Day 11 ~ On the Road to Cork

Today I got to do two of my favorited things: see how something is made and visit a castle.  Our first stop was the Waterford Crystal Factory. Founded in 1783 by George and William Penrose, Waterford is prized the world over as the standard for the highest quality lead-cut crystal.  We  went on a guided tour and watched the artisans go through the steps of creating their beautiful designs.  Below, the glass blower is forming the shape of a large bowl by blowing into a mold.

Voila! After some cooling and additional shaping, the bowl is ready to be further cooled.

Next step, the rim of the bowl is polished.

The bowl is then marked so the cutters have a design to work from.

The cutters use large saws to cut the crystal.

When pieces are too large for the cutters to handle, they are mechanically cut.

This is my Waterford crystal pattern I chose in1970.  The name of the pattern is Sheila. How could I not choose it?  It is not a production piece any more, but it is in their archives. The simple design is made using a flat cut.

Next we stopped in the town of Cahir in County Tipperary to visit its famous castle.  In its time (13th-15th centuries), Cahir Castle featured a state-of-the-art defensive design and is now one of Ireland’s best-preserved castles. Situated on a rocky island in the River Suir, the castle still boasts its keep, tower, and much of its original structure. One of the reasons it is so well preserved is that in 1650 the guardian of the young Lord Cahir surrendered to Oliver Cromwell during his conquest of Ireland without a shot even being fired. The last Lord Cahir died in 1961, at which point the castle came into state stewardship.

Below is the view of the River Suir from the second story of the keep of the castle.

In the opposite direction, you could see the estate built inside the castle walls in the 1800s.

The wooded area in front of the castle was quite beautiful.  These geese were enjoying a ride under the bridge.

We arrived in Cork late afternoon, settled in our plush rooms, and had a delicious dinner with all the other travelers in the hotel dining room.  Tomorrow will be another full day of exploring Cork. 

Day 10 ~ Kilkenny

This morning we were bussed outside of the city to learn about Hurling, an ancient game invented by the Celts 3,000 years ago. Administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), this game has no professional players but is a game the Irish take very seriously. It is a team sport where 30 players (15 on each team) play on a large 160 yard X 100 yard field nonstop for 70 minutes. The objective of the game is for players to use a wooden stick called a hurley to hit a small ball between the opponents' goalposts either over the crossbar or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper. No protective padding is worn by players. As of 2010, a plastic protective helmet with a faceguard is mandatory for all players. Below our program director, Rory, is doing what he loves best, Hurling.

Kilkenny has received many championship Hurling titles over the years. They are also know for their quality handmade hurleys made from ash trees. We were given a demonstration of hurley making using a bandsaw and finished with hand tools.

When we returned to town, we explored Kilkenny on a walking tour. Our first stop was the Hurling monument.

We made our way to Kytelers Inn, the original home of Dame Alice Kyteler. Dame Alice was the first recorded person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland. She fled the country, but her servant, Petronilla de Meath, was flogged and burned at the stake on November 3, 1324.

Following our lunch at the Kilkenny Design Center, we went across the street for a tour of the Kilkenny Castle. The original Anglo-Norman stone Castle was built by William Marshal during the first decade of the 13^th century to control a crossing point on the River Nore and the junction of several roads. It later became the principal Irish residence of the powerful Butler family for almost 600 years (1391-1967). In 1967, the family presented the castle to the people of Kilkenny in return for a token payment of £50. The Office of Public Works has restored the castle and furnished it beautifully. Below is the view of the expansive interior courtyard. The area in the center of the castle is the residence .  The area on the right contains the art galleries

This photo was taken from the rose garden on the opposite side of the castle

As we explored the interior of the castle, we climbed from the Medieval foundation level up four levels to the bedrooms.  Below is the beautiful dinning room.

The Picture Gallery takes up an entire floor on right wing of the castle.

