Beachside Banter w/Bee

Owen Ó Súilleabháin: Ireland's Cultural Revival, Immersive Travel, and Poetic Journeys

• Bee • Season 1 • Episode 21

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Discover the vibrant legacy of Irish culture with us on Beachside Banter, where we sit down with the remarkable Owen Ó'Súilleabháin. Owen brings the fascinating story of his family's role in the cultural renaissance of Ireland during the 1960s and 70s. We explore how his father revolutionized traditional music by introducing it to the piano, which helped shift Irish music from a niche tradition to a celebrated global phenomenon. Owen's insights remind us of the importance of cherishing our cultural roots and the profound impact of Ireland's breathtaking landscapes on artistic inspiration.

Ever wondered how to truly connect with a place when traveling? We dive into the unique concept of immersive travel experiences, focusing on the magical allure of Ireland's West Coast. By creating temporary communities, travelers can engage deeply with Irish culture and mythology, leading to personal transformation. This approach offers a refreshing alternative to the traditional whirlwind tour, allowing for meaningful connections and a sense of belonging. From the mythical tales of Waterville to the transformative nature of pilgrimage-like travel, our discussions promise to enrich your travel perspective.

Lastly, we explore the broader cultural impacts of stepping beyond our comfort zones. With more Americans embarking on international adventures, we highlight the growing trend of "volunteer-cations" that promote cultural understanding and mutual respect. Coupled with insights from poet David White's immersive poetry travels, we emphasize how such experiences can foster community and personal growth. Join us as we embrace the power of cultural exchange through both travel and poetry, inviting you to return home with a renewed sense of self and a deeper appreciation of the world around you.

ABOUT MY GUEST:
Owen Ó Súilleabháin is a multifaceted artist, renowned for his work as a singer, composer, speaker, and leadership coach. He draws on his rich heritage in the performing arts and academic background in philosophy, Greek and Roman civilization, and Peace Studies to inspire creativity and leadership. Owen believes in the transformative power of art and has collaborated with notable figures such as Steven Spielberg, Russell Crowe, Nigel Kennedy, and The Chieftains.

In 2024 he established Inner Soul Circle, an online community focused on Celtic spirituality and the arts, alongside his mother Rev. Nóirín Ní Riain Ph.D and his brother Mícheál Moley Ó Súilleabháin.

Owen's work spans various fields, including education, healthcare, and the corporate world, where he emphasizes the importance of listening and creativity for personal and organizational transformation. His contributions to the arts and leadership are recognized and sought after by numerous organizations globally.

Find Owen here:
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Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, hey everyone, it's another episode of Beachside Banter with Bea. I'm your host, bea Davis, and today I am here with Owen, who has an incredibly Irish last name, and I already know that I'm going to butcher it, so I will let him introduce himself. Owen, go ahead, take it away. Tell us why you're here, what you stand for, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, bea, great to be here with you and with all your wonderful listeners. My family name is the Gaelic version of Sullivan, which is quite a common Irish name. That's easy, so it's pronounced Su-la-von, su-la-v. Owen O Sue LaVaughn, okay.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha A little tidbit about me. My husband is actually Irish, so he's got that Irish background. So we always joke about how you know he wants to go over to the motherland and eventually visit it and all of that. So that is definitely on the list. So whenever you and I first started talking, I was so excited because I was like this is going to be great information for him as well as myself. So and I already am excited to go to Ireland, so it's going to happen one day. So so give us a little bit of background about you know, have you? You've grown up there, you've been there your whole life.

Speaker 2:

That's right. That's right. I was born in Ireland. My parents are both both from Ireland and both my parents are great musicians and cultural figures in Ireland. So my father passed away in 2018, but he was very much what you could call or describe as a national composer, and what he did was he took Irish traditional music. This is back in the 60s and 70s. There was a great cultural revival in Ireland in the 60s and 70s and both my parents met as part of that movement and my dad took Irish traditional music and he started to play Irish traditional music on the piano and, believe it or not, that was the first time anyone had really perfected Irish traditional music on the piano.

