The Emerald Shores of Ireland - Part 7

The Emerald Shores of Ireland
A trip journal by David Bowers
9/2/08-9/11/08
Part 7

We headed into the chapel and found places. I noted the enire back wall of the chapel is glass windows and looking outside I could see row upon row of benches for those who can't make it inside the chapel on busy days but still want to face the site of the vision. We had our mass facing the statues and the famous wall behind it, as an altar has been erected in that spot. As I figured, when you start a Mass at a big pilgrimage site like this you are soon to be joined by others who are not in your group but are there for much the same reason. We had our usual quick format Mass which was ended by the singing of a Marian hymn before we were dismissed to explore the shrine.

Upon exiting the chapel we come to a group of signs in the middle of the plaza that welcome you to the shrine, provide a map of the grounds, and a schedule of mass times. Walking along the side of the old church we came to the outdoor stations of the cross. We did take a look in the old church which of the older traditional style. About this time we saw some get on a golf cart shuttle that said it was going to the museum and gift shop, but we declined the shuttle. We did go to the visitors center, where I was able to get a guidebook about Knockl Shrine for just €2.50. We proceeded to tour the grounds and came to the new Basilica. We started inside and spotted another visitor center in the vestibule. We were making our way through the vestibule and about to enter the church when the doors swing open and we find ourselves about 10' from the procession heading out of the building. But this wasn't just any procession, this one was led by a huge statue of Mary being paraded around by 4 attendants. We quickly ducked out of the way of the oncoming procesession, and while we found a safe place to stand, an usher came along and handed us each a small medal commemorating our attendance at the event. Guess that's a right place right time kind of thing. With the large crowd joining in the procession, we figured our best move was to exit the church with the crowd.

We were getting a bit thirsty and I noted the building with the gift shop also had a "Rest Center" sounds like a good place to look for refreshments. We went in the rest center and I noted most if not all the tables had reserved signs on them, but I did spot a vending machine where we were each able to get a soft drink for €1. We had a few minutes left to walk about the grounds while we discussed some of the other shrines we had been to, with Bob doing most of the talking as he has been to way more shrines, but we each had been to some different ones, so we could share different experiences. We then fell in with the group heading back to the bus, and on our way out I spotted a conveniently placed can recycling container. Next was the trip back to Galway.

We happened to be returning to Galway during rush hour so we did get stuck in traffic. Jerry went over the day end details, lets see dinner at 7pm, bags out in hall at 7am, breakfast at 7:15. He then told us about an optional excursion we could arrange through him. The excursion would be to attend a concert that evening by a hot Irish musical group. The excursion would be €30 per person, and we'd have to arrange our own transportation unless a significant number wanted to go, then John would furnish bus rides. The hitch is that the show starts at 9pm, and we all thought to ourselves, with the speed of the dining room, there is no way we can finish dinner and make it. Consequently, I think while there may have been interest in the excursion, the timing of it all combined with some desires to explore on their own caused that option to be flatly declined. Jerry did mention the best way to judge an Irish pub's music is to walk up to one and stick your head in the door, if you like what you hear, go on in, if not, just keep walking. Jerry mentioned that you also go to pubs in Ireland for the craic , which is a Gaelic word that simply means a good time, usually by means of engaging in a lively social conversation that may well turn to jokes, storytelling, and music. Jerry also mentioned that unfortunately craic when pronounced, sounds like "crack" and yes he realizes that for us, "Going to a bar for the crack", would have a completely different meaning.

