Kilkenny was granted status as a city in 1609 but is much older than that as it's been in existence since the construction of a church in honor of St. Canice in the early 6th century. That church is now the city's cathedral. It was a major monastic settlement since at least the 8th century. By the late 13th century the town was controlled by the Normans who built walls around their part of the city called Hightown and the area outside of the walls, including the cathedral called Irishtown. After James II was forced out of England by the Protestants, he lived in the Kilkenny Castle until he lost the Battle of the Boyne and was forced to flee Ireland.
Kilkenny is one of the best medieval towns in Ireland but it is relatively small with a city population of less then 9,000. Here we are on a road train tour thru the medieval parts of Kilkenny.
On this site in 1210 a castle was built. By 1566 it had been replaced by a town house which in turn was turned over to the city for use as a jail. In return, the owner was appointed Constable of the jail for an annual salary of 20 nobles (whatever a noble was). By 1792 it had become the courthouse but still served as what they call a "bridewell" into the 20th century. I had to look it up but a bridewell is a term that dates back to Henry VIII and refers to a prison for the indigent and poor. Any way here is a photo of that building.
Some neat looking shops on the main street.
This is actually a bar/night club. Pretty impressive building.
Here's Pat trudging up the main street.
This is a Tudor style mansion that was built in 1520 by merchant John Rothe. We didn't get a chance to see it but there is apparently a very nice 17th century Irish merchant's garden in the rear of the house.
Nice looking pub. Looks like they go thru a lot of beer.
This is the front of the Smithwick's brewery. It was originally part of St. Francis Abbey that was founded in the 1230s. After the abbey closed the building was used for a number of activities until 1705 when John Smithwick and Richard Cole started brewing beer. Then in 1710, John Smithwick went it alone. They brew a type of red ale that I really like. Have to see if it's available when I get back to the states.
Here is the local butcher shop.
And a shop selling "artisan Irish food" whatever that is.
This is one of the original medieval alleys, obviously not used by automobiles.
And here is Kilkenny Castle. We didn't have time to enter but we will be back here on Saturday when we are supposed to take a tour.
Here is a side view of the castle
Our first stop after we left Kilkenny was the town of New Ross. During the famine years, New Ross was an active shipping port and many Irish fleeing the famine sailed out of this port. The cargo ship Dunbrody was one of the ships that carried emigrants to Canada and the United States. They've built a working replica of the Dunbrody and we are going aboard to see what it was like. Here they have set up a memorial to the the emigrants with an eternal flame that was lit from the flame at the JFK Memorial in the US.
With support from the J.F.Kennedy Trust they built this exact replica of the Dunbrody. The original ship was built in Quebec in 1845 and was used to carry emigrants to Canada and the US and cargo back to Ireland until 1851. After 1851, she was strictly a cargo vessel. She was finaly wrecked in a storm of off Canada in 1875 but all survived.
When she was in passenger service she would carry about 6 to 8 cabin class passengers and around 300 steerage passengers. Steerage passengers were allocated about 1.5 square feet per person. To say it was crowded would be an understatement. Here is a photo of the replica.
Here we are on deck. Cabin passengers had free access to the deck but steerage passengers were only allowed 1/2 hour each if the weather was good and came up in shifts. If the weather was bad you stayed below decks. The stairs in this photo gave us access to the below decks area but on the original ship it was only a ladder which could be pulled up if not needed as they didn't have the space for a set of steps.
This is looking towards the stern and you can see the ship's wheel.
The ship had a kitchen and a cook but he only fixed meals for the crew and the cabin passengers. The steerage passengers were issued flour and water and they used that to bake hardtack biscuits on the brazier on deck during their 1/2 hour above deck. Hardtack could not be chewed only slowly dissolved as you nibbled at an edge. Its main benefit is that it would keep forever.
Here are couple of shots of the kitchen for the cabin passengers and crew.
Here we are going below decks.
Her we are in the steerage cabin. We were crowded and we had less then 50, imagine what it must have been like to have 300. And oh by the way, there were no lights below decks except for maybe one candle so it was dark.
Here is an actress telling us what it was like. She is playing the part of a real person. Her family consisted of husband, wife and four small children. Unfortunately, both the husband and wife died on the voyage and only the four children made it to Canada. The bunks behind here is where you would have spent most of your time as there was not enough floor space for everyone to stand up.
This is how you usually stayed during the trip.
here is some hardtack. No one wanted to try any.
Here is the captains cabin.
Here is a cabin for the cabin class passengers. Well at least they got fed.
And here is the crew quarters.
We then drove to Dublin and stopped at this restaurant for our farewell dinner.
During dinner I went around taking photos of our fellow travelers.
We had a very nice dinner. I had a lamb shank and it was excellent.
After dinner we drove to our hotel and called it a night. The tour is over and tomorrow we all depart, some to go home and some to visit other sights. Pat and I will be staying in Dublin for four more days to this blog isn't done yet.
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