Connemara region

Hello everyone long time no read eh? So I’m back in Galway after four days in Sligo in the middle of nowhere. I’ve been neglecting this for week or 2 because I have really not been wanting to take the time out to write a long entry.


I’ll start with the wonderful tour that, I went on Sunday last week of the Connemara region. I have been to the Connemara region before it is one of the things I remember from my last trip to Ireland five years ago . i remember we stayed in this town with a fountain in the middle and thinking i could stay here for good .


So we departed Galway at 10 am for the Connemara region. From the start of the tour the guide named Michael talked about history of Ireland and all the folklore which made the tour all that more interesting our first stop was this abbey out in the middle of nowhere it was so nice. The abbey itself was the home of st Patrick for few years before he moved on to climb some mountain and banished some snakes from Ireland. This abbey was built on to few times and had some big graves in it as you can see from the pictures. I will add more info about the abbey later on if you want to read about it. Here is the info on ST. Patrick here

The next stop on the tour was the little Cong Village & Abbey we were stopped there for lunch time. I really liked the village of cong. I had a lot of fun just taking pictures of all the ruins that I ran into at the abbey. When we got there me and the German girls walked up to this massive castle that is only for the rich and famous to stay at. it was a nice place to get up to the walk was through a bunch trees and a nice path . Me and the German girls had devised a plan if we were to get caught. I would shut up and they would start talking German so that then it would look like they did not understand the signs or something. here is were you can read about cong abbey and village


Cong abbey is really neat too see it has all these arch ways and such great photography opportunity’s


I’ll let you look at the pics too see what I mean. The German girls and I wondered around for a good hour looking at the abbey and the graves. They went to eat lunch and I went to see what I could see of this monks fishing house and came on this gate to a wood that reminded me of a book i use to read called the outlander. It almost felt like it was a gate way to the past worlds that have gone by. Here is the photo if you want to see.



After we had drove though the Connemara region and seeing all the turf and the lochs . We came to Kylemore Abbey. Now before i get into this abbey I have story to tell about this place. It all happened back when I was in Edmonton for the year going to NAIT. So my one reader who fondly refers to him as robot norm (mom he does not read this so it won’t matter) . At nait we had Photoshop classes that we had to edit certain photos for different purposes. Norm would lead us through a photo and say do this and this. He happened to open up a photo of Kylemore Abbey I said I’ve been there he said oh . so i walked up to him after class and said that is in Ireland and it is school for girls run by nuns he said oh you have not been there so I said I can prove it . I Went home to lethbridge for the weekend and came back with a photo of Kylemore Abbey for him to see and well he did not believe me . You know now it does not surprise me that norm did not believe me. He had a hard time with me entirely and I think was glad that I was out of his hair at the end of the year .

Here you are people is the proof for robot norm to see ME IN FRONT OF THE ABBEY, so take that robot norm!

Ok so now on the abbey you can read the history here I this place is similar to bolt castle in Canada a husband built it for his wife and she up and died on him. This one differs though cause he buried her on the grounds and put a statue of her at the top of the hill. I liked walking the path to the church i ran into a sheep a lost baby to me that is Mother Nature coming out and saying hi to me. It was a cute baby sheep. When I got to the church it looked like one of those 1900 copies nothing special or that great to look at it was the same as most things you see back home. I know I should like it but I’ve seen so many like it.
Anyway after the abbey we packed it in and went back to Galway I fell asleep on the bus I was so tired from the night before with jeska and the girl I don’t remember her name at the bar.

refections of time to come and time to go by

wrote in October of 2008 a refection of what i thought was coming here in Ireland
in actual fact nothing goes as it seems to ever . who cares i have so many wonderful people in my life i don't really care because whatever i do and wherever i end up all of them are with me .

i was on Claire island walking up a road and i started to shed tears not because i was sad because i was thankful for all the supportive family and friends i have .
smiles .

