Overview
The island of Ireland clings to the western-most reaches of Europe, and is one of the last refuges of the creative Celtic community, which, in the pre-Roman era, expanded from its base along the Franco-German border to reach the furthest corners of the continent.
The country’s history has long been coloured by a stormy love-hate relationship with the British mainland, through which most social and political developments have been filtered. Independence was won after a fierce struggle, but in spite of the lingering consequences of partition into north and south, Ireland maintains a well-deserved reputation for warmth and hospitality. It has given the world some of the finest writers in the English language, whilst the legacy of Celtic myths and legends is still reflected today in the rich folklore and colourful language of ordinary Irish people.
Ireland has one of the youngest populations in Europe (almost half are under 25), which makes it a country of hope and optimism. The pace of life is slow, but this gives the visitor the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful unspoiled landscape, ruined castles and monasteries, the fiddlers, the pubs and the poets, which together make a trip to Ireland such a pleasure.
History
Although known to the Romans as Hibernia. Ireland was never colonised by them. Through the early Christian era it remained a Celtic country with its own kingdoms and cultures, until the coming of the Vikings in the mid 9th century.
Ireland accepted Christianity very early, the religion having been brought from Britain by St Patrick. He was probably born in Scotland and at the tender age of 16, was carried off by pirates to Ireland, where he was sold as a slave. There he spent seven hard and lonely years looking after sheep and pigs, before he managed to escape. Back in Britain Patrick had a dream, in which God called him to return to teach the Scriptures to the Irish. So he studied hard to become a priest in France and Italy, and eventually was made a bishop. He sailed back across the Irish Sea in 432, with a mission to help build up the church in Ireland. He founded his see at Armagh in 443; the cathedral built there still bears his name, and closely resembles St Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. After his death in 461 he became the patron saint of Ireland, and to this day Irishmen all over the world remember him on March 17, St Patrick’s Day. Over 40 million people in the United States claim to be of sentimental or literal Irish descent, and many of them take part in the huge St Patrick’s Day Parades (particularly in New York, Boston and savannah, Georgia), sporting Celtic shamrocks.
The Golden Age
Later monastic communities grew up peacefully during what has become known as the “Golden Age of Saints and Scholars”, for Ireland escaped the intervention of Germanic invasions, which took place in Britain. These devout monks proved to be formidable apostles of the Gospel St Columba, or Colmcille (“Dove of the Church”) who took Christianity to the Scots and established the famous monastery on the island of Iona being the most famous of these. One of the main functions of monasteries at that time was the writing and copying of illuminated books and manuscripts, such as “The Book of Kells”, now in Trinity College Dublin. This was a work, written in Latin by Irish scholars who developed their own curved alphabet, which was reintroduced for public signs and official documents (alongside the Roman equivalent) during Ireland’s Gaelic Revival at the end of the C19. St Columba himself is believed to have been a master scribe, and the oldest surviving manuscript in Western Europe is a psalter attributed to him. By the C9, Irish learning was recognized all over Europe, and scholars from the Emerald Isle were commonplace at the Court of Charlemagne.
The Coming of the Norsemen
In 837 the first long ships arrived in the Bay of Dublin, and in 841 a chief called Thorgestr is credited with the foundation of the city. His name in Norse means “dark pool” although the Gaelic Baile Atha Cliath, the older (and official present day title) refers to it as a “hurdled ford”. All around the east and south coasts of the island the Vikings planted colonies, using some of the superb natural harbours with which Ireland abounds. But the two communities never intermarried and gradually, the Irish resistance developed strength. By becoming as ruthless as the Norsemen themselves, they were able to turn the tables. At the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 Brian Boru, known as the Irish Charlemagne, defeated his Viking opponents and Ireland reverted to rule by the Gaelic chiefs.
The Start of English Intervention
In 1168, at the instigation of an ambitious chieftain Dermot Mac Murrough, Ireland was invaded by an English army led by Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke (now buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin). Henry II of England encouraged this, believing that it would lead to royal control of the island, which had so far resisted interference by the English. He even applied to Adrian IV, the only Englishman ever to become Pope, for a bull confirming the legitimacy of his claim. But no sooner had the Anglo-Norman knights arrived than they “became more Irish than the Irish themselves”, quickly adopting Irish customs and intermarrying with the local population. Henry’s son “Bad” King John also attempted a conquest in the early C13 and built a castle at Limerick, but the island proper remained stubbornly independent of English control until the C16, in spite of regular forays by subsequent English kings. (Richard II was deposed by Henry IV in 1399 whilst on a visit to Ireland).
