Left to right-Top to bottom: 1. Trail near Rock of Cashel 2. Dan and Robert Wade 3. Ruins of Hore Abbey (1272) 4. Cormac's Chapel (12th Century) 5. Another view of Cormac's Chapel 6. Cemetery on north side of Rock of Cashel 7. View of the Crossing (center of church) 8. Dan playing with Crossing and round tower in background. 9. Celtic cross. 10. View of Rock of Cashel from the east with cows in foreground.
On Tuesday morning, we traveled toward Dingle on the N1. We made side trip to the Rock of Cashel, a site of more church ruins on a rocky hill rising out of the Tippery plain.
Originally the seat of the Kings of Munster in the 5th century, it was handed over to the church in 1101 A.D. Cashel was actually one of the main centers of Christianity in Ireland and flourished until 1647, when Cromwell's army slaughtered its occupants.
St. Patrick is said to have baptized King Aengus on this site in the early 5th century. One story describes how St. Patrick accidentally stuck his staff into the foot of the king. The king, in turn, thinking this was some initiation rite into Christianity, bore the pain with great patience!
Below the Cashel site is Bru Boru Cultural Center. The Comhaltas Ceoltóirí organization hosts music and dance events there -- unfortunately, it runs mid-June through through September, so we missed the main activities there.
We saw some beautiful sites on along the way to the west coast. Every few miles, you could spot remains of old churches and castles off on the side of the road.
O’Flaherty’s
We finally arrived in Dingle by 7:00pm -- still a good two and a half hours before the pub music usually starts.
That night, I ended up playing with a couple musicians at a pub called O’Flaherty’s – one was the pub owner himself, who even brought me a pint of Murphy’s Stout. The place was filled mostly with Americans, it seemed. We met some people from Seattle and from Butte, Montana.
Pub life in general has quite a history in Ireland -- it seems to serve as the social center of much of Irish life -- kind of a blend of a living room, a church and bar; basically a gathering place where people congregate and enjoy good music, good fellowship and good drink.
I learned that smoking had been recently banned in all pubs in Ireland. Some had worried that this would ruin the spirit of the Irish pub. As a non-smoker, however, I was thrilled to actually be able to breathe clean air. I can only imagine the smoking ban must be good for the tourist business over the long run.