Speaker 2:

And you may say why would that be? Why would that? Because the piano, you see, doesn't really fit into a little cottage. So the piano was not a peasant instrument. You see, only the small little instruments were available to the Irish population for many centuries.

Speaker 2:

So what happened in the 60s was people like my parents were saying this traditional music, irish tradition, is not just a peasant tradition. It's actually a world culture and something that Ireland should be proud of and should be inviting people around the world to see. So this was revolutionary in Ireland in the 60s. Like my grandmother, you know my mother's mother, who I met and knew, she was almost a little bit embarrassed of Irish traditional culture, because Irish traditional culture was English culture was considered the culture of progress and Irish culture was a backward thing, a peasant, a redneck kind of thing, something to be a little bit ashamed of, you know. And so what my parents did was they actually turned that upside down and they said you know what? This is actually not something to be ashamed of, quite the contrary. This is something we should be exporting all over the world, something we should be really proud of celebrating.

Speaker 2:

So, for example, one of my parents' contemporaries was a man called Paddy Maloney, and Paddy Maloney played the Irish pipes and he was part of this cultural movement at the time, and he decided that he was going to set up the first ever professional Irish traditional musical group and that group was called the Chieftains. So if you've any Irish listeners, they'll know their parents listened to the Chieftains and for nearly 50 years the Chieftains toured all over the world packing concert halls all over the world. They were like the first Western group to play in China, in communist China. They collaborated with, you know, u2, van Morrison, the Rolling Stones all these people throughout their extraordinary career. But before Patti Maloney set up that band, no Irish traditional musician was a professional musician.

Speaker 2:

So my parents were part of this movement and really the whole idea was looking at Ireland, looking at the land we're standing on between our feet and saying that this is our gold. Actually, we need to be proud of this and we need to stand our ground, and so this is an extraordinary story in the Irish context, but really what we teach is that this is something that every one of us can learn that we can have parts of ourselves that we're ashamed of and parts of our family story Rightly so.

Speaker 2:

You know I'm not saying that there aren't family stories to be ashamed of. I have a few of them myself, absolutely. There's something deeper than that, and actually every person you are from an extraordinary line of survivors, by very definition of you. Being here and listening to this, that's something to be so proud of, and there are people in every one of our family that managed to survive against all the odds for us to be here, and so that's where we should stand and say what is actually around us, and not to be looking beyond, to another culture, to another person's ideal of what's valuable, but what's your idea of value? And if it makes you feel a little uncomfortable, that's where it gets interesting.

Speaker 2:

What are you a bit ashamed of, you know? And let's go down there. So that's what my parents did and my work really is following on from that. I'm saying that there's something very interesting culturally that comes out of this little island of Ireland in the North Atlantic, this little impossible rock way out in the ocean, and something keeps coming from there, and I believe that what does come out of there has something that can help people along and can inspire people. So that's my work, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I've heard that Ireland is a magical place. So once you get to, like you're looking over the mountaintops and you're seeing like the beaches and the ocean and all of that, I hear that it's like one of the best and almost like a reviving type of aura once you go there. So I don't know, I can't speak to it personally, but I sure hope that's the case because it definitely sounds amazing out there. So tell me a little bit. So where specifically are you from in Ireland? Is it around a beach area?

Speaker 2:

Like on the West, we're inland a little bit traditionally, but there's a big river going through the island of Ireland called the Shannon River.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And then halfway down the island it goes west and there's this big estuary that goes out for about 60 miles and Limerick City is at the head of that Shannon estuary and Shannon Airport.

Speaker 2:

There's an international airport there where there's a number of transatlantic flights from the US every day, and so I'm from that region of Limerick, east Limerick but the coast was just, you know, an hour, less than an hour away. Yeah, so while I was from the inland, which is very rich agricultural land, no stone walls, you know, just rolling fields, big dairy kind of country, if you drive west for 45 minutes, suddenly you're on the west coast of the island and things get very barren out there. You know it's hit, it's in the North Atlantic, it's the roughest sea in the world, the North Atlantic, the most dangerous seas in the world. So the storms there are very intense and that's where you get the images of those cliffs and stone walls and more barren landscape. You know it's not green, rolling, lush, verdant hills like where I'm from. It's much harsher and you get a sense of being on that North Atlantic edge out there.

