Hunger and Ruins

 

Our tour of Ireland started in the Republic of Ireland, where the Great Famine and ruins were the main themes. There were a few other sites of interest, too, which I will cover at the end of the post.

We came across our first references to the Great Famine our very first day in Ireland, when we saw a famine memorial and visited a famine ship. The memorial is composed of several sculptures showing starving people making their way to the seaports to find a better life elsewhere. The famine ship is a replica of the Jennie Johnston, which was called a famine ship because it took starving emigrants across the ocean to North America—primarily Canada. These ships were also called “coffin ships” because many of the passengers didn’t make it, although the Jennie Johnston was an exception. One of her voyages even arrived with one more passenger than it left with.

The next two photos show the famine memorial and the replica of the Jennie Johnston.

During the tour, we learned more about the famine. The potato crop was the only one affected, and wealthier people and most city-dwellers had enough to eat, but tenant farmers relied on potatoes as their principal crop and food, so when the blight arrived in Ireland in 1845 and decimated the crop over the next few years, those families starved. And since many of them couldn’t pay their landlords, evictions were common. The government did try to provide some relief, with the idea of taking it to the people, but one of the men administering the relief wasn’t willing to give up his physical comforts to travel to the back country. When he made them come to him, the famine march became a death march. We drove by part of the route, but the memorial itself was down roads the bus couldn’t travel.

The last year of the famine was 1852. When it was over, approximately one million people had died and another one million had emigrated to other countries, dropping Ireland’s population by about 20%.

We also saw a lot of ruins during our tour. The first was the Glendalough Ecclesiastical Settlement, which is the ruins of an old monetary. It was established by St. Kevin in the 6^th century. Round towers were a prominent feature of monasteries a thousand years ago, functioning as a bell tower to call people to worship or inform them of important events, and the one at Glendalough is well preserved. Also well-preserved is St. Kevin’s Church, which is also known as St. Kevin’s Kitchen because the chimney looks a lot like one you find in a kitchen . Legend has it that when the Normans plundered the monastery in the 12^th century, they didn’t bother with St. Kevin’s Church because they thought it was where food was prepared rather than a religious building. The next two photos show the round tower and St. Kevin’s Church (behind the graveyard).

We also visited the Rock of Cashel, which is better preserved than Glendalough. It started as a fortress but was turned over to the church body in 1101 when the King of Munster wanted to curry favor with the church (and probably with God, as well). The next photo shows the Rock of Cashel from down below.

The other well-known ruin we saw was Blarney Castle. That’s it in the photo at the head of this post. As a fiction writer I’m already filled with blarney, and Roland had heard stories about the locals using the stone as a toilet, so neither of us was interested in taking the long climb up a narrow stairway to kiss the stone. The castle grounds have a decent garden, but other than that we both considered it a waste of time. I couldn’t even get a photo of the stone from below.

Although we saw a number of other ruins from a distance, the only one worth mentioning is a ring fort that we viewed from above. The American Embassy in Dublin was designed to resemble these ancient forts. The next to photos show the old and the new.

Famine exhibits and ruins weren’t all the highlights of the Republic of Ireland, however. The following photos show St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Dublin), Kilkenny Castle (Kilkenny), Cong (where the exteriors were filmed for The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara), Kylemore Abbey (where nuns still live and work), the Cliffs of Moher, and a sheepdog demonstration (near Sligo).

One other stop is worth mentioning. At Waterford, we got a tour of the Waterford factory, which we both enjoyed. The final photos show glass blowing (cutting the stem for a wine glass), a girl cutting a design into a wine glass, and a crystal violin that sells for just under $25,000.

Next week I’ll blog about our visit to Northern Ireland.