Ferry and rail

Saying goodbye to Howth

I don’t regret the decision to be eco-conscious in my travel plans this summer, but there are lots of things for and against – and the time it takes is a big issue!  I think there are flights from Dublin to East Midlands Airport, and I could have been in Nottinghamshire within an hour – but instead, it was a full 12-hour travelling day!   

The tip of Howth - and the plane I wasn't catching!

The cab picked me up at TCD at 6:45am, and by 7.10 I was on the ferry and enjoying my first coffee. I’d actually planned the bus route to get there, but then Irish Ferries rescheduled the starting time back half an hour, and the first bus to the terminal would have been a very tight connection, so I gave in and cabbed it. The crossing was calm and easy, and the ferry not too full; I went upstairs on deck a couple of times and it was blowy enough that it was hard to open the door.  

Arriving at Holy Island

Waiting at the station

When we reached Holyhead they offloaded most of the cars, and then brought a couple of buses on board for the walk-on passengers – it’s a long way from the Irish Ferries mooring to the terminus, but picking up my bag and getting through Customs was easy, and the railway station was about five minutes away.  I was booked on a 12:40 train, and could almost have made the one an hour earlier, but was glad to be able to take my time – and in the event, by the time my train arrived, I pretty much had a carriage to myself, instead of the crowded one the earlier train would have necessitated.

Bangor Bay with Llandudno on the right

Road and rail run together along the coast

In the haze you can just make out the wind-farms in the bay

Summer cabins everywhere!

I loved the first leg of the journey, from Holyhead on the island of Anglesey, to Crewe station. The weather looked a little ominous, but every now and then the sun broke through, and it never actually rained where I was – though Steve & Gill told me there was plenty of it in Nottinghamshire! We passed the longest station sign in Wales (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerich....   etc!)  crossed the Menai Straits and headed up towards the coast. All that region is prime summer holiday space, and there are summer trailer-parks everywhere. Then we turned south east to run down the Dee estuary, and I was able to look over at the Wirral Peninsula, with Liverpool beyond that, and remember day trips to Parkgate and to my father’s favourite botanic gardens at Neston.  We stopped briefly in Chester, but didn’t see much of the historic side of it, and then the next stop was Crewe.  

Castle in the crags

Crewe is one of the transition junctions with everyone changing trains. I had 15 minutes to work out where I needed to be and get from one side of the station to the other. Thank goodness, all these stations are now equipped with elevators, because there are a lot of stairs. The next train was one to Derby, and was pretty full; I managed to find a seat near the door where I could lay my little suitcase flat so it didn’t roll around. Lots of stops and starts here, and then again on the next train to Nottingham, where I had time to work out the next steps.  I could have left the station and taken a bus to Bingham, but since my Eurail pass covered this last leg, I waited for the train headed to Skegness, and got off at the third station – and bless the man, there was Steve, waiting to carry my case over the railway bridge (no elevators here!). 6am to 6pm – a long day of travelling!

Home with S&G

So – lovely to be with Steve and Gill again – we spent the evening talking about Ben and Irene’s wedding back in May (lovely photos of the trip to Barcelona), and about blogging and keeping holiday records. 

Last day in Ireland

What a great day!  

The Bell Tower

At 8:30am I met with a group at the Bell Tower, with our student guide Catherine who took us on our Trinity Trail, with some history of Trinity College Dublin. It was a grey morning, and rain was (just) in the air – not enough for raincoats, but enough to have us keeping eyes open for possible shelter. We were introduced to the two NeoClassical 18th century Classic buildings: Heaven (the multi-faith chapel) and Hell (the Examinations Hall) which face each other across Parliament Square, to the student traditions surrounding the statue of the Provost and the Bell Tower, to the red-brick student residences and the ghost that haunts them. 

This cat has a mouse; and notice the little goblin on the right;
the carvers put these in when they weren't being paid on time

I love the squirrels - and notice all the mice above the window!

We heard about the history of the place – it was built on the foundation of an Augustinian Priory which was destroyed by the Protestant invasion 400 years ago, and for many years it was an Anglo-Irish institution that was not open to Catholics at all. Now it’s multi-faith, with many students from other countries, and with more women than men among staff and students. Catherine took us through her favourite space in Museum Hall, with its wonderful variety of Irish stone, and all its external carvings done by just two brothers in the 1850s, with constant new images and very little repetition.