Speaker 1:

Hey. So if you were to talk to, say, an American tourist, would you tell them that, suggest that they go and visit all of it or just stick to like one little region?

Speaker 2:

Well, so what we do is what we've been doing for a number of years, and we learned this from people who bring people to Ireland and around the world is the experience that we offer is about staying in one place. So there's a great American pioneering spirit that wants to go all over the place and tick all the boxes.

Speaker 1:

We do.

Speaker 2:

And there's bucket lists and things and all these types of you know and you have to fit it all in, and there's schedules and itineraries and everything's worked out. And I say to people who come to Ireland just let go of that and just go to one place, stay in one place and come home, come to ground and relax and be. And Ireland is phenomenal. I mean, there's just so much history and culture and archaeology and faun and sites and characters, individuals too.

Speaker 2:

For some reason Ireland keeps producing very entertaining people and if you just stay in one place, you might actually get a chance to meet someone you know and someone might recognize you, because you go to the same restaurant twice or go down to the pub you know two or three times and you might even get into conversation with someone. And that's really where the country opens up and you can see far more by staying in one place than you would by zooming around the place. So that's what I say first of all and I know that's very, very hard, especially for the magnificently mercurial American spirit which I so love but I say just hold yourself down. So what we do is, twice a year, we gather together a group of about 30 people and we take over a self-catering accommodation, a whole bunch of vacation homes and we make a little village for ourselves, a little family, and we travel around in four minivans. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

That sounds great.

Speaker 2:

It's hilarious and, of course, it's me and my brother, my younger brother and our mother, so it's the three of us, a family, welcoming you and, at this stage now, we've been doing this since 2017. So people are returning all the time, people want to come back. So about half the people have been there with us already and it's so familiar, it's so relaxed, it's so easy, and the and the fact, of course, that you're staying in one place means there's no packing and unpacking the bags. You know you move in and then you're home.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah and you're amongst friends and we, very thankfully, have always attracted a beautiful type of person who is not interested in rushing around. They want an experience that is deeper and that does kind of come to ground. So you end up with people who are also interested in that kind of experience and so we put on a bit of a show, like every morning we'll gather for a session of song and story and poetry and mythology and conversation, and then we get into our vans and we head off and we go on a trip. You know we're on the West Coast.

Speaker 2:

There, the whole image of the coast is something that's so important, as you well know and as your listeners know. This is the place where elements meet, you know, where the element of the earth meets the element of the water. So you're on this threshold and that's why it's so magic, like the human body just needs to be at that space. You just feel right. You feel filled up, nourished, replenished when you're at a space between the earth and the ocean. And it's totally elemental. It's ancient, of course. If you were to go back in evolutionary theory, it's where we came out of the oceans. You know we're washed ashore. It's like a place where you wake up from a dream to the ocean is like our dream, and we hit the land, which is the land of wakefulness, and so that's what's happening to us at the ocean. It's also going back to a child. The child in us emerges by that place. The child, too, is the place where our childhood and our adulthood, the consciousness, begins to come to ground, a new type of seeing. You're able to look out into the horizon and over which is the unknown. So when you're on the ocean, you're playing around with all these things, your childishness and the growing up, seeing things emerge from the horizon, seeing the power of the ocean hit the power of the land.

Speaker 2:

So in mythology, there's always fascinating mythology and culture around where the ocean meets. So in mythology, there's always fascinating mythology and culture around where the ocean meets. And of course, ireland was an island. So historically, mythologically, strategically, everything comes in and out of an island over the ocean. The ocean is not only a metaphor, it's actually the place where all your new materials come. So this place that we go to, there's this beach. Waterville is the name of the little town and there's a beach there. Waterville was a famous. Charlie Chaplin and his family went on vacation there every year.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it sounds familiar for some reason.

