I arrived at Dublin airport full of joy and caught a taxi home. The taxi driver was an older lady, originally from Dublin but now living in Navan. As soon as she found out I was Irish, she began bemoaning the state of the country and the evils of the upcoming budget. The hard hitting budget, a result of the Euro crisis, was due to be presented the following week, but most points had already been leaked to the press - carbon tax, VAT increase, fuel increase, social welfare decrease - you get the drift. The Greeks would be manning the barricades at this stage, but we Irish seemed to be falling back into the fatalism that brought us through centuries of British occupation, penal laws, famine etc. It is interesting to note the different reactions of the 2 countries. The Greeks complain and lose the head, we complain and drop the head.
But don't confuse our head dropping with giving up. We are used to hard times - they were de facto up until the 1970's. Most people had enough but not more and emigration was a fact of life. Nearly everyone lived in a house - it was probably very modest but it was their's or the Corporation's. Apartments, bistros etc. were foreign to us. Pubs didn't serve food, you ate at home.
The property boom that accompanied the Celtic Tiger put an end to all of that and as a direct result of that our taxi driver was living in Navan instead of Dublin. Dublin's working class was priced out of the city and many had to bite the bullet and go into inner emigration to the satellite towns emerging around the city, one of which was Navan.
I tried to boost her spirits by telling her about my friend who moved down there many years ago. He sold his 3 bed semi in Dublin and bought a 4 bed detached just outside the town in one of the new dormitory settlements. I told her how happy he was but no joy with her. "No fun in Navan if you're unemployed" and, of course she has a point.
But let's not denigrate Navan - I passed through the town very often as a child on the way to visit my grandmother in Kells - 10 miles further down the road. Kells was, for my father, the centre of the universe - Navan a very important satellite.
So what is Navan famous for?
1. First of all it's name as Gaeilge - an Uaimh - the cave. Now where was the cave? what happened there? Go to an Uaimh and look for yourself. Also the palindromic nature of "Navan" - There are only a few palindromic places in the world, all I can think of is Ellemelle in Belgium and Oktahatko in Florida - maybe you know some more?
2. Bloodshot terrace, a row of houses on the Kells road, built for ex-British soldiers returning from WW1. Bloodshot comes from the regular fist fights after the boozer on pension day.
3. Tara - The hill of Tara, seat of the Irish Ard-Rís (High Kings), is very close to Navan - visit it then come back into the town, spend some money and boost the local economy. The hill requires some use of the imagination as the original structure was a wooden construction - they obviously had better things to do than to immortalise themselves in stone - they live on in stories as epic as any you could find.
The battle actually happened close to Drogheda but, if you had time on your hands, you could certainly swim to there from Navan. You would probably be the first person to do so which certainly adds some kudos to the whole undertaking.
5. Pierce Brosnan is a Navan man - Pierce, who enthralled us all as Remington Steele, James Bond and a host of other roles, is a Navan man born and bred. On a Summer's day you can meet him strolling through the town with a throng of Hollywood buddies in tow. No what more could you ask for?
6. Navan Carpets and their ad - "Only an hour from Dublin"
Definitely worth putting on your list of places to see before you die!
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