Ireland

July 2, 2019

Our flight on Aer Lingus from Nice to Dublin was uneventful arriving late in the afternoon. One of the first things we noticed upon arrival was a distinct change in the weather. The heat wave that was suffocating Southern France had swept through Ireland the week before and had now been replaced with temperatures in the upper 60’s and low 70’s. We were in heaven.

We checked in to a hotel near the airport for the night as we would be renting a car and heading west to Galway the next morning. But first, there was a trip into Dublin to have dinner at an Irish pub and watch the semi-finals of the women’s World Cup as the US women beat England 2-1. We have been tracking the US team as closely as possible during our trip, including the match against France while we were in France. That was fun and these women are truly an inspiration.

Our 5-day tour of Ireland would be a circular route beginning with a drive due west to Galway, then south to Killarney, east to Kilkenny, then north and further east back to Dublin – 475 miles in total. One of the exciting things about being in Ireland is that this is Liz’s ancestral home and during our entire stay, I have to say, that she felt totally at home. A change came over her almost instantly upon our arrival and stayed with her until we departed. It seemed that somewhere deep down in her soul a connection to this land and these people had taken shape. It is clear to me now, that someday we will return for a longer stay.

The drive to Galway takes about 2½ hours. Halfway to Galway is the town of Athlone where we stopped to visit the Athlone Castle situated in the center of town along the River Shannon. Originally built in 1210, the castle has been remodeled, expanded, destroyed and re-built many times over as a result of the Norman invasion, Napoleon and marauding local clans. Today, after an extensive renovation in 2012, it is a wonderful tourist attraction with a well done multimedia display explaining the castle’s history and the people who have shaped that history.

Athlone Castle

From Athlone, we next visited the Charleville Castle about 45 minutes away. The drive up to the castle is along a long, wooded, dirt road until finally you arrive at a clearing upon which sits the gothic-style castle, first built in 1641. Like so many other buildings of its type, the castle has been renovated, expanded, abandoned, re-occupied and, then, eventually, turned over to a charitable trust as a tourist attraction. We approached the front door, which was locked, and knocked on the big double doors. Eventually, a mid-20’s young man opens the door and in a quiet French-accent, asks if he can help us. We ask if we can take a tour to which he explains that the next tour wasn’t for another 45 minutes. We look disappointed and explain that we are on our way to Galway and can’t wait and he immediately changes his mind and agrees to give us a tour. Given as there was no one else around and no immediate prospects, I was surprised he hesitated even a moment.

Charleville Castle

As it turns out, he is a student from France and interning at the castle this summer. His temperament is quiet and he is just the slightest bit creepy, like the character in a horror movie lurking in the background who turns out to be hiding some dark secret that eventually leads to total chaos for everyone and everything by the end of the movie. The tour takes roughly 30 minutes. It’s an odd building with many unusual architectural features like hidden rooms and false doors. The climax of our tour is a visit to the stairwell where our guide explains that the house is thought to be haunted and that a little girl called Harriet, who died after a fall in a staircase, is said to still visit from time to time. Later we learn that this castle is believed to be the most haunted building and grounds in Europe, with it appearing on Living TV's Most Haunted, Ghost Hunters International and Fox's Scariest Places on Earth. In retrospect, we’re not sure whether the building or our guide was scariest part of the tour.

With the tour now complete and safely back in our car, we are happy to be back on the road, but we have one more stop before heading to Galway - the monastery of Clonmacnoise. The original monastery was built of wood and traces its roots to the 6th century. It was eventually replaced with a monastery made of stone in the 10th century and for hundreds of years was the most famous monastery in Ireland. It was attacked frequently during this time, mostly the Irish (at least 27 times), the Vikings (at least 7 times) and Normans (at least 6 times). In 1552 the English garrison at Athlone destroyed and looted Clonmacnoise for the final time, leaving it in ruins. Today, like so many other ruins, it is a tourist attraction and one well worth visiting.