Extraordinary stonework; Connemara marble has a green tinge (see above);
Cork marble is reddish; Kilkenny marble is black; Wicklow granite with a golden tint

At  9:15 our tour ended at the Old Library, where the Book of Kells is housed; Catherine told us that perhaps twice a year they clear everyone out, don hazmat suits, and turn one page in the book – and that they’d done that just a couple of weeks ago, so the new page was visible for the first time in a couple of hundred years.

St John

A treatise on beekeeping

Upstairs in the Long Room many of the books have been removed for better preservation, but there were interesting displays, and the room was dominated by the Gaia art installation which features NASA imagery of the earth – quite mesmerizing!  

Many of these shelves of books are now in storage, for preservation

Gaia dominates

Kells images in embroidered linen

For me, it was just too crowded – they have timed entries and enormous demand, but there’s no rush to get people through, and the really interesting illustrations were hard to view with the crowd flow.  I should have gone on to the immersive Kells Experience section, but by 10:30am, I’d had enough and needed some space. So I headed off-campus, to the Tara St station to catch the DART local train to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery). This was family history stuff; my grandfather was the Presbyterian minister there from 1927 till his death in 1942, and the Manse, next to the church, was where my mother and uncles were brought up. Dublin Bay is a deep semicircle, with Dun Laoghaire about halfway along the southern side, and Howth (pronounced Hoath) isthmus on the other side. The DART train runs the full length of the curve, and there are great views across the water.

I’d heard about a place called The Oratory, which has a wonderful display of early 20th century celtic art.  In typical Irish fashion, there was no info to be found about opening hours or access, and it’s location was not clear, but I walked uphill in the general direction I thought it was. There was a shopping centre and I stopped for a coffee – and while having my drink, I noticed there was a back entrance and a narrow stairway, so I exited by that route and found myself exactly where I needed to be! It was a rather weird red building, but I’d hit just before noon and a small group was gathering for a tour.  

The lobby, on to the display room, and the oratory entrance beyond

The altar frontal was where she started; patterns rather than images

They started with a rather dated DVD about the history of the Oratory, and of the nun who was responsible for the art-work, Sister Concepta Lynch, who taught at the Dominican convent. She came from an artistic family, and the abbess permitted her to use her “spare” time to decorate the Oratory – intially just the altar and the surroundings, as a tribute to all the young soldiers who never returned from WWI – but once that was done, she extended her work to the whole room, using celtic-themed intricacy and images that owe much to the Book of Kells. 

After her death in 1939 the convent dwindled in personnel, and finally was sold – but with a clause that the Oratory be maintained. In 1995 a grant was made by the European Commission called Kingfisher in Flight, and the original oratory was enclosed in a shell building to protect it. 

Sister Concepta’s work was done with the aid of stencils, and the designs are balanced from one side of the building to the other. The lowest level uses muted earthen colours, and the creatures are earthen ones – worms, snakes, lizards.

I love her happy worms!

More colours are added in the central section, with human figures and animals, and many interlaced decorations. Above are the birds, full of vibrancy and noise. There is a wonderful kingfisher-phoenix-pelican which Sister Concepta’s father had used as a symbol in his art studio, and which represents resurrection and triumph over death, a symbol for the fallen soldiers. The ceiling is unfinished but evokes heavenly light.

composite birds

One of the things that fascinates me is that Grandfather Rutherford may well have known her – a Presbyterian Minister and a Dominican Nun might not have much in common, but the Oratory is just down the hill from the Manse, and he took great interest in the possibilities for ecumenism.

Having soaked up all that wonderful Celtic colour, I headed uphill to find the church. I suspect a lot of the local building is post-war, but the Church building and the Manse next door to it maintain that strong Scottish quality that was so much a part of 19th century protestantism in Ireland. 

Dun Laoghaire Presbyterian Church, with the Manse to the left

and the sign on the door says "The Manse"

The Rutherfords and the Adams and the Robbs had their roots in Scotland (we used to say, they were probably cattle thieves, run out of the country!).  Sadly, there was nobody around the church – there was a car parked outside, but nobody I could ask about records.  Online research had not been helpful; even though James Spence Rutherford had been the minister 1927-1942, there were no digital records I could find.

