Tuesday, August 31, 2010

fall is in the air

first football game cheering first soccer game
one of the last sunsets of summer

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Friday, August 6, 2010

day 11 Kilmainham Gaol and Guinness

one of the "better" cells, this one had a wooden pallet to be used as a bed painted by the wife of Joseph Plunkett, Grace Gifford married Joseph Plunkett one of the leaders of the Easter Uprising the day before he was shot.
staircase in the jail. the women and children in the jail were kept in the basement. the youngest person held here was only 7 years old
view of the inside, the Victorian wing
jail yard
cross marks the spot the where the leaders of the rebellion were excuted.
this concludes the the travelogue of the Scots Irish tour, hope you enjoyed it.
my final meal in Ireland, not very traditional but it tasted really good.
The best part of the trip were the wonderful people i met, both on the tour bus as well as the local people i met about town. Pat and Frank at the pub, shop keepers, the taxi driver that took me to the Harley Davidson store and waited for me off the meter while i brought my boys Irish Harley shirts.
The worst part of the trip was i was trying to fix one of my companions camera and managed to erase all of her photos. I felt horrible, but R was very gracious and forgiving. I brought her a new memory card and offered to pay to retreive her photos from the memory card. I also sent her a cd of my photos and a dvd of photos set to music as a I'm sorry give. The most valuable lesson i learned was 'NEVER, EVER TOUCH SOMEONES CAMERA"

Thursday, August 5, 2010

day 10 Strokestown park house

outside the house
i thought this little device was nifty. I could use one of them school room in Strokestown park house
several generations of childrens toys
balcony where the lady of the house would give the kitchen help directions
beauty shot
documents from the famine found in the house
in the walled in garden
storm clouds on the way back to Dublin
ha'penny bridge over the river Liffy
rainbow in Dublin

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

day 9 Achill Island and Deserted Famine Village

on the way to Clew Bay to Achill Island Clew Bay
i love that way the cloud's shadow is on the mountain side I believe this mountain is Slievemore, on its slope is the Famine Village
the sheep in Clew Bay are not fenced in, they just roam thru the hills and the roads
Famine Village ruin, one of the 100 or so on this hillside. This was an emotional place for me.
another ruin
view thru a door way
in the end they only thing the people had was a beautiful view.
Clew Bay is a recreational area. People load up their caravans (campers) and camp on the beaches of the bay; there are many water sports to do and one of the golf courses has fences around the greens to keep the sheep out

Monday, August 2, 2010

day 8 Ulster American Folk Park and Westport

this statue is in the visitors center and start of the park tour, the start of the immigrants journey one of the recreated buildings
attendance record in the school.
beauty shot
another beauty shot
in the hold of a "coffin ship" named that because 30% of the passengers died before the ship reached American shores
top side of the ship.
memorial to W B Yeats at St Columba's church in Drumcliffe. Yeats is buried in the cemetery My favorite poem by Yeats is "Host of the Air"
St Columba's church
one of the many high crosses in the graveyard
most of the roundabouts have art in them
view from my window in the wonderful little town of Westport. My window sill was very deep and i sat there several time with my cuppa and watched the world go by. We went to Matt Malloy's ( of the famed Chieftain's) the music was in the back back back room and we never made it back there, so we ended up at another pub. we were invited to sit with Pat and Frank a couple from county Tyrone who were in Westport on vacation. What great craic!
the city square in Westport. It stayed light until almost 10:30 pm while we were here. I walked around the city for several hours, shopping and stopping for a scone and tea. Westport is a place i would visit again.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

day 7 Giant's causeway and Walls of Derry

just a beauty shot carrick a rede rope bridge used at one time by salmon fisherman. the bridge is not rope any more, it is made of wire rope and douglas fir. this wasn't one of our stops, darn it, but we stopped right before the entrance to take pictures
the mountain at the giant's causeway. there is a path you can walk to get to the top but it takes about an hour. we did have several members of the tour walk the "high road" then climb down the 162 steps to get down to sea level
the young lady at the top was from Ireland on vacation, i had climbed up to that level to take pictures, then it dawned on me how was i going to get down??? the young ladies husband gallantly offered to help, but i just sat down on my rear and slid down step by step
like a giant playground
a view of the rocks that are still below ground
the young lad at the edge was making me nervous! the rocks were a little slick and he was really really close to the edge. i had to walk the other way because of my fear he would slip in, his parents were ok with him being that close
i went out as far as the young one with the green shirt
my friends from kentucky. they all traveled together and were most delightful. they always invited me to hang with them. the bad part about traveling alone is you don't have anyone close to share memories with. their newspaper at home will publish their picture if they show the newspaper
surfers in wet suits
hands across the divide, very powerful. In Derry
some of the protest and civil rights painting in Derry
they look like photographs, i'm confused about "the troubles" and plan to research more
walled city of Derry
bishops gate
i think this is st eugene's cathedral
another view of bishop's gate