Month: August 2017

JFK, Horseride and Heaven

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This morning started with blue sky and even the weather app on my Iphoe didn’t warn me that it could change. So we planned to drive to John F. Kennedy Memorial park to enjoy the sunny day, summer feeling and the last day at the seaside home. But the weather was not our friend today, so just a bit after getting started, the big grey clouds turned up and hid the sun and very soon it started to pour rain. We didn’t turn around but hoped that it will pass and so we reached to the park with totally heavy rain and wetness all around. As it seemed to clear up a little, we left the car and went to look for the tickets and then Sean’s sister came to a genial plan – we took the horse and carriage and got a horseman who was a real hobby botanist and gave us a good overview of all the trees that we passed.

Ireland is rich of US presidents who in some odd ways seem to descend from here or are connected through some relatives. JFK is not an exception. His roots go back to Dunganstown and his great-grandfather left Ireland in 1848. Probably for the same reason as all the others, to escape from poverty and look for a better life. JFK visited Ireland in 1963 when he visited his family farm and went to see his relatives. the John F Kennedy’s Memorial Park is dedicated to his memory. It’s a huge area with a collection of over 4500 trees and shrubs. The rain stopped when we were driving in the carriage and everything was so green and fresh and smelled so well. All the photos are taken from the carriage when it was driving 🙂

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When our horse ride was over the rain was over too and we enjoyed some tea and cakes and watched the local children’s’ party on the playground and just wandered around.

Before going back I was taken to Heaven. We drove up and up and again up and reached almost to the top of the world where you could see almost the whole Ireland. Ok, I am exaggerating a bit but it was very high and the view was unbelievably beautiful and I guess it was possible to see almost the whole County around you. If there’s a real Heaven somewhere, I’d really want to imagine that I could sit there on the edge of the cloud and look at the whole Ireland for ages 🙂 I am not going to write that it started to rain again, and the wind went quite wild, and my summer dress, which could have been a right thing to wear on the photos of such an amazing place, wanted to fly away and I had to run back to the car, taking the photos on my run and staring around to catch a bit more of that beauty.

Dunbrody Famine Ship

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It was a perfect thing to go to visit the Dunbroady Famine ship on a rainy day like that. Dunbroady famine ship was one of these so-called “Coffin ships” that carried thousands of immigrants to North America between 1845 and 1851.

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The trip lasted for six weeks and all the passengers were picked into the ship like sardines in a can. The wealthier passengers who were able to buy more expensive tickets were allowed a bit better circumstances but actually, it seemed awfully terrible anyway. All the second class passengers had to live together in the hold of the ship and the whole family had to sleep in the same bunk bed, despite the number of people in the family. So the number of the passengers was much smaller when they arrived at last because a lot of them died and were buried in the ocean.

Dinner table
The part of the poorest passengers
Sailor’s cabin
Ship kitchen

 

When you want to visit the ship you have to take a tour and the guide gives a good overview of the life of the passengers who were immigrating because of the big Famine in the middle of the 19th century. To make it more attractive there are also two actresses who play the part of the passengers and tell their stories. One of them is a woman of the upper deck and the other is the poor one who has to live in the hold with all the other who couldn’t afford an expensive ticket.

Irish emigration
Dunbroady Famine Ship, New Ross
Irish were not the wanted ones
Immigrants boarding

After the tour, it is possible to wander around on your own and take some photos and that’s what we did. The rain hadn’t stopped. We had a tea at the cafe and drove back home. It was pretty dreadful to imagine the lives of these big families who just wanted to afford a better life for their children.

The tickets to the tour were made after the real tickets of the people who had really immigrated by that ship. The ticket proved that the passenger had paid and was ready to board a ship. You can also see the amount of food that every grown-up passenger was afforded and that’s very little.

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Gifts of the Ocean

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Duncannon is a lovely place in southwest County Wexford, located just on the coast of the sea and with magnificent views. It was the first place where I got to see the tides in a real life and seeing all these people walking their dogs, children and partners at the coastline is just like stepping into some novel that I love to read.

Duncannon

Today, after coming back from the little trip to Hook I felt that I want to belong to these people whose everyday life involves walks at the ocean and so I took my camera and went to wander around and find out what the ocean can tell me. Actually, it gave me a lot of nice colourful gifts and I spent more than an hour playing with them and my camera. Of course, when I found out that I had put the crab’s skeleton that I found totally upside down, I was a bit upset of my simplemindedness but it was the first time for me to find a crab 🙂 I enjoyed being a child again, almost wanted to start to build a sandcastle. Maybe the next time.