Day Three: Armagh

An exciting day, the day I go see the town my novel takes place in, which made it hard to fall asleep last night. But when morning came we got ready for the day, and went to enjoy some Irish breakfast. Bacon, toast and jam, eggs sunny side up and soda bread. So yummy, and so filling, we didn’t eat lunch until three in the afternoon. Larry also introduced himself, and shared a bit of the history of Dundrum house. His accent is fun, but I think I’m only getting about 60% of what he’s saying, while Justin is making out about 40%. It’s amazing all the work they did on this old farm house, and they still have plans of expanding the B&B in the future. After taking a break from the last ten years of renovations, but luckily some of the family have helped fix up the place.

With breakfast settling nice in our bellies, we headed off to Armagh. We weaved through the narrow hilly streets, keeping the spires of St. Patrick’s Catholic cathedral in our sights. We arrived at the church just as morning mass was ending, and a nice gentleman that was going up to the church told us about the school, the archbishops house, and the front walk way which was renovated in 2000. Which is a good tidbit since my story takes place before then, so I’ll need to be careful when I construct my climax.-

After touring the cathedral and taking a lot of pictures, we decided to walk the streets a bit. It was great to get a feel for where my characters could walk, go and do. We walked in the Mall, which is not for shopping, but a park in between the courthouse (which was recently renovated from a bombing in 1993) and the prison (women’s prison now). There were a couple of monuments to the Irish that fought in World War I, and a great row of Georgian style houses lining the park.

We walked around the streets some more, surprised at how many people were our and about on a Tuesday morning. Around noon we got back in the car to go see the Navan fort, which holds a lot of Armagh’s history, but it was closed. Apparently their website had not been updated. But we continued on toward the small village of Tynan, to see a high cross. The village didn’t even have a stop light it was so small. But the large Celtic cross on the road was beautiful. Ireland has about 270 free standing Celtic crosses in the country side. We weren’t able to see the Abby (which has two other high crosses), since it is still a working private abbey, but we were able to see some of the small grave yard and the architecture over the wall. After stopping in Tynan, we decided to head back to Armagh and wander the streets a bit more.

We went into the tourist information center and were told about the Armagh museum, so we walked over and went through the history of Armagh tour. It was very interesting to see what affected the growth and development of this beautiful city, but then we got locked in the tour. The last door was locked, so we had to feel our way back through the dark exhibit before we could enjoy the final movie, luckily they let us in by another door. After we walked about some more, stepped in to a chemists’ (like a Walgreens) to get Justin some cold medicine, he’s doing better but the congestion is keeping him tired, which is probably helping him enjoy such a slow paced trip. Then we headed back to Keady and the B&B.

Once we dropped off our day’s treasures, we decided to go on a little walk. We found Larry getting ready to feed the cows, so we jumped in the jeep (truck) and joined him on a tour of his farm. It was amazing to hear about his family’s history and even some of the situations they ran into during The Troubles. He even showed us the small stone house his father was born in. Most of the Irish we’ve talked too seem to compare The Trouble’s to the war in Iraq, which brings about a wealth of interesting discussions. After touring the farm, and seeing the three day old calf, Justin and I are settling down for the night. Our feet are ready for a rest.

Blessings.