It’s been very bright here with occasional showers, and high winds yesterday, but otherwise very pleasant.

It’s quiet without the Americans. High prices in restaurants, along with the stress of traveling, seems to have deterred our starry friends, and they’re well missed.

I do agree that prices can be a shock – especially the sudden confrontation with mass produced eggs and a sorry excuse for a fry at Shannon Airport’s cafeteria for $15.00 – but they’re quickly offset by the simplicity of life and stunning beauty of the countryside.

Add the friendliness of the people and you’ll know I’m not writing about Dublin.

I’m not a city person, despite my love for theatre, so I’ll admit to jaundiced eyes when it comes to busy streets and tall buildings. However, Dublin was once quite loveable – until the invasion by thousands of “immigrants” and multi-cults who had no interest in its history and traditions, other than the cheques available at the Social Welfare offices.

The European Union jump started the “Celtic Tiger” with 40billion dollars – in exchange for Dublin taking its social problems, as in a mass invasion of Africans and Mid Easterners along with the ubiquitous “Equal Rights” Commission, basically designed to sink any protest or attempt to obtain their own rights by the indigenous population.

This has created a divided society, where basically the best way to get along with the invader is to ignore the invasion.

The sell-out government is doing its utmost to maintain the illusion of a successful transplant, but no one is buying it. Even the country side has its “enrichers” – the lines around the dole queue are mostly foreign. The Irish no longer accept the dole: they go abroad to work, something increasingly painful and redolent of the terrible old days.

However, the West and North west are still Irish. The accents are strong, the music traditional and the “craic” or humor, crackling.

I visit the McWilliam whenever I can. It’s broad and comfortable and spotlessly clean – the staff are friendly and children, joyfully present and welcome.

It’s in the heart of the West – a jumping off point to Galway, Ashford Castle, Cong, Knock Shrine, Yeats’ Sligo and abundant architectural and historical artifacts.

One of the best things about landing in Shannon, is clambering off the Aer Lingus jets and breathing in the delicious, oxygen rich air, before renting a car and heading up the N17 to the Radisson. Breakfast is pricey there, and there are other choices, but you can take forty winks in the capacious lounge or stretch your legs in the grounds, before completing your journey north.
More to come:

Just screeched the car to a halt: three teeny tiny curlews decided to cross the boreen (little road) as I turned around the corner.
They were just sooo cute!
Reminded me of a slightly larger brood encountered on Mothers’ Day in Israel that appeared in the desert at the exact moment that I started to wish I’d stayed with the little sugar pies in the USA.

It’s great to be back. The slower pace suits me, and my quirky Anglo-Irish humor is occasionally understood. Humor flies in Ireland. Time to start recording the witticisms.

The white hawthorns are blooming, the rain is soft, the weather warm enough to turn off the Central Heating. I still like a fire, regardless of the greenies. It is a comfort, something akin to a pet.

I found a great hotel in Claremorris, Co. Mayo – the McWilliam. This is a “Best Western Premier,” no relation to the motel style Best Westerns. Mayo is in the West of Ireland, a region known for its hospitality and still rooted in Ireland’s ancient traditions and culture.
The staff manage to combine professionalism with warmth and kindness, and yes, you will find plenty of indigenous Irish working hard there.
It’s spotless, has a first class leisure center and offers Wifi! Yeah!
Claremorris is the “Heart of Mayo,” close to Knock Shrine, and a short drive from the County Capital, Castlebar. Ashford Castle, Lough Cong, and Ballintubber Abbey, are within an hours drive. Further north are the Ceide fields, site of excavations and the oldest farm community known in Ireland.
You might get a shock to see contemporary African garments on display by the door of the Museum of Country Life in Turlough, outside Castlebar, but most of the exhibits are authentically Irish, authentically country.

This is written without remuneration or incentive, and the McWilliam Hotel is singled out for its consistent, kindly, first class service.

McWilliam: Tel: 353 949373333// Fax: 353949373631 Email: info@mcwilliamparkhotel.ie Web: www.mcwilliamparkhotel.ie

Du cacao aux pommes

« Quand je suis arrivé, j’ai dû parler français car personne ne me parlait en anglais » se rappelle John Mc William en souriant. A l’âge de 17 ans, il a découvert la Normandie en tant que bûcheron. Lors de sa première venue, en 1973, il a rencontré celui qui allait devenir son « plus vieil ami » avec qui il vient de fêter Noël. Sa ferme, étendue sur treize hectares, est perdue à Sainte-Marguerite-de-Carrouges, dans l’Orne. Né à Singapour en 1954, John Mc William y vit entouré de ses pommiers avec sa femme Lynn et ses trois enfants, tous nés en France : Justine, Patrick et Jeanne.

De 1975 à 2002, il a travaillé comme scientifique et humanitaire dans plusieurs pays : Ghana, Sierra Leone, Thaïlande, Malaisie, Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée… C’est dans ce dernier qu’il a rencontré Lynn, sa future femme. Originaire de Vancouver, elle était alors volontaire pour le CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas). Lui s’occupait de plantations de cacao pour le gouvernement britannique.

Tous deux, avec leurs enfants, ont participé à plusieurs missions en Asie et en Afrique dans le but d’aider « les personnes à gagner de l’argent par elles mêmes ». De petites tables en formes d’éléphants et des armoires typiques dans le salon trahissent leur passé sur le continent africain. Elles ont été faites sur mesure au Ghana, où la famille a vécu pendant sept ans.

