If it's Tuesday.... we're somewhere in Ireland

Another beautiful day... and, as of yet, we haven't seen a drop of rain today. Of course, I have just jinxed that and it will start pouring as soon as we walk out of here.

So nice to see the sun shining this a.m. and it made for a very lovely drive up the coast to Donegal. And, here we are in the 3rd "D" of the Dublin to Dingle to Donegal Tour - 2006.

Donegal is a beautiful town, laid out around a town square, very uncharacteristic for an Irish town, yet PERFECT. As with so many towns, there is the requisite castle, but this one is in the heart of the city. That doesn't often happen. We did the walk down through town and then visited the castle before the search for lunch. It is quite small and is really more the remains of a manor house than a traditional castle, but interesting nonetheless. Hopefully, there will be pictures.

Then we headed for the Diamond, the town square, in search of lunch and a book on the Annals of the Four Masters, a history of the Gaelic people, written in 1616 (or thereabouts) by four monnks in Donegal. According to Wikipedia:

"The Annals of the Four Masters or the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters are a chronicle of medieval Irish history. The entries span the dates between the Deluge in 2242 A.M. and AD 1616, although the earliest entries are believed to date from around AD 550.

The annals are mainly a compilation of earlier annals, although there is some original work. They were compiled between 1632 and 1636 in the Franciscan monastery in County Donegal. The entries for the 12th century and before are sourced from medieval monastic annals. The later entries come from the records of the Irish aristocracy (such as the Annals of Ulster), and the seventeenth century entries are based on personal recollection and observation.

The chief author of the annals was Michael O'Clery, and he was assisted by, among others, Peregrine O'Clery, Fergus O'Mulconry and Peregrine O'Duignan. Even though only one of the authors was an actual Franciscan, Michael O'Cleary, they became known as 'The Four Friars' or in the original Gaelic, 'Na Ceithre Maistir'. The Anglised version of this was 'The Four Masters', a name which then became attached to the annals themselves. The patron of the project was Fearghal Ó Gadhra, a lord in County Sligo.

The annals were originally written in Irish. There are several manuscript copies in existence, which are kept in Trinity College Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy, and University College Dublin.

The first substantial English translation (starting at 1171 A.D.) was published by Owen Connellan in 1846. The Connellan translation included the annals from the 11th to the 17th centuries complete, and was the only version to have a four colour frontis and include a large folding map showing the location of families in Ireland. It lay nearly forgotten for over 150 years, but was finally salvaged and republished in the early 21st century. The Connellan translation was followed several years later by a full translation by the historian John O'Donovan."

Now... if I read this right, we can all assume that Noah was Irish. :) We stopped in the Four Masters Bookshop... and couldn't find a single copy in English. Fortunately, I think we can get most of the English translation on line, we we'll read more about that later. As we so often hear and say... "Grand... Amazing... Brillian!"

Enroute, we stopped in Belleek and went to the china factory. (http://www.belleek.ie/). Actually, going to Belleek took us out of the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland, part of Great Britain. (Hey... we visited a whole other country... and never even stopped the car -- not sure where the border was!) There wasn't a tour available, but they had areally nice historical area where you could learn about the history of Belleek China AND, as usual and customary (maybe even required), you exit into the, where else!, GIFT SHOP... where you can shop to your heart's content, using the currency of your choice (in Britain, it's pounds sterling instead of the Euros we use in Ireland), and they'll gladly ship it to you! And, so... I did a little shopping. (Hey, my Aynsley china stuff was on SALE!) I bought a few little things and they are now enroute (well, maybe not NOW, but soon) to the good ol' US of A).

Not sure where we're headed next... back to Sligo I think as thoughts of driving out the coast road are not pleasing to me today. The spectre of the flat tire looms large in my memory!

Until later... Dawn