Clonmacnoise Monastery

We arrive in Galway, a harbor city on Ireland’s west coast, late in the afternoon, check in to our hotel and then walk 1.5 miles to the center of town. Galway, Ireland’s sixth largest city with a population of 80,000, is quaint and beautiful. With two universities in town, there are a lot of young people and, as a coastal city, it attracts a lot of tourists giving Galway a very lively and energetic feeling. It’s a great place to walk, whether through the pedestrian-only old town or along the waterfront, and the food is great. We spent two days in Galway and walked nearly 18 miles.

One of the must stop venues is the gorgeous Galway Cathedral, a Catholic gothic cathedral that was only recently built (1958) and is the last stone cathedral to be built in all of Europe. During our visit, we learned that there would be a concert that evening featuring a pair of 17-year olds; a girl soprano accompanied by a boy on piano. We returned at 8pm for the concert and were amazed by their talent and the acoustics of the venue. It was a remarkable evening.

Galway Cathedral

We also loved walking along High St, a pedestrian-only street that runs through old town consisting of lovely boutique stores, cafes and restaurants. And we encountered numerous street performers. At one point, I was sure I was hearing Lady Gaga and, as we turned the corner, there was this 13-year old girl singing Shallow. She left us breathless.

Walking along the waterfront out to Salthill was also a highlight. We were disappointed to be only spending two days in Galway and left there believing another few days would be just right.

Friday, July 5^th

Our plans for today are to visit the Cliffs of Moher. Several years ago, as part of a work trip to Dublin, I had traveled out to the Cliffs of Moher – a 3½ drive from Dublin – only to find them encased in fog. So thick were the clouds, that while standing on the edge of the 390’ high cliffs you could not see them at all. Apparently, this is a common experience at the cliffs as in the visitor’s center there is a giant picture of the cliffs that visitors, frustrated by driving all that distance to see nothing, can have their picture taken standing next to a picture of the cliffs. Before leaving our hotel, I asked the lady at the front desk if she knew what the weather forecast for the cliffs would be that day. She placed a call directly to the visitor’s center and was told that, per usual, they are completely encased in fog today. I told Liz that we would be skipping the cliffs and heading directly to Killarney – a 3-hour drive. She resisted, but then relented.

On the way to Killarney, we stopped at the cute little town of Adare, the same town I had stopped at during my failed effort to see the cliffs years before. The remains of the Desmond Castle, built during the 12^th century, are in Adare. The castle is now under extensive renovation so we chose to visit only from afar, preferring, instead, to walk along the banks of the Maigue River on which the castle stands. We also visited the Trinitarian Monastery, first built in 1210 and then renovated in 1816. Adare is also home to many thatched roof cottages that remind one of Hansel and Gretel. If you find yourself in Ireland, Adare is definitely worth a stop.

Desmond Castle in Adare

We arrived in Killarney by early afternoon, checked into our hotel and then strolled the cute town center. Killarney is the largest town (14,500 population) on the Ring of Kerry – an extremely popular 111-mile drive that takes you through Killarney National Park, over the mountains, around the Ivaragh Peninsula, and back to Killarney. Owing to a bike race on the Ring of Kerry scheduled for Saturday, the drive would be closed to vehicles which suited us just fine, but it did mean that the streets of Killarney were brimming with bicyclists this Friday evening.

We visited St Mary’s Cathedral where construction began in 1842. We arrived just as a wedding was letting out. We snuck in a side door and watched as the bride and groom walked back down the aisle and then all of the guests joined them in sequence. Accordingly, our tour of this beautiful cathedral was complete with numerous floral arrangements and celebratory music emanating from the organ. Very special indeed.

St Mary's Cathedral in Killarney

From the cathedral, we entered Killarney National Park and walked the several miles to Ross Castle which sits on the edge of Lough Leane Lake. The castle was built in the late 15^th century and was one of the last to fall to Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads. When in Killarney, make sure you visit Ross Castle.

