Two pictures just for the laugh. The roommates I share my house with, two little calico sisters rescued off a farm in Sligo: Pippa (l) and Jessie (r). Both like water -- Pippa jumps in the bathroom sink demanding the tap be turned on about 10 times a day. She prefers to drink from the tap (whereas Jessie just likes sticking a paw into the stream and watching with great interest as it sprays all over the place). Whatever!

 Hmmm, the next two emails from the Special Olympics I sent last night never made it to the blog for some reason. A shame!! Oh well. I don't know where they went.... Anyway, I'd gone on to note the arrival onstage of everyone from Pierce Brosnan and Colin Farrell, on the actorly side, to Ronan Keating, Samantha Mumba, and the 100-strong chorus line of dancers for Riverdance, which was really great (all cynicism flees in the presence of 200 exuberantly-pounding feet! And I can watch it a million times anyway; I love the song and the dancing). The dance segment brought one of the best moments -- a group of the Irish athletes carefully organising some Arab athletes (in full burnoose) and African athletes and others into a line, holding hands aloft in that odd way you do for Irish dancing, and teaching them all to dance so they could kick along with the dancers onstage. It was incredibly endearing to see those Arab headresses and African heads boucing up and down, hands held high, as the Irish athletes made a diligent attempt to instruct!

Two big colourful extravaganzas of dancers and drummers were also of note -- first, a celebration of the summer solstice that day, with over a hundred people from an arts group for people with disabilities in Northern Ireland, dressed in wild costumes they'd made themselves, and then, Galway's own, stupendous Macnas street theatre troupe, who really outdid themselves (they always do -- they are the living embodiment of the word 'joy') with colour, noise, dance, smoke, giant balloons and a huge inflatable giant made up entirely of balls from different sports! Macnas has excelled at taking a European tradition of street theatre and spectacle, and transforming it into something entirely Irish in feel.

 There were some excellent and often very moving speeches from some of the athlete 'ambassadors' for various countries -- the South African athlete was particularly touching, especially in his references to Nelson Mandela as Africa's 'flame of hope', who was there -- and then, the finale. U2 came on to do a beautiful version of 'One', with full orchestral accompaniment, and then 'Pride (in the Name of Love)' -- very powerful, with words that suited the occasion. Bono then introduced Nelson Mandela (and what a fab shirt) -- is there a man of greater dignity and grace? He made just the right speech, and then, in came the Olympic flame, passed from a series of Special Olympics runners, all around the inside of Croke Park, until finally, a young Irish athlete brought it up to join Irish President McAleese, Nelson Mandela and the rest, to ignite the flame for the games. Then, amazing fireworks and bursts of flames from the top of Croke Park.

Made you proud to be Irish. The whole thing was done so well -- just the right touch of fun, dignity, play, silliness, decorum, drama. The Irish inevitably do anything with dance, theatre and music so well -- but the large stage show ability came from a confidence that arrived after Riverdance, it think (I mean, the ability to pull everything into a big show and yet retain a sense of intimacy and charm, something which is very, very hard to achieve. I don't think anyone does it better than the Irish, having seen these things done in numerous places over the years! And it helps if you can call on the musical talents available here, of course.

I was sitting in the lower orange segment on the far side of the stadium in the pic above. We had a great view. Glad I brought binoculars though!!