Back in Time to Ireland: January 2008

Bunratty Castle

Bunratty Castle was opened to the public in 1960 as a National Monument, and is open to visitors year round. It is the most complete and authentically restored and furnished castle in Ireland. Bunratty Folk Park recreates rural and urban life in 19th century Victorian Ireland.

There is an extensive array of indigenous buildings on its grounds which represent the social strata of Medieval life from the poorest one-room cottage to Bunratty House. The name Bunratty, Bun Raite in Irish, means the 'bottom' or 'end' of the Ratty river. This river, alongside the castle, flows into the nearby Shannon estuary.

A cottage on Bunratty Castle grounds.

Killarney

Castle in Killarney, County Kerry

Friars Island, the Osprey Rock in the Lower Lake in Killarney's National Park.

Killarney National Park

The Burren

The Burren is an amazing place. It is a karst limestone region of approximately 300 sq km which lies in the north west corner of Co Clare, in Ireland. It is composed of limestone pavements, which are eroded in a distinctive pattern known as karren.

This pavement is crisscrossed by cracks known as grykes and underneath the pavement there are huge caves and rivers that suddenly flood when it rains. It contains dozens of megalithic tombs and celtic crosses and a ruined Cistercian Abbey from the 12th century, Corcomroe.

You can find villages abandoned since famine times and green roads on which you can walk for miles without ever seeing a car . And if you go in springtime you will find rare wildflowers such as gentian and orchids and bloody cranesbill.

Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher are one of Ireland's top Visitor attractions. The Cliffs are 214m high at the highest point and range for 8 kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean on the western seaboard of County Clare.

The Cliffs of Moher are home to one of the major colonies of cliff nesting seabirds in Ireland. The area was designated as a Refuge for Fauna in 1988.

O'Brien's Tower stands proudly on a headland of the majestic Cliffs. From the Cliffs one can see the Aran Islands, Galway Bay, as well as The Twelve Pins, the Maum Turk Mountains in Connemara and Loop Head to the South.

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle was built nearly six hundred years ago by one of Ireland’s greatest chieftains, Cormac MacCarthy, and has been attracting attention beyond Munster ever since. Over the last few hundred years, millions have flocked to Blarney, making it a world landmark and one of Ireland’s greatest treasures.

Blarney Castle, as viewed by the visitor today, is the third to have been erected on this site. The first building in the tenth century was a wooden structure. Around 1210 A.D. this was replaced by a stone structure which had the entrance some twenty feet above the ground on the north face. This building was demolished for foundations. In 1446 the third castle was built by Dermot McCarthy, King of Munster of which the keep still remains standing.

Blarney Stone, the legendary Stone of Eloquence, can be found at the top of the Tower. Kiss it and you’ll never again be lost for words. Everyone from Sir Walter Scott to a host of American presidents, world leaders, and international entertainers has been eager to take advantage.

Irish Roads

Irish turnabouts are quite common, and replace standard stop lights.

And sometimes one has to pull to the side to let another pass.

Irish roads are small, narrow, old, and rocky.

But the scenery is awe-inspiring.

Bruree: The Place of Kings

Bruree: a town in which Eamon de Valera was raised and where Mary Horton's grandmother was born.

De Valera Heritage Museum in Bruree.

The cottage in which Eamon de Valera grew up.

The Kilmainham Jail

This is the jail Eamon de Valera was held in after the British captured him and 13 other commanders for their involvment in the Easter Uprising in 1916.

The other 13 commanders were executed here, but Eamon was spared because of his U.S. citizenship and the additional fact that the British didn't want to tarnish their relations with America by killing a citizen and a political figure. Eamon later escaped.

Eamon de Valera

Eamon de Valera's New York birth certificate. DOB Oct 14 1882, NY, New York.

1910 Marriage photo- Eamon and wife Sinéad Bean de Valera .

1916 Eamon's original soldier photograph.

An altered copy of the above photo.

1916 Eamon captured by the British after the Easter Uprising in Ireland.

Seven months after escaping British prison where he was held for his involvment in the 1916 Easter Uprising, Eamon de Valera makes US headlines for visiting Seattle November 11, 1919.

January 1 1920, artist Sean O'Sullivan contemplates his portrait of Eamon.

July 1921, Eamon in London with the Irish political party Sinn Fein founder Arthur Griffith during the negotiations of the treaty which partitioned Ireland.

February 1922, Eamon addresses a crowd at O'Connell Street in Dublin, Ireland.

1922 picture portrait of Eamon de Valera.

April 1927, Eamon de Valera with his mother, Catherine Coll.

Eamon circa 1937 in his office at the government offices.

13 Nov 1938, Eamon (top left) attending his first football (soccer) match in official capacity at the international game between Ireland and Poland in Dailymount Park, Dublin.

January 1941 inspecting troops on O'Connell Street, Dublin on the 25 anniverssary of the 1916 Easter Uprising.

January 1948, Eamon attending the funeral of Yeats.

21st February 1948 a scene during the general elections in Eire. The poster displays Eamon de Valera's head and reads The Head of a MAN whose splendid life-story makes your being able to vote for him, a proud privilege.