The Heart of Celtic Christianity

Tuesday morning, we left Dublin and headed west on our way to Connermara. We had to be there on the night of the 15th, and really that was the only place we had to be for the whole vacation.

Kim had read a bunch of historical fiction about the founding of Ireland, and one of the places she really wanted to see was The Hill of Tara. It was the place where, before the coming of Christanity, the kings of Celtic Ireland and the druids would meet for their important ceremonies. it was really desolate - nothing more than high grass and sheep. It was kind of surreal. For hundreds and hundreds of years this had been a sacred place to thousands and thousands of people. now it was nothing but a hill, and not a remarkable hill out of the thousands of other hills.

from there we headed to the Hill of Slane which is a very cool place. it is the place where St. Patrick lit what was known as a Paschal fire on Easter Sunday when he arrived in Ireland, in direct defiance of the pagan kings, who were meeting on the Hill of Tara that night (which you could see from the Hill of Slane. now patrick didn't know it, but the king had issued an order that night that the first fire to be lit had to be his because he was the source of light in that culture. As Patrick proclaimed the good news of Easter morning, he lit a fire and created a confrontation between himself and the pagan druids. He was summoned to the king who didn't become a christian, but allowed Patrick to evangelize the people of Ireland. it's a cool place, with an abbey (church) a university for monks and a batism well. All of them are now in ruins. and were in ruins before the West was even a thought to Europeans.

leaving ancient Ireland, we headed west. The one other really cool thing we saw was the Trim Castle. it was the site where "Braveheart" was filmed (in part) and was exactly what one would expect from a castle in Ireland. very big and very ruined (after 800 years, that's to be expected), but cool nonetheless.

and i had to include at least one picture of kim making multiple calls trying to book a B&B. everyday about 2 pm, we would call ahead and try to book a place. we never had to call more than 1 or 2 places, but it was still a little stressful on her...