Catching Up

Yikes! I can't believe it has been this long since I have updated. It must be some kind of record. Some kind. Anyhoo, the kids and I have been very busy, here there and almost everywhere. Since we moved here I have been determined to take the kids to the land of their forefathers and foremothers (but no one really ever says that do they?). Of course I speak of the Emerald Isle, Eire, Land of Saints and Scholars - Ireland. We actually went for a long weekend in Dublin and had a blast.

 

Well, except for the night that the fire alarm went off on our floor.  I was very proud of Kiki and Snake - they got right up and were ready to get out the door in about 20 seconds.  Me?  Well, I didn't want to go down to the lobby in my green pjs with the little pink roses no matter how cute they were so I had to change into jeans really quick.  Kiki pointed out she was pretty sure it was a false alarm so she waited with me.  If she thought it were a real fire, she would have left me on my own.  I guess it is every mother for herself!!

In addition to pubs and Irish music, we managed to do some other cultural things. We visited Dublin Castle, which is still used today mostly as a place for the Irish government to hold meetings and important dinners and conferences and such. We went on a very informative tour. There has been a castle or fortress on this site since about 930, so a pretty long time. It has operated as a prison as well. In fact, one of the leaders of the Easter Rising 1916 James Connolly was held in the castle hospital after his arrest. He had been sentenced to death but apparently he had injured his leg/foot/ankle during the hubbub and the British apparently took great pride in not executing an injured or perhaps dying man. So they had to get him healthy enough to kill him. They lost patience and he was eventually put to death by firing squad. He couldn't stand and face the squad because of his leg so he was tied to a chair. There is a plaque commemorating his stay. Interesting side note - the train stations in Dublin are named after some of the leaders of the Easter Rising.

I really wanted the kids to see Blarney Castle but it is some distance from Dublin. It is actually closer to Cork and it takes about 3 hours by train. Well, what kind of a mother would I be if I chose to inflict my wishes on my children without regard to their desires or preferences? I shudder at the thought. So off we went. By train at 7:00 a.m in the morning, a weekend morning. Actually the kid were very good about it and I think they enjoyed seeing the Irish countryside. And they had their Ipods.



Blarney Castle is very picturesque. Although we were there in end of January, the weather was warmer than London and the daffodils were starting to come out. The castle was built by Cormac McCarthy, an Irish chieftain. Legend has it that the Blarney stone is actually part of the Stone of Scone, given to McCarthy by Robert the Bruce as reward for his support during the Battle of Bannockburn. Remember the Stone of Scone? It is the stone that fits under the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey. I wrote about it here . Its nice when things make a complete circle, isn't it? So supposedly this McCarthy fellow was quite the rebel and refused to pay his taxes to the English monarch, Elizabeth I. Elizabeth kept sending guys to get the taxes from him and they kept coming back empty handed. Each time he would send a very long winded speech back having nothing to do with his taxes or his refusal to pay them, just a lot of bull. Finally after one more long winded missive, Elizabeth is said to have declared "oh, this is just a bunch of blarney!" and hence the name, Blarney Castle. Everyone knows the legend, kiss the stone and be awarded the gift of gab. Both Kiki & Snake kissed the stone. It is quite the endeavor, you have to lay on your back, over a ledge of sorts and tilt your head way back. There is a guy there who holds on to you so you don't fall but it is still kind of scary. I have kissed the stone before and thought for the sake of my fellow man I won't try to attain any more gab.

On our little tour, we also stopped at a small village called Cobh, pronounced Cove. It is famous for, remarkably, being connected to two of the worst disasters at sea ever. Cobh was the last port of call for the Titanic before it met its epic end crashing into an iceberg. The "unsinkable" vessel sank in a little over 3 hours after the crash. Approximately 3 years later, Cobh was the place they brought the survivors of the Lusitania, the British ocean liner that was
torpedoed by the Germans in May 1915. This time the boat took about 20 minutes to sink. Twelve hundred people died. Those who were found alive in the water were taken to Cobh. Quite a few of the bodies recovered were buried in the local graveyard. The tour guide asked if we wanted to go to the cemetery and see the grave sites. Is the Pope Catholic? Of course we did!! So we went and sawthe graves. And now you can too! One of the most interesting markers read something like Here Lies Bob Jones "foully murdered by Germany on May 7, 1915". Don't you think it is strange that this little town in Ireland is connected to both of those tragedies? In its day Cobn was the port of call for all those leaving Ireland immigrating to America. They had a very interesting display about the immigration and Ireland.

