinformed about the opening time. The clinic opened at 9. The waiting room was already full. The receptionist told us it would be close to an hour maybe more before anyone could see The Queen Mum. We found some chairs in the hall and proceeded to wait. Thank goodness for wifi and cell phones. Well, The Queen and Queen Mum waited while I went for a walk.
During my quest to find parking, I noticed the clinic was just down the street from the Ennis Abbey. Rather than sit in the hot dimly lit corridor, I opted to visit the friary. Especially since I was able to go in free with my Heritage Ireland card. The funny thing about the card is that every place has a hand written ledger where names and card numbers are all written down. The data entry takes time and I can’t imagine anyone goes around the country collecting these ledgers to make sure people aren’t abusing the cards.
The Ennis Friary claim to fame are the carvings scattered around the grounds including St. Francis of Assisi. One of the guides gave me a quick tour of the main highlights before leaving me on my own to explore with admonition to watch out for the grave markers out in the courtyard made slick by the falling rain. Probably the most interesting thing for me were the giant brass colored angels that could be seen through a barred window into the neighboring property. At one point the building I could see use to be where priests could stay but it had turned into a restaurant and the angels were part of the decorations. When the angels were no longer needed at The Cloister Bar, they were dumped out back and visible from the Friary. The docent seemed embarassed talking about them and probably wished I had better questions about the sculptures or the Friary.
At the Doctor365 clinic, things continued to move at a glacial pace. But the Queen and the Queen Mum had graduated into the better lit waiting room proper. I was told they were next in line to be seen or maybe there was one other person to be seen before it was their turn. I needed to go buy another ticket for the car, so I left and did that. I also accompanied that with a walk along the river, seeing what other sites there were to see. This included a giant sculpture of two men debating over a cow that was placed in the middle of a roundabout.
When I returned to the clinic, the Queen Mum and Queen had finished with the doctor. The Queen Mum had more than a little respiratory distress, she had pneumonia. If you have pneumonia, you get to go to the Emergency Room in Limerick. Plans for the day changed. No stops at Durty Nellys or Bunratty or Quin Friary. Our destination when we left Ennis was University Hospital Limerick. I knew the place well. The hospital was just down the street from my old secondary School, Crescent College Comprehensive. The hospital was also near Raheen Industrial estate where my father built the Verbatim manufacturing plant. Those weren’t the only reasons I knew about the Hospital. University Hospital Limerick had been in the Limerick Leader recently and not in a good way. The hospital suffered from severe overcrowding. Horror stories came out of people languishing on gurneys in the hallways because there were no rooms for them. When the Queen told me we had to go to the University Limerick Hospital, those were the stories that crossed my mind. I didn’t share those stories with the Queen and Queen Mum because I hoped those problems had been fixed. Hope springs eternal only to die a savage death.
Cars packed the dropoff area to the University Limerick Hospital. I started to fear the worst. Not knowing any better, I dropped off the Queen and Queen Mum at the main entrance while I went to find parking. The parking lot next to the front entrance seemed to be full. A game commenced where cars circled the parking lot racing to the spots where cars pulled out. I played along as well, finally nabbing a spot after about ten minutes. By this time, I’m backing the car in as well. The lots are narrow and packed and it is much easier to exit, if I can pull straight out.
I realized my mistake about the drop-off point immediately upon entering the Hospital. This wasn’t the Emergency entrance. The Emergency entrance to the hospital was in entirely different part of the hospital. I started walking the halls confused by the signs and the multiple corridors. The play was a maze. I’m sure I walked through areas I wasn’t supposed to enter. Eventually I reached the other end of the hospital and the Emergency Room where the Queen and Queen Mum waited. They had already checked in. The Queen had found a wheelchair so the Queen mum didn’t have to walk all the way from the front entrance.
A TV monitor hung from the ceiling and gave the wait times for the various stages of triages. If the Queen Mum actively bled out, she would probably be seen in ten minutes. Since that wasn’t the case, our best case scenario was for the Queen Mum to be seen in two to three hours. That wasn’t good.
