Wrapping Up Our Irish Adventure

Once again I'm a week behind in getting up a blog post... but last Friday the 15th we were still in Ireland. Our first stop of the day was Be.lleek Pottery (where they were having a sale!): 

After we'd gotten our pottery fix we headed to Don.egal. Only after we arrived did we realize the city's car parks were actually pay and display (everywhere else we went either had free parking or parking garages where we could pay by card).

The problem was not that we didn't have any change. The problem was that Doneg.al is in the Republic of Ireland and required Euro change... not Pound change.

We drove through town until we spotted a bank with an ATM outside. B dropped me off and drove back around the town centre while I got cash:

I then had to go to a little shop and buy a pop to break the bill so we had change for the meter.

Eventually we were able to park and discovered that it was going to cost us less than an Euro to park for our stay... and then after I'd purchased the parking ticket a nice lady offered us the remaining time on hers! It was definitely one of those things that only happened because we'd had so much trouble finding change.

Luckily Castle Don.egal was worth the hassle:

The interior has been partially restored to the era when it was last used as a full time home:

The Castle was built for defensive reasons and has a lovely view of the river it guards:

On Saturday the 16th we had to check out of our lovely holiday let and drive to Belfast. Along the way we took a quick detour:

We decided to spend our day in Belfast visiting the most popular tourist site in the city:

We went to the Titanic museum which was AMAZING:

They walk you through the entire ship building process (via an amusement park-style ride) and then take you from the hull of the ship through the completed upper decks:

The museum covers pretty much everything about the Titanic from the special docks that had to be built in order to build it through both the UK and USA commissions ordered to figure out what went wrong.

In partnership with the Titanic Museum is the Titanic Dock Museum:

This museum is the only structure still standing that was actually used to build the Titanic. We walked around the pump room:

And then out into the dry dock where Titanic's interiors were installed:

We then had to walk back to the Museum to get back into our car. By the time we got back the outline of Titanic was glowing:

Unfortunately the Titanic Museum closed five and a half hours before our ferry left. (We only realized after we'd finished up at the museum that spending all day talking about a sinking ship was probably not the best idea before we got onto a ship to go home.)

To fill the time before we got on the ferry we thought we would take the boys to a movie. When looking up theatres on my phone I discovered that all the movie theatres in Belfast stopped showing their family friendly movies at 4PM... considering it was 5PM by that point we were a bit frustrated. I finally found one theatre in the suburbs of Belfast that had a 6:30PM showing of 'Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2'. It ended up being perfect timing and we boarded the ferry right on time!

The Lights Are Low To Protect The Objects On Display

We have been doing a ton of things over the last few days... just in places that haven't allowed much photography.

On Tuesday we headed across the street from our holiday let to the park that borders Lough MacN.ean. Unfortunately our visit to the park only lasted about ten minutes before the rain started:

Luckily the rain stayed at the lake and didn't bother us during our visit to Enn.iskillen Castle:

The Castle has several different museum sections:

The big boys were very excited to look at the army equipment:

Pearson was excited to play in the puddles:

And Daddy was excited to learn about the ancient Maguire clan... while the big boys were excited to get to look at more army stuff:

En.niskillen Castle was originally built by the Celtic Maguire kings of Fer.managh. The castle was in continuous use until it was turned into a museum. Because the Maguire clan was such a pain for the English (doing things like leading revolts) once they had been fully put down, the British turned their castle into a garrison manned with Protestant troops.

On Wednesday we re-entered the Republic to visit the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life at Turlou.gh Park:

As soon as the Republic was formed the government set about trying to preserve the Irish way of life through filming traditional craftspeople and preserving their wares. The very first exhibit in the museum talked about the reality of Irish Country Life versus the Romantic Version (exemplified by 'The Quiet Man').

There was a creel basket for people to try carrying. It was heavy enough without being full of potatoes!

The museum also had an entire floor of everyday items made out of hay. The boys got to try out two types of hay chairs:

There was a series of kid-friendly activities throughout the museum but the boys especially loved the kid area on the final floor:

The final floor talked about Irish traditions, specialized village jobs and how a traditional household would work. As part of the section on clothes making the boys got to do some weaving (weaving was a professional man's job... all the other parts of clothes making was the woman of the house's job):

The drive to Tur.lough Park was through some beautiful countryside. On the way home we pulled into one of the sightseeing areas and just enjoyed the view:

Today we headed north to Derry a.k.a 'The Walled City'. Our first stop was the city's museum - inside we got to learn about the history of Derry and all about the Spanish Armada (one of the Armada's ships had wrecked near Derry!):

After we finished up inside the museum we walked along the city's walls. The boys got to do some 'shooting' at the Guildhall:

Then we walked up a giant hill to Austin's - the world's oldest independent department store:

A few blocks up from Austin's was St. Col.umb's Cathedral which is the mother church of the Church of Ireland. It is also where Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander wrote all her hymns (including "All Things Bright and Beautiful") while her husband was the Bishop of Derry:

Derry was a very interesting city and looks much newer than it actually is - it has been completely destroyed at least three times!

