When I was in college, one of the posters in my room was a luscious green photo of Ireland. It was gorgeous, beckoning and lulling, and I was a daydreamer. Still am. One thing I have learned since college, some dreams come true.

Are you at all interested in a trip to Ireland? If even a tiny part of you said yes, read on. If not, I’ll see you back here next week.

Some of you may know P.J. Francis. His articles and photos appear in several of the newspapers that run my column. P.J. is an Irishman who has lived in the states for years. He has a desire to organize a group tour to Ireland, his homeland. He has asked me to be the tour guide!

P.J. will be the history and local lore expect. I will be the one to make sure everyone stays happy and understands P.J.’s thick accent. So…are you in? Great! Oh, you want more details? Okay, sure.

We are in the planning phase and need to know how many to plan for. The basic theme is flexibility (this will be a laid-back tour), frugality (we are all on a budget; until I hit the LOTTO jackpot), and fun (no whiner/complainers allowed).

Tentative agenda: Homebase will be Ballyvaughn, P.J.’s hometown. P.J.’s mother still lives there, but she doesn’t have room for a gaggle of giggly Americans. We’ll stay at the lovely new hotel. We will visit Galway (once a walled city and a piece of the wall is still intact), Claddagh (it’s not just a ring, it’s a fishing village), the awesome Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Coole Park and Thoore, Ballylea (home of poet W.B.Yeats).

And we’ll go to castles! And we’ll have a banquet at a castle! We’ll tour the Burren region: “An amazing place: karst limestone pavements, eroded in a distinctive pattern known as karren. This pavement is crisscrossed by cracks known as grykes and underneath the pavement, there are huge caves… dozens of megalithic tombs and celtic crosses and a ruined Cistercian Abbey from the 12th century, Corcomroe. You can find villages abandoned since famine times and green roads on which you can walk for miles without ever seeing a car.”

We can hook up with the walking club; we can borrow bicycles. Horse riding is popular. We can scooter and we can rent minibuses for day trips. There will be opportunities, but no mandates. P.J. and his wife, Helena, will regale us with tales (Why did the mayor of Galway allegedly hang his own son?). We will go to the pub and chat with the locals. Drinking Guinness is optional. Singing “Danny Boy” is strictly forbidden.

We’re thinking June 2009. That gives us all plenty of time to save our pennies. If you are at all intrigued, drop me an email or snail mail. I will add a page to my website soon with Ireland trip information, but for now, we are gathering interested parties. Cost is key, we know. We’re working on the best deal possible. If you don’t have already, get a passport, patience, and a sense of humor. And if you are someone who wants to travel, but doesn’t have someone to go with, now you do.  So what do you say? (I say life is short; die broke.) Ireland is gorgeous and beckoning.  Are you in?

[Contact Ceallaigh (Kelly in Irish) at kel_epperson@yahoo.com or PO Box 2324 Loves Park IL 61131. Visit www.kellyepperson.com or www.whenlifestinks.com. Hey – new book title? When Life Stinks, Take a Trip to Ireland!]