St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland

This trip to Morocco and the subsequent trip to Ireland have checked off tons of boxes on my life's to do list. Many of which were not on the list until I got to Morocco, like going to the Hammam, visiting the Hassan II mosque,and  riding the Kanguroo. The spring break trip to Ireland, however, let me check off things that have been on my list for a very long time. Visit St. Patrick's Cathedral: Check. St. Patrick's was not what I expected, but it was still very cool and very interesting. 

The building(completed in 1192) was not originally a cathedral, but was elevated to cathedral status in 1224. This cathedral is one of two Church of Ireland(very similar to the church of England, all beliefs are the same as Catholicism except that the Pope does not have universal power) cathedrals on the island. St. Patrick's was originally a Catholic cathedral, but after the English Reformation it became part of the Church of England around 1535, even though a majority of its constituents remained Catholic. It is located directly next to the spot where the "well of St. Patrick" was supposed to have been. St. Patrick used this well to convert and baptize the native Irish people. 

There are many famous and important people of Irish history buried in St. Patrick's. One of the most important being Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels. Swift was dean of the cathedral from 1713-1745 and many of his writings were delivered in the church. 

A fantastic church choir was practicing in the church when Tiffany and I arrived. It made the whole experience a little surreal. Surrounded by beautiful stained glass, historic artifacts, and angelic music is exactly my idea of a good time in a cathedral. 

All the keys to the cathedral for the past 100 years or so.

One really interesting artifact was a book encased in glass containing the names of the 50,000 Irish men who died in World War I. The information panel said that "from time to time, the Cathedral staff turn the pages of the volume so that all names may be seen." 

The Doyles: Richard, Robert, Stephan, Thomas, Vincent and William (a good 20 of these are Thomas and William)

Legend has it, that a Romeo and Juliet-esque family feud was going on in Dublin in 1492. Both parties were getting quite sick of the warfare however. Seeking respite, Gerald the King of Kildare and his men found shelter in the cathedral. He was of course pursued by his rival, James of Ormond, but he promptly shut the door in his face. After an amount of time, trying to wait it out, and realizing that James was not going anywhere, Gerald cut a whole in the door and stuck his arm through in order to shake on a truce. This is supposedly the origin of phrase "chancing your arm" as in taking a risk. 

National Leprechaun Museum

After the Irish Writer's Museum, Tiffany and I made our way over to the National Leprechaun Museum. This was a very entertaining, little museum. The atmosphere is definitely geared towards children, but I think its something that everyone can enjoy. It reminded me a little bit of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. You begin in this little anteroom filled with Leprechaun memorabilia and "facts." I learned that leprechauns are shoe makers to the fairies. Fairies are not like Disney fairies, they are tall, beautiful people-like creatures who love to dance. They dance so much that they always need new shoes and so the leprechauns have a lot of business and in turn a lot of gold.

After a brief introduction to the history of leprechauns by our guide, the first order of business was to shrink us to the size of leprechauns.

Then we got to experience the difficulties of being so small.

After that, we all sat around a pot of gold and our guide told us leprechaun tales.

We then passed through a forest and learned the story of Tom Fitzpatrick and how he almost got a leprechaun's gold.

 We emerged from the forest and found ourselves returned to normal size and in the museum gift shop. It was a fantastic little adventure.

Irish Writer's Museum

We got into Dublin at around 12:30 in the morning after a very long train ride from Kilarney. We were exhausted  so the goal was to just find a hostel, good or bad, and just stay there for the night. If we really didn't like it, we could move on the next day. After getting directions from some locals, we found our way to Paddywagon Hostel. It is very close to the bust station in Dublin. We actually ended up staying there for the rest of the trip, because it wasn't that bad of a place and it was just easier. They had a mix up with room bookings so Tiffany and I ended up with a private room for the same price as a 4 person room which was pretty sweet.

