Overcast and Rainy Drive to Kinsale

 I had porridge for breakfast. At 8:30 this morning we met our coach driver Dennis who loaded out luggage. Country law is that seatbelts must be worn at all times.

Lynn spoke about our plan for the day, and we departed on a 15 minute ride to Kilmainham prison. Our guide,Tom, walked us around the former county jail which closed in 1924 as a prison which housed and executed political prisoners. Around 4000 non-political prisoners left from this location gor Australia. After early reform and before it became crowded the treatment plan was solitude,  silence, and supervision. We visited cells and the outside area where the male prisoners stones cut stones/ rocks, the execution site, and saw final letters the political prisoners sent to their loved ones. Fourteen men were executed in a period of 10 days in 1916. This aroused the populace toward greater support of the cause of independence from Britain "at all costs". The war of Independence had begun and was won in 1922. This was a moving experience.

  We rode south and west a couple hours. In the coach Lynn gave us history and interesting cultural information as well as describing the next stop and its role in Irish history. It was the Rock of Cashel. After a group lunch of soup and sandwiches we walked up the hill to the castle then church in several styles. Built in 300 AD and given to the Roman Catholic church in 1100 we walked around it with our guide, Tom. He told more history and myths about this huge rock on which the church is built.  One is that the devil had an argument with another being and grew angry.  He bit out a piece of a hill ten miles distant and spit it out where the castle was built. We could see "the bite" from a distant hill. 

Tge next coach ride was under two hours. We arrivedat the car park in Kinsale. Our hotel host met us there and transferred our luggage to his large van, we walked about 10-15 minutes into and through town to our hotel, Friars Lodge. Premilla andI have a large room with two queen beds and a single one.

Before supper we met and introduced our buddies, sharing the information we learned at lunch. We are a talented group: pharmacists, a dentist, a  medical technician, able keeper, an AI professional, teachers, nurses, a floutisi, a former ballerina who saw the dancer Barishnikov in the nude. That stimulated questions, comments,and laughte. I think the ice has been broken, for today was our first time together in a casual setting.  Ilearned much more at our group supper.

Premilla and are grateful for the assistance we received unlocking the door to our room. In the process we received a short lecture from another tour member.  WHEW.

Slan:Bye, Susan 


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