As I boarded the plane to Dublin, I could barely contain my excitement. Not only was I seeing my parents for the first time in 6 months, but I was returning to my birthplace for only the second time since I left 22 years ago. It was also the first time I had been back in Ireland with my dad. When I exited out of customs and finally saw my parents, it was a surreal experience--I hadn’t seen them in so long, almost couldn’t believe I was with them.
We took the new motorway from Dublin to Tramore, watching the scenery along the way. Sheep grazing in the fields, old stone walls, and thatched roof houses. I don’t even know how to describe how beautiful Ireland is, it’s just something that a person should experience for themselves.
It was weird for me to visit Tramore, my mom’s hometown, and a place I used to live. I only remember living in Washington, so it’s strange to return to somewhere I could have called home. If things had been only a little different, I would have grown up in Ireland, speaking with an Irish accent, wearing a uniform to school, and leading a completely different life than the one I know now.
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| Drive to Tramore |
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| Tramore |
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| The Promenade |
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| The Beach |
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| Beach View from my Window |
Most of the trip was spent visiting family and friends. While my mom met up with her old friends, my dad and I walked along the beach, by our old house, my mom’s old houses, and many other places of family importance. My mom took me to the parking lot where she and her mom learned to drive a stick, and I became the 3rd generation to learn there, on the right side of the car. One night, an old neighbor took my dad and me out to a pub that was waaaay out of town. It was by far the smallest pub I’ve ever been in. I think it was converted from an old cottage, as there were only two small rooms. We were there to hear a traditional, or “trad” music session by both musicians from the area and Dublin, their goal was to raise money for a local charity. The entire night was full of remarkable music, and random poetry, stories, and songs by the pub goers. The musicians were so talented, they were able to join in and play any song that a patron started singing. The event was such a hit, that the owner kept the pub open way past closing time. We were told by locals we met there that this was a once in a lifetime experience, and I must agree with them.
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| My mom and me |
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| Church I was christened in |
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| Our Old House |
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| Cottage Pub |
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| Cottage Pub |
We spent a few nights in Tramore before we drove to Limerick to do some family research with my mom. Her father’s side of the family used to be from the area. Limerick has many of the cemeteries that contain priceless information about our history. One in particular was 16 acres and had many plots listed under our family name. It was started in the 1840s, and is in some cases the only record of people who lived in the area at that time. Many of the Church papers were burned by the British during their occupation. The cemetery was set up in a grid format, with numbers and letters on the walls to find your location. However, it filled up very quickly due to mass illness, so many people were buried in the original walkways, making the initial system difficult to use. So, we spent a huge portion of a day trying to find our family’s plots, looking for birth and death dates, and any other relations we didn’t know about yet. I have never seen anything like it. Many of the plots were 150 years old and utterly falling apart. You had to watch where you stepped so you didn’t fall into a sunken grave or step on bones. Seriously. It was right out of a horror flick, but the archeologist in me kinda found it fascinating.
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| Celtic Crosses in Cemetery |
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| King John's Castle |
Limerick is known for King John’s Castle, and is the city that Frank McCourt, the author of Angela’s Ashes, lived in. The river Shannon also flows through it. I had visited the last time I was in Ireland, so we didn’t do much tourism there, but I saw a few houses my great-greats had lived in, and went to another traditional music session. The day we went back to Dublin, we crammed in a ton of sightseeing. We drove through the Burren, a very rocky area covered in limestone. The British didn’t take this land from the Irish because it wasn’t that desirable, and some of my family moved out there. My great-great grandmother lived in Newtown Castle which is in the Burren. The last relative to live in it left in the early 1900s, and the castle almost fell to ruin. In the 1980s an art college took it over and renovated it. I can’t imagine someone living in it. The place was very cold and damp, and had narrow windows, which didn’t let much light in. Also many arrow slits for fighting off attackers. Shows what it was like during that time though, you were more worried about your protection than anything else. The Poulnabrone Dolmen, a many thousand year old portal tomb is also located in the Burren. Excavators found between 16 and 22 adults, and 6 children buried there. They think the site may have been used for ceremonies, or as a territory marker. Either way, it’s an amazing sight.
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| Newtown Castle |
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| Poulnabrone Dolmen |
One of the most spectacular things to see in Ireland are the Cliffs of Moher. So spectacular, that they were named one of the 28 finalists on the new seven wonders of the world list. It was my second time seeing them, but you can’t go to Ireland without doing so.
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| Cliffs of Moher |
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| O'Brien's Tower |
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| Me and the Cliffs |
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| Me and my Dad!! |
After the Cliffs, we went back to Dublin to spend two nights before we left for the Swiss leg of my parent’s visit. As I mentioned before, not much of the trip was spent on tourism, especially when we covered a lot of it the last time I was there, but we were able to spend one day in the city. We walked through St. Stephen’s Green (think of it like the Central Park of Dublin), Trinity College (home of the largest illuminated epic in the world), and shopping on Grafton Street. The highlight though was a trip to St. Michan’s Cathedral, where we went on a tour of 900 year old crypts. I kinda feel like I was in a cemetery every day of that trip, but that’s what happens when you’re trying to find out about your family history…I guess. Anywho. The crypts were underneath the church, barely lit, and creeeeeepy. Instead of going the traditional burial route, wealthy families would pay to own an underground crypt to house relations for what has turned into almost a thousand years. Limestone was used to build the rooms, which caused the bodies to mummify because the rocks pulled the moisture out of the air. So basically if you go to the crypts, you can see thousand year old mummies. There is even a Crusader ‘buried’ in one of the rooms. It is said that if you shake his right hand, you will have a year of good luck. When the tour guide told us to “go for it,” I laughed, thinking he had to be joking…he wasn’t. So, not wanting to miss out on the luck, and touching a mummy, I poked his finger…wonder if I get a month’s luck for that?
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| Dublin |
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| Stephen's Green |
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| Stephen's Green |
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| St. Michan's |
Random Emer family fact: if you drink an Irish made Guinness, you are more than likely consuming barley that was grown on a family member’s farm. woot!
Well folks, that about sums up my 2011 trip to Ireland, but I’m going back next year to spend St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin with my friends from Geneva. Should be a blast :)
~Emer
