SATURDAY 
COUNTY MAYO

It was snowing on Saturday morning. Here's the River Eske as it runs through town.
Donegal Castle. It was built in 1474. Seriously, a building that predates Columbus' discovery of America by eighteen years is just there in town. I mean a lot of it has been restored, but still.
There's good deal of snow here.


On St. Patrick's Day people make a pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick to climb to the top. There were a lot of people there to do the same several days before. There are a row of mountains. I'm not sure which is Croagh Patrick.


I wasn't going to hike up the mountain so I went to the beach. This is the beach at Bertra Strand on Clew Bay.
At Old Head Beach there was a baptism going on. At least I think it was a baptism. I got there late. It could have been an attempted murder by drowning I suppose.
Driving the small and lonely roads of Connemara.
It's a rather mountainous part of Ireland through here.


It was cold and damp. In fact before I took this photo of Doolough Pass it started to hail.
And along side the road in the middle of this emptiness is this marker. It reads

To commemorate
the hungry poor
who walked here in 1849
and walk the third world today

Freedom for South Africa 1994

"How can men feel themselves
honoured by the humiliation
of their fellow beings"

Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa

I don't know what South Africa and Gandhi have to do with anything, but the 1849 walking bit refers to an incident during the Irish Famine where hundreds of starving Irish trekked through this valley to receive some government relief.
I'm glad the sat-nav (as they call a GPS over there) knew where I was because I didn't have a clue. It was a beautiful drive though.
I mean really. Does it get a better sight than this? If the weather was a little clearer it would be a picture postcard kind of vista.
Looks like the tide is out at the moment.
Ashford Castle was once a medieval castle. It's now a five-star hotel.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the rooms aren't in the parts that date back to 1228. There were expansions that took place in the middle 19th century.
Cong Abbey. I don't even think I had intended to see this, but it was there. That can happen a lot over there.
I suppose this little building across the street was the church.
The cloister at the abbey where the monks would have wandered around, oh at least 800 years or so ago.
Yeah, this is me trying to be clever. Ooh, look at me taking a picture through an ancient arch.
O lord have mercy on the Soul of Walter McDonnell Esq. MD.

TO GALWAY