Ruins and Famine

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Finally, a good night’s sleep.

We prepared breakfast and then headed out to New Ross, a town near the borders of counties Wexford and Kilkenny.

I found a brochure in our house for a old church, St Mary’s Abbey, that looked interesting. It had no roof!

Okay, most of it had no roof, but it was still a functional church in one “wing”. Supposedly, the functioning part was well maintained. There was no service today, so we were unable to go in and verify this.

A block away was a church of the Augustinian Order, but also not open today. <grumble> <grumble>

The other item I wanted to see was a bit far away, over an hour. It was an old copper mine and smelter, right on the southern coast. I do mean right on it, the drawing of the original buildings showed some that would now be down in the sea, as the cliffs have receded.

We were there at about 1pm, but the fog was rolling in from the sea. We couldn’t see anything more than a mile or so away. There was sun here in Wexford when we left.

Strangely, this was a popular spot. There was a couple already there when we arrived, and 2 more cars while we visited.

We cruised around the area, not having any destination, stopping into a pub, looking for some sandwiches to go. They had none on the menu, so we left. There was too much manure in the air to enjoy eating anyway.

I was trying to get far enough away that we could travel back on a different route, but at one point I noticed I was back on a road I had already seen. So much for that plan.

With nothing else in the area to see, we headed back to the house, coming right through New Ross again.

I hadn’t really want to see the Dunbrody, an 1840’s transport ship during the Famine years, but since we had time to kill, and we were driving back right by it, why not. Especially since we were rained out from the Dublin ship, Jeanie Johnson.

We took their little tour, which was pretty cool. They said the quarters were sparse and cramped, but I think they had more room than most airline flights nowadays.

New Ross is only a few miles away from the Kennedy Homestead, where JFK’s grandfather came from.

We spotted a Tesco and went in, hoping to find ready made sandwiches, but failed, they had no deli. We did find some salads (including forks) and we ate them in the parking lot before heading back.

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