Ireland, Last Destination

This was our last European vacation while living in Germany! Enjoy the photos of our trip to the Emerald Isle in the land of Waterford County and Dublin.

Tramore

Tramore is a seaside town in County Waterford, located about eight miles from Waterford City. The town holds special memories for those near to us.

Wexford: The Hook Lighthouse

The Hook lighthouse was built in 1172 and housed monks in its chambers for the first five hundred years. Blessed were the walls and fertile was the land on which they worked; however, with time they were eventually replaced with lighthouse keepers. As it stands today, the Hook is one of the oldest functioning lighthouses in the world.

New Ross – Dunbrody Famine Ship

The Dunbrody was a ship built in Quebec in 1845 for the Graves family as a cargo ship based in New Ross, Ireland. During the Great Famine, the ship was fitted with special bunks below the deck to carry immigrants to the New World. Between 1845 and 1849 the ship carried thousands of passengers to Canada and the United States and despite the dangerous voyage and reputation of most other such ships, the Dunbrody had an exceptionally good record of bringing immigrants safely to port under the leadership of Captain John Williams.

In 1849 Patrick Kennedy boarded a ship like the Dunbrody for America and 112 years later in 1963 his great grandson, John F. Kennedy, became president of the United States of America.

Downtown Waterford

Downtown Dublin

Chants from the Auld Dubliner bar on Fleet Street…

Molly Malone

The song of Molly Malone tells a story of a fishwife who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin and died young, of a fever. She is typically represented as a hawker by day and a part-time prostitute by night. In another version, she has also been portrayed as one of the few chaste female street hawkers of her day.

Molly Malone Song
In Dublin's fair city,
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheelbarrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"
"Alive, alive, oh,
Alive, alive, oh,"
Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh".
She was a fishmonger
But sure, 'twas no wonder
For so were her father and mother before
And they each wheeled their barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying "Cockles and mussels alive, alive oh!"
(chorus)
She died of a fever,
And no one could save her,
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
But her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"