Back again from the pig's valise!
We have done a little bit of traveling in the area, and have seen many lovely (albeit soggy) sites.
''Mountain and Moor"
''Tory Island and vicinity"
There are still a few of the old traditional thatched cottages around, though unfortunately, most are gone. The ones that remain are mainly kept up for the tourists, as museums and holiday homes.
''Traditional Thatched Cottages"
We have also seen many cute critters.
''Friendly Local Cow"
''Friendly Local Sheep"
''Friendly Local Swans"
After a few discouraging assurances that nobody around here knits or sews anymore, we found a QUILT SHOP!!
I had been told that; "there used to be a lady named Pauline who had a quilt shop in Dunfanaghy." I decided to see for myself, so we set out for it.
Dunfanaghy is lovely little village by a bay, north of where we live, where we saw yet another gorgeous rainbow when we visited.
''Dunfanaghy Rainbow"
I am pleased to tell you that the lady is very much still there and has a lovely shop, Pauline's Country Quilts, with a very respectable selection of fabrics and notions. She now has a website which should be on line soon.
To top it all off, there is a "Sheephaven Quilt Guild" which has a "bee" once a week in the old Workhouse nearby. As an added bonus, Dunfanaghy is also the home of the Green Man, a kind of organic, natural food store, with a fantastic selection of yummies from France, Italy, etc., and natural cleaning products with no perfumes. We brought home a big bag of groceries and will certainly pay him another visit soon.
Shortly after our first visit to Pauline, I was asked if I would like to teach a workshop for them in January. So my first foray into local quilting will be to teach my favorite method of hand applique. I had brought only a small bag of scraps and one pattern with me, so with a fat quarter purchased at Pauline's shop to serve as my background, I made up the Prairie Parfait block from Thru Grandmother's Window (Piece O' Cake) as a sample for the workshop. This is now on display in the shop, and Leah and I have joined the Sheephaven Quilt Guild.
We next went south to Dungloe (don't bother pronouncing the "g"--they just say "dun-loe" locally) the only known spot in the area where you can recycle plastic and paper, and enjoyed the spectacular scenery along the way.
While on the subject of traveling, here are some words about Irish roads for the unwary visitor.
Though they have improved some of the roads around the Eastern cities, many of the roads are extremely narrow, winding, and poorly paved, and wouldn't make a decent bike path in the US. They usually have two-way traffic, and the drivers tend to go at least as fast as the marked limit.
Despite the fact that Irish roads are nothing to brag about, most of the speed limit signs indicate that 80 km per hour (about 50 mph) is the limit.
It seems as though they just made up a bunch of signs, mostly 80 but some of them are 100 (about 60 mph), and stuck them randomly along the roads just to get them out of storage.
Many of the little side roads, often one lane and unpaved, have speed limits of 80 kmh with the signs just a few feet ahead of a sharp turn, blind curve, or steep hill. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
As we left one town, the speed limit was 100, but just for about 100 yards. Then it was suddenly 50. They must have made a lot of those signs, because they post them on both sides of the road, as though it doesn't matter which side you'd like to drive on.
The signs often read different speeds on the back - for example, coming into a road, it will be marked 80 km per hour and on the back (for those coming out) 50 km per hour! We are beginning to become accustomed to the roads here, but driving on the left is SO WRONG!!
''Actual speed limit sign - not a joke!"
(A friend of my husband's who has lived here for years recently told us that they were actually put up to meet an EU mandate, and that no traffic surveys were carried out. Since some of the 80 and 100 kph limits are on roads, that run past schools or senior homes, this would seem to be a reasonable assumption.)
On the plus side, there is much less traffic here than in the eastern city regions like Dublin, which is a traffic nightmare. Traffic jams here are few and far between - except when the livestock decide to cross the road!
''Gaeltacht Traffic Jam"
On the way back to Glassagh from Dungloe, we stopped for lunch at a lovely hotel high up on a hill, overlooking the bay and ocean (well, we could almost see them through the sheets of rain that were pouring down). They offered lovely dishes of salmon and bacon-wrapped chicken, and delectable desserts.
A few days later, we made yet another trip through Dunfanaghy (dun-fana-hee: why would you want to pronounce the "g"?) and went all the way to Carrigart. We also stopped at Doe Castle, which was formerly the home of the MacSweeney clan, a warrior clan that supplied the famous mercenaries known in English as "gallowglasses" (from "Gall-oglach" in Irish, meaning "foreign young warrior.") The name of the castle doesn't derive from doe as in deer, but from the Gaelic words "an dThuath" which can mean several things, including tribe, farm, and the direction North.
It is set in a lovely spot overlooking an arm of the sea called Sheephaven Bay, with an appealing little island just a short distance away. Though it was fought over many times over the centuries, you would hardly guess its violent history by looking at it in its present tranquil setting.
''Lisa and Leah at Doe Castle Entrance"
''Inside Doe Castle"
On the way back, we wanted to stop by the old Dunfanaghy Workhouse, since we knew that the guild members meet there on Wednesdays and Fridays to sew together. The workhouse is one of a number built in the 1840s, where the poor and indigent were housed, to work long and hard in return for very basic room and board.
The Dunfanaghy Workhouse was built in 1845-- as with many others, just in time for the Great Famine, when the potato crops, which were the main and in ome cases only food source of the peasantry, failed all over Ireland for several years running (due, it was later learned, to a fungal blight). It was then a place of great misery, disease, and hunger.
Today, it houses a lovely gift shop, with a variety of crafts, and a Famine exhibition.
''The Workhouse"
Outside the building, a huge cauldron used to make soup for the occupants in the old days is on display. We tried in vain to persuade Leah to pose inside it, but the recent and continuous rain had left a large reservoir of water in it, and she strongly objected to standing in six inches of rainwater and debris.
''Leah and Cauldron"
It was the end of the day, and we made our way upstairs to introduce ourselves to the three ladies who hadn't gone home yet. Mary, Margaret and Dorothy greeted us with warmth and enthusiasm, and made us feel welcome to their little group. We're looking forward to meeting with the others and sharing in the "bees".
Afterwards, armed with the directions they gave us to the only pizza place around (run by the son of a lady we met in Bunbeg), we headed for Gortahork to sample the fare at Teac Maggie Dan's.
We easily found the pizza place, which included a piano, and cut glass and pottery by local artists and crafters for sale. There were also paintings on the walls (of Irish musicians) done by local artists. This establishment is run by a personable young man named Rossa, (after Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, an Irish hero of the Fenian movement in the mid-19th century). Rossa can produce a pizza with your favorite toppings in a remarkably speedy manner.
So that's the scéal (story, pronounced approximately "scale or shkale") for now. There is so much more to tell, but all that will be revealed in the next installment. Until then, happy trails to you, and I hope the speed limit signs in your area are more in touch with reality, and not just an even number picked out of a hat. Slán agat! (Health to you, a traditional Irish farewell.)
