A few days before I headed to the airport I learned I’d be joined by two other girls for my exchange, Martina from Switzerland and Louise from Scotland. I also learned that our first host was going to be in Meath county with Oliver Brady who I had met last year on exchange in Scotland so I was glad i’d be starting the trip off with a familiar face.
I flew into Dublin Friday morning and was met at the airport by Meath member Joanna. She had already collected Louise and then the three of us headed for the Brady’s. Being severely jet lagged I took a nap upon arriving while the other two went back to the airport to collect Martina. That night the four of us teamed up for a table quiz we had no chance of winning as half the rounds were asking questions about the 2nd largest towns or rivers in Ireland etc. But we enjoyed it all the same.
Our first full day was spent with Oliver as it was Saturday and he didn’t have to work. We spent the morning touring their sheep and suckler farm and then went to Martry Mill. The tour was not what i was expecting, they made the flour right in front of us and then we used it to make soda bread. As we waited for the bread to be ready we got a tour of the facility and got our first bit of insight into the Irish’s superstitions. We saw a random tree in the middle of a field and learned it could be a fairy tree. Throughout the first week and a half we heard lots of stories about the fairies and how the Irish don’t necessarily believe in them but it’s pretty easy not to anger them, so much so that they redirected an entire motorway so they didn’t have to mess with a fairy fort. Anyway, that night we headed to Louth county where we met the Russell’s. James has limousin cattle he uses for showing and after discussing how we thought the calves should place compared to how they did and walking them around we were invited for a BBQ. It was a late night with the family but it was good craic.
Sunday was a bit more relaxed with a later start. Martin and Oliver brought us to the Arva show where we enjoyed some live music and watched some cows being shown. We also ended up in a local newspaper and met the Blue Jeans country queen. Gaelic football is one of the biggest sports in Ireland and so of course we hit up a pub on the way home to catch the second half. Armagh won with 1-11 against Galway 0-13.
Monday we were dropped off to hike up a hill for the Loughcrew Cairns. At the top of the hill there were 3 structures with only one being untouched for the most part. Basically at one point they were all rock mounds with chambers inside where ashes were placed. Not a lot of information is known about them or who built them, though recent DNA tests have found them to be mediterranean. The tomb in Loughcrew that is left standing lines up directly to become illuminated with the equinox and the insides of them are lined with spirals and other symbols. This tomb also has a big rock along the side of it with a cross carved on the top. This is believed to be a place where Catholics may have met during a time when it was illegal which may be why it was left untouched. Another possibility could be due to the tale about the witch, she had to jump across the three hills without losing any stones from her apron in order to rule Meath or something, anyway she jumped the first two dropping many stones and hit the side of the third hill and died. She was greedy but also a kind witch so they built her a seat anyway, and now legend has it that if you sit on the hag’s chair, make a wish and walk around the tomb 3 times it will come true. We may or may not have done so. After the tombs we met up with Phillip and Martin to tour a rotary parlour in Nobber where we talked a lot about grazing and maintaining pastures. It was a lovely tour which ended in the house for tea with the family.
Tuesday morning we helped Martina make some zopf bread for the Brady’s. Martin then took us to the dairy farm he works at, which was great but after the rotary parlour the day before he felt he had to keep defending it. We then spent the afternoon in Kells visiting the monastery and church of Ireland, went to a mart (auction), then got to watch oats being cut in preparation for the threshing show. Following that we met up with Wilkstown Macra club for a walk and finished the day back in Kells at the spiral of lloyd and supermac’s for dinner.
Wednesday we were dropped in Navan to get dresses for Queen of the castle where Martin then picked us up and took us to Trim castle. Before entering the castle we met a very enthusiastic/ passionate man working at the information centre where he gave us a whole history lesson because Braveheart was filmed there and it is a very inaccurate movie but aside from that we did learn that it is one castle that has never been breached. We then met Claire and Matthew at the peat bog which was really cool to see how they cut turf and use it for energy and along the bog was a wonderful trail which also led to the forest. The hill of Tara was our next adventure which was another tomb in a hill along with the “stone of destiny”. Finally we headed to Bective Abbey, it looked kind of like castle ruins and was a lot of fun to run around.
Our last full day was spent at a Women’s Dairy discussion group. The group meets once a month and goes over how their farms are doing and discuss the possible problems they have or could run into in the future and how to fix/ prevent them. The meeting was held at Laura’s house out of turn since her dog just had puppies and everyone wanted an excuse to see them. After the discussion group Laura gave us a tour of her farm and told us about how the group came to be. It’s obvious she is passionate about women getting involved in agriculture and being part of other discussion groups she felt there needed to be a space to encourage women. She had mentioned that a girl saw she was farming and went home and thought that maybe she could do it too, and another who wasn’t originally from a farm but realised she could work on one and still be a farmer. It’s nice to see so many women supporting each other to be part of the industry. Later that night we headed up to Kingscourt for a trad session. The pub was absolutely tiny but Joanna had saved us some seats. It was definitely something to see though as anyone could show up with an instrument and join in on whatever traditional Irish song they were playing, and those without instruments were highly encouraged to sing.
Next week… Queen of the castle… Wicklow… Kilkenny… and Tipperary
