Ireland

 

If you are a first time, or infrequent viewer, I want to explain that these trips are partly my overworked imagination and partly images I find in travel brochures. Nothing is real, except the locations.

I'm once again joining my dear friend Chris, our host this month at Art Journal Journey, with her Where in the World theme.  Although I said this on Saturday, I have been able to create this journal page, so this will definitely be my penultimate entry using Chris's theme.

We are headed to Ireland today.  We will visit the Republic of Ireland, which is a part of the European Union.  We will also visit Northern Ireland, which is part of the British Monarch.

Lets look at each of these places up close.

We stopped in Sligo so Bleubeard could see Yeats' grave.  We drove a bit further so I could visit Kylemore Abby in Galway.  In the 1860s, Margaret and Mitchell Henry from Manchester purchased the grounds around the Abby and built a Castle on the grounds.  The Abby remained in Henry's estate after his death.  The Abby was later taken over by Benedictine nuns who fled Belgium in World War I.

 

Next we traveled inland to the medieval Ashford Castle, built by Romans over 800 years ago and owned over a century by the Guinness family.  This is a remarkable castle that has won many awards over the years.  It is located in County Mayo.

We visited the famous Cliffs of Moher towering 100s of feet above the Atlantic.  The cliffs are five miles long and are home to over 30,000 birds.  The Cliffs of Moher run along the west side of Ireland.  They may not be as famous as the Scottish Cliffs of Dover, they are none-the-less impressive.

While in Shannon, we lunched at Dromoland Castle.  Heading inland from the Cliffs, we found the River Shannon in County Clare.  From there, we found the Dromland Castle.  Its restaurant, the "Earl of Thomond" was awarded a Michelin star in 1995.

 

While in Kilkenny, we visited the Jameson Distillery, where we took a tour called The Jameson Experience.  We learned all about Irish whiskey and how it is strictly regulated.  It must spend a minimum of three years maturing in Ireland and must be distilled three times.  Bleubeard was impressed and lapped up the whiskey.  Me, not so much.  I gave him mine.  He was one happy and rather drunk cat for several hours.  Kilkenny is located in the south east corner of the Republic of Ireland.  I added two postage stamps of Ireland because I have them and want to use some of my collection of postage stamps.

In the center of Dublin (on the east side of the island) is The Shelbourne with its world famous 200 year old autograph collection.  There are books and books filled with autographs and listed by date.

In Belfast (which is in Northern Ireland and part of the British monarch), we visited the shipyard where the Titanic was built.  We visited the nine interpretative and interactive Titanic Museum galleries, with information on that ill fated ship and voyage.  To end our Titanic day we ate dinner at The Merchant with its (nine course) Titanic themed menu.

The nine interactive galleries are:

1.  Belfast from 1909-11 at the time of the Titanic's construction.

2.  Interactive scenes of Titanic's shipbuilding and scaffolding.

3.  Scenes from the day and time Titanic was launched on May 31, 1911.

4.  A large scale model of how the ship appeared to the passengers, including all three classes of cabins, as well as a tour through all levels of the vessel from the engine room to the dining rooms to the bridge.

5.  The ship's disastrous maiden voyage which depicts the ship's boat deck. Visitors can walk on the wooden deck, sit on benches, and see the dock in the distance.

6.  Sinking of the Titanic with the background sound of Morse code SOS messages being sent to other ships. Images of the sinking are combined with audio of survivors telling their stories and illustrations of the confused press reporting the disaster.

7.  The aftermath of the sinking is dominated by a full-size replica of one of the lifeboats used to evacuate passengers from the ship. 

8.  The disaster gave rise to numerous legends and myths, exacerbated by films, plays, books, and poems. 

9.  The wreck and rediscovery of Titanic as it is now, 12,000 feet (3,700 m) below the surface of the North Atlantic. 

 

I rotated this so you could see this is one island, one name, two very different governments.  The Republic of Ireland has a president, while Northern Ireland has a parliament and monarch.  The Republic of Ireland is part of the European Union, and uses Euros as its currency.  Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and uses pounds as their currency.

 

I hope you enjoyed your stay in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Bleubeard and I are delighted you stopped by today.  We always appreciate your visit.  We also hope to see you at Art Journal Journey with your own take on Where in the World.