Day 14 — Our Ireland Adventure

We’re in the Republic of Ireland, for the fourth and final portion of our 20-day adventure in Great Britain and Ireland, a trip we’ve always hoped and dreamed we could make one day. We hope you enjoy coming along with us vicariously!

We left Derry/Londonderry early to travel through and revel at the verdant green Irish countryside. Stunning.

We stopped for about an hour in Donegal to witness a tweed weaving exhibition and enjoy some Irish coffee. Delicious. The sweaters and coats were amazing. Barb was tempted by this one, but didn’t bite, Whew!

A gorgeous costal drive along a raging sea and fantastic cliffs took us to Classiebawn Castle in County Mullaghmore. This was the residence of the British royal and World War II hero, Lord Mountbatten, when he was assassinated by the IRA on 27 August 1979. This event signaled a dark period ahead for relations between England and Northern Ireland. These pictures are of the gate and gatehouse to the estate and castle. If you enlarge the picture on the left, you can see the Mountbatten crest on the gate posts.

We could not get on the estate, but it’s certainly impressive even from a distance.

No four leaf clovers yet, but some beautiful flowering shamrocks were on your path today.

The we were off to Sligo, with its inspirational natural beauty and home to a young William Butler Yeats. We briefly visited his burial sight before stopping for lunch in Tubbercurry. We had NEVER heard of the desert pictured in the picture on the right below. Have you?

We continued to the town of Knock in County Mayo where it is believed that the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist appeared in 1879. We visit the Knock Shrine in this tiny village and found out that it hosts over a million pilgrims each year. The pictures below will explain more about this pilgrimage sight (the third most visited and revered by Catholics after Lourdes and Fatima). The middle picture below has a section of the wall on which the apparition appeared.

Here’s a sculpture of the apparition. The statue of the lamb is standing on the altar from the original chuch.

Finally, arrived in Galway, a seafaring town that now has become one of the fastest growing cities in Europe. We only had time for a short city tour, but look forward to a longer walk and visit in this delightful city tomorrow. Our tour guide says it’s his favorite city in all of Ireland.

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