I finally booked my flights back to the land that i fell in love with 4.5 years ago last week ! !! Ive been trying to find a way to get back there since i left all those years ago . i remember i was in the airport in c town I looked back and smiled and thought i well go back someday sometime and im doing it .. it well be hard for me but if i can do this i can do anything . i need to go alone and do some crazy stuff and be myself .. i need to do this before i get tied down with a job and a life im not sure i want yet . i want all those things but not yet not yet later on in my life maybe in 3 or 2 years ! i had the dream of norma's kitchen again with some tall dark stranger with his arms around me and us talking with whomever . we were laughing about something funny that was said i had wine in on hand and the other was around the strangers arm that was around my shoulders and neck ! i want to see listovana on the coast of Ireland . Grannie grave on Claire island ! i just want to live a crazy year of new things a different job new people places new things love a place so much that i wont want to leave it and be sad to leave it when i have to ! this time i have a plan and nothing will stop it !

the farm

Thought I would give you the rundown of the farm when I was still there I wrote this for blogger but now it seems that it is just a document for my sake to keep a record of my time there .
I’m currently sitting in a nice house in Ireland on Claire island. I arrived here in Tuesday and it is now Thursday . Claire is the home of grace O’Malley. Grace was a pirate queen in the times of Elizabeth the first. She basically gave Lizzie a run for her money. I really never thought I would be working on organic farm learning about natural ways to plant plants and I would be up my knees in mud. There is a general clam that has come over me.

I’m living in house with an aussie girl named Paula we have our own rooms an a very nice two story house without internet thus the reason for not posting this on the Thursday and now on the Friday lol !
I have to go to a bench to post these updates so I think in the next week there is not going to be much updating if you get me . Cause well it is outside and I really don’t want to be dropping this computer in the mud . so this land is owned by a family . They have 240 acres of land . Yes mom you can drink the water they have a natural spring and there is no water conservation here. It is really neat what we hear for lunch and supper we are left to our own devices. Paula said I can cook I can get a signed statement if you don’t believe me mom! We are eating all organic and natural it has made a big difference on my body i feel so much more awake and alive by eating so healthy.
Let’s give you all a rundown of the day we are up at 830 am and working by 930 am and off at half five . it is hard work . today me and Paula hauled bags of brecan all over the fields and up and down the road so they can put it on the plants .. I well sign off now cause my body is sick with soreness from all the work I have done

grace omalleys grave

Hey everyone

So I’ve been back in Galway for a few days. I was working on a farm on Claire Island but it did not work out for reasons I’m still confused about. I was given the afternoon off on Friday to go see grace O’Malley grave. it was a long walk up to the abbey but I did get there . I was on my way and had a little friend his name was bran. He followed me all the way to an abbey and all the way back. The owners of the farm where a bit mad that bran had gone with me and said I should have told them he was with me.

I have been reading about grace O’Malley for a number of years now. she was a pirate queen in the time of Elizabeth the first . it is said that she died in the same year as the queen . it is not sure certain when she died . I’m going to link a movie so that you call can watch about grace O’Malley and the usual wiki information for you all. When I got to the abbey i was told to go find a guy named Bernie winters. I looked around to find this man but was not having much luck so on my way down to the store to see where he was i found him by mistake .


He was a really nice old man that also takes people in for woofing in the spring. He lives in the oldest house on Claire Island. He is the friendliest person I met on Claire Island. We walked up to the old abbey and he was pointing out all the O’Malley that were in fact related to the great grace O’Malley. When we got into the abbey I had a dead rock star feeling come over me i was standing in the place were the most powerful Irish women of her time was buried . if you all know me you know that i read lots about warrior women and have tons of books in my stash on them . this abbey was very tiny and did not have much space in it . When we got in Bernie told me that they have xmas eve mass in this church every year . They have since built in lights and put a new roof on the abbey. He told me that it was left open to the elements for almost 80 years till someone in 1952 decided to raise money to restore and save the abbey. There are many frescos on the walls in the part were grace is buried. Bernie told me that they have not had anyone come in and restore the ceiling because of cost and they can’t pay for it.


Though out the hour that I was in the abbey Bernie told me all of the graves that were in the floor and also about grace and translated lots of the Irish writing for me . I really think that Bernie should become a tour guide. graces grave has a coat of arms of the O’Malley family beside her grave which Bernie translated to “powerful O’Malley on sea and land “ gives you an idea of how powerful she was . It was also said that grace gave birth to one of her sons on a ship in the middle of a battle that she was leading against the English. Now that is guts for you eh. I really felt connected to grace in away. Ok now the good part Lucy Lawless (xena warrior princess) had stood in the spot of graces grave for a documentary that I watched a few years back on discovery channel. Bernie said that she had the most captivating eyes he had ever seen.

