Day 13 – Driving to Northern Ireland

Donegal Castle

Most of the day, about 5.5 hours, was spent driving up to Northern Ireland from Galway. We made one stop in Donegal for lunch and to see the castle. We took a tour of the castle and learned quite a bit about the end of Gaelic rule in Ireland, which I’ll try to summarize. The English conquered Ireland and began a long process of trying to colonize Ireland and eliminate Gaelic influence. Three Gaelic kings, including Hugh O'Donnell of Donegal Castle, finally revolted against the English Tudor rule in 1593 and began the Irish 9-years war. Early on, the Irish won most of the battles but eventually the power of the English army defeated the three kings and ultimately the families of the Gaelic leaders left Ireland and never returned.

Castle Interior

From Donegal (Ireland) we headed toward Bushmills (Northern Ireland) in an attempt to arrive there before the last tour at 4 pm. We did get there with about 15 minutes to spare, but then we got another lesson in Irish history. Today, July 12, is a holiday in Northern Ireland and they had closed early. In case you didn’t know, and we didn’t, the 12th is Orangemen's Day which is an Ulster Protestant celebration of the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. That victory maintained Protestant rule in the Ulster area of Ireland and it remains the same today. They celebrate now with bonfires on the evening of the 11th and parades on the 12th, often through Catholic areas just to rub it in. In any case, missing the tour is not big deal. We’ll just go tomorrow.

View From Our Restaurant (Portrush)

We headed to our room and passed right by the Royal Portrush golf course, which is the sight of the British Open next week. All the stands are in place and they look like they are ready for the tournament. The tournament was last held here in 1951 and it was the only time it was held outside of England and Scotland.

We had a nice dinner in Portrush which is a seaside resort full of people on holiday. We have a hard time understanding how they are able to do it, but there were several people swimming while we are going around in jackets. The town has a Ferris Wheel and a number of Arcades to entertain visitors.

Trad Music

After dinner we went back to the hotel just in time to listen to some “Trad Music.”  This is traditional Irish music where people just show up and start playing and singing old Irish tunes. There were I think eight players tonight but anyone is welcome to bring an instrument and join in. They use the traditional instruments - fiddle, guitars, accordion, pipes. Alan and I went and we were the only tourists there but they made us feel welcome and we chatted politics and music with a couple of guys. It never fails to amaze me how much foreigners know about American culture and politics and how little we know about theirs.