Our Active Retirement group were very adventurous this past week when over thirty of them along with some friends from outside the parish travelled for a two night stay to see the Titanic Exhibition in Belfast. This trip, wonderfully designed by Rita Fay and the committee along with the expert advice of Matt Kelleher of Kelleher couch tours gave us the opportunity to sample some of Ireland’s wonderful historic sites and have a flavour of its marvellous heritage.
Our first stop was in Newbridge to view its fine cutlery and to satisfy the urge to spend money we then headed to Tara, the site of the high kings and where Patrick reputedly light his fire. Onward bound for the famous cottage of Francis Ledwidge, born in Slane in 1887. “A blackbird singing on a moss upholstered stone, bluebells swinging shadows wildly blown, a song in the wood, a ship on the sea, the song for you and the ship was for me” After a short tour and walk around we moved from there to Armagh and our hotel, The Armagh City Hotel which was to be our base for the next two nights. On Thursday morning we headed for Belfast and a pleasant but informative tour of the City before heading to City Hall where a tour had been arranged of this fine building. With beautiful sunshine to assist us we then travelled to Stormount the centre of political power in Northern Ireland seeing on the way the many political murals on display. The purpose of our trip was to see the Titanic Exhibition and in mid afternoon we saw this magnificent building on the docks with the backdrop of the H and W Cranes, the legacy of the world famous Harland and Wolfe ship yards for which Belfast is famous. After two hours of immersion in the story of the Titanic we emerged once again to wonderful sunshine and returned to our base in Armagh.
Friday morning after breakfast and with our bags packed we headed for the famous cathedral for Mass and a wonderful tour of this fine building. Even though it was overcast and a little damp this was a wonderful experience as we were expertly guided inside and outside the building.
From Belfast we headed to Newry and another chance to spend some sterling in the two shopping centres once famous for the numbers of visitors from the Republic availing of bargains and tax breaks. Now, well on our way home one final stop at Monasterboise was a worthwhile diversion to view the magnificent high crosses and round tower on display. After a comfort stop at Junction 14 we headed home to Holycross after spending a wonderful few days experiencing the magnificence of our native country and in sharing pleasant company among neighbours and friends. Our pictures show some of the participants and the places we travelled. Well done to all and we hope that it will be only the beginning of our adventurous outings.
