Top Of the Mornin' to Ireland

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“Top of the mornin’ to you” our hostess said as she breezed through the breakfast room and I knew without a doubt we were in Ireland. Actually we had heard no one really says “Top of the mornin’” anymore so we were grinning at each other to actually hear it said in a real Irish brogue.

John and I arrived in Ireland on May 7 and spent the next week exploring the sights of Dublin and generally taking it easy (I will write about Dublin in a later blog). After the week, our friends Vicky and Gary arrived and the four of us set out to explore the country.

We left Dublin immediately because Queen Elizabeth II was due to visit and they were closing streets and sights in preparation. We headed south out of Dublin to Glendalough (glen-da-lock). It is the site where St Kevin founded a monastic community in AD498. It reached its peak in the 9th century then declined under Viking invasions and English repression until it finally died out in the 17th century. Today it is a national park and a thriving cemetery (many church ruins are surrounded by active cemeteries). It is in a beautiful location at the bottom of a valley with lovely hills and a gurgling stream. The most impressive building is a 110 foot tall tower with a pointy roof that looks like a rocket. It used to house bells that called the community to prayer. It is one of 40 towers around Ireland and the only one still intact.

We then drove to the town of Kilkenny to spend the night. We ate dinner at a pub opened in the 1400’s called Kytlers Inn. Mrs. Kytler was a shrewd businesswoman who was accused of being a witch by her jealous business rivals. She escaped to Europe but her poor maid had no such luck; she was whipped then burned at the stake.

The next day we toured Kilkenny Castle. It is a well-maintained castle that was started in the 12th century. In the 15th century it was bought by the Butler family, so named because they were the hereditary butlers to the English king, a very powerful position because they collected the taxes on all wine sold in Ireland. The castle was used by the Butlers until 1935 when a massive auction was held and sold off many of the furnishings and paintings. The castle stood empty until 1960 when it was given to the city that turned it into a nice museum. It was originally a square but Cromwell’s troops knocked down the east wall to take the castle. Now that space opens onto a lovely park. Inside are period furnishings from the late 19th century. Many of the rooms had been photographed about that time and so those pictures were used to refurbish the building.

In the afternoon we drove to The Rock at Cashel. The Rock is exactly that, a several-acre rock 300 feet high in an otherwise flat valley. It was the seat of the local king but for 700 years the various local kings fought over it. It was here that St Patrick baptized one of the local kings. The story goes that St Patrick was so wrapped up in the ceremony that he accidentally stabbed the king in the foot with his staff. The king, thinking it was part of the baptism ceremony, did not say anything until after it was over.

In 1101AD the local king that was in charge at the time gifted the Rock to the church. It was a very canny move because it gave him significant influence in the church and prevented his rival from taking it away from him. The church built all of the buildings currently on the rock. First they built a round tower like in Glendalough then they built a chapel and finally they built a cathedral. Because of the small area on top of the rock, the cathedral had to be wedged between the chapel and the tower and as such was a rather funny shape. It still had a choir and a nave; the choir is where the clergy celebrate mass, the nave is where the people celebrate mass. Usually the nave is much bigger than the choir since there are more people than clergy but, because of the space in which they had to work, in this cathedral the choir is three times bigger than the nave. Not exactly a people-friendly church.

The next day brought us to Dingle on the west coast of Ireland. This is very scenic country and despite the clouds we were not disappointed. The countryside is green, many shades of green; one author described it as 40 shades of green. Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle because it is so green. All that green comes at a price: it has rained at least a little every day that we have been here. Sometimes the showers are light and short and sometimes it downpours for hours but we just put on our raincoats, open our umbrellas and continue on.

Our first evening in Dingle we headed to a local church for a concert of Irish music. First two ladies played several reels and other tunes on the harp, fiddle and flute then, after the intermission, two men played the Irish pipes, guitar and flute for many more songs. All were very good and it was a very enjoyable concert. Afterwards we went to a pub where the two ladies plus one more man were participating in a trad which is a jam session of traditional music. They played the harp, guitar, violin and flute as we downed Guinness in the tavern. It was an evening to remember.

The next day we drove around the Dingle Loop. It is a very scenic area and also has a lot of history. Our first stop was Dunbeg Fort. It is the remains of a small stone fort on a cliff above the sea several thousand years ago. About half of it has fallen into the sea as the cliff has eroded but there are still interesting remains of fortified walls and a beehive-shaped hut built using no mortar. There are hundreds of these forts around Ireland and experts don’t know what they were used for. Many think they were secular and religious centers but, if so, why the defensive walls?

Just 50 meters down the road were the “Historical and Original Irish Famine Cottages”. This is three cottages that were abandoned during The Great Potato Famine but not torn down. It gave a bleak but detailed description of the hows and whys of the famine. In 1845 and 1846 the potato crop failed because of a fungus brought from the US. Potatoes were many peasants’ only source of food. The British made it much worse by giving no aid and continuing to export food from Ireland. It was more important to make money than to prevent people from literally starving in the streets. To make matters worse, nonresident British landlords used the opportunity to evict peasants from their property to make way for people who could pay higher rents. There were stories of entire families dying from starvation and the related diseases and starving packs of dogs eating the corpses before they could be buried. By the end of the five year famine, (1845 – 1849), 2 million people had either starved or emigrated, ¼ of Ireland's population; it was the worst famine in recorded history. The population of the Dingle Peninsula was almost 40,000 before the famine. It dropped to almost nothing by the end of the famine and even now it is only 10,000. And to this day many Irish are still angry at the British for causing rather than relieving the famine.

The next sight was the highlight of the Dingle Loop. It was called the Oratory and is a 1300 year old church made entirely out of rocks without mortar and it is still intact and even waterproof. It was a striking building and it is amazing that it has remained standing all these years. When I asked the man at the visitor’s center if the church had been rebuilt and he responded “No, we have protected it” like there was a local brotherhood who had watched over the church for centuries.

The next day we traveled north along the coast to the Cliffs of Moher (pronounced more). These are spectacularly sheer cliffs dropping vertically into the Atlantic. They are up to 700 feet high and run for 5 miles along the western coast. Next we drove through the Burren where we visited a portal tomb. It was like mini Stonehenge with a 1.5 ton stone placed as a roof on top of several standing stones. They found the remains of over 30 people when they excavated the area.

We have seen and learned a lot already and that was only the first five days. Stay tuned for more.

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Photos

Glendalough Round Tower
It used to be a monastic settlement and is now a cemetery inside a national park.

Kilkenny Castle
That is Vicky and John in the foreground.

Cashel Cathedral
With Vicky and Gary.

Trad at the Pub
Dingle, County Kerry

Dunbeg Fort
Vicky and Gary next to the fortified walls of Dunbeg Fort.

Oratory
This church has stood for 1300 years and is still waterproof. It is dry stone; no mortar was used.

At the Pub
Beth and John listening to music and drinking Guinness.

Hore Abbey
Below the Rock at Cashel.

Beehive Hut
The type of house where people lived until the 1700's. It is simply stacked stone; no mortar is used.