Our time in Ireland is growing small, but we are still eager to move around the island. This past week we went to Dublin for a field trip. On the way there we stopped at Clonmacnoise Monastery and the Farmleigh House. I found the Clonmacnoise Monastery an extremely interesting stop. This site goes back to 544 where it was founded by St. Ciaran. These ruins signify a Christian religion site where learning and craftsmanship was also held. However, the site also became under brutal attacks many different times. There are three high crosses, one of which depicts the story of Christ. This site also holds an older cemetery dating back to the 9th through the 11th century, and there is also a modern cemetery next to it that is still used today. I found this site to be really intriguing and the day was beautiful with blue skies and thankfully, no rain at the time.
Next we went to the Farmleigh house which was previously owned by a member of the Guinness family. During this time, Guinness basically ran Ireland. Guinness treated their employees very well and employed close to half of Ireland. This house was very beautiful and held a lot of history. One of the most interesting parts of this trip was meeting an older woman on the tour who had previously been employed by Guinness and had been to the house when the Guinness family had lived there. She had past stories to tell us of playing with the children in certain rooms and how kind the family was to her. It is these type of stories that make history come alive!
While in Dublin we also visited the House of Oriechtas, which is the house of Parliament, the Kilmainham Gaol, which is a jail, lastly the Botanic gardens. The Kilmainham jail was the most historic and interesting places of these three. This is where our history class actually came in handy! The jail is famous for the housing and execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising who were fighting for Ireland’s separation from Britain. The jail was eerie and cold and hearing the stories and seeing the artifacts left from the Rising was very cool. Ireland has done an amazing job of keeping their historic sites preserved. History is literally around every corner in Ireland which is an experience I would never have had back in the States. It is truly a privilege to walk back through time in this beautiful land!
Next we went to the Farmleigh house which was previously owned by a member of the Guinness family. During this time, Guinness basically ran Ireland. Guinness treated their employees very well and employed close to half of Ireland. This house was very beautiful and held a lot of history. One of the most interesting parts of this trip was meeting an older woman on the tour who had previously been employed by Guinness and had been to the house when the Guinness family had lived there. She had past stories to tell us of playing with the children in certain rooms and how kind the family was to her. It is these type of stories that make history come alive!
While in Dublin we also visited the House of Oriechtas, which is the house of Parliament, the Kilmainham Gaol, which is a jail, lastly the Botanic gardens. The Kilmainham jail was the most historic and interesting places of these three. This is where our history class actually came in handy! The jail is famous for the housing and execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising who were fighting for Ireland’s separation from Britain. The jail was eerie and cold and hearing the stories and seeing the artifacts left from the Rising was very cool. Ireland has done an amazing job of keeping their historic sites preserved. History is literally around every corner in Ireland which is an experience I would never have had back in the States. It is truly a privilege to walk back through time in this beautiful land!