Experiencing Irish Stories

A collection of stories and pictures that I collected while traveling across Ireland.

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Coming home was a very different experience.  I was told there would be reverse culture shock and it would be hard to transition back to regular life.  I didn’t experience any of that, but that was because of how busy I kept myself.  After returning to the States, I continued traveling to Washington State and then came home where I worked a lot, then I started the craziness of student teaching.  Ireland quickly became a fond memory.  Sometimes it feels like a dream that I had, and I have to think to myself, “Oh, my god. I really did that.”  This wonderful experience definitely gave me the travel bug and I am having a hard time deciding where I want to travel to next.

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Goodbye, Ireland.  Until we meet again.

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When talking about Ireland being invaded in its early years, someone said that the people of Ireland were forced to move to a place where there wasn’t enough water to drown a man, not enough trees to hang him, and not enough dirt to bury him.  

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Before going to Ireland, we were told that ordering an Irish Car Bomb would be similar to ordering a drink called 9/11 here in the states.  Car bombs were something that happened very frequently during the troubles.  One night, I ask the gentleman at the bar what a traditional Irish mixed drink would be, and his answer was an Irish Car Bomb. Shocked, I told him what my professor had said.  To which he replied, "No, they would probably ask you whose car!"

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In Ireland, the Irish language is always present and important in people’s lives.  While in elementary school, every student must learn Irish, and many of the children will speak in fluently with each other, but many people lose the ability to speak the Irish language when they are adults so it is not as widely spoken in the country as many would like.  There are special schools where people can go and learn how to speak the language, but many opt to have their children learn a language the is used worldwide if they have having their children speak another language. Many believe that the language is so important to keep alive because it is the language of their people, and if the language were to start to lose its meaning, then other aspects of their culture are going to fail with it or lose meaning as well.  Many places in Ireland were given Irish names, obviously, but the first people to create a map of Ireland did not speak Irish, so the names of places were spelt how they sounded phonically instead of the correct way. One example is Gleann Cholm Cille. We were told during our Irish lesson that Glencolmcille, the English spelling, was just the name of a pretty place on a map, but Gleann Cholm Cille, the Irish spelling, was very important.  It is a very important pilgrimage site, and its namesake was Cholm Cille.  The entire name translates to In the Valley of the Dove of the Church, which would be lost if the language was lost.  

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In Dublin, there was a beggar man named Billy who was born without any legs.  Since this was before wheelchairs, Billy had to be creative on how he got around.  He had made for himself a bowl-shaped car that he could use to move himself around the town.  He would use his arms to push himself up and down the cobble roads, and eventually became very strong.  He loved to gamble and drink, and he was not making enough money begging, so he devised a plan.  At night, he hid in the bushes near a ditch, and when someone walked past, he pretended that he had fallen out of his bowl and needed help.  As the victim would try to help him, he would strangle the person, leave them in the ditch and take their valuables.  This went on for months without anyone suspecting Billy.  One night, Billy wasn't so lucky.  As he attacked his victim of the night, he did not realize they were with someone else.  The women beat Billy and had him arrested.  They were never able to prove that Billy murdered the rest of the people, but he still was jailed for the rest of his life.

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At the National Maritime Museum, I met a man name Paul who shared story after story with me about different ships, people, and the building. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a great engineer of his time. He is mentioned in this museum because of him engineering the ship the Great Eastern, which was meant to be a luxury cruise ship, but was not successful for that.  One day while trying to perform a magic trick, he accidentally swallowed a penny and it went right into his lung.  He knew that he would be told the only way to remove it was to have surgery, but he was not going to do that.  Instead, he flipped a bed vertically and strapped himself so he was hanging upside down.  With a lot of coughing, wiggling and squirming, he worked the penny out of his lung, up his esophagus, and spat it out.

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In the Irish Navy, all ships are given unofficial mascots by the crew.  The crew of the ship often waits to find the personality of the ship before they name its mascot.  For example, there is one ship named Pepe le Pew because it always stunk.  Two sister ships were named Yosemite Sam and Road Runner, with Road Runner being the faster ship.  One ship’s mascot was Yoda because the ship had a lot of new technology on it and it was around the time that Star Wars was being filmed in Ireland. The flag ship’s mascot is Mufasa because it was the Navy’s pride of their fleet.

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One of the most visited sights in Ireland are the Cliffs of Moher.  These stunning cliffs rise 700 feet above the sea.  The area is beautiful, with vibrant green plants, the strong winds, and the sea crashing onto the rocks below.  It is not a surprise at all that this has been a tourist destination for hundreds of years.  