Getting back to something we had discussed earlier, we had passed a gas station, and it was noted the price per liter was about €1.35, and Jerry commented that there are 3.8 liters to a gallon, so that's about €5 per gallon, which at the nominal exchange rate at the time was about $7.50/ gallon. Think about that next time you are complaining about gas prices. It was noted, of course that in Ireland as with a lot of European nations smaller cars are much more popular. We also talked about taxation, and Jerry said if our Congress wants to learn some inventive ways to tax people, they should sit in on their governments sessions. Uhm, let's not and say we did. Sure they have the income tax, and a national level sales tax called a "Value Added Tax" which has a tax rate of an alarming 21%. We may not have noticed it because practically all prices in Ireland are quoted with all taxes already included. In exhange, there is no real estate property tax. They tried to pass one through by telling the voters, "This is your chance to get back at the LARGE land owners, we will only tax them" The electorate was smart enough to retort that once the property tax was written into law, they were sure the program would be expanded to cover them as well. One big tax is the car tag tax, when you buy a new car there, having just paid the 21% VAT on top of the price of the car for your small fuel efficient car, you then get charged 19% of the value of the car to get the license tags. At least you only have to pay for tags once for the life of the car, and in fact if you sell a car, the tags go with it. Then there is an annual road use tax on top of all that. Jerry mentioned how to read an Irish license tag. The three letters under the European Union flag tell the country of issue, then the two digits tell the year the vehicle was registered, so don't try recycling the plates off your 1994 Honda on your 2006 Renault, then one or two letters to tell which county the car was registered in, and then the serial number.

We talked a bit about traditional musical instruments like their unique drums and tin whistles, we talked about health care. Evidently they get some basic plan free, but most wind up buying supplemental health insurance. We even killed some time with US politics. Jerry said that in general the Irish are just totally amused by the situation and the candidates that have made the finals in our election. Did I mention it was a bad traffic jam? He pointed out Dunnes Stores which he said are quite like our Wal*Mart, you can get everything you need there, as long as its cheaply made in China. He also mentioned that as we could tell real estate, especially in the big land owning families is a huge deal, and is traditionally passed on father to the eldest son. This has caused some problems, such as the fact the eldest child can turn 20, 30 even 40 and be ready to start their own life but they don't have their own land yet, it also prevented divorce from being legalized in Ireland until just recently. When a priest in Ireland said the whole "Till death do you part" line, they really meant it. The hang up was land, and proud families wanting to protect their land against being yanked out from under them with a 6 month sham marriage. They finally got divorce legalized when they ruled that real estate is not subject to the whole divorce proceedings. Jerry quipped that at the same time the suicide and homicide rates also sharply dropped. Of course even back then some husbands just vanished, and there was always the other option "The Boat to England" where laws are more liberal and people could go to solve such problems.

Eventually we get back to Jury's Inn. Another bus parked in our assigned parking space, making Jerry and John none too happy, and we had to park a few blocks into town and walk back, which wasn't entirely bad. We got back to our room, I put my camera up on its charger, first remembering to insert the electrical adapter into the wall to convert from the three prong Irish style outlet, then I plugged a converter into the adapter to step the voltage down from 240 to 120, then I plugged the camera charger in the adapter. It looked like an electrician's nightmare, but it worked out. I do like the built in safety feature on Irish outlets, particularly since they are 240. The ground pin is longer than the other two pins, and there is a plastic guard blocking the 2 current producing holes, that guard is locked until the longer ground plug pushes it aside. I also tucked the guides to Knock and Kylemore as well as my Connemara Marble into my carry on bag and we freshened up. I looked out to the couryard and found it to be quite busy. Some socializing, perhaps some study groups and maybe even a business deal going on in the park like riverfront setting of the hotel courtyard.

We next headed down to dinner. Today was one of Bob's relatives birthdays, and before we left the States, the relative told Bob "Have a Guinness for me on my birthday" So at dinner we both ordered up Guinness beers, we also made sure to get Bob a dated photo as proof. . As for dinner we both had the melon salad which was really good, particularly the unique fan like cut they used on one of the larger melons that I hadn't seen before. The other appetizer options were some sort of fish nuggets, and a soup. I forget what the soup was, but despite its name, reports are that it looked and tasted the same as the soup the night before. Dinner options were a chicken entrée that sounded way too much like the lunch we had today, a vegetable stir fry, or a seafood duo. We went with the seafood duo and it was great, a piece of salmon and a piece of fish we didn't recognize. It was all served with the same boiled potatoes and the same family style vegetable tray to share. That's another great meal in Ireland, and here they have a reputation back home of not putting a good meal on the table. I know Europeans like to eat dinner slower than we do, but I swear it was al least a half hour between the time most finished their main meal and the strawberry cheesecake arrived. The cheesecake was more moose like than we would expect but a nice treat none the less. At the end of the meal, we headed to the cashier to pay our bar bill, when we were informed "Your pints have already been paid for!" The next morning we tried to track down likely suspects to thank them, but either we didn't guess the right people or they denied it. We never did find our who the mysterious friend was who paid for our pints.

