Ireland - Ballycroy and Achill Island

We left our little apartment in Ennistimon right after breakfast, and we were pleased by the speed and efficiency with which we cleaned up and packed.  The drive to Ballycroy was long, but we were able to take a break after a couple of hours by visiting the Museum of Country Life in Castlebar.  This place had it all:  informative movie, creative displays, cool artifacts, lush gardens, and best of all, free admission!  The focus of the museum was the life of the Irish people during the 19th and early 20th century, and it strongly reminded me of the life I’ve heard and read about from my family’s history in the mountains of Madison County, North Carolina.  

Everything the people of Ireland had during this time came from the land, and people that were proficient at using these resources for practical matters were called “handy.”  A movie described an old Irish word that to my great frustration was unintelligible due to the sound quality of the room, but its meaning was so profound that I sat through the film twice to try to hear it again.  I still couldn’t make it out, but the essence of the word describes an item someone has made that has become blessed, however the word carries a meaning that is much richer in this context.  Say that a farmer needs to dig some peat turves to store up for burning during the cold winter, but the spade he’s been using for a couple of years is splintered and uncomfortable to use.  Without design or blueprint, the farmer sits down with a stick of wood and a sharp knife and fashions a new spade that has a firm handle with just the right curvature to provide more comfort during a long day.  He uses the spade for years, and it becomes smooth and worn with his productive labor, and his family and neighbors know him by the handy use of this tool.  His motivation for using the spade to dig turves is his love for his family and the desire to provide warmth and light for them during the winter.  Over time the spade becomes part of the farmer, and when the people he loves see it sitting in the corner, they think warmly of him and will remember him by it long after he’s gone.  The simple wooden spade has become "blessed."  I remember many of the things sitting in the corners of my grandparents’ house and old tobacco barn in the mountains, and I understand the meaning of this word completely.

Another concept the museum conveyed was the demise of the old trades over the years.  Thatching was the perfect example used to explain how a very important need hundreds of years ago has become a novelty and a luxury item today.  The thatcher and his sons would spend hundreds of man-hours and use tons of straw or reeds to install a roof, and the process they used was fascinating.  Like every trade, it required a focused, practiced, efficient skill that served a major need for a community.  The tradesman made a living by plying his trade, and his customers benefited by receiving a stable, dry roof that would last for decades.  Even though there are still thatchers around, their work has become cost prohibitive and is usually performed at the request of a historical society with grant money to spend.  There are still trades around like framing, plumbing, and painting, but the older trades have died out.

We left the museum having learned much about country life in old Ireland, and we drove one more hour to Ballycroy where we’re staying with John and Mary in their amazing stone house.  We have the whole upstairs to ourselves and free reign in the kitchen downstairs.  Mary is an administrator for Meals-on-Wheels, and John is a contractor working mainly on gutters and boxing on new vacation homes in the area.  He’s been busy lately, and we immediately fell into contractor speak while the wives listened patiently.  John said that he tells Mary to inform his customers no matter what when they call that he has a backlog of, as I chimed in at the same time, six weeks.  We laughed and laughed….sorry, contractor humor.  Needless to say, we hit it off with John and Mary, and we enjoyed hearing about their life with five children, a yard full of sheep, and a view of the Achill Sound that I’m enjoying as I’m typing right now.  John built the house on land given to him by Mary’s father, and he said, “Believe me, I’ve paid for it,” as Mary rolled her eyes.  A major benefit of using AirBnB for lodging is the opportunity to stay with local families and learn about their life.  So far, so good.

Blogging with a view

We decided to spend our last full day in Ireland by touring Achill Island just across the sound from John and Mary’s house.  We all slept in a little later and shared a breakfast of buttery eggs and plump strawberries with fresh cream around the huge oak kitchen table.  Sufficiently fortified, we struck out for Achill Island and crossed the bridge in less than thirty minutes.  Even though Achill is the largest island on the western coast of Ireland, it doesn’t take long to drive the perimeter, and it has some great history and a whole lotta sheep.

My main target for the day was the Kildavent Castle which is a 15th century tower house associated with the O’Malley Clan, a ruling family of Achill.  The most famous member of this clan was Grace O’Malley, also called Granuaile.  Like her seafaring family before her, Grace refused to submit to English rule, and she became a strong leader and gained fame as a sea captain and pirate.  Our hostess, Mary told us about the local tradition that says Queen Elizabeth the First was a secret fan of Grace and granted her a private audience in which she absolved her of any alleged crimes.  I was fascinated by this story and made sure the kids knew all the details about Grace O’Malley, the way-cool Irish pirate chick.  We spent a good bit of time at her tower house, and I even found a geocache on the site, which made it even more fun.  

As we walked back to the car from Kildavent, we stopped to watch a family shearing sheep in their driveway.  As we drove around Achill for next couple of hours, we experienced its quickly changing weather.  While folks back home have sweltered with temperatures in the upper 90s, we’ve enjoyed the lower 70s, but we were father north today, and I doubt the temperature got above 65.  We got out of the car several times to take in the views, and we walked the beach for a while in the area of Keem at the far end of the island.

Grace O'Malley's house

Touring Achill Island

Waterfall in Keem, Lands End

As we drove back to our place in Ballycroy, we spotted one of the most intense complete rainbows we’ve ever seen—the picture below doesn’t do it justice.  Being in Ireland, I’m sure it had a huge pot o’ gold at the end of it with leprechauns waiting there to give it to us.  Sadly, I had to go to the bathroom, and I was racing to get home, so there goes the family fortune—such is life.

Rainbow in Ballycroy