Tuesday evening, October 2, we arrived in the Emerald Isles at the town of Rosslare. We will be using Euros this week. The Irish flag is green (Catholic), white (peace) and orange (Protestant), meaning the two are together with peace. The Gaelic language has 18 letters, with no J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y or Z. Farming and dairy farming, in particular, are big business here. They export a lot of dairy products.
En route to Waterford, we pass through the town of New Ross which has a statue of JFK, an eternally flamed memorial to the approximate 1.5 Million Irish men, women and children who died in the mid-1800's potato famine, and the so-called famine or coffin ship Dunbrody which sailed many passengers to the USA or Canada but also neglected many sick, starving, dying passengers. We note the repeated cruelty of the British government towards its conquered people.
We spend the night in Waterford. Glass making has been here since the time of the Vikings; then the Normans continued the tradition. With the downfall of the economy, the craft also declined until 1947 when a Czech man along with a couple partners rekindled the business. We visit the Waterford Crystal shop the next day. We watch the glass blowers and all the craftsmen create sparkling gorgeous pieces. Since we weren't buying any crystal, we took a short walk in the market area. I said Good Morning to a woman and she called out in a wonderful Irish lilt 'Top of the Morning to you!' So sweet.
Have we mentioned we talk with many hospitality workers in the hotels and restaurants who come from Central and Eastern Europe? They are everywhere. We have cooler temperatures now; cool, not cold. Trees leaves are coloring and falling.
We visit Blarney Castle but don't climb up the slippery stone stairs to kiss the Blarney stone. If we had, we'd be granted the gift of persuasion and eloquence, (which neither of us need 😂). We continue through the Lee Valley along the Lee River, crossing the Kerry mountains. We spend two nights in Kenmare, a town along the Ring of Kerry. On Thursday we have a 20% chance of sunshine. We drive counter-clockwise along the Ring, seeing lakes, loughs and mountains. Killarney is made of streets full of shops. The rain starts around noon, and our guide Peter is disappointed he can't show us the beauty. Peter does tell us about the Irish gypsies.
Friday is overcast when we board the bus. An hour later the sun came out and gave us a big rainbow. We visit Adare, a Norman-founded town. We see the washing stones at the riverside, and we look inside a 14th century dovecote. We drive by the River Shannon, and we see an IRA memorial in Limerick. Peter cautions us to not mention IRA or other buzzwords when/if we talk to locals. It's only talked about as The Troubles. We see the Cliffs of Moher on this pleasant afternoon. Anne and I are disappointed in them since we've seen grander sheer cliffs. In the town of Lisdoovarna, a Matchmaker festival is held every year. We see unusual hills at Galway, made of limestone which means they were once the bottom of the sea.
On Saturday we leave the university town of Galway. In 1879 fifteen Knock citizens saw a religious apparition along the outer wall of their church, where there is now the Knock Shrine. Pope Francis visited here a month ago. Pope John Paul II also visited and celebrated mass on Sept. 30, 1978. Our next stop was the Hedgerow Church, Tobernalt Holy Well. When Catholics were terribly oppressed and prohibited from worshipping in churches and priests were hunted, priests and believers would meet secretly in this open- air church to worship in the middle of the woods. We travel on to Sligo, a lovely townm on this beautiful day, and we spend the night in Donegal. Our room was on the street side, so we heard bar music and partymakers until the early hours.
Sunday is a rainy day, and we cross the River Foyle into Northern Ireland (using the English pound again) at Derry/Londonderry. Our local guide is Ronan McNamara, the son of a Chinese Buddhist mother and a British father and who is married to a Catholic woman from Donegal and the father of three. He gives us insight to The Troubles. As a Buddhist with both Catholic and Protestant friends, he only hopes for a better future. We continue on to the cold and blustery winds at the Giant's Causeway, where you can see across the 13 miles to Scotland's shores. There's a tale involved in the causeway's construction, but you'll have to look it up if interested. In the late afternoon, we meet Belfast's 'black cabbies'. Cab driver friends, both C and P, drive us in their black cabs to several locations around Belfast to tell us their past experiences growing up in the time of The Troubles and the future they see. Seeing the walls separating neighborhoods and murals and memorials for each side has left me very unsettled. I hated seeing the walls. I hate that still today remembrances are held which really do support the division of the groups; I hate the veiled threats. I wish them all the best, but I don't know how it will happen. Sad, really. Makes me angry. The Northern Ireland police are armed 24 hours a day, and they must carry guns for 10 years after they retire.
On Monday we tour Belfast. We see the location of their dissolved parliament, Stormont. We go to the Titanic museum, but we don't have time for a visit. The building is interesting, built in the shape of a 5-pointed star for the White Star Line, the owner of the Titanic. Built here in Belfast in 1911 at the Harland & Wolff shipyard, the Irish built the Titanic, but the British sunk it... We drive back to the Republic of Ireland. In Dublin we meet our local guide Adele. Of course, the Vikings were here long ago. In 1916 on Easter Monday an uprising started at the post office building. The rebels were defeated, but the seed for independence had been planted. You can read about how The Republic of Ireland was finally created. Dublin is very international now with many foreign students and tourists. Most of our group goes to Taylor's Bar for dinner and very entertaining show with music, dance and comedy.
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