I'm back in Dublin! I'm staying in a hostel. Its one of the best hostels in Dublin, or at least it has that reputation. I honestly wouldn't know since its my first one. I'm sharing a room with three other people. In two days I've had two completely different sets of people. Tomorrow promises the same unless they don't sell out and I get the room to myself (here's hoping). The showers have the same set up as the ones in the Maynooth. Which I'm not particularly fond of. You know those sinks where you press down to get water and it slowly comes up and stops the water? That's how these showers work. There is NO way to adjust the temperature, and you have to keep pressing throughout your shower. In Maynooth I showered during a low demand for shower time- which meant the water was way too hot and I practically burnt my head trying to wash my hair. I haven't been brave enough to shower here yet, but I will tomorrow in between roommate changes. I have to repack my bags tomorrow for the airport too.
Since Monday in Dublin I've rambled around Saint Stephen's Green, toured the Yeats exhibit at the National Library, toured the Art Gallery, took the 1916 Easter Rebellion tour (and got a signed book, and saw the bullet holes at the old post office), toured the Garden of Remembrance, and toured Dublin Castle. I also went to see the bog bodies again. I've walked up and down the Temple Bar area and got the best icecream there.
I've been pretty busy and I'm really tired from all the walking I've been doing. My legs don't hurt anymore. The first two days in Galway my legs just ached, but I've got rather use to all this rambling.
I'm going to miss Ireland when I leave, but I will be glad to be getting home to Robin.
(I'll probably post pictures of Dublin and Maynooth after I get home, I'm a bit too tired to mess with it right now)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Maynooth, Kildare
Right now I am staying in Maynooth University in Kildare. Its beautiful here. I also toured the Maynooth Castle yesterday which is the old Fitzgerald home. Not too much left of the castle anymore.
There seems to be an extreme lack of public transportation in Kildare, which is unfortunate since that is where my family is from. I hate to say it, but you really need a car to see Kildare. And that I don't have nor do I want to try driving on the opposite side of the road.
In my continued research for family roots I have found the contact information for St.Mary's. Peter Killian (not really sure how he is related but my cousin Debbie knows, probably a Great Great Uncle if I had to guess) worked as a superintendent in 1863 on the construction of St. Mary's.
Broadford, St Mary's
Co. Kildare
Telephone:046-9551203
Email: balynaparish@eircom.net
There seems to be an extreme lack of public transportation in Kildare, which is unfortunate since that is where my family is from. I hate to say it, but you really need a car to see Kildare. And that I don't have nor do I want to try driving on the opposite side of the road.
In my continued research for family roots I have found the contact information for St.Mary's. Peter Killian (not really sure how he is related but my cousin Debbie knows, probably a Great Great Uncle if I had to guess) worked as a superintendent in 1863 on the construction of St. Mary's.
Broadford, St Mary's
Co. Kildare
Telephone:046-9551203
Email: balynaparish@eircom.net
Friday, July 24, 2009
Adventures in Dublin
I went to Dublin for a few days. The first day there I saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College. That evening I went to see RiverDance perform. Both were amazing.
Second day in Dublin I went to the National Library. Their genealogy office is incrediably helpful. I now have the map of what my Great Great Great Grandfather Bartholomew Killian rented from Michael Williams. He rented two lots- 5A and 5B hopefully you can see it on the map I took a picture of. Its right near a main road that has since been expanded. It looks like some of the natural markers are still there according to google earth. According to the tax forms he rented a House, offices, and land. Don't know if anything is still out there but I hope to go. (You can click on the map to enlarge it, 5A & B are near the top center)
Not many people around here have heard of Ballynadrumny. The place never developed. There was once a church near by but I can't find an address for it, so it may not be there anymore. South of Ballynadrumny is Broadford. The name of the Catholic Parish was Balyna. The church records are on microfilm. I need to go back to the libary to look at them- they *may* have a marriage certificate for Bartle and Catherine- if so, it would have their parent's names on them. From what the genealogy ladies in the library said, its very likely they are buried in the church yard in Ballynadrumny. There is some complication with that because catholics were not allowed to have their own burial ground some time in the 18th century.... which makes them a bit more difficult to find. She also said many of the head stones don't have names or dates on them during that period.
Anyway, after that we went to the National Museum. There were Lunalias which are hammered gold in the shape of a crescent moon worn as a necklace. Very beautiful. We also saw the bog bodies. They are really well perserved. You can see facial hair on the men. One of the bodies was just an upper torso without a head- but his chest and arms were so well perserved that you could almost imagine him moving. He didn't seem hundreds of years removed from us- it was all very strange. There was much more the the muesum but I didn't have enough time to walk it all, so I'll have to go back.
