Ireland 2012

In 2012 we finally got the opportunity to visit Paula’s (and to a lesser extent John’s) ancestral homeland — Ireland. Most of Paula’s ancestors were from County Kerry and John’s Irish ancestors were from County Waterford. Many came to the US around the potato famine years of 1844-1848.

We visited Dublin in February for several days and in July for a week. On the July visit we also toured around Ireland for another week.

The people and the sights were great. The weather was lousy — it rained every single day. Our adventures in Ireland are highlighted below:We visited Trinity College in Dublin, founded by charter of Queen Elizabeth in 1592. It is home to the Old Library and it’s Long Room that houses around 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books.
The Old Library also contains a Treasury for the display of Irish medieval gospel manuscripts, principally the Book of Kells, the Book of Armagh and the Book of Darrow. Here are some pages from the Book of Kells, thought to be produced by Monks from the island of Iona, who fled to Kells in AD 806 after a Viking raid. In the Wicklow Mountains just south of Dublin is Glendalough, a monastery established by St. Kevin in the 6th Century. It was sacked time and again by the Vikings but nevertheess flourished for over 600 years. Decline set in only after English forces partially razed the site in 1398, though it functioned as a monastic centre until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. Most of the buildings date from the 10th to 12th Centuries.
We drove down the Southeast Coast to County Wexford and County Waterford,
staying a couple of days in Dunmore East which is a cute fishing village perched
on the hillside overlooking the Celtic Sea. In the view from our hotel room note the hardy Irish swimmers, determined to enjoy their Summer beach vacation on this
windy, 50 degree F day.
We took the ferry to the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford (crossing at Passage East from Crook to Hook, source of the saying “by hook or by crook” related to Oliver Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland in 1649-1650. On the Hook Peninsula we visited Europe’s oldest working lighthouse at Hook Head dating from 1172 and the Tintern Abbey , a 13th Century Cistercian monastery. We visited Waterford, touring among other things the Waterford Crystal factory and Reginald’s Tower on the quayside, the oldest civic urban building in Ireland, built by the Anglo-Normans in 1185 on the site of a similar fortification built by the Vikings in 914.
We visited Cobh, the deepwater port in the harbor of Cork, from where most of the Irish emigrants to the US departed, including we assume our ancestors. It was also the last port of call of the Titanic before it left for New York. Below is the statue of Annie Moore and her two young brothers who left Cobh in 1891 to join their parents who had already arrived in the US. On the first of January 1892 she was the first person to be processed at the brand new facility just opened on Ellis Island.

In County Kerry on the Southwest Coast is the Dingle Peninsula, which contains fascinating antiquities ranging from Iron Age stone forts to inscribed stones, early Christian oratories and beehive huts. Parts of the peninsula are still Gaelic speaking, so many road signs are written only in Irish. We went over the Conor Pass, the highest mountain pass in Ireland, on a narrow twisting one-lane road (with two-way traffic).
Below you can see the farms on the Dingle Peninsula with stone fences running right to edge of the cliffs over the rugged coastline and the Gallarus Oratory built in 6th-7th Century and the best preserved early Christian church in Ireland.

In Tralee, Paula found and we visited the Sullivan family relatives that her parents had visited some years ago based on information provided by Sister Aloysius.

In Tipperary the Rock of Cashel towers over the plain and was the fortress seat of the Kings of Munster from the 4th or 5th Century until they turned it over to the Church in 1101. Most of the remaining structures date from the 12th and 13th Centuries

The carving on St. Patrick’s Cross is said to be of St. Patrick, who visited Cashel in 450 AD. The 92-ft round tower, the oldest and tallest building on the rock, enabled Cashel’s inhabitants to scour the surrounding plain for potential attackers.

The Cliffs of Moher are said to be the most dramatic stretches of Ireland’s west coast, rising to a height of 690 ft out of the sea. At least that is what they said at the Cliffs of Moher Experience Visitor Center. We got a very brief glimpse of them when the fog lifted for about a minute.

Continuing up the west coast, we arrived in Galway where we spent two days. Galway is the centre for the Irish-speaking regions in the West and a lively university city. Below are a Galway Hooker traditional wooden sailing boat sailing on the River Corrib by the old quays and the Spanish Arch, built in 1584 to protect the harbor. Shop Street is in the center of the very walkable “Latin Quarter”.

From Galway we returned to Dublin and stayed for a week at the historic Clontarf Castle Hotel, built on the site of the 1014 Battle of Clontarf where High King Brian Boru led the Munster Irish victory that broke Viking power in Ireland. There has been a castle on the site since 1172.

In Dublin we were back at work.
And hanging out with our friends.