Ross Castle in Killarney National Park

Saturday, July 6th

We left our hotel in Killarney early with our final destination for the day being Kilkenny, about a 3-hour drive. Our first stop was the Charles Fort in Kinsale, a port city along the southern coast of Ireland. The fort, named after King Charles II, was built in the late 17^th century in a star like configuration and was used as a military complex until the early 1900’s when it was abandoned by the British following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The fort fell into dis-repair until it was named a National Monument of Ireland in 1971 and restoration work commenced to turn it into a tourist attraction. Kinsale is a beautiful harbor town where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch and strolled the streets with their numerous boutiques and shops.

Charles Fort in Kinsale

From Kinsale we drove 45 minutes due north to visit Blarney Castle just outside of Cork. Blarney Castle is a magnificent structure dating back to 1446 and, like all the other old castles, went through numerous reconstructions, destructions and refurbishments over the centuries. We toured the castle and the extensive adjacent gardens. And, of course, we kissed the Blarney Stone.

The Blarney Stone, also called the Stone of Eloquence, is said to give the gift of eloquence to all that kiss it which is accomplished by lying on one’s back, hanging upside down, and then kissing the stone (all with the help of castle staff). This all sounds rather uneventful except that the stone is embedded in the very top of the castle at about 90ft above the ground.

Blarney Castle

Our final stop, before heading to our accommodations for the night, was the Rock of Cashel – a 1hr 45 min drive north and east from Blarney. The early history of the Rock of Cashel goes back to medieval times and includes the legend that it was here that St. Patrick converted the King of Munster to Catholicism. Few remnants of the early structures survive – the majority of buildings on the current site date from the 12th and 13th centuries. With that said, what remains is astounding and the Rock of Cashel was one of the most amazing things we saw while in Ireland.

Rock of Cashel

Eventually, we arrived at Lorum Old Rectory, built in 1863 as a home for priests and now operated by Bobbie Smith and her daughter as a B&B. The place is unique and stunning and Bobbie and her daughter could not have been more welcoming.

Sunday, July 7th

This would be a busy day. Kilkenny has lots of attractions to see, then back to Dublin to catch a plane to London, then into the city to our AirBnB that would serve as home for the following week.

It begins with Kilkenny Castle. Originally built in 1195, the castle was home to the Butler family since the late 14^th century and remained so until Arthur Butler sold the deteriorating castle to the Castle Restoration Committee of Kilkenny for a ceremonial £50, with the statement: "The people of Kilkenny, as well as myself and my family, feel a great pride in the Castle, and we have not liked to see this deterioration. We determined that it should not be allowed to fall into ruins. There are already too many ruins in Ireland."

Kilkenny Castle

Among the many Butler family members that have lived there was Lady Margaret Butler (1465-1539) who married Sir William Boleyn and was the paternal grandmother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England (more about that later when we cover our travels in and around London).

It is a beautiful building sitting prominently on a hill in Kilkenny where it is the center of attention.

From the castle we walked to St. Canice Cathedral, then St Mary’s Cathedral and, finally, the Black Abbey – all beautiful buildings and worth the visit, but if you only have time for one building in Kilkenny, make it the Castle.

From Kilkenny, we hopped back into our car and headed the final 2+ hours back to the airport to catch our 5pm flight to London.

Before leaving this blog posting covering our trip through Ireland, I have to talk a bit about the Great Famine a period in Ireland from 1845 to 1849 of mass starvation, disease and emigration. The most severely impacted regions of Ireland just happened to be the west and south – the exact regions of our circular trip. During the famine, about one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.

This from Wikipedia-

“The proximate cause of the famine was a natural event, a potato blight, which infected potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, precipitating some 100,000 deaths in total in the worst affected areas and among similar tenant farmers of Europe. The food crisis influenced much of the unrest in the more widespread European Revolutions of 1848. The event is sometimes referred to as the Irish Potato Famine, mostly outside Ireland. The impact of the blight was exacerbated by the Government's political belief in laissez-faire economics.