Then we went to the Guiness Storehouse. It was basically an exhibit as to how the beer is made. It was interesting. We went up to the top of the Gallaxy Bar and could see all of Dublin.
Then we went on a Musical Pub Crawl. Unfortunately downloading the video clips to my computer didn't work out right, so I lost a good bit of them. However some survived, and here they are:
Second day in Dublin I went to the National Library. Their genealogy office is incrediably helpful. I now have the map of what my Great Great Great Grandfather Bartholomew Killian rented from Michael Williams. He rented two lots- 5A and 5B hopefully you can see it on the map I took a picture of. Its right near a main road that has since been expanded. It looks like some of the natural markers are still there according to google earth. According to the tax forms he rented a House, offices, and land. Don't know if anything is still out there but I hope to go. (You can click on the map to enlarge it, 5A & B are near the top center)
Not many people around here have heard of Ballynadrumny. The place never developed. There was once a church near by but I can't find an address for it, so it may not be there anymore. South of Ballynadrumny is Broadford. The name of the Catholic Parish was Balyna. The church records are on microfilm. I need to go back to the libary to look at them- they *may* have a marriage certificate for Bartle and Catherine- if so, it would have their parent's names on them. From what the genealogy ladies in the library said, its very likely they are buried in the church yard in Ballynadrumny. There is some complication with that because catholics were not allowed to have their own burial ground some time in the 18th century.... which makes them a bit more difficult to find. She also said many of the head stones don't have names or dates on them during that period.
Anyway, after that we went to the National Museum. There were Lunalias which are hammered gold in the shape of a crescent moon worn as a necklace. Very beautiful. We also saw the bog bodies. They are really well perserved. You can see facial hair on the men. One of the bodies was just an upper torso without a head- but his chest and arms were so well perserved that you could almost imagine him moving. He didn't seem hundreds of years removed from us- it was all very strange. There was much more the the muesum but I didn't have enough time to walk it all, so I'll have to go back.
Then we went to the Guiness Storehouse. It was basically an exhibit as to how the beer is made. It was interesting. We went up to the top of the Gallaxy Bar and could see all of Dublin.
Then we went on a Musical Pub Crawl. Unfortunately downloading the video clips to my computer didn't work out right, so I lost a good bit of them. However some survived, and here they are:
Galway Open Air Market
Galway has an open air market every Saturday and Sunday. My guide book only indicated Saturday but things have since changed to include Sunday. Its good and bad really. Basically everything you resisted buying Saturday you have another chance to get Sunday. It was fun and there are several hand crafted vendors- normally run by the artist so you get to meet the artist too. They had REALLY good doughnuts- melt in your mouth mmmmmm good.
They had a lot more things than just food. I just really liked taking pictures of the food.
This is the lady I bought my mother's present from. Tee hee. It drives my mother crazy that she doesn't know what I got her.
They had a lot more things than just food. I just really liked taking pictures of the food.
This is the lady I bought my mother's present from. Tee hee. It drives my mother crazy that she doesn't know what I got her.
Galway Parade
Last weekend July 18-19 I went to the Galway Museum and Aquarium. The Museum didn't have a lot to it, but what it did have was interesting. It had a very large exhibit to Pres. Kennedy's visit to Ireland. It had part of Saint Ursalla's skull in a silver box.
The aquarium was a pretty awesome place. It had a very old, I think 10,000 years old, long boat. At the end we got to hold starfish and feed fish bread.
This is my friend Katie in front of the aquarium tank.
Sunday evening we saw the Galway Art Festival Parade. It was very strange. We got there a good hour early to get a nice spot on the sidewalk. Keep in mind most Galway sidewalks are only big enough for one person to walk on (if you want to pass you have to step into the street) the "large" Galway sideways are big enough for two people side by side.
There were signs that you weren't allowed to park on the parade route- people did. They were NEVER towed. The parade started at 10:00 at the Spanish Arch- the cops were still letting cars and public buses drive on the parade route at 10:30.
When the parade started coming down the street people were standing in the street in front of the park cars to see- almost entirely blocking the path of the parade. People were walking backwards in front of the parade taking pictures. We are talking no crowd control here.
