The official language of Ireland is Irish, although English is the primary language spoken. Only a very small percentage of the population is actually fluent in Irish, and there is cause for concern about its future. In the Irish Republic, most students are taught to speak, read, and write in Irish and English, but English is the language with which all lessons are taught. Politically, all road signs are required to be displayed in both Irish and English. It’s actually a very beautiful language when spoken.
In our travels, we passed through the town of Killorglin, home of Ireland’s oldest fair – The Puck Fair.
Wait….say the name out loud…Killorglin. Yep… beautiful sounding, don’t you think? I’ll bet you even feel like you have mastered the Irish accent!
OK, on with the story. The Puck Fair has been and continues to be the main social, economic, and cultural event of the community. As we drove by a bronzed statue of a goat with a crown on his head, our tour guide explained. Each year during the Puck Fair, a group of people go into the mountains to catch a wild goat. The goat is brought back to Killorglin, put into a small cage on a high stand in the middle of town. The Puck Fair is basically a big party. Pubs stay open until 3 a.m. (no, Virginia…Killorglin is not Nevada).
In the mid 1800s, Ireland experienced its most devastating emigration; a direct result of the Great Famine. Between 1845 and 1852, four million people either died or left the country because of mass starvation and disease. The Great Famine occurred because of the potato….or more appropriately, the lack thereof. The Irish, particularly the very poor, were dependent upon the potato (approximately 1/3 of the population), as it was their main source of food. Disease ravaged the potatoes, leaving millions with no food. How the blight (as it was commonly called) arrived in Ireland is still unknown, but once it was introduced it spread rapidly. At the time the whole of Ireland was governed by the British Government. At the beginning of the crisis, those working in Dublin sent word to the Queen for assistance – not in the way of money for individuals, but in the way of employment. The Irish were asking the Queen and Parliament to provide the country with money to implement public work projects, which would then employ the population. The British did not immediately help, as they felt the Irish were reacting prematurely.
Until the early 1800s Irish Catholics had little to no rights. They couldn’t own or lease land, vote, hold political office, live in an incorporated town or even live within five kilometers of the town. They couldn’t attend school or enter a profession. In fact, they couldn’t even openly practice their faith. 80% of the population was and probably still is today, Catholic. By the time of the Great Famine, reform had come to the country and most people had regained more freedom and liberties. However, many remained quite poor, and lingering laws prevented the vast majority from seeking alternate food services. The primary example is that of fishing. Because the poor did not have the right to the seas, they did not have the right to fish. While many of the starving families lived on the Atlantic Ocean or the Irish Sea, they could not even cast a rod.
Between the years 800 and 1014, the Vikings, most notably of Danish or Nordic descent, attacked many European countries, including Ireland. They raided many of the Irish castles and villages. In 1014, the High King of Ireland decided to fight back. There was a ferocious battle, won by the Irish. Ireland will be commemorating the 1000 year of that battle in just a few years.
Ireland is famously known for their fairies, leprechauns and mystic creatures. I didn’t see any of them, but I did see the Fairy Tree. We weren’t really sure how much of the story told to us by the tour guide was true, so I went out onto the Internet and googled the Fairy Tree. Here's a picture of the actual tree.
OK, enough with the Internet. Let me tell you the story I heard! Yes, the Fairy Tree did hold up the building of the Ennis Bypass Road, which was being built to improve the traffic through Ennis. This particular tree, which was frankly a pretty scraggly, overgrown looking bush to me, was sitting right in the pathway of the project. So, the contractor sent a worker out in a bulldozer to mow it down. The bulldozer broke down before the tree could be removed. The contractor then sent out a worker in a tractor. Yep, it broke down too. Enough with machinery, he thought. The employer gave his worker a saw and an axe. This will do it, he thought. Nope! The guy fell over and had an accident (not sure what kind). At this point the workers balked at even going near the tree. They were convinced that the problems were a sign and that it was meant to stay.
The contractor calls the Clare County Council and explains that his employees refuse to remove the tree. Councilmembers, themselves Irish and presumably somewhat superstitious themselves, agreed to move the road 30’ away from the tree. If you’ve ever been involved in a building project, you know changes are NEVER easy. The Council was required to get permission from the National Roads Authority, and the architect had to revise his plans. This all took several months to get the approvals necessary. By the time the Council went back to the contractor, voila! The costs of the project had increased. He claimed that materials, labors, and all other associated costs had increased in the many months it had taken to gain approval. The builder presented a new price of 3 million euro more! The Council could not accept the change as it would have put them in an overbudget situation. So, they had to wait until the new fiscal year, with a new Council. It took 13 additional months to complete the project and an extra 3 million euro. Now, that’s superstition for you!
Ireland is rich with history, and there is so much more to it. These are just a few of the many stories I heard that I chose to share.
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