The thought of sitting in the grim waiting room drove me from the hospital. I’m sure leaving the Queen and Queen Mum by themselves makes me a bad person, but I don’t know how me waiting there with them would make the waiting any better. I decided I would spend the time walking to the Crescent College Comprehensive and back. If I made the trip, I wouldn’t have to go back with the Queen and Mum later.
I attended CCC from 1979 to 1981 which roughly corresponds to my Junior and Senior years of High School. In the Irish Education system the program is called the Leaving Certificate. It’s a tad brutal. You study for two years and at the end of those two years you take a test. The results of that one test gives you your grade for the entire two years. People lose their minds prepping for the Leaving Certificate. The joke in Ireland is that people get their Leaving Certificates and they leave the country. CCC is a historic school originally located in the center of downtown Limerick on O’Connell Street. CCC, at the time I attended, was one of the only co-educational schools in the area.
The school and the hospital were only about a twenty minute walk apart. I passed some historic landmarks on the way, including the HiWay restaurant where the Lynch family ate at least once a week despite the distance from the house. My father showed up for the goose liver pate. Sadly, the place has gone down hill in the intervening years. I don’t think I’ve been in there since 2009 with my father. I also strolled by The Unicorn pub where the Crescent Rugby team would go for drinks after practice. I went once. I believe the drinking rule at the time was if the bartender thinks you are 18 you are good to go. The Crescent Shopping Center was on the way. This was the only place to buy popcorn back in Limerick, maybe Ireland. Since 90% of my teenage diet consisted of popcorn, the Crescent Shopping center was very important to me. The area along Dooradoyle Road has built up considerably since my time at the school. I don’t remember any buildings being close to the school at all, except for one house across from the front gate. The school was in such a rural area there was a cattle guard at the main entrance.
I needed to take one picture of the gate since that was the last picture I took of the school in 1981. You used to be able to see the school from the road but now trees have grown up blocking everything. The first thing I noticed walking up the long drive to the school was CCC was experiencing a construction boom. The whole main entrance was blocked off with chain link fencing. I could see scaffolding all around the gym. I knew they were doing work from articles I had read in the Limerick Leader, but I didn’t realize it was to be this extensive.
The sign said all visitors must check in at the front desk, so I headed on inside. I didn’t want to be that creepy old guy checking out the school unless, I had permission. Usually I try to invade school grounds when no one is there, but I had mistimed it and school was still in session.
The young girl behind the glass partition in the entryway was a bit confused by my request to walk around the grounds. Part of the problem for the young lady was the sight of this incredibly ancient creature with a strange accent explaining that he had attended this same school over 42 years ago. She ran off to the back room to get further instructions. When she returned, she asked me to hold on because the headmaster wanted to talk me first.
Ah, memories. The first time I entered these premises and entered the same hall, I also had to talk to the headmaster, Father Morrisey. In order to get into the school, I had to pass an interview with him. Father Morrissey was not impressed by my transcripts from my school in California. He did remark that I was kind of big kid. He suggested that if I played Rugby, I could join the school. Sure. Love to play. Can’t wait. How do you play Rugby? Father Morrissey did allow me to join the school.
But the Jesuits are long gone from the Crescent, at least I think so, despite the fact the college still reads S.J. for Society of Jesuits. Instead of meeting a priest, I was led into the office of Diarmuid Mullins. Mr. Mullins quizzed me about my background and my relationship to the school. He then decided to personally take me on a tour of the school. Along the way, I was stopped several times to share my CCC story with teachers. I was older than everyone I met.
The school was in complete disarray due to the construction. The senior wing where I took classes, was completely blocked off. The main area where we held school functions had walls blocking off the interior so the only way to get around was around the perimeter. Mr Mullins told me the roof over the central area had been replaced. When the construction people went to do the replacement they found a layer two feet thick of straw in the ceiling. Quite the fire hazard. I got one quick peak at the stage through the construction where I starred in two plays. I told more stories.
Before you knew, Mr. Mullins and I were at the back of the school looking at the mobile units being used for classrooms on the gravel pitch where we used to play soccer at lunch time. I had the feeling that Mr. Mullins had better things to do and wanted me out of his school. I asked if I could walk around the outside and he agreed, which I did. Yes, I did sneak into the gymnasium. Last time i was in there, I was taking my Leaving Certificate exams.
