On
Thursday, April 19th, the group went to Powerscourt, Glendalough,
and Wicklow. We traveled via bus and were led by an omniscient tour guide,
Jeff. Jeff first took us around Dublin, showing us Patrick Kavanagh’s statue,
which the group went out and took pictures with. We read his poem entitled, “Canal
Bank Walk.” Next, we took a bus ride to
Wicklow, where we took a 15 minute break near the beach at Bray. After a nice
photo shoot with the scenic mountains and waves crashing against the shore, the
group departed for Powerscourt.
Next, the
county of Wicklow just so happens to have a booming film industry. Famous
movies such as Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart, P.S. I Love You, and Excalibur
were filmed here. Also, famous television shows such as The Tudors, Camelot, and Asterix have been filmed here. On an interesting
side note, all the soldiers seen in Saving
Private Ryan in the beginning beach scene as well as the Celts and Scots
fighting in Braveheart came from the
Reserve Army of Ireland. Wicklow is where this army is taken and trained, and filmmakers
saw this as a convenient place for actors in their films.
Next, the
group traveled to Powerscourt. Powerscourt is a beautiful mansion established
by an old Norman family named La Poer, later anglicized to Power. On this 30,000
acre land plot was developed the present day mansion. The Power family built a
beautiful garden, which may have cost 5 Euro to view but was one of the
prettiest sights the group has ever seen. Next, we went to Glendalough.
Glendalough
was the next visit on our journey through county Wicklow and it was quite the
sight. All through the beautiful fields were scattered ruins of the ancient
monastery of Saint Kevin. Saint Kevin, as it turns out was a very interesting
man. Stories of him ranged from raising a baby from the milk of a deer to
kicking a woman down a mountain and into a lake at the bottom of the valley. In
real life stories he was quite the man to learn about. Legend has it that he
lived to be 112 years old and that may in fact be true!
At
one point on our walk through the valley we all got a chance to relax and
reflect at one of the prettiest spots in the entire place. Right next to a
small, ruined old church we all spent a silent 15 minutes reflecting on the
Glendalough visit as a whole. Sitting down in the beautiful scenery was a great
change of pace from the usual rush of the day. Soon after we were off to our
last stop at ye olde Wicklow prison! This prison was closed in the early 1900’s and
holds great interest for the Irish people. This place is important to them
because it held many revolutionaries while Ireland was trying to gain freedom.
The
staff of the prison did a great job role playing as the jailer and the matron.
When we entered we were ordered to, “Stand up straight,” and to “get those
hands out of your pockets!” We were threatened with the dungeon and solitary
confinement. The Matron sat us down and explained how even young children of
the ages of eight and nine were held. She went deeper into detail about the
injustices that occurred while the prison was running.
The
prison building itself had three floors and a dungeon. The cells were small and
it was necessary to duck when walking in. Within the different cells were
manikins and stories written on the walls. We all finished out the day by
tossing a rugby ball around out front of the building. It was a great day!
No comments:
Post a Comment