Days 13-15
Tonight when we arrive in Galway we decide to enjoy an evening of music After a good dinner at our central hotel, we walk into the Latin Quarter, with strings of lights overhead and a city prepared for another night’s activities. There we find a pub which calls itself the “home of traditional Irish music” and miraculously Bill find us a small table right in front of where the musicians will be in about 30 minutes. The musicians are wonderful: two older men, one playing Ullin pipes, a form of Irish bagpipes, and the other a cajun accordion, a women playing a concertina, an electric keyboard player, and, sitting in to jam with the group, a borhan Irish hand drum player who also did a solo song in Gaelic, and two young fiddle players. The pub was crowded with most people standing up and around while we sit on low stools – all for the cost of a glass of Guinness beer, about $8. We understand that the pub pays the leading musicians (and provides free drinks) and the others are volunteers wishing to play along.
Earlier this morning, waking up in Doolin, we pack up and John drives us to the nearby ferry terminal. Our 45 minute journey over water started a little rough but was calm by the time we arrive at our destination, Inishmore, the largest of the 3 Aran Islands, together with Inisheer and Inishmaan. The native language is Gaelic here and the main commercial activity is now tourism, mini-buses taking groups around and stores selling Aran knitted sweaters. Historically, fishing sustained the people with the very rocky land developed early on by seaweed being pulled onto the shore and composted eventually into soil, grass and then habitation for livestock. There is a school for mainlanders to come and study Gaelic and, we are told, one doctor for the 2000 inhabitants. The number of children are diminishing in the local schools so its future is uncertain. While Bill and Jeanne opt for electric bikes for their tour of the island, Geri, Rich and I are on a too-full minibus with a story-telling driver who was raised on the Island, worked in the fishing industry and, now a grandfather, enjoys telling his visitors about what life was like in the earlier days, before electricity came in the 1970’s.
We stop and hike up the major historical site, Dun Aengus, a pre-historic fort from perhaps 1100 BC, which guarded these waters — but it is hard to understand now why the powers of the times put so many resources into construction on such barren land. The steps up to the fort are very uneven limestone slabs and dirt and, after recent rains, puddles, that made going up and down a little risky for me and I was glad to have my hiking pole for stability.
Geri, Rich and I also later take a hike outside of town along the coastal waters toward the island’s edge, with old sometimes derelict dwellings and many newly constructed large homes which, we understand, are owned or rented out as summer places each year. I think my richest memory of this island, and of a large part of Western Ireland, will be vistas of green fields, brown rock, blue water, and white and black sheep.
Galway is a cultural urban center in Ireland. We stay in the center of town and everything is a short walk away but it is large compared to the many small villages we have passed through. We head out to several nearby areas, the most memorable of which is Kylemore Abbey. It was once a lord’s castle and then in the 1920’s was sold to the Benedictine nuns because their home in Ypres, France, was destroyed in WWI fighting. Since then, they developed a thriving society, created a girls school, and make chocolate for sale. It is a beautiful old building with a famous garden, with a new chapel for daily mass, but there are only about 9 Benedictine nuns remaining although there are visiting nuns around the world that increase their number.
After leaving Kylemore, we visit a waterfall along a road that we walk to and admire, while a fisherman is enjoying the afternoon with a fly and rod.
There are tourists everywhere and an American accent is the most common we hear as we pass by. There is substantial lack of diversity here – the 140,000 immigrants Ireland admitted in the last few years were all white Ukrainians, mainly women and children, while the men remain and fight for their country. They were given free housing until able to provide for themselves and I have met a numbe of them as hotel receptionists. We have seen a very few local Asians and a few Asian restaurants and very very few people of African descent and many of those are tourists. It remains a very Catholic white community. However, Ireland was the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage. It was also the first country to ban smoking in public places, including all the pubs (which probably saved numerous lives given how crowded they are!). John, our driver and guide, knows nothing of Judaism and we educate him to the best of our varied abilities just as he has been educating us about the mores of Ireland.
Our last memorable night in Galway found us very up close and personal to the musicians at Taaffees Pub. There the same Ullin piper performed with a banjo player, mandola, concertina, and two young flutists. If we were not sitting right next to the musicians there was no way to hear them because of the din from the crowds of beer drinkers who were there for each other’s company, not musical entertainment. We pulled up stools right in front and I felt like part of their circle. By the time we left, there were enough supportive listeners so there was clapping at the end of each tune, chosen by one musician and picked up by the rest.
Our last day on our tour we visit a Saturday morning market in Galway before driving back to Dublin. On the way, we stop at the small city of Athone with boats and locks across the Shannon River and later park for a short walk at the small village of Shannon Bridge.
We have just left our last heritage site and the most interesting of all: Clanmacnoise, where St. Ciaran founded a church in 550 AD which grew into a large religious community before being attacked and ravaged by Norsemen and Normans and then totally destroyed by the English.
There is a sense of history at this partially restored site that awed all of us. We did not truly recognize the age and depth of Irish Christian history until we visited this place. It is in a beautiful location on a hill originally surrounded by peat bogs and when we visited there were large grey clouds overhead which spread some rain and then opened to sun creating a sense of tranquility. The original celtic crosses are now preserved inside a building but their newer versions in the cemetery stand elegantly next to the remaining skeletal buildings and two stone towers. Burials have gone on here through the early 20th century and there are annual events which continue to reflect its spiritual heritage.
Back in Dublin, one of our best meals of the trip near our hotel. The last few days await.