At the hospital things were much the same. The Queen and Queen mum still waited for a doctor to see them. There was no indication of when that would happen. Again, restlessness drove me from the waiting room. For this venture, I took the car from the parking lot out to Raheen where my father built the Verbatim Plant. Only this year, did I learn that Raheen means small ringfort, an appropriate name for the industrial park since Verbatim was built on land that included what could have been a ringfort. Aerial photograph showed the circular ring of trees on the property and when planning for construction was underway lots of consideration was given to what was to be done about the ring fort trees. Mostly the consideration was not to touch the ringfort. Everyone told my father how much bad luck would be generated if the ringfort where to be harmed. Most people would site the cautionary tale of another foreign start-up, Ferenka. Ferenka put in a big plant in the early 1970s to manufacture steel for steel belted tires. Ferenka had all sorts of problems including the kidnapping of the managing director of the plant, Dr. Hirema. Many of the locals laid the blame squarely at the foot of Ferenka destroying a ring fort when they built the plant out in Annacotty.
The Raheen ring fort still stands in the center of a large field surrounded by industrial building. Although there was a section of trees that led to the ring fort that I couldn’t find so something must have happened. As for the Verbatim plant, it changed hands multiple times as various companies including Mistubishi and Kodak bought out Verbatim. The plant was vacant for many years and you could go online to see urban explorers pictures of the graffiti covered interiors. When I visited the plant in 2014, all the Verbatim signs were gone. Curran Aluminum now occupies, at least the main building, of the former Verbatim plant.
If you are going to shoot a ring fort, it’s best to do it from the air, to show the circle of plants. Otherwise, you are just photographing. So, for the first time this trip, I broke out my Mavic Pro drone. I love the photos from the drone. Every trip I wish I used the drone more. Every time I look at the drone case, I know I’m going to add another thirty minutes to the stop just getting it out of the case. But the photos are always worth it. Yet, here we are on day 8 of the trip and this is the first time, I’m taking the drone out. I even had to take a test and pay for a license to use the drone. Cheap as I am, you would think I would want to fly the drone more often to get my money’s worth.
I had to try two stops before I found a safe place to launch.I flew from the parking lot of the Curran plant. This end of the industrial estate was quiet. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road and I was able to wander around freely as I flew the drone back and forth across the ring fort. Clouds obscured the sun the entire time I photographed. As soon as I landed the drone, the sun popped right out. I should have left but instead I put the drone back up for more shooting. I even photographed the Verbatim building for old time’s sake.
By the time I returned to University Hospital Limerick, The Queen Mum had graduated to gurney in the hallway. The Queen had to come into the ER waiting room to escort me to where the Queen Mum’s gurney was located. As the horror stories, foretold, the gurney was in the hallway along with plenty of other patients on their gurneys. So many gurneys.
Since we were never getting out of there, I called my school friend Mike McMahon and cancelled our plans for the evening. He was very concerned about the Queen Mum. Everyone was concerned about the Queen Mum that I talked to during the day.
The Queen Mum was in for the night. They were going to try and find her a bed but they didn’t know when that would occur. The Queen was not going to leave the Queen Mum without an advocate so she was going to stay in the emergency room with her. My job was to go to the hotel and check us in. Or at least check me in. We weren’t going to be needing two rooms.
Our hotel for the night was The Limerick Strand Hotel right at the end of Sarsfield Bridge on the Ennis Road. I’ve been staying at this hotel since the 2009 visit. I keep thinking I should find a different hotel but I can’t find one that beats cost or location or amenities. I live for their breakfast buffet. When I told my father where we were going to stay on that 2009 trip, he was against it because the Strand sits on the location of the old Jury’s hotel which my father hated with a passion. I think he swore a blood oath never to set foot in that Jury’s again. But that Jury’s was torn down and brand new hotel put in it’s place. He eventually came around and really liked the Strand as well.
