Three weeks later...

I know it's been quite some time since all of this happened, and I apologize for that. Actually, I don't, because it'll still be fun to tell you about it. I hope you bear with me, as this'll be a fairly substantial post.

From Wednesday the 16th through Sunday the 20th, we went on our first group excursion. About once a month, the group goes on a longer trip to a different region of Ireland. September was the month for Southern Ireland, October will be in Northern Ireland, including Belfast and Derry, and November will be Eastern Ireland, mainly in Dublin. But more on October and November later.

We left Wednesday morning, and after a drive of about 45 minutes, we stopped at the house of William Yeats, the Irish author and playwright. We met the literature professor there, and he did some poetry reading for the group. It was pretty cool, but I don't think we were supposed to be there.... it was closed for the season. Oops.

The house of William Yeats, complete with a

medieval tower.

From Yeats' house, we had our next stop at Coole Park, a 1000-acre property owned by Lady Gregory until the late 1920s. She hosted many prominent authors and playwrights, including Yeats, so we took this opportunity again to do some more poetry. We took a walk out to the vanishing lake (literally, the lake drains itself and refills itself with different amounts of rainfall) and listened to the Yeats poem depicting the lake.

After this, we proceeded to Cork, our home for the night. We had the opportunity to stop by the university in Cork (another CSB/SJU program sends students there in the Spring) before checking into our hostel. The University is impressive. Built just ten years before St. John's, it has a beautiful campus. I wouldn't mind going to school there.

University of Cork, AKA Hogwarts.

The following day, we struck out towards Killarney, making three stops along the way. The first stop was Blarney Castle. Of course, the highlight of this site was the kissing of the Blarney Stone, which is rumored to provide anyone who kisses it much eloquence in speech. Aside from the eloquence, the view from the top of the castle is well worth the stop!

Blarney Castle. Feeling eloquent yet?

Second on our list for the day was a memorial for Michael Collins, one of the leaders of the Irish rebellion in the 1920s. He and his party were ambushed while driving to Killarney, and during the fight, he was killed. At the site of the ambush, a cross was built in memory of Collins. We stayed just long enough to get a brief history/how-to speech on guerrilla warfare, given by the one and only Dave "the Hutch" Hutcheson. That in itself is not something to be missed!

Finally, we stopped at the Ross castle, a renovated castle from the 1500s. We got a tour of the castle and a brief history of the region. As with any tour of old buildings, we weren't allowed to take pictures, which is a bummer. The castle was pretty cool.

After spending the night in Killarney, we went on Friday to the Muckross House, the mansion owned by the Muckross family, who hosted prominent guests like Queen Victoria. Again, we got a tour of the house and some time to explore the property. Impressive, to say the least. We didn't have nearly enough time to wander the trails, which is probably the biggest regret about the place, especially since we spent the rest of the day on the bus, driving around the ring of Kerry. It was a spectacle, but a very cramped bus detracted from the experience.

I told ya the Muckross estate was pretty sweet!

This is the view from the back porch.

On Saturday, we drove a short distance to the city of Tralee, home of the Kerry County Museum. This museum claimed the award for the best Museum in Ireland in 2008 (I think), so it was of no surprise that it was such a good exhibit. The display was on medieval Tralee, with a life-sized recreation of the city from the 1400s. Afterwards, we drove across the Dingle Peninsula, returning to Tralee for the night. After having a delicious Philly cheese steak, we celebrated Taylor's 21st birthday with style!

Last, and definitely not least, we drove through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moehr. With cliffs soaring over two-hundred feet above the waves, we had a spectacular site to behold. After adventuring the peaks of the cliffs for an hour or two, we struck out towards home. I'll let the pictures tell the stories!

Of course we followed the rules...

That's what a 210 foot cliff looks like.