Sat Sept 16

True to form after the rainy day we had clear skies for our trip back to Dublin. We couldn't drive through Ireland for three hours without stopping somewhere though. First was the village of Shannonbridge, where we have fond memories from the 2009 and 2013 trips. The old stone fort guarding the bridge is now a restaurant so we pulled in there just as the motorcycle club was leaving.

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The road through the village was the main Galway to Dublin road for centuries before the new motorway bypassed it. It has now become "road trip alley". As soon as the motorcycles roared off a Triumph sports car club paraded in. So we got our own little car show. 

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Now here's a question I've often pondered. How many Irishmen does it take to fix an English sports car?

_8507333 But actually our main motive for taking the scenic route to Dublin was to stop in at one more monastery. Just upstream on the Shannon is Clonmacnoise, founded by St. Ciaran in 544. If you find it on the map you will see that it is smack in the middle of the island, right where the main east west trade route crossed the Shannon River. This location, along with the piety of the monks of course, led it to become one of the preeminent monastic settlements in Ireland, on a par with Glendalough. And it would provide us with the best serendipity of the trip. For unbeknownst to us, there were four columns of pilgrims, one from each of the four provinces of Ireland, converging on the monastery at that very time. They were doing a three day walk to observe the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross. The walk would conclude with Holy Mass so we would be able to celebrate with them on this very holy ground. 

IMG_7669 _8507428 IMG_7650 After that invigorating experience we grabbed a few more pictures and headed on to Dublin. 

_8507415  We arrived in rush hour (not that bad) and checked in at the San Juan B&B where Cathy McConnell has hosted us every trip since '09. 

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We had time for one more outing and I've always wanted to check out the village of Howth, which is right on the northern tip of the entrance to Dublin Bay. It is a charming little town with lovely cliff walks and the Baily Lighthouse. Unfortunately the overcast rolled back in which meant the light would fade fast. So we made for the lighthouse and used what light we had left there. I did long exposures to smooth out the water.

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So that was our very excellent trip to Ireland, 2023. You have only to endure the black and white pictures and we are done with this blog. Except that I'm writing this from France. I'll be getting started on that one soon.