After dinner, it had already started getting dark, and we had gotten a hint that we would be up late tomorrow night so we got ready for bed. For the benefit of both of us, I started taking second shower the rest of the trip.

Day 4 Friday September 5, 2008

We awoke to start Day 4 of the trip. We would be leaving Galway today, so after getting ready, we put our bags out in the hallway then headed to the dining room. Breakfast was pretty much the same as it was the day before, so take a peek back up a few pages if you need a reminder. We soon boarded the bus and were on our way. The seat rotation program sort of worked today, and after we got on our way Jerry mentioned that first we had to take care of some business regarding tonight's hotel, it seems that the hotel tonight does not have elevators,, so anybody who needs a ground floor room should speak up now. After that we headed to our next stop, which was the Galway Cathedral. We would be getting our Mass stop of the day out of the way early.

On our way to Galway Cathedral, Jerry mentioned that one of the sadder moments of Enlgish rule was when they made the Anglican church the official state religion, which meant you could not have a Catholic Church or school for many years. As a result most of the older Catholic churches were closed or converted to Anglican churches. Galway Cathedral itself dates back to only 1958. He mentioned some key points to look for are the Connemara marble inlays in the floor, and the mosaic tribute to JFK in one of the side chapels. Apparently JFK was a big donor to get the Cathedral built. Our time to walk around inside the cathedral and look around would be before Mass, and Jerry pointed out the side chapel in which Mass would be said. We took some time to look around, and get photos. I noted that even though the church was in the traditional nave and transept design, it was built with the altar in the intersection and seats on all four branches facing the center. The church itself has a real nice setting, almost on an island.

At the appointed time we headed to the appointed side chapel. Today, instead of a private Mass just for our group we would be joining in the Cathedral's normal weekday morning mass. As a result we had not only our priest, but a priest from the Cathedral, then for whatever reason, a third priest. The local priest made a comment about the odd situation where we have three priests concelebrating a mass for a relatively small group. It was still a faster mass even with all the three priests and all. We did get the benefit of the bells during the Eucharistic Prayer, and of having both body and blood for communion. As I took the blood, when I glanced in the couple I noticed something I don't quite understand. They used white wine, which just seems to go against the whole blood analogy, and of course Catholics believe that the wine in the chalice actually becomes Christ's blood, so I just don't get the use of white wine.

After church we all headed back to the bus along with a comfort stop (or as Jerry would call it a technical stop at the cathedrals comfort facilities. Galway Cathedral's restrooms are totally inadequate when they find themselves on the receiving end of a tour group. I also noticed scaffolding along this side of the building, as I mentioned it seemed like a lot of restoration/ preservation work is going on. The long slow restroom stop actually worked out well as it helped disguise the fact we had an unplanned delay in our touring. At first the only thing you may have noticed wrong is that Jerry seemed to be missing, and John was ruffling through the bus cargo holds, and was on his cell phone (mobile phone in Ireland) a lot. After the group had reassembled on the bus, John gave us the briefing. To put it gently, one of the tour group was really not feeling well and decided they should seek some medical advice. So Jerry had gone with them to the hospital, and John was getting their luggage and putting it up in the front of the bus. We would then head to the hospital, drop off the luggage and pick up Jerry. On our way there John continued the tour narration in Jerry's place, adding the interesting trivia that the Galway Cathedral was built on the former site of the city jail, and the gallows would have been where the high altar is today. Furthermore the bridge you cross to get to the church, on the other side of it was the courthouse, and urban legend had it that if the horse driving the newly convicted to jail refused to go, then you were though to be innocent. John mentioned as a sort of marker to that era, the front doors of the church were the front doors to the jail building as well.