The Lucky Charms commercials lie.
In those thirty-second spots, Lucky the Leprechaun proclaims the wonders of his cereal while dancing across Irish fields of green beneath Irish skies of blue. Lucky Charms are indeed wondrous (they cause childhood obesity which, in my book, ranks near childhood smallpox), and fields in Ireland are indeed green. The Irish sky, however, is never blue for any prolonged period of time. In fact, its general state could be described as typhoon. The few moments of sun (in our two-week trip, it rained on all but one of the days) lull you into a false sense of security so that when you're the greatest possible distance from umbrellas or shelter, Ireland might hurricane upon you. (The Irish themselves have a sixth sense about when it's going to rain; they'll vanish right before it pours and appear immediately thereafter, umbrellaless, coatless, yet somehow dry.) The non-Irish, on the other hand, will find themselves forever sodden.