From 1399 to 1534 the authority of the English Crown was limited to the area around Dublin known as “the Pale”, and origin of the expression “beyond the Pale.” The rest of the country was controlled by the Gaelic Earls, a situation that was none too popular with the Tudors as it offered a potential base for political dissidents. Henry VII, VIII and Elizabeth I all attempted to reassert control, a period which ended with the defeat of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and the last great independent figure of the Gaelic order. In spite of help from the Spanish, O’Neill lost the decisive battle at Kinsale and with it the war. Yeats described this as one of “Four Bells – four deep, tragic notes in Irish history,” each about the turn of a century.
The Origins of Religious conflict in Ireland
By this time, political and religious differences had become one, England having finally broken with Rome, while Ireland clung to the old faith. During the reign of Elizabeth this rebellion had led to excommunication for the Queen and the threatened invasion by the Spanish Armada in 1588. A Catholic Ireland would always be against the English interest, whether as a base for a foreign power such as Spain or as a Catholic state in its own right. It was with this in mind that Lord Mountjoy finally imposed the rule of the Tudors by crushing O’Neill’s Ulster rebellion.
The solution, it was felt at the time, lay not just in conquest but also in settlement or “Plantation”, a notion that had been on the cards throughout the C16. Some English, notably Walter Raleigh, had obtained vast Irish estates but the plan was not effected on a grand scale until 1609 when King James 1, continuing the Tudor policy, sent over thousands of his own Scottish countrymen, who he declared “would skip about the bogs as merrily as the Irish”. This implant of rigidly Calvinist Scotsmen to settle in Ulster seemed sound at the time but sowed the seeds of future sectarian conflict. So it was that two Irelands came into being: a Catholic community, still speaking Gaelic, and an English-speaking Protestant one.
During the course of the C17 civil wars, spin-offs from the major English war bedevilled Ireland. The Earl of Ormonde fought hard for Charles I to keep Ireland royalist but the disastrous upshot of this, after the victory of Parliament and the execution of Charles, was the Cromwellian repression of 1650-2. The inhabitants of Drogheda and Wexford were all massacred, the Catholic population moved (“to hell or Connaught”) west into barren bog land while the best land was taken by Cromwell’s officers and supporters, creating an alien (and often absent) land-owning class. To this day Cromwell’s name inspires intense hatred in the Catholic Irish.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 also affected Ireland seriously as James II, aided by Louis XIV, used Ireland and its Catholic sympathies as his base when attempting to recover his throne from William of Orange. Derry was besieged, the Irish seeing this as revenge for Cromwell’s outrages, but at the Battle of the Boyne (the second of Yeats’ “Four Bells”) the Stuart cause was finally lost and King William became the saviour of the Ulster Protestants, who today still call themselves the Orangemen.
James took flight from Waterford to France where he died in exile. The C18 did not see the prosperity of the Georgian era extended to all Ireland, although Dublin itself was handsomely embellished at the time; for the rest of the island this was a century of hardship for the peasant, and frustration at the lack of political progress on the part of the educated.
The Independence Movement
The Irish, both Catholic and Protestant, did not accept the authority of England easily, and in the Age of Reason, critics of Westminster were numerous. Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, proclaimed loudly that “all government without the consent of the governed is the very essence of slavery”, whilst politician Henry Grattan declared that “the people of Ireland are of right an independent nation”, owing allegiance to the British crown but not to Westminster. Even those who officially ran the country from Dublin Castle felt they had little or no say. Attempts were made to incorporate Ireland permanently into the United Kingdom (The Act of Union), and to secure social and political freedom for the Catholics (Emancipation movement – led by Daniel O’Connell), but generally speaking the C19 brought no material improvement for the majority of Irishmen. The Industrial Revolution came late to Ireland and the poverty-stricken Irish suffered terribly when the staple potato crop failed in 1845, 1846 and 1847. During the Great Famine one million died, and one million more emigrated, mainly to the United States.
