So last leg of our hosteling experience took us to Sligo, on the northwest-ish coast of Ireland. The only reason this interested me was it's connection to the Yeats' and I knew next to nothing about any of them! I did know that there was a WB Yeats who wrote some kind of poetry...
so once again, I set out to learn!
Pretty much, all you need to see in Sligo will take about half a day. We had and extra day to relax. :)
We got there and the lady who was running the hostel picked us up in a tiny "weird-shaped" car. And by "weird-shaped," I mean that is literally the only way to describe it. It was red and had strange bubble shapes jutting out of various parts of it such as the hood just above the bumper and somewhere in the back... I don't know. But it had a clutch and a stickshift and got us where we needed to go! I wish now that we had taken a pic of it...
The lady informed us that the hostel was closing down that weekend and that they had pretty much stayed open because of our reservation. She also told us some history about the house. Turns out that a Yeats cousin built the house and that the Yeats' used to visit the house regularly and visit on weekends. So it was pretty neat (for history weirdos like Ky & myself) to wander around the house and imagine what it must have been like with a bunch of Yeats' running around!
Most of our weekend was spent lazing around - I taught Ky how to play canasta! - and missing movies at the theatre. But we also got to see a great Abbey. Creatively called "Sligo Abbey." Actually, it wasn't an abbey at all - but that was it's name and I don't remember what it actually was... oh well! It was where Bram Stoker's mom lived for a while during a plague. She told him all kinds of horror stories about the place, so Sligo likes to think they indirectly influenced the brilliant author re his tales of Dracula, etc. There was also a cool wishing stone built into a column facing the courtyard (which also had a fancy convent-ish name that I don't remember) where Ky & I each put our two fingers into the stone and made a wish... I made a simple wish with a 50/50 possibility and it did happen - does that count? :) see pic below:
In addition to Bram Stoker & wishing, there were LOTS of graves. They said something like 5000+ ppl had been buried there(if I'm wrong, Ky will correct me and I will write you guys an apology), but most of them were in unmarked, mass &/or illegal graves. It was a place of both history & mystery. I really enjoyed it! Below is a grave that is of special importance for at leat 2 reasons: #1, it is the only grave that was placed in that direction -- all other graves were placed in a perpendicular direction to this one. And #2, because the important info, ie names, dates, ages were all professionally removed post-installation.
Other than the abbey, there was the Yeats museum in which we learned all about WB and a little about his brother, Jack, and his dad, John. I have found that I am not a big fan of Jack's, but I love both John & WB's works. I learned that WB did not get married until he was 52 (I may be off by a year) and when I mentioned my surprise to Ky, she said it was because he was waiting for this one woman the entire time and still wasn't able to marry her.
At this museum, we found out about this amazing woman named Countess Markievicz who was a revolutionary leader who pioneered the forces of Irish revolt during the times of British oppression during the early 20th century. She was ahead of her time in the arena of active politics, including the founding of an organization that taught teenage boys how to fight with firearms in guerrilla warfare. She was jailed at least once.
And, I found out later, that this was the woman with whom WB Yeats was in love that whole time! (Which is probably why she was in the Yeats museum to begin with! Hmm...)
Sunday morning, we postponed our 10am bus to go to church in a pentecostal assembly that met in the "stables"/building in the parking lot of the hostel. Turns out that the church owns the hostel - fyi.
It was a really nice service with a small group & body ministry & active prayer & it was spirit led! I was grateful to be able to participate. They all really cared about one another and reached out to us outsiders with just the right amount of interest. I am glad that this was my 1st Irish church experience, that's for sure!
So that is the end of our tour of Ireland! The rest of my blogging will involve predominantly Limerick, which - FYI - is not a big tourist town. Next post: the big move!
Love you all and I miss everyone SO MUCH!!!
nope, you're thinking of Maud Gonne, WB Yeats' supposed love. The 'Countess' (using quotation marks as her title is highly dubious) was a completely different woman and apparently not as fabulous as history has painted her.
ReplyDeleteGood words.
ReplyDelete