Liberal Arts Blog — Ireland (Part One): The Southwest (Cork, Kerry, Clare )
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Miscellaneous Day
Today’s Topic: Ireland (Part One): the southwest (Cork, Kerry, Clare )
Are you of Irish ancestry? From what county? If a friend told you they were planning a trip to Ireland, which sites would be at the top of your list of recommendations?
Today, the first in a series on the Emerald Isle — starting with the southwest corner.
Did you know that there were once four kingdoms of Ireland (now called “provinces”? but the Irish call each province or kingdom a “fifth part” because there was once five (including north and south Leinster)? This was called the Irish “pentarchy.”
Ulster has 9 counties, Connaught 5, Leinster 12, and Munster 6.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
COUNTY CORK — the largest and southernmost county in Ireland — population 584,156 (3rd highest), home of the Blarney Stone, Michael Collins, the Drombeg Stone Circle, a long rugged coastline
1. The city of Cork is the second largest City in Ireland and the city’s center lies on an island between two channels of the River Lee. “Cork was founded in the 6th century as a monastic settlement and was expanded by Viking invaders around 915. Its charter was granted by Prince John in 1185… The city’s cognomen of “the rebel city” originates in its support for the Yorkist cause in the War of the Roses. Corkonians sometimes refer to the city as “the real capital”, a reference to its opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the Irish Civil War (1922–1923).”
2. Michael Collins (1890–1922), the Irish independence leader, was born and was killed in an ambush in Cork.
3. Blarney Castle dates back to 1446 and the Blarney Stone, one the machicolations on the battlements is kissed by tourists in the hopes of getting the “gift of the gab.” (eg. “great eloquence or skill at flattery.”
NB. “Bantry Bay” prominently featured in the chorus of the wonderful song “Star of the County Down” is in Cork.
“From Bantry Bay to the Derry Quay and from Galway to Dublin town, no maid I’ve seen like the brown colleen that I met in the County Down (one of the nine counties of Ulster).” Over 100 of the 187 prehistoric stone circles in Ireland are in County Cork. The most famous of these is the Drombeg Stone Circle, which is however, much smaller and less impressive than Stonehenge.
“Between 1848 and 1950 about half of all Irish emigrants left via the port of Cobh in County Cork.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Cork
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Collins_(Irish_leader)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarney_Castle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarney_Stone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machicolation
COUNTY KERRY — the westernmost county in Ireland, population 156,448. home of Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), the champion of Catholic Emancipation (1829), and an abolitionist; hard hit by the Irish famine; separated from County Clare by the Shannon Estuary
1. The westernmost point in Ireland is the Dunmore head of the Dingle peninsula.
2. Killarney is a popular tourist destination with Killarney National Park (featuring Ireland’s tallest mountain…lakes, forest, and Torc Waterfall.” Ross Castle (15th century, and Muckross House and Gardens (19th century).
3. Tralee, with a population of 26,000 is the largest town in County Kerry and Killarney is the second largest with 14.412.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Kerry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasket_Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunmore_Head
COUNTY CLARE — population 127. 938; largest city Ennis (27,923), next Shannon (10,256), Shannon Airport is the third busiest in Ireland (after Dublin and Cork).
1. Oldest human remains in Ireland. The Poulnabrone Dolmen (a single chamber megalithic tomb) dates back to 4200–2900 BC. It is the “best known of the roughly 172 dolmens in Ireland.”
2. The Cliffs of Moher — run for about 9 miles, highest point rises about 390 feet at Hag’s head; one of the most visited sites in Ireland, 1.5 million per year.
3. Bunratty 15th century Castle (“bun” refers to the “mouth” of the Ratty river): a popular tourist destination/trap featuring nightly medieval banquets, song and dance. 3 million have visited.
NB. Ennis Friary — a Franciscan monastery founded in the 13th century and funded by the O’Brien dynasty. Henry VIII ordered the suppression of all monasteries in 1537. With the passage of the Penal Laws in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Franciscans went into exile. ‘The old Ennis Friary was formally returned by the Church of Ireland to the Franciscans in 1969. However, it is property of and cared for by the state.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Clare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffs_of_Moher
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunratty_Castle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunratty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennis_Friary
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life?
Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert? Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
