Ireland – Higman Travels

Belfast and the Titanic

Here we go. This will be the highlight of this part of the trip. That later.

We first visited the Irish Republican History Museum. As you can imagine, it was definitely very interesting and very sad. They say the situation really is not religiously motivated. I agree. It’s discrimination and lack of economic opportunities for one group vs. another. That’s what they did in Northern Ireland – protestants were given the better jobs, better housing, better everything. The Irish basically wanted to self govern. as our bus driver said, it was also sad for all the English people who lost their lives. All we can blame is the government for enacting these policies that split people and families. We see this now too and the people of Northern Ireland identify with the Palestinians, the Apartheid movement, etc. You can see this on the murals all over Belfast.

Entrance to the Irish Republican History Museum

Some of the exhibits

Entry to the Women’s prison

Women’s Prison Room

Some of the IRA’s guns

Murals

Muras

Murals

We’ve been having trouble crossing the streets together

Well, the best part of our travels was here, not because of the Titanic but because of a Black Taxi tour that we added on. The Black Taxi tours are conducted by cabbies in Belfast who had been involved in the “troubles.” Our cabbie Jerry was definitely very informative. We wonder how he was involved. 😉

We stopped by the Peace Wall, which was first signed by Bill Clinton, then a couple of days later by the Dalai Lama. Since then, everyone that visits the wall can sign it. And we did! OMG, they LOVE Bill Clinton there. His name came up about 100 times.

Peace wall – the longest one – 4 km long

We all signed it.

The Higmans are on the wall

The Wall is due to come down by 2024.

The most photographed mural is that of Bobby Sands. He was a provisional Irish Republican Army member who died in a hunger strike while held in jail. He lasted 66 days and there have been films made about him. Michael Fassbender, an Irishman, played Sands and even lost something like 16 kg to play him. Sands was also voted into Parliament when he was in jail. He, obviously, never stepped into parliament chambers. He wrote many songs, books, and poems while in Jail.

We then visited the Clonard Monastery, or Church of the Most Holy Redeemer. You can read more about the church here: https://www.clonard.com/our-church/

Everyone is anxiously awaiting the Pope’s visit this Saturday and Sunday.

Front

Back with organ

Next stop, the HMS Caroline, the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, the only major naval action of WWI. Honestly, I think it was one of those places that probably doesn’t get a lot of visitors on its own so it’s added to some tours like that of the Titanic. It was interesting but I would have rather had more time at the Titanic.

On the deck of the HMS Caroline

Going down!

Toilet of the Captain’s quarters

Last but not least, we visited the Titanic Exhibition. It was really more of an interpretive center – there were exhibits, 3-D experiences, films, and even a ride. I thought it was done really well. Just wished we could have had more time.

Amazing architecture

Recreation of the sinking

Coming back into town, we went by the Google building, the performing arts center.

Google building on the left Not quite done yet.

I think this is the performing arts center. I’ll find out when I walk by it later.

We ended the night by watching Titanic. We watched Braveheart the other night after we visited some of the castles. We will be off on another tour tomorrow to more castles and where they filmed some more of Braveheart and Game of Thrones. See you then!!!

Castles, Castles, Castles.

After a day of relaxing, we were up bright and early to visit castles! Ireland is known for castles so we are visiting three today.

Our driver/guide gave us a little history while driving to our first destination.

Dublin was first visited by the Vikings in year 241. They stayed for about 200 years. Then the Normans came and expanded the city and built Dublin castle. The Vikings then came back towards the end of 8th century and came back and forth for about the next 40 years. They finally decided to stay and many assimilated into the Irish society. They established many of the ports, including Dublin, and introduced the use of coins into Ireland. The power of the Norse were over by 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf.

The population of the Republic of Ireland is 4.3 million with just over 1 million in Dublin, the largest city. Northern Ireland has 1.7 million population, Belfast is about half the size with half the population. NOTE : we will be visiting Northern Ireland tomorrow. There are 32 counties in Ireland, with 6 in Northern Ireland.