Now i must talk about Bernie. He is a Claire island farmer who does everything the old way. He uses no machinery to help him do anything at all with the farming. I imagine he is between 65 and 80. He is nice and loves to talk to strangers that come through to see graces grave, Bernie is the keeper of the key for the abbey on Claire Island . so i need to ask anyone out there have a picture of some hay bails that you could loan my mom to photocopy so she could mail it to Bernie on Claire island . The funny thing that got me about Bernie was as soon as I told him were in Canada i was from he piped up and said Gordon Lightfoot Alberta Bound. Do we all remember the family gathering in Cochrane were we sang that song for the time we were there? In 1997 or 1998? Susan can correct this date if I’m wrong or grams smith well . So now I leave you with a movie that is 10 mins in the end of a movie about grace O’Malley . Just let it load and then watch the end of it you can see the abbey and Bernie’s dog shep in the end when lucy is at Claire island here is a pic of the abbey and the walls and celiing of the abbey for you all to see and last but not least graces grave .






OK so that grace post was long so i edited it down to the web Addy so you can go there and read about her. here

roving gypsy boy

I feel like a nomad right now. I have no home all I care about is camera and iPod and computer my only lifeblood’s. Ok fine my camera is the lifeblood I care about. I almost bought a new lens for it today I was so tempted to get another one to futz around with.

I spoke to a friend today for the first time since emailing her every day for the last week. She is someone that is close to me in life and knows who I am. She told me that I sound different maybe I do. Do we all change and grow in different places? I know that in the coming months two of my closest friends are going to have babies and life will never be the same. I met this girl in a pub after she had stole my gay man hat . she talked of life and lovers that she had lost and what she had gained from everyone of them . she seemed to have a real grip on what she wanted in life . I am the one in my family that has chosen the nomadic life style for now. I say Amy and Nicole chose mortgages and bf I choose to be free for now. I am starting to take this traveling thing as it comes and not to get flipped out over small things .ok I don’t get the job on some farm oh well not a biggie there are 184 more to email and find out if i can work there. I’m going to miss the little normality’s of Galway when I leave but i have to keep moving till i find what I’m looking for whatever that maybe ?



ill leave you with the lyrics of jimmy rankin beacause that is how i feel right now !

Roving Gypsy Boy"
By Jimmy Rankin

Autumn leaves are falling
The eagle takes to flight
The open road is a'calling
As day breaks slowly from the night
Day breaks slowly from the night

At the breaking of dawn he stepped to the road
In the soft early morn he stepped lightly
Humming a song to himself surely ode
And all through the day he stepped highly
All through the day he stepped highly

They call him the roving gypsy boy
He'll never choose to stay
They call him the roving gypsy boy
A rambler in his day (x2)

Ten thousand miles away from home
Ten thousand miles or more
Ten thousand miles he chose to roam
Like an eagle he did soar
Coast to coast and shore to shore

He rose up in the east and he set for the west
Travelling the whole world all over
Searching for something that he loved the best
Like a free living gypsy wild rover
A free living gypsy wild rover

They call him the roving gypsy boy
He'll never choose to stay
They call him the roving gypsy boy
A rambler in his day (x2)

He left the high road to live on the low
And all different kinds he met there
Plenty were the good folk
Many were the foe
But they all were his friends when he left there

There's a lot more to gain from this living than wealth
There's a lesson to learn with devotion
Be kind to all others as well as yourself
Or you'll drift like a boat out on the ocean
Drifting like a boat out on the ocean

They call him the roving gypsy boy
He'll never choose to stay
They call him the roving gypsy boy
A rambler in his day (x2)

They call him the roving gypsy boy
He'll never choose to stay
They call him the roving gypsy boy
A rambler in his day
A rambler in his day....

famliys found and lost and created

Hey everyone
So I’ve been here in Galway for just over two weeks. I have come to love this place! I think I well return here when I come back from the yoga center! I know you all must be a little peeved I moved the blog . I had to move it due to a person here that I did not want to have it enough said there ! so Galway is great the people here are wonderful and friendly . I’ve made a few friends one of which made me feel so good yesterday . She works at the market in a flower stall and she walked up to me and said happy V-day Kimberly and hugged me .
There is also a girl who works at the hostel she is so nice and she took me out for coffee one day with her friends. I feel so at home here it is not even funny . i have been lucky enough to have met friendly people here and had wonderful memories .
There is a group of us at the hostel who have come to be a temp family .I have never really had one of these in my travels yet but have been lucky to have found it this time. There is Jamie from aus, rafa from brazil , bee from Quebec and Shane from Ireland . We have gone out a few nights in the last few weeks to the pub or watched movies in the common room together. It is funny how you can make a temp family in strange ways we well keep in touch or lose one another over time . as life goes on they are memories that are kept in my mind forever .


