On Wednesday we left the YWCA at 8:30 am and travelled to New Ross to see one of the famine ships or coffin ships. We learned from our bus driver, Brian, that many Irish people dislike it when the famine is referred to as The Famine - rather - they like to refer to it as the Great Hunger since only the potato crop failed and Ireland grows many other food crops. The only reason so many people died was because all the other food was being exported out of the country and the British weren't doing anything to help the starving Irish people who depending on the potatoes for their own food.
Anyway, the boat was the Dunbrody which was supposedly one of the better ships to get onto if one was going across the ocean. Our tickets for the tour were replicas of the real tickets that passengers would have gotten back in the 1800s and the names that were on the tickets were actual names of real passengers who traveled on the Dunbrody. I was Sarah Redmond age 32 with a husband named James age 26, and two little boys William and John ages 2 and 1.
On the ship we were shown the First Class cabins that were worth 25 pounds (an acre of land was 5 pounds) and the Steerage Cabin where everyone else slept. Families shared one bunk with their belongings and singles shared bunks with other singles and their belongings. The top bunks were thought to be the best because if you were on the bottom bunk and the person above you got sea sick and didn't make it to the bucket in time...the stuff eventually sunk through the boards to the bunk below. Just my luck my family had a bottom bunk. Hopefully Kendahl doesn't get sea sick...her person bunked above my family.
The Steerage Cabins were 8 pounds and each family got weekly rations that had to be cooked over one of two fires up on deck during the 30 minutes a day that the Steerage passengers were allowed up on deck. You can imagine the disease and smell that came about in that place.
After that we went to Queenstown which was the last port of call for most famine ships, the Titanic, and it was the port that the Lusitania survivors were brought to. Outside the Queenstown Museum, there is a statue of Annie Moore and her two brothers. Annie Moore was the first person to cross Ellis Island as an immigrant. Also (supposedly) two Germans were ahead of her and her brothers but someone suggested that the "lady and her children" go first. She also got $100 dollars for being first which in those days would have been a fortune.
No one really knows what happened to Annie or her brothers in America.
After Queenstown we went to Blarney Castle and we climbed all the way to the top of the castle to kiss the Blarney Stone that will (supposedly) give the kisser eloquence of speech. Like any of us in the group need more eloquence of speech.
Then we went and explored the castle and the grounds. We saw the Dolmen which is a rock structure with a little passage underneath it and it is thought to be an ancient portal into another world. Well...I am still here. I did not find Narnia through that portal.
We also saw the Wishing Steps. It is said that if you can go up and down the steps with your eyes closed thinking of nothing but your wish it will be granted. After the steps was the Witch's Kitchen. It is said that if you come to the kitchen in the early morning then you can see the dying embers of her fire because she comes out of the Witch's Stone at night (which is near the kitchen), but that during the day, the witch is stuck within the stone.
After that came the Druid Stones and the Sacrificial Alter. Chelsea had fun pretending to sacrifice me.
Then the last thing was the Fairy Glade which was so cute with tons of flowers.
Oh - and there was a Poison Garden at Blarney that grew poisonous/dangerous plants. That was pretty cool.
We also saw the Blarney House which is just a Victorian house on the property. By we I mean: Jeffry, Michael, Becca, Chelsea, and me.
No comments:
Post a Comment