Statue commemorating the war for Irish freedom

We were really worn out so we ended up sleeping until like 10:30 that morning. The plan for the day was the Irish Writer's Museum and the National Leprechaun Museum. Neither of which took very long and were easily done in one afternoon.

We arrived at the Irish Writer's Museum just in time to watch a small performance. An actor, who works for the museum, acts out a few excerpts from popular Irish writer's works, such as James Joyce's Dubliners, Seamus Heaney's Digging, and my personal favorite of the hour Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest. It was very entertaining to see this mid-40s man portray two or more characters, with different voices and mannerisms for each. He also gave a small amount of background information about each auther and their works.

The Irish Writer's Museum is appropriately enough in the house that used to belong to the Jameson family, of alcohol fame. It is very ornately decorated to show the family's wealth and good taste. In the room where the performance was done there are four doors, each with a mini series of paintings around the theme of time. One shows months of the year, another shows the four seasons, one shows night and day, and one is astrological signs.

The museum was very informative and had a great many artifacts of Irish writers. I learned a lot about different authors and have added quite a few books to my reading list. For someone who likes to read or who is into Irish history, this museum is a must.

The Ring of Kerry

Our original plan was to travel to the Aran Islands after Cork and check out the Cliffs of Moher, but things change. Everyone we encountered said that we should do the Ring of Kerry, and I mean everyone. So since our plans weren't set in stone, we looked up train times and headed to Kilarney, where the Ring of Kerry starts. The plan was to stay in hostels the whole week, but we decided for our one night in Kilarney we would  stay in a Bed & Breakfast. Just to have a break from hostel living and because they are really cute. We stayed at Emerville Bed and Breakfast. It was adorable, the room was fantastic, and the bed is the best thing I've slept on in months.

 

Our first night in Kilarney, we mostly just wondered around. We found a beautiful church to take pictures of called St. Mary's, not to be confused with the more famous St. Mary's Cathedral in Kilarney, this was the Anglican Church. 

That night, we ate pretty cheaply, to make up for the cost of the B&B, at a restaurant called Den Joe's. I had some fantastic fried chicken and Tiffany had a pot pie. Tiffany bought me a new claddagh ring (because its bad luck to buy one for yourself) and we had a couple drinks at a local bar. We were back super early though, we both wanted to take full advantage of the nice beds and get as much sleep as possible. The next day we were planning to take a bus tour around the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry is basically route 179 in County Kerry, located in the south west of Ireland. You can drive yourself, take a tour bus, or make the 8 day hike on foot. There are many little towns, coastal views, the Mountains of MacGillycuddy, and historical buildings along the route to stop and look at.

We had looked up a few bus tour companies, and we thought we found a decent priced option, but once we got to the B&B our hostess offered to book the tour for us. So we ended up using Deros Tours, they picked us up from the B&B in the morning and gave us a wonderful day tour of the Ring of Kerry that lasted from about 10am until 5:00pm. Deros tours was not the cheapest option, but we're assuming that the B&B's of the area all have a contract with a specific tour company and having them pick us up right in the morning was very convenient. 

Killorglin

The first town we came across was called Killorglin and it is a popular spot because of a fair that takes place every August. Puck Fair lasts three days and three nights, during this time a goat is taken from the mountains, placed high up on a platform, and crowned king for the three days. The ensuing festivities are very much like Mardi Gras and the saying goes "The goat can act the king and the people can act the goat." This fair predates Christianity and St. Patrick, there are just some holidays that you can't get rid of. The small town's population of 1,500 jumps to about 100,000 for the three days of drunkenness, carnival rides, cattle and horse fairs, and more drinking. At the very end, the goat is then released back into the wild, probably very confused and ready to get back to doing whatever goats do.

Statue commemorating the Goat King of the Puck Fair in Killorglin

Most of the tour is going up and down the MacGillcuddy Mountains. This is the tallest mountain range in Ireland with peaks that reach 1,000 meters high (3,280 ft). The mountains and the coast were covered in small farms and sheep. And ,as the guide informed us, there 9 million sheep in Ireland and only 4.2 million people.

