A Beautiful Day for a Drive October 11, 2006
Up early, we packed the car, cleaned up the cottage and drove the cliff side single track to Ballinskelligs in the predawn darkness. This was better than a cup of coffee for waking us up as the car lights swept over the side into space. The good news was that the weather had cleared and the wind had dropped to a nice breeze. Fall is in the air and as we drove north we saw more changing foliage than we have seen in years. Once in the village and on the double track road we pointed the car north and enjoyed driving through numerous Irish villages and one or two good sized towns the most well known being Limerick. We didn’t stop as we had about 300 kilometers to cover.
We arrived at our first planned stop of Strokestown about 1PM where we had a nice lunch at a small inn and pub. Next was our tour of the Strokestown Park House and the National Irish Famine Museum. The house was built on 11,000 acres by one of the landed gentry named Mahon who was installed during the British effort to replace the Irish Catholics with English Protestants in the 18th century. It was occupied by one of his descendants until 1981. The house was bought complete with all furnishings and possessions by a local businessman at that time and has now been turned into a museum. It is privately owned and what amazed us was the amount of personal possessions that were sold with the house including photos and correspondence and that you could handle almost any of the artifacts there. The family was well connected and was invited to Buckingham Palace on occasion and one invitation is available to see and handle if you so desire. Their fortunes began to turn during the 20th century and the last resident was selling paintings toward the end of her life just to stay solvent. All of the present descendants live abroad. It was an interesting tour yet sad even though the family had evicted thousands of tenants during the Potato Famine turning tilled land into pasture; a story that was told over and over both here and in Scotland. Ilene our tour guide did an excellent job of explaining the history of the house and the family.
The Famine Museum went into much detail explaining the political, environmental and cultural reasons as well as the ramifications of the disaster. A few factoids: The average Irish adult consumed 14 lbs of potatoes a day prior to the famine.
1.5 million people emigrated from Ireland between 1845 and 1850, almost 20% of the population.
85% of Ireland was tilled prior to the Potato Famine, less than 10% afterward. The difference was turned to pasture.
The Potato Famine was not only and economic disaster but changed the culture of the people in Ireland. The other factor at work during this period was mechanization of weaving which had been a strong cottage industry prior to the 1830s, but without potatoes most people were unable to feed themselves and had to rely on the workhouse or public assistance to survive this transitional period.
After our tour we started the drive in the general direction of Dublin. We didn’t have reservations for tonight so we would drive until we saw a B&B sign at which time we would pull in and ask about vacancies. Three tries netted two “no one home” and one no vacancy. We finally came to a village named Athboy where we found the Old Darnley Lodge Hotel where we are staying tonight. After looking out the window at 7:45 PM Holly announced “They’ve rolled up the sidewalks” but I know better they’re all down in one of the six pubs that I could hit with a rock from our window.
We arrived at our first planned stop of Strokestown about 1PM where we had a nice lunch at a small inn and pub. Next was our tour of the Strokestown Park House and the National Irish Famine Museum. The house was built on 11,000 acres by one of the landed gentry named Mahon who was installed during the British effort to replace the Irish Catholics with English Protestants in the 18th century. It was occupied by one of his descendants until 1981. The house was bought complete with all furnishings and possessions by a local businessman at that time and has now been turned into a museum. It is privately owned and what amazed us was the amount of personal possessions that were sold with the house including photos and correspondence and that you could handle almost any of the artifacts there. The family was well connected and was invited to Buckingham Palace on occasion and one invitation is available to see and handle if you so desire. Their fortunes began to turn during the 20th century and the last resident was selling paintings toward the end of her life just to stay solvent. All of the present descendants live abroad. It was an interesting tour yet sad even though the family had evicted thousands of tenants during the Potato Famine turning tilled land into pasture; a story that was told over and over both here and in Scotland. Ilene our tour guide did an excellent job of explaining the history of the house and the family.
The Famine Museum went into much detail explaining the political, environmental and cultural reasons as well as the ramifications of the disaster. A few factoids: The average Irish adult consumed 14 lbs of potatoes a day prior to the famine.
1.5 million people emigrated from Ireland between 1845 and 1850, almost 20% of the population.
85% of Ireland was tilled prior to the Potato Famine, less than 10% afterward. The difference was turned to pasture.
The Potato Famine was not only and economic disaster but changed the culture of the people in Ireland. The other factor at work during this period was mechanization of weaving which had been a strong cottage industry prior to the 1830s, but without potatoes most people were unable to feed themselves and had to rely on the workhouse or public assistance to survive this transitional period.
After our tour we started the drive in the general direction of Dublin. We didn’t have reservations for tonight so we would drive until we saw a B&B sign at which time we would pull in and ask about vacancies. Three tries netted two “no one home” and one no vacancy. We finally came to a village named Athboy where we found the Old Darnley Lodge Hotel where we are staying tonight. After looking out the window at 7:45 PM Holly announced “They’ve rolled up the sidewalks” but I know better they’re all down in one of the six pubs that I could hit with a rock from our window.
posted by Gary and Holly Davis @ 1:28 PM
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