Brian Boru and Old Magic

Cashel town

On Saturday morning we were up early (for us) to drive down to Cashel in Tipperary in order to meet with some friends. They were also driving down from somewhere in Cork.

Has that confused you ?

Here in Ireland no matter where you live or in what direction you are going the phrase used is ‘going down to’, people who live on the south coast will 'travel down to’ places in the north.

For a few days I had been keeping an eye on the weather forecasts to see what we could expect.

On Saturday morning there was an orange alert for a high, west wind and heavy rain with a variable temperature of 4 to 7 deg C. 

"Damn to hell" I thought that can’t be right, "ah’ we will give it a go anyway."

So we did.  As we left home the temperature was 5.5 deg C but after a few miles it rose to 7.4 degrees. I sat in the front passenger seat and in my mind kept focussing on seeing blue skies over Cashel.

When stopped for a while in Urlingford to have a sandwich we had sleet falling on the windscreen. That did not deter me though as I kept on focussing on fine weather. We arrived at our destination, the temperature had risen and it was dry but with a chill wind. We finally met our friends and repaired to a pub.We sat in a window seat chatting away and drinking coffee. Nothing stronger as alcohol during the day makes me sleepy and I recall, when I was a 'dry’ driver, how annoying the fumes of strong drink could be.

Towards the end of our meeting a burst of sunlight shone through the window and as I looked up the sky was blue. “Ah-hah the old magic still works” I thought to myself.

The Rock of Cashel

Outside the pub we said our goodbyes and returned to the car park in a strong biting wind, we were very glad of the shelter that the car provided. 

On leaving the town I asked her Ladyship to pull over so that I could take a photo of The Rock of Cashel from whence the town of Cashel gets its name.

In the 5th century, the Eóganachta dynasty founded their capital on and around the rock and many kings of Munster have reigned here. In 977 the Dál gCais usurper, Brian Boru, was crowned here as the first non-Eóghanacht king of Cashel and Munster in over five hundred years. His great-grandson, King Muirchertach Ua Briain, gave the place to the bishop of Limerick in 110, denying it forever to the MacCarthys, the senior branch of the Eóganachta. 

The bishops once had a famous school in Cashel and from there sent priests all over the continent.They even maintained their own monastery, called Scots Monastery, in Regensburg, Germany.

These days Rock is under the care of Heritage Ireland whose scaffolding can be seen over Cormac’s Chapel.

The project underway currently involves conserving the chapel, built from sandstone, which has deteriorated to such an extent that it is letting in water. 

A notice on their web site explains that access to the Chapel is limited from May till September each year for bus tours until the work is completed. Visitors are admitted in small groups for 10 minutes maximum.

We had a great day out and by the time we had returned the temperature had risen to 10 deg, which proves that it is unwise to believe everything that the experts tell us.

Our next adventure will be ……. ah you will have to wait and see :)

KINNITTY, Co.Offaly

KINNITTY in Co.Offaly sits at the foot of the Slieve Bloom mountains and has had a variety of names throughout the years from Cinneity, Kernittys, Killenitty and the Irish Cinneitigh. 

Today in Irish the name is spelt Cionn Eitigh, meaning either the head or hermitage of Etech or Eitigh (St. Ita), who also gave her name to the neighbouring parish of Ettagh.  

One of the first notable things about Kinnitty is the very wide streets and it would be easy to believe that they were recently constructed until you see the age of the buildings which border them. The village consisted of five houses at the end of the eighteenth century and had grown to ninety-six dwellings by 1841.

The Green 

The Bernard family who were the estate owners built the RC Chapel circa 1841. They offered the then parish priest Fr. Delaney a house for himself and his successors and 10 acres of land if he would let them build a chapel at their own expense. Fr. Delaney refused but the Bernards went ahead anyway and the bishop compelled him to use the chapel. 

This picturesque chapel now hosts a great many weddings, with many of the wedding breakfasts being held in either Giltrapp's, The Slieve Bloom Bar or The Kinnitty Castle Hotel.

