Why I take the 0630 bus

KILKENNY -- It's dark outside when I walk 20 minutes to catch a JJ Kavanagh bus at 0630 on Fridays. I ride 2 1/2 hours to Dublin on Fridays to learn about creative visual things. On early mornings like these, I hear the words of Don Miguel Ruiz. "Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art. " I get to Dublin an hour before the action starts inside Studio 6 upstairs in Temple Bar Gallery & Studios.

I walk down the cobbled stretch of East Essex Street towards The Clarence Hotel every Friday afternoon, pausing to remember the sound of Rory Gallagher at the corner of Meeting House Square. The Quakers settled here around 300 years ago and Rory played around these parts 20 years ago. There's a corner called "Rory Gallagher Corner" on the north side of Meeting House Square, but without a guitar. The librarians inside the National Photographic Archive, the building on which the guitar was to hang, posited the hanging would "adversely impact on the archive." Funnily enough, the photographers I first met when landing on Irish shores were ardent Rory fans and potheads like the rest of the group listening to Gallagher's busking style. It's all part of the dimension of Irish living that makes art part of the cultural lifeblood here.

Update 25 Oct 04. I take the bus because the train arrives as late as 1005. Following the 12 minute walk from Heuston Station to Temple Bar, I'm effectively locked out of the venue until the cleaning crew finishes their morning tea break at 1030. So I take the bus, arrive early, pay €6 for the trip and buy different combinations of croissants and coffees with the €19 saved on the journey. Train travel is faster, smoother, often more comfortable, but the return trips on Fridays cost me €23.50. Return by bus is half that cost.

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Don Miguel Ruiz -- The Voice of Knowledge: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace ISBN 1878424548
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