Hello Everyone Interested in the DHS travels to Ireland:
Today, once again, the skies pretended that it might rain, but we lucked out in the morning and throughout the day. The weather was nice. This evening it started to drizzle just before we got on the bus to go to the church, but essentially stopped even before we had to get off the bus. The buses could not drive up very close to the building because the streets were too narrow; so the kids walked (about 10 minutes) to the church. The Protestant church was called the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. It is, according to their pamphlet, the largest medieval parish church in Ireland still in constant use. Built in 1320, they chose the name of St. Nicholas because he is the patron saint of sailors and Galway is a seaport town. It actually is not a college as we know the term, but rather a seminary where priests are trained. The students sang for a relatively small audience, but those who attended gave them a standing ovation. The acoustics in the church were simply incredible. The woman who booked our choir for the parish spoke to the students afterward and explained that the acoustics are equal to that of Westminster Abbey. She also shared a great deal of history about the church. Because our students are much more trained in terms of listening to historic lectures, ask them about the following: 1) how these “people” are connected: angry Normans, Ferdinand, Isabella and Shrek, 2) the history of the word lynching, and 3) why the holy water is covered in their church.
Another church the students sang in today was beautiful as well, not as old or as large, but impressive still. In fact, it had marble in it that we had seen manufactured earlier in the day. At the Kylemore Abbey Church, students sang for a larger audience than the evening group. They too enjoyed the performance which sounded terrific. Right outside that church was a graveyard for nuns who had lived in the Abbey. One tombstone showed that a nun lived to be 102. This gothic church was on the grounds of a huge residential mansion built from 1867-1871. The estate is surrounded by mountains, has its own private lake, and the grounds are well manicured. Fit for a queen, I’d say. Since, I have been officially crowned on this trip, I am moving in. This home was actually built for Mitchell Henry’s bride because they had honeymooned in this area. Her husband purchased this 15,000 acre estate as a romantic gift for his wife, who unfortunately died 3 years after the mansion was complete. Much later in 1920, the land and mansion were sold to a community of Nuns of the Order of St. Benedict. We had time to take a quick peak at the interior of this mansion which was ornate and of the highest quality. They displayed an architectural drawing of the entire mansion. Viewing that, I still can’t figure out why the nuns needed a billiard room. Anyway, I’ll remember the freshly baked scones, homemade jam, the relaxing lake, and our students’ voices.
We started the day by learning about Irish marble dug from local quarries, which first opened in about 1800. Ambrose Jr. invited the group into the workshop where we also met his father. We entered in two shifts and stood in the small back room of the shop; the front half was a store where people could purchase their products. They discussed the process of moving from excavation to large marble blocks to final polished products. The marble was multiple colors depending upon the area from which it came—there was black, red/rose, two different shades of green and white. The green Connemara marble is estimated by geologists to be over 500 million years old. Much shopping took place in this location. Today, we boosted the Irish economy singlehandedly.
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