Tuar Ceathas (Rainbows)

I know Belfast’s wet weather has been previously mentioned, but I am feeling the need to touch on it once again.  There is a reason that the Emerald Isle is nicknamed “emerald”.  The hills really are that green as a result of all the rain.  I can be looking out my window at the most perfect blue hued sky, when within minutes dark clouds can be seen rolling over our nearest hill bringing enough rain to quench the American west’s drought in one storm.  However, because of all the rain, Belfast also gets a record number of rainbows.  It seems at least half a dozen times each week I am finding a rainbow appearing somewhere.  And, I must say, Belfast does rainbows well.  I think I can recall seeing a handful of rainbows over the course of my lifetime in the States, and those were “average” at best.  The rainbows here are vivid in color, almost looking fake because they are so bold and stay so long in the sky.  It is not uncommon for a double rainbow to also show off against the dark rain clouds that have just blown through.  In fact, there are so many rainbows in all of Ireland that based upon where you live in the island, and if you still spoke Gaelic, you would have a different name for rainbow.  Just like the Inuit have a variety of terms for snow, the Irish have a variety of names for rainbow.  For example, in the Ulster region where we live (a region consisting of one of the five original tribes of Ireland), a Gaelic speaker would call a rainbow “tuar ceatha” meaning multicolored arch in the sky, but if a Gaelic speaker from down south in the Republic near Cork were referring to a rainbow, he would call it “tuadh ceatha” meaning axe of a shower of rain.  The more I look after rain showers, the more I find rainbows popping up all over the sky.  They have become literal silver linings of the clouds, reminding me that if you look hard enough after each shower there is always a glimmer of hope.  When it feels like a rain storm is never going to end and the cold water never dry up, before I know it another rainbow is beaming down on me.