A few things to start off with:
1. Maigh Eo is the Irish spelling of Mayo which is a county north of Galway.
2. Shout-out to Michael for being an awesome co-editor for the yearbook and essentially doing my job for me (and because you asked me to give you a shout-out...)
3. So sorry for the incredibly long entry. A lot happened this weekend!!
We took our first 'Nova trip this weekend! On Friday around noon, all of us packed up a coach and headed out of Gort to see County Mayo and all it has to offer.
Although the bus ride showed us some spectacular scenery, it also brought the plant life inside the coach... Along the edge of my window there was some type of green, leafy plant growing. It smelled wicked nasty, so I leaned away from it and tried not to look at it for the rest of the trip.
(One of the many streams we passed on our bus trips to and from Co. Mayo)
Our first stop was in Castlebar, Co. Mayo at the National Museum of Ireland, Turlough House. A turlough, I have learned, is a type of body of water that dries up at certain points throughout the year. Thus, turloughs are typically referred to as dry lakes. At the museum, we ate lunch in the cafe, then toured the landlord's home as well as the museum of Irish history. The landlord's home was huge and so much different from any home we had passed by so far. The rooms that we got a chance to see were the library and the living room as well as the main entry way. Mary told us about the purpose of the library as a place where tenants came to pay their dues. The landlord also has a secret passageway into the living room from his library just in case. The museum itself was cool because it had a lot of artifacts from the history of Ireland... though nothing quite as spectacular as Hennigan's Heritage which I'll talk about shortly.
(The outside of the landlord's house at the National Museum of Ireland in Castlebar)
After the National Museum we headed over to Ballintubber Abbey. Fun fact: Pierce Brosnan was married there! Ballintubber is a beautiful abbey that has a lot of history to it. For all of the fun details, refer to the following website (it actually is fascinating... I just don't feel like writing all of the information out here).
http://www.ballintubberabbey.ie/ At the abbey, a woman named Mary (there are lots of Marys here in Ireland) gave us a short tour. She told us the history of the building itself as well as the history of the town. One thing that I thought was very interesting was that the stations of the cross were made specially for the abbey by Imogen Stuart. (See picture below)
We were also told the tale of the priest-hunter, Seán na Sagart, John Malowney. John was hired to hunt down priests and kill them during the Penal Times when there was a lot of political strife against priests, teachers, etc. Priests would disguise themselves to hide from the hunters, but John managed to kill one of the priests of Ballintubber. While attempting to kill the second priest, John was murdered by a beggar. He was buried on church grounds, dug up and throw in the lake, and then buried again with his body facing the North so that the sun would never rise on him. Today, the only marker of his grave is a tree that grew out of his grave and cracked the headstone.
(The original alter in Ballintubber)
(One of the Stations of the Cross at Ballintubber)
(A candle I lit for Gram and Pope at Ballintubber)
That night, we all traveled to Westport where we would be sleeping for the weekend in a hostel just outside of town. Our hostel opened up especially for us because it usually closes after August. It was an giant, old home with very large ceilings and was probably once very beautiful. There was some sort of French connection to it because a lot of French signs were hanging up in the house as well as at the end of the driveway, and the beds all had scribblings in French written under the top bunks.
We went out to dinner that night at a little place by the water. We had a wonderful meal! I had vegetable soup, salmon, and chocolate cake! Definitely the best meal I've had since I came to Ireland. The only issue was that everyone ate wayyyy too much... and then we had to go learn Irish Step Dancing. So, with our bloated stomachs and food-comas we learned to Irish Step Dance... or well, we at least tried. A few people had danced before, but the majority of us looked like buffoons out on the dance floor. The man who taught us to dance kept getting frustrated with us because he had to show us the steps over and over again before we had any concept of what to do. Overall, it was a pretty fun experience, but I can't say I am any better at Step Dancing.
The next morning, the ladies at the hostel made us a full Irish breakfast and then we headed on our way to bike around parts of Mayo. It was freezing outside, so everybody was layered up in sweatshirts and jackets. After an incredibly long delay, we finally headed out down the bike trail. We were riding along for about a half hour or so going up and down a lot of hills through the country when we realized that we only had 19 out of 23 Nova kids and Mary wasn't with us. We thought maybe they got slowed up so we stopped on one of the hills and took pictures with the beautiful scenery. After riding on for another half hour we decided we should probably call Mary and figure out where they were. It turns out, we went the wrong way about 10 minutes into the ride. We had to back track up and down the hills to meet back up with Mary and the rest of the group. Although we may have gotten lost in Mayo, it was well worth it because of the amazing countryside we got to see.
(Me and Ashleen)
(Me and Sam)
(Me and Allie)
(Mike on the hillside-sorry for creeping, Mike)
(SHEEP!)
That afternoon we went to Hennigan's Heritage. Dad, you would have loved it there! So many cool artifacts and the man whose home it was, Tom Hennigan, was incredibly knowledgeable and wonderful to talk to. Tom grew up in a one room home in the countryside of Co. Mayo with his five siblings, his parents, and his grandmother. They only had ten acres of land so when the government told him that if he farmed it he would have to produce as much as the surrounding farms (which had 100s of acres) he decided instead to build a small artifact museum and teach people about the way Ireland used to be. He showed us everything from the tools that were used, to the straw boy costumes that uninvited guests wore to weddings, to clothing items that his mother made for him as a child. He even took us into his old home and talked to us about his life.
(Tools used in the making of the Titanic)
(Straw Boy costumes)
After the tour we went out to dinner together in Westport at J.J. O'Malley's. Another delicious dinner followed by a night out at Cosy Joe's Pub. At Cosy Joe's there were quite a few Hen Parties (bachelorette parties) and Stag Parties (bachelor parties) going on. It was so funny to look at all of the funky outfits people had on. One groom had on bright pink shorts, a pink leopard shirt and leopard shoes. Absolutely awesome!
The next day, we had one last trip to make. We went to Connemara to visit Kylemore Abbey. This has to be the most beautiful place I have seen in Ireland. It may even top the Cliffs of Moher. Kylemore was built and used as a vacation home for the Henry family in the second half of the 19th century. The main building consists of 70 rooms... 33 of those being bedrooms. It is an incredible building with unbelievable detail. It is now partially a museum and partially used by the Benedictine Sisters. Also on the property is a gothic style church and a beautiful walled garden. In this garden, all of the food that was eaten at the Henry's home was grown (even tropical fruits). Today, they still use only vegetables and fruit from the garden for the food served at the tourist center.
(The lake at Kylemore)
(Kylemore Abbey)
(Panorama)
(Boat on the lake)
(The gardens)
(Me and Allie at the gardens)
So there ends the journey to Co. Maigh Eo with Villanova. It ended on a wonderful note....
And at the end of the rainbow I found 5 euro! (There you go Caroline... did that make it better?)
"May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you."