We decided we just wanted pub food for dinner tonight so we walked down the street to a pub called The Field.  Two fellows were singing; and when we walked in, one of the singers asked where we were from.  When I said California, he said, “Oh, Modesto?”  I was floored, to say the least.  He then gave me his Brandy that some customer had given him.  For over an hour, we were entertained and sang along.  What a fun evening!

Tonight we pack up once again as we move on to Cork tomorrow.

Day 9 ~ Dublin & Kilkenny

On our way to the Guinness Storehouse this morning, we passed by St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Founded in 1191, it is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland (which is not Catholic). It is the tallest and largest church in Ireland.  Between Henry VIII and Cromwell, the Catholic Church has lost many of its churches.

We arrived at the Guinness Storehouse abound 9:00 am for our tour. The beer has been produced at St. James Gate Brewery since 1759 when Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the property as well as water rights from the Wicklow and the Dublin mountain ranges. We learned the process of combining barley, yeast, hops and water to brew Guinness.

Next, we entered the tasting room where we were give a wee glass of Guinness. Before we could take our first sip, we were given instructions on how to get the most out our of our tasting. Since I don’t usually like dark beer, I was surprised I like it.

On the Advertising floor, we enjoyed the humor used in their advertising campaigns over the years.

The fish was actually pedaling the bicycle. Notice the message in the lower left corner, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”

We ended our tour in the Gravity Bar which has a great 360 degree view of Dublin. We were offered a pint of Guinness or a soft drink. Since it was only 10:00 am by this time, I opted for my usual morning Diet Coke.

While making our way to Kilkenny, we stopped in Glendalough for a hike around the remains of one of the most important monastic sites in Ireland. This early medieval monastic settlement was founded in the 6th century by St Kevin.  Most of the buildings that survive today date from the 10th through 12th centuries. Despite attacks by Vikings over the years, Glendalough thrived as one of Ireland’s great ecclesiastical foundations and schools of learning until the Normans destroyed the monastery in 1214 AD.

The Round Tower was a bell tower in the monastery used to summon the monks to prayer.  Notice that the doorway is about 12 feet above ground. Some say this was to help the monks escape Viking attacks by allowing them to climb the ladder then pull it up after them to prevent the enemy from entering.

In the picture below you can see the Tower, St. Kevin’s Church aka St Kevin’s Kitchen, and the remains of the Cathedral, the largest of 7 churches in Glendalough. The setting of the monastery was beautiful and was surrounded by hiking trails to lakes and other points of interest. 

After we arrived in Kilkenny, we had a lovely dinner at our hotel with our fellow travelers. Tomorrow I look forward to exploring the town, including the Kilkenny Castle.

Day 8 ~ Dublin

This morning, we set out on a bus tour of Dublin. Our first stop was Phoenix Park. At 1,750 acres, it is the largest park in Europe and is twice the size of Central Park in New York City. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, a zoo, a herd of wild deer, various monuments and the homes of the president of Ireland and the US Ambassador. The Victorian People’s Vegetable Garden is located next to the visitor center with many vegetables as well as beautiful flowers.

The nearby small Ashtown Castle is a tower house thought to originally date from the 1430s.

Our next stop was Trinity College and the Book of Kells. It is a major tour attraction in Dublin; and after about a 45 minute wait, we were allowed inside the building. The Book of Kells is an illustrated manuscript containing the four Gospels of the New Testament in Latin. It is believed to have been created around 800 AD in a Columban monastery in Ireland and is considered one of the greatest contributions to medieval art ever to come out of the British Isles. In 1641, the monastery of Kells was destroyed. Twelve years later, the Book of Kells was brought to Dublin for safekeeping, and it has been in the possession of Trinity College since at least 1661. We were not allowed to take pictures so the image below is from the college’s digital collection.

Trinity College was founded in 1592.  The Old Library dates back to the early 1700s and is home to the Book of Kells. One floor above this book is the appropriately named Long Room. It is the main chamber of the Old Library and houses around 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books.

Books are not categorized by title or author, but by size.  Notice how the bottom shelves contain the large books while the top shelves only have small books.  In front of each section is a bust of a famous writer..

.

