Day 7

Day 7 Thursday:  Imagine having 8 to 18 children and living with everyone in a small shack with a thatched roof along with any animals like a couple of chickens or a pig you might have managed to obtain.  Today was a day of walking in other’s shoes, recreating and remembering the Great Hunger, what caused it, and what the English response was, and the parallels to many situations today with immigrants and refugees wanting to come to the U.S.

 

We visited the Ballyshannon workhouse and saw the famine pots from which people ate their watery gruel and the coffins used to hold people who were taken off the ships to America, which were called coffin ships as so many died on the trip over.  The Hunger/Famine began in 1845 and lasted for 6 years, though the effects were from 1845-1870.  One million people died from starvation and one million emigrated out of desperation.  Ireland considers itself a first world nation with a 3^rd world sensibility.  They experienced the mind numbing, body crushing poverty and subjugation of being sub-human to the English for hundreds of years.  They are a conquered land regaining their spirit.

 

We also visited the Port where so many left Ireland, especially for America and Australia.  Upon returning to our hotel, we met Maura Logue, who helped each of us create a character for the St. Patrick’s Day parade we will be in tomorrow.  Our “created” person is coming to town for the parade/fair around 1950.  Though we’ve fast forwarded in time from the Famine emigration, emigration is still occurring in 1950’s (and still today).  For our troupe, we have wealthy girls with a governesses traveling on holiday, and farmers coming to “buy” girls to work on farms, and a young woman on a scholarship to study abroad, and so the diaspora continues.  What fun we had creating story lines—with jealousies and loves and betrayals—while trying on clothes and getting crash course in acting to prepare us for the parade tomorrow.  In between our preparation, the hotel swelled with Irish families arriving for the celebrations and children running and hollering through the halls.  Tomorrow will be a party day!

Day 6

Day 6 Wednesday:  First the first time this trip, droplets fell from the grey skies, but that didn't dampen people's spirits.  Nearly everyone is better from the little colds contracted on the plane.  Paige, who couldn’t find her wallet, had it returned; it was sitting the Pharmacy the whole time, and Ben received his missing luggage.  Niahm arrived and we began a wonderful lecture about the rise of Angel-Irish Culture: first the subversive Anglo-Irish literature of Shaw, Wilde, Swift, and then the Cultural Revival spearheaded by Yeats on the literary front (1865-1939).  Of course, since he did not speak Irish, the lens of looking back to the fairy world and myths of the past is that of male, Protestant Ascendancy, but without his efforts, much of the interest in and the salvage of the old stories would not occurred.  Niahm had a wonderful way of making his unrequited love affair (he proposed to Maude Gonne three times) come to life and reminded everyone of how much we love Yeats for his revolutionary ideas and nationalism but also for his failure to win over the love of his life.

 

In Ireland, everyone is believed to have a guardian angel.  In the 1700 and 1800's this was especially important given the infant mortality rate with the Irish famine.  The fairies would take a baby from this world and bring the departed little one to the safety and happiness of the fairy world.  In Celtic culture, women always had more agency than in Judeo-Roman cultures, so the fairies played a helpful role in healing--and in other aspects of interpreting and experiencing life. (A Banshee, by the way, is a female fairy.)

 

We stopped at Creevykeel Court Cairn--another sacred portal grave from the Ancient times.  The rest of the day completely Yeats infused.  We went to the tiny town of Drumcliff where Yeats is buried.  The church doors have swan handles to represent Yeats’s imagery that he often used to represent eternal and committed love, as swans mate for life.   Sligo City, where we stopped next for a quick lunch, is a fascinating mix of old and new, and then we traveled to Glencare Waterfall where fairy lore is especially strong.  At Glencar Waterfall, Niahm, Heather, Eva, and I each read a stanza from Yeats’s "Stolen Child," where the fairies come to take away the lost babies. This is Yeats’s country, where he and his brother and two sisters played as children, wandering the hillsides after being shipped here to visit granny while dad and mum did their own thing. I had no idea Jack Butler Yeats was Ireland's most prominent painter and that W.B.'s two sisters (Lilly and Lolly) started a printing press, invested in local crafts, and managed the business affairs of their two brothers, who gained world attention.  

 

The most striking part of the day, for me though, was the Drumcliff churchyard and surrounding land, which was so full of history and symbolism.  Looking in the horizon, we could see the mountain with the nipple of rocks sticking up; that is Queen Mauve's grave (Pagan Irish warrior queen) who wanted to overlook the whole area upon her death.  In this churchyard, the High Celtic Cross stands, a perfect fusion of the Celtic circle (from pagan times) shaped into a cross telling the story of Adam and Eve and other Christian stories.  And of course, here is Yeats’s grave, where he, too, wanted to be a part of this land; thus, fusing pagan, Christian, Anglo-Irish, and modern times.

 

On our way home we saw Mullaghmore Castle in the distance.  The British royals used to own it, though it's privately owned now. Eventually, we left the elegance of the castles and wild coastline and returned to Bundoran.  That night we traipsed over to the local movie theater in our PJs. J 

Day 5

Day 5 Tuesday:  In the late 1800’s, a political party called the No Nothings arose whose slogan was “America First.”  They ridiculed and persecuted the Irish and tried to ban them from coming to America.  This anti-immigration emphasis particularly stereotyped the Irish as dirty little fat fellows caricatured in cartoons at time in green suits and hats. In the 1950’s Walt Disney picked up this image and the dancing, grinning leprechaun was widely distributed.  Anyone knowing Irish history thus finds the leprechaun demeaning while the harp, shamrock, Celtic cross, spiral, Claddagh, Irish knot, and Irish circle are all embraced as the symbols of this land and people.

We visited Castle Caldwell, a ruined castle owned by a landed Protestant gentry family, who took over Irish lands during the Plantation and Penal Law period (between 1611-1800).  The grandson of the first Caldwell found clay in the area, which became used to make Belleek porcelain, now world famous.  We visited this showroom and museum, and then headed to Silabh Liag (which sounds like Sheeve Leave).  This area is remote, wild, with nearly unstainable farming but breath-taking beauty.  Many people were pushed to this extremely poor western point where they subsisted rather than be tenant farmers to the new English and Scottish Protestant land owners.

We know how the Catholics could not vote or own property during Penal Law time, but they couldn’t even own a horse or go to school.  All the harpists were hung, and 90% of the population (8 million people) had no representation. Irish was banned.  The Penal laws set the stage for the Great Hunger, which is what the Irish call the period from 1845-1870 because there was food, just not for the poor, native Irish. 

Anyway, Niahm told us of a fascinating story where Ben Franklin was a bit on the fence about breaking away from England.  Obviously, this is bit earlier than the Penal Law time, but the Plantation period was well under way.  So Mr. Franklin visits Dublin and then tours some of the countryside outside this urban, well-heeled city.  There he sees some of the abject poverty, which was not even as bad as elsewhere, resulting from the English overseeing the Irish tenant farmers.  He decides this fate could be similar in America with British rule controlling the colonists.  He returns home and becomes a complete advocate for the American revolution.

Day 4

Day 4 Monday:  “Cead Mile Failte” – means 100,000 welcomes!  I feel so welcomed here even though I awoke with chapped cheeks from the Irish wind.  I am staying in Bundoran, county Donegal.  Niahm (pronounced Neeve) and John are our hosts.  I have a lovely apartment overlooking the Atlantic coast and hear the cries of gulls and other birds every morning.  I am grateful for my student’s stories, the struggles they have shared with me, their excitement of being here, their curiosity, their joy at learning.  All seem to thrive on fresh air, natural food, good conversation, and new experiences. 

Today we leave the 5^th Century of Celtic civilization and fast forward to Celtic Christianity, which lasts for about a 1000 years. St. Patrick is brought as a slave to Ireland, later after escaping and becoming a monk, he returns to this land in 432 A.D. and shares the shamrock as a metaphor for the church: father, son, holy spirit; thus, begins the comprehensive, persuasive cultural take over from pagan to Christian.  This fusion of Celts and Christians—known as Golden Age of Ireland from 500- 1200 A.D.—was the time of saints and scholars, flourishing arts, musicians and storytellers, and a time of writing and education—from which there is still the appreciation of arts and teachers today.  The current president is a much beloved poet, and teachers are paid well and well respected.  I am living in the wrong country—though many of us have decided this. 