The relationship between these two communities on opposite sides of the Atlantic exerted considerable influence over the situation in Ireland. The Irish in America maintained strong ties with home, and were quick to support any move towards independence with financial “the pennies of Irish servant-girls” ‑ and moral assistance. As they rose to important political positions in the States, they began to put pressure on the British government to approve “Home Rule” for Ireland. Even today a pilgrimage to an ancestral village in Ireland is obligatory for all American Presidents with descendants from the Emerald Isle, in order to secure the loyalty of the huge Irish vote. The most famous of these was undoubtedly John F. Kennedy, though Ronald Reagan also claimed to be of Irish descent.
Within Ireland, opposition to rule from Westminster was growing. The Land League tenaciously opposed the right of English-backed landlords to charge exorbitant rents, and evict their tenants without due cause. Bad feeling reached fever pitch in 1882, when the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his under-secretary T.H. Burke, were brutally murdered by political terrorists in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. The Irish found a champion in Charles Stewart Parnell, who succeeded in establishing a separate Irish Parliament. Liberal Prime minister Gladstone tried to put through a Home Rule Bill in Westminster, but Parliament was not ready for such generosity, and his government was disastrously defeated by the Conservatives. The Protestants in Ulster were greatly relieved by this, as it prevented then from becoming a minority in a Catholic dominated Ireland. But the warning had been sounded, and they rallied together to form the orange order, which gloried in King Billy’s victory over the Catholics at the Boyne. “Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right,” said Lord Randolph Churchill father of Sir Winston.
Since they could not secure independence by political means the leaders of the movement for Home Rule resolved to seize it by force. Fuelled by the patriotic writings of W.B.Yeats, James Joyce and J.M.Synge. Republicans began a campaign of civil disobedience and terrorist activity. The Gaelic League was founded in 1893 to keep the Irish language alive and to preserve Irish customs and dress – generally to foster the independent Irish identity. Lord Ashbourne, the League’s President often wore the Irish kilt, as a symbol of his allegiance. The Abbey Theatre in Dublin became a centre for Gaelic defiance, and here it was that Yeats put on his play Cathleen ni Houlihan, with his lover Maud Gonne in the lead role. This became “almost a sacrament” to the young nationalists of the time.
Independence and Partition
Civil War threatened as the split between the Republicans and the Ulster “Unionists” widened, and by 1913 there was serious rioting on the streets of Dublin (notably on O’Connell St). The Great War postponed independence as many Irishmen enlisted in the British Army, and went off to France to fight in the trenches. But by 1916, they could wait no longer. On Easter Sunday 1916 the Citizen Army seized and held the General Post Office and other official buildings. The British were taken by surprise as an Irish Republic was declared, but the victory was short-lived. The Post Office was heavily shelled and the leaders surrendered. They were quickly court-martialled, found guilty of treason and hanged. Popular opinion soon made then into martyrs. In 1919, 73 Republican MP’s elected to Westminster set up their own Parliament in Ireland known as the Dail Eireann. When they first met, thirty-six members were in jail. Those remaining ratified the Republic declared at the time of the 1916 uprising.
By now the British government realised that partition of Ireland was inevitable, and Lloyd-George’s coalition government finally passed a Home Rule Bill. The six counties of Ulster remained part of the United Kingdom, but the remaining twenty-six became the Republic of Ireland, or Eire, governed by a Parliament in Dublin. A guerrilla war followed, fought between the Irish Republican Army and the Royal Irish Constabulary, strengthened by recruits from England, selected for their toughness and called “Black and Tans” for their half-military, half police uniforms. The Irish have never forgot the bloody nature of this conflict and the republic is littered with memorials to IRA “patriots” who died fighting the British forces. The Civil War came to an end with the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on 6 December 1921, which confirmed the establishment of separate Parliaments for North and South. Opponents of the Treaty continued to resist this compromise, but many of the ringleaders were caught and executed, and opposition was formally abandoned in May 1923.
Independent Ireland was established under the leadership of Prime Minister Eamonn de Valera, one of the 1916 rebels. Some advances were made in the provision of public services, but the most striking development was an evolution towards a strict Catholic society in which divorce, abortion, and contraception are still illegal. In 1949, Ireland left the British Commonwealth, though Northern Ireland remained subject to the British Crown. Nonetheless close historical and cultural links continue between Britain and Eire, and Irish citizens still have the automatic right of residence in the U.K.; they can even be elected to Westminster.