Then this very drunk guy stumbled into the front of the parade. The lead in the parade was a transvestite. She grabbed on to this drunk fellow and sorta danced then straddled then proceeded to pretend to whip him. The crowd got a good laugh and then the police picked the drunk guy up, and told him "there's a good wall over there for you to lean on" (this so wouldn't happen in the US). Then as the floats start to come, the drunk guys decides to sit in one. This stops the parade. The cop comes up to him again, puts his arm around his shoulder and goes to find him "a nice place to sit down right here, hang on to the sidewalk, there you go" and leaves him again. I was informed by my host family that "Irish police have better things to do than arrest drunk people." Not really sure what, because there is really very little crime in Galway. My host family also said there is a law against drinking in public but its clearly not enforced.
The parade was at night. The floats were lit up. It was a very odd parade to watch. There wasn't much to it and no candy for the children either. There were three people spinning around "dogs" - they were cans with teeth cut out the front and fire burning on the inside. The parade people would go into the crowd and nab a child then swing the child back and forth like they were going to throw the kid into the flames. The kids were laughing. If they had been American children, they would have been crying and the media would have been outraged. Instead of giving candy to children, we throw kids to flames in Ireland!
Then the crowd started to follow the parade (very strange) so I did too (why not?). We went to the church and in the parking lot the other half of the parade (they came from two different directions) met up and they had some kind of crazy music sort of dance. There was a fire display best described as giant sparklers.
Video clips from the parade:
I will add that it was really cool seeing a parade at night and now I wish they would have night parades in the states.
The aquarium was a pretty awesome place. It had a very old, I think 10,000 years old, long boat. At the end we got to hold starfish and feed fish bread.
This is my friend Katie in front of the aquarium tank.
Sunday evening we saw the Galway Art Festival Parade. It was very strange. We got there a good hour early to get a nice spot on the sidewalk. Keep in mind most Galway sidewalks are only big enough for one person to walk on (if you want to pass you have to step into the street) the "large" Galway sideways are big enough for two people side by side.
There were signs that you weren't allowed to park on the parade route- people did. They were NEVER towed. The parade started at 10:00 at the Spanish Arch- the cops were still letting cars and public buses drive on the parade route at 10:30.
When the parade started coming down the street people were standing in the street in front of the park cars to see- almost entirely blocking the path of the parade. People were walking backwards in front of the parade taking pictures. We are talking no crowd control here.
Then this very drunk guy stumbled into the front of the parade. The lead in the parade was a transvestite. She grabbed on to this drunk fellow and sorta danced then straddled then proceeded to pretend to whip him. The crowd got a good laugh and then the police picked the drunk guy up, and told him "there's a good wall over there for you to lean on" (this so wouldn't happen in the US). Then as the floats start to come, the drunk guys decides to sit in one. This stops the parade. The cop comes up to him again, puts his arm around his shoulder and goes to find him "a nice place to sit down right here, hang on to the sidewalk, there you go" and leaves him again. I was informed by my host family that "Irish police have better things to do than arrest drunk people." Not really sure what, because there is really very little crime in Galway. My host family also said there is a law against drinking in public but its clearly not enforced.
The parade was at night. The floats were lit up. It was a very odd parade to watch. There wasn't much to it and no candy for the children either. There were three people spinning around "dogs" - they were cans with teeth cut out the front and fire burning on the inside. The parade people would go into the crowd and nab a child then swing the child back and forth like they were going to throw the kid into the flames. The kids were laughing. If they had been American children, they would have been crying and the media would have been outraged. Instead of giving candy to children, we throw kids to flames in Ireland!
Then the crowd started to follow the parade (very strange) so I did too (why not?). We went to the church and in the parking lot the other half of the parade (they came from two different directions) met up and they had some kind of crazy music sort of dance. There was a fire display best described as giant sparklers.
Video clips from the parade:
I will add that it was really cool seeing a parade at night and now I wish they would have night parades in the states.
Dingle Saturday and Sunday
I'm going to try to quickly catch up in my blog. Saturday and Sunday in Dingle can be summed up in one word RAIN! It was the worst storm I have experienced since being in Ireland. Normally, it rains, then the sun comes out, then it rains & repeat- for most of the day. This rain didn't stop. It rained all day Saturday and the wind at night was howling.
Unfortunately most of our bus tour went like this, "And over here on the right is (insert important name here) but you can't see it because of the fog and rain, so I'll just tell you about it." The roads were really super curvy. We were driving on the side of a mountain and could see the rocks below. It was supposedly a two way street but it wasn't working out very well for the RVs trying to pass our bus. There was also a stream that ran across the road. Later in the day that stream turned into a river and we couldn't pass there. Two of the bridges flooded out. We had to take an alternative route back to our hotel. We did stop off at one museum that talked about the people who used to live on a Peninsula and that was sorta cool. The best part about the museum is it was dry.
