1995 Ireland Part III Boyne Valley, Sligo, Donegal, Balleyshannon & Cliffs of Moher

July 2, Sunday

A nice full breakfast at the Burlington prepared us for a busy day. This morning we had an interesting drive to Boyne Valley. We crossed the Boyne River over this arched stone bridge. On the other side of the river was this defensive castle which has an interesting history.

A portion of King William’s Protestant army hid at King William’s Glen before the Battle of the Boyne (July 12, 1690), which they won. King James II (right) led the Catholic forces.

Many of the Protestant-Catholic conflicts in present-day Northern Ireland can be traced to the immediate aftermath of this battle. William of Orange (right) was William III during the Reign of William and Mary. James II was the last of the Stuart Kings. For some it was more than a battle of religion, but rather a Dutch king vs an English king.

Battle of the Boyne

Further up the Boyne River we made a major stop at Knowth to view the great Neolithic tombs, which pre-date the pyramids and a thousand years before Stonehenge in England. Birnbaum notes that “Ireland has the highest concentration of prehistoric monuments in Western Europe". The Knowth neolithic burial tomb is an excellent example of a passage grave with corbelled vaulting and huge slabs of decorated stone. It was built in the fourth millennium BC with tons of stone that were brought to the site by people with only a primitive knowledge of architectural technology.

How they transported the stone remains a mystery. The geometric designs on some stones at the center of the burial chamber continue to baffle experts. A well-informed guide narrated the entire history of the site. Videotape includes narration by the guide

The large tomb mound was surrounded by smaller ones. Geometric designs carved on the larger stones.














We drove on to Longford where we had lunch at the Cunyngham Arms Inn, in a very quaint dining room with a fireplace. Leaving Longford we passed by Longford Castle for a quick look.

We went on to Boyle’s Abbey where we had ample time to take various photos .On the north side of Boyle stands the ruins of Boyle Abbey (National monument), a Cistercian house founded in 1161. Of the cruciform church, now roofless, there survive in a good state of preservation the nave, choir, and transcsept, the guesthouse, and the kitchen. Baedeker Ireland, p. 97

We continued on through the beautiful countryside of Sligo County (view from the bus), until we came to Drumcliff. Note that Boyle which we had just left is on the lower right of map. We continued up N4 to Drumcliff Bay just above Sligo. Here we spent considerable time.

Yeats is buried with his wife in an unpretentious grave at the Protestant church, opposite the High Cross. Yeats spelled out not only where he was to be buried, but also what should be written on his grey headstone: “Cast a cold eye/On Life, on death/Horseman, pass by!”

The monastery here flourished for many centuries, but all that is left of it is the base of a Round Tower and a richly carved High Cross dating from around 1000 A.D.

On the video is the grave of Yeats, his grandfather’s church, the interior of the church (including the art work behind the altar), the round tower, and the cross with engraved Bible stories on it.

As we drove on toward Sligo we drove past the castle of Mountbatten. Mountbatten  was the uncle of Prince Charles who had been assassinated by the IRA in 1979. He and his boat were blown up in the body of water near the castle. The castle can be seen in the background on the bay where he had been fishing.

Mountbatten is uniformed man saluting in the photograph.

Nearby was Creevykeel. Here there is a “court cairn,” a burial mound with a semi-circular or oval court serving some ritual purpose in front of the tomb chamber. Creevykeel Court Cairn (National Monument) is one of the finest in Ireland. A wedge-shaped stonewall encloses an open court, beyond which are a double-chambered gallery, two other chambers, and remains of still another. The site is thought to be about 4500 years old. Baedeker, Ireland, p. 143



We then drove on to Sligo, the ”Heart of Yeats Country,” situated between Lough Gill and the ocean. Street scene in Sligo. Just before we arrived in Balleyshannon, we passed the major military installation of Ireland, very near our B&B, and only 3 miles from the border of Northern Ireland.

The army of the Republic is a volunteer force — there is no compulsory military service in Ireland — which has shown its mettle in United Nations peacekeeping forces in many parts of the world. Baedeker, Ireland, p. 18

I took beautiful views from our B&B. Everything seemed so peaceful, but while we were here some cars were firebombed in Northern Ireland.

July 3, Monday

Great B&B breakfast. Today’s touring took us through the rugged wilds of County Donegal. County Donegal is among the wildest, most rugged beautiful places in the world, says Fodor’s Guide. Tucked into the folds of the Northwest’s hills, modest little market towns and unpretentious villages with muddy streets go about their business quietly. In the squelchy peat bogs, cutters working with long shovels pause to watch you drive past. As you drive along country lanes, you may find a whitewashed cottage, with children playing outside, a shepherd leading his flock, or a bicycle-riding farmer wobbling along in the middle of the road.