I wonder if the pump is dry too ?

A dry summer has almost dried up this river

A great pub for a good pint of Guinness !

giltrapspub.com

I have always admired the four foliate heads above doorway

You might think from looking at the window that this is just a gift shop,

well you would be wrong for it sells groceries, bread, butter and ice-cream.

The Kinnitty Pyramid, the only one of its kind in Ireland, is situated in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland. It stands 30 feet in height and was built as a crypt by Lt. Col Richard Wesley Bernard for his family on his return from Egypt in the mid 1800's. 

It is an exact replica of the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt. 

The pyramid was completed in 1834 and it is now permanently sealed by 3 inch thick doors 

made from steel which lead down to the interior. The tomb holds 6 coffins belonging to the Bernards of Kinnity Castle with the last burial taking place in 1907.

Other places to rest your head

http://www.kinnittycastlehotel.com

http://www.kinnittybandb.com

http://www.ardmorecountryhouse.ie

We often stop at Kinnitty on our way home from Birr with our weekly shopping as it is such an attractive, tidy and friendly village. For me it represents many of the Irish towns and villages across the island and is a place we never get tired of visiting.

Bitter and Red Tea

A dimpled pint of bitter

Rooibosh

Friday morning saw me sitting in a comfortable chair in the library, the sunshine was streaming down and warming me, over my forehead came a slight, cool waft of air and in the quietness of that cosy corner memories started to flood into my mind, as I drifted back in time, revisiting places and tastes.

The flavour of a pint bitter filled my senses and in half closing my eyes I was sitting in the bar of a small pub in Builth Wells, Wales where the dark wood wall panels and cushioned benches provided me with an inner warmth. I muse on how the dimpled glass is held not by it's handle but with one's hand placed around the glass with the underside of the top the part of the handle resting on the the right index finger, as I sup to swallow a goodly draught of the nectar.

April does this to me, it draws in the memories more than any other month. I was reflecting on this earlier, when I recalled visiting another pub on the outskirts of Combe Down, Bath. I think it was called The Pack Horse, an old establishment that sold a delicious cider that oft tempted me as a refreshing lunchtime drink. It was there on the radio that I heard the news of John Lennon's untimely demise and where I immediately wrote the following piece

John born Liverpool 1940

ex Beatle and M.B.E.

Departed New York 1980

Cupro-nickle six

Impales vital flesh

Discord rhythm slips

Lennon into death

Amplified sound loses

Earth’s mystic beat

Playing Yoko’s love

with substituted pain.

Songs of love and peace

Will flower forever on

Echoing thro’ the world

In green growing harmony.

©MRL 1980

I don't want you to think that I spent all of my time in pubs. I did tho' frequent many an establishment in my younger days and they provided me with insights of human characteristics and some of them quite pitiable as:

Bristol 6

My favourite Pub

My favourite pub stands

gaunt to the street.

Yet alive with vitality

It’s balance of humour

A serious intent.

Not in this pub stand

the pretentious and proudly sober

they drink not at this bar.

They exist stoned, cold

Beyond their fronts

With hand held can

and

Hypocrisy for company

In this bar

Faded winter flowers

Open deep their centres

Bright blemishes lie honest

naked, bare to the sky

Avoiding not the quick glances

Nor to ask for dispensation

For here drink labourers, pimps

lags and tired working girls.

©MRL 1982

I was aroused from my reveries in the library by the arrival of Mrs H, who dragged me off to the health shop to purchase our weekly supply of Red Tea (Rooibosh).Which is now our favourite tipple, with it's versatile and restorative powers; and the person to who we have to thank for bringing it to our attention is the author Alexander McCall Smith and his series of books on Botswana - 'The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency', where the main character Precious Ramotswe indulges herself by making pots & pots of red tea. For it was in this library that we borrowed his books.

ref www.alexandermccallsmith.co.uk