EireLandings ~ Part Ten ~ First, A Sea Tale

From a German manuscript

       After we crossed the Shannon Estuary, and before we met up with the Goats of Killorglin (see Part 9), we passed through the town of Tralee (of the famous "Rose of Tralee" song).  We were treated to stories of Brendan the Navigator who was  born in the latter part of the 5th century near Tralee. Brendan, became a monk founding monasteries all over the northwest of Europe and the largest in County Galway at Clonfert. 
       OK, so this could be just another monk story but copies of the Navigato Sancti Brendani from the 9th century detail Brendan’s many sea journeys, some for Christian conversions and starting monasteries, the usual job of a monk-in-charge.  But notably, the detailed voyage narratives say that he and his crew of monks got as far as what is now North America and back again. Skeptics, of course, were not impressed with the tales of the boat (known as a currach) being “raised up on the back of sea monsters”, that they “passed crystals that rose up to the sky”, and that they were “pelted with flaming, foul-smelling rocks by the inhabitants of a large island on the route.” 

       In 1976, a British navigation scholar, Tim Severin, built a currach from the details in Brendan’s writing and left the Dingle Peninsula following Brendan’s route. The currach was made of ox hides tanned with oak bark and stretched over a wood frame, sewn with leather thread and smeared with animal fat for water resistance. Now there's a boat ride I would look forward to!  He wintered in Iceland, as did Brendan, and then made it to Newfoundland proving, at least, the possibility that Brendan got that far.  Naturally Severin and crew encountered whales, icebergs, and Icelandic volcanoes.  It is also known that the Irish traveled these seas some 900 years before Columbus and perhaps the Navigato was a source of Christopher's inspiration.
             

       More recently, Ogham stones  dating from between 500 and 1000 A.D. have been discovered in West Virginia.  Ogham is an ancient Irish written language using a series of vertical and diagonal lines and other carved symbols that contain a defined grammatical structure.  Could it be from Brendan and the boys?  No one knows but someone brought them or carved them there...

Second, Ring-ing in Kerry 

     Misty drizzle seemed a perfect backdrop for our taste of the Iveragh Peninsula in Ireland’s southwest. It’s a long established tourist route of 112 miles that rings all but the farthest points of Valentia Island and the Skelligs. The circular route is most famously known as The Ring of Kerry.

        Because of the twists and turns of the roadways, tour buses and larger vehicles must travel counter-clockwise and smaller vehicles take the clockwise route. There are moments looking from the bus window on the left where the road seems to fall away leaving only a breathlessly deep drop into the valley below.  

      The landscape changed dramatically as we moved from southwest to northeast.  From the predictably aged:    

Chapel remains among the gravestones


to the thoroughly modern: 

Wind Turbines

      

The Ladies' View

       The Ladies' View is named for the Ladies in Waiting to Queen Victoria.  The Queen and her court came to Ireland and travelled the Ring of Kerry on their journey to visit Muckross House, now part of the Killarney National Park.  By the way, the Burns family went bankrupt and lost the house from hosting the Queen so think twice before you invite Royals to your house.

The Mountains of the Ring

       The wild gorse and rugged mountain terrain melted into the stunning views of lakes and glacial engineering.

                                                

Moll's Gap cuts through bogland

Coastal Views

Grave of Unbaptized Infants
from the time of the Famine

      The scenery was spectacular, even in the mist, fog, and rain.  Or, perhaps because of it.  And, as always, there was a somber note.  We stopped to see the grave of infants who died during the famine.  Because they were unbaptized at death, they were put together into a specific site that is protected by a fence.  Just a sad few of the million who died.   

 

       We had a morning stop for shopping and free Irish coffee - and they were not messing around, it was potent!  Designed to encourage more spending?  At our lunch stop, we were ready for a pot of tea, hearty soup and my favorite brown bread.  We had a glimpse of the mystical Skellig islands, of which Skellig Michael, also known as Great Skellig is yet another ancient monastic community, this one boasting a 1,000 year old stairway carved into the rock.  Little Skellig is nearer to the mainland and both islands are inhabited only by seabirds these days.

       Our guide gave us some interesting trivia about the area as we travelled.  The Black Valley community at Barfinity Lake, one of the Lakes of Killarney, was the last place in Ireland to have electricity installed and it wasn't until the 1970s.   Charlie Chaplin often vacationed in the little town of Cahersiveen which we passed through and in the town of Sneem, there is a plaque commemorating the frequent visits of Charles de Gaulle!

Hotel in Killarney

       There are so many more photos and details gathered in a 112 mile trail.  Some may feel it tedious, I was entranced and enchanted and would love to have the means to go and take the time to dig a bit deeper in the auld sod.  We pulled into lovely Killarney (Cill Orne) and were surprised that our expected Holiday Inn had changed to an elegant older hotel with the grand staircase I was certain I would have in my house one day (when I was about 7 and decided I'd be a princess). 

       Time for a stroll through town in the drizzle before dinner.  Ta!

 

      Some of the information on Brendan came from http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/ASaints/BrendanNav.html

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