I suppose you haven't even got a three-day weekend that you can take? You don't need to wait for an Esperanto event; often you can just plan to go to a city and meet up with the local Esperantists informally. You can also practice by attending meetings in Ireland. The Irish Esperanto association says that there are members in both the north and the south of the island. It seems that there are regular Saturday meetings in Dublin. Not very close to you, as I see from Google Maps, but you could probably manage it at some point. This is the season when most clubs have a Zamenhof banquet to celebrate Zamenhof's birthday, so that is usually a good chance to meet up with a larger than usual group of local Esperantists.

@Erinja: Whole weekends are the hardest to get off, but I hope to get down to Dublin as Saturday is the only really free time I have. It's about five hours each way, though, because the roads are somewhat crap until you get to within striking distance of the motorway.

Don't know who these Esperantists are in the north of Ireland. I've never come across even a whisper of any.

@Radio~!: Thanks. I might be ready for something like that by then.

Contacting the Esperanto association would be a good way to find out if there's anyone living up north. Many Esperanto associations publish an address list of their members and maybe someone could check it for you.

Also, I suggest doing a search on lernu for all users who live in Ireland. You can check out their recent activity levels and the cities they live in. Never know, you might get lucky and find someone to meet up with.

erinja: Also, I suggest doing a search on lernu for all users who live in Ireland. You can check out their recent activity levels and the cities they live in. Never know, you might get lucky and find someone to meet up with.

I didn't know you could do that! I'm surprised how many people there are in Ireland who have signed up here. There are are nearly enough Dubs for a UK! It's pity most are inactive. There are a few in the North East, so I'll hear what the story on them is at the Sabata Rondo in January.