Twenty-Eighth and Twenty-Ninth Day

Lauren, Josh (Dr. Peterson's nephew) and I at the Vee

Me standing on the edge of a drop-off in front of the glacial lake.

Butler family mansion - Ormond Castle

Cahir Castle

Classic patchwork Ireland in County Tipperary

After sleeping in, I got up and headed to the gym to get a little work out in. There I saw Dave and he asked me how my exams went. I told him I thought they went fine, but I guess we'll see, and I think he said something along the lines of knock on wood. I'm assuming this because Dave mumbles and I can't understand anything he says, but he was tapping on the wooden counter, so...After that, Lauren, Danielle and I got a small lunch at the bar. We found it strange that everything was seafood and that the alcohol was all covered up, but it's Good Friday, so it makes sense. It's days like these when you can really see how connected the Catholic religion is with their culture and laws. It's another bank holiday, just like the day after St. Patrick's Day, and the schools are all off for two weeks for Easter. No one is selling alcohol anywhere and all of the pubs are closed!

Yet strangely enough the movie theater is open, so Lauren, Danielle, Nikki, and I went to go see The Host. I really liked it, the story was prety interesting. Later that night, Ricky threw a house party so there were a ton of people from the town and our classmates there. I had an awesome time but I got myself to bed somewhat early because we had a TK tour the next day. Those are notoriously rough!

At 9:30 am we piled onto a bus to begin our lengthy day trip. We started off back at Mount Melleray again, only this time we stopped at the grotto. It's down a hill, kind of in a ravine. It is a very holy, sacred place with a statue of the virgin Mary placed in the side of the cliff and at the top of the hill above her there's a large cross. People traveled from all over Ireland to pray for peace in the 1980s when it was placed there; that was a rough and violent time for the country.

When we were done at the grotto, we hopped on the bus and traveled to the border between County Waterford and County Tipperary. We passed these massive hills, which I'm sure the Irish would refer to as mountains. The landscape was doted with sheep somehow moving up and down these steep inclines. On one side of the road were the hills and on the other you could see a deep valleys. It was a nice and sunny day, so that only improved the views. We were traveling to the Vee, which is the point where the two counties meet. It is called that because two hills (the Knockmealdown mountains) cross each other and beyond that in the distance there are some snow-capped peaks and a huge expanse of fields. One of the hills has a glacial lake nestled into its side. TK explained that the lake is actually much deeper than it appears. From the picture above, it looks quite small, close by, and that hill looks small as well, but that isn't the case, it's just that we're standing on our own hill on the opposite side of a valley. The lake is supposedly haunted by a spirit called Petticoat Loose, who was a woman who lived in the 19th century. So beware any of you lustful men, it is believed that she lures such men into the lake to drown. Here's a cool link about her life and the reason that lake has been the location of so many drownings: http://www.vee.ie/page27.html

Our next stop was another cathedral in Clogheen that was home to Father Nicholas Sheehy who opposed the Penal Laws that were put in place to suppress everything that was Irish, including Catholicism. Because he opposed the British, he was accused of high treason and murder, and although he was acquitted for treason, immediately after, he was accused of murder. In a sham of a case, he was found guilty, and executed in a not so pleasant way. Outside of the church is a statue of a celtic cross with detailed engravings which serves as a memorial to him.

Unfortunately for you, the next place we went didn't allow any photography, which is a shame because it was one of the cooler spots I've been to. We went to the Mitchelstown caves. No one ever lived inside there, instead they were left because at one point, some indeterminable number of years ago, there was a river flowing through it. We went down about 200 feet into the ground. Thankfully, the path they take the public along isn't too small, so my claustrophobia didn't kick in. The caverns were absolutely gorgeous with reds, whites, brown and black, and our guide explained exactly what made the colors and how stalagmites and stalactites were made. When, over a long, long, long period of time, the stalagmites and stalactites connect, it becomes a pillar or column. She pointed out one in particular and told us it was at least a billion years old, but because radioactive dating would involve drilling into the core of it and therefore ruining the structure, they don't know the actual age of it. At one point on the tour she told us she was going to shut off the electricity to show us what absolute darkness is like. This was by far the creepiest part of the tour. I couldn't see my hand when it was right in front of my face. It is the type of darkness, as she told us, that your eyes would never adjust to. The man who originally found the caves was trapped in that kind of darkness for 12 hours. I don't know how he lasted through that!

After the caves, we traveled to the Cahir Castle, another one of the castles that would come into the possession of the famed Butler family. It is situated right on the river that travels through the town for defensive reasons. Our tour guide showed us exactly how every inch of the castle was built around some defensive strategy or other. Its defenses were so strong that it was only beseiged twice in its history, and only one cannonball made it past the outer walls (which is still stuck in the side of the building, and I got a nice picture of it!) I couldn't imagine what the times must have been like if everything about your home is designed for defense.

Our last stop of the day was at the only Tudor-style mansion in Ireland, located in Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary. Thomas Butler (are you seeing a pattern here?), the 10th earl of Ormond constructed a the Tudor homestead and attached it to the Ormonde Castle that was already there. Again, it was built right on the river, which used to surround the property for defense. Throughout the house are pictures of Elizabeth I engraved into the moldings on the ceilings and along the walls. He was a big fan of Elizabeth, and there's speculation that the two were more than just friends, but that would have been treason to suggest of the virgin queen. He was such a fan of her, in fact, that he killed two of his brothers in her name!

All in all, it was a fun day. I was too tired to do anything else that night. Tomorrow is my last day of rest before we leave bright and early for Berlin on Monday. I will not have my laptop with me, so this is going to be the last blog for a little while!