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John and Brendan took a group to Dublin on the same day we were in Tipp and visited Kevin in the hospital on the way. He was heavily sedated to stop him wandering off and it seemed that they would be keeping him there for a few days, at least. Paul had never been back to Dublin in all the years since he had left, which, depending on the day we asked, could have been anything between a few months to 40 years but the latter would be nearer to the mark. He refused to believe that the street they took him to was the street he was born in. The changes were so profound that he was very upset. He recognised the cinema, but everything else was changed beyond recognition. The old corporation houses had been bought by the tenants over the years and smartened up considerably as had the pubs, which had been given the gentrification treatment most pubs in Britain and in Ireland have received over the years. They dropped into one of his local pubs, for a couple of drinks, and met a few old timers that knew Paul's old stamping grounds. On the way out, Paul asked at the bar for a sneaky bottle of cider to take out with him but when the barman gave him only 3 euros change for his ten euro note, Paul handed the bottle back to him and wouldn’t stop talking about it all the way back. ‘Seven quid, I can’t believe it’. Paul’s drinking was regulated by a contract he was on in his hostel, to drink only four cans of Guinness a day, and we continued that in Wicklow and he was fine. However, after coming back from Dublin he was upset and was looking for more drink. The pattern of his life was disrupted for a few days and as he was waking at all hours and as his mobility is poor, Charlie had to get up with him. Just before we left, though, he was back to his old self and was enjoying the trip much more, even talking again about Dublin. He seemed more resigned to the changes in his home town. Another week could have made all the difference.  

Peter had been brought up in a home run by a religious order in Blackrock, but for a short time had been fostered to a family in Dublin when he was very small. He remembers the family still, after 60 years, and visited the house - not far from where Paul lived and close to Brendan’s sister’s house. A young woman with a small child lives there now and brought them in for tea. Other neighbours came around who remembered Peter’s foster family, but they had moved away many years since. The lost details of Peter’s life are being put back together on each successive Aisling trip. He had stayed with his cousin’s family only the week before our trip and visited again for a few days during this trip. In the meantime he kept our vans clean throughout the week and is a cheerful presence wherever we go.

Simon had never been back to Dublin since he left in the eighties and was very excited about going home. He had been preparing himself for the few weeks before we left. Simon had received a compensation settlement recently and had been buying himself clothes etc. and had even got himself a passport. In Aughrim, he loved going to the local pubs and was in and out of the five in the town from opening time, chatting to the locals and the bar staff, and drinking Guinness. He just seemed to get bigger and bigger during the week. Later in the week when we took himself and Tom up to Dublin to visit their families, he had a huge beer belly. We visited Kevin at the hospital in Loughlinstown on the way, finding that though he was still disorientated from the heavy sedation, he seemed to be much better and was sober for the first time in years. We dropped Sam off in Dublin but Simon wanted a few beers first and headed for a local pub for a while. The lads kept in touch and rendezvoused with each other and we collected them from the train station in Aughrim on our last day.

We came back via Rosslare, thinking it would save us some time on the homeward leg but it didn’t make much difference. It was a lovely drive through Wexford though and the journey through south Wales was beautiful too. We had to leave Kevin behind so that he could finish his detox and John collected him from the hospital the following weekend. I saw him a few days later with his head bowed over an outsize bottle of cider. He looked up with his eyes when I said hello but his neck stayed bent.
‘What happened to your neck Kevin? ‘ I asked.
‘I don’t know. I think... I got it in Ireland’.
‘Maybe it happened when you had the fit?’.
‘What fit? I didn’t have any fit’.
‘Yes you did, when you went into the hospital’.
‘Hospital? Who was in hospital?’

reports on other Aisling trips