My pictures of Ireland

This picture was taken at Lansdowne Road, in front of the famous stadium there. 

Lansdowne Road was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union that has been the location of a number of sports stadiums. It was used rugby and football matches as well as some music concerts.

Me on a bridge over the River Liffey.

I actually find this place fascinating. This is known as a passage tomb. To be exact, the Fourknocks Passage tomb.

These passage graves are decorated with abstract art and bear the first depiction of a human face found in prehistoric art in Ireland. Three earthen mounds were excavated by the National Museum in 1950-1952. One covered a passage grave to crucification plan, with decoted uprights and lintels resembling the Newgrance designs. The contents of this tomb were intact and so the results were of immense importance and value to students of the megalithic period in Ireland and the world. The contents found were of great importance with fragmentary human remains representing dozens of bodies of all ages and sexes. These were accompanied by grave offerings (stone beads and miniature hammer pendants, bone pins etc.) in the three side chambers.

Four Knocks is a Passage Chamber Tomb built about 5000 years ago. It is located 10 miles southeast of Newgrange between Ardcath in County Meath and the Naul in County Dublin. The name Fourknocks may be from the Irish Fuair Cnocs meaning Cold Hills.

This is the beautiful Cliffs of Moher.  

Soaring over 700 feet above a wild 5-mile stretch of County Clare between Liscannor and north of Doolin where the Irish coastline meets the Atlantic, the Cliffs of Moher are one of the most impressive places to see in Ireland.

Many say the finest view of the Cliffs is from O'Brien's Tower which was built by local Cornelius O'Brien of Dromoland Castle in the 1830's, and is evidence that the site's popularity as one of Ireland's top tourist attractions has a long standing. On a clear day, visitors can see the Aran Islands, and even the Twelve Bens of Connemara come into view

https://www.cliffsofmoher.ie

This is taken at Glendalough, one of the sites where the filming of Braveheart took place too..

Glendalough, from the Irish “Gleann da locha", meaning the Glen of two Lakes, is one of my favorite places. It combines extensive monastic ruins with a stunning natural setting in the Wicklow Mountains. The beauty and tranquility of the lakes and glacial-carved valley no doubt appealed to St Kevin, a hermit monk, who founded the monastic site near the Lower Lake in the 6th Century.

Most of the buildings that survive today date from the 10th through 12th centuries. Despite attacks by Vikings over the years, Glendalough thrived as one of Irelands great ecclesiastical foundations and schools of learning until the Normans destroyed the monastery in 1214 and the dioceses of Glendalough and Dublin were united. The settlement was destroyed by English forces in 1398. A reconstruction program was started in 1878 and today the valley boasts a visitor centre, wooded trails, walkways and rock climbing. 

www.glendalough.ie/

Me boarding a boat to the Aran Islands...

I don't think there is any significance in this huge rock which was somewhere in Co Galway., but I took a pic with it anyway.

Help please... I am in stocks at a carnival. I think this was somewhere in Kilkenny.

This is taken at Slane Abbey. 

In the year 433 St. Patrick, during his mission to convert Ireland to Christianity, lit the first Paschal or Easter fire in Ireland on the summit of the Hill of Slane so that it could be seen at the seat of the High King at Tara 16km to the south-west. Following this an Early Medeival monastery was founded on the site by St. Erc who died in 514. That early monastery was replaced by another set of buildings in the Medeival period. In 1175 Richard le Fleming, first Baron of Slane, built a Motte and Bailey castle on the western side of the hill. The standing remains on the site are of the Franciscan Friary and College founded by Christopher Flemyng, Baron of Slane, in 1512. The Friary was dissolved in 1540 during the reformation but a monastery of Capuchin monks was briefly refounded by the Flemings on the site in 1631.

The surviving structures are an undivided nave and chancel church with a later side chapel and west tower situated within a walled graveyard. North of the church is the College for priests, lay-brothers and choristers, founded by Christopher Flemyng. It is a quadrangular structure surrounding a courtyard, with priest’s residence at north and a defended tower house and remains of the refrectory on the southern side. The Motte and Bailey castle is also visible on the western part of the hill. The Hill has good views over eastern and south-eastern Meath

This one at the Monaisterboice. I love historical sites like this and am always so happy and at peace in such areas.

Monasterboice (Mainistir Bhuithe) is an interesting monastic site near Drogheda in County Louth. The impressive ruins include a large cemetery, two churches, one of the tallest round towers in Ireland and two of the tallest and best high crosses.

Monasterboice is said to have been founded by St. Buithe (d. 520), a follower of St. Patrick, in the late 5th century AD. (There is evidence that the site had pre-Christian sacred significance as well.) It is from St. Buithe that the Boyne River gets its name. According to legend, the saint ascended directly into heaven via a ladder lowered from above.

The settlement was captured by invading Vikings in 968 AD, who were then comprehensively expelled by Donal, the Irish high king of Tara. St. Buithe's Monastery was an important center of spirituality and scholarship until the Cistercians arrived at nearby Mellifont Abbey in 1142, after which Monasterboice declined.