Ireland recap: Days 6 and 7

Day 6: Athenry Castle and Clonmacnoise Abbey

Me sitting in a medieval window

Day 6 was filled with all things medieval. Our first stop was Athenry Castle, a Norman structure which stood empty for centuries after Athenry was attacked by Hugh O'Donnell during the Elizabethan period, and was only recently restored. The stone structure was left intact, but all the wood inside had to be replaced by modern craftsmen.

Dr. K and Shannon outside the castle

This castle isn't filled with period pieces, as many are, but has been left bare. The castle was primarily a military structure, though civilians did live there. The weather was nice and warm and we spent quite a bit of time taking pictures on the grounds of the castle.

The Shannon river

En route to Clonmacnoise, we stopped at a town called Shannonbridge and had lunch on the banks of the river. Shannonbridge is a small town and its current claim to fame is that it is one of the small towns that President Obama stopped in on his recent trip to Ireland. Drew and Gretchen tried to lure some ducks in to us with bread, but the ducks would have none of it.

One of the original high crosses, brought indoors for preservation

Our next stop was Clonmacnoise Abbey, a 6th century abbey built by St. Ciaran. Clonmacnoise sits at the crossroads of early Ireland along a trade road that goes east-west and the Shannon River going north-south. The abbey was also famed as a center for learning and production of manuscripts, but it went into decline in the 12th century.

Telling secrets?

Here, Drew and Juli are trying out the Whispering Arch, one of the features of the Cathedral. Our guide said that this arch was originally used for hearing confessions; a monk would stand on one end and the person confessing would stand on the other and whisper his or her sins to the monk. Charles and I were the first two to volunteer to demonstrate for our tour group and it really worked--we could talk without anyone else hearing, which was very cool.

Dervorgilla's Nuns' Church at Clonmacnoise

After the official guided tour was over, we walked down the road to Dervorgilla's Nuns' Church. Dervorgilla was married to Tiernan O'Rourke and was either abducted by or ran away with Dermot Mac Murrough in 1152. She eventually came back to the O'Rourke, but Mac Murrough enlisted the help of the English to get his sweetheart back, which led to Strongbow's invasion of Ireland in 1169/70. According to the stories, Dervorgilla, filled with sorrow for her part in the whole affair, retired to Clonmacnoise and built this church in reparation. We had read Yeats and Lady Gregory's play Dervorgilla, so we all wanted to see her church. After leaving Clonmacnoise, we headed on to Sligo, two hours from Clonmacnoise and I met my friend Shane, who was also in Ireland, for dinner. After dinner, I came back to the hotel (the Glasshouse in Sligo, a very strange, modern hotel--we were on the orange floor) and we all hung out in the hotel bar together.

Day 7: Carrowmore and Knocknarea

Day 7 was somewhat shorter for me, as my food poisoning from Galway reared its ugly head again. I was nauseous in the morning, but decided that, perhaps as it had happened on Inishmore, the fresh air would do me good. So I got on the bus with everyone else and headed to Carrowmore, one of the four major passage tombs in Ireland. The dolmen pictured above is the focal point of the site; our guide said that every year at Samhain (Halloween) at sunrise, a shaft of light comes through the two mountains that sit opposite the tomb and lights up the whole inside, making anthropologists think that the site is in some way connected with a cult of the dead.
The dolmen that Juli is standing next to in this picture is outside the main site, but is also connected to the Carrowmore complex. It's hard to see in this picture, but the dolmen is surrounded by a stone ring, which isn't uncommon.

I don't have any pictures of Knocknarea because I ended up getting sick halfway through the climb and went back to the bus to sleep while everyone else had adventures; I was quite disappointed, but I figure that that just means I need to go back so I can check climbing Knocknarea off my list.
This final picture was taken from my hotel room's balcony; we were literally right over the River Corrib. When we got back to the hotel I went to the chemist's for some medicine that made me better much quickly and after a 3 hour nap, Shannon and I went out to dinner. It was funny, because we were just looking for some place small and kind of cheap and ended up in a "date restaurant"--all the tables were set for two and had lit candles. We just laughed about being there in our jeans, but being out of place was worth it, because we had the best pasta I think I've ever had, making the end of the day much better than I had thought.

Ireland recap: Day 5

Day 5: June 9th

This was a free day in Galway City, so I started early, since I had a lot that I wanted to see. I ran into Dr. K in the hotel dining room, so over breakfast, we discussed my paper and which conference I should submit it to. Then I headed out without a map to discover what Galway had for me; I will admit that I knew generally where I wanted to go, but not quite how to get there. One of the many things I discovered on this trip was how to trust my intuition and let go of having to be in charge. I just followed the sporadic signs indicating the general direction of a given landmark and managed to find everything I was looking for.

