Newry/Drogheda

So, today we got up and got the bus to Newry.  There Maynard picked us up and we headed down to Drogheda (yes, the one that they talk about in the book/movie, The Thornbirds) to meet up with the former Lord Mayor Sean Collins.  On the way we made a pit stop at the Boyne where Maynard explained the Battle of the Boyne and the movements of both the Williamite and Jacobite armies.  We also drove down to Mellifont Abbey where William had ridden through.

Sean was really interesting and is also an historian.  We went to St. Mary's church and learned about Oliver Cromwell.  Apparently, people and books at the time really embellished his slaughter in the town.  We saw the old medieval walls of the town both in the cemetery and at the St. Lawrence Arch.  We saw the graves of an IRA man who hated Michael Collins and a man killed in the Great War.

After St. Mary's we went to see the St. Lawrence Arch.  The arch is amazing and is said to be the best example of architecture of that style.  It is believed that the builder went to Wales and also built Harlech Castle (which I had the pleasure of seeing last year.)  I can definitely see the similarities between the two and wouldn't doubt the connection.

From the St. Lawrence Arch we headed to St. Paul's.  There we saw a number of graves.  The grave of a military family (that continues to this day), a member of the ill-fated Light Brigade, a cadaver headstone from the bubonic plague (1 of 11 in all of Europe), the family grave of Jonathan Swift's girlfriend--Vanessa, and one that held the remains of a woman said to have been buried alive and when grave robbers came to steal her jewelry cut into her finger waking her from her coma...(you get the picture.)

After meeting with Sean we headed up the coast.  We stopped at Maynard's place just on the outskirts of Kilkeel.  He also took us past Green Castle and to see where the American air strips had been from the Great War when they were stationed in Ireland.  Many of the air strips were torn up and made into walls, while the others remain in use as paths.  We stopped for ice cream on the way back to Belfast.

Now I'm packing my things for 2 days in (ick....) Dublin.  Tomorrow we start the morning with a tour of Armagh and then head to Dublin.  While in Dublin we visit the Dail (pronounced Doil) and meet with Minister Eamonn O Cuiv (grandson of Eamon De Valera).  Thursday is our meeting with President Mary McAleese.

I won't be online until either late Thursday or early to mid morning Friday depending upon when we return to QUB on Thursday.