Trip to Ireland
Monday, 21 August 2000, continued
More about Ballintaggart House, the hostel where I'm staying. There is a memorial stone outside saying that this was the home of Michael Gallwey, J.P., died 17 December 1882, and Catherine FitzGerald Gallwey, his wife, died 23 March 1883. They had three sons,- 2 soldiers (officers in Irish regiments of the British Army) and a priest (who was head of St. Vincent's College). According to a booklet from the Irish Tourist Bureau, the estate was first built as a hunting lodge in 1703.
I asked Kevin, the archaeologist, quite a few questions about things I'd seen. He said the island that looks like an iceberg south of Ballintaggart is The Skellig. It was a hermitage where several monks isolated themselves. Dingle Peninsula is a Gaeltach region like the Aran Islands and Connemara.
Kevin knew little about the Hussey family, probably a Norman name, well-to-do folks, probably built Hussey's Folly in the early 1800's. It was fashionable at that time to build reproductions in the architectural style of earlier eras. That's what "Folly" meant to them,- an imitation of something old that's built to look quaint rather than being useful (remember these folks were the first generation of the Industrial Revolution).
No historical books here, darn! Sure wish they had a library in this house, but I suppose too many books would "walk away." A lot of the guests have cars and can lug lots of cultch.
?#060;/p>
8:20 p.m. Took a rest and finished "The Light Fantastic" by Terry Pratchett. Then strolled out back. Lots of ruined outbuildings built of stone,- looks like barns and stablehands' quarters. The horse stables are in good shape, with a shower for the campgrounds in what was two boxstalls. I'm constantly surprised by the quantity of stone buildings. They built to last! Switching to thatch from the stone corbelled roof has been the downfall of many abandoned buildings. Kevin said thet the stones in the top layer weren't needed to hold the roofs together (i.e., not keystones) and, in fact, when they built a fire in a building with a corbelled roof, they'd move aside one or more "cap" stones to let the smoke out.
The way the trip went this afternoon is, Kevin picked me up here at Ballintaggart House. Then we met four young women (college age) at the Collins' B & B. Strangely enough, all of them are staying here, but they'd been in town all day and were going on a boat trip at 4:45. They wanted to hurry through the archaeological trip to get to the boat in time. Kev said they were "pretty uptight" people. So then we picked them up and charged off to the Lord Ventry mansion's gardens to see the "Aum" stones (that's how it transcribes from Kevin's brogue). He's a tall thin bespecticalled guy about Pete's age. I got to sit in front, and found my blackthorn stick very handy climbing over stiles and stone walls. Took notes like mad, but missed a few things...lots of jiggly writing as we sped down lanes lined with hedges.
10:10 p.m. Just had a cup of tea and a nice conversation with David's girlfriend. She's from Toronto, a free-lance reporter. We talked about the sense of history here and the lack of it in the New World,- how much we've missed by suppressing the oral history of the natives (or, at least, not teaching it as part of our land's history in school), and how we tear down the old to make way for ticky-tacky shopping malls. Thank heaven St. Patrick sent scribes to record the oral history of the Celts. Our missionaries were so bigoted!
I really need to write down our family history. Three people have told me that today; and it's like if 3 folks tell you you're a donkey, you better start shopping for a saddle! :-)
?#060;/p>
Tuesday, 22 August 2000
8:45 a.m. On the bus to Tralee. There is some kind of heron in the estuary near the windmill, with a black-and-white striped head.
9:05 a.m. Bus to Limerick was a quick changeover from the Dingle to Tralee bus (as advertized). It started loading withing 5 minutes of our arrival. I'm still mourning the loss of my cane. It might have slipped down beween the bed and the radiator, never reaching the floor. I crawled under the bed and looked along the floor.
9:50 a.m. photo of a house and landscape between Listowel and Abbeyfeale. Abbeyfeale has a new R. C. church, with attached quarters for clerics, and a Lady chapel. All signs are in Irish. Also there is a large factory outside town with a cluster of small tract homes around it. It might be a creamery; lots of milkcrates were stacked by a loading dock. This is cattle country. I saw a couple men on foot among nearly 50 dairy cows, heading out to pasture.
