Arthur, Kevin, and Fitzwilliam

I have now been in Ireland for two glorious weeks!  I'm starting to really get into the swing of things too.  The classes here are at least five times the size of SMC classes, but the lectures are so interesting that I haven't noticed.  This semester I'm taking Roman history, early European history, moral theology, and English.  They are all fascinating but I think my favorite class has to be moral theology.  I have to walk over to the beautiful Saint Patrick's which is the original college in Maynooth.  It was actually the largest seminary in the world back in 1850.  Now, NUIM has somewhat taken over Maynooth, but Saint Patrick's has kept it's independence (though it's on very friendly terms with NUIM) and is still home to seminarians.  Now imagine the surprise of 23 of these seminarians when 15 women walk into their classroom.  They had no idea what to do with us!  Even the professor was taken off guard!  However, after the shock of that first day they proved to be very welcoming and we've already had some intriguing class discussions.  I am determined to become best friends with one of them so that he can be the priest at my wedding and baptize all my babies.  My theology professor is also my only Irish professor!  Can you believe that?  I travel across half of the USA and the Atlantic Ocean to get taught by two Americans and one Brit!

After celebrating a magnificently festive Arthur's Day (as in Arthur Guinness), all of us girls took the train into Dublin to explore.  We visited Trinity College and the Book of Kells.  While the Book of Kells was very beautiful, I have to admit that I enjoyed seeing the Long Room of the library more.  It was ginormous!  It had row upon row of lovely, old, cloth-bound books that were just begging me to read them, but of course some horrible person with a sick sense of humor decided they were not allowed to be touched (now that's neglect if I ever saw it).  We also walked around downtown Dublin and listened to some bands playing along the street.

On Saturday all of us girls loaded back up onto the bus with our valiant driver Eugene and headed to Glendalough.  There was a massive bike race that day so there were definitely a few cyclists who had their lives flash before their eyes as we attempted to pass them on the twisting, narrow roads.  In Glendalough we got to tour around the monastery buildings and old haunts of St. Kevin.  There is a small chapel nicknamed St. Kevin's Kitchen because some historian mistook the chapel's bell tower for a chimney and wrote that the monks cooked their meals there.  To honor the chapel's namesake, the monks had the roof built in stone instead of the usual, less expensive wood.  There is also a round tower that would have served as a bell tower.  Fun fact: round towers are almost only found in Ireland (there are two in Scotland and one on the Isle of Man).  After our tour, we spent an hour waking down by the lakes.  These lakes, the valley, and all the trees reminded me so much of Skaneateles (see photo below).

The next stop on our tour through Ireland was Powerscourt.  We had the most sumptuous lunch inside the giant house that looked just as I've always imagined Pemberley would look.  The estate had a tall Rapunzel tower, ponds, fountains, a Japanese garden, an Italian garden, and walled gardens.  It is also home to Ireland's tallest waterfall, but unfortunately we did not have time to see it.  I really cannot explain Powerscourt's beauty with words, so instead I'm going to add a few pictures so you can see for yourself.

On Sunday we drove to Trim and saw yet another castle. It was several stories high and we climbed over 80 steps of a spiral staircase to stand out on the roof.  It also had a small little chapel with a space carved out in one of the walls that looked like a tabernacle to me.  There was also a sort of bowl worn into the stone that was used for holy water.  Many people have reported seeing the ghost of a monk in the chapel!  Before it was restored in 2000, the castle was simply locked up.  It was almost bulldozed because some people mistakenly thought the castle was more English than Irish.  Our tour guide told us that, as a boy, he would sneak past the gates and play in the castle.  He would walk along narrow ledges and jump across the gaps in the spiral staircase to make it to the top!  My favorite part of Trim castle was seeing some names carved into the stone walls from as far back as the 1700's!

