St. Brigid and Kildare

Kildare is the site of St. Brigid's Cathedral, which was our first stop for the morning.   This was the site of St. Brigid's fifth century early Irish monastery and remains of the Druid Fire Temple).

Our next stop at St Brigid's Holy Well was beautiful and very moving.   We spent time at the well, and shared intentional prayers at the stones on this ancient site.

 

  

Before our journey through the Wicklow Mountains, we stopped to see the Celtic High Crosses at Candledermot and Moone.



Tara and the Hill of Slane

 Before leaving our hotel today, I walked down the driveway and took pictures of the beautiful cherry trees that lined either side.    They are in full bloom and beautiful!

Today's journey takes us to the Hill of Tara, the seat of the ancient Irish High Kings.   It was a cool and windy day, so the walk to the hill was a bit challenging.     After lunch we continued to the Hill of Slane, the site where St. Patrick is said to have kindled the Paschal Fire.   We celebrated the Eucharist at the Hill of Slane.

 

 

We also celebrated Fr. John's birthday while we were there.   And another celebration at dinner....

 

 

  

On the way to the Hill of Slane, we passed Slane Castle where a huge rock concert is held every summer.   It has an amphitheater with seating for 100,000 people!

Heading back to the hotel in Drogheda, we passed fields of canola in full bloom....

 

Armagh

Saturday's journey took us to Armagh, the ancient ecclesiastical site and residences for the Archbishops (Anglican/Episcopalian/Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic).  We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh which is located on the site where St Patrick is said to have founded the Monastery of Armagh.

Our next stop was to Navan Fort, where we met with the Rev'd Canon Grace Clunie, Director of the Centre of Celtic Spirituality.   While we were there Emile and I had a visit from Una, sister of one of our friends from Orange Park.   Una lives in Armagh and came by to meet us.   What a treat to have lunch with her and get to know her a bit.  

Saul and Downpatrick

Started our journey today with a visit to Saul Church, the ancient ecclesiastical site where St. Patrick founded his first church in Ireland in 432.   Marcus offered prayers and reflections while we were there.     On to St. Patrick's visitors center for lunch followed by a visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

 

 

This was our last evening in Bangor so we walked to the waterfront and snapped a few photos.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Each morning before breakfast we began with Morning Prayer, and each evening we spent time together sharing reflections of the day and for Evening Prayer.   This time together in our sacred circle really bonded the group together.  

The fighting in Belfast ended about 7 years ago and there are no longer marked borders along the highway.    There were subtle ways to tell we had crossed into Northern Ireland; such as differences in the road signs since it is ruled by the British.    They also use the British Pound instead of the Euro.   


We began our day at the Titanic Exhibition Centre.   The Titanic was built in Belfast at the shipyard there.   The exhibition is unbelievable in it's detail - giving information on how it was built, the people who worked on it, scaled models of the rooms aboard the ship, the maiden voyage, and the tremendous loss of life when it sank.  

 

 

After lunch, we split into smaller groups and had a Black Taxi Tour, driving on both sides of the Peace Wall, dividing east and west Belfast.     Even though the bombing has stopped, it is a very divided community.   Our driver lived through all the violence and is hopeful that in the next generation, the bitterness will fade away and there will truly be peace.   Murals line both sides of the peace wall.

 

 



 

 





Our Pilgrimage Begins

We headed back to the Dublin airport on Wednesday morning to meet those who had traveled on Tuesday night.    Around 9 am we headed to our tour bus to begin our adventure.    Our pilgrimage is "Walking in the Footsteps of St. Patrick and the Early Irish Saints".    Marcus Losack is our guide and has written a couple of books on this subject.   We departed to Newgrange.



 

It's spring in Ireland, but the weather is quite a bit cooler than Jacksonville.  Most days it was around 55 degrees.   They get a lot of rain there (which is why it's so green!).   The countryside is beautiful.    Newgrange has Neolithic Passage Tombs dated to 3,200 BC.  Our group walked the site and were able to walk inside one of the passage tombs.   The history surrounding us is overwhelming.    Many of the places we journeyed during this trip were indeed "thin places".  A thin place is a place where heaven and earth seem to meet, and God doesn't seem far away...

 

 

 

Our journey continues to Bangor where we will be staying for three nights.   

 

 

 

 

A New Peg on the Travel Map....

We love traveling to new places, so when we had the opportunity to join a Pilgrimage to Ireland with some friends from church, we signed up!    It was a group of 34 people plus our tour guide, Marcus.  

Emile and I flew over a couple of days early to explore Dublin and to adjust to the time change.    I'm so glad we did that - we were really tired that first day!   Our flight to Ireland was out of Chicago on Aer Lingus.    I was totally impressed that there was a shamrock on the tail of the plane!

 

We took a tour of Dublin on the "hop on, hop off" bus to get an overview.  It was great as we saw the highlights and could map out the places we wanted to spend more time.   We walked over to St. Patrick's Cathedral (a short walk from our hotel).   The tulips there were in full bloom and breathtaking!

I was curious about the food in Ireland - wasn't really sure what to expect.  The first night there we walked to a pub near our hotel called the Hairy Lemon.   It was charming and the food was delicious!    I ordered lamb shanks and Emile had cottage pie.   Perfect end to our first night there.

 

 

The next morning we were much more rested and headed out on the bus again.   At lunch time we met the Palarine's who had also flown over a few days early.   After lunch we did the Guinness Storehouse tour - a very popular attraction in Dublin!    Dinner on Grafton Street and then early to bed so we can meet the other pilgrims at the airport in the morning.