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Wednesday, 7 May
Rain, rain go away! Today has been our rainiest day yet – not pouring but enough to make us choose indoor attractions. Ray drove us straight to the centre of Londonderry and with his usual audacity, found us a free park, and we spent the morning in museums. Firstly, it was the Museum of Free Derry which traces the history of the Bogside from way back when the walled city was first settled by the English protestants in the 17th century, to the exclusion of the majority Catholic population, who had to make do with the swamp/bog and because of the way the Guilds controlled employment, they were also excluded from equal opportunity for jobs. There were certainly faults on both sides but we came away with the distinct impression that the spin that was put on it by the press favoured the Unionists. As in Belfast, there are many murals commemorating the terrible time known as the “troubles”. The Tower Museum was our second stop, situated in one of the towers which are part of the wall which surrounds the city – a wall that has never been breeched in a siege and therefore intact. Here, we were able to trace the full history of the city of Londonderry – torn by sectarian conflict for many centuries! As well, a whole floor is devoted to a display of artifacts retrieved from the wreck of a ship from the Spanish Armada, wrecked off the coast as it tried to make its way back to Spain – via the north because the British fleet had blocked off the Channel. Its resting place has only been discovered in recent years.
Before leaving, the GPS helped us to find a big shopping centre where Ray could get his boot repaired; while this happened, he walked barefoot to the food hall and we spent the last of our English pounds on lunch. Later, despite the intermittent rain, we headed west into Donegal to Glenveagh Nat Park and Glenveagh Castle. Although we were unable to go for a walk, the Castle and the Lough on which it stands provided a fascinating afternoon. Modelled on Balmoral and originally used as a summer hunting lodge, the castle is situated on the shores of a huge lough which is actually part of a fault line running north south in that part of Donegal. It is a wild and windswept place, barren except for the extensive gardens and woods that surround the castle. Our guide was entertaining and informative about the various owners who built and extended the castle, housing priceless works of art in it, and entertaining famous people. It is now the property of the National Trust – our visit was completely “free” even the bus – we are starting to make money out of our membership purchased on our first day at Newgrange.
Thursday, 8 May
Our rainiest day since arriving. We headed south down the “Wild Atlantic Coast”, so dubbed by the tourist bureau and sign-posted all the way with tossing waves. Much more rugged and uninviting than the north-east coast, on this grey day it was not at its best. Nevertheless, it is dotted with inviting little bays and evidently quite famous waves for the surfing fraternity. The farmers fence right along the edge of the headlands so as to stop the sheep falling into the sea, I guess. Our high point came when we ascended the Glen Gesh Pass up a lush river valley wedged between towering mountains. From there, we passed through a very isolated area with many fields of peat farms – even saw a tractor designed to “harvest” it. We finally arrived in the lovely little seaside village of Glencolumbkille, (perhaps another connection to the Saint Columbcille?) where we had lunch. Our next target was the Slieve League, the highest cliffs in Europe supposedly, at 600m. Suffice to say the road was shrouded in mist and fog making it quite an eerie journey but serendipitously, when we arrived, the mist lifted enough for us to see the waves lashing the rockface far below. Incongruously, there was a little van on the top selling icecream – of all things! Hot soup would have been more appropriate – as it was we had all our warm layers in place.
From there, we headed into Killybegs (thought that was only a name made up for the song!) for afternoon tea and on to Donegal – not much to see there, only a small castle. We are getting fussy, aren’t we? We are now in County Sligo staying at Grange – with a sea view on one side and mountains on the other.
Friday 9 May
What a wonderful day we had today! Lots of sunshine between the showers – even had to put on my sunglasses a couple of times! Our early start paid off because, to fill in time before the Yeats Museum opened 10 in Sligo, we took a detour to see a waterfall and just happened to drive through “Yeats country” i.e. the Glencar waterfall, Glencar Lough and Mt Benbulben, the magnificent glacial valley which inspired some of his writings. So when we watched the audio-visual presentation later, we could recognise the landmarks mentioned in the poems. Then, the Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery revealed further features of the landscape that inspired him. This is a very extensive site containing many dolmens set out in a concentric pattern that is echoed by the surrounding mountains, on several of which there are also visible tombs. It is even older than Newgrange – 5600 years. We only wished we had the time and the clement weather to do some serious walking!
Our route south was via smaller roads so lunchtime found us in the little town of Colooney where we parked our car right near a church where a wedding was about to take place. There was great excitement as late guests arrived, trying to beat the bride, and all were formally dressed, the ladies all in swish cocktail dresses despite the cold & the father of the bride in tails. It was very funny because a great number of guests were priming themselves in the nextdoor Doolan’s pub meanwhile keeping a look out for the arrival of the bride – there was quite a panicked rush for the church when she did! It must have been a Nuptial Mass as they were still in there when we emerged from eating our home cooked turkey & veg lunch, (served with an extra plate of mashed potatoes on the side) in the Teeling Cafe. Teeling was evidently a local hero in the Catholic resistance against Oliver Cromwell, single handedly taking out one of the canons & allowing the Catholics to overrun the English position. History is everywhere!
Further south we visited the Strokestown Park House where there is a Famine Museum. The tour of the house itself was interesting but was not cheap and not necessary. We would have preferred to spend more time in the museum which reveals the extent of the suffering during this terrible period of Irish history. It also reveals the callousness & culpability of the British government and the local landowners. The latter wanted to change their land use from cultivation to pasturage so it suited them to come down hard on tenants who were unable to pay their rent. The owner of this particular house & land evicted 3000 tenants and paid to have them shipped out to the colonies. Many died enroute from starvation or disease; some who survived were our first boat people. These days, we would call it “ethnic cleansing”.
Saturday 10 May
Our final objective today was the cottage near Cashel where we are to spend the next week with the family . Passing through Athlone, a bigger city, we finally found a decent sized shopping centre so we did our grocery shopping, then went in search of a hairdresser for a long overdue trim for us both. On only our second try, we found one; the proprietress beckoned to an older gentleman to ask if he could fit us in. He looked about our age, maybe 65. After we were finished, she told us our hair had been cut by the oldest practising hair dresser in Ireland: her dad, who is 86! He did quite a decent job of us both. Told me I would be much more “comfortable” now.
Our one stop was the quite amazing eclaesatical complex known as Clonmacnoise, a monastery since the 6th Century and a place of pilgrimage for many centuries. It stands on the crossroads of the River Shannon and the East-West pathway, the latter in itself a wonder as it is the raised residue left from a former glacial river i.e. the river flowed under the giant glacier, leaving a deposit of gravel & dirt and when the ice age ended, only that remained. It became a very useful raised pathway above the bogs! At the site, there are several substantial remains of the various churches and temples and many standing crosses that are intricately carved. Many of the patterns and symbol reminded us of the ancient pagan patterns at Newgrange and we could not help thinking that not much changes from one era to another. Nevertheless, the site is very impressive even though we had to dodge showers to see it. There were some hardy souls there on a pilgrimage singing hymns.
We were happy to reach our “cottage” which is actually a lovely well-appointed house, and be with the family again.
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