St. Declan

Last week, I went on a bus trip and saw a lot if the small towns that are around Dungarvan.  One of them was Ardmore.  This is the place where St. Declan started a church and converted people to Christianity in 350AD before Saint Patrick even came to Ireland.  One difference between them is that St. Declan sort of stayed in the same area in Ireland but St. Patrick moved around.

Some of St. Declan's church is still standing.  But it is the church that was built a few hundred years after he first built church.  St. Declan's firstr church was made out of wood so it did not last very long.  But the priests and monks he came after him built a stone church.

A wall of the old church.

Some more of the old church.

Around the church, there used to be a wall and there still is a big, tall, round tower.  Tom said this tower is the best one that is still standing in Ireland. The tower is almost 100 feet tall.  There were towers all over Ireland.  The towers were used to keep the monks, priests, and townspeople safe from attackers.  They would climb up a tall ladder to a door very high up on the tower and then pull the ladder inside the door and lock the door.  They would stay there until the attackers left.

A picture I found on the internet.  This was a sunnier day than when I was there!

A little ways away from the church and tower, is Saint Delcan's well.  People take little stones from the place where the church is and then use the stone to mark a cross on St. Declan's well.  Then you keep the stone!

Me carving a cross with my stone.

Palm Sunday in Ireland

On Sunday, I went to mass at Saint Mary' Catholic Church in Dungarvan. There were somethings that are different.

First, they don't use palms.  The use things that look like evergreen branches.  It is actually the Irish Yew tree.  In Irish, Palm Sunday is called "Domhnach an Iuir" which means "Yew Sunday."

This is the Irish Yew.

This mass was all in English.  Some of the other masses are in Irish.  I think that the time I went was thte English mass.

Saint Mary's has a very neat alter.  A lot of stuff on the alter is made out of bogwood.  Bogwood is wood that is pulled out of bogs, just like bog bodies!  I will take a picture next time I'm at mass but don't have one now.

This is a bowl made from bogwood.

Also during mass, the priest blessed the wine and the body but only the priest had wine.  Everyone took communion but only got the body.  Afterwards, the priest went back to the alter and drank the wine.

Visitors!

My Uncle Colin (and Grandma Valez) are coming to Dungarvan today! My Uncle is awesome. They flew from the U.S. to Dublin over night.  This morning they got on a train to Waterford.  They were suppose to then take a bus to Dungarvan but "Cool Man" Tom, a reporter, said he would drive to get them in Waterford with my Uncle Rolfe. 











Descriptions:
Colin is my Uncle's brother.  He used to live with us in California but then moved away before we did. 
Valez is my Uncles' mom.  She is very, very, very nice.
Tom is the man who helps all the Mercyhurst students in Dungarvan and he took me to a cattle auction.  He is knows a lot about everything! 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

When I was in Dublin I went to St. Patrick's Cathedral.  In the 400's when St. Patrick came back to Ireland as a bishop, he converted the Irish to Catholicism and baptized people at a well where the Cathedral is. A church has been here since the 500's but the one that is there now was built in the 1200's (800 years ago)!

The Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral - Something about the Knights of Saint Patrick

At the place where the well Saint Patrick baptized the Irish, workers found this stone underground.  It has carved crosses on it ad was found right at the spot of St. Patrick's well.

There is a big fountain where the well used to be.  You can see part of it in this picture.

One weird thing about the church is that it is not a Catholic Church.  During the 1500's the English made it a protestant church even though all of the Irish people living near the church were Catholic.  It is still a protestant church today. And you have to pay money to go inside. But the money is used to keep the building from falling down!

Saint Patrick's Day

Sunday was Saint Patrick's Day and I got to be in the parade!  Mercyhurst carried a bunch of flags at the front of the parade. We were right behind the official marching band.  I carried a smaller Irish flag but some of the students carried huge flags.

Some of the flags were from Erie, Pennsylvania, and the U.S.  There was a 'Don't Give Up the Ship' flag and the blue one in the next pic is the PA flag.
 

After the parade, we went and celebrated at the sailing club.  There were four girl musicians playing Irish music and there was good food.

At the end of the day, I took a pic with Tom in his Irish outfit.

The parades in Ireland for Saint Patrick's Day are actually pretty new.  They added parades to their traditions after parades have been going on in the U.S. for a long time. Some of their traditions are wearing shamrock on their jacket (and a lot them dress up but don't wear green), they go to mass to celebrate Saint Patrick, and the day is a national holiday.  Because Saint Patrick's day was on Sunday, everyone gets Monday off from work and school.

Bram Stoker -- Dracula

Bram Stoker is a famous Irish writer.  His most famous story is Dracula.  "(Suck your Blood)"  He went to Trinity College for college and he got a degree in math.

This is a cardboard monster at Trinity College.

The church where Bram Stoker got married is in Dublin.  My tour guide said the Bram Stoker didn't write scary stories until after he got married.