There is welsh guy in the pub who i have seen five times how and just ran into this Moring in the square when going to get 2 euro pasta that was on sale . There is the flower seller name jean who smiles at me and says hi and tells me to keep fighting to work in Galway. She was happy that i got a temp job for a few weeks on the island so that is good. Now when you meet someone in a bar and they want to keep in touch it is are you on face book lol!


I’m getting really excited to go to Claire Island as it the base of grace O’Malley the pirate queen of Ireland who gave Elizabeth the first a run for her money . i well try to update this in the next two weeks if i cant you well have a lot of reading to do in few weeks
Wish me luck and all be seeing you all in few weeks

Galway is the place

Hello everyone
It has been a while has it not! so I’m going to update you all on Galway Ireland . i have been here for just over a week and i think I’m staying here ! Hopefully I’ll get a job here soon had one interview for a nanny job but it won’t work out so on to new things i guess! I’ve found that i really like wondering around this city to see things and people watch. I have really grown to like this market on Saturday’s very near the hostel that I’m staying at! This market sells food so cheap and it is healthy food. I had sushi for 3 euro and some vegan curry for 2 Euros. I have to post the pics later on tonight. so on Monday i met this interesting aussie guy in the kitchen i ended up going out till 1am with this guy and talking for 6 hours about whatever we could think of he then asked me out again the next night .


So I met him the next night. We met up with one of his friends in a random pub and ended up bar hopping for the rest of the night to all these different pubs and drinking. Me I had 1 pint and water and tea ! at the last pub we met these Irish girls and started talking with them about what I forget they were so nice and invited me out for Thursday night I did not go cause I was so worn out ! I’ve met some interesting people here in the hostel. There are these two girls who have been living here for few weeks and have been some entertainment for everyone in the hostel. lets just say i don’t miss days of our lives that’s how interesting they are .

there was a Magdalene Asylum here in Galway and there is a statue to it there is info below to anyone that wants to read it . I’m also still on my grace O’Malley quest to find her grave. If anyone is interested I think grandma has my book or it is in the cupboard with all my books in my room you are welcome to borrow it is Kathy’s story about her time in the laundries .

Right here is the Magdalene Asylums information i took it from here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Asylum