In the evening, we went to the Old Punch Bowl Bar and Restaurant for Irish Food and Entertainment. The Old Punch Bowl is over 200 years old. It got its name years ago when funeral  precessions would pass by and need to stop by for some warm refreshments. With necessity being the mother of invention, the owner created the recipe for hot mulled wine which he served out of a big pot (aka the punch bowl).  Besides a delicious dinner, we were treated to some wonderful Irish music from this trio.

Then these darling Irish dancers dazzled us with their tapping. They were adorable as well as being great dancers.

We are up early in the morning and moving south to Kilkenny.

Day 7 ~ Drogheda & Dublin

We were greeted with Irish rain this morning, but  we can’t complain since we have had such great weather our first week in Ireland. We took a damp tour around Drogheda, then went to Monasterboice before arriving in Dublin.

Drogheda is one of the oldest towns in Ireland and is the last bridging point on the River Boyne before it enters the Irish Sea. The Saint Laurence Gate below was built in the 13th century as part of the walled fortifications of the medieval town. On September 11,1649, Oliver Cromwell breached the walls during the the brutal Comwellian conquest of Ireland. During the years that followed, Cromwell passed a series of penal laws against Roman Catholics and confiscated large amounts of their land. To this day, Cromwell is still a hated figure in Ireland.

Millmount is a large fortified complex situated on a great mound on the South bank of the River Boyne located in Drogheda. The fort has played a crucial part in Drogheda's history and has been a dominant feature from Norman settlement to Cromwell's invasion to the more recent Civil War in 1922 in which the famous Martello tower was shelled and all but destroyed. It was restored in 2000 and houses the Millmount Museum.

Monasterboice is an important Irish spiritual site dating back to the 5th century AD. It was founded by Saint Buithe, a disciple of Saint Patrick. The holy grounds were an important place  for local Christians for more than 500 years. Muiredach's High Cross is regarded as the finest high cross in the whole of Ireland. The cross is carved with biblical images depicting scenes from both the Old and New Testaments.This allowed contemporary worshippers who could not read to follow along with the Bible’s stories.

We arrived in Dublin in the early afternoon and stopped off at the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology.  This beautiful building features displays on prehistoric Ireland, including early work in gold, church treasures and the Viking and medieval periods. In the hopes keeping Irish history straight, I purchased A Pocket History of Ireland in the museum bookstore. We’ll see how it goes.

After our museum visit, we were bussed to our new hotel which is a buzz of activity since there is a major rugby game in the nearby stadium.  Our tour of Northern Ireland was a pre-trip to the Ireland in Depth tour. Tonight, we had dinner with our fellow travelers who joined us for this part of the trip.  Tomorrow, we will continue our exploration of Dublin.

Day 6 ~ Drogheda

After 30 years of conflict during the Troubles, an agreement was reached on April 10, 1998, between the British and Irish governments and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland about how Northern Ireland should be governed. US Senator George Mitchel helped broker The Good Friday Agreement. It was overwhelmingly approved in 2 referendums in both parts of Ireland in May 1998. The agreement set up a power-sharing assembly to govern Northern Ireland by cross-community consent. Nineteen years later, it is still a work in progress.
Hands Across the Divide monument below is a bronze sculpture in Derry of two men reaching out to each other and symbolizes the spirit of reconciliation and hope for the future. You may notice that the hands are not quite touching indicating there is still work to be done.

Once we left Derry, our first stop was the Ulster American Folk Park. The museum tells the story of three centuries of Irish emigration. Using costumed guides and displays of traditional crafts, the museum focuses on those who left Ulster for America in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The park was developed around the Mellon House, which stands on its original site. This homestead was the birthplace of Irish-American banker and lawyer Thomas Mellon, founding father of the Mellon banking dynasty.

Once inside the house, we were greeted by a woman who told us stories and gave us samples of her freshly baked soda bread.

