We toured St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Ireland’s largest church founded beside a sacred well where St. Patrick is said to have baptized converts around 450 A.D. We then rode the bus to Phoenix Park, Europe’s largest enclosed park. This one thousand and sixty acre park still contains about six hundred Sika and fallow deer.
The next stop was Trinity College, founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) on the site of an Augustinian monastery. Originally a Protestant only college, the school allowed Catholics to attend after 1970. We viewed the Book of Kells, theorized to be the work of monks from Iona and buried in the bogs near Kells, Ireland in 1806 A.D. after a Viking raid. The book was moved to Trinity College in the Seventeenth Century. This medieval illuminated manuscript contained the four Gospels in Latin. The scribes who copied the texts also embellished their calligraphy with intricate and colorful letters. The Book of Kells was still brilliant and clear. The lady guide we had that day called it “the best thing in Ireland.”
Another day we boarded the bus along with our fellow travelers for an optional day excursion to Glendalough and Powerscourt. Most of the trees we saw along the route to Glendalough were cotoneaster, an evergreen tree. The yellow flowery bush that we saw covering the green hills was gorse. It was beautiful. To show this, a good movie to rent is “Pillars of the Earth.”
Tom led us all to the Waterford Crystal Visitor’s Center. We got an unexpected treat to a factory tour of the manufacturing plant. Waterford was founded in 1782. The factory south of Waterford closed in 2009. However, prestige pieces are designed and made in a custom built factory in Waterford.
We visited the Blarney Castle in County Cork. Curt climbed the one hundred twenty-seven steps to kiss the famed Blarney Stone. I declined. The best example of blarney was after Curt had kissed the stone. He did a significant smattering of blarney.
I loved the green of Ireland. The hawthorn trees were in bloom. These trees are considered to be magical and the home of fairies to most Irish folk. On the bus, our guide Tom read some of the poetry of James Joyce. We also visited the Cliffs of Moher. These were six hundred and ninety feet tall and five miles long. They were very beautiful, and we spent several hours there since they were so striking. We then arrived in the small but ultra- modern city of Sligo for a one-night stay in the Glasshouse Hotel. The Yeats museum across from the hotel was closed.
The next day we traveled a short distance from Sligo to stop at Drumcliffe Cemetary of St. Columba’s church to visit W.B. Yeats’ grave. I had wanted to come here very much.
Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death
Horseman, pass by!
W.B. Yeats
June 13th 1865
Jan. 28th 1939
This epitaph is one of the most famous self- written epitaphs in the world. It is found under Ben Bulber Mountains. The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to W.B. Yeats in 1923. It was Sligo that left the most enduring image of his life. As I gazed at the marker on his grave and the surroundings, a feeling of sadness passed over me.
We visited County Kerry to learn about the great famine of 1844-48 and the emigration of the Irish from Ireland to Canada, United States, and Australia. On the bus, Tom told us there were eight million people living in Ireland before the famine but only three million after the famine. Many died of hunger. Others immigrated to other countries in crowded, unsanitary conditions on ships. Today there are only five and a half million people in Ireland.
We visited a museum called the Queenstown Story to find information about the Irish emigration. We arrived at our hotel in Killarney in County Cork. We had a boat ride on Killarney Lake. We then had the great driving tour called “The Ring of Fire.” We stopped for a short visit at Sneem, a sweet little village. We dined at Kate Kearney’s Cottage. A three-man musical ensemble entertained us. One man played the bahdrain (pronounced bow-ran) and the bones. Another played the flute, tin whistle, and the Villean pipes. The third played a small button accordion that was called a melodeon. The evening was fun, and sixteen-year-old Jack Healey brought us to tears with his rendition of “My Old Man.” He also sang, by my request, “Country Roads,” which John Denver made famous. This young man is “going places.”
Continuing our tour, we visited Bunratty Castle on our way to Galway. Our next visit was to Limerick, the birthplace and childhood home of Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Angela’s Ashes. We saw King John’s Castle, built in the 13th Century in Limerick City. Arriving in Galway, we stayed at the Imperial Hotel on Eyre Square. We quickly cleaned up and got ready for a medieval banquet at Dunguaire Castle in Kinvara County, Galway.
We arrived in the Burren, a very rocky land described as a “savage land” by Cromwell’s surveyor in the 1640s. As we drove through the area, we saw many stone walls that were six thousand years old. Many of Ireland’s historical monuments and relics were destroyed by Cromwell and his army in the 1640s. We took a short walk to Eyre Square across the street to see the memorial statue of John F. Kennedy.
We drove through Connemara National Park which has five thousand acres of bog land, lakes, and mountains with beautiful vistas. We arrived at the Connamora Marble Factory in Moycullen. We got to shop at the gift shop. The marble was beautiful there.
A beautiful and remarkable stop was at the Kylemore Abby, located on a picturesque lake at the base of Twelve Bens mountain range. This castle was built by Mitchell Henry in 1867 as a gift for his bride.
We crossed into Northern Ireland, a separate country from the Republic of Ireland. They differ in politics, government, and religion. A civil war between the pro-treaty and the anti-treaty factions continued until the mid1990s when a cease-fire was put in place. After the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the violence has been replaced by peace. We were told that President Clinton had a key role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. The Irish love Presidents Clinton, Obama, and Kennedy. They didn‘t care for the Bushes.
We stopped in the border village of Belleek to take the guided tour of the Belleek Pottery Works, founded in 1857. The finished works were gorgeous. I bought small vases for all the girls in my family. We stopped at Derry where our guide, Tony, told us that 49 percent of Americans are of Irish descent and many came from the Derry area. Derry served as a U. S. military base in the 1940s before President Roosevelt declared war.