This is the door of the church where he got married.  It is called St. Anne's.

 

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is a famous writer. He lived in Dublin, Ireland until 1900.  I might read one of his stories while I am here.  One of his famous stories is called The Picture of Dorian Gray.  

In Dublin, there is a sign on the door of the building where Oscar Wilde lived when he was young.

Sign by the door.

Are you home Oscar Wilde?

 There is a statue of Oscar Wilde in the park right across the street from his old house.

Oscar Wilde is famous for some of his funny quotes.  Here is one I found that he said about America:

"We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language."

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Some Irish Sayings for You!

People mostly speak English in Ireland.  But, before the English controlled Ireland, it had its own language.  Today, there is only a few places in Ireland where people speak Irish for their everyday business.  I am actually right by an area called the Ring where people still speak Irish more than English.

I found this map that shows where Irish was spoken in the 1870s.  It is a lot less today.



Here are some Irish sayings I found.

An rud is annamh is tontach.  -- What is strange is beautiful. 

Is glas lad cnoici bfad uainn.  -- Far away hills are green.

Ar mhaite leis fein a dheinneann cat cronan. -- It is for its own good that a cat purrs.

Nior bhris focal maith fiacal riamh. -- A good word never broke anyone's teeth.

National Leperchaun Museum

In Dublin this weekend I went to the National Leprechaun Museum.

Leprechauns are part of Irish folk tales.  There are a lot of other creatures and people in Irish folk tales but the leprechaun is the most famous across the world.  Irish people have been talking about leprechauns since at least the 700's.  That's about 1.300 years ago!  In the old stories, the leprechaun's don't wear green.  They wear brown and red.  They make and repair shoes for the fairies.  That is how they get their gold.  Irish people are always trying to get their gold.

At the museum, I learned about other people in Irish folk tales.  I will do other blog posts about this later.

Trinity College

When I was in Dublin, I went to Trinity College.  It is a very old university and it has the Book of Kells and other very old books in its library. 

Walking through the gates of Trinity College.

The Book of Kells is the 4 Gospels written in Latin.  It was written by monks over 1,200 years ago.  It has very detailed pictures and some of the letters are drawn to look like animals. I watched a movie when I was young called The Secret of Kells and it showed the monks working on the book.

This is a pic of a copy of the Book of Kells.  You can't take pictures of the real thing.

The library at Trinity College has a lot of very old books and they are stacked up to a very high ceiling.  When I was there, some of the librarians had to get a book down from a very high shelf.  They used an old tall latter.

A book on the high shelf.

In the library they also have the oldest harp in Ireland.  The harp is the symbol of Ireland. 

Oldest Harp in Ireland.

Hmm... which book should I check out?

Tomorrow I am going back to Dublin for the weekend.  I should have more things to share about Ireland when I get back on Monday.

Made in Ireland

A lot of stuff in Ireland is made here in Ireland.  Most of the food has stickers that say ''Irish Made" or "Irish Food".  I think it's because Ireland is like a island with ocean on all sides.  This means that it is harder to move food and stuff here.  Ireland also has good farm land and lots of water from the rain.

These are really tasty apples. They even say the farmer's name on the package!

Here is a cute bear, I mean a map of  Ireland.  You can see how it is surrounded by water.  I am down by Waterford on this map.

$$ Euro $$

I took 20 Euro out of my bank using an ATM card here.  Taking out 20 Euro took out $25.98 in U.S. money from my bank account.

Here is a pic of the 20 Euro bill.

They also don't have $1 bills.  They use a lot of coins.  Here is a pic of a $1 and $2 Euro coin.

Bog Bodies

When I was in Dublin, I went to the National Museum of Ireland.  They have some bog bodies on display.  Bog bodies are bodies that were mummified naturally in peat bogs. Peat bogs are swampy areas where plants have rotted thousands of years ago making peat.  Peat bogs are in Europe and bog bodies have been found all over Europe.

Bog body whose face was really preserved.

In peat bogs, there is almost no oxygen and the peat is really acidic.  This means that peat bogs preserve things that fall in them, like people. One of the bog bodies had perfectly preserved fed hair that was in a braid.

This is a 2,000 year old wood basket that was found in a bog.

This is the hand of one of the bog bodies.  His fingernail and hand is very detailed.

I didn't take any pics of the actual bog bodies because it seemed disrespectful.  But, you can get right next to the bodies and look at them.  It was creepy but the bodies are about 2,000 years old so it is not like they just died.  Some scientist think that the people were executed as sacrifices to a god.  

Welcome Ceremony

 This morning there was a welcoming ceremony for Mercyhurst.  The ceremony was fun. I ate and watched people do a Irish dance at the same time. The dancers  were so good. One of the town council members told me he will teach me to dance like them. 

Welcome to Dungarvan!

Today I met the Mercyhurst students at the Dublin airport in the morning.  We took a bus from Dublin to Dungarvan. On the way we stopped for breakfast, at some old churches, and a real castle