Events in Ireland followed a comparatively peaceful course between 1923 and 1969, but trouble flared up once again, when the Catholic Civil Rights Movement in the north, set about achieving equal rights with the Protestant Majority (70%), by non-violent means. The dormant IRA was quick to see the revolutionary potential of this opposition, thus reviving Protestant fears of being swamped by the Republic. Violence finally broke out in the Catholic quarter of Derry/Londonderry Bogside in August 1969, and British troops were called in to protect the Catholic minority. At first the Catholics welcomed them. But the latter did not trust their British defenders and at the same time sought military support from the Republic.
Extremists began to dominate the political scene, as both sides became more entrenched in their views, each act of violence provoking a reprisal. The Provisional IRA broke away to form a group dedicated to paramilitary struggle and the ultimate goal of a United Ireland, whilst the Unionists resist officially through the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and unofficially through organisations such as the Ulster Defence Regiment. The British Army remains caught in the middle of this seemingly insoluble confrontation, reluctant to stay, yet unable to leave, whilst the threat of Civil War remains. Northern Ireland remains prosperous in comparison with the south, so there is little popular support for reunification, even amongst Catholics. But armed patrols and routine searches will remain the norm in Ulster until the two communities find a solution of their own.
Facts and Figues – Economy and Population
In 1972, Ireland joined the EU, after a referendum in which 83% of the votes were cast in favour of membership. Community aid has boosted the economy (traditionally agricultural but now moving towards an industrial base), though Ireland remains one of the poorest countries in Europe. Eire has one of the highest cost of living indexes in the EEC; VAT being charged at 30% on some luxury items. Because of the lack of a manufacturing base almost everything important has to be imported apart from basic foodstuffs hence the current national deficit. The Irish pound (or punt) is now worth considerably less than the British pound.
Ireland is one of the few countries in the world that actively promotes population increase. The south remains staunchly Catholic and the government does not support birth control. In addition, the government has a very liberal policy on citizenship. One Irish grandparent is all that is required. Current population figures are as follows: Eire – 3 million; Northern Ireland – 1.5 million.
Language
The official language of Ireland is Gaelic, a Celtic language closely related to Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Breton, Welsh and Cornish. Until the C19, it was spoken by the majority of the population, but has lost ground steadily to English since the Potato Famine and the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Some 55,000 Gaelic speakers remain, and are to be found mainly along the western seaboard (County Kerry, Galway, Mayo and Donegal). These areas are known collectively as the Gaeltacht. Most signs appear in both languages, and Gaelic is taught in all schools, thanks to the influence of the Gaelic League, founded in 1893 to preserve what remained of the national language. The Prize Minister is still known as the Taoiseach, and the Irish Parliament as the Dail Eireann.
The English spoken in Ireland is quite different from that spoken on the mainland. It borrows words and word order from Gaelic (e.g. “Bog” meaning “soft”, “smithereens” – “small pieces”, “shamrock” “clover”, “leprechaun” – “small body”), and is particularly effective when set to music. Poetry is second nature to an Irishman, and ordinary conversation in the pubs and clubs of Ireland possesses a splendid lyrical quality, usually laced with sprinklings of Irish wit. Irishmen still tell the best Irish jokes.
Literature
The Irish have made many invaluable contributions to the literature of the English language. Beginning with the scholar monks of Ireland’s Golden Age, Irishmen have shown a strong inclination to write, though until the C17 they usually did this in Gaelic.
The first great Anglo-Irish writer was Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), whose ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ has become a classic. Richard Brindsley Sheridan (1751-1816) dominated the London stage for a while with his great comedies “The Rivals”, “The Critic” and “The School for Scandal”. Edmund Burke, though first and foremost a great parliamentarian, was also an important political philosopher. His “Reflections on the Revolution in France” was one of the most significant works of the C19, helping to shape conservative political ideas for decades.
The late C19 produced a whole string of great Irish writers. Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) captivated London audiences of the 1890s with his witty comedies “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, and “The Importance of Being Earnest”. He was credited with the immortal remark to a belligerent customs officer, “I have nothing to declare but my genius”. However, he failed to talk himself out of a tighter spot and was arrested for indecency after confessing to a homosexual affair with Lord Alfred Douglas. This inspired “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.”
Other important dramatists of the time include John Millington Synge, who wrote “Playboy of the Western World”, which draws on the everyday speech of ordinary Irish folk, and Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), whose powerful dramas highlighted important social problems of the day. His most famous works include “Arms and the Man”, “Man and Superman”, “The Doctor’s Dilemma”, “St Joan’ and “Pygmalion’. Many of his plays were later turned into films.