It wasn't the best trip over all. And to top it off, I got sick on the bus, had to make the driver pull over so I could throw up on the side of the road. You know you feel awful when you hop out into the wind and rain and think "This feels sooo much better than the bus!" I spent Saturday evening in the hotel room watching American shows on TV. That's pretty easy to do considering most of Irish TV is american shows. Well there are a fair amount of game shows too but I hate those. I watched a little bit of the Celtic Games too. If you ever get a chance to watch any you should. I know some people who actually went to a game in person and loved it. Between John giving me OTC drugs and Brenda bringing me crackers I recovered well. It was probably some 24 hour bug I picked up. I think its fairly easy to get sick at least once because you run yourself down touring all these different sites and the weather is rainy all the time. Being sick does have a way of making you especially homesick. Which kind of sucks.
My roommates saw Dingle the weekend before my group went- they had great weather and loved it. What I didn't see because no one got off the bus after awhile because of the weather was a beach, some cliffs, the peninsula, a sundial, a graveyard and quicksand (which one of my roommates had stepped in up to her knee on her trip).
Here's a few pictures of what I did see:
The Beehive hut. And let me tell you, those rocks keep the rain out. I actually hid in this one for a awhile to get out of the weather.
This is the walls for a larger stone house with several rooms. The hole in the ground was for drainage. The roof of this one has been gone for awhile. I hid in the doorway, crouched down listening to the tour guide to keep a little dry. This was the only place we got out of the bus. After this we decided it was too wet to get off again.
Wish it had been nice enough too go down to the beach. You really need to plan to be a couple days in any place you want to see just in case the weather sucks. Unfortunately this was only a weekend trip.
Some sheep near the ocean. You can't really see it here but many of the farmers mark there sheep with orange, red or blue paint so they know who it belongs to. Most of the sheep we saw on the Dingle tour were blue. Its kind of disturbing if you don't realize they paint the sheep. The first sheep I saw painted in Ireland were red and at first I thought someone had brutalized a whole flock.
Unfortunately most of our bus tour went like this, "And over here on the right is (insert important name here) but you can't see it because of the fog and rain, so I'll just tell you about it." The roads were really super curvy. We were driving on the side of a mountain and could see the rocks below. It was supposedly a two way street but it wasn't working out very well for the RVs trying to pass our bus. There was also a stream that ran across the road. Later in the day that stream turned into a river and we couldn't pass there. Two of the bridges flooded out. We had to take an alternative route back to our hotel. We did stop off at one museum that talked about the people who used to live on a Peninsula and that was sorta cool. The best part about the museum is it was dry.
It wasn't the best trip over all. And to top it off, I got sick on the bus, had to make the driver pull over so I could throw up on the side of the road. You know you feel awful when you hop out into the wind and rain and think "This feels sooo much better than the bus!" I spent Saturday evening in the hotel room watching American shows on TV. That's pretty easy to do considering most of Irish TV is american shows. Well there are a fair amount of game shows too but I hate those. I watched a little bit of the Celtic Games too. If you ever get a chance to watch any you should. I know some people who actually went to a game in person and loved it. Between John giving me OTC drugs and Brenda bringing me crackers I recovered well. It was probably some 24 hour bug I picked up. I think its fairly easy to get sick at least once because you run yourself down touring all these different sites and the weather is rainy all the time. Being sick does have a way of making you especially homesick. Which kind of sucks.
My roommates saw Dingle the weekend before my group went- they had great weather and loved it. What I didn't see because no one got off the bus after awhile because of the weather was a beach, some cliffs, the peninsula, a sundial, a graveyard and quicksand (which one of my roommates had stepped in up to her knee on her trip).
Here's a few pictures of what I did see:
The Beehive hut. And let me tell you, those rocks keep the rain out. I actually hid in this one for a awhile to get out of the weather.
This is the walls for a larger stone house with several rooms. The hole in the ground was for drainage. The roof of this one has been gone for awhile. I hid in the doorway, crouched down listening to the tour guide to keep a little dry. This was the only place we got out of the bus. After this we decided it was too wet to get off again.
Wish it had been nice enough too go down to the beach. You really need to plan to be a couple days in any place you want to see just in case the weather sucks. Unfortunately this was only a weekend trip.
Some sheep near the ocean. You can't really see it here but many of the farmers mark there sheep with orange, red or blue paint so they know who it belongs to. Most of the sheep we saw on the Dingle tour were blue. Its kind of disturbing if you don't realize they paint the sheep. The first sheep I saw painted in Ireland were red and at first I thought someone had brutalized a whole flock.
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