Speaker 2:

Maybe that's why it's a very famous place and in the Irish imagination this was the place where these mythological invasions occurred. These waves of people came to Ireland at this very beach. We go and visit this place and explore this whole story of a part of ourselves being open to new arrivals, being open to a new kind of way that we talk about ourselves or that we be. And we all know that travel. Travel just changes us totally. It really does. You can't change at home the way you do when you go out and you travel. The real ancient image of that is pilgrimage. People used to go, travel used to be called pilgrimage and you went for very specific, you know, very articulate spiritual reasons which we don't do so as much in our society today. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, you know right. And so we really explore that. Because of course, in Ireland, no matter what time of year, you're not really jumping into the ocean, you know. You're not really sitting down at the beach to sun yourself.

Speaker 1:

You don't go for the weather, you go for the mythological experience, you know so you guys aren't necessarily sunbathing all the time, which might make a little bit of sense why you know my husband's so white we hold.

Speaker 2:

Listen, look at I know my. You should see my son. He's like a little goat. We have to sell the mythological experience a lot harder than the side the, the sun experience, and uh but you know what, though, like I feel like that would be like the best part of it.

Speaker 1:

So I am, I'm very much a um, cultural immersion type of traveler. So I, when I go to places, I want to experience everything that I can. I want to feel like I live there, for you know, the six days that I'm there, wherever it, yeah, so.

Speaker 1:

I am one of those people that will go to a bar or I guess you guys you call them pubs, right, we go to a pub and hang out and just start talking to random people Like you know. I just I don't know why, but I've always had that like oh, I don't even care who you are, I just want to pick your brain, talk to you, see what's going on, give me some suggestions. So I usually rely heavily on locals and complete strangers, which always be the safest thing.

Speaker 2:

But you're safe enough in arlington right.

Speaker 1:

You get the, you get the most experience and you feel like the most connected to the place that you're at. So I really try to encourage a lot of people to not necessarily just go and be busy the entire time. Like you said, that you know you're always on an itinerary or you know something along those lines. I don't like when I travel, I don't make an itinerary, it's more of like we'll see how the day goes, because you know I might wake up. I might not feel like going out and doing a lot, I might wake up. I might be like like oh, let's go drink, let's party, let's do something, you know. So it just depends. So I always try to just kind of play it by ear and let things go. There are times when I've done that, though, and there's been things where I wanted to see that I've missed because I've been so lax, easy about it, but I feel like that just gives me an excuse to go back, so I'm okay with it it's so interesting and like.

Speaker 2:

So I just spent a week in Ireland with this amazing group of people. There was one woman there and she's very senior in a online travel company. She's in charge of, you know, design and customer experience, and so she was. We had this amazing conversation over the week together around this huge segment of travelers now that are looking for, I suppose, a more cultural experience, a sense of connection, rather than a sense of just sort of checking the box and you know, just lying on a beach that there's. There's a really growing, a very significant like.

Speaker 2:

They're talking about this all the time and they're talking about how to cater for this person and if they don't, other people are going to do it, like it's actually a big part of their business. Now, it's not small. I asked her like what percentage is this? And she was saying, oh, we're talking about this all the time. This isn't a niche thing, that it was a niche thing, but that now that niche thing is what everyone's looking at and going oh, I want, I want, I want that, yeah, I want more of that. You know, would you say you're hearing that more from your listeners or from your network or people.

Speaker 1:

So when I very first started, my niche was basically just the beach and in that sort of thing. But I've kind of evolved to the cultural immersion because I've had so many people come into me and they're like, hey, I want to know the specifics about you know your time at St Martin or your time here or your time there, and it's not just the you know. I want to know, oh, about the beaches or about this. It's like I want to know the food, the restaurants that you've been to, the people you talk to. I want to know, yeah, like all the hidden gems and those sorts of things that people are tired of going to the same tourist spots over and over again and seeing this gigantic crowd of people and not being able to really experience it. So they're coming to me and they're like, hey, you know, where did you go that didn't have a lot of people, or where did you go that you know is easily accessible but maybe be a little bit outside of the norm, or something like that.

