Corby, England (October 29, 2011) — Ireland was a blast! Cliff, Michelle, Peter, Mandy and myself arrived on Wednesday before Keith and Joanne’s big day on Friday. All of us went straight away into wedding celebration mode. Wednesday morning the guys were off to Louis Copeland’s to get their suits fitted. I was the runner to go fill the Dublin city parking meter and retrieve the fancy shoes they left back at the car. I also had the privilege of judging what seemed like a small fashion show. Everyone scored 10s. Unfortunately for them my scale goes to 20! Just in case you didn’t know, Louis Copeland is a world-renowned master tailor who has fitted suits for Peirce Brosnan, Kevin Spacey, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Tiger Woods and Keith Dempsey to name a few. No big deal. And you know I’ve had plenty of suits personally fitted by him throughout the many years I spent on the red carpet.
That night we had a dinner at the best Chinese known to man, Eatzen! If I go to Ireland I make sure I eat at Eatzen at least once during my trip. It’s a small place in the Dempseys’ hometown of Ashbourne that Cliff absolutely swears by. And I will gladly back him up on that one. That same night Peter and I took the last bus into Dublin city to meet up with the groom himself; oh, and Peter hadn’t even started his “best man” speech and the wedding was only two days away. I basically went with Peter to meet all Keith’s best mates for the wedding, and let’s just say he didn’t make much progress on his speech that night either! I mean, I knew I was going to a wedding, but no one told me that Irish weddings were week-long festivities!
Rule No. 7.2.0 Section 1_Article 3: You are in Ireland. Surrounded by the Irish. Pace yourself.
Thursday afternoon everyone was just rolling out of bed and making the location shift to check into the Castleknock Hotel and Country Club. Castleknock is a beautiful part of Ireland. To me it’s one of those screensaver-like countrysides with the soft rolling hills, cobblestone bridges and what seems to be ancient homes probably worth millions. Apparently, i’s also the birthplace of Colin Farrell. A bit of useless information for you. Anyway, Castleknock is only a short distance from the church where Keith and Joanne would be getting married. And once we checked in, I was quite happy to just sit at the hotel and feed my face full of food. I sat looking out the cafe window watching golfers on the 11th green tee off into the parking lot. Not that I’m much better, but it was entertaining at the time — you know, something to laugh about on a Friday afternoon. Oh, and I forgot to mention I was sharing a room with Gavin Ray for the weekend. Yes, Gavin Ray of Ray Racecars. The pair of us were being introduced to everyone as “the guy who makes the cars” and “the guy who tries to drive the cars.” Or the guy that crashes the cars and the guy who fixes them — Irish, I’ll tell ya, they got jokes. Peter was up until 3am polishing off his best man speech with the help of his girlfriend Mandy. If it were me, I’d just take a deep breath and wing it on the day. How bad could it possibly go? Apparently some people prep their speeches months in advance. Yeah, my advice is don’t take my advice.
Friday, I woke up just after 9 o’clock and realized I missed breakfast. Standard Neil. Happens to me all the time. So I had to settle for a half dozen scones and a cup of joe. Back upstairs to get my kit on for “I-do” day. Top hat, £250 shirt, maroon tie, old skool two button grey tweed jacket fresh off the rack, maroon pants, white leather Sperry Topsiders, no socks. From top to bottom it’s all true, except the top hat — and my shirt definitely didn’t cost £250. It was £2500. Haha! But seriously. Off to the church! It was my first wedding, my first Irish wedding (ABOVE RIGHT, Cliff and Michelle with Joanne and Keith). I was so stoked to be a part of the whole thing!
Now that Keith and Joanne Dempsey had officially tied the knot everyone was off to the Carton House for some fun — I mean, reception and lovely dinner. Now, I’m not exactly sure of the history behind Carton House but I’m pretty sure it was home to royalty at one stage. Anyway, we were greeted at the door with glasses of champagne, which I gladly accepted only for the celebration purposes of Keith and Joanne. Mandy and myself were the only American representatives in attendance at the royal wedding. And we did get a shout out. It was a special moment for me. Well, it was a close second to introducing myself to all the single bridesmaids. It was an extraordinary evening. Everyone nailed their speeches — including Peter — the bride and groom were absolutely stunning, the food was great, music was fantastic, and the company was even better. Congratulations again Keith and Joanne! I’ll leave the rest of that night to your imaginations — and maybe the night after that too.
To round off my weekend I played 18 holes of golf in the pouring rain with Pete and Dave Curley, close friends of the Dempseys, and myself. I was lucky enough to have a rain jacket in my bag, although it really didn’t make a difference because the amount of rain that came down was unreal. You might have caught the news about the floods in Ireland and how all of October’s forecasted rain fell in three days. Yeah? Well, we played golf on the first of those three days. Typical Irish weather, I guess. By the time we got on the back nine we were the only ones on the course still playing; even the clubhouse shutdown. But look, I didn’t come all the way from California to play 13 holes of golf. I came to play 18, and I will play all 18 holes. And I’ll play the last hole again if I feel like it!
Everyone decided to take a day off to relax on Monday. Thank god for that! None of us had the energy to leave the house anyway. Plus, the monsoon rain didn’t help with any outdoor plans. Before we headed back off to England on Wednesday morning we spent one last night with Dave Curley, his wife Angela, and his two daughters, Anna and Ellen. Together they organized a beautiful dinner for all of us. I wouldn’t even call it dinner, it was more of a family feast. We had starters, a main course, dessert, and what’s an evening in Ireland without an Irish coffee? The Curleys are great company and ever better friends. I think we ended the night talking about golf with Dave and sharing our stories from the other day. Pete and I might have even walked off with a few dozen golf balls courtesy of Dave and his 2,500 Pro V1 collection!
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this entry as much as I enjoyed writing it. This past week is probably a week of my life that I will never forget. It was a good craic, that’s for sure! Iâ’ll sneak onto the Team USA blog site 10 years from now and laugh my ass off reading this one.
Keep your stick on the ice
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