Land, Sweet Beautiful Land

Week 7

Land, Sweet Beautiful Land

After nearly 3 weeks and over 2,000 miles, we finally set foot again on terra firma in Galway, Ireland.

As we approached Galway from the Atlantic via the Galway Bay, we see an archipelago of small rocky islands where the farming communities on the Aran Islands came about after centuries of ploughing and enriching the soil with seaweed. In their isolation, the Aran Islands have kept a quiet rural character that can’t easily be found in modern Europe. For one, Irish Gaelic is still the first language here and the islands are still defended by prehistoric forts like the awesome Dún Aonghasa, posted atop 100-metre-high cliffs on Inishmore.

The islands’ pastures are criss-crossed by limestone dry-stone walls that have stood for centuries, and hiking trails will lead to cliffs and beaches battered by the Atlantic, hollowed-out Medieval churches and yet more Neolithic forts.

Galway, Ireland

Galway is the port gateway to Ireland from the atlantic and is often referred to as the “Cultural Heart of Ireland” as it is most associated with the Irish language, music, song and dance traditions.

The most famous person born in Galway is the great Hollywood actor Peter O’Toole. Peter Seamus Lorcan O’Toole was born in Connemara in 1932. Most famous for his role in the 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia,” poor O’Toole holds the world record for Oscar nominations without actually winning. He was nominated an incredible eight times without bringing home a golden statue.

The longest place name in Ireland is Muckanaghederdauhaulia, a townland in the civil parish of Kilcummin, County Galway. In Irish, its name is Muiceanach idir Dhá Sháile, meaning "piggery between two briny places".

Limerick, Ireland

The The city of Limerick officially dates from 812, however, history suggests the presence of earlier settlements as antiquity's map-maker, Ptolemy, produced in 150 the earliest map of Ireland, showing a place called Regia at the same site as King's Island. The Normans redesigned the city in the 12th century and added much of the most notable architecture, such as King John's Castle.

Rightly or wrongly, Limerick is associated with the name of a type of humorous verse of five lines with an AABBA rhyme scheme. However, the poem's connection with the city is obscure, but the name is generally taken to be a reference to Limerick city or County Limerick, sometimes particularly to the Maigue Poets, and may derive from an earlier form of nonsense verse parlour game that traditionally included a refrain that included "Will [or won't] you come (up) to Limerick?”. The earliest known use of the name "Limerick" for this type poem is an 1880 reference, in a Saint John, New Brunswick newspaper (an earlier stop on our journey), to an apparently well-known tune.

From a more serious literary standpoint, the author Frank McCourt won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for Angela’s Ashes, a humorous but also grim memoir of his childhood in Limerick in the 1930s and 40s.

Dublin, Ireland

After a long trek across Ireland, we located the Guinness Storehouse in the heart of St. James’ Gate Brewery. The interior is designed to look exactly like a pint of Guinness itself and is known to be the largest pint in the world.

Known for much more than its quality stouts, Dublin is home to the largest church in all of Ireland, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is actually one of two cathedrals that were built on Dublin soil. St. Patrick’s was originally founded in 1191 and is rife with over 800 years of Irish history and culture. It is also the final resting place of Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s travels and Dean of the Cathedral.

The second of Dublin’s medieval cathedrals, Christ Church Cathedral, is yet another of Dublin’s architectural wonders. More formally known as The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, this fully-operational church is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough.

Dublin has a significant literary history, and has produced many literary figures, including Nobel laureates William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett. Other influential writers and playwrights include Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and the creator of Dracula, Bram Stoker.

Famous Dublin musical natives include the rock band U2 who have sold an estimated 150–170 million records worldwide and won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band.

Holyhead, Wales

Oh No! More water! Fortunately, we know the drill, so to cross from Dublin to Wales, we jump on a ferry which drops us in Holyhead Wales.

Holyhead’s town center is built around St. Cybi's Church, which is built inside one of Europe's few three-walled Roman forts...with the fourth wall being the sea. The original church was established around 540 AD by St Cybi, a cousin of St David. Cybi chose to build his monastery within the walls of a ruined Roman fort which was a great idea until it was sacked by Viking raiders in the 10th century via the fourth wall.

By sea and by land we covered a record 932 miles last week! As we make our way across the United Kingdom this week, we are going to take a quick detour north with planned stops in Wales, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edinburgh before heading south to London. We continue to be on track to get to Bethlehem by Christmas, but now is no time to let up as we never know what challenges may lay ahead. Let’s keep it up and encourage other members to join us!