After a second night in Dundalk we went to Mellifont Abbey (http://www.mellifontabbey.ie/ this is the website of the monks themselves, they still are in the area, but in another building). It was the first Cistercian abbey to be built in Ireland in 1142 on the orders of Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, Mellifont Abbey sits on the banks of the River Mattock, some ten km (6 miles) north-west of Drogheda.
By 1170, Mellifont had one hundred monks and three hundred lay brothers. The Abbey became the model for other Cistercian abbeys built in Ireland, with its formal style of architecture imported from the abbeys of the same order in France; it was the main abbey in Ireland until it was closed in 1539, when it became a fortified house. In 1603 the Treaty of Mellifont was agreed between the English Crown and Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone in the abbey grounds.William of Orange used Mellifont Abbey House as his headquarters during the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
Mellifont Abbey is now a ruin. Little of the original Abbey remains, save a 13th-century lavabo (where the monks washed their hands before eating), some Romanesque arches and a 14th-century chapter house.
New Mellifont Abbey is home to the Cistercian Order in County Louth and is located in Collon, a small village and townland in the south west corner of County Louth, Ireland on the N2 national primary road.
Nice little place!
After that, we turned in Dublin direction, airport, to unwillingly get the car back at the rental place. Taxi to the apartment, our home for the last days in Ireland, near the Guinness storehouse. Got SO nasueated by the toasting smell!I didn't think I could be...Dinner at home with...Dr.Oekter pizza :P and after that we went to a hotel were they had songs and irish ballet going on.
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| Trinity college |
Day 13, August 20th
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| Journey trought ages. From the Dubh Linn gardens. A park not many people know about - hidden behind Dublin Castle, doubling as a helicopter landing site and rarely visited by tourists. But popular with the lunchtime crowd from the surrounding offices. The tower is the only visible (from outside) part of the medioeval castle. |
We booked online the night before, the free walking tour of Dublin with Sandemans. Eleanore guided us fisrtly in the city hall explaining the early history all the way to recent facts, then to the castle, Temple Bar where we had time to have a quick snack. After that O'Connell street, facts about Joyce, and the end at Stephen's Green, a public garden where there also a few references to the Famine. In fact, it was almost paradoxical thinking that a few of us visiting wouldn't be there if it weren't for the famine and all the tragedy of it.
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| St. Stephen's Green |
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| Molly Malone |
Home to rest a bit and then last night of craic out first at the Brazen Head (http://www.brazenhead.com/) oldest pub of Dublin and the to get a more "regular" session at the Cobblestone.
Sweet dreams
Visited St. Audeon and Christ Church whic is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the Ecclesiastical province of the United Provinces of Dublin and Cashel in the Church of Ireland. Founded probably sometime after 1028 when King Sitric Silkenbeard, the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin made a pilgrimage to Rome.
In the 1180s, Strongbow and other Norman magnates helped to fund a complete rebuilding of Christ Church, initially a wooden building, in stone, comprising the construction of a choir, choir aisles and transepts, the crypt and chapels to St. Edmund and St. Mary and St. Lô.
The cathedral was the location of the purported coronation, in 1487, of Lambert Simnel, a boy pretender who sought unsuccessfully to depose Henry VII of England, as "King Edward VI".
In 1493, the choir school was founded. In 1539, King Henry VIII converted the priory to a cathedral with a dean and chapter and worked to ensure Christ Church adhered to his new church structure. His immediate successor, Edward VI of England, in 1547, provided funds for an increase in cathedral staffing and annual royal funding for the choir school.
The cathedral was extensively renovated and rebuilt from 1871 to 1878 by George Edmund Street, with the sponsorship of distiller Henry Roe of Mount Anville.
Christ Church also contains the largest cathedral crypt (63.4m long) in Britain or Ireland, constructed in 1172-1173. Having been renovated in the early 2000s, it is now open for visitors.The crypt contains various monuments and historical features, including:
- the oldest known secular carvings in Ireland, two carved statues that until the late 18th century stood outside the Tholsel (Dublin's medieval city hall, which was demolished in 1806)
- a tabernacle and set of candlesticks which were used when the cathedral last operated (for a very short time) under the "Roman rite", when the Roman Catholic king, James II, having fled England in 1690, came to Ireland to fight for his throne and attended High Mass in the temporary restoration of Christ Church as a Roman Catholic cathedral.
- the stocks, formerly in Christ Church Place, made in 1670 and used for the punishment of offenders before the Court of the Dean's Liberty (the small area under the cathedral's exclusive civic authority), moved here in 1870
- historic books and altar goods of the Cathedral
- "The Cat & The Rat" are displayed with an explanatory note (and I will leave it as a surprise ;) )
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| Costumes from the TV series "The Tudors" |
We visited the castle (http://www.dublincastle.ie/) to stay dry and by the time we were done the sun would have shined again =)
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| St. Patrick's cathedral and storm coming |
Originally built as a defensive fortification for the Norman city of Dublin, it later evolved into a royal residence, resided in by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or Viceroy of Ireland, the representative of the monarch. The second in command in the Dublin Castle administration, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, also had his offices there. Over the years parliament and law courts met at the castle before moving to new purpose-built venues. It also served as a military garrison. Upon formation of the Free State in 1922, the castle assumed for a decade the role of the Four Courts on the Liffey quays which had been badly damaged during the Civil War.
It was decided in 1938 that the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde would take place in the castle, and the complex has been host to this ceremony ever since. The castle is also used for hosting official State visits as well as more informal foreign affairs engagements, State banquets, and Government policy launches, as well as acting as the central base for Ireland's hosting of the European Presidency approximately every 10 years.
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Last night in Ireland, last absurd pizza and after few hours we were up 3.30 a.m. to take the same taxi we got arriving in Dublin, and on the plane with full eyes, mind and heart!
I hope you got at least a tenth of what was this great holiday to us!
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