The Emerald Isle (Picture Heavy!)

Greetings!  The past few weeks have been just a little crazy; not much stitching has been done around here, and even less blogging.  DH and I took a little vacation to Ireland a couple of weeks ago, more of a belated honeymoon, as we didn't have one when we got married last summer.  I was there before, in 2004, but it was DH's first trip.  I thought I'd share some pictures with you, so be warned!

 

We flew into Dublin and got a car, then drove north toward Belfast.  After we crossed into Northern Ireland, we set out along the coast road, skirting the Mourne Mountains.  The scenery was breathtaking. 

 

 It was DH's first experience at driving on the left side of the road, and once he got the hang of it, he did pretty well.  One interesting thing we noticed was that although Northern Ireland is actually another country, there was no signage or anything to let us know that we had crossed the border from the Republic into the North.  We noticed that suddenly there was no Irish on the road signs and realized then that we had crossed the border.

We made it to Belfast that evening, then set out the next morning to do a bit of exploration.  The Titanic was built in Belfast, and there is a memorial at City Hall:

This garden is planted behind the statue; the other side of the wall lists the victims:

This is the war memorial at City Hall:

A bouquet had been placed at the memorial by a former soldier, in memory of Lee Rigby, the British soldier who had been murdered in London just a few days earlier.  It was very touching.

The "One City, One Book" banners were flying around City Hall.  The library that I went to when I lived in Pennsylvania always participated in the "One Book, One Community" program.  I was delighted to see something similar in Ireland!

We were lucky that day; an international market was set up around City Hall.  It was a great place to walk around and do some people watching.  There all kinds of interesting things for sale, from Irish flat caps to kangaroo burgers to candy of all kinds!

 

Belfast is very clean; this is probably part of the reason:

 

 
 
 

There were two neighborhoods in Belfast where so much of the violence occurred during The Troubles.  One was Shankhill Road, a Protestant community; the other was Falls Road, where the residents are Catholic.  We walked part of the way down Falls Road and didn't make it to Shankhill, not from any political or religious bias but because my feet were telling me they'd had about enough walking.  This is a memorial garden on Falls Road:

There are also a number of murals on Falls Road (and on Shankhill, I believe); we only saw a couple.

 This mural of Bobby Sands (considered a hero by the people on Falls Road) takes up the entire side of a building.  That's me standing in front of it, so you can get some idea of the size.

I managed to restrain myself from taking pictures of every meal we had, but this was particularly picture-worthy.  We had dinner in Belfast at the Crown Liquor Bar and Dining Room, and this was DH's dinner -- two burgers and three onion rings on a sandwich.  He did manage to eat it!

 We left Belfast the next day and headed north toward the Antrim Coast, with a stop in Ballymoney.  DH is a fan of motorcycle racing and one of the most famous racers was Joey Dunlop, who was killed in a race in 2000.  He was from Ballymoney and there is a lovely memorial garden there.

As we drove up along the coast, we saw this beautiful waterfall.  It was totally unexpected, and we actually turned around to go back and get some pictures.

 We spent that night in Derry (or Londonderry), and took a walking tour the next morning.  The original city wall is still intact, and the walking tour goes along the top of the wall and provides some great views.  This is the Bogside, a Derry community that was a flashpoint for the Troubles. 

St. Eugene's Cathedral in Derry:

When we left Derry, we headed back to the Republic and County Donegal, ending up in Donegal Town.

This is a view of a small graveyard on the outskirts of Donegal Town.  There are no markers except this cross; it was a paupers' graveyard where many victims of the potato famine where buried.

This plaque is on the wall surrounding the famine graveyard.  DH and I were both perplexed by the reference to the generosity of the Choctaw Nation during the famine in 1847.  I did a little internet research and learned that a group of Choctaws had collected $710 and sent it to help starving Irish people during the famine.  In 1992, a group from Ireland came to the U.S. and re-traced the Trail of Tears as a tribute to the Choctaw.  This link gives you a little more information.

It was amazing to me the number of Chinese take-away restaurants in almost every town we went through.  This one is in Donegal Town; the name just tickled me:

DH's great-grandfather came to the U.S. from County Donegal in the late 19th century, and we wanted to do a little bit of ancestral research while we were there.  We were looking at headstones in a cemetery at Killybegs and I took this picture of Killybegs harbor.

We were driving along the coast and DH indulged me so I could take some pictures of sheep.  While we were stopped, I heard loud bleating and the pounding of hooves; two rather large lambs ambushed this ewe (presumably their mother) and dived underneath for a quick drink.  The ewe tolerated it for about 30 seconds, then shook them off.

The road signs in the Republic of Ireland are in both English and Irish.  This one in County Donegal is in Irish only, and we did see a couple of signs on which someone had taken tape and blacked out the English.

 This magnificent cliff along the coast of County Donegal is called Slieve League.  To get this far, we had to drive up a narrow, winding road, but it was more than worth it for the spectacular views.

The windblown look:

Local farmers graze their sheep on Slieve League and the surrounding mountains.  They are a hardy breed and have the run of the place.

 

Our last full day in Ireland began in Sligo.  The great Irish poet W. B. Yeats is buried in Drumcliffe, just north of Sligo.  This memorial is just outside the churchyard wall.  Yeats' poem "He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven" is engraved at the memorial.  The grave itself is very plain. 

 "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

                                     

On the road between Sligo and Dublin, we stopped to take in the view of Lough Key.

This piece of sculpture is what caught our eye and drew us to the scenic view.  It's called "The Gaelic Chieftain" and commemorates the Battle of the Curlews, which was fought in 1599.  The statue is fantastic.

Does anyone know what this shrub is and if we can get it in the U.S.?  I saw it all over Ireland; some were quite small as in the first picture, others were very large as in the second.  The landlady at the B&B in Donegal Town told me it was called Flowers of the Forest, but I've tried searching that on the internet and haven't found anything relating to this shrub.

 

 

Well, that's my short tour of the Emerald Isle.  Thanks for bearing with me!  I hope to have some more stitchy pictures soon.

 

Wishing everyone a great week and happy stitching!