My first stop was Galway Cathedral, pictured above. As I entered the church, a Mass just happened to be starting in one of the side chapels, so I went. It was the feast of St. Columba, one of Ireland's three patron saints. He was one of the great missionaries of the early Irish church, as well as a scribe. Tradition has it that he got into a fight with St. Finian over which man had the right to keep a copy of a psalter that Columba had made. After a large battle in which many lives were lost, the high king passed a now-famous sentence on the copy of the book in question: "To every cow her calf; to every book its copy." Columba then became a missionary in an effort to save as many people as had died during his feud with Finian. After Mass, I wandered around the church, taking pictures, but most of them turned out really blurry.

Next, I went to the Anglican Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, which houses a Crusader's grave from 1280. The tomb is fairly simple, with an inscription around the base in Norman French requesting that the reader pray for the soul of the man buried there. Other highlights of the church included a Celtic cross that serves as a memorial for parishioners who died during the Great War and a banner with the city seal and the banners of the 14 tribes of Galway who came over with Strongbow, the Norman knight. My Nana's family, the Martins, belong to one of the 14 tribes.

The Martin family crest is the bottom left; a cross with a sun and moon on a blue background

After St. Nicholas, I went around the corner to the Nora Barnacle house, which was the residence of the author James Joyce's wife for about 8 years during her adolescence (and which I forgot to get a picture of). As I walked up to the tiny house, an older lady was just unlocking the door. Her name was Anne and she's worked at the house since it opened in the 80s, talking to visitors about Nora and James' relationship, James' works, and (I think) just about anything else anyone would care to know. I spent a delightful hour and a half talking to her about everything under the sun; she was thrilled that someone from SC would take the time to visit the little house. The house next door had just been bought by an Irish expat who had grown up in Australia and he and his father were doing renovation work; they kept taking breaks to come over and visit with us. Anne was very excited to find out that I have Galway cousins and she told me all about the medical work that she and her husband had done in Uganda in the 60s. All in all, it was a wonderful visit.

The Spanish Arch, c. 1584

When I left the Nora Barnacle house, I went down to the waterfront to find the Spanish arch from 1584, then, feeling like I was going to burst with excitement about my morning, found a coffee shop in the Latin Quarter in which to journal. It took an hour and a whole pot of tea to get everything down on paper, but I didn't have to worry about forgetting any of the details. While I was heading back in the direction of the hotel, I ran into Drew and Charles, who were on the street waiting for the girls to get done shopping. They'd been waiting a long time and finally decided they'd been abandoned, so the three of us went adventuring. I took them back to the Cathedral, then they took me to a restaurant they'd found the night before, which had an indoor waterwheel. We had a pint, then headed back to the hotel, where I proceeded to sleep like the dead for two hours.

The boys outside the Cathedral

That night, we decided to get pizza and bring it back to the hotel to save some money. Nobody really wanted to go out, though, so I volunteered to go get it and Shannon, Gretchen and Gillian went with me. The only place that was open (it was about 7) was a Dominos, which I was reluctant to go into, but I ended up being glad I did. I ordered the pizzas and the girl asked me for a name. I gave her my last name automatically, since that's what my dad always does, and she repeated it as a question. I confirmed the name and then spelled it for her and she gave me the total. I paid, then waited there while the other girls ran to the Centra for drinks. While I was waiting, I did the math with the menu and realized that she'd given me a 15 Euro discount on our food. The only reason I could come up with was that it was because of my last name, which is a Galway name. Whatever her reason was, we certainly appreciated our cheap pizza! It was quite a packed free day, but I thoroughly enjoyed my exploration of my ancestral city

I promise I'm still alive

Hey folks, sorry for the fact that I haven't updated in quite some time. Rest assured, I'm still alive and having a fabulous time. We only have two full days left in Dublin, so I'm soaking up every single moment of the day. My plan is to do recap posts of the trip upon my return to the States, using my class journal as a guide.

I've had the most wonderful almost-two weeks here in Ireland; this trip has been full of lots of personal growth, which I intend to detail later if I can put it into words. I have hundreds of pictures and as many memories, but right now, the most important thing to me is that I take advantage of my last few days. I will say that I have a jam-packed day tomorrow, including the Book of Kells, Dublinia (a Viking-era Dublin hands-on museum), the Jameson Distillery and Tennessee William's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Gate Theatre tomorrow night.

