Like 14 other places in the world, in Knock Ireland, it is recorded and confirmed by the Vatican, that 15 people in the late 1800’s saw the Virgin Mary. All of their accounts described the same scene.
A large Catholic complex was built around the site. Pope John 2 and Pope Francis both have had services at the site. (Interestingly, Pope John 2 attracted 250,000 people, and Pope Francis 40,000)
It’s a weird place. Okay, not as weird as Fatima, where they have wax body parts that you can burn.
Wow, there are a lot of tourists here. The hotel is on the main pedestrian way and we are in the Snug Townhouse. Snug is the optimum word. It is very cute and very tiny, inside cabin, with no windows. So well designed though, and clean.
We wandered into the Galway City Museum. The museum is about the people of Galway and their settlement history. Remember back in Derry the English put in plantations and removed the Irish. The Galway museum talks about the Gaelic Irish displaced by the British.
Long history of settlements in Galway, monastery land first then burgess land….then taken over by our British Lordships in the 1600’s.
Busy tourist streetPeaceful walkwayCathedral These are fish traps built for industrial fishing in the 1800s to trap salmon swimming upstream. It closed in 1990, for environmental reasons.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, according to The Crown, was the gentle father figure to King Charles. He had a castle in Ireland outside of Donegal and in 1979 went out in his fishing boat with his daughter, her husband, daughters mother-in-law, and a couple of children that were visiting .
In the parking lot where the boat just launched, a police officer questions a man with foreign plates. He called for backup when he realized the man was IRA.
The boat explodes in the water.
A small marker commemorates the event. Anything larger would attract vandals.
Translation: 300 BC party circle and ancient burial site. Archaeologists believe they would cremate the dead and bury them with their tools of the trade. In the summer solstice, the light will shine directly into the centre and illuminate the space. influential community members would have their own chambers
It is located just outside of Donegal in a farm community. They believed it was preserved due to denied superstition. Don’t believe in ghosts but why poke them.
Donegal, Ontario is a small blink of an eye place.
Donegal, Ireland is very vibrant tourist town. Small tourist shops, hotels and bars. Donegal translates to ‘Fort of the foreigners’. Loads of tourist buses come here we are told.
Donegal Castle is a definite highlight of the town.
There was a pigeon that was inside the castle panicking that he couldn’t find his way out, he just flew in through an open window and spent much longer flying into the rafters and then knocking at each window. Hard to communicate that it is this window birdy! Come here, I think it heard me say. He got close to where I pointed but no luck.
The castle was built in the 15th century by Red Hugh O’Donnell as his personal fortress. At threat of the English taking the fortress and the land, he fled to Spain and set fire to the stone fortress.
The English did take the fortress and captain Basil Brooke became the new lord in 1616. He restored the castle, adding new stone bits and made This Old Burnt House beautiful. Oak forests were prevalent and he built stunning oak staircases and the ceiling where my pigeon friend is plotting his next move.
Drove through the twisty roads in the County of Donegal. Meeting up with my work friend Sean and his lovely wife Julie. They live in this beautiful country side looking onto the North Atlantic.
It is a misty day and the view from their window changes every time I look out. How do you look away when you see Mother Nature before you.
The North Atlantic
Sean and Julie take us further into the wild by way of a walking trail and along a beach. It is Ireland, all what you know of it’s rustic wet beauty, it has the smell of green.
No, I am not sure how to pronounce this name. It is stone circular structure high on a hill outside of Derry. I am here with my friend Columb and enjoying the views of Derry.
If you listen closely you can hear the concerts that have been done here and the celebrations of new years and new sun cycles.
King James I conceived of the idea to have plantations in this part of Ireland. It was a strategic position to have as a stronghold. Ireland reaches far out into the Atlantic creating a buffer for England, Derry is an inlet with access to the ocean and to the rivers that run into Ireland.
He approached the City of London to invest. Not so keen, they sent over four assessors to figure out if it was a worthy investment.
King James was keen to capitalize and agreed to London’s terms. Including the creation of the country called Londonderry and guarantee of valuable fishing and taxation rights.
The land was divided up between deserving Irish, the church and 12 associated companies that represented Guilds.
Deserving were the people who demonstrated their loyalty to the crown. Things went slowly, 3000 Settlers came over to claim and work the land but the Irish, who were here didn’t want to give up their land. So settling didn’t go so well. London became discouraged and confiscated the town in 1632. The rents and taxes doubled.
Derry was a Protestant stronghold surrounded by Irish Catholics who were done poorly by the Protestants who held the rule but not the population.
It was against the rule for the Catholics to practice their religion and they would need to pay a fine if they didn’t attend Protestant service and were limited in their ranks within the military. The Catholics thought they had an agreement to religious freedom and full citizen rights with King Charles and promises to implement in 1641.
There is an uprising in 1641, you get the picture, fighting over religion and oppression.
The world around me 