The Bible and Culture

In county Donegal one can still find the traditional old process of weaving on a loom. Most such products today (including Edinburgh Woolen Mill stuff in various cases) are not made where they were traditionally made, and are not hand made any more. Indeed, much of it is made in China! Not so the stuff from Triona. We went to a demonstration of the traditional craft by master weaver Dennis Traherne. You will notice as well they have included the original Traherne cottage in the shop, to show … [Read more...]

So we've shown you some of Donegal castle, the castle of the O'Donnells, and like many lords and ladies, they collected fine things, including important manuscripts, in this case, an early book of Psalms in Gaelic.There are some fine views from in the castle of the surrounding area...There are some nice churches in Donegal, a proper Anglican church, and a Methodist church.These churches were either shut, or empty, but if you are looking for people and the life of the town … [Read more...]

There are many things to like about Donegal (pronounced Donny gul or gaal). It is a quaint town with an interesting castle and much more. It will take a couple of posts to do it justice. Let's look at the castle first. The lady checking her pictures while we wait to go in the castle, is my Ann.Actually, most of these castles are fortified manor houses, as this picture will attest.There are some ornate features to the tracery of this castle.If you're wondering about the … [Read more...]

Derry, (officially name Londonderry thanks to the Brits etc.) is the second largest city in Northern Ireland after Belfast. We were there on a quite soggy day, but nonetheless got to see a few things. We had a walking tour, that unfortunately didn't bother to take us into St. Columb's cathedral, the pictures of which, on the interior, are beautiful. So, I can only show you the outside.Derry is a walled city.. as the following will attestFrom the walls, you can get a glimpse of the … [Read more...]

One of the major natural tourist attraction is the Giant's Causeway, in the northern part of Northern Ireland. This is about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns on the north coast, and it is well worth seeing. It has the name it does due to the myth about Finn McCool. Here's the Wiki summary of the myth--- "The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted … [Read more...]

On our tour we spent time with a couple of Kiwis (no not the fruit, the people from New Zealand!). They kept remarking on how similar some aspects of Ireland were to New Zealand. Yes.... and no. Both places are very green due to plenty of precipitation, and Yes, there are a lot of sheep. In New Zealand the running joke is 3 million people and 30 million sheep. In Ireland the ratio is a little less daunting, but nonetheless, there's plenty of sheep to see in the fields of Ireland as the above … [Read more...]

Ann and I saw many things whilst traveling all over Ireland, and certainly one of the most memorable things is simply seeing the beautiful landscape, remarkable coastlines and the like. Ireland is where much of Game of Thrones is filmed and one can readily see why. When they are not in a giant studio in Belfast (directly behind the Titanic museum, but more on that later), they are all over the island shooting scenes. For example, this remarkable stand of trees, called dark hedges, divided by a … [Read more...]