I headed back down the hill to the harbour – a very busy mooring;  there are two long quays that curve together, and make for a safe space for a lot of boats.  Out in the bay, I could see one of the ferries coming in from Holyhead – I’ll be going the other way tomorrow.  I treated myself to lunch (fish and chips again – but hake, rather than cod or haddock;  nice – and now, fingers crossed that it doesn’t do to me what snapper/rockfish does!  

See the ferry, through all the masts?

I’d hoped to visit Howth as well, but it was heading towards the end of my 24-hours transit ticket, so I got myself back to TCD, lay on my bed and went to sleep!  It’s been a 14000-step day, so I feel entitled...   When I woke, I went to finish my Kells day with the last part of the program, an immersive experience in a temporary red building in the square in front of the Museum building. It was interesting – probably much more so for youngsters than the stuff I’d seen in the morning – with talking statues, projected information, lights and colour and a couple of surround-experience-narratives about the Book of Kells origin and about the Long Room – but perhaps a bit too much in terms of movement and light; I can see it might be hard for people who struggle with stimuli.  And of course it decanted us through the obligatory gift store at the end!

Of course, I had to find a cat image....

Projected Kells illustrations

Rather more contemporary Irish illustrations;
this is from the 1913 book of children's poems called The Google Book 
(nothing to do with the internet!)

Back to my room to write all this up and to wrestle with the fact that my phone wasn’t backing up properly, so I had to re-route my photos via Messenger again.  I’ve been hearing drumming noises; I think there’s a concert at College Park tonight;  let’s hope it doesn’t go too late.  I need to get myself organized and to bed early, to be up before 6am;  I’ve a taxi ordered at 6:45am to get me to the ferry terminal for a LONG day of travelling!

Headed to Dublin

Fast-moving clouds

Woke to a slightly ominous cloudy morning; I think I’m going to have the joys of an Irish weather weekend. 
We got moving a little earlier because of Cleaner Avoidance Syndrome – they have a very nice Ukrainian woman who comes in to do the heavy stuff, and I think Eileen feels guilty about it.  With no reason – she still has to be careful about her breathing, and they do the heavy stuff quickly and efficiently. However, M&E like to be out of the way, so we took off for Mallow a little sooner, with Michael driving. The Mallow-to-Dublin train runs hourly, so there was lots of choice, but again, we needed to allow for Michael’s performing schedule, so I booked for a 12:45pm ticket.  

Eileen & Michael at lunch

When we’d talked about it initially, Martin had suggested we visit the Donkey Sanctuary, but it turned out to be 20 minutes north of Mallow, and sadly, there really wasn’t time for it. Instead we poked around at a farmers market (a very small one!) and then went to find a place for coffee, that turned into an early lunch.  I was dropped off at a very quiet Mallow station (Michael, bless him, did the bridge over the railway with my suitcase) and I waited. Five minutes before the train was due, another one pulled onto the platform behind, and suddenly everything was crowded. And then, getting on the train, I discovered that it was absolutely full of students all heading for some sort of pop concert event – and there was not a seat to be had.  I had to stand through two-thirds of the trip, and was just lucky enough to catch an elderly lady getting off at Port Laoise so that I could steal her seat.

Looking towards the Front Square in TCD

At Dublin Heuston, I managed to find the shop that sold a Visitors Leap Card – the ticket that’s good for train and tram and bus – and I found the bus I needed, and got off at the right place and found Trinity College Dublin, where I am for two nights.

Mine is the second door along....

The rain was threatening, so I settled into my room – one of a three-room apartment, and pretty basic student accommodation, but fine for these two nights – and occupied myself with reading my mother’s Memoirs (at least, the Irish part of them) which Martin had digitized and copied to me. It’s fascinating to me how detailed her memories are, and how that contrasts with how my own are not – I think a lot of my “memories” are from family stories rather than actual memory.
Good wifi here, and time to plan Saturday’s outing in semi-detail – though I think I will probably need my rain-jacket!

A favourite thin place

Looking out from the front of the house - meadow, pond and down to the river

This place is so calm!  Martin and I are true Coults and early birds;  he’d been working at his computer for some time before I surfaced, and we shared breakfast and bird-watching. The Tir Na Spideoga birds know they’re on to a good thing with Martin, who keeps the feeders well filled. Eileen’s a night owl, and I think Michael too (it goes with being a folk musician (playing gigs and then enjoying the craic afterwards!) so it was a while before she emerged – which gave me time to get blogs on the move, and post today’s cat one on Facebook.