W.B.Yeats (1865-1939) is widely acknowledged to be the greatest of Irish poets. He was involved in the struggle for independence and had a passionate but unsuccessful affair with actress Maud Gonne. Some of his finest poems were written about her and the events of April 1916. Much of his poetry is peaceful and reflective, however, and would even stand being read on the bus, e.g. “An Irish Airman foresees his death”, or “When you are old, and grey and full of sleep.”
The work of James Joyce (1882-1941) has been a major influence on world literature. His four main works, “Dubliners”, “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, “Ulysees” and “Finnegan’s Wake”, are all set in his native Dublin. The last two are distinguished by their complex structure and concentrated language. Critics, however, have described them as ‘unreadable’.
Samuel Beckett is probably the best-known post-war writer to come out of Ireland, though he moved to Paris and wrote most of his plays in French, before translating them into English. His play “Waiting for Godot” caused a sensation when first performed as it broke all the traditional dramatic conventions. Two tramps sit around the stage for two hours, basically doing nothing. They don’t know why they are there, except that they are waiting for a mysterious figure called Godot. Their vigil is interrupted only by a small boy, and a bizarre couple, one of whom is a human packhorse, the other a blind and sadistic old man wielding a whip. Suffice it to say that the drama lies in the language! Other works by Beckett include “Endgame”, “Krapp’s Last Tape”, and “Happy Days.”
Music
Though the Irish are a musical nation, their major contribution has been in the area of folk music and popular ballads, rather than in the classical arena. The most famous musical figure to come out of Ireland was Carolan the Blind Harper in the C17. At this time the Gaelic harp was adopted as the arms of Ireland. The best place to find traditional Irish folk music is in Ireland’s many pubs, where you can hear jigs, reels, polkas and hornpipes played on instruments such as the fiddle, tin whistle, wooden flute and uillean pipes. Popular Irish songs known worldwide include “Danny Boy”, “Black Velvet Band” and “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”.
Folklore
Ireland has one of the richest bodies of traditional folklore in Europe, much of it based on old Celtic myths and legends, featuring heroes such as Cuchulainn (see Yeats’ collected Poems), who was chosen as the symbol for the 1916 Uprising. A statue of this mythological superman now stands in the G.P.O building in Dublin, which was headquarters for the rebels. The Celts were and still are a superstitious people and, though fearless in warfare, were nonetheless preoccupied with a peculiar phobia. When Alexander the Great asked a Celtic chieftain, what the Celts feared most, he replied, “that the sky should fall on our heads” This was also the main fear of Vitalstatistix, tribal chief in Goscinny and Uderzo’s classic cartoon strip “Asterix the Gaul.”
A tradition of oral folklore was maintained by the “Shanachie”, a roaming storyteller, who filled long winter evenings by the fire with tales of leprechauns and giants. The Irish love to play with words and the legend of the Blarney stone has its origins in the verbal dexterity of a bold chieftain, Cormac Mac Carthy. A book of Old Irish legends, or a tape of Folk Music could keep you going through long scenic drives, as you travel through the South of Ireland. “The Mabinogion”, published by Penguin Classics is a good one. The Irish, of course, invented the limerick, and an anthology of these will help to keep your group amused.
Food and drink
The Irish diet is simple and straightforward. Meat and potatoes are the usual fare, with a variety of boiled vegetables, notably turnips. Irish stew is a masterful recipe for making a little go a long way, combining inexpensive cuts of meat, carrots, potatoes and anything else lying around the kitchen.
Soda bread is another Irish speciality. This slightly sweet loaf is usually made in a cast iron frying pan, and is flavoured with raisins and caraway seeds.
At the more exotic end of the culinary scale, Irish rivers are teeming with salmon, of sufficient quality to keep the most discerning gastronome happy oysters (Galway Oyster Festival is held every September) and crayfish are also very good.
Irish drinking habits are conservative, and the usual beverage is stout beer, made popular worldwide by the Guinness Company, Ireland’s largest employer. It is served in straight pint glasses, and takes a long time to pour thanks to its characteristic frothy “head”, which should be about one finger thick by the time it is ready to drink. The waters of the River Liffey in Dublin are supposed to give the brew its distinctive flavour, though you should not mention this to its African or Caribbean fans, as theirs is produced locally. The original recipe was invented in the C18 by Arthur Guinness, whose signature is still to be found on the label of the bottled version. Apart from raving about the taste, enthusiasts have even attributed medicinal properties to this thick, dark beer. When ordering ask for a “pint of plain”. Irish whiskey (Jameson’s) maintains a small but devoted following.
