Irish Studies: Coole Park

So this trip was by far one of my FAVORITE trips we've taken for Irish studies. It was a beautiful day and we didn't have a lecture that morning since it was a long trip. We got picked up at 8 am at our respective houses and headed out to Gort, one of the towns over. Mostly that day we were learning about Yeats and his life as well as Lady Gregory, his patron. We started the day off with a church that had BEAUTIFUL stained glass, my favorite!!! It was really actually very incredible. Churches are some of my favorite things to see in different places, it sounds silly, but it's true. The smells, the stained glass, the stoic feeling, it's all very nostalgic to me and reminds me of my childhood and being at St. Elizabeth in a really good way. The word sanctuary really rings true for me. Anyways, it was a beautiful church and afterwards we were allowed to roam around the little part of town and grab some lunch. Mandy's mom was visiting so she joined us in finding a place to eat and we headed off to a place that had the words Bakery and Coffee in big letters, I figured that was a good place to be haha. The food was really good and we had some nice conversation and then it was time to head off again with our next stop being Yeat's summer castle tower getaway.

Inside the church

Incredibly beautiful stained glass of St. Patrick

These images do NO justice to anything I saw this day especially the stained glass. You can just imagine how colorful and luminous they were, but I hope these images give you some kind of idea.

The light was so beautiful inside.

haha that hat that came from many a St. Patty's day celebration modeled by the lovely Mandy Murphy.

So Yeats's castle tower was pretty neat I have to say. I could imagine it is absolutely beautiful in the summer when all the trees are green and the forest is full. There is a river and a castle tower and lots of space for flowers to grow, it must have been very inspirational for him. We got there and explored a bit and then Gordon read us some Yeats poetry on the bridge, it was very delightful.

A cute little shed next to the wooded path, anti-climatic in the inside, much more magical on the outside haha.

The castle tower and river

Gordon reading us some Yeats

Casey, Mandy, Hannah, Erica, and Me =)

My friends Loretta and Alyssa =)

So after that we finally went to the main attraction, Coole Park. This park was pretty much created by Lady Gregory. She resided there in her house and planted (or at least over saw the planting) all of the trees because she loved nature and loved trees. There are HUNDREDS of trees in this park and it's incredible. There are pathways all throughout the grounds as well as a lake and the plot of land where her house used to be. It unfortunately got torn down because after her death her family couldn't afford to keep it. The roof was taken off, the things were auctioned away, and the house was left to rot. This all happened around the depression and eventually there came a time when stone was in high demand but there was little lying around, so eventually all of the stones used to build her house were taken off to Galway to make new buildings. It's quite a shame actually, especially since there is no actual homage to Lady Gregory in the park; which is something we discussed with Gordon (the possibility of them building a theater or statue in honor of her).

I really enjoyed walking around the grounds and seeing the beauty of nature at it's fullest, especially since it was such a lovely day. Erica and I took off into the forest towards the lake and then met up with a few people plus Gordon on their way to a spot by the lake so Gordon could read a few more of Yeats's poetry. It was really interesting to learn about Yeats's life and his relationship with Lady Gregory. She was a wonderful patron to him and they were great friends even as she was getting sick. So yeah, anyways, enough talk here are the pictures =)

That stretch of stone in the background that looks like a rock wall is the plot of land where Lady Gregory's house used to be and in the foreground is a photograph of it.

This is the autograph tree. Many people, including Yeats, have their signatures on this tree, it was really incredible to see. Below is Mandy trying to touch it since we weren't supposed to (hence the gate around it haha).

Oh my goodness this photo does not do justice to how INCREDIBLE this forest was!!!! It was so gorgeous I could have wandered through it all day long, BUT we stayed on the path and kept walking and I tried really really hard to get a photograph of it that could show you how beautiful it was and this sort of gives an idea. The trees went back FOREVER! It was magical.

There's the lake

There were so many trees!

Here is Gordon reading us some poems by the lake, including the poem "The Wild Swans at Coole"

So yeah, that was Irish Studies. After all of that fun stuff we took a shopping trip to Gort to get groceries. I was WAY too excited for later when Hadley was coming in so it was a VERY long hour and a half, but Erica and I took our sweet time grocery shopping and we were finally on our way back to B-Vaughan so I could make dinner and finally meet Hads at the bus stop! That will be my next post since I have lots of pictures of that and my birthday to post =)