Weekend Warriors Part III - Dingle

We spent Saturday night in Killarney then woke up leisurely, but with time to make it to church in the charming little branch in Tralee. Maggie counted fifteen people there, other than ourselves - a big change from our 400-person ward in Rexburg! So good for the kids to see the church in its various global manifestations. We talked about how the Lord needs valiant servants to do his work, whether as a temple president in Utah or a deacon in the Tralee branch. Ireland struggles a little in new growth - not a hospitable climate for the missionaries - but there are valiant, noble souls here propping up the church.

We also wanted to explore the Dingle peninsula, right next to the Kerry peninsula. I'm not completely sure this didn't exclusively have to do with it's name - the dingling Dingle peninsula. It just sounds funny. But we had a wonderful, misty day driving roads like this at dizzying speeds (close your eyes, dad - this will give you hives! and yes, this is a two-way road.):
There were cliffs on either side, straight up and straight down in some places (the Connor Pass!) - terrifying! But also strangely thrilling. I'm so glad Gary was driving, but at the same time, me sitting on the left side of the car, yet with absolutely no control over speed or direction of the car, left me feeling nervy and confused. I'll be happy to get back to my comfortable, large, luxurious Honda in the states! And streets wider than seven feet across!

Luckily we made it through the pass without harm (to us or the car, although I wish I could say the same about my nerves!) and landed in Dingle. Cute little port town, bought the girls Claddagh Rings for Christmas, chatted with the locals at the little music shop.
This is a statue of Fungie, the dolphin who has made the bay of Dingle his home for 27 years. We looked for him everywhere, but didn't catch a glimpse!



I have to explain this tower in the distance back there. It was built in the 1840's, for the sole purpose of giving the poor starving workers on a local estate something to do. As you tour Ireland, three major events shape the scenery around you. 1. The Potato Famine, 1845-1852. The potato blight wiped out the potato crops those years, causing over one million people to starve and another million and a half to emigrate, reducing Ireland's population by 20 percent. The memory of these haunting years is still very present in the collective Irish cultural memory. Vacated, crumbling cottages on desolate landscapes bespeak the dead or departed inhabitants. Monuments to the famine reside in every city square. Follies like this were built by landlords just to give their men work. Everything changed during and after the famine.

The second cultural watershed which influences what you see is the invasion of Cromwell in 1649-53. He tortured the country, killing and sacking everything in his wake, and his name is still anathematized by all proper Irishman. He burned most of the churches in Ireland; hence the plethora of crumbling stone religious edifices at every turn.

The third is the Irish civil wars through the last 150 years, Irish War for Independence and the Civil Wars of 1919-1923, and their heritage of political and cultural unrest.

But now... back to our Dingle Adventure!

After driving around the peninsula some more, we were just ready to home. On the way we listened to Truman Madsen's lectures on Joseph Smith - love them! and decided on one last stop: the 13th century Askeaton Fransiscan Friary just down the river from Limerick. The kids loved this. No entrance fees, no lines, no roped off areas - this was the site that made Maggie say to me, "Mom, I'm falling in love with history!"


Do I smell a Christmas card photo? Taken by the only other person at the Friary, an American tourist from Oregon.

And then it was back home. Phew! We packed in a lot in three days! This is the last of our major sightseeing excursions in Ireland, I think, at least for now. We leave for France though in two weeks - YAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!