Carhah River with the MacGillycuddy Mountains in the background

The tour also showed us quite a bit of bogland. Bogs are basically fields of rotting plants. The plants sit and rot for thousands of years eventually becoming this gross, wet, pile of brown plant material and mud and by eventually i mean a really long time. It takes 1,000 years for 1 foot of bog to build up. The bog farmers go out into these fields, cut up chunks of bog, and then lay them out to dry. Drying can take anywhere from three weeks to three months. The peat (the dried bog material) is then used as fuel to heat homes and cook food as well as insulation for roofs and walls. The wet peat is very heavy so horses are used to transport the material, however regular horses are too heavy to walk across boglands, as the guide put it, they would sink and have only their heads sticking up, so very small horses are used.

Bogland

Dried peat

The bus stopped at a museum, which was a little misleading. We were told that it was a Famine Museum set up as an old town, but it turns out it was the Bog Museum. It was a reconstructed little town whose main function was drying out the bog land and collecting peat. It was cute, but not really any more informative than the tour guide. 

Bog Town houses

Horse used for collecting bog, he is small so he won't sink.

The next big stop was to visit Our Lady of Kerry. Near a cliff's edge, with a great view of the coast, was a Mary statue encircled by a small stone wall. We took pictures of the statue and of the coastline, but that wasn't all. There is a man who hangs out near the statue because that is where all the tours stop. He has with him two white lambs and one black lamb and his dog. If you put some money in his hat, you can play with the animals and take pictures with them. At first I was like ok that's dumb, but then this little white lamb was peeking around a car and I gave in. It was adorable and soooo soft. It even tried to snuggle and lick my cheek.

Our Lady of Kerry

After playing with the sheep, we made our way to the lunch stop. We stopped at a cafeteria style restaurant and gift shop. It was a little expensive for the amount of food you received and for the cafeteria set up, but it was literally our only option. The food was good, I had seafood chowder and a fresh garden salad and Tiffany had a bowl of shepherd's pie(ironic because we were just playing with lambs).

A stone Caher, giving the town its name Caherdaniel

This tour also showed us a number of old constructions. One of which was called a caher, a circular stone fort. They were used in very ancient times to protect community members and animals from attack. They are spread out sporadically across modern day farms, taking up valuable land space, but no farmer dare take them down for fear of supernatural repercussions. Supposedly, banshees and fairies use them, and they will get very upset if you take them down. I guess there was a farmer who tore down the caher on his property and thirty years later he got cancer a died. This was, of course, the work of the fairies.

The Rock Outside Murphy's Bar in Sneem, the poem on the wall talks about sitting on the rock and getting drunk.

We stopped for tea, bathrooms and whatever else anyone needed to do in Sneem. Sneem is a very small town, it has one the Smallest Town award in Ireland several times. Tiffany and I came across Murphy's Bar in Sneem. Now, I'm sure you all know by now that my dog at home is named Murphy. Murphy is a very short and very fat beagle and the source of endless entertainment. I took pictures of all the Murphy things I could find in Ireland and it is at Murphy's Bar in Seem that Tiffany and I had our first Irish Coffee (coffee with cream, sugar, and whiskey). It was kind of expensive, so we split one, but that was more than enough. The bus was only stopping for 15 minutes, so towards the end we had to chug the coffee pretty quick.

Ladies' View

The last photo stop was Ladies' View. In August, 1861, Queen Victoria had traveled to County Kerry to visit a noble family. She was a very unhappy guest and was constantly abusing her ladies-in-waiting. On day, a picnic was planned in this spot, but the Queen arrived early so the food was not prepared. She supposedly had a tantrum and screamed at her ladies for quite some time. Once the food was ready, however, all was forgiven and the picnic went on in happiness. The towns people truly felt for those poor ladies-in-waiting and named the picnic spot after them.

