Someone Forgot to Loch the Derg!

I have been blessed to have gone to Ireland, TWICE! My first time was in 2002 when I was 17. Even before I got to Ireland, I was enchanted by the view from the plane as we neared land in the very wee hours of the morning; the cities below looked like a lit up constellation map, or jewels carefully sewn into a belly dancer's skirt.It was as if I was in a safe capsule looking out at the Universe. It was light in the sea of darkness around me and it was beautiful.

Ireland is only about the size of New Jersey or West Virginia, but i think Ireland must be like that fable of the man who looked like a normal human, but the entire Universe was inside him.

Ghostly mist caresses the cadence of green hills, which appear painted by an adept, omniscient hand and enduringly roll on for eternal miles, defying the segregating line of North and South. While standing on the Cliffs of Moher, I came to believe that Ireland was actually a piece of Heaven that one of the rebel angels grabbed onto as he fell and that piece landed in the Atlantic ocean and since then has spawned an everlasting battle of beauty and horror.

"Loch of the Red Eye," Lough Derg (lock-derg), said to be a portal to Hell found in County Donegal, Northern Ireland. With the violent history of Ireland, the land of ire, I wouldn't doubt it! I was just watching a repeat of History Channel's "Gates of Hell." While Saint Patrick was in Ireland during the the 5th century A.D., spreading Christianity, it is said that he has visions of Hell while in a cave on the isle of Derg. Because of this, Ireland, only Loch Derg, however, made it onto a world map of 1492. Still to this day thousands of Christians, worldwide, pilgrimage to this site. As long as this portal exists as a physical place or a place in our hearts and minds, the cliff sides will forever breathe ashore the passionate waters of battle.

I came back from Ireland, but I left my heart there.