John l’avoue, à la surprise de sa femme : « J’ai pensé à m’installer en Afrique de l’Est, en Ouganda. Là-bas, c’est une façon de vivre complètement différente. » Achetée en 1987, la ferme normande a vu pousser les pommiers au gré des vacances de John. « J’ai toujours été intéressé par le cidre » explique-t-il. « Le plus dur a été de planter chaque arbre à la main, l’un après l’autre, pendant mes vacances. La Normandie a une excellente sélection de pommes et la façon française de faire du cidre est fantastique. Mais si les gens prenaient plus soin de leur cidre, ils pourraient en faire le meilleur du monde » assure-t-il.

L’Aunay Cidre n’est devenue « la base familiale » qu’en 2001 lorsque Lynn est rentrée avec les enfants et en 2002 quand John les as rejoints. Les McWilliam confessent volontiers qu’ils adoreraient retourner au Ghana mais les moyens manquent. « Patrick se rappelle du Ghana, c’était un petit prince là bas » raconte Lynn qui donne des cours d’anglais aux amis de son fils.

La table bien garnie de la ferme : une image du passé

John continue d’avoir des nouvelles des pays qu’il a parcourus. Mais celles du Ghana ne sont pas bonnes. « Le trafic illégal du bois a repris » explique-t-il, visiblement ému. De l’Afrique, il a gardé cette propension à parler aux autres, à chérir les contacts humains. « En Afrique de l’Est où les gens sont très pauvres, il y a une vraie spiritualité. Ils ne sont pas timides. Les villages sont vivants. »

John aime à parler de la Sierra Leone, « ce merveilleux pays » où il a aidé des milliers de déplacés pendant la guerre. « Malgré ce que les gens pensent sur les atrocités, c’est un pays où il n’y a pratiquement pas d’animosité entre ethnies et très peu de discriminations religieuses.» Pour lui, pas de doute, on peut « prendre quelques pensées africaines et les adapter ». Son exploitation, il ne la voit pas comme une entreprise lucrative. « Certains producteurs de cidre, en France ou dans les alentours, ont oublié leurs plantations. Pour moi, ce sont mes arbres et mon cidre qui sont le plus important. Je ne fais pas beaucoup de publicité. Les gens qui me connaissent viennent s’approvisionner directement. »

John produit 25 à 30 000 bouteilles de cidre et de calvados par an. S’il est revenu en Normandie pour créer son exploitation c’est parce qu’il adorait « la France d’avant », celle où la nourriture et « la camaraderie » emplissaient les fermes après une journée de travail harassante. « C’était un travail dur physiquement mais il y avait une certaine joie de vivre et de la bonhomie », se souvient l’ancien bûcheron avec un pincement au cœur. « Aujourd’hui l’économie française est dans une mauvaise passe. La table bien garnie de la ferme est une image du passé. » Même s’il est heureux de s’occuper de ses pommes normandes, il assure : « Il y a une joie de vivre au Ghana qu’on ne retrouve pas ici.»

His dream was to become “a scientist, an inventor or an explorer.” John McWilliam, 57 years old, is a British scientist born in Singapore who married his Canadian wife in Thailand, fell in love with Ghana and is now the head of a little cider mill in Normandy.

He came to France for the first time in 1973 to work as a lumberjack near Alençon. “I wanted to do something manual and physical” he explains. After that, from 1975 to 2002, he worked overseas for the British or the German government. At the beginning, with a scholarship given by the British government, he worked as a scientist specialized on acid soils for three years. “The first time I worked in Thailand was in an area with very acidic soils. They had to control it extremely carefully using water control measures.”

But he wanted to act more. He decided to work for the Commonwealth Development Corporation: “ A very little known but extremely powerful organization which deals with development, energy, agriculture…” For him, it had been the beginning of another life and the end of research “much more limiting.” He says: “Research can give an answer to a lot of questions but without the political will and power to put this in operation, nothing will happen.”

John Mc William worked in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Papua and New Guinea, Ghana and Sierra Leone to help the local inhabitants develop their own small plantations and to be able to grow and develop their own cocoa crops. In Ghana, he spent seven years in the Volta region in forestry reserves to try to stop illegal timber cutting. He also tried to stabilize the fertility of the soils. “The main emphasize for me has been to help people to be able to make money” he said with a broad smile. But from Ghana, news from his friends doesn’t sound very good: “I don’t say it is all lost, people have learned things, but the stability of the system is under threat.”

Supplying drinking water to a quarter of a million people

Among all his works, there is one of whose importance he is convinced. It was in Sierra Leone along the border with Liberia when he tried to take care of all people displaced by the war. “I really did something in Sierra Leone, no question. We had housing, medicine… I was in charge of all of them. It was quite a responsibility but it means that you could really plan things and get things done.” He and his team supplied drinking water to a quarter of a million people. They put up over a thousand different buildings. “It was a very big project. It really did have a very considerable impact.” For him, the completion of projects still depends on skills, the amount of money involved and power.

In Thailand, he started the development of nine thousand plantations. He knew he had a job for life. But in 1987 he gave up his job and decided that he would make a very small plantation for himself somewhere.

Happy memories from Normandy came back. Interested in fruit, he planted apple trees to make cider, “a very underestimated and undervalued crop” around a farm lost in the countryside, near Carrouges. Realistic, he asserts: “The amount of money put into Carrouges is probably equivalent to that made in all the Sierra Leone. So, I think we have to put things in perspective. When I think about my projects, I think it was important but it’s peanuts.”

Anyway, John Mc William has sown his expertise and the crops he has got are invaluable. “I’ve been in places just by myself having to talk to people without speaking a word of their language and try to manage the whole system as well. You have to like it. It’s not just a job it’s your life.”