Failte! - (aka Part 3 of the neverending travelogue)

Failte means "welcome" in Gaelic.

Ireland is about the size of the state of Maine. It is divided into two countries - Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and the Republic of Ireland which is a sovereign nation. I still vividly remember the time "of the troubles" with Northern Ireland and pretty much throughout our stay in Ireland we were reminded of the unique history of Ireland and some of its ongoing struggles. Some of the interesting facts we learned as we went: Ireland was populated by Celts who invaded sometime during the Iron Age - about 1500 years ago. They probably came from central Europe. They also invaded Wales, Scotland and Cornwall. These people based their society around small tribal warrior kings. Remains of their "ring forts" can still be seen. Unlike other countries, Rome never invaded Ireland. This created a fairly unique situation for Ireland because it evolved independently from what was going on in Europe and created a continuity without disruption, at least for awhile. Because they were not Roman, they did not suffer through the Dark Ages when the Roman Empire collapsed. In fact Ireland became a bastion of literacy in Europe when the continent went dark. The Irish Christian monks (Christianity came to the island about the 5th century) preserved the Latin and Greek language and the illumination of manuscripts (like The Book of Kells) and actually developed a tradition of missionary work spreading Christianity and literacy to the rest of Europe. Charlemagne was importing Irish monks to help run his kingdom. Around the 9th century, the Vikings started invading Ireland and over generations intermarried and settled into a less warlike culture. This severely impacted the monasteries that dotted the Irish landscape. In the middle of the 12th century, the Normans and England got involved and things did not generally go well for the Irish. Feudal systems were imposed. Want to know where the saying "beyond the pale" comes from? This came from the fact that England's pattern of absentee landlordism in Ireland results in England's laws being enforced only in a 50 mile foothold around Dublin, called The Pale. The rest of the island was "beyond the Pale."

As time went on England strengthened its grip on Ireland. Cromwell was not nice. By the 17th century the English took over a great deal of Irish land and pushed the Irish - in particular the Catholic Irish - to the west of the island where land was poorer in quality. The Protestant-Catholic division features prominently in the problems that plague Ireland under English rule. Throughout the 18th and 19th century, things continue to be bad. The Great Potato Famine in 1845 occurred as a result of a fungus that destroyed the crop that was Ireland's main food supply. There are still places in the hills where you can see the faint lines of the old failed potato fields.  Estimates are 500,000 to 1 million people died. Another 1 to 2 million emigrated to America, Canada and Australia. It wasn't a true famine. There were plenty of other crops being grown for export and to pay the English landlords. But England decided as a political policy not to do anything about the starving Irish. Ireland's population had doubled in the 40 years prior to the famine. In just a few short years (1845-1849) the population was cut by about a third and the best and brightest had fled resulting in a population of about 4 million in 1900. The Irish population has ONLY RECENTLY begun to grow again and is about 6 million today, still smaller than pre-famine! Britain, on the other hand, grew from 12 million in 1845 to 60 million today. I won't go on with all the political history that resulted eventually in the division of North and South, but it is important to remember that it was only in 1949 the Irish Republic was freed from Britain and in 2005 that the IRA ended its armed campaign.

The language of the Irish - Gaelic, was almost becoming extinct. First suppressed by the British and then discouraged by the Irish themselves because they felt it made them look ignorant, the government of Ireland has made a concerted effort to try and restore it as the first language of the land. Everything is printed in Gaelic first, and English second. The children are all taught Gaelic in school. The west side of Ireland is called the "gaeltacht" which means that it is a primarily Gaelic speaking region. It is a lovely language and can be heard frequently in the west, but not so much on the east side of Ireland. Old Irish language was not a written language at first - thus a storytelling culture emerged. However eventually an alphabet system did emerge sometime in the 4th century that is kind of unusual - it is a system of lines or slashes and these can still be seen on what are called Ogham stones that spring up rather willy-nilly all over the island.

Much of Ireland is covered in old ruins of things. Because as a culture the people were quite superstitious (and it seems perhaps they still are) these ancient ring forts, beehive huts, ogham stones, etc. are left to stand untampered with. Ring forts eventually were called "fairy forts" and you don't mess with fairy forts!

We arrived in Shannon, Ireland Thursday evening (5/9). After picking up our rental car (and after a very long detour, but that's a story Martin can tell), we checked into our hotel The Old Ground in Ennis. One of the things I loved about our travels in England and Ireland is how civilized every thing is. We were always greeted warmly, offered tea, fed breakfast, given plenty of travel tips and just generally made to feel like we were guests, not customers. It was very nice. We had a tasty Irish breakfast the following morning and headed out to the Cliffs of Moher as our first Irish destination. This site is on the west coast of Ireland in the County Clare.

 

From the Cliffs of Moher we drove through the beautiful Irish countryside (all the roads are narrow country roads it seemed to me) on our way to the town of Dingle on the Dingle Peninsula. We stayed at a lovely B&B called Gorman's Clifftop House. We had a view out of our window of a small bay looking out at the "three sisters".

The view from our window

The Three Sisters

We spent two nights at Gorman's (Friday and Saturday.)  On Saturday we spent the day shopping and driving around the Peninsula.  We saw ring forts, ancient monasteries, churches, famine houses and more:

Dingle

An old "fairy fort" - overgrown ring fort 500 BC

Dunbeg Fort

These odd "beehives" huts are called Clochans - grouped together usually inside a wall

Blasket Island in the distance

Remnants of old "famine" houses abound

Reasc Monastery 6th-12th Century

Celtic pillar (c. 500 BC) with newer cross engraved over old Celtic markings

The Gallarus Oratory - 1300 year old church - still watertight

These holes once secured the door covering

Church of Kilmalkedar - Norman center of worship 12th century built over pre-Christian site

Old Sundial, see below

The graveyard has risen, creating this odd proportion

This old Ogham stone predates the church by about 900 years.  See the strange marks? That's the Celtic alphabet system.  The hole in the stone was drilled through to create a special place where two people, touching thumbs through the stone, make contracts with one another "on the bones of the ancestors."

Reverse side of the sundial.

Another old "fairy fort"

This beautiful yellow gorse is everywhere in the landscape.

We spent Saturday night at John Benny Moriarty's Pub enjoying traditional Irish music.  We spent time chatting with a lovely couple from Santa Ynez who were coming to Ireland for a "gathering" of the clan O'Neill. The people at our favorite shop in Dingle:  Siopa Ceoil an Daingin recommended John Benny's and it was awesome.  Siopa Ceoil is a traditional Irish music store with lovely owners who chatted with us, recommended great CDs (which formed the soundtrack of our whole time in Ireland), played the accordion for us, and gave us tips on what to see and visit!

We were sad to leave Dingle as we headed out to Kilkenny.  If we had it to do over again, we would definitely book a few more days there.  Our weather was terrific.  The day we left it was a little cold and overcast, but it cleared quickly.  We experienced periodic rains, but if you waited 5 or 10 minutes, it cleared up.  We were so lucky.

So, that's enough travelogue for tonight.  I think I can finish it up in one more post! Stay tuned for Rock of Cashel, Glendalough and Dublin.