Yes, I'm soaking up everything Dublin has to offer :)

Ireland Days 3-4

Yesterday morning, we left Doolin to head to Galway. On the way, we stopped at Poul-na-brone, a Neolithic passage tomb in the Burren. We didn't spend much time there because it was pouring, but the rain had stopped by the time we got to Caherconnell, an Iron Age ring fort, the rain had stopped. We watched the informational video and then wandered around the ruins of the fort. This fort was particularly interesting to me because according to the video, it was probably built sometime before 1000AD, which is the approximate time period in literature I'm interested in; physical evidences of that time period give me a new appreciation for the literature.

After Caherconnell, we went to Coole Park, the home of Lady Augusta Gregory, one of the leaders of the Celtic Revival at the turn of the 20th century. While her house no longer stands (it was torn down in the 1940s), the land belongs to the state and it's beautiful. We walked down to the lake, where I spent a very happy hour sitting alone on a rock watching the swans and contemplating life. One of the things I've come to appreciate most on this trip is the amount of freedom Dr. Kelly is giving us; he's very much OK with us going off alone as long as we get back to the group by the appointed time.

We arrived in Galway, the land of (some of) my ancestors, in the late afternoon. Some of the girls wanted to go out for fish and chips for dinner, so we found a place down past Eyre Square in the center of Galway; it ended up being one of the worst dinners ever. I decided that I wanted to experience things, so I ordered salmon and chips, which was terrible. The salmon just tasted like oil and the chips were bad too.

No one really liked their dinner, so we headed off to find music. We went to three different pubs and at the last one, one of our group, Charles, signed up for open mic and did a few songs. The nice thing about this group of people is that we all get along well and spent most of the evening together, with the exception of trickling back to the hotel in smaller groups at the end of the night. I came back around 11, thinking I'd go straight to bed, but my body, still not happy with the fish and chips from earlier, rebelled. I ended up being sick most of the night. I went to breakfast anyway, where Dr. Kelly, after hearing about my night, gave me the option to stay at the hotel today and go to the Aran Islands tomorrow alone. I was tempted, but remembered my travel motto: "What would Sam do?" I reasoned that, unless she was ill enough to be hospitalized, Sam would probably suck it up and go anyway, so that's what I did. I stopped by a chemist for some nausea medication and off we went.

I definitely made the right choice because between the medication and the fresh air, it didn't take me long to start feeling much better. In fact, while we were hiking up Dun Aengus, I was with Charles and Dr. Kelly and realized that I felt 100% better. We had great weather on Inishmore and a great bus tour guide--I was so glad to have the chance to go back! I bought a handmade cream wool cap in the sweater shop, which I'm loving.

The ferry ride back to Galway was quite exciting; the sea was pretty choppy most of the way and then a Garda Cósta (Irish Coast Guard) helicopter came up to our ferry and did some kind of drill where they lowered a guy down onto the ferry and then retrieved him. It was a fun day, but I was happy to see Nigel and our bus when we got off the ferry.

Tomorrow's a free day, so stay tuned for more exciting Galway adventures!

Ireland Days 1-2

I suppose it's technically been two days, but since I've basically been awake since 6:00 am Sunday morning, it feels like just one. So far, I don't have a whole lot of exciting things to report. We flew from Charleston to Newark on Sunday morning and then spent the afternoon laid over in Newark. All 6 of us girls ate at the Garden State Diner, then Rebecca and I went to the fake Irish pub in the terminal with the 3 boys. We hung out there for a while, then eventually wandered over to our gate. The flight to Ireland was delayed by about 30 minutes, but we ended up getting to Shannon a few minutes ahead of schedule, which was nice. After getting through customs and retrieving our bags, we met our (British) driver/guide, Nigel, who is wonderful.

Our first stop in Co. Clare was at the Cliffs of Moher. I went there on my last trip, when there was much less security than there is now; whereas I was able to sit on the edge and put my legs over the side the last time, we couldn't this time because they've put up limestone slabs as a barrier--slightly disappointing, but oh well. At least I did it last time. One of the guys on our trip told me I was "a little B.A." for doing that, which made me laugh. Hey, I'll take the cool points wherever they come from :). The visitors' centre has also changed since I was there last, which was a more pleasant surprise, especially when it started raining.

After leaving the Cliffs (of Insanity! No, really), we drove to the Burren, a national park famous for its unique flora and fauna as well as the limestone "pavement" that covers much of the park. We climbed all over one park of the limestone down by the water, being careful, though, since the stone was still wet from the earlier storm. We stopped a few times for short picture breaks, then ended up at the Irish Arms, a non-touristy pub (yay!) where I had delicious crispy bangers with creamy mash--fantastic!

Currently, I'm in our hotel in a room with the other girls, sending emails to our families and posting pictures on Facebook. I'm tired, but so, so thankful that I got another chance to come back to this country I love so much. More to follow!