Ireland's Ancient East - Manchán Magan

Wed, 29 June 2016

-          Stretches from Newgrange and the Boyne Valley in the north east and ranging through the midlands all the way down via Kilkenny’s Medieval mile to Waterford’s Viking Quarter and Cork’s many cultural attraction.

-          The area includes the region east of the Shannon and east of the M9 motorway and everything in between.

-          Fáilte Ireland is investing €18 million - in addition to €2.3m for Cobh's Titanic Experience, Wexford's Hook Lighthouse and Athlone Castle.

 

POVERTY

-          Dunbrody Famine Ship: You board the replica three-masted barque. Coffin Ships: disease & overcrowding. Costumed performers retell passengers’ distress month-long journey to New York. A fifth, or even half of passengers on a Coffin Ship died. summons the tragic leavings on New Ross quayside.

-          Arrivals Hall. Struggles.  The Irish America Hall of Fame, the story of poverty-to-power rise epitomised by US President John F Kennedy: his great-grandfather sailed from New Ross in 1848 and The Kennedy Homestead is still nearby at Dunganstown.

-          Wicklow Gaol – visitors get a sense of terror in the air as the gate clangs shut and the gaoler turns the key.

-          From 1702 to 1924, the prison shut away those on the wrong side of history – rebels from the 1798 Rising, convicts to be transported to colonies in America and Australia, desperate women and children who stole to feed themselves in the famine… See their graffiti and read thoughts they left in a notebook found in 1923. Costumed characters tell their stories.

 

WEALTH

-          Powerscourt - 19th-century terraces, Italian Garden and past the life-sized, winged horses guarding Triton Lake, 18th-century Palladian mansion by the 1st Viscount Powerscourt. 250 varieties of trees. Giant Redwoods, Atlantic Cedars, 250 yr old Beech trees. Tallest tree in Ireland, Douglas Fir, 61.5 metres. shopping and two championship golf courses,

-          Castletown – Ireland’s largest and earliest Palladian-style house, built for William Connolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and the wealthiest commoner in Ireland. The son of a Donegal innkeeper, he became prosperous dealing in forfeited estates following the Williamite war in the late 17^th century.   IRA were about to burn it when a local leader remembered Connolly’s Irish and relatively humble origins. The house was saved.

 

 

 

 

OVERLOOKED GEMS

-          Hook Lighthouse: Built 800 years ago, it’s the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. 5th century monks of Rinn Dubháin lit a beacon to warn shipping away from dangerous rocks.

-          Visitors climb the 115 steps of the lighthouse tower & meet a life size figure of St Dubhan via hologram who tells the tale of the perishing nights that he and his fellow monks spent dedicating their lives to the safety of all of those at sea whilst keeping a beacon alight on the tip of the Peninsula

-          4-storey high balcony with spectacular view. The phrase ‘by hook or by crook’ is said to have originated here.

 

-          Athlone Castle When White Bull of Connacht was defeated by Ulster’s Brown Bull, his remains were scattered across the land. King of Connacht built the first recorded Bridge of Athlone in 1120, for forays into Meath. Soon Normans replaced wood with  a stone one, & many-sided castle to watch over it.

-          Interactive displays - You’re in the midst of the vicious siege by 10,000 troops loyal to William III. Athlone’s great 9-arch Elizabethan bridge was unbreached. But they found & crossed the ford, devastated the town and forced the castle to surrender.

 

 

EXAMPLE JOURNEYS

1.      Journey Overview: 5 Days, 469 KM a journey through 5,000 years of history: lighthouses, passage graves, monasteries, peaceful gardens & coastal villages.

Route: Louth, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Laois - Powerscourt House & Gardens, Wicklow Gaol, Dunbrody Famine Ship, Kilkenny City Medieval Mile, Rock of Dunamase

 

2.      Journey Overview: 5 Days, 762 KM -

Route: Laois, Tipperary, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow, Kildare, Westmeath, Louth, Monaghan  … Features: Curraghmore House and Gardens, Dunbrody Famine Ship Experience, Borris House, Wicklow Gaol, Powerscourt House & Gardens

 

3.      Route: Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford, Carlow, Wicklow, Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath, Longford, Meath, Louth, Monaghan, Cavan

-          Features: Lough Gur, Rock of Cashel, Waterford Viking Triangle, Kilkenny Medieval Mile, Dunbrody Famine Ship, Glendalough, Irish National Stud, Clonmacnoise, Athlone Castle, Brú na Bóinne, Cavan Burren