The local sheep farmer, which they call a ‘hill farmer’ owns all of the land in the area and has a huge flock of 3,000 sheep. The hills are covered with really thick grass and moss, which of course transforms into peat. The thick grass and the soggy ground makes it more difficult to walk on, but it was not nearly as bad as the bog conditions yesterday. Ireland is the only country that has bog at the top of mountains, due to the huge rainfall.
The walk was classified as strenuous and although this is an older group, they are very good walkers. The Irish are fit, and they seem to have a toughness about them and a resilient character. It was an absolute pleasure to walk with them. They are kind, informative, humourous and all around, good, down to earth people. They are also a diverse group, there was an archaeologist among them who is a professor and specializes in animal bones.
The day was fine with some cloud but when we neared the summit, the wind was fierce. Everybody broke out the hats and gloves, and I had to put on my rain jacket to block the wind. At the summit, the wind was utterly ferocious, it was actually a bit difficult to control our hiking poles and my hair was horizontal.
We didn’t linger at the summit due to the wind, so we dropped down a bit and sat in a depression in the ground and John and I had our tea, while the rest of the group had some lunch.
They told us the story of the crash of an RAF Sunderland flying boat DW 110 out of Wales, during WWII. The DW 110 was on patrol of the Atlantic for German U-boats. Due to poor weather conditions, the DW 110 was instructed to divert to Castle Archdale, an RAF and RCAF base in Northern Ireland. However, the plane crashed into the Bluestack Mountains with 12 crew onboard. One crew member was a Canadian with the RCAF.
Of the 12 crew members, 7 were killed and 5 survived. One crew member made his way down the mountain into the valley below and made it to a cottage. The locals went up the mountain to assist. It took two days to get the dead off the mountain; however, the locals would not leave the dead unattended, so they held a wake and stayed with the bodies until they were removed.
After the walk, we all went to a tiny country pub with old tables and comfortable bench seats, there was also a little fireplace just kicking out the heat. The other patrons were a few older gents in for a pint. John and I had a Jameson Irish whiskey, most had beer and a few had hot brandy/port.
We had a great time in the little pub with the walking group. There is a long tradition of story telling among the Irish, and one of the walkers began to recite poetry from memory, he said he can read a poem and just retain it without actually memorizing it.
They can all speak Irish and he recited a poem in Irish, which is a beautiful and poetic language. Then he recited it in English for us, which is not nearly as poetic, as it was in Irish. He then recited a few more poems. These people are just wonderful and so welcoming, we were blown away by them.
Our leader was settling in with another pint, so the archaeologist offered to drive us back to Donegal to our car, as she was going home. They also gave us a lot of terrific advice regarding what places to visit in Donegal and in the rest of Ireland.
The Grey Mare's Tail
View from Lavaghmore
Quartzite, also note the thick grass
Summit Photo
Boggy road back
It is time for another installment of the History of Ireland:
The Catholics finally began to chip away at the stronghold of the Protestant minority. Since they could not buy land, they could lease it and speculate in leaseholds. Catholic gentry and upper class farmers married into each other’s families and secured jobs and traded with each other. Irish Catholics were also recruited by the English military due to the expansion of the British empire. The Catholic Relief Act in 1782 finally permitted Catholics to own land and to open schools; however, the Catholics could not vote or hold seats in parliament.
The Volunteers, which had formed as a policing and a protection group had become a political force. They pressed for an independent Irish parliament and called for the relaxing of the Penal Laws.
The Irish Parliament called for independence in 1782, and achieved a Constitution; however, Parliament remained informally subordinate to the English Parliament, as the Irish executive was a branch of the British government and answerable to the British.
The Irish realized that there would be no parliamentary reform in Ireland unless all three religious groups banded together. The collapse of the Catholic monarchy during the French Revolution of 1789, indicated to the Irish, that the Catholics in Ireland could promote liberty as those in France had done. This group called themselves the United Irishmen and they went to France for military assistance. In 1792, the Catholics were given the vote in county elections, although they could not run in the elections themselves. Also, an Irish militia was formed; the majority of which, was Catholic.
The British government charged that the United Irishmen were revolutionaries. The Volunteers wanted to form a national guard but the Irish Parliament shut them down to prevent the Volunteers from allying with the United Irishmen to push for reforms. The United Irishmen were forced underground, they sought to enlist the Defenders, a Catholic group of rural poor and they tried to enlist the Irish militia, which were predominately Catholic.
A French invasion fleet sailed for Ireland in 1796, but severe weather prevented them from landing and they returned to France. The Irish Parliament passed the Insurrection Act which removed the rights of citizens and allowed for the arrest of any suspect. The Yeomanry was formed to fight subversives and search for weaponry; they were Protestant. The militia and the Yeomanry were rather ruthless in breaking up the United Irish and terrorizing United Irish and Defender suspects. In 1795, the Orange Order had formed, this was a lower class Protestant group that was supported by wealthy Protestant gentry.
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