Ulster Folk Park, Belleek, Yeats, Sligo

My day today was more of a regulation tourist. Our bus stopped at the more "commercial" tourist spots, and that was ok, but anything was going to be hard to compare with the grandeur of yeterday's trip.

Ulster Park

The days are starting a little later than the European Tour, and that is much appreciated! There is always a cooked brekky on offer, but I take the cautious way and just have my weetbix and toast and vegemite. I have to take my weetbix down in a little ziplock bag, and I feel such a dork bringing out my daily dose of sugar-free fibre, but when travelling on a bus, all precautions must be taken. Then to add to my dorkiness, I then proceed to furtively drag out my jar of Vegemite, because, once again, they only offer sweet things to put on your toast. I could have a massive cooked breakfast every day if I so desired, but that might be pushing my luck a little too far...!

One of the young-ish gentleman on the tour, who is a little unique (whole life history in first 5 minutes!) stacks his plate twice at breakfast and works his way through it all. I just sit back and admire an appetite like that.

Anyway, having negotiated breakfast, we're on to the Coach and off for the day. Today our first stop was at the Ulster-American Folk Park, which was little like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, except it was about Irish immigration to America. It was actually quite a good display and combined both lifelike models and poster boards inside, with recreations of cottages and live locals who were acting out the roles of the people in the olden times.

Models depicting life after immigrating

We had two hours there and it went really quickly. We could've stayed a lot longer. I loved the Irish traditional houses and models of life of the immigrant, but I zipped pretty quickly through the new life settlement in America. The money for the display was donated by an Irish American family who had made good in the USA, but wanted to highlight the life of the Irish immigrant.


It traced the history of the potato famine and how the population of Ireland decreased by over 25% during that period - through both immigration and death by starvation. Some of the displays were very lifelike and really portrayed the miserable conditions that the immigrants faced, both in Ireland before the journey, then on the ship, and then when they arrived in the USA things were not much better.

Our next stop was Belleek, the china making factory. It was fascinating to watch the craftspeople at work and see how long it takes to make the individually crafted items. The prices refelect this amount of time and effort, so purchases were kept to a minimum, as I was also worried about transporting any fragile items I bought.




Then we all piled back on the bus, and the next stop was Yeats' grave at a place called Drumcliffe - just outside Sligo. I had been there before on the bus tour I took 12 years ago, and as we approached the place, I actually remembered being there before. There is a magnificent set of mountains behind the grave and they tower over the Church and cemetery. There is also an ancient Celtic Cross there which dates back to the ninth century. The monastery was founded by St Columcille (St Columba) around 574, so the history just oozes out of the place.

The handles on the door of the Church were a pair of swans and apparently they were donated by the Yeats society of Western Australia. Nice connection!!!



Had a short break in Sligo and just had a cruise around the shops. We don't really get enough time to do a town justice, but I suppose it's giving me a picture of what's available later when I hire my car.

On the way to our hotel for the night, we made a quick stop at a Holy Well called Tobernalt Holy Well. It was a shrine which grew around a well and there were grottos and statues and candles burning. It actually had a truly peaceful aspect to it, and
the sign as you went in said "Silence" and most members of the tour honoured that. I lit a candle myself and said a prayer for all the people on my email list, especially those who are not well at the moment.





Tonight we are staying at a place called Castlebar and we are in a lovely old home that has been renovated into a modern hotel. It's called Breaffy House Resort.


So - a good day for a tourist today. Scenery was just lovely Ireland, and I'm not complaining at'all at'all at'all at'all!