Blarney Castle

I have to confess that I was not feeling very well this morning.  Whether it was something I had eaten on the hotel buffet last night or something else, I do not know - I will spare readers the details.  But by morning I was feeling better as we left Killarney and drove to Blarney Castle in Cork, through undulating hills and more beautiful countryside.  We passed more abandoned stone buildings, which in our part of the the South would succumb to kudzu and disappear completely in a few years, but in Ireland stand in stone and slate forever.

Blarney Castle and its beautifully landscaped grounds were a welcome stop.  I spent some time walking through its gardens, many of which featured subtropical plants (see previous post about the effects of the Gulf Stream).

I was still not feeling up to par, so I was glad to find a place to sit and have a cup of tea in a sunny courtyard with umbrella-covered outdoor tables, while Martha explored the castle itself.  I heard later that most of our group did not attempt to negotiate the narrow stairs with low ceilings, which would have proven difficult for a man of my height to negotiate.

The castle is remarkable photogenic, and I took dozens of photos from dozens of angles.  Built on earlier fortifications, as is often the case over here, the current "keep" or tower dates from 1446.  These early dates continue to amaze me! - that would be, after all,  half a century prior to Columbus "sailing the ocean blue."

The opportunity to kiss the famous Blarney Stone, a block of limestone built into the battlements of the castle, attracts visitors world-wide.  Wikipedia describes it this way:

 The ritual of kissing the Blarney Stone, according to the castle's proprietors, has been performed by "millions of people", including "world statesmen, literary giants, and legends of the silver screen.  The kiss, however, is not casually achieved.  To touch the stone with one's lips, the participant must ascend to the castle's peak, then lean over backwards on the parapet's edge.  This is traditionally achieved with the help of an assistant.  Although the parapet is now fitted with wrought-iron guide rails and protective crossbars, the ritual can still trigger attacks of acrophobia.

Brave Martha made her way up to the 127 narrow steps to the Blarney Stone and accomplished what was "not casually achieved," touching it, she said (cautious about the unsanitary idea of kissing a stone which had been kissed by the lips of  "millions of people) with her nose - an Eskimo Kiss!  And then she quickly applied hand sanitizer.

According to legend, she has now been endowed with the "gift of the gab."  As we climbed into the coach after the visit, I asked Steve how many times he had kissed the Stone.  His eloquence knows no bounds.

Our next stop was a sobering reminder of the Potato Famine of 1845, which Steve had already told us about.  Also known as the Great Hunger, it was caused by a fungus-like organism which spread rapidly throughout all of Ireland, ruining up to one-half of the potato crop that year, and about three-quarters of the crop over the next seven years. The potato was the main source of food for the ordinary tenant farmer.   The number of dead from starvation reached such calamitous numbers that local cemeteries filled up and mass Famine Graves were opened up, where large populations were buried; records are sparse, and it is not known how many thousands were buried in a hundred different graveyards throughout Ireland.    

We filed reverently from the coach to the gated entrance of the Famine Graveyard in Dungarven, on a hill in an open field; we could hear the busy traffic below us on the N25.

This poignant statue said it all, standing on the edge of the field, reflecting the desperation of starvation.

It was only a short distance from Dungarven to Waterford, home of Waterford Crystal, known throughout the world and dating back to 1783.

Although much Waterford Crystal is made outside of Ireland today, the House of Waterford Crystal is worth seeing, and Martha decided to take a local tour.  Master craftsmen were at work and she told me later that she could feel the heat of the furnaces used in creating these world class crystal pieces.   She also saw a miniature of the huge Time Square Crystal Ball created by Waterford Crystal, as well as a replica of a 911 creation presented to America in remembrance.  Then she went on a walking tour of Waterford, founded over 1100 years ago by Viking Warlords.  She saw the longest wood sculpture in the world, "Dragon Slayer," with intricate carvings that tell the story of the Vikings.  Waterford is also home for Reginald's Tower, the oldest civic building, dating back to 947 AD.

I decided not to go on the tour, instead walking along the River Suir through Waterford's pleasant streets to our hotel, the Fitzwilton.