A
Day of History – June 6
First
off, I want to say I had the best shower this morning. Every place
we stay is a bit different, and I'll do a post about the B&B
adventures when I get back, but I have been just dying for a nice
strong hot shower for a couple of days now. This morning was no
disappointment. It was everything a shower is supposed to be, and I
enjoyed every minute. :)
Wexford
is referred to as being in the “sunny southwest” and yesterday
was exactly that. Today was a typical Irish day.... a little rain,
a little sun, more rain, and more rain. But it didn't stop us from
getting out and visiting a couple of places. As I was told, nothing
stops the Irish unless it's a hurricane.
While
we didn't plan it specifically for today, this was to end up being a
history day. Maybe a little deja vu considering today is D Day.
We
started out at Johnstown Castle and Gardens. Quite a history to the
castle and the grounds. The architect who designed the grounds is
the same one who designed Powerscourt Gardens in County Wicklow. The
castle is closed, but the grounds are beautiful. We walked for over
an hour even though it was sprinkling pretty good off and on. When
we started out it was not raining, so we didn't take umbrellas, and
thanks to the many trees with full foliage, we were able to shelter
under a few as we walked the grounds. On a sunny day we might have
spend longer, but today we looked for some other places to visit that
might be inside.
We
traveled to Enniscorthy to the National
1798 Center for our next stop (
http://www.1798centre.ie/)
There was a wonderful
interactive exhibit all about the rebellion and events that
surrounded all the battles. I'm not really for walk through
exhibits, but this was done extremely well. There was so much that I
learned that I had not realized. One of the worst battles was at
Vinegar Hill, outside of Enniscorthy. 1500 rebels died at that
battle, and over the 4 weeks of the rebellion about 20,000 people
died in County Wexford. At the time that was 1/6 of the population.
After
the exhibit, we thought it only appropriate that we make a visit to
Vinegar Hill. The rain had stopped and although the climb was steep,
we forged ahead to the very top. There is no memorial at the top,
only the left over remnants of a tower, that might have been a
windmill, and the rock outcropping that is part of the peak. The
views back to Enniscorthy are phenomenal, along with panoramas of
other areas. As we walked around we found that they were in the
process of creating a much less steep, and gravel paved pathway that
we took going back down the hill. Good thing as the rain started
again, as we were pretty wet as we reached the car. I think the
anniversary of the battle is coming up on June 20 or 21st.
As
we headed down from Vinegar Hill we saw a sign that directed us to
the Fr. Murphy Center in Boolavogue. The well known song Boolavogue
is about Fr. Murphy. The center is small in comparison to most and
doesn't get a lot of traffic on a day like today, but the exhibits
are wonderful. Rita spent time walking thought the buildings out the
back of the center and thought they were well restored without
looking like they were overbuilt. They were not filled with
unnecessary items but those things that reflected the time period.
This is actually where Fr. Murphy lived and a lot of attention was
given to making this realistic to the time period. Here are two
places to learn a bit more about Fr. Murphy.
I
have to say a Thank You to Pamela for keeping me company while Rita
went exploring. I was chilled from being a bit damp and didn't feel
up to go exploring. She would love it if you gave the center a
“like” on Facebook. And if you are in the area, please make sure
to stop by and learn about Fr. Murphy and his involvement in the 1798
rebellion.
Seeing
as we were really chilled and the rain was back again, we didn't gel
like going out for dinner, so we ordered in..... It was a Pizza Hut
kind of night!
Tomorrow
we head north to Castletown for a family fun day and this time
hopefully a chance to see Niall O'Sullivan again,but this time with
his jazz quartet.
For
now I think a nice hot shower will round out my evening. :)
I've added a few pictures from today. The first three are from Johnstown Castle and the last is from the top of Vinegar Hill.
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