St. Patrick heard the voice of the Irish calling to him, saying, "Come holy boy and walk amongst us again." May we also hear Celtic voices both past and present—the ancient lives, the immigrant ancestors, the modern day wayfarers—and learn from their stories.
Nov 29, 2010
What Do You See? Part Two
Nov 26, 2010
What Do You See?
Let's have fun here. Here's a shot I took in a town in Ireland. Sorry, I can't remember where. Could have been Bushmills, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I noticed a few unique things in this picture. What do you see? If you've been to Ireland before, is there anything you notice here that is a bit unusual?
Nov 25, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
Glad you stopped by!
Nov 22, 2010
Two Surprises in Ireland
Palm trees???
Nov 19, 2010
The Magpie
Driving around Ireland we noticed large black and white birds that seemed to be everywhere. Once while a friend was driving us, Tom asked what it was. "Oh, those magpies!" the friend replied, and he counted them whenever they flew by. He explained that there is a poem that tells you that seeing one by itself was bad luck. Of course, after that we started counting them, and wouldn't you know it. Half the time we saw a lone bird. But no worries, as soon as we saw another one we added it to the total, never admitting we saw one by itself. ;-)
One for sorrow, two for joy;
Three for a girl, four for a boy;
Five for silver, six for gold;
Seven for a secret, never to be told;
Eight for a wish, nine for a kiss;
Ten for a bird that's best to miss.
"Large blackbirds, like crows and ravens, are viewed as evil in British folklore and white birds are viewed as good," he says. "Magpies have a dubious reputation because they are a bit of both. Over the years they have been lumped in with blackbirds."
The negative connotations attached to magpies can be traced as far back as Shakespeare's time, when their "chattering" was complained about.
In the late 19th Century, superstitions circulated locally, says Mr Roud. So, in Durham in the 1880s, it was believed they were the only bird not to go on the ark with Noah, preferring to sit outside "jabbering over the drowning world".
Nov 18, 2010
Downpatrick Cathedral
Downpatrick Cathedral in County Down, Northern Ireland, sits elevated above the city streets and is a beautiful place. During the 7-8th century a Christian monastery occupied the hill where the cathedral now sits. This monastery, like so many others, was victim to frequent Viking attacks and in the 11th century a round tower was built beside a stone church, apparently better to withstand attack. The round tower was taken down in 1790, sadly. (Personally it's interesting to me to note that my ancestors would have seen it because they left the area around 1770. It would have been in ruins then.) The remains of the round tower was then used to restore the stone church.
It is generally accepted that the main walls of the Cathedral date from the years after 1220. Then the monks, in a petition to Henry III, King of England, referred to the fact that the House of Saint Patrick, which had often been destroyed and burned, was being rebuilt again. Further destruction took place during the wars with Edward Bruce in 1316 and finally, on the suppression of the monasteries in 1541, the Cathedral was laid waste. Notwithstanding its ruinous state which lasted until 1790, King James I granted a Charter to the Cathedral in 1609, providing for a Dean and Chapter. The Charter also decreed that the Cathedral should be dedicated to the Holy Trinity, as the former Celtic church had been before the arrival of de Courcy. Rather than lose the connection with Patrick, the name began to be used for the growing town, which assumed the name Downpatrick.
Although successive deans continued to be installed within the ruined walls, there were no funds to rebuild the Cathedral until 1790 when Wills Hill, the Earl of Hillsborough (and afterwards first Marquess of Downshire), along with the then Dean, the Honourable and Reverend William Annesley, provided the impetus to commence the restoration.
Nov 17, 2010
Glenstal Abbey
Nov 12, 2010
Clough Castle
Nov 10, 2010
Saul
Nov 5, 2010
Why I Went North
Tom and I spent most of our trip to Ireland in the north. That sounded odd both to people here and to the people in Northern Ireland. But I don't regret the decision. Many of the sites I've written about are in Northern Ireland, as were some of the friends I had met over here. We didn't often run into other Americans while we were there. Wherever we went, after we spoke to someone, they looked surprised and said, "You're Americans!" They would always ask us where we were from. When we said Ohio, they said, "Oh" and nodded their heads. We told them it was okay if they didn't know where Ohio was. Many of them had been to New York,Boston, California, or Florida. "We're in the middle," we told them.
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Nov 4, 2010
Baa, Baa, Orange Sheep?
Nov 1, 2010
All Hallow Mass
For several days now I planned to blog on Samhain and the evolution of Halloween. But Halloween came and went and I never got to it. But truly, there are many good posts you could have read about the Celtic festival of Samhain, like this one or this one. (The last one is thanks to Lillian who posted the link on the Celtic Christian Spirituality forum, and there is more of the discussion there you might want to check out.)