The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland, which from 1801 to 1922 was ruled directly by Westminster as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Together with the Napoleonic Wars, the Great Famine in Ireland produced the greatest loss of life in 19th-century Europe. The famine and its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political, and cultural landscape, producing an estimated two million refugees and spurring a century-long population decline. The already strained relations between many Irish and the British Crown soured further both during and after the famine, heightening ethnic and sectarian tensions, and boosting Irish nationalism and republicanism in Ireland and among Irish emigrants in the United States and elsewhere.”

In February 1845, a Royal Commission of the British Government reported:

It would be impossible adequately to describe the privations which they (the Irish labourer and his family) habitually and silently endure ... in many districts their only food is the potato, their only beverage water ... their cabins are seldom a protection against the weather ... a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury ... and nearly in all their pig and a manure heap constitute their only property.

And this from John Mitchel, one of the leaders of the Young Ireland Movement, who wrote in 1860:

I have called it an artificial famine: that is to say, it was a famine which desolated a rich and fertile island that produced every year abundance and superabundance to sustain all her people and many more. The English, indeed, call the famine a "dispensation of Providence"; and ascribe it entirely to the blight on potatoes. But potatoes failed in like manner all over Europe; yet there was no famine save in Ireland. The British account of the matter, then, is first, a fraud; second, a blasphemy. The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine.

It would appear that the famine was indeed “artificial” produced by absent landlords who did not live in Ireland but continued to demand production and export of goods out of Ireland while the tenant farmers paid rents, did all the work and starved, literally to death. Heaped on this was an indifferent British government that watched from afar, created report after report on the “Irish Situation”, but in the end did very little to come to the aid of its Irish citizens, rather leaving them to die and/or leave their country. Shameful. But it sounds a bit like the US response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. At the end of the day, in my opinion, both the British response to the Potato Famine in Ireland and the US response to hurricanes in New Orleans and Puerto Rico are the result of racial, religious and/or class discrimination. The potato bug, while present throughout Europe, only produced famine in Ireland and hurricanes in Florida, which occur annually, never create the economic dislocation that were experienced in New Orleans or Puerto Rico. Again, shameful!

Musings….

I LOVED Ireland! Everything about it. I had only been to Dublin before so exploring the areas we visited was a first. And it was so nice to be in a mild climate after the heat we experienced for over 2 weeks. It’s so green - multiple colors of green in every direction. Maybe it’s my ancestral roots (23andMe declared I was 96% Irish/English) calling to me but I literally felt so comfortable there - I could easily spend several months visiting. Definitely want to get to Northern Ireland next trip. And, as Malcolm noted, we missed Cliffs of Moher (yes I relented, but not easily - I wanted to go and risk “wasting” the 90 minute drive just in case, but he won that battle;).

We were blessed (as the Irish would say) with beautiful sunny days which makes for such an enjoyable visit. Malcolm had all the driving responsibilities (yikes!), but between driving on the opposite side and a stick-shift on the left hand side there was no way my brain could process that and still drive. The roads between most of our stops were 2 lanes, no lines, no shoulders and winding. I apologized to Malcolm when we were leaving Ireland for constantly white-knuckling it and almost non-stop backseat driving. It’s good he still loves me.

Most of the food was quite delicious but I never had Irish soda bread as delicious as my BC roommate Anne’s mom used to make us - Mrs. Walsh made the best Irish soda bread ever! But we did have many variations of wonderful tasting brown bread (molasses and black pepper seem to be a key in that recipe). And here I am talking about bread again…good grief, it’s a full blown addiction now.

Highly recommend everyone checking Ireland out. I can’t wait to go back and spend more time. 

PS

We’re getting a bit tardy in our blogging (notice how I say we, but it’s 99% Malcolm). Sometimes traveling just gets in the way…what can I say. But we’ll catch up soon. Thanks for hanging out and sharing our travels with us.