Giants and Gaols

My final weekend in Ireland *sob* I went up to Northern Ireland to see the Giant's Causeway.  My friend Lauren and Calli, her friend from home who was visiting, came along too.  We bought our train tickets and took the bus into the Dublin station.  The train was packed for the first half hour so we camped out on the floor until a few seats opened up.  The rest of the trip went smoothly and we arrived in Belfast in the early evening.  Belfast has a really beautiful downtown with an elaborate city hall and long streets lined with huge shops.  The whole area felt rather eerie though.  We only passed a handful of people and all of the shops were locked up tight for the night.  It made me wonder if this was a lingering effect of the Troubles.  The silent streets did not encourage us to venture outside to explore so we stayed tucked away in our hostel for the night and went to bed early.

The next day Lauren, Calli, and I climbed aboard a tour bus that would take us to see the Giant's Causeway.  Our bus driver had a thick accent and was extremely funny.  He told all of his jokes completely deadpan so we had to pay close attention (especially to understand his accent).  We started off driving around Belfast.  There were some parades and protests going on so we had to take a lot of detours.  I'm not sure if I heard our guide correctly but, judging from the flags they carried, I believe the the people we saw parading were in support of Northern Ireland's relationship with England.  Armored police cars were everywhere to protect those walking in the parade and observing.  We also drove past the Titanic Museum.  Our guide told us that the engineer steered South and the captain steered East which put the iceberg directly in the center of ships path.  At the edge of the city was Carrickfergus Castle, an old Norman castle situated next to the harbor.  As we drove away from the castle and left the city, our guide pointed out to us that the bottom of the lampposts have different colors on them to show that the people living in that area are supporters of a unified Ireland or a Northern Ireland.

The coastal road we drove on offered beautiful views.  I loved peeking out the window at all of the tiny towns we passed.  Aunt Mary and Uncle Bruce would have drooled over the many golf courses that lined the road haha!  We briefly stopped at Bushmills, the famous whiskey distillery, and then headed back to the coast to see Dunluce Castle.  Apparently C.S. Lewis used this castle as a model for Cair Paravel from the Narnia books.  I could definitely see the resemblance!

Our next stop was the one we were all waiting for: the Giant's Causeway!  Ages ago, volcanic eruptions resulted in the tall, hexagonal pillars that make up the causeway.  Lauren, Calli, and I walked down a steep hill to get to the formations that seemed to fall into the ocean.  I was surprised by how large the causeway was.  From what I had heard, I expected it to be much smaller.

Legend tells us that a giant by the name of Finn MacCool built the causeway to connect Northern Ireland to Scotland.  A Scottish giant called Benandonner crossed the causeway to challenge MacCool.  Now Benandonner was extremely large, even for a giant, and MacCool wasn't sure that he could win.  Luckily, MacCool's clever wife Oonagh thought of a plan to help him out.  She had her husband dress as a baby and climb into a huge cradle.  When Benandonner arrived at the house Oonagh told him that her husband was out but asked him to wait inside until he returned.  She asked the Scottish giant to remain quiet so as not to wake her sleeping son.  When Benandonner saw what a massive baby was asleep in the cradle he quaked with fear at the thought of the father's size.  He waited not a moment longer but left the house and crossed back over the causeway smashing it to pieces behind him so that MacCool couldn't follow him.

After hopping from pillar to pillar we headed over to the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge.  Salmon fishers have been building bridges over to the island for more than 350 years but the bridge we crossed is only 4 years old.  I was nervous to go over but it was pretty stable and only bounced a little as we walked.  The tiny island of Carrickarede had really steep slopes since it reached so high out of the water.  I was afraid we might roll off the edge!  The day was so beautiful that we enjoyed just basking in the sunshine on the island.

The rope bridge was our last stop before heading back to Belfast.  Lauren, Calli, and I caught the train back to Dublin.  Our trip back was rather uneventful except for a few drunk knackers on the train who were chased off by Gardaí before we even departed, but not before they were inspired by the sound of our accents to regale us with the story of their holiday in America haha!

On my last day in Ireland, Lauren, Calli, and I headed back into Dublin where we visited the Kilmainham Gaol which housed almost every prominent nationalist who fought to free Ireland from England (including Éamon de Valera who I had just researched and written on for my Irish history final).  The gaol is now a museum filled with information on its famous inmates and their fight for independence.  The picture to the right shows the East Wing, but many prisoners were kept in other parts of the gaol made up of smaller, dank cells with little access to light.  I was surprised to learn that women, men, and children were not segregated in the gaol, and women and children experienced worse conditions than the men.  Children were most often incarcerated for petty theft.  The youngest prisoner was only five years old.

One of the most interesting stories we were told by our guide was that of Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford.  Joseph took part in the Easter Rising and was captured and sentenced to execution by firing squad.  Grace was his fiancee and though they had planned on being married on Easter of that year, they were forced to move up the wedding to just hours before the execution and were married in the chapel of the gaol.  Grace was an artist and, following her husband's execution, she began to use her art to promote the ideas of the political party Sinn Féin.  She also joined the Anti-Treaty IRA and was arrested and incarcerated in Kilmainham Gaol just like her husband.  During the four months she was in prison, she painted a mural of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus on the wall of her cell.  Grace never remarried.

After our tour of Kilmainham Gaol, we spent another hour in Dublin so I could get some last-minute presents for the family then headed home to Maynooth.  I ate dinner with my roommates and then the frisbee team came over to hang out for a while.  We walked into town to one of our favorite pubs, Brady's, and stayed until the barman kicked us out.  I didn't sleep a wink that night but spent the entire time packing and then repacking my bags to make everything fit.  I managed to get it all in there somehow.  In the morning, I said a final farewell to my roommates who were all  bawling.  I hadn't shed a tear yet because it still didn't feel real.  I also couldn't bear the thought of wasting any of my remaining time crying!  I took the buses into the airport for the final time and flew back where I met Mom and Dad at O'Hare.  It was definitely the worst flight I have ever been on (and probably will ever go on).  Now I'm just counting down the days until I can go back!