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On our trip to the magnificent Aran Islands, I got separated from the group.  It was a little scary, but I knew there was only one way everyone else was leaving the Island and they were not leaving me behind.  As I was wandering around, two women noticed that I was in distress and I hear a women shout "Are you a Derry girl?"  I have no idea if they really thought I was from Derry or if they just wanted to start talking to me, but these two women that I met were wonderful. They were very nice, very generous, and very drunk.  they shared that they were traveling here for a wedding.  Not only did they calm me down, but they also shared a drink with me and some great advice.  They told me to never burn bridges and to always be kind.  They told me to relax and enjoy the million-dollar view, so I did and it was an amazing day on the Aran Islands.

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After getting to Galway, we were introduced to Shop Street and all the interesting things that happen there.  It is completely filled with different stores, souvenir shops, pubs, and restaurants.  There were live musicians everywhere you looked.  Not only were there people playing their violins or acoustic guitars, but there were people with amps, microphones, and even full bands set up in certain spots.  There were people wearing all types of clothes, from "night on the town” to hippie clothes.  The people seem more liberal and free with what they do and wear.  It was very nice sitting on the crowded street and watching people walk by and listening to a man playing his guitar.  

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We stopped at Donegal Castle.  The most important part of the castle was the grand fireplace left in the main room. It was almost the height of the room and made of stone.  It was far more grand than it needed to be to show the importance of the family.  It is the original fireplace and it does show some aging on it since the room use to not have a ceiling.  It has the coat of arms for both the owners of the house. There aren’t any Irish symbols on the fireplace like harps or shamrocks. It is shows that this castle was made at a time where Ireland was under British and Protestant rule.  The Thistles of Ulster also show again that the castle was built under British rule.

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In Gleann Cholm Cille, there are very important historical sight for Christianity. There are thirteen standing stones all around and people will travel to each one and pray.  They would circle each stone three times while praying to themselves before traveling to the next one.  The trip was also done in silence, even though it was usually done in large groups. In one spot, there are the ruins of a place someone would come and meditate every day.  There is a stone bed that they use to sleep on, and at that station, people have to lay in the stone bed and spin around three times.  Outside the ruins, there is a rock on the ground. On the rock is a circle with a cross in the middle of it.  People will stand on the rock and look over the glen. They make a wish of their god and hope that it is granted.

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Glenveagh Castle - This castle is now a National Park, but it was not meant to be.  John George Adair was the first owner of the estate in 1873.  Eventually Professor Arthur Jungsly Porter bought the estate and when he died, the last private owner, Henry Mcllhenny.  One thing that all the owners had in common was that none of them had children while they lived on the estate.  The estate was first acquired by evicting people from their lands in order to have room to build the castle and estate.  It is said that the first person that was evicted was a widow with five or six children to care for.  The widow said that the family and any other family that lived in the castle would never have children, and none of them did.

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Today we spent all day with John McCourt.  He is a wonderful man who lived not only lived through the troubles, but he participated in them.  He was there on the day that Bloody Sunday happened.  He told us the story of what happened and how he lost friends and family on that day.  Bloody Sunday started as a civil rights protest, and they thought the worst thing that was going to happen was going to be them being arrested, but they were wrong. John showed us the path that they were matching and where the people realized they were in danger.  He pointed out the way that people tried to run from the British soldiers through parking lots and between buildings.  He showed us where people died and told us the story of them passing.  He acted out the death of his friend, which he saw happen just a few feet from him. He told us how his friend was shot and on the ground, but he wasn’t gone yet.  As he told us that a British soldier came and stood over the man and shot him in the back, he raised his cane and held it like a rifle.  When the soldier looked up at John said that in that moment he made a choice; a choice not to run but to stand his ground because he knew the soldier would have shot him in the back if he would have ran.  He made eye contact with the soldier, and the soldier shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

John also told of the story of a son dying.  While trying to run across the street for cover, three men were shot dead.  One man's father could see the face of his son laying in the street, not moving.  He put his hand up and the air and yelled at the soldiers to stop shooting, but they didn't.  He was shot and as he fell on the ground, he was able to rest his hand on his son's back but knew that he was already gone.

Men like John McCourt relive that day over and over again.  They feel that these stories should not be forgotten, and they are not forgotten, because the people who experienced this are still there.

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One of our stops was at the Bushmills Distillery. We were given a tour of the facility and they walked us through the process of making Bushmills Whiskey. When the Whiskey is ready to be aged, it goes into wooden barrels.  The whiskey will take on color and different scents and flavors from the wood.  During this process, a lot of alcohol can be lost due to it evaporating, but that's okay.  That part is called the angel's share, and it goes into the air to go to heaven and be drank by the angels. 

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It was a really bazar concept for me to think about visiting so many cemeteries, but the ones we visited had ruins of old churches and towers.  In the cemeteries, there could be graves where the oldest legible date is in the 1800's while having another grave dated 2017 not to far away.  The graves can have more than one person buried in them also. It is not strange for one family to be buried in the same grave.  After 16 years, a person’s body can be exhumed since their bodies have decomposed and their bones will be gathered and moved for another person to be buried there. It is not strange to see a list of names of the family members that were built there.