I told them my tale of woe at the front desk. They were concerned for the Queen Mum staying at the University Hospital. They were nice enough to cancel The Queen Mum’s room and not charge her for it. They also were going to put a hold on the room so when the time came she would have a room to stay in.I just had to cancel the room as soon as I knew she wasn’t coming in for the night. My only let down was our rooms were not on the side that faced St. John’s Castle, instead we had the lovely view of the broken down Cloynes factory. I did ask for a change but they couldn’t accommodate my request. Since, I had already made enough requests, I let it go. On the upside, I was on the executive floor and although I had not paid to get into the executive lounge where there were all sorts of snacks and beverages, my key worked to open the executive lounge door. I immediately grabbed a bunch of waters for the room.
Lily Kelly was the long time receptions at Verbatim and is probably one of the first Irish people I met when I came to Ireland back in 1979. When I picture the welcoming spirit of Ireland, I think Lily Kelly, although she did get married and now goes by Lily Goggin. I try and see her every time I go to Limerick. But finding her is a bit tricky. She had an email when she worked at the Limerick Institute of Technology, but she retired and that email no longer works. I don’t know why I have never gotten her phone number or written down her address. But I do have a picture of her house with my father standing on the steps which I use to get her number. Then I just pop by and hope she is home.
Like many times before, that is what I did this time only with an unexpected result. When I knocked on her front door, no one answered. A perfectly reasonable occurrence. I’m sure Lily wasn’t sitting at her house waiting for a strange American to pop over for a visit. But as I turned to go back to the car, I noticed a for sale sign on a post at the edge of her front yard. Had she moved? I decided to ask the neighbors. They were home. The nice lady there informed that Lily and Mick had moved about six weeks ago. Well, crap. The nice lady did not have a number where Lily could be reached. More crap. I went back to the car. The nice lady tapped on my window before I could leave. She mentioned that the people across the street probably had a contact number for Lily.
I got back out of the car and headed to house number two. I once again told my crazy American story about knowing Lily and how I stopped by to see her. Nice Lady number two probably was thinking I was really crazy and why didn’t I have Lily’s number if I knew here so well, but eventually she gave me the number.
I called Lily from the car. She was very surprised to hear from me and sad that she was no longer in Limerick. She had moved with Mick down to a little town in Kerry called Ballyheigue. I told her I was going to be in Kerry on Thursday. She informed she was heading off on vacation on Wednesday. C’est la vie. No Lily on this trip.
At this point I’m hungry and decided to go to one of the other pizza places I was determined to visit on this trip, Happy Dough Lucky. They were just down the street from Lily’s house. I had a bit of a problem finding the place mainly because they didn’t have a sign. Google took me right to where Happy dough lucky was supposed to be located but all I could see was Fun World and The Hungry Lyons. Well, I went into Funworld which turned out to be an arcade for teens and I felt badly out of place as the oldest person in there by about 45 years. I’m sure the creepy old guy alert went out to the gardai as I made my way for the exit.
I sat in my car and pondered where to find Happy Dough Lucky, because now I was on a quest, when I spotted what looked like a sign for Happy Dough Lucky inside Happy Lyons. Happy Lyons is a Limerick specific fast food restaurant serving chicken and burgers and other things. And now it turns out they carved out a spot in the restaurant for Happy Dough Lucky. I ordered my pizza with garlic knots to go with it. Diet be dammed. I called the Queen and asked if they needed some food. They did desperately. They wanted a couple of pieces of chicken and some chips. I moved over to the Hungry Lyons sides of the restaurant and got two orders of chicken. With the food in hand, I made my way back to the other side of Limerick eating garlic knots along the way. They were quite good. The whole car reeked of garlic.
I handed over the food at the hospital. By this point, I had learned there was a parking lot underneath the emergency room wing with a dedicated elevator. I got a lot of hungry glances from other patients in the Emergency Room corridor as I handed over the food. I ate my pizza at one of the gurney while the Queen and Queen Mum picked at the chicken. Two orders of food was way too much for them. Nothing says vacation like eating fast food in an emergency room corridor.
I left them for the night and went back to the hotel.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm