UK Roadtrip Take Two - Sligo to Derry

27th September

We set off this morning heading north of Sligo along the Wild Atlantic Way, which runs along the entire coast of Ireland which fronts to the Atlantic Ocean.  Having followed some of this road in the Connemara National Park, I knew it was fairly well sign posted and we could follow it without much hassle.  We hadn't had internet at our accommodation last night, so I couldn't plan our day, and as a result was running by a tourist map and winging it!  All in all we ended up tonight in Derry at our Air BnB so all went ok!

We followed the Wild Atlantic Way north, passing and stopping for a wander and shop, at Rosses Point, Drumcliffe, Grange, Cliffoney, Tullan Strand, Bundoran and Ballyshannon, before stopping for lunch in Donegal. 

Tullan Strand is one of Donegal's renowned surf beaches. The beach possesses an extensive network of sand dunes and is framed by a scenic back drop provided by the Sligo-Leitrim Mountains.With scenic views for 360 degrees you can see back into Mullaghmore, County Sligo and across Donegal Bay to the magical Slieve League Cliffs.  However the main reason we stopped here wasn't to do a spot of surfing.  With the wind and the rain I was freezing in my three layers and overcoat, never mind putting on bathers!!  But we begun the Roguey Walk Experience along the coastline to visit the Fairy Bridges and Wishing Chair. The Fairy Bridges, unmagically known as sea stacks hundreds of years old were Bundoran’s original tourist attraction back in the 1800s. However, it is believed that as far back as the 1700s locals thought these to be haunted by the fairies with the result of the name “The Fairy Bridges”.  Also here is the Wishing Chair. Legend says it is advised to approach the chair with caution lest the powers of the chair be disrupted. Wishers are advised to sit down slowly holding on to both “arms” of the chair and then pause for at least 15 seconds to take in the stunning scenery that surrounds them – Donegal Bay to their left, Tullan Strand straight ahead and the Dartry Mountains to the right. It is useful to contemplate the figures, possible heroes and heroines who may have sat in the chair in the years and the centuries ahead of them, before making their wish which must be done in silence and kept private to the wisher in order to increase the chances of it coming true. Finally it is believed that tapping the seat twice as you get up will give your final commitment that your wish is a genuine one.

Donegal is a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland. The name was historically written in English as 'Dunnagall' or 'Dunagall'. Donegal gave its name to County Donegal, although Lifford is now the county town. From the 1470s until the very early 17th century, Donegal was the 'capital' of Tyrconnell, a Gaelic kingdom controlled by the O'Donnell dynasty of the Northern Uí Néill. Donegal sits at the mouth of the River Eske and Donegal Bay, which is overshadowed by the Blue Stack Mountains ('the Croaghs'). On 1 December 2016, National Geographic Traveller named Donegal as the number 1 coolest destination of 2017. According to Pat Riddell, editor of the UK magazine, “It’s a warm-hearted place, but wilderness always feels just a stone’s throw away. And it is wilderness . . . world-class wilderness. We think it’s due a big year.”  I visited the Tourist information centre here and picked up the next map of the Wild Atlantic Way as we still hadn't found free wifi yet, and received a wonderful recommendation for a tea room to have lunch at.   After we had wandered the crafty shops and centre of town (the had some beautiful hand made clothes and crafty things!! I wish I could have bought them all home) we went in search for the Blueberry Tea Rooms.  A small shop front of an old fashioned paned window and door didn't give much hint of the hustle and bustle of the small tea rooms going on inside.  We were seated at a table on the lower floor of the crowed terrace house and thoroughly enjoyed a hot cup of tea and soup and sandwiches for lunch before heading on our way again.

After my chat with the tourist ladies I had a bit more of a plan for the afternoon.  We left the Wild Atlantic Way, heading directly north along the N15 through Ballybofey and Stranorlar before making it to the town of Letterkenny.  Here we rejoined the Wild Atlantic Way and headed around the coast towards Bridgend making a detour from the route to visit Grianan of Aileach before making our way into Derry. 

The Stone Fort of Grianán of Aileach is sits on a hilltop in Inishowen County Donegal. 250m above sea level, the stone fort was probably first built on an earthen rath. The origins of the Grianán of Aileach fort are dated back to 1700 BC. It is linked to the Tuatha de Danann who invaded Ireland before the Celts and built stone forts on top of strategic hills. They worshipped Dagda (the Good God) and he too is associated with the origins of Aileach. It was he who ordered the building of a stone fort to act as a burial monument to his dead son. The round fort is built largely without mortar. The interior has three terraces and wooden structures were built against the terraces to provide accommodation. The outline of Bronze Age or Iron Age ramparts can be seen below the fort. Legend states that the giants of Inishowen are lying sleeping but when the sacred sword is removed they will spring to life reclaiming their ancient lands. Mr Walter Bernard of Derry restored the stone fort or cashel in the 1870's. It is the centrepiece of the site, 23m in internal diameter with walls measuring 5m in height and approximately 4m in thickness. The dry stonewalls contain two passages within them as well as terraces along their interior which would have allowed access to their summit. The view from Aileach is breathtaking. The glistening waters of Lough Foyle and Lough Swilly are clear, as is the form of the entire peninsula. A windy and exposed place, we watched the wind sweep the rain in across the bay and hurried to be back in the car before it hit us, making it just in time.

Crossing into Northern Ireland and making our way to Derry, all of a sudden the road names had changed and the speed limit was in miles/hour again.  This would have been fine but our car only had km/hr on the dashboard.  This made for a fun guessing game! This time we found our accommodation first and dropped off all our gear before heading out again.  We aren't in the centre centre of town but we aren't far from it! First stop was Tescos to replenish the milk supply before we went for a quick spin around the city centre and a visit to The People's Gallery on Rossville Street, in the Bogside neighbourhood.  The Derry murals here consist of 12 murals painted by the Bogside Artists, namely brothers Tom and William Kelly and their friend Kevin Hasson.  Beginning in 1994, the three men illustrated the events of The Troubles on the walls of the houses in the area.  The political murals were composed to commemorate the events and educate those who didn't live through the struggles.  They show class the effects of the British policies on the Irish Catholics, as well as their lack of democratic rights and opportunities.  See the captions under the murals for explanations of their pictures and meanings. 



William Butler Yeats's Grave



 

 

Churchl of Ireland at the Drumcliffe Cemetery where Yeats's grave is.



Tullen Strand, County Donegal

The Wishing Chair

 

The Fairy Bridges

 

 

 



Grianán of Aileach



 

 

 

 

A random artistic mural in Bogside, Derry

Free Derry Corner:  Whislt not one of the Bogside Artists murals, the first artwork you note when entering the area of Bogside is the Ferry Derry Corner Mural.  Now found on a free standing wall, it used to be attached to a row of homes.  It depicts 'Free Derry', a self declared autonomous nationalist area of town from 1969 to 1972.  Its frequently repainted and can includes messages from time to time regarding other current political movements.  It is currently painted pink in honor of the Derry Girls Against Borders,  a female group making a stand against Brexit and the possibility of a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.  Their hashtag is #makethemlisten

 

 

 

 

 

The Petrol Bomber:  This mural is a scene from the 'Battle of the Bogside' in this area in August 1969.  This is a young boy wearing a gas mask to protect himself from the petrol bomb he is holding.

Bernadette:  Also from the 'Battle of the Bogside', this mural features Bernadette McAliskey a social republican activist, addressing a crowd.  She received a prison sentence for initiating and participating in a riot.  She was later elected to parliament at the age of 21.



Bloody Sunday:  January 20th 1972 later became known as Bloody Sunday around Derry and the world.  On this day the British Army opened fire on a Civil Rights rally, killing 14 people.  This mural shows a scene from Bloody Sunday where a group of men carried the body of Jack Duddy.  At their feet a  civil rights banner is stained with blood.







