Ireland Day Five: To the Castle!

Today we packed up and left Dublin, 

heading for the Markree Castle in County Sligo. 

On our way out of Dublin we visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

The cathedral that is there today was built in the early 13th century, 

on the site of an earlier Normon church from 1191.

 I was surprised to discover that it is an anglican church,
 because it looks very Catholic. 

It is also the site of Jonathon Swift’s grave. 

Next we stopped for a second 

by the statue of Patrick Kavanagh by the canal. 

He looks very pensive sitting there by the canal banks.

 Here is the poem he wrote about the canals in 1958. 

Canal  Bank Walk

Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me, that I do
The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,
Grow with nature again as before I grew.
The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third
Party to the couple kissing on an old seat,
And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word
Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.
O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web
Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,
Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib
To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech
For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven
From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.

It is famous for finding the beauty in the canals 

which were rather bland and industrial.

 I don’t know about you, 

but the canal seems really pretty to me.

 Maybe it didn’t look like this in 1958,

 but I think it’s the perfect place to sit and read or write poetry.


Then we continued on our way 
to the much anticipated castle,
but with a couple more stops before we got there.


First we stopped in Longford for lunch,
which was a nice little town with pubs and shops.
We made our first encounter with a €2 store.
It is essentially like a European
version of the dollar tree, except
I found it to be a lot nicer.
I thought it was funny to imagine
moms (or mums i suppose) giving
their children €2 which is actually a coin
just like my mom gave me $1 
to buy something at the dollar store. 


We walked by a Realtor office
and all picked out our future homes.
 Mine was a house on a lake in County Roscommon
and it only cost €2 million! 
I don't think I will be able
to afford that with an English/Anthropology major...

We also stopped off  the side of the highway
at a statue of the Gaelic Chieftain.

It's a pretty cool statue.

It's also an incredible view for a highway rest stop.

Only in Ireland...

Then finally we arrived at the Markree castle.

Here is our room and the view from our window.

The castle was absolutely fantastic.

We got some time to explore around

and I felt like I had just fallen into 

my favorite childhood stories.

I was just waiting for cousin Colin

to start wailing through the ceiling and 

Dickon to come waltzing in with his lamb, 

or for the flamingo croquet game to begin,

or even to fall through the wardrobe to Narnia. 

I can't even begin to imagine 
what it would be like to grow up in a castle. 

We finished off the day with a tour of Sligo County
which is where Yeats grew up.
It really explains his Romantic obsession 
with the faeries and the other world
because if they were to be
fairies anywhere it would probably be here. 

This is the mountain Ben Bulben
for which Yeat's poem Under Ben Bulben is written
( for more on this see Day Six)

as well as Knocknarea mountain 
on top of which lies Queen Maeve's cairn.
(which you can see if you look closely)

And somewhere in that far off lake
is the lake isle of Innisfree 
for which this poem was written: 


I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.


And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
(I really like this one!)

We also got to see some  tomb circles
which have rocks in the shape of a cross in the middle.

The rocks are enormous and it remains
a mystery how the prehistoric peoples managed
to carry them to this spot.  
This one has lots of layers 
of geological strata.


I thought it was really cool how the tomb circles 
were just there all over the area
right next to people's back yard.
How interesting it must be to
live among so much history.


Highlight of Today:
There's no doubt about it that the castle was fantastic.
The duck for dinner wasn't bad either.