I thought this old ruin was pretty interesting. It is just by the side of the road. There are loads of these types of ruins throughout Ireland. They probably have some tiny historical connection but no one has kept track or it has been forgotten by now. They just are there, in the middle of fields, at the side of the road. After a while you see so many of them, you don't notice them individually - these 16th, 17th century remains of buildings. When you think about it, these ruins are older than pretty much any building standing in the US today.

We also had a bit of time to fit in some shopping (actually some very good 2008 Christmas shopping - never mind for who!), some cathedral peeping and lunch. On the way back I got to talking to our tour guide and we were discussing Ireland today. I asked him how many people spoke Gaelic today in Ireland. First, he corrected me and told me in Ireland they referred to it as Irish, not Gaelic. He told me that for a while Irish/Gaelic was dying out in every day use. In the early 1800s when the jobs moved from the farms into more urban areas, it was necessary to speak English to get a good job. As more people moved into the city, the only people who really spoke Irish were in the country, the farmers, the poorer folks. Then the potato famine hit. An estimated 1,000,000 people died during the famine and about another 2,000,000 left Ireland to go to Europe, US, and Canada. The hardest hit socio-economic group were the poor country farmfolk. Not only did they rely on the potato for the bulk of their diet, but it was also how they earned their living. The poor were dying off or leaving in droves. That is probably why it took the British so long to respond - because it initially affected mostly the poor. So as a result, Irish as a language started to die out. There simply weren't enough people around speaking the language in every day use. However, recently more and more people are speaking Irish. It is now a compulsory language in school and you must reach a certain profiency to go to some colleges in Ireland. I also understand that to get any kind of a civil job you must speak Irish at a certain level. Today about 42% of Irish people have a good understanding of Irish, enough to speak it and understand it fairly well. Whether they use it on a daily basis is another matter. I also noticed something else for the very first time, Irish people do not use the "th" sound. So everything that should be said with a "thhhhh" sound comes out with a hard t. For example : everyting, catedral,. I had never noticed it before but I guess hearing it so much over the weekend it finally sunk in.

No visit to Dublin would be complete without a visit to Guinness.  While the tour was mildly interesting, (a bonus - it's self guided, so you can go as fast or slow as you want) we were all about the beer and the gift shop there.  Actually, I don't know if it was because we were there or what but in the past I have never really cared much for Guinness.  However, this time, I rather enjoyed my complimentary pint at the end of the tour.  Perhaps it was because it was free.  We did some damage at the gift shop because every young boy needs to go back to school wearing a beer t-shirt commemorating his weekend of culture with his mother.

 

We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, a highly ornate manuscript that has been around since the 7th century at least.  It is pretty interesting looking at how complex it is and thinking it was all done by hand.  We were
able to walk around the campus a bit, after buying our requisite t-shirt and sweatshirt and absorb a bit.  It really is a beautiful campus and it looks like a college should.  We noticed some guys playing croquet on the lawn.  I didn't know anyone still played that game except Alice in Wonderland.  Well, they play it at Trinity College.  Kiki wondered out loud whether she should consider Trinity for one of her college applications.  No!!  I am barely getting my head around the fact that she may apply to some East Coast schools, I don't think I would like having several oceans between us.  Hmmm - maybe that is what appeals to her!!!  

I think the kids enjoyed traveling to the land of their roots.  It gives them a point of reference, although from their perspective during this weekend, they might get the idea that Ireland is all about the beer, the shopping, the music with a few castles and interesting artifacts thrown in.  Yeah, pretty much.