Blood Sunday Commemoration: This mural remembers the 14 people killed during Bloody Sunday.  There are also 14 oak leaves to symbolize the deceased.  'Derry' comes from the Irish word 'Doire' meaning oak groves.



Death of Innocence: This is the mural of Annette McGavigan, a 14 year old girl who was killed in 1971.  The mural site is near where she died when a British solider killed her as she stood by the side of the road. 

Saturday Matinee: This piece is titled Saturday Matinee as it depicts a riot scene that became common on Saturday afternoons in the Bogside between 1969 and the early 1970s.

Civil Rights Mural:  This mural showcases the struggle for democratic rights for both Protestants and Catholics.  These early marches through the streets were inspired by Martin Luther King's civil disobedience campaigns.





Left: Operation Motorman: The mural depicts some of the events that occured during ‘Operation Motorman’ on 31 July 1972. Operation Motorman was a large operation carried out by the British Army (HQ Northern Ireland) in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The operation took place in the early hours of 31 July 1972 with the aim of retaking the “no-go areas” (areas controlled by residents, usually Irish republican paramilitaries) that had been established in Belfast, Derry and other large towns. During the operation, the British Army shot four people in Derry, killing a civilian and an unarmed IRA member.
Right: The Runner: Tear gas was often used during the Troubles and this mural depicts a young boy running away from the gas cloud.  The two portraits at the bottom are Manus Deery and Charles Love, the two boys killed in Derry.  Manus Deery was shot dead in 1972, aged 15.  Fragments of a ricocheted bullet stuck and hit him, shot by a British Sniper from the city walls.  Charles Love was killed during a Bloody Sunday Commemorative March in 1990 when the IRA detonated a bomb on the city walls, sending flying debris to hit Love who was standing a quarter of a mile away. He was 16. 

 

The Civil Rights, The Beginning: "This mural commemorates the beginning of the struggle in Derry for democratic rights. It cannot be stressed too often that this struggle involved Protestants as well as Catholics. The 5th October 1968 march ended in bloodshed in Duke Street Derry when the RUC ran amok beating up on protesters with all the hostility and abandon of a group of Stormtroopers. The event was captured by television crews and sent shock waves throughout the civilized world. Our mural shows a typical march of the period. Our intention was to describe it as it was, a happy, almost festive occasion conducted by people who were content that they were standing up, at long last, against prolonged injustice. These early marches were inspired by the civil disobedience campaigns of Martin Luther King."
William Kelly, Bogside Artists

 

 

 

Mothers and Sisters: Peggy O'Hara was the mother of INLA Hunger Striker Patsy O'Hara.  She stood in assembly of elections in 2017 as an independent, and was very active in socialist and republican groups. The young girl on this mural points down the street to the peace mural below. 

 

 

The Peace Mural:  The Peace Mural is a swirling dove, a symbol of peace and Derry's patron saint, Columba.  The dove emerges from an oak leaf, another symbol of Derry.  Squares are used as they are equal on all sides, representing the equality of citizens, and the bright colours promise hope and a bright future for Derry.   

UK Roadtrip Take Two - Conference Day One and Manchester

12th September

Guideline International Network (G-I-N) Manchester 2018 Day One

This morning we left Nan at home to head into the City for Mum's conference.  Being held at the Principal Hotel Manchester, the conference is a three day event co-hosted by NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) themed around "Why we do what we do: the purpose and impact of guidelines". 

This morning I attended the Welcome and opening presentation before leaving Mum by herself to meet Victoria for morning tea at the Midland Hotel up the road.  It was a lovely place to have a pot of tea, tea leaf tea served in a tea pot with cups and saucers and a strainer!  Victoria's fun fact about the Midland Hotel is that it was where the original meeting between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce occurred, leading to the formation of Rolls-Royce Limited in 1904.

Once finishing our tea, we wandered out onto St Peter's Square and to the Manchester Central Library. 

St Peter's Square derives its name from St Peter's Church which was built in 1788-94. The church was built in the neoclassical style by the architect James Wyatt and was once famous for its church music. It was demolished in 1907 and the Cenotaph replaced it in 1924. A stone cross (1908) now commemorates the church.  The Square was also the site of the Peterloo Massacre on the 16th August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

A Brief History Lesson! The end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had resulted in periods of famine and chronic unemployment, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of the Corn Laws. By the beginning of 1819, the pressure generated by poor economic conditions, coupled with the relative lack of suffrage in Northern England,  had enhanced the appeal of political radicalism. In response, the Manchester Patriotic Union, a group agitating for parliamentary reform, organised a demonstration to be addressed by the well-known radical orator Henry Hunt.  Shortly after the meeting began, local magistrates called on the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry to arrest Hunt and several others on the hustings with him. The Yeomanry charged into the crowd, knocking down a woman and killing a child, and finally apprehending Hunt. However in the midst of the throng they became separated into small groups and halted in disorder. The 15th Hussars were then summoned by the magistrate, Mr Hulton, to disperse the crowd. They charged with sabres drawn, and in the ensuing confusion, 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured. The massacre was given the name Peterloo in an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo, which had taken place four years earlier.


From here we wandered into the Manchester Central Library, another beautiful building in the centre of Manchester.   It was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934, opening on the 17th July 1934.  It has recently undergone a four-year project to renovate and refurbish the library commenced in 2010.  Central Library re-opened on 22 March 2014.


Next door is the Manchester Town Hall.  We were able to see and enter the back and newer section of the Town Hall, however the main building is currently closed until 2024 for restorations.  Judging by the front of the building and the areas we saw, it would be gorgeous inside!


From here I said my farewells to Victoria, as she was off to catch her train, and I headed back to the Principal Hotel.  Here I hung out in the hotel lobby and coffee lounge for the early afternoon waiting for Mum to finish.  When she finished, we both jumped back into the car and headed home to collect Nanny before heading out for the afternoon and evening.


The afternoon's plan was based off a recommendation from one of the hotel waitresses.  She suggested we head up to Blackpool to see the sea side and the lights and an hours drive is nothing to us!  So we picked up Nan and headed off, stopping for a couple of spots of shopping along the way. 


Blackpool was not at all what I expected! We arrived about 5:30pm, and was able to watch the sunset over the low tide.  The beach and sea side was exactly like every British movie depiction of the sea side ever, but on the other side of the road was a completely commercialised amusement parks and arcades! We picked up some fish and chips for dinner and ate in the car (it was too blustery by the sea side!!) waiting for 8pm when the lights switched on.


At 10 kilometers long and using over one million bulbs, the Blackpool Illuminations are an awesome spectacle.  They consist of almost every kind of light display you can imagine: lasers, neon, light bulbs, fibre optics, searchlights and floodlighting. There are set pieces made out of wood studded with light bulbs: the characters and objects portrayed seem to “move” by way of winking lights.       There are over 500 road features attached to lamp posts linked together with festoon lighting. Strings of lights along the structure of buildings pick out landmarks in luminous detail – you can definitely make out the Tower and the Pleasure Beach rides in this way. Some of the hotels on the east side of the Promenade are floodlit in colour sequence. Even the trams on which you can tour the lights are illuminated and decorated with specific themes.

Tea at the Midland Hotel

9

The Library (Left) and Town Hall (Right)

 

More Bees! (Left: the Original Bee)

 

St Anne's Pier at Blackpool and the Dunes on the side of the road

 



 

The Sea Side!

 

 

The Blackpool Illuminations

 

 

 

 

UK Roadtrip Take Two - Manchester

11th September




After an early start to the morning, (we were all awake by 6am) it took us a surprisingly long time to organise and our selves out for the day.  I had sorted our map problem out the night before by downloading Google maps onto my phone for use offline. This meant we could actually have an idea where we were driving!