Peat, the youngest member of the coal family, is a mixture of dead, partially decayed bog plants and sponge-like mosses. New moss grows over the older moss, which dies and sinks under water. Eventually, the layer of peat thickens enough to break through the water, becoming the soggy surface of a bog. At times an undrained bog may look solid, but it is about 95 percent water; there is more solid matter in milk than in raw peat.






To harvest a bog, the cutting machine scoops up soggy peat from a bank several feet high, chews and shapes the peat into neat bricks called sods, and drops them from its 180 foot arm in long rows to dry. Bogland covers about one-seventh of Ireland. “Discovering Britain and Ireland,” (National Geographic, 1985) pp. 384-5

Our trip today would include Ballybofey and Letterkenny to Ardara, one of the county’s most scenic villages, and then back to Donegal Town. Before reaching Letterkenny we saw some beautiful mountain scenery and large peat bogs. Letterkenny, the northernmost site on our Irish tour. Letterkenny, the county’s largest town, has a population of 6500. For the rest, you’ll discover almost nothing but scenery — unkempt, windswept, sheep grazed grasses on mountain slopes.

Our bus stopped in the town of Letterkenny for free time. Annette and I hiked up to the imposing 19th century Catholic church on a hill above the town. We peeked inside to see the beautiful interior. We took a break in a bakery/coffee shop to indulge in some delicious Irish pastry. On the way back through town we saw an interesting Presbyterian church that dated back to 1640.








As we continued our drive through Donegal County we passed by sites where fir trees were flourishing. These trees were planted on bog areas where the peat had been stripped away. Because the new surface has a high acid content, it is quite suitable for evergreens. This now contributes to a thriving lumber industry in Ireland. Tommy had the bus stopped by a peat bog so we could see how it was “mined” and stacked out dry. The rows of plastic bags that can be seen around the bogs have been placed there so that the peat can be easily carried.

Before reaching Ardara we made a brief stop at Lough (lake) Finn. And then Ardara: Ardara (accent on the last a) is an unpretentious, old fashion hamlet of low, pale cottages among the green and brown hills; fortuitously situated at the head of a lovely ocean inlet. For centuries Ardara has been an important wool-trading center. Though the cloth fairs have died out, cottage workers in the surrounding countryside still provide Ardara (and County Donegal) with very high-quality handwoven cloths.

We toured the cloth-making “factory” here in Ardara, where they spun wool and made cloth on old machines as it had been made for centuries. Ann purchased a scarf that had been made there. She posed with the scarf in the showroom. Across the street from the showas a beautiful Catholic church and a majestic view of the lake and countryside. Flowers surrounded the parking lot.

Before returning to Balleyshannon, we stopped at Donegal Town. We saw the Donegal Church of Ireland (Protestant) and the Donegal Castle. Both were undergoing considerable restoration.

Donegal Castle (National Monument) is an imposing ruin situated on the rocky bank of the River Eske. The chief seat of the O’Donnells, it fell into English hands in 1607. The large square keep (1505) was then altered by the insertion of windows, and a splendid fireplace carved with a coat of arms was constructed on the first floor, In 1610 a fortified manor-house was built on to the tower. Baedeker, pp. 137-8




After dinner at the guesthouse in Balleyshannon, Tommy took us out to Kelly’s Kosy Korner in Balleyshannon for a night of Irish singing merriment, and Guinness. Most of the songs were sung by an Irish lass (oldest of 14 children) who played an accordion. Among the songs were:

My Wild Irish Rose & When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
What Ireland Means to  & Me When You and I Were Young, Maggie
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary I& If You’re Irish
It’s an Irish Lullaby & The Soldier’s Song

When The Soldier’s Song was sung, all the Irish (including our guide, Tommy) had tears in their eyes. This was the rally song of the IRA. Very emotional. Our fellow traveler, Ruth, had requested it.

The National Anthem of Ireland is the Soldier’s Song — written in 1907 by Peadar Kearney, with music by Patrick Heeney and Peadar Kearney — a marching song harking back to the fight for independence. Baedeker, Ireland, p. 18

July 4, Tuesday

Our first stop after leaving Balleyshannon was Innisfree (pronounced Inish Free), the “Lake Isle” around which Yeats weaved his enticing imagery:

”I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree...
And live alone, in the bee-loud glade...
I hear lake water lapping, with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core”

We saw the little tree-covered island just offshore.

Our next stop was at the Holy Well and Shrine. Here Catholic priests hid after the Penal Laws were passed outlawing their ministry.

When Catholic worship was forbidden, Mass continued to be celebrated in secret in the open air at ”Mass Rocks” in remote places like this. Those who wanted to become priests had to seek training and ordination abroad, mainly in France and Spain. Grottoes were often set up at crossroads or in natural rock formations. There were many holy wells surrounded by a wall, round which rosaries have been deposited.