CAMBELL 1743

Our last stop of the weekend was Castletown Estate (it also looks like Pemberley) built by the Connolly family.  The home was beautiful and I loved seeing the ornate and old-fashioned decor.  We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside but if you go to http://www.castletownhouse.ie/TouroftheHouse/ you can see every room in the house.  Please especially look at the print room.  It is spectacular!  They believe the pictures were preserved because there was arsenic in the glue!  We also looked at the obelisk (aka Connolly's Folly) which is a huge structure near Maynooth that has no practical use.  It was simply built to mark the edge of the Connolly property and show off how much land they owned and to keep people employed during hard times.  The obelisk is currently the resting place of Mariga Guinness.  She and her husband Desmond bought Castletown and were partners in the Irish Georgian Society which fights to preserve Irish architecture (I believe they were the reason Trim Castle wasn't torn down).




The SMC girls have become huge fans of Leigha, Kiera, and Fiona.  As we drive to all our destinations we take turns playing music from our ipods.  I played a bunch of songs from our childhood and Disney movies and the girls went nuts!  I told them that the only reason I had the music was because my nieces love to listen to them.  Well gal pals, the Ireland SMC chicks say thank you!!!

First Days in Eire

I flew out of O'Hare on Monday with nine other Saint Mary's girls, and after a much too long flight (though watching the sunrise was quite beautiful), I finally got to set foot on Irish soil!  Most of us girls have never met before, but we're all becoming fast friends. We moved in right away and when I first walked into my apartment, I dropped my bags off in my room and walked down to see the common room.  The entire coffee table was covered in beer and liquor bottles and the floor was extremely sticky.  Apparently my roommates like to have a good time haha!  I have four Irish roommates and one more I haven't met, but the ones I do know are super friendly so I think I'm going to enjoy living with them.  My first few days have been consumed with orientation, class sign-up, and tours (including one of Maynooth Castle which left me an expert in siege warfare).  On our second night all of us SMC chicks went to a couple local pubs.  First up was The Roost where I had my first Guinness.  Then we went on to Brady's where they had a live band playing.  They were magnificent and played "Galway Girl" for us!  The next day I had to wait in line for almost three hours to sign up for a history class but at least it allowed me to make some new French friends. 

On Saturday we all went to Causey Farm and were extremely "un-Irish" because we arrived early on accident.  However, this turned out to be a good thing because we not only got to watch and to help herd sheep with a dog named Patch, but we also got to learn camogie which is simply what they call women's hurling.  I was pretty good at picking the ball up and passing it but not so good at scoring goals.  After camogie, we made traditional Irish brown soda bread which we later ate with our lunch (we also had tea and hot scones with jam and whipped cream which I know Mom will be jealous of).  Later we learned a simple Irish céilí dance and how to play the bodhran drum.  I've always said that nothing refreshes you from dancing like a bit of warm milk straight from the cow.  Luckily, Daisy was happy to oblige me with a squirt and my first ever milking lesson.  I also got to bottle-feed a lamb and visit some horses that would be the Irish equivalent to wild Mustangs.  Afterwards, Patch came back and herded us over to see his new half-siblings who were happy for a chance to get out of their cage and chase some chickens.  They asked us to leave our mark on the farm and paint a mural on one of the whitewashed walls of a barn.  We painted the SMC French cross and signed our names.

Our last activity of the day was by far my favorite.  We took a short tractor ride over to a bog which is a kind of wetland filled with peat, moss, grass, and small bushes and trees.  Now most of the bog actually has plants growing up from the rich earth, but since they allow visitors to walk around in one small area, a mud pit has formed at the edge of the bog.  A few of the girls and I brought a change of clothes so that we could walk around in it.  However, I had the brilliant idea to go up on the small ledge and jump into the deepest part of the bog.  I sunk in almost to my armpits.  I was actually afraid that I wouldn't be able to get out because it was a bit like quick sand; the more you struggled, the deeper you sank.  I ended up having to dig around my legs until I could pull them halfway to the surface then I half rolled, half crawled my way to more solid mud.  It was spectacular!  I even jumped in a second time with another girl and ended up having to help pull her out.  I felt like Atreyu trying to pull Artax out of the swamp in "The Neverending Story."  The farm doesn't have showers so we washed off with a hose tap and buckets of water.  I don't even want to think about laundry!