Sport
Ireland is favoured by a mild, if rather wet climate (thanks to the Gulf Stream) which permits year-round play in most games.
Traditional sports peculiar to Ireland include Hurling and Gaelic Football. The former is considered to be the fastest field game in the world and is played by two teams of fifteen players each, with a small leather ball and hurley sticks about one metre long. The latter is a mixture of rugby and football, but is most closely related to Australian Rules football.
Rugby also has a strong following with annual international matches played against France and the other Home Countries at Landsdowne Road, Dublin. Unusually this team is drawn from the combined territories of Eire And Ulster. Not so with soccer, which has separate leagues and international teams. Many of the top players in the English League come from across the Irish Sea, whilst tiny Northern Ireland produced George Best, one of the most gifted players in the world, during the 1960s and 70s. He also played for a time in the U.S.
Thoroughbred horseracing is very popular, and the Irish bloodstock sales are amongst the most prestigious in the world. Ireland’s twenty-eight racecourses offer 250 days racing per year. County Kildare, west of Dublin, is the area most closely associated with horse‑racing, and the Irish Derby is run at the Curragh, not far from Kildare itself.
Tracing your Irish heritage
Many American visitors to Ireland come in search of Irish ancestors who crossed the Atlantic during the mass emigrations of the C19 and early C20. Tracing these Irish forebears is no easy task, as many of them bore the same family or clan name. The ‘0’ prefix simply means “grandson of”, whilst “Mac” means “son of”. It helps to know which ship they sailed on, where they landed, what they looked like, or to have copies of birth certificates of those who emigrated. Public Records can be found in Dublin at the Genealogical Office or National Library, both on Kildare St, or the Public Record Office, The Four Courts. There is also a genealogical bookshop at 3, Nassau St, for anyone interested.
The Country – Killarney
Lying in the southwestern corner of Ireland, amid some of the most spectacular lake and mountain scenery in the British Isles is the town of Killarney, famous for its pubs and music bars. The town is the most important in County Kerry and a major tourist centre, although it contains little of historic or architectural interest, Pugin’s Cathedral being the most important building. It acts as a base for exploring the many impressive sights along the Ring of Kerry and for the superb fishing that can be had in the lakes and streams that abound (trout and salmon). Killarney also boasts a surprisingly vibrant nightlife, centred on the town’s many music pubs, of which the best is “The Laurel”’ on High Street.
Both Kermare and Muckross are stately homes open to the public; Muckross House, part of the Killarney National Park, is an imposing Victorian Mansion set amidst splendid natural scenery. In the reign of Elizabeth I, one of her courtiers Nicholas Browne was engaged to be married to the heiress of Muckross, in order to prevent confiscation of the property by the Crown. Ellen, the lady in question, eloped with her cousin Florence of Cork and married him in a midnight ceremony, thereby gaining a husband she loved, but at the same time losing her estate. Both houses suffered at the hands of Cromwell in 1652.
Ring of Kerry
Ring of Kerry is the name given to the trip around the Iveagh (pronounced “Ivy”) peninsula, starting and finishing at Killarney. It is 109 miles and takes a full day, the roads being very narrow, and is best done in an anticlockwise direction. The retreat of the ice some 10,000 years ago carved elaborate valleys and “gaps”, which give the terrain its justly famous scenery. Glaciers on the move have created three lakes, which can be seen from the Southern Heights Hotel. MacGillicuddy’s Reeks are the low mountains at the centre of the peninsula, off which pour several cascades (e.g Torcs) the waters constantly replenished even in summer by the high rainfall flowing into the three lakes.
Sights along the Ring:
Killorglin has a smoked salmon store worth stopping at you can see how it’s made. In August a special fair known as “Puck’s High Jinks” is held during which a wild goat is captured and crowned. This is believed to be an ancient Celtic ceremony, associated with the worship of Lug, an old pagan god.
The Ogham Stones are prehistoric, but are covered in writing of an unknown script; in other words they belong to the age of civilisation but one about which nothing is known.
The Gap of Dunloe is one of the most dramatic sights in the area; it is a cleft in the mountainside caused by a glacier forcing a land mass through the hillside, thus opening up a spectacular cross-section through the rock.
