John & I have a tough time making travel decisions and as a result reservations because we love to have flexibility as we travel. We always ask the question, "Well what if we love that area and want more time there? It happens to us. Seven years ago on our trip to Germany/Austria/Hungary we fell in love with Salzburg to the degree that we had checked out of our humble little pension, walked down the street a bit and decided to go back for another night! Two years ago we left Paris for a few days and headed to the East of France and ultimately changed our planned length of stay as we did in the west of France in Brittany, so we have a long history of this kind of thing. The same thing has held true on this trip. We arrived in Killarney on Monday expecting to spend 2 nights but in the end opted for a third night! The reason we thought that a good decision is because of the things we learned we should explore while in the area. And so our adventures in Killarney began.
Yesterday morning our driver, Moses, arrived promptly at 10:00 to take us on a day visiting the Dingle Peninsula on the west coast of Ireland. In moments I knew we were in for a delightful day with this lovely Irish gentleman. He comes from just north of Dublin county and through his work and travels as a young man he met his wife who was from County Kerry and ultimately, after marrying they moved here to this area and have remained for over 30 years. With this amount of history under his belt Moses could answer most any question we threw at him. My Dad used to call me the 'question box' and I haven't changed from that curious little girl. At one point I apologized for all my questions but he said he quite enjoyed it and it was better than folks just sitting in the back showing little interest at all!
The day was filled with natural beauty which you will share with our pictures attached. I will spend more time on our time with Moses because it is much easier to describe a person and a conversation than I can possibly verbally describe the beauty. I will leave that for your own eyes.
Because he was of the right age and I felt comfortable I was able to ask him about The Troubles beginning in the late 60's till the late 90's. He really helped me understand it all because for those of us not well read in this area it is confusing at times. We talked at some length about this and whatever question I had he seemed to be able to satisfy me. Moses shared that to the Irish people Bill Clinton is a saint.....almost as much as JFK (more later on this). He said that other US Presidents had tried to help make peace but none had succeeded until Bill Clinton said "Either ye do now Lads, or we'll do it for ya." And so it was and so it got done and began to bring peace and healing to this land. As to my question of JFK being a saint to the Irish people, he said it was because of course he was Irish and had risen to the position of President of the US. He said that in the 60's when he was a child every Irish household had in the threshold a picture of the family, maybe a wedding picture, the pope (Pope Pius)and one of JFK. He said he remembered two times in his life when he knew where he was.....JFK assassination and 911. So the world isn't so big after all.
As we drove through this natural scene of brilliant greens to one side and the soft aqua of the sea to the other side, we learned about the extreme poverty endured by the people of this country over the centuries. We all are familiar with the potato famines beginning in @1846 in Ireland and the resulting deaths and mass immigration, but I didn't know the details of it all. What a tragedy and something that it seems could have been prevented by the Brits who would not provide the Irish with good seed. A crime! Moses gave us the history of the Irish in the 18th & 19th century...the British denying them the right to speak their language, to fish or hunt, worship, or go to school. We found ourselves shocked and angry and embarrassed that we were not more educated on these subjects.
The lovely rock walls that crisscross the land forming natural fences for farmers we learned are called the penny fences. It seems during the worst of the famines when the locals had no food or work the Gentry (Brits) would pay a penny a day for the building of these fences....thus the name "Penny Walls".
I, having been fascinated by the Irish folklore of the Fairies and Little People, asked that question of Moses and he explained that originated back during the very tough times when a woman may have a stillborn baby. It was not something they wanted others to necessarily know about, and the Catholic church would not allow burial because technically the baby had not been baptized, so they would bury the baby in a corner of the field and those areas became known as the Fairy Fort. From there the legends of the fairies grew. Included in these legends is that of the Banshee who was a female fairy who appears generally prior to a death. So if someone saw a vision of a Banshee around your house it was a very bad thing. The Leprechauns are also little people, tiny little people, but not included in the fairy legends to our understanding.
Then there was the question of the 'Travelers' which I have been hearing about on the news lately. I heard a commentary about a special coming up on TV about Traveler culture in today's Ireland. So I asked Moses about this and if this was what we called Gypsies. He confirmed that yes they are and they are what were formerly known as tinkers. When he was a boy they would travel in carts with horses from town to town and would camp outside the town offering to do menial labor. He said when he was a lad he loved it when they could go to their camps outside of town and sit by the fire and listen to stories. Then times changed and the Travelers applied for government assistance, don't really travel anymore but they do have a unique culture. Moses said they aren't 'allowed' to drink, although by law cannot be forbidden. "They just can't handle the drink", he said. When I asked how they would know if someone was a traveler he said you can pick them out a mile away. He then went on to talk about what he said were the Romanian Gypsies which are of a different lot according to him. He said they were thieves and that was all there was to it. How bad? According to Moses "They will steal your eye and then come back for the eyelashes!"
We also learned a lot about peat and the harvesting of this natural resource, the time of year, how it was done and how it remains done today. While observing all the sheep on the hillsides we also learned about how the farmers manage these animals, when they sheer and when lambs are slaughtered (sorry folks). The lamb here are a big money maker for these people and it seems to be a delicacy to have Kerry lamb. Of course the wool that is harvested is a big contributor to the residents livelihood.
Just past Dingle, Moses took us to an out of the way beach, where local families played in the sand and even went in the water.
The next stop touched John deeply. It was an entire exhibit devoted to the Blaskett Islands lying just offshore - the most western piece of Europe. On one of these small islands a community of hardy Irish lived and died untouched by the rule of the British. They were fishermen and subsistence farmers that lived as their ancestors did for hundreds of years. In 1914, there were 200 inhabitants. By 1953, when the Irish government removed the remaining few, there were 23 left. They were an island of storytellers and no less than 5 inhabitants became internationally known writers of stories about island life and personalities. They wrote in Gaelic and have been a resource
to the Irish people. What happened to the people? Trite as it seems they moved to Springfield, Massachusetts one by one, emigrating like so many other Irish because of poverty.
Oh dear, we were so touched really by the tragedy and the tenacity of the Irish people and their history and ever so touched by their humor and kindness.
Moses agreed to join us for a late lunch in Dingle at one of his favorite pubs where both he and I feasted on Seafood Chowder and Irish brown bread and John enjoyed fresh salmon. John and I both enjoying an Irish beer of course.
As we all know Ireland had quite a surge in their economy in the early 21st century and then crashed big time with the rest of us in 2008. They continue to suffer but are coming up bit by bit. Moses shared that although his children have gotten great educations and been fortunate to get employment here in this country they are losing young people from age 18-27 at the rate of 1000 per week. This reinforced a comment someone else made referring to this as their 'Brain Drain'.
Moses deposited us back at our hotel about 6 in the evening so we had to prepare quickly for dinner because, although not particularly hungry, our arrangements included dinner one night and this was our night! We were in a small hotel offering an intimate but really lovely dining room. I know it comes as no surprise to say the wait staff were absolutely delightful. We got acquainted with our server who was at some level of management and seemed to appear everywhere (front desk, bell staff, server etc)and learned she was cycling in the upcoming big Ring of Kerry Cycle event for charity. They will be riding 108 miles and she promised to think of us at the 90 mile mark, just as she will want to give up. We told her how we enjoyed the day with Moses and how I had a million questions and likely drove him to a Guinness at the end of the day. She said to the contrary, she had spoken to him and he said he "had a good time" and she said "he never says that".
So after a delicious dinner we called it a night and I'll end this journal entry with a quote that tickled us this evening. As we asked our young woman at the front desk for an 'off license' spot she replied "Are you looking for cheap and cheerful or.......?"
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