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Published: October 9th 2007
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I know this is a blog site dedicated to travelling, and travel I did, but this particular blog is more about the experience of an Irish Wedding.
My trip to Cavan was to attend my mate Paul's sisters wedding. Paul is from a large family of 8 siblings and this was the first time I'd met them.
I flew into Dublin first thing in the morning and met Paul who was already there. He then drove me up to his home town. The weather was pretty good and it was my first chance to get a look at the Irish countryside. It is very green and lush, and reminded me a lot of home.
As soon as we hit Cavan, I could see Brady signs everywhere. There was a Brady pub, a Brady Real Estate shop, even a Brady running for Mayor. This is the town of Brady's!! And Paul and his family are all Brady's too!
Once we arrived at his folks place I got to meet most of his family. They are all fabulous. There's 7 lads and their sister, Eilish, mum and dad, and A. Bridget. The blokes all look sort of similar and
share the Brady Brows (that's not an insult, it's just a fact!).
We were booked into a bed and breakfast just up the road hosted by none other than Mrs Doyle. Ok, she wasn't really Mrs Doyle but she was sooo much like her. She was fussing over us with tea and cakes and she chattered flat out!
After dropping of our gear and excusing ourselves from a tea overfill, we went back to the Brady house to watch the boys rehearse. 5 of them including Paul had been practising some songs to play at the wedding. Paul showed me around the farm where he and his family grew up.
That night a group of us headed out to dinner to a local restaurant. It was a nice and relaxing night and although a few beverages were consumed, most of us were waiting for the big shebang the next night.
We woke up reasonably early the next morning to a big fry up and as much tea as we could fit in. The Irish seem to drink almost as much tea as they do beer!! We got all flashed up for the wedding and headed over
to the Brady farm to meet up with the rest of the family before heading to the church.
The wedding service was held at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Drung. It's the first time I've been to a Catholic service and I was blown away by it. There were three priests and one in particular was a great orator. Eilish looked absolutely gorgeous and at the risk of sounding cliche, it was a beautiful ceremony.
After the service, we all slowly headed off to Cabra Castle
for the reception. I was really excited about this as I'd never stayed in a castle before. The rooms were full of antiques and suits of armours and they even had a resident wolf hound.
The food was fantastic, the speeches funny, and the beer flowed freely. I was witnessing first hand the Irish ability to drink vast amounts of beer. The boys got up to play their songs and they were brilliant. One of many of the highlights. The partying went on well into the wee hours and when the bar closed at the reception, everyone moved to the castles private bar for a further session involving a lot of Irish singing. I really loved it and had the most amazing time. The Irish hospitality is boundless.
I was fairly trashed by the time I made it to bed, but I still felt the awe of sleeping in a castle with history dating back into the 1700s. I kept half an ear open but didn't hear any ghosts or clanking chains. Probably a good thing though.
The following morning after another big fry up, I went and explored the castle further. The grounds are magnificent and I even happened across the wolf hound. He was massive. Everyone hung around for a while and brunched till early afternoon. Then a few of us headed into Kingscourt where we had a hair-of-the dog pick-me-up and the boys played pool. We stayed in another B&B there and the Brady's had booked out the local pub that night for a post-wedding booze up.
This was almost as big a night as the previous one. Boy these fullas can pour it down. There was a great deal of celebration, singing and dancing and it was a great way to finish off such a brilliant weekend. The next morning was a
little less enjoyable :-( But we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and make our way back to the Brady farm for lunch before catching a bus back to Dublin for our flight home.
It was an incredible weekend. Many, many thanks to all the Bradys.
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