The GCW Tour, A Few Bits of the UK and Ireland: A Day Trip Out of Dublin, Part 1 -- Kilkenny

With only limited time in Ireland (likely to emerge as my big regret on this trip, but I just couldn't figure out how to add more time in Ireland and still complete the loop), we decided to take a day trip out of Dublin to see at least a little bit more of the country.

Let's face it: in this day and age, anyplace you want to go is likely the result of Pinterest or Facebook or blog entries or Tripadviser reviews, which means we're all going to the same places. Even Rick Steves's "backdoors" to Europe have been blown open by his success; in my travels over the past few years, I've always been surprised -- eventually, somewhat stupidly so -- by the fact that you show up at one of the places he recommends only to be surrounded by hordes of people carrying one of Steves's blue and yellow guidebooks.

This day trip was no exception. I think we saw four tour buses picking up people at our designated pick up spot before our bus came along, and no doubt at least one or two were following our same basic itinerary.

First stop: the "medieval city" of Kilkenny, where the tour buses line up outside the castle and we had two hours to either join our bus mates on a walking tour, or see the sites on our own.

(Option B! Take Option B!) 

We went with Option B. First top, Saint Canice's Cathedral and it's "round tower." 

With seven flights of stairs/ladders rotating ninety degrees with each flight, and a tower that narrowed the further up you went, climbing the round tower was not for the feint of heart -- or the claustraphobiic or the acrophobic.

But once you got to the top it had some very nice views of the surrounding city and countryside. And as long as no more than four people came up with you, there was plenty of room to stand on top of the tower. As soon as number five showed up, it was time to go.

Inside, the cathedral was quite lovely, if quintessentially Irish. This is to say, one of the things our guide had commented on during the drive up was the ways in which the Irish church, more so than many though it wasn't uncommon, managed to absorb and incorporate the country's pagan traditions as it spread. Thus, you wound up with Christian saints incorporating the powers of the pagan gods and goddesses with whom they shared a name, and, as in the case of St. Canice's Cathedral, more than a few instances of pagan symbols being incorporated into church designs.

But beyond the odd fairy-inspired figure, the cathedral had some very nice ceilings and memorials. 

The guy lying under the arch is Bishop Richard Ledrede, who was the longest serving bishop of the church and also the guy that came up with the idea of burning witches at the stake. The brief version: Alice Kyteler (aka, "the witch of Kilkenny") was a woman in Kilkenny who had a problem with husbands: they kept dying on her. As a result of her repeated widowhood, Alice had acquired a fair amount of land and power. At the time, a woman with power could pretty much be defined as a witch by default, so the bishop made his move to remove her from the community. At the time, however, she had more friends than he did, and so he wound up in jail instead. By the time he got out, he was pretty well-convinced of Alice's witchery and, more important, so were some important players, like Alice's step-children. As a result, in her second battle with the bishop Alice found herself locked up and facing trial for being a witch. Happily (for Alice), some of her remaining friends were able to break her out of jail and she escaped the country. Unhappily (for her son and housemaid), she left said son and housemaid behind, the former being put into seven years indentured servitude to the bishop and the latter being burned to death for consorting with a witch.

They don't call 'em the dark ages for nothin'.

Anyway, after Saint Carnice's Cathedral we stopped at the Black Abbey. 

The second major catholic facility in the city, this one is known predominantly for it's windows. They were nice windows.

There was a third cathedral in Kilkenny -- St. Anne's? St. Mary's? -- but we were out of time so we didn't go in. Instead we just headed back to the bus. But for such a small town, they sure have a lot of big churches.