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Published: June 24th 2015
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Our conference was held at
Drumaliswhich is the most incredible venue.
Our
SPRED conference was amazing. Lots of time to reflect, small group sharing, a mass each day with all of us involved. There were two priest there, one from USA and the other from Malta. Portions of the mass were said in Maltese when Father Trevor was celebrating the mass. We had music from USA, Malta and Spanish. One of the masses we were asked to say the Our Father in our own language. I had Spanish one side of me and Gallic the other, which was really powerful to have such a thing in common, and to hear all the different ways to say the same prayer.
In our small groups I has 3 Scottish Sisters, 2 other Scots and American and me. The different problems and challenges we faced in our own countries and the way we overcame them was powerful to hear. SPRED in other countries run solely on volunteers, we are so lucky to have 4.5 paid staff, but then that brings its own problems when dealing with Government funding. We all have our pros and cons.
Tuesday night many
of us walked to a pub and took over their beer garden and got to know each other on a social level. Wednesday night Charlie from Chicago had bought his accordion along and we started a sing along in the social room. Guitars came out and so did some amazing singers. It was another lovely night, so much for an early night tonight! Thursday night a
cèilidh (
/ˈkeɪli/ is a traditional
Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing
Gaelic folk music and
dancing) was organised in the local hall with music and a dance caller. Much Irish and Scottish reel dancing enfolded with the ultimate patience of the dance caller. Much laughter, bumping into each other and forgetting whether you were the boy or girl in the dance ensued. What a fabulous night to end our time together, and yet again another late night. The four days ended so quickly and I have come away with many more friends, and the knowledge that there are so many people with intellectual disabilities that have very special friendships and have access a church life across the world. And that we are all just as passionate about this program as one another.
After lunch of Friday and many goodbyes later Andrea and I hit the road again on our way to Dublin for our flight back home. Just as we hopped on the bus to be taken from the car hire return to the terminal it started to rain! Thank you Ireland for providing the most glorious weather so we could experience your beautiful country at its best. My saving has begun to return.
If you have been following my blog thank you and I hope you enjoyed my travels. I have spent the last few evenings editing and adding many more photos so you may want to go back and have a look at some of my past pages.
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Chris Hoffmann
non-member comment
your blog
thanks Robyn it's been great to follow your blog and the photos fabulous. You will have to go back and see the south