Dunloe Castle, now converted into a hotel, dates from 1207 and was one of King John’s fortresses. Dunloe refers to Lug, the Celtic God worshipped in nearby Killorglin. Far removed from centres of government, the castle was an important stronghold throughout the Middle Ages.
Glenbeigh has an interesting Victorian ruin (“Winns Folly”) erected by Baron Headley who converted to Islam and tried to rule as a feudal baron (1867). The architect’s mistress was the actress Ellen Terry. It was burned down in 1922 during the Civil War. From the coast here, weather permitting, you can see the Dingle Peninsula, almost as far west as one can get in the British Isles. “Ryan’s Daughter” was filmed here in 1970.
Cahirciveen is the birthplace of Daniel O’Connell (1775), leader of the Catholic Emancipation Movement. 1867 saw an abortive uprising against the British here. They planned to capture the cable station on Valentia Island and telegraph the entire world that an Irish Republic had been proclaimed in Kerry! Ruined castle of the Mac Carthy family, moved here by Cromwell. A good place to stop for lunch.
Valentia Island is sometimes mistakenly associated with the wreck of a Spanish galleon, returning from the disastrous voyage of the Armada in 1588. Many Spanish galleons were in fact cast ashore along the Irish coast, but none named “Valentia”. Its name is rather a corruption of the Irish “Beal Innse”.
Portmagee is named after a famous C18 smuggler.
Waterville claims to be the spot where Noah’s granddaughter landed during the Great Flood!! (Ireland being sinless and free of snakes – this before St Patrick got rid of them – escaped the Divine Retribution). She came in a ship with 49 women and 3 men, which must have pleased the latter! However, two of the men died and the resulting burden was too much for the third that fled and was turned into a one-eyed salmon. Richard Nixon stayed here in a lime green beach house, which belonged to the head of Pepsi Cola, a personal friend of his.
Skellig Islands play host to thousands of nesting water birds eg gannets, kittiwakes and guillemots. Great Skellig (there are three) had a C7 monastery founded by St Fionan. Important site of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.
Sneem is associated with the family of novelist and popular historian (“Goodbye to all that” and the Claudius’ histories) Robert Graves.
Parknasilla played host to George Bernard Shaw, who often holidayed here. After one stay in a hotel he wrote Pygmalion, based on a conversation he had heard at the breakfast table between a “gentleman” and his cockney mistress.
Dromore Castle – General de Gaulle stayed here in 1969 in a house, placed at his disposal by the State. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands also visited in 1978.
Blarney Castle
Although the first castle was built by the English in the C14, the present and famous structure dates from 1446. Today the place is known for the Blarney Stone… “A stone that whoever kisses, 0, he never misses to grow eloquent” (Prout). The exact origins of the legend are unknown, but one explanation runs as follows: During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the castle was occupied by the above mentioned MacCarthymore, a local chieftain with a great gift for talk and prevarication. Elizabeth doubted his loyalty and asked him to surrender. He sent speeches filled with flattery, promising to comply. but did nothing. When the demand was repeated, so was the response. MacCarthymore continued to avoid the issue. The frustrated queen then exclaimed ‘Marney, Blarney, I will hear no more of this Blarney”. Today Blarney means the “gift of impromptu eloquence”, the ability to find the right speech in an extraordinary situation. Other legends suggest that the slab in question is part of the Stone of Scone (used in the coronation of early Scottish Kings), given to the Lord of Blarney by Robert the Bruce after the Battle of Bannockburn, or that it is the stone of Jacob’s Dream, brought to Ireland by the Prophet Jeremiah.
To kiss the stone you have to be lowered head first under the parapet of the castle-wall, whilst someone sits on your legs to stop you falling. Only from this extremely uncomfortable position can you kiss the magical part of the stone.
The present owner of the castle is Sir Richard Colthurst, whose family have been in Ireland since the end of the C16. One of his ancestors came over with Sir Walter Raleigh, and was granted land at Blarney. Like many Anglo-Irish families they have never married outside Ireland since.
Woollens sold at the mill at Blarney are locally made and of fine quality. Waterford Glass is also stocked. There is a good hotel/inn for lunch.
Waterford
In the early Christian era (536), Waterford was associated with the famous Irish saint Declan. At nearby Lismore on the Blackwater river there was an important monastery, which almost achieved university status in the C8. The town is also well-known for its excellent harbour (ford in Ireland is a corruption of Norse fjord and indicates a Viking settlement at a harbour) but more so for its lead crystal, made only at the factory there.
