Day 31: Ireland’s Ancient East

Sadly the weather story remained the same today as we loaded into the car outside the Avalon Manor House that had so kindly adopted us the night before... and a very yummy breakfast too I might add. Our first stop on the agenda was a somewhat out of the way place called Clonfert, and the church of St Brendan. No ordinary church this one: it is the Cathedral of St Brendan and was built in the early part of the second millennium on the site of an original church and abbey established by St Brendan some time in the 6th century. It is also the place where St Brendan is said to be buried. 

It is not a cathedral by anyone’s imaginings and it is literally out the back of woop woop, but it has some incredible Romanesque carvings of heads and animals and Celtic symbols that is truly beautiful and that date back to the 12 century. The cathedral was not open so we could only see from the outside, but it was a very interesting building, and the extensive cemetery around it and many of the graves are either recent or have recent headstones which tells a family history of the Flynn’s and the Fitzgeralds and the Ryans and the O’Malley’s and the Kennas and a whole range of other family names with family recorded way back to the 1700s and so on. As someone who has become so interested in family history and knowing how unreliable Ireland's records are prior to about 1850, this is actually a microcosm of history and I hope it stays preserved to tell the story of a once vibrant community in this distant corner of the world. 

Our next stop on the agenda was to find Clonmacnoise, the ruins of the community established by St Ciaran in the first millennium. Unlike Glendalough, that was established as a hermitage or an isolated community, St Ciaran chose to establish Clonmacnoise on the bank of the Shannon river on trade routes North South by river and a walking route east west from Dublin to the West Country. Sadly again there is not much remaining and they are doing an amazing job at restoration and archaeological investigation, but it is beautiful, and the shrine to St Ciaran, where he is allegedly buried was a moving place to visit. I am glad we visited, even tough, yet again we were windswept and soaked in the attempt, not to mention Google map napped. The cafe was calling for lunch and while Chris enjoyed a sandwich, Liz is becoming quite an authority on Vegetable Soup in Ireland and this one was the best one yet! And so warm.

But it was time to see which way the sat nav would take us next as we went in search of Trim in County Meath. Trim is the last of the family history stops for Liz. while there is another relative who hails from County Down, that is further north and beyond the scope of this trip, but trim has a special significance because it is where the convict ancestors Walter Leonard and Brigid Duffy come from. Brigid was definitely from Trim in County Meath whereas Walter’s location is shown as East Meath. Trim is in East Meath. Brigid was born in 1818 and Walter 3 years earlier in 1815 and they were both transported in one of the last transports to Sydney for petty crimes. Some of my more distant family have done a lot of research into this convict pair who met and married after their emancipation in Sydney, but again I was keen to stand on the ground where they may have walked and see the places and the countryside that they might have experienced. So we went off in search of St Patrick’s, which is a most imposing church, but which was sadly built in 1902 and recently renovated. So while it is beautiful it is not the actual church where Brigid would have been baptised. We did pop over to the parish office however, and the secretary generously gave us a little history book that talked a but about the time prior to the current church and we saw the remaining wall of the 1810 church where Brigid would have been baptised. it is a part of the parish centre now, immediately adjacent to the new St Patricks. What a special find.

Walking back to the car from our visit to the church we stopped to look at Trim castle, a landmark which Brigid most definitely would have recognised, even though the Braveheart movie that made it famous was to be a long time coming. Trim Castle, the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, was constructed over a thirty-year period by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter. Hugh de Lacy was granted the Liberty of Meath by King Henry II in 1172 in an attempt to curb the expansionist policies of Richard de Clare, (Mr Strongbow after whom the cider is named). It remains an imposing edifice, which looks better from the river side, but still pretty cool from Castle Road or Finnegan's Way. We then headed off on a pilgrimage through east Meath and as we came across the towns of Rathoat and Dunshaughin and the like, I wondered some more about the places that Brigid and Walter would have seen. I can guarantee you that if they were out in the country they may have taken off on the tracks, now sealed, that we took today: meandering country lanes which sat nav seemed to prefer as it sent us in search of our final stop The Hill of Tara. 

This is such a special place in Irish folklore. Legend has it that it is the place of coronation of the Kings of Ireland and that it has features that date back to 2500 BCE. We saw one of the “barrows” , a large mound inside which is a myriad of tunnels and possibly tombs dating back thousands of years. it is said that St Patrick went to Tara to confront the pagans... and well he may have done so, and I hope he could see better into the distance then we could today, but whether he did or not, his statue stands adjacent to the entrance to the monuments, and someone has broken the top off his crozier so I looks like a hiking stick. I did have a giggle. It was tough going in the weather conditions which by now was cold with driving rain and the ground was becoming muddied slippery and dangerous underfoot, so we saw a little and then opted for a warm drink and a dry off in the gift shop adjacent to the site. But truly worth a visit, and it certainly causes some thought about the intersection of myth and Christianity and where young Brigid and Walter would have been placed on that scale: would they have even known of Tara’s existence?

Having been taken the extremely scenic route to Tara, a quick 1km run down a narrow country lane saw us back out on a national roadway and heading back in the direction of Dublin airport: ah Google, you never cease to surprise. The traffic was a bit thicker being after work time, but we arrived at the hotel to check in and unload the car, before refuelling and returning Siobhan to the Enterprise rental centre. We have travelled just 10km short of 1000 km in 5 days and have seen such amazing sights. Now time to reorganise and repack the cases and start the journey home. Hong Kong tomorrow!