Speaker 1:

So that's kind of how I've brought myself to where I am is because there's been so many people who have been talking about you know, I really want to get in deep, I want to see what it's like, I want to feel it. You know there's a lot of people who are also trying to become expats too. You know they're trying to leave the States to go to these amazing destinations, and then that's the case, they want to know, you know even more, because they want to kind of prepare themselves of what it's going to be if they go and they do this immersion trip and then afterwards oh hey, I want to live there, type thing. So I think that's a lot of it too I made like expat tourism.

Speaker 2:

You're kind of checking out where you might go exactly which I think you know you want to know the culture. You want to know the culture. You don't want to see the tourist traps. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you want to know that you could walk down the street, you know, at at 8 pm at night and not be, like you know, worry full or you know you'd be you got to be safe and that kind of thing. You know what I mean Like, so they want to know that of where they can go. Hey, you know you can't go here, you can't wear camo to this certain island. You can't do this kind of thing, like all of those specifics.

Speaker 2:

People are really starting to kind of open their eyes and see that and that's what I'm really pushing for. But that's my advocate. I advocate for that because interesting. I was looking as well to at the uptake in passports in the US over the past 20-30 years and it is huge. There used to be a tiny percentage of Americans who had passports and now that's gone up to like 30-40, even 50%, and it's growing and growing all the time.

Speaker 1:

It shows that there's a real shift in the culture in this country looking abroad and being comfortable going abroad, you know, for all kinds of reasons have no idea what's going out on outside of the world besides what's happening here in the US, and I think a lot of that is starting to change. I think people are really starting to kind of open their eyes to the whole entire world and they're realizing that we've got more than just Florida here in the world that we should go visit, like there's more than just Gulf Shores or whatever that is you know. So people are really starting to kind of take their mindset out of only being able to travel in the US and they're starting to kind of see oh my gosh, there's so many other places that have so many unique experiences that they can provide to you. So people are really starting to kind of crave that which. I am definitely one of those people, so I'm all for it.

Speaker 2:

It's so great and I mean that's that's going to change the culture of this country too. You know, if people are more worldly, more aware of the extraordinary impact and the reality is the extraordinary impact this country has on the world too, you know that was only behind, known, behind, you know, closed doors, people in foreign relations or global political economy or whatever. But to have to have people go out there and see, wow, look at this, it really is a fascinating way of changing not just ourselves but our society too, and we and I believe, only in interesting ways, you know, only in positive absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1:

well, yeah, and I mean, the more you open your eyes to other places and their, their cultures and and you know, know the things that they do and that sort of thing, the more you realize that, like, we're not perfect over here, so we probably shouldn't be judging people.

Speaker 2:

It's super. And you know people bemoan or point to division in this country. Or you know the sense of political discourse you know is not as evolved as it could be, and how do you change those things? You know you can't just say as evolved as it could be, and how do you change those things? You know you can't just say I'm going to be different tomorrow morning. You have to do something very different to yourself and to your environment in order to change, and travel is, travel, is the way. Get out of your comfort zone, go somewhere else, talk to other people and then when you come back, maybe you'll have a little different way of approaching the conversation, you know. So, yeah, I've always felt that and, being Irish, but I mean I make my home in the US here. I'm a US citizen. Now my wife and family are here in Western New York. But what I love too is bringing people to Ireland.

Speaker 2:

I say you're not just going to Ireland for this extractive experience. You're actually leaving something behind. I, for this extractive experience. You're actually leaving something behind. I mean financially first of all, but also energetically and like the kind of people that come with us. They're not there to just take, you know they're there to actually give. Many people who come to us have some kind of Irish story in their family and they want to come back to kind of complete that or to come to ground there. Many people have no Irish story in their family but I say to them, your attention, your presence is re-nourishing this place and helps the Irish to see themselves in a different light, to re-value themselves. So tourism isn't just about changing yourself. You're actually giving something to the place you're going to. It's like you're bringing some kind of fertilizer. You know energet and you're spreading it in the land that you're going to you know as well. So I tell people that you're not just there as a tourist, you're there to actually give back to this place.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I that kind of uh comes along with another one of like my little niche things.