We drove through Knock where the Lady’s Shrine is located. This site attracts pilgrims from all over the world since the townsfolk said they experienced Marion apparitions in the 1800s. The Shrine of Our Lady of Knock is now considered one of the largest religious centers in Ireland, not to mention the world. On August 21, 1879, fifteen villagers reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin, St. Joseph, and St. John. Over a period of two hours they knelt and prayed as they watched the vision. Pope John Paul II is the most distinguished pilgrim to have visited the sprawling cathedral here at the site.

Then on to Galway, where we stopped to roam the city. Many consider Galway (population 37,000) to be the best city in the Republic. Galway revived the old Irish tradition of hand-painted wooden shop signs with Gaelic lettering. The city has been further enhanced by the installation of well-designed modern sculptures, floral hanging baskets and window boxes. The grassy central area of Eyre Square is known as Kennedy Park, in honor of John F. Kennedy who visited the city in 1963, five months before his assassination. The park is dominated by a beautiful 20-foot steel sculpture, which stands in the midst of a fountain pool. The work, installed in 1986, takes the form of brown sails that are seen on traditional sailing boats, known as Galway hookers.



The founders of Galway were Anglo-Normans who arrived in the mid-13th century and fortified their settlement against the “native Irish,” as local chieftains were called. Galway became known as the City of Tribes because of the dominant role in public and commercial life of the 14 families who founded it. Their names are still common in Galway and elsewhere in Ireland: and recur regularly in any account of Irish history and culture: Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, D’Arcy, Dean, Font, French, Kirwan, Joyce, Lynch, Morris, Martin, and Skerret

The patron saint of Galway is Brendan. The Irish believe that Brendan discovered the New World centuries before Christopher Columbus. Naturally, it’s said that Brendan sailed from Galway.

Annette and I started off our walk at one of the Gates in the city that were taken from buildings of the early founders — this one from the Browne family. We ate lunch on a park bench at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Park. Central to the park was a large steel sculpture of a Galway Hooker. We then walked over to a new mall, which incorporated parts of the old City Wall within it. Back on the streets of Galway we saw street performers (buskers), sellers of craft wares, and a lot of pedestrian traffic. On this busy corner was located the Lynch Castle:

Lynch’s Castle (16th century; National Monument), a large grey building with coats of arms on the facade, now occupied by a bank, was the residence of the Lynches, an aristocratic family that provided several mayors of Galway. One of these mayors condemned his own son to death for the murder of a young Spanish visitor and carried out the sentence with his own hands when no one else was willing to do it. Hence the origin of the term “lynch law”. Baedeker, Ireland, p. 186.

Since Galway is famous for its sweaters we purchased one here for Annette, and then headed back to Kennedy Park to rejoin our group.







After a short drive to the waterfront, we climbed aboard the ”Corrib Princess” for a scenic river cruise.

The river cruise lasted one and a half hours and traveled five miles up the Corrib River and about three and a half miles around Lough Corrib. River Corrib is famous for its large population of mute swans.

From the dock area we could see Galway Cathedral (which we later visited) and portions of the old Galway stone bridge. Along the river was University College (just beyond the young lady standing by the boat railing);

This is part of the National University of Ireland, in which much of its teaching is in Irish. Our guide Tommy, who could speak the Celtic (Gaelic) language, said it is required of all students, along with English, until grade 12. But only 4% of the Irish people use it as a working language. The government promotes the language, not only in schools, but requires that all road signs be printed in both languages, and that stipulated time spots on TV and radio must be in Irish.

A little further down the river were Norman ruins. One was the rather large Menlo Castle. Another was of an early Norman home. The many swans we saw on the river are a reminder that the Normans ate them as a steady part of their diet. Now, however they are protected by law. Finally we reached the Corrib Lough, a rather shallow, but large lake. The many reeds growing along the shore are still used for thatching roofs. On the return trip to Galway I caught a good view of Galway Abbey, now used as a hotel.

When we finished our river cruise we were taken for a tour of the Galway Cathedral Galway’s Catholic Cathedral is on an island forming the west bank of the River Corrib. The cathedral was built in the 1960s (controversial architecture) and was dedicated by Cardinal Cushing of Boston in 1965. Views included the exterior, the nave, mosaic chapels (one with a mosaic of JFK), and stained glass windows.

We were dropped off at our B&B for an Irish dinner. I took a shot of the Galway Bay, which was near our boarding place. After eating, Annette and I walked to the old city center from our B&B. Where we crossed the old river bridge into the city we watched people feeding swans below.







On the city side of the bridge was a marker with this inscription: ”On these shores around 1477 the Genoese sailor Christoforo Columbo found sure signs of lands beyond the Atlantic”. The main purpose of our walk was to see St. Nicholas Church (Church of Ireland), which is alleged to have a tie with Columbus.

