Easter Weekend- Drogheda, Newgrange and Knowth

This weekend is Easter, but for obvious distance reasons I wasn't at home. I started to get a little bit down about it, but then I decided to do something fun to counter it and make it different this year. John, Kelsey and I were in the same boat, other people were away or their parents were here. We decided to head up to the town of Drogheda, Ireland. No, I hadn't heard of it either, but why not? We left at 9 am, and I woke up earlier to eat a egg and cheese bagel supplemented with strawberry yogurt and a banana and apple, which has become a staple of mine. I packed a lunch before we left so that I wouldn't get hungry or have to buy any food out there (that was a great call on my part). We had some difficulty with the busses, as they were doing construction and had removed a stop, so we had to take a private bus. When we arrived, we were struck by the number of massive churches, there were at least 5 in a small town! We were walking to the tourism office when we encountered a market, which was probably the most interesting market I will ever see. The only way to describe it was, "an eclectic Walmart in open air- you could get anything there from cell phones to used clothing to dog food to toys to farmer's food. Interesting. We wandered around for a while, then made it to the tourism office. They made a couple of recommendations in town then suggested that Newgrange was only a short taxi ride away. We took

The church behind which Cromwell broke through

their advice and went to the Irish Military War Museum, which included the military barracks at the top of the town that looked as far as the sea in the distance. When we walked into the office, we met an older man and woman. We asked what time the next tour was, and they laughed, and said whenever we were ready. They asked where we learned about them, and when we said the internet they were shocked. The woman who led us up to the tour must've been in her late 60's and knew everything there was to know about the town. She pointed the wall behind one of the churches, and told us that is where Oliver Cromwell penetrated
the walls of Drogheda when he came to Ireland with 12,000 troops, leaving 2,000 in Dublin and

continuing to Drogheda with 10,000. In one day, he massacred the town, killing over 1,000 people. She told the story of 100 people who hid from Cromwell inside a wooden church tower, and pointed to exactly where that church was. His reaction was to burn the tower, burning the people inside alive. It was chilling to think of that day, and see exactly where that happened so many years ago as we walked around freely without a concern. Additionally, she told us that Saint Patrick grew up just down the river, and Drogheda was one of the stops he made when he came back. The climb to the tower was intense, and she continued to tell us that during the civil war, the city was divided in half by the river. One

attack involved the shooting of a canon at the tower, which devastated the whole side of it and led to victory for the opposing side. Luckily for us, the tower had been reconstructed exactly as it was. It was a very cool experience. We also saw a collection of weapons that a Franciscan Friar had been holding for the troops during the war, which nobody knew about until he passed away. I thought of the Friars that I know, and yeah, I'd say that's pretty characteristic. When we left, we didn't stop talking about what a cool tour it had been. We were satisfied with the trip already.

Collection of weapons hidden by Friar

From there we stopped at a cathedral which was rather impressive, and headed out to Newgrange and Knowth. Newgrange is estimated to be around 5,000 years old, estimated to have been built around 3200-3000 BC and taking generations. It is dated back to the neolithic era, before metals  It is an incredible feat because of the mere size of the rocks that were used to construct it. The local stones were limestone, which don't last. Somehow, the builder's must've been aware of this, and all of the stones to build the tomb, which is over an acre and massive were imported by some means from elsewhere. The white stones that border the front are only found 50 km to the south or 70 km to the north, and it is in

unimaginable feat to consider moving all of them. Most notably, the tombs were designed so that the interior rooms only saw the light of day during two specific periods: the summer and winter solstices. This led the belief that these were used for religious purposes, but surprisingly little is known about the people who constructed or used the tombs. These passage tombs are littered with artistic works and drawings, most of which were spheres, and there is uncertainty if it was a sort of language or map. The first tomb that we visited had been build on top of for defense, so the passages were deemed structurally unsafe,

Sous-Trench (Passage was much
rougher than this!)

although we were able to view a sous-trench, which was built from the top and connected to the passages below. When we moved onto the Newgrange tomb, it was breathtaking and incredible. We were able to go inside through the passageway, which involved ducking, winding, and squeezing between rocks that had shifted over the 5,000 years. We had to keep our backpacks in front of us below our knees to as to ensure that we did not bump into or damage the artwork that was along the passage walls and in the main room. The main interior room, which was about the size of my bedroom at home featured a massive two story vaulted ceiling. In a full acre of building, it all led up to this room. There was no mortar used in the construction, the rocks were simply layered one slightly over the other one to come to the top. What's more- there was never any restoration done, I was standing in a spot which was identical to what it was 5,000 years ago. That was an incredible experience and reflection, considering how much had changed over those 5,000 years outside of the wall of this tomb. Who were these people that they were so intelligent and innovative?

Cow, Sheepdog, Farmer, and Tractor. Stereotypes.