Ireland Highlights

May 13, 2007 - I arrived in Ireland, bright and early on that Sunday morning (after travelling all day Sat and having slept all of 2.5 hours on the plane), I got my rental car and headed out, scared to death driving on the wrong side of the road and SOOOOOOOOOOO thankful it was 7.30 am on Sunday morning so there was hardly any traffic. I headed south toward the Dingle Peninsula, looking for a Catholic church for Mass along the way. I passed several churches, but all were locked and no posted Mass times.

Finally in a small town called Askeaton, I found the church and decided i'd ask around till i figured out when Mass was so I wouldn't miss it altogether. I arrived in town around 9.30 am, and found out that Mass wasn't until 11.30, so I decided to explore the area while I waited. It was a chilly and blustery morning, but not raining, so i wandered around the small town, checked out the castle ruins, and then drove a mile or so out of town to see the monastery ruins.

It was amazing to me how many ruins you see while driving through the country- everywhere you look a crumbling tower, a quaint abandoned cottage, monastery ruins, etc. Another interesting thing I found was that in all the old church and monastery ruins, there are graves- both very old graves and very recent graves... they are scattered throughout the courtyards, inside the church ruins, everywhere you look.

So on that drizzly morning, my first day in Ireland, I found that Askeaton had monastery ruins to explore and there I met my first friend...

Meet my first Irish local friend... we'll call him Seamus. A friendly old horse, who grazes outside the Franciscan monastery ruins in Askeaton. He appeared to be guarding the place and made for great company on that Sunday morning. It only occured to me after about 5 minutes of conversation with said horse that there I was, alone in a strange country, talking to a horse... hmmm... "I probably look like a crazy person" I said to Seamus, and then quickly looked around to make sure i was really alone, and then continued talking to the friendly horse.