May 4, 2024 Dublin to Castlebar

Our luggage had to be put in the corridor between 6:45 and 7 a.m., so that the driver could stow everyone’s luggage in the bus while we ate breakfast. Morning temperature 10°C, cloudy wind WSW13 km/hr. 38 of 42 of the group were on the bus by 8 a.m. for the trip to Castlebar. Peter, our guide, had to find two couples who got mixed up about times, confusing the other Globus bus’ departure times whose passengers were catching planes today.

Departing the hotel we passed the Custom House that Peter mentioned was built in 1780. A few kilometres later we passed the gigantic Guinness Brewery complex founded in 1759 when a 9,000 year lease was signed near the main St. James Gate.

As Peter filled us in on things Irish, we passed a gigantic amazon warehouse easily two football fields long. He said that Ireland is about the size of the state of Maine or Australia’s Tasmania. In a straight line from anywhere in Ireland it is at the most 76 miles to the ocean. When Irish location names begin “kil”, it means the place had a church when it was named. There are 32 counties in the Republic of Ireland. One of the roundabout centres had a sculpture of an old Irish chieftain.

It was an hour drive to Irish National Stud in Tully, Kildare. Thoroughbred racing is an important industry in Ireland. The breeding of the horses started with just three horses from Arabia in the 1700s. Careful records are kept to reduce some effects of inbreeding. As we turned onto the road leading to the Irish National Stud, Peter stated that grasslands where we could see sheep had never been plowed, but always a grazing area. It was where the horses exercised.

The 45 minute guided tour of the grounds started with the statue of William Hall Walker. Mr. Walker was wealthy, eccentric and a horse lover. In 1900 he purchased land around Tully and established a successful thoroughbred racing horse stud farm. In the beginning he used astrology to decide whether to keep a foal. One stallion, born and raised at Tully was owned by King Edward VII. Minoru entered Epsom Race Track’s winners’ enclosure with the king, after winning the 1906 Derby. In 1915, Walker gifted the whole operation to the Crown and it was renamed The National Stud continuing to produce champions. In 1943, a newly formed Irish government, for an agreed valuation, took over the farm which is run by the Irish National Stud Company Ltd.

We saw the stables where the foals are born, the paddock of Invincible Spirit and the paddock with three gelded and retired stallions. All of the stallions were wearing “coats”. 23 year old retired Beef or Salmon came over to the fence when our guide offered him some mints. This horse won 10 major Group 1 races during his career earning €1.2 million. There are pretty little gardens amongst the green lawns. In one of the ponds were a pair of swans. Also in the paddock, also sporting brown coats and lying on their sides, ignoring the group were two other Living Legends were Hurricane Fly and Faugheen. One lawn has a monument to Invincible Spirit whose stud fees are over €60,000 if a foal is created. Invincible Spirit no longer races. We toured Sun Chatiriot Yard which has 31 tidy stalls surrounding a paved courtyard. It is the Foaling place, where mares are taken two or three days before their expected due date to carefully watch them and help them with the foaling if necessary. The stud season starts on February 14 and continues for four months. There is space for ten stallions, but the average is seven. There are seven stallions on site currently with stud fees ranging from €6,000 per mare to over €100,000 if the stallion is Invincible Spirit. No artificial insemination is used.

Mr. Walker had hired a Japanese master horticulturist, Tassa Eida, to create a Japanese Garden which took from 1906 to 1910 to complete. The garden reminded us of the ones that we visited last spring in Japan. There is a small waterfall and small Japanese style huts and a monastic cell, sometimes called a Beehive due to its shape. There was a fine mist at times during the visit.

The drive to Strokestown was a little over two hours of rolling Irish countryside. Peter mentioned that, until Eurovision 1993, Ireland had never won the song contest. The winner hosts the following year contest. In 1993 in Dublin, the Irish culture was featured. Ireland won the contest again and would host in 1994. Organizers wanted something different and contacted Moya Doherty who developed the original concept for Riverdance and co-ordinated with Michael Flatley for the seven minute interval while the judges picked the Eurovision winner. This changed Irish dancing.

There was a bit of drizzle on the drive, but it stopped before we reached Strokestown House and the Famine Museum. The highway crossed the River Shannon close to Strokestown. The group split in two so half went for lunch and the other half took a guided tour of the 1740s Georgian Palladian style mansion once owned by the Mahon family. Palladian style is known for its symmetry. It contained most of the original furnishings from when the last descendant left the house in 1981. When the house was being inspected by the new owner, it was discovered the family had kept documents back to when the house was built and renovated. There was the history of the tenants and how some were sent to North America during the Great Famine from 1845 to 1848. Even though a new kitchen was built in the old kitchen, it was smaller because the architects plans erected a wall to cover the old style kitchen with the hearth on one wall. The new kitchen was demolished and the kitchen restored. We could visit rooms on the first and second floors. The third floor had another six bedrooms for the children and guests. After the tour we had lunch in the restaurant and toured the gardens, and another area with a path in the woodlands.

Then the drive to Castlebar was slightly over an hour. We checked into the hotel just after five and met in the dining room for a 7 p.m. dinner. We sat with the same two couples as yesterday plus Ken from West Virginia. Peter gave us directions for the morning. Luggage out in the corridor before going to breakfast at 8 a.m.

Steps 8,657