Journey Into The Republic

Today we drove a block south from our holiday rental and into the Republic of Ireland (you can tell because it changes from MPH to KPH and there's suddenly Gaelic on the signs). Our destination was Stroke.stown Park and Famine Museum.

It was a bit of a drive, so when we arrived we headed straight into the Walled Garden where the boys had a chance to race through the parterre:

Then they held a contest to see who could jump over the large pile of leaves on a side path:

We found a gazebo and Brayton asked to take a picture:

Since Brayton had gotten to take a picture, McColley asked to take a picture the next time we found a bench:

Brayton got the camera a second time and took a pretty good self-portrait:

Having explored all of the Walled Garden we then set off down the Wooded Walk:

All along the Walk was sculptures celebrating The Gathering 2013. The boys enjoyed trying to interpret the meanings of each statue:

After completing the Wooded Walk we ate some lunch before going through the Famine Museum. The Museum had just been redone in preparation for The Gathering and it was incredibly informative.

St.rokestown Park was owned by the Maho.n family and during the Famine they were one of the estates who began mass forced evictions. Major M.ahon, the landowner, even paid for over 3000 of his tenants to move to Canada (including several Maguires... who probably aren't related... but who knows?) These actions led to Major Mah.on being the first of seven landlords to be assassinated during the Famine.

Our last stop of the day was a tour of the mansion house. Pearson wasn't too sure if he wanted to stick around for it:

The tour was very interesting though. The family was related by marriage to the Duke of Wellington and the British general that lost (and was killed in) the Battle of New Orleans. The last family member had moved out of the house in 1981, so there was a lot of eras included in the decorating:

The last stop on the house tour was in the kitchen. However, this kitchen is special because it is one of the few remaining galley kitchens in Ireland:

The galley was for the Lady of the House - she would walk along it and throw down her menus to the kitchen staff, that way she never had to step foot in the kitchen.

The boys were a little loopy by the time it was all over:

Walking Through Our Family History

Today we went to the Ul.ster Ameri.can Folk Park. It is one of the national museums of Northern Ireland and shows the history of who and why people from Ulster (and greater Ireland) emigrated to the United States.

Most of the museum is outside and comprised of buildings. The first one you come to is a traditional Irish one-room cottage:

The whole first half of the outside area is Irish buildings. Every building is an actual home, store or church that people who later emigrated to the United States used while they lived in Ireland. This Presbyterian church was moved from a town a few miles away from the museum:

After the church we walked through a farm which was the only building that wasn't moved - the family who'd originally owned the land donated it to create the Folk Park. The reason is that one of their sons emigrated to the USA and became a judge and then founded a bank.

After viewing all the farm buildings you can go up and get a prospect over the farm land. Unfortunately at this point McColley was mad because he was getting cold:

By the next house I had come up with a solution for cold ears and fingers:

 This house was the Irish home of a man who emigrated to the USA at the age of 20 unable to read. Once there he got a job that included education as a benefit. He went on to become the first archbishop of New York and built St. Patrick's Cathedral.

It seemed fitting that our next stop was a one room schoolhouse. Up to 70 children would have been taught in this room (depending on attendance... which was not mandatory):

Our last stop in 'Ireland' was a town main street from the height of the migration:

The grocer just happened to be selling sweets, so we got a quarter pound of jellies!

Then it was onto a ship and time to wave good-bye to 'Ireland':

We landed in a busy American city, made a quick stop at the general store and then headed out to the frontier:

McColley and Brayton decided to walk through 'America' by tiptoe so that they wouldn't step on any leaves:

All of the American houses were also originals that had been shipped over and rebuilt in the Folk Park. Several of the homes were from Pennsylvania and they included the outbuildings like this spring house:

In all there was 43 buildings to visit in the park. The boys did a good job making it all the way through. The only problem was when Pearson wanted his coat back... so McColley had to cuddle up inside my coat to keep his ears warm on the long walk back to the visitor's center:

It was a very interesting place and gave us a very important historical context for why one of my ancestors left Ireland in 1741 - turns out the landlords attempted to hike the rents and then there was a bad harvest, so a bunch of Scotch-Irish decided to head to the New World. There was actually a huge wave of Scotch-Irish who went to American between 1719 and the start of the Revolutionary War.