DAD DIARY: Achill Island’s dizzy witches and giggling goblins

Halloween is always a big time of year in our house. Aisling is obsessed with it! It is her favourite time of the year. I got an inkling of this not long after we met when suggestions of going to the cinema saw her lean towards horror movies. I wasn’t complaining – pretending to like rom-coms was something I struggled with.
Once September turns into October, our house turns haunted and spooky. Inside, we’ve inflatable oversized pumpkins, as well as an inflatable Frankenstein and mummies. The windows are decorated with all sorts of Halloween themes. Two bedroom windows are adorned with cardboard cutouts of sinister scenes that Edgar Allan Poe would be proud of.
Outside we have the spectacle of a witch who has crashed into a telephone pole in the field beside us, and another witch stuck upside down inside our front wall (the witches really need to look where they’re going). There’s also a larger-than-life ghoul just standing casually beside the wall, which has frightened more than one late-night walker.
Halloween itself was exceptional on Achill Island this year. Thanks to our local community group, Féile Dú Éige, we were treated to the scary sight of a spooky Halloween carriage making its way around Dooega – with the giggling little goblins, fairies and púcas of the village on board!
So many joined in, dressed for the occasion, and it was great fun. The kids absolutely loved it, taking turns on the back of the old cart, which was pulled around by some monsters from the village – I might fit into that category.
Of course, as far as the kids were concerned, that was just the warm-up for the main event: the trick or treating.
We try to get to as many houses in the village as possible, as it is a lovely social outing, and you’re always conscious that some houses, just because of their location, might not get any visitors. We got to as many as we could – over 20! – but had to call it a night when the clock crept past 10pm and Séimí was nearly falling asleep standing up.
Frankie played her tin whistle at most houses – kudos to the great folk at Scoil Acla for the considerable improvement in her playing since she first started. When prevailed upon, the boys sang ‘Oíche Shamhna’.
They got enough treats to last them to Christmas but, thankfully, our kids forget about their haul once it is out of sight the next day.
There’s a tradition too in Dooega of giving money to kids on Halloween, and our three were beyond excited about that too, putting it all in their money banks when they got home. Frankie thinks she has enough for an X-Box. (Trust me, she doesn’t, no matter how much she collected!)
Séimí was very sad then when the decorations were taken down last week. We told him not to worry, Christmas is coming up. Too early to mention it?