IRELAND- PART I

We've just returned from two weeks in Ireland and the visions and memories are permantantly etched in my mind.  We had a truly memorable and wonderful time. 

First, it should be said that this journey might never have taken place were it not for my desire to connect with the culture of my ancestors.  There is something about being part of an Irish family, even if the family isn't one hundred percent Irish, that lures you to that small island across the Atlantic.  The stories you heard growing up, the myths and legends, the songs, the hardships, the history, the parades in honor of St. Patrick all make you want to visit  and see what those great great grandparents left behind, and why they brought so much of it with them. 

Our trip started off in Dublin and we got a glimpse into over 1000 years of Irish history - from the prehistoric and then Celtic origins, to the invasion of Vikings, to the conquest of the Normans,  to the British rule, and to the many rebellions against that rule, most of them ending in disaster.  The place that I found both fascinating and haunting was Kilmainham Gaol, the jail where the leaders of the 1916 Easter rising were imprisoned and executed.  Here is the Jail:

 



And here is the place of execution:

Of course, we saw many other sites in Dublin, including Dublin castle, which really isn't much of a castle, the General Post Office, where you can still see bullet holes from the Easter Rising, the Guinness Storehouse and Jameson Distillery, Grafton Street, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, the River Liffey, the Cathedrals, the Dublin Writer's Museum, the Statues of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, the visitors from Galway and Cork wearing their colorful jerseys and walking to the semi-final hurling match, even a parade - not in honor of St. Patrick, but a surprise LGBT parade in support of gay marriage.

 

After three days we left for Killarney and the Dingle Peninsula. Along the way, we stopped at the  1000 year old Cahir Castle in County Tipperary.  Here are a few pictures:

 

 

 

 From Killarney, we toured the Dingle Peninsula.  The raw beauty of this windswept, Emerald landscape was breathtaking.  We saw fields and fields of sheep, grazing with a view of the Atlantic Ocean. 

 

 

 

 Along the way, we saw an ancient bee hive hut, where monks once lived solitary existences.

 

The following day it rained, but we braved the weather and rode through Killarney National Park in a horse drawn buggy.

 

 

Then we headed over to Muckross House, a nineteenth century mansion which was stunning in its beauty and opulence.  Built in 1843, just three years before the Great Famine in Ireland, it is almost unbelievable that people could live in such splendor when thousands of families, only a few miles away, were starving to death.

Queen Victoria visited Muckross House in 1861, the year my great great grandparents came to America.  It is said the owners spent three years preparing for her visit, and went bankrupt in the process.

The next day we visited the village of Adair with its thatched roof cottages -

And the Cliffs of Moher -

Then our drive took us to The Burren, a barren and strange lanscape formed when the ice receded from the last ice age.  It stretched for miles and miles.

Appearing here and there throughout this landscape are ancient Druid Tombs, dating back to thousands of years before Christ. 

We also passed through Limerick, and saw some landmarks from Frank McCourt's book, Angela's Ashes.  Then we headed to Dromoland Castle to begin the second half of our journey, and the long anticipated meeting with the cousins.  That part of the trip will be presented in IRELAND - PART II