Magdalene Asylums were institutions for so-called fallen women, most of them operated by different orders of the Roman Catholic Church. In most asylums, the inmates were required to undertake hard physical labour such as laundry work. In Ireland, such asylums were known as Magdalene Laundries. It has been estimated that 30,000 women were admitted during the 150-year history of these institutions, often against their will. The last Magdalene Asylum in Ireland closed on September 25, 1996.
History
Magdalene Asylums grew out of the rescue movement in Britain and Ireland in the 19th century, which had as its formal goal the rehabilitation of women who had worked as prostitutes. In Ireland, the institutions were named for St. Mary Magdalene, who according to Catholic tradition, repented her sins and became one of Jesus' closest followers.
The Magdalene movement in Ireland was quickly appropriated by the Catholic Church, and the homes, which were initially intended to be merely short-term refuges, increasingly turned into long-term institutions. Penitents were required to work, primarily in laundries.
As the Magdalene movement became increasingly distant from the original ideas of the Rescue Movement, that is, to take prostitutes off the streets who would not find regular employment because of their background, the Asylums took on an increasingly prison-like character. Supervising nuns were instructed to enact strong measures that would discourage women from leaving and instead encourage them into penance. The Congregation of the Sisters of Misericordiae, for example, is described by the Catholic Encyclopedia thus:
In receiving patients no discrimination is made in regard to religion, colour, or nationality. After their convalescence, those who desire to remain in the home are placed under a special sister and are known as "Daughters of St. Margaret". They follow a certain rule of life but contract no religious obligations. Should they desire to remain in the convent, after a period of probation, they are allowed to become Magdalenes and eventually take the vows of the Magdalene order.
Asylum records show that in the early history of the Magdalene movement, many women entered and left the institutions on their own accord, sometimes repeatedly. Lu Ann De Cunzo wrote in her book, Reform, Respite, Ritual: An Archaeology of Institutions; The Magdalene Society of Philadelphia, 1800-1850 (published in Historical Archeology, the journal of the Society for Historical Archaeology), that the women in Philadelphia's Protestant asylum, "sought a refuge and a respite from disease, the prison or almshouse, unhappy family situations, abusive men and dire economic circumstances."
Because of their background as prostitutes, inmates were regarded as "in need of penitence":
"The woman who has never known the pollution of a single wicked thought - the woman whose virgin bosom has never been crossed by the shadow of a thought of sin! - the woman breathing purity, innocence and grace, receives the woman whose breath is the pestilence of hell!" [Catriona Clear, Nuns in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, p.153; cited from Finnegan, p.20]
Inmates were required until the 1970s to address all staff regardless of age, as "mother", and were called "children". As one priest wrote in 1931: "It may be only a white-veiled novice with no vows as yet; and it may be an old white-haired penitent giving back to God but the dregs of a life spent in sin. It matters not. In the Home of the Good Shepherd the one is ever the 'Mother' while the other is always the 'Child'." [Finnegan, p.42]
To enforce order and maintain a monastic atmosphere, the inmates were required to observe strict silence for much of the day. "The Rule of Silence was a major feature of the women's lives and continues well into the second half of the twentieth century." [Finnegan, p. 24] Corporal punishment was common, and passive-aggression was simply ignored:
"A sullen temper, often shown by refusing food, is best dealt with by silence. When a girl wakes up to the fact that no one takes any notice, nor is troubled (apparently at least) by her self-starvation, she gets weary of her self-imposed martyrdom and learns sense." [Arthur J. S. Maddison, Hints on Rescue Work, A Handbook for Missionaries and Superintendants of Homes (1898); cited from Finnegan, p.31]
As the phenomenon became more widespread, it extended beyond prostitution, to unmarried mothers, developmentally-challenged women and abused girls. Even young girls who were considered too promiscuous and flirtatious, or too beautiful, were sent to an asylum. This paralleled the practice in state-run asylums in Britain and Ireland in the same period, where many people with alleged "social dysfunction" were committed to asylums.
The women were typically admitted to these institutions at the request of family members or priests. Without a family member on the outside who would vouch for them, some penitents would stay in the asylums for the rest of their lives, many of them taking religious vows.
Given Ireland's conservative sexual values, Magdalene Asylums were a generally accepted social institution until well into the second half of the 20th century. They disappeared with the changes in sexual mores - or, as Frances Finnegan suggests, as they ceased to be profitable: "Possibly the advent of the washing machine has been as instrumental in closing these laundries as have changing attitudes."
The sending of wayward women to Magdalene Asylums was an example of what many feminists regard as the phenomenon in which even suspected sexual misconduct by women is punished more harshly than sexual misconduct by men.
[edit] Revelation
The existence of the asylums was little thought of until, in 1993, an order of nuns in Dublin sold part of their convent to a real estate developer. The remains of 155 inmates, which had been buried in unmarked graves on the property, were exhumed and, except for one body, cremated and reburied in a mass grave in Glasnevin Cemetery. This triggered a public scandal and became local and national news. In 1999 Mary Norris, Josephine McCarthy and Mary-Jo McDonagh, all asylum inmates, gave accounts of their treatment. The 1998 Channel 4 documentary Sex in a Cold Climate interviewed former inmates of Magdalene Asylums who testified to continued sexual, psychological and physical abuse while being isolated from the outside world for an indefinite amount of time. The conditions of the convents and the treatment of the inmates was shown in the acclaimed film The Magdalene Sisters (2002), written and directed by Peter Mullan. However the accuracy of this portrayal has been challenged. In addition, the story of one of the most famous alleged victims of the Magdalen asylums has been charged by relatives and investigators with being largely an invention.[1]
Similar instances of abuse have been reported in Ireland's industrial schools. As a group these institutions were exposed in an RTÉ (Ireland's national broadcaster) series by reporter Mary Raftery in 1999. Despite the Irish government convening of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, attempts to obtain compensation for the victims of the system have proven frustrating. [1] [2] Essentially, to be eligible for compensation, a victim must have been resident in one of a number of specifically listed institutions; no Magdalene Laundries are included on this list