I got a photo of the Arra River about 10:20 a.m. in Bally----, home of the Limerick County Council. Saw the first small orchard west of Rathkeale, maybe a dozen apple trees, unpruned, thick with sucker branches. I've seen the occasional 3-4 trees near a farmhouse, usually very old. A kitchen greenhouse is much more common.
At 10:45 a.m., we were in Adare. I got two pics of churches, not very good, the pics, not the churches! At 11 o'clock we were in Limerick, headed for the bus station.
11:40, in Limerick bus station, taking a break. I stepped off the bus for a cigarette and it was overloaded by the time I got back on. A kind young man in olive plaid (nearly bell-bottom) pants helped me get my luggage off. So I'll have lunch and unwind a bit.
I'm having soda bread and an "Americano with cream" (coffee mug) total 1.50 punt, along with my remaining chicken breast, which I'd sprinkled with herbs before leaving Ballintaggart. There was no salt and pepper in the "common food" shelf. This mix of parsley, rosemary, oregano, thyme, etc. is yummy!
This was a lovely sunny morning with only fair weather clouds, all puffy and bright, but now some somber clouds are rolling in from the Atlantic. I'm going to double-check the bus schedule and, if I have time, take a little walk around Limerick.
12:20 p.m., on the bus to Dublin (e.t.a. 4 p.m.). I walked about one and a half blocks, saw a tobacco shop, brought some Drum, came back to the bus station. Rolled one and got two drags before the bus pulled in. Schlepping about 40-plus pounds of baggage is not condusive to long walks! I could use Twoflower's Luggage! Didn't want to get left behind so here I sit. There's a railroad workers' strike so the buses are crowded, having to run extras, even.
The E.U.'s circle of stars seems attached to nearly every large construction project,- highways, shopping centres, tract homes. The European Union appears to be pouring a lot of cash into Ireland. Hummm!?! Some folks aren't pleased according to newspaper articles I've read. Especially when it involves tacky tourist centres at historic and scenic sites!
N 7, route to Dublin from Limerick, across the middle of Ireland. The Silvermine Mountains are typical pastoral hills laced with stone walls, and with a massive set of terraced tailings piles jutting out of them. Yep, they have been mined! Nothing is growing on those tailing piles to keep them from washing down into the next farmer's field!
Nenagh features a crenellated tower. It's a town of grey-white and cream stucco. They have a high-tech factory on the outskirts, next to an abandoned, crumbling farm house.
N 7 is a 2-way road with a bicycle lane where Maine would have a breakdown lane. There are stretches where it has been widened, but so far, it is generally not as wide as Route 9 in Beaver Dam. {"No Superdump in Tip" is a roadside sign handpainted by an amateur.}
{Pic} Tall ruin on hilltop, cows in front.
{Pic} Cute house with flowers, Roscrea.
1:50 Happened to be looking at the right moment. "Welcome to Borris-in-Ossery." Here we took a 15-20 minute break. It was a good one, bathroom and a dogend. Scanned a Sunday paper feature section about people moving out to rural areas (long commutes and artistic inspiration).
We passed a field of creamy-white cows and calves just west of Mountrath. Don't know if they are an Irish breed or Charolais. Didn't look big enough for Charolais.
Brief stop to pick up passengers in Portlaiose {not a port,- :-)} in the midlands. One hour from Dublin, now. The country has been getting more "horsey" and the next 50-odd miles are the center of the horse-breeding business in Eire. Thoroughbreds,- racetracks, jumping and cross country racing. The land reminds me of Aroostook County (Maine) with hedges and ruins added. Just caught a glimpse of the Rock of Dunmaise (Strongbow got it as part of his wife's dowery).
2:50 p.m. Monastervin has some 15th century ruins, lots of Famine-era "public works" stone walls, and a stone warehouse with barred windows. Here the road is bumpy and hedge-blinkered. Signs warn of construction ahead.
Kildare, at 3 p.m. There are lots of elderberries in the hedges. I got a photo of a little chapel with scaffolding. Hope I got the tower behind it and the "St.Bridgid's Cross" on the side. A St. Brigid's Cross is stalks of wheatstraw woven in the middle like Palm Sunday momentos and bound at the ends,- it's a good luck and/or harvest symbol.
Also got a pic of the racetrack outside of Kildare.
Next, Wednesday, 23 August 2000