Glass making was started by the English, using locally mined lead. The Old Factory closed in 1851, as cheaper crystal became available from Bohemia and Italy, but the present factory re‑opened 100 years later (1951), producing lead crystal and soda line glass of a much higher quality
than before. Old Waterford glass was almost grey with lead traces. Ironically it was the Bohemians who sent over glassblowers to train a new generation of Irish craftsmen. The factory now employs over 2,000 people. N.B. No glass except an overpriced pen affair, can be sold at the plant; visits can be arranged by calling ahead. (Tel: 051-73311). As purchases cannot be made on site Joseph Knox of 3/4 Barronstrand St (Tel: 051-75307) is considered to be the best stockist in the town. A good place for a sandwich lunch is the Tower Hotel near the rebuilt medieval Reginald’s Tower (Tel: 051-75801).
Dublin
Dublin, the capital of Eire, was founded by the Norse in 841, although its historic role from the C15th to the C20th was as the principal English powerbase in the island.
Its ancient name means “hurdled ford” and since 1922, Baile Atha Cliath has been the official title, Irish Gaelic being the official language of the Irish state. Nobody, however, refers to it as this; it is just that the ideology of Irish independence requires use of the ancient tongue wherever possible.
The city today is composed of the old English Georgian centre with some fine C18 architecture, notably the high Georgian of Merrion square, and more modern development. The road from Dun Laoghaire (pronounced “Leary”), Dublin’s port is given over to leafy suburbs housing the diplomatic quarter (Ireland’s neutrality gives it the highest number of missions in Western Europe) and spanking new hotels like Jury’s.
Principal sights
1. Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Elizabeth to stem the numbers of Irish seeking a “Popish” education. It was limited to Protestants until the C20th, and became the intellectual centre of the Anglo‑Irish. It was allowed to elect its own member of Parliament, and in the struggle for independence, was the only dissenting voice in the South.
The main front of the College was erected in 1759 to complement the imposing Parliament House of 1729, now the Bank of Ireland, which also overlooks College Green.
The Long Room, part of the library, is the oldest surviving remnant of the Tudor College. The Book of Kells, an illustrated manuscript of the Four Gospels, dating from around 800 A.D., is one of Europe’s most important monastic relics of the Dark Ages. The interior courtyard is Georgian and neo-classical in style.
Trinity men have included Swift, Congreve, Grattan, Burke, Goldsmith, Synge and Wilde. The College was also used as the location for the film version of ‘Educating Rita’, starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters.
2. Dublin Castle was first built in the C13 and became the headquarters of the English government in Ireland until 1922. Mostly rebuilt in Georgian style 1730-1800. St Patrick’s Hall has been used as a parliament in medieval times, as the place of investiture for the Knights of St Patrick (British Ireland’s highest honour) and today performs the same function for President’s of the Republic. JFK received the freedom of the city here in 1963. Old wedgewood and Waterford Chandeliers to be found in the State Apartments.
3. Merrion Sguare is the finest Georgian square in Dublin, with many exquisite fan‑light doorways. Oscar Wilde’s parents, O’Connell and W.B. Yeats all lived here. The National Gallery of Ireland is located on the North Side. Leinster House (Tao-seiach’s office) nearby. The Duke of Wellington was born in Merrion St just off the square in 1769.
4. O’Connell Street is the main drag stores, Post Office (scene of the 1916 Uprising) and statues of Parnell and O’Connell himself; leads on to Grafton Street and St Stephen’s Green. Boxing Day is known as St Stephen’s Day in Ireland.
5. Phoenix Park, the largest park in the city, contains the zoo and the President’s Residence, formerly occupied by the Lord Lieutenant and
Chief Secretary. In 1882 Lord Frederick Cavendish, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, was murdered here by political terrorists on the night of his arrival in the city.
6. The Custom House on the north bank of the river Liffey was originally built 1781-1791, but was burned down during the Civil War of 1921-3. It has been completely reconstructed, with slight alteration, and is a major landmark on the city’s skyline, with its great green dome and classical representations.
7. Grafton Street. This is the main shopping street – part pedestrianised – with all the largest department stores.
8. St James’ Gate. This is the Guinness Brewery occupying a large part of West Dublin. You can go to the Visitor’s Centre, see a film about the history of Guinness and sample some of the local brew.