North Texas Irish Festival

On Friday, we went to Dallas with Aislinn, Curtis, Patrick, Maire, Aine, Declan, and Rowan. We spent the night there (after we ate at Souper Salad), so we could be at the festival when it opened at 10am Saturday. We managed to just about do that...a little after 10am. It was wonderful, albeit a bit crowded. There was storytelling, little arts and crafts for the children...they made shamrock headbands, bracelets, and coloured pages. We watched Irish dancing...it was SO good. We saw some of the Emerald School of Irish Dance performers too....this is where Aislinn, Fiona, and Erin took lessons when they were small and we lived in Lewisville...and I would drive them to lessons ....just remembering the drives makes me nervous....I'd have the five children in the van and hafta negotiate/cross about 5 lanes of traffic in quick order to get off Loop 635 (I think that's what it was called).... Gary couldn't wait till he was old enough to take lessons....he was almost old enough. I think he was 5, and Tara was 3.....so (since we moved to Harlingen in March 1989) both of them had to miss taking those lessons :( I asked about Emily Touzin, our dance teacher from Dublin, but was told she would not be at the festival till today (Sunday), so we weren't able to see her again.

Anyway, the festival yesterday was fun. It was held at Fair Park, and cost $15 for adults to get in (well, Dad and I were only $13, since we are over 55 :)) the children (up to age 11) were free. There were two great halls full of vendors, dancing, arts and crafts, etc.. Outdoors there were many food vendors, music, and other stalls. We didn't see it all, and we were there till nearly 4:30 in the afternoon. We met a lady who lives in San Antonio. She is from Limerick, and her name is Jane McDaniel. She was one of the storytellers...suppossed to be the best one in the U.S. (a Seanachin). She had a little stall also, where she sold dolls and other items. She had a good Irish accent. We enjoyed listening to two of her stories.

The children were all so good, and we had been dragging them about all day (well, we took some breaks and had refreshments)...they were SO tired! Aislinn and I sent the men and four of the children to the vans about 30 mins b4 we were ready to leave, as we wanted some time to do a little shopping w/o worrying about making sure all the little ones were safely holding someone's hand... though Aislinn had Declan asleep in the wrap on her back. We found some nice items at that time, and...since the first vendor willingly offered to let us have the items for a couple of $'s less...we decided we would ply our trade on the others, so all but one was willing to drop some $'s when we asked them.....bargaining isn't a lost art:) We also bought some good Irish Soda Bread, and some cookies.

One thing that was upsetting to me....we noticed a food vendor ....a rather burly fellow in a kilt... striding along with a young man in a headlock... It seemed the young fellow grabbed an item of food without paying for it, and ran off. The vendor gave chase and caught up with him. He was very angry, and yelling for someone to get him a policeman, as he led the guy about. The kid stuck his hand in his pocket and got out some money to try and pay the vendor, but the latter wasn't having any of that! He was determined to get the police....a security guard agreed to call them. I felt terribly sorry for the young man....sure, he did something wrong....and it did appear he had money to pay for the food, had he chosen to do so. Perhaps he didn't want to line up and buy food coupons .... or perhaps he did it on a dare.... I don't know. The vendor was correct to run after him and apprehend him. However, I wish he could've said to him "you see I was able to catch you.....I can now call the police, and have you charged with theft, and you'll have a police record...however, I am going to just let you pay for the food, and hope you learn some lessons from this... lesson #1: stop doing that! lesson #2: note that someone has cut you some slack and forgiven this offense, so please go and do likewise sometime in your future....."
Aah, the look on the young man's face....close to crying, but not.....he was clean cut, short hair, no tattoos or rings to be seen....just a nice average looking young man. I am thinking that if he had been treated with the eventual compassion, that he (and others with whom he would come in contact) would probably profit from it more than what likely occurred after the police arrived. I thought to myself how many times I have felt Someone cutting me some slack.....whether it was a traffic infraction that, mercifully didn't cause an accident, went unnoticed by the police, or whatever..... I am even sorry that I didn't go and suggest that course of action to the angry vendor. I have been praying for them.

Afterwards, as we were headed home, we tried to eat at Chili's.....but the wait would have been about 45 minutes, so we opted for Taco Bell, which was right across from Chili's. We arrived home about 11:15pm.... Aislinn and family about 2 hours earlier. It was fun, and the weather was beautiful....not too hot.
(We took some photos, and I will try to figure out, soon, how to post some....unfortunately, however, after a few pics, my camera ran out of battery power, and I didn't have the spare battery {ejet}....I had just tried to video the Irish dancing, when it totally died out..)