St. Nicholas’s Church. According to the Irish, this is the place where Columbus prayed before sailing off to discover America. Originally built in 1320 by Anglo-Normans, it has been altered through the ensuing centuries. The three-gabled west front is unparalleled in Ireland. After the Reformation the church changed hands a number of times between Catholics and Protestants, before Cromwell’s forces finally secured it for the Protestants. Birnbaum, Ireland 95, p. 145.

That evening we stayed at our B&B in Galway.







July 5, Wednesday

After a full B&B breakfast, we began tour of Connemara country, a wild land of rocky mountains, sparkling brooks, and rivers. Connemara is the name given to the western part of Galway, which lies between Lough Corrib and the Atlantic. Its moorland is dominated by the Maamturk Mountains and the Twelve Bens range to the north and is fringed by a deeply indented Atlantic coastline with innumerable creeks, bays, and small harbors. Population of the area is sparse, even on the lowland plains, which are mostly bog.




Our first stop on the peninsula was at Spiddal where we had an opportunity to see the stony surface of the land and the many walls made out of rocks.

Shortly we would arrive at the Connemara Marble Factory where we had a chance to see slabs of green marble unique to the area. Further on we saw huge peat bogs with rows of peat stacked out to dry. Further along the road was a true-to-scale replica of a Crannough dwelling. These floating islands were used around 500B.C. (according to Robin Krause, Ireland, p. 37). The actual ruins are no longer around because the construction material was not long lasting.

For lunch we stopped at a quaint village of Clifden, population 1,381. After lunch we had free time to see the village and visit St. Joseph’s Catholic Church up on a hill. Clifden is famous as the European initial location site of the transatlantic cable project of Marconi. There is a Marconi Pub in town and posters celebrating the anniversary of the event.

We stopped at lakeside Kylemore Abbey to view this fantastic turreted gray-stone building. The abbey was built as a private home in 1864 by Michell Henry, a member of Parliament, and is now a convent of Benedictine nuns who run a girls’ boarding school here. The location is sheer heaven. There is a tiny replica of Norwich

Cathedral, built by Mitchell Henry on the abbey grounds. The abbey sells sweaters, gifts, and general craft items.




We returned to our lovely B&B in Galway. Like so many of our home-stays, the yard was adorned with flowers. Naturally, more video of flowers, this time still wet from raindrops.

July 6, Thursday


After a full B&B breakfast, we headed through Galway City on the way to the countryside of County Clare. At Galway we managed to get our last view of the Spanish Arch on the Corrib River.
Spanish Arch. The best-known landmark in Galway, the arch was built in 1594 as an addition to the Old Town wall to provide protection for the docked Spanish ships unloading their wines nearby.

A highlight visit to Rathbaun Farm provided an opportunity to see an Irish farmer shearing sheep and maneuvering his flock with his dogs. The buildings on the farm were from the original homestead and we were guests of the farming family. We were treated to coffee and scones in the old buildings. Tommy had his coffee by a fireplace stoked with chunks of burning and smoking peat.

We passed through the Burren — a lunar-like area of petrified carboniferous limestone. Because of the rain we did not stop for pictures.

We did stop, however, for a magnificent view of Dunquaire Castle situated on a quiet lake.

Finally we reached the spectacular 700-foot Cliff of Moher — one of the outstanding features of the County Clare. The cliffs of Moher rise vertically along 5 miles of coastline, at some points towering 600 feet above the sea. The stratified deposits of five different rock layers can be seen in the striations of the cliff face. The shelves of rock on the cliffs are home to numerous sea birds, including a large colony of puffins.






Unfortunately, the rain and mountain mists prevented us from seeing very much. We had to satisfy ourselves with the sound of the pounding waves. At Lahinch we did stop along the ocean for a break and a chance to watch some surfers.

We checked in at the Limerick Inn and had a chance to freshen up and relax before our farewell banquet. The banquet was held in the banquet hall of Knappogue Castle. The exterior of the castle was very picturesque. Knappogue Castle at Quin is a 15th century MacNamera stronghold that has been extensively restored and refinished in the 15th century style. Costumed performers who served us wine and led us to the reception room greeted us. Here young musicians performed on the violin and harp and sang for us.




Six of us were chosen to sit at the head table. Two of our friends were then chosen to be Lord and Lady MacNamera. Ironically, our friends had the O’Brian name. You may recall that in real history the O’Brians of Bunratty Castle were the bitter rivals of the MacNameras. The banquet went on anyway. One of our tour members took my camcorder and took a video of the six of us at the head table.

The food was good (video-tape of the menu) and so was the entertainment. The performers presented “Women in Irish History” in song and dance. Very beautiful!

Overnight stay at the Limerick Inn

July 7, Friday

Today we said farewell to Ireland.