Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-06-26 07:33:04 - Graham Ellis
Greetings from Ireland ... it feels almost like a regular trip, arriving at first light on the boat at Dublin Docks.
This weekend's been a little different; rather that head all the way back from Liverpool to home late into Friday evening, just to set off again during Sunday (and perhaps via Liverpool!) for Dublin, I've followed on one course from the other. Lisa flew over on the Ryanair flight from Bristol on Saturday morning, and left again this morning - I dropped her off at the airport soon after 5; quiet roads yet a jam at departures as all of the weekly commuters from Dublin leave to work elsewhere in Europe.
Saturday, we toured a little, and Sunday was given over mainly to a series of work meetings; I won't bore with the latter, but I will show you a couple of pictures of the former.
Mellifont Abbey was an early Cistercian monastery in Ireland, founded in the 11th Century and dissolved by King Henry VIII. In those days, the monasteries had become very much one of the major powers of the land like, perhaps, we're seeing in other parts of the word today. Looking at maps showing such establishments in the British Isles, I was struck by the far greater concentration of them in Ireland that in the other parts of the islands, and indeed it does feel that there's an ancient ruin at every turn at times.
Trim Castle, overlooking the river Boyne. Yet another ancient ruin, and I fear that (after the others I have not pictured) its spectacular setting was rather lost on us in the grey day and the weather which is described here as a "soft" day. I understand that means that it's not really raining, more a mist, but you still get drenched and freezing. As Lisa commented, it was very different and a long way from the sunny morning she had left at Bristol. And she declined an invite for me to drive her on to Tipperary, citing that it would be a long way.
on the boat at Dublin Docks.
Mellifont Abbey was an early Cistercian monastery in Ireland, founded in the 11th Century and dissolved by King Henry VIII. In those days, the monasteries had become very much one of the major powers of the land like, perhaps, we're seeing in other parts of the word today. Looking at maps showing such establishments in the British Isles, I was struck by the far greater concentration of them in Ireland that in the other parts of the islands, and indeed it does feel that there's an ancient ruin at every turn at times.
Trim Castle, overlooking the river Boyne. Yet another ancient ruin, and I fear that (after the others I have not pictured) its spectacular setting was rather lost on us in the grey day and the weather which is described here as a "soft" day. I understand that means that it's not really raining, more a mist, but you still get drenched and freezing. As Lisa commented, it was very different and a long way from the sunny morning she had left at Bristol. And she declined an invite for me to drive her on to Tipperary, citing that it would be a long way.