We drove around the outskirts of Manchester near our Air BnB first, finding some shops to wander in Chortlon and surrounds.  From here we headed into Manchester City Central to find where Mother Dearest had to attend her conference for the following couple of days and to explore the city.


Wild in Art and Manchester City Council are bringing all of Manchester’s communities together for Bee in the City, one of the most spectacular public art events the city has ever seen. In total 232 large and small Bees are waiting to be discovered on this free, family-fun trail, taking in the city’s landmarks and undiscovered gems. Each Bee has been designed by a different artist and celebrates the unique buzz of Manchester, from its industrial heritage to its vibrant music scene. An inspirational learning project will give schools, colleges and community groups the chance to take part.  The humble worker bee is the symbol of Manchester City.  It was adopted during the industrial revolution, referencing the textile mills which were often described as hives of activity.  The bee represents the unwavering Mancunian spirit of hard work and enterprise.  We saw several of these bees along our travels today and I'm sure we will see plenty more before we leave Manchester!




The main stop for the day was the John Ryland Library in Central Manchester. The John Rylands Library was founded by Enriqueta Rylands in memory of her husband John Rylands. In 1889 the architect Basil Champneys designed the striking gothic building, which took ten years to build and was opened to public readers on 1 January 1900.  The library became part of The University of Manchester in 1972 and currently holds the Special Collections of The University of Manchester Library. Mrs Rylands' memorial to her husband is now part of the third largest academic library in the United Kingdom, and the Deansgate building houses over 250,000 printed volumes, and well over a million manuscripts and archival items.




The current exhibition on display is 'Women Who Shaped Manchester'.  Women Who Shaped Manchester captures the passion and strength of these pioneers. You will be astounded by the actions of women as they engaged in politics, scientific debate and culture and are able to explore the history of the women whose hard work fuelled Manchester’s booming cotton industry.  Many items and stories were on display in the exhibition; Emmeline Pankhurst’s stirring letter that speaks for those prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of equality, the lives of the women spinning cotton at Gidlow Mill, the beautiful scroll presented to Enriqueta Rylands, the first freewoman of the City of Manchester, just to name a few.  Unfortunately photos were not allowed to be taken in this exhibition. 




The permanent exhibition at the library is home to what is believed to be the oldest fragment of the New Testament of the Bible.  The fragment of the Gospel of John contains incomplete lines written in ancient Greek, the Bible's original language.  The fragment was bought for the library in Egypt 1920, but the original origins of the piece are unknown.  Specialists have identified similar handwriting in documents dating from the early second century to the early third century AD, the fragment on display was copied during this time frame, and is one of the earliest surviving manuscripts of the New Testament and one of the oldest archaeological remains of Christianity. 


The whole library was absolutely beautiful.  The gothic architecture along with the musty book smell, made you feel like you were in the middle of a Harry Potter movie and Madam Prince was going to come any second and tell you off for talking or using your electronic devices!




After visiting the library, we drove up into the North Quarter of Manchester and had a wander around the little shops, bars and restaurants there. We dawdled home stopping in just about every town's centre street along the way, unfortunately on the way home we ran into some car trouble in the way of what we diagnosed as a slow leak in our front passenger tyre.  After a quick trip to the local Hertz, we headed back to Manchester Airport where we had original hired the car to see if they could sort it out.  Unfortunately there we ran into more trouble!  Hertz was completely booked out of cars and the only appropriate was a 12 seater van! Which would be almost impossible to drive around the UK!! Thankfully after some talking and rearranging we ended up with a smaller 7 seater van, with a sky light and navigation! definitely an upgrade! Mum just has to learn to drive it!




 The final stop of the night (after a quick run home and change of clothing) was Mum's conference opening at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.  It was a great way to wander the textile exhibition and see the first computer 'Baby' whilst enjoying the evening food, drinks and company.

   



The John Ryland Library

  

  

The Textiles Exhibition

 

The Computer Exhibition and 'Baby' Replica