Slan Leat

Well, it’s time to bid a fond farewell to Ireland. Tomorrow Sheelagh and I head to Scotland to visit Dorian. On Friday, John and Von begin their long, long journey, via Vancouver, to Canberra. Family and friends in Oz beware. Between them, they have 50,000 photos! We only have 30,000 because two days ago, as we told you, we dropped and broke our camera (again! we can hear some of you say) so the Kemisters won the “Most Pictures of the 43rd Anniversary Trip” race. We’ve tried to share with you the beauty of this island and Iceland and the fun times we’ve had together. We thought we wouldn’t be able to top our trip to Scotland three years ago but we have.

During the last two days we have seen a couple of the most important historic places of Ireland. The first was Monasterboice.

 This is the site of a monastery founded in the 5th century by St Buite. It became one of the most famous scholastic centres in medieval Europe. Unfortunately, a fire in their round tower in the 12th century destroyed the library and the centre went into decline. Today it is famous for it’s 3 High Crosses. Muiredach Cross is the finest in Ireland.

 It’s cravings of Old and New Testament stories have withstood everything that Mother Nature has thrown at it since 1100. It is very impressive.

The West Cross is the tallest in Ireland 

and the North Cross, one of the earliest. 

The hustle and bustle of centuries ago is hard to imagine in this quiet spot today.

Our drive today took us to the Hill of Tara. 

It has been the centre point for Irish history since Ireland has had people. The man who fought his way to be crowned on the Hill of Tara was the High King of Ireland.

 The ancient passage tombs have yielded treasures now in the National Museum.

  I still want to find a horde, sigh,sigh. We had a very peaceful visit ending with a session of sound therapy - sitting cross legged on the Hill of Tara playing sound bowls. We just needed a few crystals and we would have been a new age band. 

As Von said today, we have laughed a lot on this trip. That is a big part of our time with these wonderful Australians. We laugh and we talk seriously, until someone says something really funny and then we laugh some more. It’s hard to believe that 43 years have passed since we first met. I heard today that New Zealand will be the next meeting place. Three years hence. Bring it on.