Now in the 1500’s, we hear the trumpets sound as nation states emerge and the Church is reviled for its lack of piety.  King Henry VIII, divorces his wife and the Catholic Church, and works to subdue Ireland since he worries about English vulnerability via attack through the Emerald Island.  Queen Elizabeth decides the way to continue to subdue the Irish is by forcing and buying loyalty and conquering.  The O’Donnel and O’Neill clans from Ulster in the North are the most rebellious.  For nine years, from 1593-1602 the Irish hold the English armies at bay, in the end, on the very day the chieftains surrender, Elizabeth dies. The earls flee and King James makes two decisions that have ever lasting effect on this land, turning it into a British colony.  First, he gave Irish land to Scottish and English gentry, making the Irish now subservient to the newcomers.  He moved some 10,000 Protestants and Presbyterians to Ireland to farm land from 1610-1640, particularly into the area we now know as Northern Ireland.

To make this history come to life, we visited St. Patrick’s Well where a pagan wishing tree and a St. Peter statue are side by side and still visited today.  Then we traveled to the O’Donnell Castle which became the Brooke Castle when the English family took over.  Donegal Town yielded a fabulous little tea house for a tasty lunch and then we visited the Franciscan Abbey where The Annals of the Four Masters was written—basically Ireland’s history from 4,500-1616.  The Annals are a compilation by priests before the Abbey was burned to avoid letting the English occupy it.  Now the Annals are a or the primary source when doing Irish research and are housed in the National Museum in Dublin.

I loved the fresh garlic permeating the area where mass was held during the early 1600 in a local cave in order to avoid English persecution.  We also learned about the island off shore where huge boulders stand and people go to these cursing stones to confess their anger and pain with others.  They whisper their rage to the stones who keep the confessions, releasing their owners of poisonous power of anger.  Even today this therapy demonstrates the power the stones hold here in Ireland.

Now an hour and half later from when I began writing, I am tired and my eyes burn.  The music from earlier has been replaced by the howling wind.  Midnight approaches and my room grows cold; my warm bed calls.

Welcome to Ireland - Days 1-3

Day 3 Sunday:  I have just returned from listening to an Irish American country folk band and am sitting in my apartment feeling happy and blessed.  I had a lovely hour chat with two students while taking tea.  I love how various Irish phrases are working their way into our lexicon—lovely, well then, chat, taking tea, throw over, having good craic . . .

After spending a day traveling, the next day at the airport meeting students as they came in, and then sleeping twelve hours, I awoke semi-refreshed and ate croissants, fresh fruit, and cheese for breakfast—so European.  Sixteen of us from AZ met up with community college students and faculty from Omaha, NE and the two groups have lessons and activities together. 

In class we learned Arizona is 4.19 times larger than Ireland and the location of Ireland to the UK is the biggest factor to Irish history.  The population is about 4.5 million in Ireland and 1 million in Northern Ireland.  We raced through time covering Celtic tribes from 4000 B.C – 500 AD.  The key factors in Irish history continue to be water, stone, and wood. 

After learning about secular and sacred spaces, we headed to Caven Burren, where we saw the burial chambers that are 6000 to 7000 years old.  In comparison, the Pyramids are 5000 years old.  These Irish burial chambers are some of the oldest in the world and are found in Donegal country among the forests and bogs of the hilly north country of Donegal county.  The bog was spongy and soft, a verdant carpet, which can be cut away and burned for fuel, though it’s not ideal for the environmentally conscious.  Among the forest where fairies easily could have danced and trolls lurked, we saw stone circles that once were homes—like African rondavels.  People had carved other stones with circles and swirls, which form part of the Atlantic art (all along the Atlantic coast down to France and Spain), which experts now think was actually a language.  The people also sculpted the stone to represent the shapes of nearby mountains as local maps as well as images of the male and female anatomy.  We saw a grave where the bones carbon dated from 2,500 B.C. 

The Ogham alphabet, derived from the shape of trees, is one of the oldest in the world, and forms the basis of Gaelic.  Celtic Ireland, from 800 B.C. to 500 A.D., saw pagan tribes dividing the island into five provinces.  The Taoiseach was the leader, who had a druid and poet beside him.  Names derived from the father and thus Mac is son of and O is daughter of.  My father’s name was Uffe; thus, I would be Karen O’Uffe.  Unlike the rest of the Celtic world of Whales, France, Spain, etc., the Roman Empire never came to Ireland, so the Celtic culture was never blotted out by Roman conquest. 

That night in celebration of our new knowledge, we painted circles and Celtic knots (meaning eternity) on stones and created our names in Ogham with a well-known Irish artist.  And craic means fun, so hopefully, if you have continued reading from the beginning, you are having craic—or at least are somewhat interested!