Ireland ~ Cyndi The Weaver, The Gaelic Athletic Association & Dun Na nGall (Day 10) 31Jul23

We left Donegal center early and bussed out to Dunkineely and St Johns Pt on a peninsula to meet Cyndi Graham, a local weaver, entrepreneur and artisan. Cyndi is a force of nature who was born @ St Johns Pt and moved away and then back. She has the only remaining thatched building on the peninsula; it was cute but requires maintenance every 5 years by integrating new thatch. She rebuilt her dad's loom from weaving work long ago, into full working order, and created a weaving studio and point of sale on the side of the road across from her family's DIY home. She weaves with all local wool died and spun nearby and her sister Sharon is the seamstress who fabricates the goods for sale at the shop. She was completely amazing describing her process and history of finding this "work." Her stuff was gorgeous and soft for Irish wool. OAT did a great job setting this up and Cyndi made decent sales from our stop.

Along to our next stop we visited the memorial of young Irish orphan girls who were shipped to Australia during the famine to "find a better life" but also to be married off there. They are the famine orphan girls and remembered by a famine pot. Heart wrenching from a time a dire need and different proclivities.

During a lashing rain we went to a GAA club for Ballyshannon. There we met presenters and players from the club in both hurling and football. They described the fine organization of GAA which holds over 1000 clubs now in Ireland and more internationally. It is locally run in each case and fully dependent on volunteers ~ think Little League but perhaps even better with the tight association of birth county to playership. I've mentioned the recent All-Ireland finals in these sports already but we heard the core of the org and admin is fundamental to kids and players all over Ireland. Very cool. Every county selects an all-county all star team to compete inter-county (32) and then province-wide (4), then nation-wide. The clubs are shown and the counties are shown below; we learned and attempted the main game skills. Both games are played on the same gigantic field with teams of 15 players and they are scored the same and have similar rules as to carrying, dribbling, passing, hitting and shooting. Amazing. We learned also of "the workhouses" of toil which, during the famine, ripped families apart, but which might've saved some from starving.

When back in Donegal we were on our own and ate at Chandpur, a super tasty Pakistani place, with our new friends Jim & Gwen ~ super good and contrasting with the Irish food of fewer spices. I was feeling a smidge punk but K3 went out for Irish music and caught a keen set of dancers.

Ireland ~ Travel To Donegal, Caves, Pottery & Football Championship (Day 9) 30Jul23

It was kind of a long bus ride to Donegal but broken up with a stop for a snack and potty break ~ I bought a well-named IPA for the ride. We also stopped and visited "the famous" Irish pottery town/vendor of Belleek. We didn't get anything as transport would be hard but there were nice coffee mugs affordable (no pic) and other stuff.

Our next stop was to the 2nd largest cave system in Ireland, the Marble Arch Caves. There's no marble as original discoverers had thought. The system was accessible and our guide was fine but the caves were not impressive beyond the notion that the river flowing through was sometimes navigable (not @ this time) and boats and patrons could visit via watercraft.

After arriving in downtown Dun Na nGall @ our hotel we had dinner and headed to McCafferty's across the street to have some pops and take in the GAA All-Ireland Football final on the many large screens. Great game won by Dublin ~ the team of our guide John, who was wearing the blue & navy jersey in support.

 

Ireland ~ Derry ~ Bloody Sunday & Fort (Day 8) 29Jul23

Derry/Londonderry is an intense place in Ireland. Yeah it's an old walled city with just four original gates to enter the center and to protect the British from the much more numerous "bog-sider" Irish. It is also the site of "Bloody Sunday." An only recently recognized British slaughter of a dozen innocent civil rights protesters. We toured the many street installations commemorating the date as well as a museum in part organized by Jesse Jackson. The Irish civil rights protesters picked up the mantle from American blacks protesting lack of equality and civil liberty, which was felt by the Irish as well. The retelling of the 30Jan72 massacre was chilling and felt all over Derry - but the seeds were sown long ago as evidenced in this 1500's era walled city dividing the powerful & wealthy British occupants from the resident Irish. There were seemingly many unacknowledged villains and many more heros who kept up investigations long past their tiring ~ to finally have later UK reports recognize the deeds largely for what they were - unwarranted, murderous, violence - yet no one was prosecuted or jailed. I observed the "starry Plough" of the Irish Citizen's Army on several spots outside the walls, and that's an embossed wall of a soundtrack of that day.

We moved back into the walled center and walked atop the wall with Ronin. Derry's another keen city with nice views and a long, if checkered, history. Bishop's Gate is an old one but Castle Gate is "new" from the 1700s.

Kirsty's gold bus took us out of the city then and up a high hill on a nothing road leading to a "fort" overlooking town. A largely not well understood structure and surrounding concentric rings dating from pre-history was likely fortification for observation, living, and defense. Ireland had some very ancient, well-organized humans.

Once back in town and the safety out of the weather K3 & I hit the City Hall to see the assembly hall and organ as well as John Hume's Nobel Peace prize. Hume was a very influential Social Dem from Derry’s bog side who helped drive agreement with the British to quell unrest - he’s the only person ever to win all 3 major peace prizes.