Building Ireland

Did you ever hear the legend of the man who built Ireland?

I don’t recall his name, but he was a giant of a man. Long red hair hung in three tight braids held together at the bottom with bronze Claddagh rings fell down to the middle of his back. The man walked from shore to shore of the auld sod dropping small stones and pebbles on the ground and wherever he dropped a stone or a pebble, that stone or that pebble took root and from it a beautiful city arose.

Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick, this long-haired man built them all.

One day the man, pleased with all that he saw around him, believed his work was done so he left Ireland. Sadly, as the years passed, he never felt satisfied or fulfilled and as he grew older he would share his discontent with anyone who would listen to him. He told all his listeners how he felt his work of building cities in Ireland was unfinished and that he didn’t know what he needed to do in order to finish it and feel happy.

From country to country the man traveled and wherever he stopped he shared his story hoping that one day someone would have an answer for him. Finally a kind stranger with only so much patience and who had grown weary of listening to the man cry over his woe and dissatisfaction stood up and said in a loud voice, “Hey, old man, why don’t you put a cork in it?”

The old man stopped talking and looked at the stranger and suddenly he was happy again.