There were 4 provinces in ancient times. Cashel Rock is the first place we visited and is in the province of Munster. This is the site where St. Patrick converted Aenghus, King of Munster, to Catholicism.

Most of what the Normans built was destroyed in the mid-16th century and was rebuilt in the Roman style. The Rock of Cashel was the seat of power for the province of Munster. It was raining out so we didn’t stay for too long and didn’t get too many great pictures.

Next, on to Blarney Castle. There’s a lot of history here so I will just let you look through it here: https://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/castle-history

But, we were there to kiss the Blarney stone! So we trekked up to the top of the tower to kiss the stone. There are several different stories about the stone, the most popular being that if you kiss the stone, you will never be at a loss for words. But, here are the 4 stories.

Here’s all of us getting a turn at kissing the stone. OK, I thought it was just a piece of rock that I lean over to kiss. But, noooooo, you have to lie on your back and hang your head back to kiss it. Seriously, could they have made it any harder???

Lily

Jevyn

Justyne

Jayden

And, even Justin, though he was all red when he came up.

Here are some sights in and around the castle.

The Blarney Castle

Another view

Some low dungeons

Carriages

One of many amazing trees

A totem in a cave

Pretty water fall

Inside the castle

Look how big that door is…NOT

Spaces to shoot arrows from.

Very narrow staircases

Getting ready to kiss the stone

It’s beautiful from up there!

Looking down at the walls

We’re almost to the stone

Bell on top of the castle

Look through the peeping hole

Looks like the Higmans’ headstone

The weather even cleared up by the afternoon so we had a great day. On to Cahir Castle.

The Cahir Castle was the home of the Butler family from the early 12th century. Theobald Fitzwalter was a Norman who came to Ireland with young Prince John. He was given a piece of land and the important job of Chief Butler or Ireland. That meant, if the King were to visit Ireland, the Chief Butler would have to make sure there was enough food and drinks for the King and everyone traveling with him. So, his name was changed to Butler. It is one of the best preserved castles in Ireland and is the location for many films and TV series. It was built on an island on the River Suir. It has one of three working old style fort doors (see below).

Cahir Castle

Built on a rock

Those old style gate; comes down in 3 seconds

This is where they control the gate

cannon – not originally from the castle

going down the original well

view from the other side of the well

up and down lots of stairs

Antlers from deer from before the Ice Age

A cannon ball stuck in the wall

Site of the original door

We are off to Belfast tomorrow to check out the Titanic exhibition.

Goodbye U.K., Hello Ireland!

We left our cute little Three Crowns Hotel with a great breakfast. Caution: this hotel is not for tall people. Justin bumped his head on lamps, ceilings, everything! But so so cute.

We drove all day from Salisbury to Liverpool. It really shouldn’t have been that long of a trip but the traffic was terrible. Stop and go most of the way. We finally arrived in Liverpool and kicked ourselves for not staying here longer. But, we had an amazing Indian meal. The place was called Mawgli and it served Indian street food.

The next morning bright and early (9:30) we left for Dublin. We took 2 taxi’s because of all our luggage wouldn’t fit in one, then managed our way through a local train line to Chester, a Virgin train to Holyhead (the port), a shuttle to the ferry, then a ferry across to the Republic of Ireland!! Not as simple as just jumping on a ferry but not difficult at all, unless you are us and have a ton of luggage and the trains have no room for luggage.

The ferry was really nice and we upgraded to the club level that had free snacks and drinks. The seats were comfy and the WiFi was good (the most important thing for the kids)!

Very foggy when we started. It was actually very cold in Liverpool

Kind of weird to be on a boat again!

We arrived in Dublin and couldn’t get a cab even though I called for one. We need a system like in New York City. A gentleman who had a big van who transported a big group from our ferry came back to get us so we were able to get into the city. He was very nice and we got his number so we can call him for our return trip.

Our first night in Dublin and what do we do?? Go out for sushi!!