Speaker 1:

I like to try to plan a lot of like volunteer-cations as well.

Speaker 1:

So if you know somebody I work a lot with like animal shelters and that sort of thing, and so if I go to like an island or something, I'll try to hang a hookup with a local animal shelter and maybe walk the dogs or clean some cages out or something along those lines.

Speaker 1:

So I'm really trying to advocate for people to do more of that sort of thing. It doesn't have to be animals, it could be ecological, it could be, you know, working with kids, it could be working with anything. But I feel like if you take just four hours out of your vacation and spend time with a local and in this kind of an environment where you're actually giving back, not only does it give you fulfillment but it also really connects us with the other country too. And I feel like American tourists really need to go about doing that, because if we can get to the point to where we're not total a-holes and we're there to respect other cultures and that sort of thing, I feel like more people will be accepting of us and we'll have better stories and memories and all of that sort of thing that we could pass along.

Speaker 2:

I think that is so clever. That is so clever and just purely selfishly like you'll meet people you could develop friendships, you could make a friend you'll keep in touch with, you know forever, and talk about memories Like I mean, yeah, like what the memories you would have volunteering or working there compared to just going and visiting the Guinness Storehouse factory?

Speaker 1:

Like I'll never forget the time I walked dogs in Belize on the beach, so you know, like that's, that's like one of my favorite stories and I'll never forget it. But yeah, so tell me a little bit more about like your tours that you do and the people that come to you, and how do you even get involved with this.

Speaker 2:

Well, I started working with this really interesting guy, a poet, called David White, and he's a poet. David's mother was Irish but he was raised in northern England and now he makes his home in the Pacific Northwest, on Whigby Island north of Seattle. And David's a poet by trade. But he brings his poetry to many different places, including to the boardrooms of corporate America, and another part of his work is that he leads people on poetry experiences around the world. So he brings a group to Ireland every year England, Tuscany I think he does a group to Costa.

Speaker 2:

Rica, japan. Yeah, he's a great guide. You know and believes in the transformational power of poetry is a journey inward, but then he takes you. He'll also take you on a journey outward, and so he sees the two as one in the same. You know, whether you travel physically or whether you travel emotionally with a poem artistically. So I saw him do this and I was like, look at this poet bringing these people, and these people are coming for poetry, but they're coming for this transformative experience that only travel can, can give us. Right, and that was front and center Like. This is why they were there. This is what they'd signed up for, um, and I saw people transformed. I would see their faces literally change over the week. I was telling some of this last week and they were like you should do a before and after photo, you know you go.

Speaker 2:

I swear people's faces, you know they come in all kind of tight and probably tired from an overnight fight, but then throughout the week the faces actually, like some people, are almost unrecognizable. There's just this beautiful softness comes into the face and a and a child likeness. You know people, people are transformed really and it's like really making the most out of the phenomenon of travel, really squeezing it for all of its worth. And David did that and I remember working with him for a week on his experience and thinking to myself that week my God, I'd love to do this myself someday. And it took me about maybe seven years of working with David before he gave me his blessing. And David said there should be one of these trips in every village in Ireland. He said, yeah, which is interesting about scale. People say how can you scale this? You'll destroy it if you scale it. Well, you scale it by keeping 30 people, but in a thousand villages that's 30,000 people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But that's a lot of people. But, karen, every village in Ireland has its story and every village in the world has its story.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And you can just stay there and experience it. And so I just learned from working with David. And then one day he said you should do this, and I said I'll do it with your blessing, and off we went, and so it's very much based on his model, which is staying in one place. We're talking about 30 people, four minivans and you've everything in your home. We stock your kitchen with everything you need for your breakfast, whatever you want, and you have your own breakfast with one or two other housemates, and then we gather in the morning for a session and then we head out for a trip. We come back and then the local chef prepares all of our food.