On Saturday we went to Cahir Castle which is southwest of Dublin near Tipperary. It was beautiful if a bit chilly and we toured around the castle looking at all its defenses.  We even saw a cannonball stuck in the wall from one of the attempts to take it!  All of the doorways, stairwells, and hallways had extremely low ceilings, so while one of my 5'1" companions could stand up straight, I was basically crawling through them.

After our tour, we scurried over to the Swiss Cottage just outside Cahir.  It was designed by famous architect John Nash.  The cottage was never lived in, but only used by the Lord and Lady of Cahir as a place to entertain guests for the day.  The design of the cottage is meant to blend with nature, so nothing is linear or symmetrical. Every single window is a different shape or pattern. Many of the rooms inside have slightly crooked window sills or oddly shaped doorways too. The cottage looks large but actually only has four rooms and a kitchen in the basement.  I noticed that every room was not only shaped differently, but it was decorated in the theme of a different country too. One room had part of the original Turkish-landscape-wallpaper still in it but all the other rooms were restored to the expected style of the time.  I wonder if the decorator intentionally made one room French and another Roman classical to go with the architect's theme.  Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside, but I would have like to show you these chairs that I saw.  Each one was intricately carved out of a solid block of wood and it took two men several years to complete just six of them.

We loaded back up onto the bus and drove northeast to see the Rock of Cashel which is the name of a giant hill.  The legend goes that the devil took a bite from a mountain about 20 miles away, now called Devil's Bit, but Saint Patrick banished him from the cave and the devil was so surprised that his mouth fell open in shock and the rock rolled out and became the Rock of Cashel.  It is also rumored to be the site of the conversion of Aenghus the King of Munster by St. Patrick.  There is a huge cathedral built on top of the Rock but it is in ruins.  Unfortunately they had to put up scaffolding to protect a portion of it, called Cormac's Chapel, from further weather damage so we couldn't see the beautiful fresco inside it.

The cathedral had a large stone cross outside it's entrance but they put it inside to protect it from weather as well.  In its place is a replica.  There are two legends about the cross.  First, if you can wrap your arms completely around it so your hands can touch then you will never get a sore throat again.  I tried but failed.  Second, if you grab your right foot and hop around the cross nine times then you'll be married within a year.  I tried but failed again (thank goodness!).  There is another cross back by the cemetery that has an interesting story too.  Apparently it was struck by lightning and the top half shattered.  I could still see chunks of the cross lying next to the base.

When we were standing at the top of the Rock, we could see that nearby there was another ancient structure called Hore Abbey (I'm not joking).  The name came from the monks' white habits.  Apparently the white reminded  people of a hoar frost.

We did all of this in only five days!  I can't wait to see what this week brings!

Fáilte!

I'm off to the Emerald Isle in a few days and my suitcase is stuffed with wool socks, Cuddle Duds, and boots.  My brain is swirling with class information, flight schedules, and big-sisterly advice. However I must admit that my Ireland preparation has gone on much longer than these past few summer months. It probably all started just shortly after I was born. The moment when my parents named me Maureen Bridget to be precise. The following years were filled with Mary Black, "The Quiet Man," and Irish of the Fighting variety.  And let's not forget you beer-blooded Hogans and all your salt potatoes. How could I not pick up a few things from a week with you seanachies. So I've compiled a short list of the most important pieces of information I'm taking with me across the pond.


1. No patty fingers in the holy water.
2. The cure for a toothache is Jameson.
3. Curb your jigging speed while on bleachers.
4. They're called pubs not bars.
5. Blood pudding is nothing like Jello pudding.
6. Just trow it in te wash and it'll be grand.
7. It's sláinte not cheers.