Tramore's Japanese garden

Today, my first full day in Tramore, surf capital of Ireland and known for amusement park rides in the summer, but is pretty quiet now.

But not quiet enough for me at the Japanese Gardens. This is the tourist site closest to the home I am staying in but it coincided with a school visit. There must have been 50 kids so I left and returned.  

It is the Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens. They get 30,000 visitors a year. 

Patrick Lafcadio (for the Greek island Lefkada where he was born in 1850) Hearn was a writer and lived in Ireland as a child. He was abandoned by his Greek mother who was mentally ill and then his Irish/English father who was in the military. 

Such a complicated life! He was brought up by his father's aunt in Dublin who spent summers in Tramore but sent to Cincinnati to earn a living at age 19. Apparently it wasn't easy and he was homeless until an English printer took him in and trained him. Hearn called him "Dear Old Dad."

In 1874 Hearn briefly married a black woman who used to be a slave. He lost his job since it was illegal in Ohio to marry (a black person or a former slave? It is unclear). 

He moved to New Orleans, became a writer for Harper's magazine and was sent to Japan to report. He never left, marrying a Japanese woman and having four children with her. If you look him up on Wikipedia, his name is Koizumi Yakumo. He adopted Japanese citizenship and became an expert on the older, mystical Japan at a time when the country had been closed to foreigners not long before.

This man is fascinating! But he had nothing to do with starting or building the garden. Tramore people started it and they use a lot of "community service" (what we call them at Books to Prisoners) people to work in the garden.

               I loved the benches!

String was put up by local artists for Halloween as an environmentally safe alternative to the webbing that you can buy that might harm birds and insects. In the past they had nights of Hearn's ghost stories read aloud for Halloween. 

Down to the beach where many dogs could be seen frolicking off-leash. And people, too!

This was part of the nature trail the man at the Japanese Gardens told me about.

This train doesn't run anymore. Ireland's heyday in train service was a long time ago. 

It still strikes me as strange when I see children in pubs but this sign explains the rules. Vagabond Tours  explains it further:

Are children allowed in pubs in Ireland?

Yes, when accompanied by their parent/guardian. In general, your kids can stay in an Irish pub until 9pm.

Children (anyone under the age of 18) are only allowed in licensed premises if they are with a parent or guardian. This provision carries certain restrictions. For example, if accompanied by a parent/guardian, the child may remain on the premises from 10:30am – 9pm in the months of October to April (until 10pm May to September). The pub licence holder has the right to contravene this if he/she sees fit.

Children aged 15-17 years old may remain in pubs after 9pm where they are attending a private function at which a substantial meal is served.

These are the official guidelines. You may find the rules are not strictly enforced everywhere in Ireland.