We arrived at the Giant’s Causeway, which was formed sixty million years ago when lava flowed destroying the forests. The lava cooled and hardened into a layer of rock called basalt. Cracks opened up again, and the lava flowed by into the river valley where it cooled slowly causing cracks that created the Giant’s Causeway. This was the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
On our way back to Belfast, Tom pointed out Lough Belfast and Cave Hill. He told us that the profile of this view that resembled Napoleon’s nose was the inspiration for Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Also C.S. Lewis, a Belfast native, used this view as an inspiration for his Narnia series. Our guide, Maureen, told us that Belfast is one hundred miles north of Dublin and about half the size. Shipbuilding and linen making are the largest industries in Belfast. Belfast is also the largest producer of rope in the world. The Belfast hills surround the city, and the river Logan plays an important part in Belfast. The shipbuilding industry, the Titanic Quarter, consists of one hundred and eighty acres of land on Belfast harbor where Harland and Wolff ship builders have built many large ships including the Titanic.
As we left the area, Maureen pointed out the new museum for the Titanic that would be opening in 2012 (ironically the anniversary of the sinking). The modern building looks like three or four aluminum bows of ships.
It was time for us to board the bus for the one hundred mile ride back to Dublin. It was a quiet group that rode that bus. When we arrived in Dublin, we were amazed to see the precautions being taken to protect Queen Elizabeth and staff. She was to arrive on the following
Tuesday, May 17. This would be the first royal visit to Ireland in one hundred years, and there had been no expenses had been spared to ensure her comfort and safety. Additionally, one week later, President Obama would be arriving to visit Ireland.
Curt and I both felt that we caught the “spirit of Ireland” with the lovely, funny, and friendly people. We experienced the history of a frequently invaded but peaceful island and the beauty of the Emerald Isle. We had toured seven cathedrals and seven castles. Curt had enjoyed kissing the Blarney Stone, we had seen new foals at the National Stud Farm, we had walked through many gardens and parks, and we had seen the Titanic docks. We had read the inscriptions on many high crosses in cemeteries, and we had enjoyed Irish music, dance, and theater. We had seen how Waterford glass and Belleek pottery were made, and we had ridden in a jaunting car. We had traveled on a boat, had walked on the desolate Burren, and had climbed rocks at the Giant Causeway. Also, I found my grandmother’s name, Emily Wallace Spurlock, in Derry. She truly was Scots- Irish! What a great trip!
Conclusion
“I want to add value to the world. The secret is the answer to all that has been, all that is, and all that will ever be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
As I close this book, I hope I have helped someone or made someone happy because I believe that is my purpose for being. I think about the changes in my life from ten years ago when I wrote my first book, Rough Lumber. Life has been very good to me but at times quite challenging. I’m glad to be living and not among the dead.
Although I am among the living, I sometimes can’t remember, and I get mixed up in the head. Sometimes when taking my medicine, I wonder if I have taken my dog’s instead. I stand before the fridge so often. My poor brain is filled with doubt. Have I come to put food in, or have I come to take food out? It seems like when I go to the mall, something exciting always happens. Last week when I was there, I went to the restroom at one of the restaurants. When I started to come out of the stall, I pushed on the door, but it wouldn’t open. I pushed again harder, but it didn’t open. I pushed with all my might. It still didn’t open! I was in a panic! How could I get out of this place? I thought that maybe I could crawl out the bottom. When I stooped down to see if I could crawl out, I accidently touched the door, and it moved inward! Seems like they even put doors on backwards today!
Recently I went to the restroom at Wal-Mart. When I walked in, it looked different. I thought they must have remodeled their restrooms, not realizing I was in the men’s restroom. I used the restroom, and as I was washing my hands, a man walked in. I said, “Hello, it’s a fine day,” as I passed him. His wife was standing outside the door. She gave me this look. I said, “Honey, he’s safe.”
I have thirteen great grandchildren now. They are precious. My oldest great granddaughter, Katie Miller, graduates from high school this fall. It seems like only yesterday her mother, my granddaughter Beth Ann Miller, graduated from Milton High School. My friend, June Bartlett, had this used car, a Chevette, for sale. I bought it for Beth Ann. (This was before students got new cars.) It was a surprise. I remember giving her the keys, and she was so pleased. She and her friend Angie Spurlock jumped in it and took off. Beth drove this car until she graduated from St. Mary’s School of Nursing and got married. You might see that old car anywhere. She drove it to work every day. In the winter time, you might find it along the road, but she soon learned to drive in the snow and ice.
We had a neighbor, Tommy Shaffer, who was a good mechanic. I don’t know how many times he worked on that old Chevette. Sometimes he charged a little for his work, but most of the time he didn’t charge her anything. Anyway, he kept it running for a long time. Sometimes when she was out the car would start making a noise. She would say, “If only I can make it to Tommy’s,” or “Please Lord, let Tommy be home.” I think about the kindness he showed her and how much I appreciated it. He said he liked to help kids who were trying.
I think about all the wonderful people I have met in my life. I hope I am being used for a purpose. This is the true joy of my life. I don’t want to be a cloud of ailments and complaints. The world doesn’t owe me a living or happiness. My life belongs to my community, and it is my privilege to do for that community what I can. I want to be completely used up when I die. The harder I work, the happier I am. I think that life is a sort of torch that we are meant to hold up, and I want to make the torch burn as brightly as I can before I hand it over to the next generation.
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