Speaker 2:

Oh all this local, local, organic, you know, top quality food from the locality and he sets it out for us and serves us and we all eat together and we bring in some friends. We meet friends of ours, you know musicians, and we're singing songs all the time and working with poetry and um, and it's just this, yeah, extraordinary, just like a gathering of friends. You know you might have a dinner party, except it's a week, yeah it sounds like like a big family reunion with strangers it really is.

Speaker 2:

It really is and, as I was saying, at this stage maybe even 60% of the people have been with us before.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. To have people come back says a lot.

Speaker 2:

Oh, it's the coolest thing. And these people, these are very busy, worldly people. They could be doing anything anywhere. And here they are again, um with us, and I think it's because we've just really been kind of very honest about what travel is about. Travel's not about taking off the boxes, you know. Travel's about community, it's about togetherness. We want it, we want connection, we connection, we want relationship, we want friendship, you know. And we want family too, and it's me, my mom and my brother, and we get to spend that time in family together.

Speaker 1:

I love that for you guys. We think people, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and people come and they experience that, and that's that's what this is about. We'll put on a show for you, but there's no program here. This is about you and where you're at, and you can take this at whatever level you want. You know, if you want to head up, you want to go off to the pub every day, you can do that, know. And if you want to, you can do it at your own level. Everyone gets their own room and there's a little writing desk. You can go off and do your own thing. We don't count heads getting out of the vans, you know. If you get left behind somewhere, you know.

Speaker 2:

You better know where you're going and shuskies, right, it's your it's your own level and we really respect that and we know that, like, each one of us is going through this weird journey of life and we all have the extraordinary challenges that that means, and we're all on the threshold of great joys and great sorrows, and you can bring that, you know, and that's your journey, and so this is about your journey and we're there to kind of have the honor of you, to invest in this experience with us. Yeah, so that's the whole vibe and I think that's where I really come back is because that's why we're doing it, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So don't get mad at me for asking this question, but do you do like your little performance in the skirts and stuff? I don't know what they're called? Oh, they're not at all. What are they called? Oh, my, that's it. That's it. Do you? Do I get to see like kilts and stuff when I'm there too, and bagpipes and all that.

Speaker 2:

So the kilts Scott, that's Scottish, those are the Scots. Oh, just kidding. But close, but close, you're close, you're very close.

Speaker 1:

Just kidding, and I appreciate it. That's why I ask these questions, because I'm new Our Scottish.

Speaker 2:

there are Celtic cousins there in the north. Gotcha and so Northern Ireland is like just 12 miles. The sea is just 12 miles between Northern Ireland and Scotland. So the culture up there is very close. But they've got their own very particular kind of form of Celtic culture. The language is very similar to the Irish language. They speak Scots Gaelic but the music is similar but different, you know.

Speaker 2:

And the pipes are very different. They play the bagpipes which are they're basically the Scottish pipes are war pipes. They're kind of designed to march into war, so they're very, very shrill, you know, and it's a marching band tradition. It's very martial, like it's a military kind of tradition. Now, the Irish pipes, on the other hand, you have to play sitting down. They're called Illin pipes and they have a much softer, a much more mellow, resonant sound, very emotional, very kind of heart vibration, and so the Irish pipes are very different.

Speaker 2:

And the kilt thing I don't know the history. I should know that there's people who would speak about the history of kilts and if the Irish wore kilts, or is it just a Scottish thing? But the Scots love the kilts and it's still very popular up there. And the design on the kilt, the tartan design, um represents families, so your family will have a particular design. And then they have these, these little fanny packs called spurns and those have different designs and different kind of significances and symbolisms and I don't know anything about that whole kilt thing. And then of course the great question is are they wearing anything underneath the kilt? That's what everybody wants. You know what I was going to ask that.

