The Hill of Tara and Trim Castle

The harbour at Howth

Whilst we were staying in Dublin we did a few day trips to various sights.  The first trip we did was north out to Howth, the Hill of Tara and Trim Castle.  We had an interesting tour guide, he gave a much more in-depth look into life in Ireland and how it was faring during the GFC.

Looking out to sea at Howth, apparently there are often seals here

The trip out to Howth, which is a very pretty fishing village on the tip of the Dublin bay, the guide was focused on the property development going on, and not in a good way.  He was saying that Irish people like to live in houses, not un-like Australians really, but that property developers had come in during the good times and built these big apartment complexes which were now sitting empty. 

He was also saying that a lot of the hotels were now owned by NAMA, which is the National-Asset-Management-Agency.  Basically the government now owns a lot of the hotels in Ireland, and it is likely that quite a few will close down in the near future.  Meaning that currently if you stay in a hotel now owned by NAMA you are liable to get a bad experience, as all the people working there know that very soon they could be out of a job. 

I wouldn't say that the guide was pessimistic about the future of Ireland at all, I think his point in telling us all these stories was that the Irish should stick to what they know and that the problems came about when they got greedy and tried to move into things they had no need for or idea of.  It was certainly a different view from the vast majority of tourism operators who always seem to pretend that there is absolutely nothing wrong with their country/city, and that it couldn't be more sunshine and daffodils.

But back to Howth, if you are ever staying in Dublin and feel like a seafood dinner, then Howth is definitely the place to visit, you would probably need to book as it looked super popular, but it's at the very end of the railway line, so wouldn't be too hard to reach.

Dave on the mound of hostages at Tara

The man himself, St Patrick at Tara

After Howth we headed off to the Hill of Tara.  This is a massively historical site for Ireland.  Whilst there is not much to see there anymore, a few mounds and trenches where burial chambers and great halls once used to be, it has been involved in Irish history for 4000 years.  This was where the high kings of Ireland would come to be crowned by the druids, though these were never kings of a united Ireland, but probably more kings of the surrounding areas.

The mounds and trenches at Tara, representing structures from thousands of years ago

It is also supposedly the site where St Patrick first lay claim to Ireland as a Christian country.  The story goes that around Easter time all the fires in the land would be extinguished before the druids would light a new one at Tara.  St Patrick, having lived as a slave in Ireland for many years before retuning as a missionary, knew this and so lit his own fire on a nearby hill.  Apparently the druids saw this fire and had him brought to Tara, where magic ensued and St Patrick was victorious, thus paving the way for Christianity to take over Ireland. 

I think it's more a case of St Patrick having intimate knowledge of the Irish people and knowing how to weave their existing stories with Christianity to produce something palatable to the pagans. 

In later years Daniel O'Connell chose the Hill of Tara for one of his rallies which saw over a million people attend. Which kind of goes to show what sort of meaning this place has for the people of Ireland. 

Daniel O'Connell was a bit of a shining light in Irish history, his nickname is the Liberator.  He is one of only about two people in the history of Ireland who attempted to gain independence via non-violent means.  Just about everyone

A cross outside the church at Tara

else thought Ireland could only ever be free from the English through violent revolution.  And the thing is Daniel O'Connell got a hell of a lot done.  There's certainly a reason why he is remembered so fondly by all the Irish.  At the time when he was campaigning, in the early 1800's, Catholics, of which he was one, were not allowed to sit in Westminster parliament, among other curtailments of their rights. 

Daniel O'Connell was eventually elected to parialment, the Prime Minister of the time saw that if O'Connell was denied a seat in parialment the Irish would not be happy.  Not wanting to have to deal with a restive population the English changed the laws, allowing for Catholic emancipation and for O'Connell to take his seat at Westminster.

He was also interested in repealing the Act of the Union, the act which brought Ireland into the United Kingdom.  It was in protest against this that he began orgnising Monster Meetings, so called because more than 100,000 people would attend.  Supposedly the one on the Hill of Tara attacted a million people.  It was at this point that the English began to get edgy and banned any more meetings.  O'Connell fearing violent confrontation and bloodshed acquiesed.  It was from that point that he began to fade from popular view.  Some people felt that he had betrayed the Irish.

I don't know about that, him and Parnell, who I'll talk about later, seemed to me to be about the only people who ever actually seemed to get anything done.  There were an awful lot of failed, violent, revolutions, before and after these people, which didn't seem to achieve much and just led to further alienating the English and Irish.  Perhaps if there had been more non-violent protests things could have turned out differently.  It is hard to know though.

Trim Castle

After the Hill of Tara, which isn't really a hill, more sort of a slight rise, we headed off to Trim Castle.  This is a Norman castle built in the 12th century and is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.  It is certainly one of the best preserved that I have seen.  It was used for the filming of Braveheart, which is slightly amusing, the story of a Scottish hero being filmed predominately in Ireland.  When you visit this place you can only go inside as a member of a guided tour, you aren't allowed to just wander around.  It's a little scary inside as in the past there would have been about 3 storeys, except those floors, which would have all been made of wood, have completely rotted away.  So instead there is just a shell, 3 storeys high with walkways built connecting rooms.  There was a lady who was scared of heights in our group, she suffered a bit, especially when we got to the roof.

Walkways inside the castle

During the tour the guide was very much talking up the defenses of the castle, the staircases all wound clockwise so that right-hand attackers would be disadvantaged, how there was only one internal entry to the food stores and all the rest.  Which of course begged the question as to how often it was attacked.  Turned out there was only one attack during the course of it's life.  Which occured when the rightful lord went off to England, leaving the constable, who was his bastard brother, in charge of everything.  By the time the lord returned the constable had decided he wanted to be lord and didn't let him in.  So the lord had to lay seige to his own castle for about 3 weeks, before they could buy off the bastard brother with promises of another castle somewhere else.

St Patrick's cathedral from Trim Castle

Arrow holes at Trim

Trim Castle was on the border of what was called the Pale.  This was the area inhabited by the English, outside of which the native Gaelic chieftans could keep their lands intact, but only if their heirs were brought up within the Pale.  This idea of the Pale, where the English minority tried to take over the Gaelic majority via land grabs and plantations certianly has been a factor throughout the Irish history, and really didn't help coming to a peaceful solution.  In fact this is where the expression "beyond the pale" comes from, as referring to those people beyond civilised society. 

The new entrance to the castle

Flowers along the river Boyne

Trim Castle

Now it's the flower's turn

Dave on the Hill of Tara

Where magic ensued, looking across to the rival hill

Dave hanging at the Hill of Tara with the mound of hostages behind him

A fairy tree at the hill of Tara, apparently you tie something to the tree and by the time it degrades your wish will come true.  Though some people had tied plastic to it.  Perhaps their wishes are more long-term