There were several buildings representing homes, a school, churches, a post office, and  a typical street in Ulster. After we left a replica of the ship, we arrived in “America” to a typical port town.  Below is a replica of the Mellon home in Pennsylvania.  The original home still stands in the town of Export, Pennsylvania. I found it very interesting that over 1/3 of our US Presidents are Ulster Irish (Scotch Irish) descendants.

Our next stop was the Battle of the Boyne site. Even though it took place in Ireland, the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 was fought to determine who would be king of England and Scotland. The deposed King James II of England was Catholic. Dutch Prince William of Orange and his wife Mary II had acceded to the Crowns of England and Scotland and were Protestant. Unfortunately for Ireland, King James lost the battle. For the Jacobites, (supporters of  James),  the war was fought for Irish sovereignty, religious tolerance for Catholicism, and land ownership. Conversely, for the Williamites (supporters of William & Mary), the war was about maintaining Protestant and English rule in Ireland. They feared for their lives and their property if James and his Catholic supporters were to rule Ireland. The Battle of the Boyne was the largest battle ever fought on Irish soil with 60,000 troops of thirteen different nationalities.  It is one of the most significant events in Irish history. Below is the battle grounds of the Battle of the Boyne.

The Oldbridge House, built in the area of the battle 40 years later.

As we traveled to our destination of Drogheda, we entered the Republic of Ireland. Again, we have a wonderful view from our room of the River Boyne.

Tomorrow, we explore the town of Drogheda and then move on to Dublin.

Day 5 ~ Derry–Londonderry

Today we had a wonderful walking tour atop the Derry Wall, with Rohan, a Chinese-Irish Buddhist. He has an interesting perspective of the conflict in Northern Ireland and what he hopes for the future. He believes that fear feeds the conflict between the two groups. With economic security and the blending of the groups through social, educational and political interaction, he hopes the conflicts will subside.

Before going any further, I want to go back to the early 1600’s and the Plantations of Ireland. This involved the mass confiscations of land from the Irish in northern Ireland by the English crown and the colonization of this land with settlers from Great Britain. The plantations changed the demography of Ireland by creating large communities with a British and Protestant identity which secured the authority of Crown government in Ireland. Great Britain literally planted its citizens in Ireland to take control.

Derry is 70% Catholic, while the rest of Northern Ireland is only 41%. To maintain political power, the Protestants discriminated against the Catholics in jobs, the ability to own property, and the ability to vote. Below is one of the many murals found in the Bogside as the Catholics demonstrated for their civil rights.

 

In January of 1972, British soldiers shot 28 unarmed civilians during a peaceful protest march against internment (the mass arrest and imprisonment without trial of people suspected of being involved with the Irish Republican Army). Of the twenty-eight shot, fourteen died during the demonstration. Bloody Sunday, as this day was called, was one of the most significant events of The Troubles because a large number of civilian citizens were killed, by forces of the state, in full view of the public and the press. The mural below depicts a priest waving a blood stained handkerchief at the soldiers as he leads a group of men carrying the body of the youngest victim away from the scene of the shooting.

Derry is the only remaining completely intact walled city in Ireland.  The Walls were built in 1613–1619 for the early 17th century settlers from England and Scotland. Catholics were not allowed inside the city walls, but were given bog land on the outside to live (Bogside). The Walls, which  are approximately 1 mile  in circumference, are completely intact and form a walkway around the inner city. The building behind the wall is the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall and the courthouse. These boys were the builders of the wall.

 

Below is the Guildhall, the city hall in Derry. Today at 11:00, while we were sitting in the Guildhall Square, we observed a moment of silence for the victims of the Manchester Bombing.

Below is the view from our room of the Peace Bridge over the Foyle River. After our tour, we walked over the foot bridge that was built in 2011.

This was our view from the bridge with the Republic of Ireland hills in the distance.  We have had good weather on trip so far, but today was over the top beautiful with a high of 76 and sunny.

A closing note: Originally called Derry, the British changed its name to Londonderry.  Today the Nationalists (Catholics) call it Derry, while the Unionists (Protestants) call it Londonderry. Tomorrow we leave Northern Ireland and travel to the Republic of Ireland.