Speaker 2:

And I can't answer that. I cannot answer that, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for entertaining me with that question. I probably shouldn't have even asked it, but I can't help it. Sometimes my brain just like no that's the whole point of this show, right and as well when we travel.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you know, I, I, I love world cultures and things but, I mean, I don't know anything, you know and we don't know anything and we have to be comfortable asking, asking stupid questions how we learn, how are you going to learn if you don't ask the stupid questions? So I love your naivety and honesty in asking that question B.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate that. Anyways, owen, this has been such a great conversation. You were so fun to talk to. I've learned a lot, man. I feel like, well, I mean hell, you taught me about kilts, so that right there is is huge. Anyways, where can my audience I know they're gonna, they're definitely gonna do some search and trying to find you. Where can they they hook up with you and and how can they get selected for some of your tours?

Speaker 2:

everything right now is kind of all gathered on the Trust Donham website. So if you enter T-U, taurus is a journey in the Irish language, t-u-r-a-s and Donham D-A-N-A-M. So Trust Donham and Journey of your Soul, or if you search Journey of your Soul in Ireland, I think we come up Okay and you can get through. You can get in touch with us through there and you can get in touch with us through there. We also have this cool online community, like a monthly subscriber community too, where me, my mom and my brother we meet once live on Zoom once a month and we share a month's worth of newsletter and a recorded session on the Saturday, the three Saturdays of each month, and that's a cool way to kind of check out what we do.

Speaker 2:

Many people who come to Ireland will also then join that to kind of keep part of this community. And we started that very, very much this year because people were asking like, how can you keep in touch with this sense of? Because they come to Ireland, have this amazing week and then you come back home and you feel sort of disconnected again. So this is like a little way for people to keep in touch in community, sharing this, this kind of stuff. And every third Saturday we'll always do breakout rooms where you get assigned someone to have a little chat and a conversation.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome and it's also linked with the Celtic calendar, so we refocus in on this whole wheel of the year and the Celts were so focused on this sense of seasonal change. So each month we're talking about what's happening seasonally and the whole mythology and culture and story behind that. And that's beautiful because, you know, sometimes in our worlds, you know in our cars, in our homes, you know we can see the weather out the window but we don't really, we don't really get it. You know. And it's so important when you're connected with the seasons because our souls are seasonal, our lives are seasonal and we can learn so much by just kind of examining and paying a little bit closer attention to what's going on around us. It helps. It helps in our own lives, yeah, so that's what we try to teach in that little community too. So if anyone's interested, they'd be really welcome to join us on that too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I will definitely. As soon as I get done with this, I'm going to hook up with that too, because I think that sounds awesome.

Speaker 2:

It's definitely something that I would be interested in and will be promoting honored, we'd be honored to have such a venture a a well-versed traveler, cultural explorer as yourself be would be an honor thank you.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate that. We are definitely um. Like I said, I, my husband and I have been talking about heading over to ireland for so long, so this has gotten me a little bit closer to that um. So I definitely will be heading over there and hanging out with you at some point.

Speaker 2:

I can help you out in any way. We can have a chat anytime you just call. I love sharing this with with people, so it would be an honor to help you in any way yeah, I really appreciate you.

Speaker 1:

Um so real quick. Um, before I end the episode, I always ask the same question what does paradise mean to you?

Speaker 2:

oh my goodness it's a little hard right for me means the next life, the longed for but never achieved utopian urge within us that we must always seek and yet know that it will never be fully consummated in this world. But never give up, never give up hope, the hope and the change and the urge and the movement forward toward that. That's the meaning of life, and never to lose that spirit, never to lose the spirit of yearning for paradise. That's that's, that's what it means to me.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's a great answer. You got real deep, like in that one, but love it. That's great. Oh, my gosh, oh, and thank you so much for joining me today. I really had a great, great time and I will definitely keep in touch and we will talk about an ireland anytime, me in the hub soon.

Speaker 2:

So love your work, love what you do. Thank you so much so important.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, have a good one. Talk to you bye bye hey there, beach lovers.

Speaker 1:

That's it for today's episode of beachside banter with b. I sure hope you had as much fun as I did. Hey, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the show. You can catch me on all social media platforms at life, love and travel, and if you've got a question or you just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to slide into my dms and I'll make sure to get those answered for you. Uh, big thanks to everyone who joined me today and for all of you tuned in, and until next time, enjoy your week.