Dublin: Ahead of an Electrical Storm
14-18 September 2002
"He's just like you and me.
All he wants is a couple beers."
-Jimmy, part-time bartender at Dockers pub, on Bono
In this trip I proved it is possible to have fun in Dublin with or without U2. It was my first trip to the land of the leprechauns that did not revolve around a U2 tour.
It was also my first unofficial foreign exchange program with Bono. He was in Chicago, Illinois, USA, discussing third world debt and the African AIDS epidemic with Oprah. ("Oprah... Bono... Bono... Oprah," to resurrect and rework one of David Letterman's weaker jokes.)
In exchange, Dublin, Ireland, received me. I entertained the masses in what amounted to a mammoth pub crawl.
It reminds me of another foreign exchange program I was involved in, this one with the Pope. He went to Colorado, USA, while I visited with the people of Europe. We topped it off by meeting up at Midnight Mass in Vatican City later that same year.
I'm not Catholic and I'm not Protestant. I'm "none of the above," basically. I just know what's good for my soul - and what's bad.
That Roman Catholic alliance followed my Christmas Eve dinner with The Godfather, a brooding Italian with a doating, loving, brunette wife. The house was dark and quiet and I basically behaved myself.
Italians... Irish... They really don't have all that much in common, now do they? They've got the same colors on their flags, but even they bleed in different directions.
Pardon me while I pat myself on the back for that segue.
- more to follow -
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