The National Park of Kilarney is located along this route and we drove through some of it, but we unfortunately missed out on its most impressive feature. The Muckross Estate is a very large house located in the national park. It was built for the sole purpose of hosting Queen Victoria in 1861 and the owner, Henry Arthur Herbert, went into debt building it. They were hoping to receive a title and therefor a better paycheck for their troubles, but since Queen Victoria was such a cranky guest, the title never came. The house and its lands were then sold and turned into the national park. There was a huge wake, funeral, and party for Henry Arthur Herbert when he died. He was an odd man and requested to be buried standing up. His request was honored and it is said that after three days of drinking to his death, he was the only one still standing. The house is set far back in the woods so the bus tour did not take us there. If we had another day in Kilarney, we would have been able to go back and see the house, but we left that night for Dublin.

Muckross Lake, National Park of Kilarney

St. Patrick's Church

Before everybody gets all excited, this is not about St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. That post is coming later. This is about St. Patrick's Church in Cork which, in my opinion was equally as impressive as the Cathedral.

Tiffany and I were wondering around Cork and came across this church. We didn't think we would get a chance to attend mass at the cathedral in Dublin so we figured we could come back the next day and go to a week day mass here, they have a daily mass at 10 am. Mass was interesting to say the least. I don't go to week day masses very often and for some reason I completely forgot what they were like until we got there. It was me and Tiffany and about 10 older ladies and a very very very old priest. Mass was in English, but I can't tell you a single thing that was said. It also lasted only about 30 minutes. This guy was speeding through his readings. I almost feel bad for him, and all the other priests who should probably retire, but there isn't anyone to replace them sadly. That is one of my suggestions for the church, they need to make some improvements in recruiting people to the order, get more young people interested. And, hopefully I won't be excommunicated for saying this, but if they allow priests to marry there would be no shortage of available applicants.

I was blown away by this church. I was not expecting this to be as ornate as is was. I was thinking this isn't a cathedral, its just the local church, it's going to be simple, but at least I get to go to mass. I was wrong, way wrong. The church is beautiful and very very old. Building began in 1832 and construction continued on and off for many years. The original design was changed a few times as styles changed and new donors were involved, but the entire structure was built from Cork Limestone. Father Sylvester Mahony,( pen name Father Prout) author of the Bells of Shandon which was in my last post, was the main fundraiser for the construction and the furnishing of the church. The church had an informational brochure at the front and it turns out this is actually a very historical church. Annie Moore, the first person to disembark at Ellis Island ever, was baptized at St. Patrick's church in 1874. Frank O'Connor, a famous Irish writer, wrote a humorous short story about his first confession which took place in St. Patrick's.   The churches records have baptisms dating back to 1832, marriages from 1836 and confirmations from 1911.

Relic of Saint Patrick

Above the altar is a replica of The Last Supper which is one of many beautiful works of art in this church. The theme of the church seems to be the four symbols of the Eucharist: the pelican feeding her baby her own blood, the Host and the Chalice, the IHS monogram, and the Lamb of God. These symbols are on each side of the tabernacle, on four large panels around the altar, and on the outside doors.

Row of confessionals

The Honan family were large financial supporters of this church and, as was custom, have many amazing statues and ornate altars. The Holy Family Altar is located just above the family's plot in the church's underground crypt.

The Holy Family Altar

The stained glass is relatively new, ranging from the 1920s to the 1940s, and is very beautiful. I particularly liked the Our Lady of Lourdes depiction(1941) behind the side prayer candle altar to the Virgin Mary.

Our Lady of Lourdes

Tiffany got a picture of me lighting my prayer.

Going to mass was very refreshing after all this travel. Mass always refreshes me and I walk out feeling like I can take on anything. It was especially powerful to be going to church in such an old church in Ireland. Ireland  was the origin of so many Catholic practices and St. Patrick is so highly beloved, it was just awesome. Ok, two religious rants in one post is enough. More Ireland still to come!