The little river at the bottom

Between Michael & Martin, they’re a little car-short (Martin's has been in for repair for some time) and the rented one we were in yesterday needed to be returned, so Martin & Eileen went off to do that, and I stayed home to finish stuff, and do some Dublin research on bus routes and timings. No rain, but a cloudy morning – I took myself out for a walk, and soaked in the greenness of the Irish countryside. 

So much honeysuckle in the hedgerows!

Meadow-sweet

The pond - which needs digging out, and some waterlily cover!

When they got back, we worked out schedules – Michael had a gig in Limerick in the evening, so needed the car. So dinner needed to be early, and we’d not much time for an outing.  We ended up going to one of my favourite places, Gougane Barra. It’s one of those liminal places – a Celtic ‘thin place’ where you’re aware of the past and the what-might-be. It’s a lake with an island (now connected) and a tiny little church dedicated to St Finnbar, but the place was likely a pre-Christian place of worship – it represents the source of the river Lee. Any source of a great river was a place of power in ancient Ireland, and this place with its encircling mountains has the same effect on visitors today as so long ago. 

Gougane Barra lake

We had tea together at the little tea-house and then Martin went back to the car – he doesn’t let himself get stopped by anything he really wants to do, but a walk for no reason means less energy for other things.  Eileen and I went to explore the island.  The church is very small, but a popular site for weddings – Michael’s played there. Of more appeal to me is the space around – the sound of the wind and the waves, and the peacefulness.  A wonderful way to spend an hour. And though we weren’t the only visitors, everyone seems to have that same sense of respect, and of seeking for something intangible.

I met these placid guys as I walked a little further around the lake

Back home for supper (a wonderful coq au vin – both Martin and Eileen are great cooks – and then more tennis (watching Marin Cilic go through in classic form!) and a fascinating program about the lives of stoats and weasels. BBC at its best!  We planned for the next day, but had an early night. 

Coming home to Ireland

The pilot boat has just dropped off the pilot!

We saw the Irish coast shortly after dawn, but it seemed to take forever before we could see the break in the coast and were greeted by the pilot boat and the guy who would bring us into harbour.  Roscoff harbour was right on the tip of a peninsula, but Cork harbour goes deep into the coastline – in fact for the deepwater ships, it’s usually Ringaskiddy where they dock rather than Cork.  Before we got there we eased our way past Cobh and the Titanic memorial, and then revolved and backed, inch by inch into the berth.

Cobh

The Titanic Memorial

Martin and Eileen were waiting for me when I came through Customs, and it was so lovely to see them again.  There was lots of news to exchange as we drove – not directly home, but southwest, along the Cork coast road, through Clonakilty and then right to the coast at Owenahincha, where Eileen was persuaded to go wading a bit. Given that the next stop across the ocean was probably Canada, it was a little chilly for me so I explored the dunes a bit and then joined Martin to watch Eileen collecting stones.  

Eileen doing a little chilly wading

Flowers in the dunes

Martin watching the wader...

We went on to Rosscarbery for fish and chips at Nighthawks – apparently it has a reputation for The Best, and today’s lunch lived up to that – light batter and wonderfully flaky haddock, perfectly cooked. 

Sailing school from Unionhall

From there we went on to side-roads to Unionhall to buy fresh fish, and on to hunt for Drombeg stone circle.  Google sent us on something of a wild-goose hunt, but Martin managed to retrace our steps, and we finally found it. The place is minimally signed and maintained, but retains that lovely wild feeling. Martin stayed in the car – rough walking is off the books for him, but Eileen and I took the path to the site, through hedges of fuschia just humming with bees. It was lovely to have time together there.

The Drombeg stone circle

One of two huts for cooking

Looking out to sea from Drombeg

I’d thought we were going to go on round to Bantry, which is their favourite market town, but instead we turned back to Clonakilty for some grocery shopping, and then cross-country to Dunmanwy and over to Inchigeelagh – twisty roads with no sense of planning or engineering, but just trails that happened to have been surfaced, and with many corners where we had to wait for oncoming cars because there’s not space for two to pass.

Back at Tir Na Spideoga (The Land of the Robins) I was able to get a laundry on, and we settled for an evening of watching Wimbledon (I can see how my evenings will be spent next week!) and on family catch-up.  My nephew Michael got back from performing a concert and was full of plans for a music event next week.