Ireland day 1305. Friday 25 April 2025- Lafcadio

Today’s summary	Spent the morning doing some odd jobs then bacon sandwich for lunch. Took trains to Ashtown in the afternoon and walked to Farmleigh. Visited the Lacfadia Hearn exhibition and had refreshments in the café. Trains back again from Ashtown then lentil curry and beer for dinner, with some “Mad Men” too.
Today’s weather	Overnight rain then overcast with occasional showers all day. Moderate to strong south easterly wind. Appx 10c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Lafcadio Hearn at Farmleigh from Ashtown

Commentary

Lafcadio Hearn is (or was) a part-Irish author with a fascinating life story to tell.

He was born in Greece in 1850 to a Greek mother and an Anglo-Irish father. He was brought up in Ireland by his father’s aunt then sent away to boarding schools in France and England. Later, he became destitute in London then moved to new York where he lived on the streets again. He married a Creole woman in New York, then divorced and moved to New Orleans and then Martinque. Finally he moved to Japan where he married a Japanese woman, had four children, became a Japanese citizen, and lived for the rest of his life until he died in 1904. He was born Patrick, but later took the name Lacfadio, after the name of the place where he was born.

Lacfadio is best known for his Japanese horror stories, which were mostly written in the last few years of his life. They were written in English but were translated into Japanese and became very popular. It’s a bit hard to say what his nationality actually was, but he identified strongly with Irish culture and had deep connections with Tramore, Co. Waterford, where he spent summer holidays as a child. The OPW have decided that as an interesting individual with strong Irish links, an exhibition in his honour would be timely. The exhibition was duly set up at Farmleigh House, in Phoenix Park, and Val and I decided to visit there today. (Val had been before, while I was away, but it was my first time).

We spent the morning doing odd jobs and then had bacon sandwiches (again) for lunch. Afterwards, we travelled out to Ashtown via a very timely diesel from Malahide to Connolly, then after just a 2 minute wait, caught another Maynooth diesel back out to Ashtown. From there we walked the short distance out to Farmleigh, where the exhibition was held in part of the old dairy, round the back of the main building.

It wasn’t a huge exhibition, but there was plenty to read and some interesting exhibits of his books. I learned quite a lot about him – and was also struck by how hard some people had it, Lacfadio being destitute at least twice, but also just how easy it was to move from one country to another without attracting the mass of paperwork and tax which accompanies such a move nowadays (trust me – I know!).

After having a look round, we moved on to the easy comforts of the café to enjoy some much needed refreshments. From there, we retraced our steps to Malahide benefitting from, once again, exceptionally easy connections at Ashtown and Connolly. We were back in the flat just before 6pm, having only left Malahide three and a half hours earlier.

As soon as we were back, I nipped out to do some shopping and Val miraculously whipped up a delicious-smelling lentil curry which is beckoning me as I type. It will be enjoyed with a refreshing beer, I think, and of course as usual another couple of episodes of “Mad Men”. Unbelievably, despite having been watching it for seemingly ever, we still have another 25 left to go!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


At the entrance to Farmleigh	Making our way down Thuja Avenue to the main Farmleigh buildings (and tea-shop!)

Wisteria on Farmleigh House. I have mixed feelings about this plant as it always used to flower at the time of final exams in my old college. So it has stressful connotations	Lacfadio exhibition in part of the old converted dairy

The man himself, looking pensive. though I am not sure what he would have made of the chocolate-brown rendition	Information about the Lafcadio Hearn garden in Tramore, Co. Waterford. We must add it to the list of places to visit!

Strutting about and feeling very pleased with himself. He is also very vain. He spent most of the time just looking at his reflection in the window.