To Ireland, and Malahide Castle

Wednesday Aaron and Glenda arrived at our place and we went to Eaton’s Beach for dinner, where the favorites are shrimp & grits, and mac & cheese. Glenda, however, had hamburger and fries. When we got back home we invited Pete and Donna over to share bread pudding. 

Thursday we started the day with breakfast at Rae Raes. This time Glenda ordered a ham slice and french fries - she’s a rebel in the restaurant! We had some time to kill before our flight so we drove to Sumter Landing in the Villages, which is a lovely place for a leisurely walk. Back at home we relaxed on the boat to catch a nice breeze. Then we snacked on more bread pudding before Aaron and Glenda headed off to the airport, and just a few minute later, just after 4pm, Gary and Erin arrived to pick us up.  They drove to the Park and Go where we had parking reservations, and the bus took us the last 3 miles to the airport. There we met up with Joe, Aaron and Glenda and went to one of the airport bars, where we snacked on chips, beers and soda. 

Gary mentioned to the bartender that it was Randy’s birthday and the guy brought Randy a free shot of Maker’s Mark!  A little later Doyle and Cheryl found us, and our group was complete.

The flight over was easy and uneventful - the very best kind of flight! Aer Lingus has individual screens for each seat with a decent selection of movies, TV show and games to choose from, which helps pass the long hours. Dinner was shepherd’s pie or chicken provencal, with bread and a small caprese salad and a chocolate pudding-like dessert. It was fairly good (as airline food goes) but the “American” breakfast burrito counterbalanced that - it was awful! 

We arrived in Ireland on Friday to an overcast sky and a bit of rain. Little did we know, this was a portent of things to come.  The CIE airport contact suggested we go upstairs and wait a few minutes until our bus arrived. When we asked about converting dollars to euros, he suggested we just go ahead and convert some at the airport, which was a high rate but we wouldn’t have a chance to convert anything elsewhere until Monday. So we did: $230 bought us 187.35 euros.  

Soon we met our bus driver Brendan and the other 13 people traveling on the same tour. Everyone immediately liked Brendan and the feeling only grew as the days went on. Brendon is around 6'5", 280 pounds, born and bred Irish from 7 miles south of the northern border, and has led an eventful life that included being a local policeman and working in the States for a while. He has a dry sense of humor, a competent manner, and a story for any occasion. Brendon first took us to the hotel to drop off our bags before heading out to our first destination, Malahide Castle. On the way we got a taste of riding on the left with the steering wheel on the right, on roads that are shared with bikes and sometimes with horses.

Malahide Castle was started by Richard Talbot in 1185 and remained in the Talbot family for 791 years, except for a dismal little slice of time between 1640 and 1660 when that scumbag Oliver Cromwell kicked everyone out and gave it to his buddy Miles Corbet. (Brenden never referred to Cromwell by any derogatory name but the more I learned about him, the less I liked him and I started to refer to him as scumbag Cromwell.) Later when Cromwell was kicked out, Corbet was hanged for supporting Cromwell’s revolution by signing the order to kill King Charles I, and the Talbots got their castle back. 

A few years later in the 1690 Battle of the Boyne between supporters of James II and William of Orange (2 English monarchs who both wanted the throne), the story is that 14 Talbots sat down to breakfast in the castle, and by the end of the day all had died. Fortunately at least one Talbot somewhere survived and the castle stayed in the family until 1975 when the last family member, Rose, sold it to the Irish State. She’d already sold a lot of the furnishing so not everything is original, but it is so beautifully restored that it doesn’t seem to matter. Malahide Castle is beautiful inside and out, and is everything a real castle should be.

The Great Hall is the oldest part of the castle and is fittingly decorated in the oldest style. Some of the remaining Talbot portraits can be found here. The coat of arms on the wall has a shield held by a lion and a dog, animals representations of the family motto "Forte et Fidele", meaning strong and faithful.

The amazing table sets the formal tone, but just as fascinating are the beautiful wood panels on the walls. One set of carved panels cover the priest bolthole, where a priest could hide if the authorities came looking. 

During Cromwell’s time most of the castle's Catholic artifacts were destroyed but for some reason he spared the 15th century panel over the fireplace. Maybe he just found it too beautiful to trash? Probably not - from what I learned here, Cromwell was not given to sentiment.

The chair in the corner is the oldest piece in the castle, from the 14th century.

Every castle has it’s ghosts; here there are supposed to be several. One is Puck, the family jester in Tudor times. As a dwarf, he had his own small entrance to the hall, next to the regular door. Our docent said one version of his story was that he was assigned to watch for intruders from the upper balcony and once when he failed to do that, the house was attacked. He was killed for his negligence but some people say they still see him around. 

The next room we visited was the Small Drawing Room, decorated in 18th century manner with an Irish mirror and Italian fireplace. Talbot portraits from here are long gone so the National Gallery loaned other portraits for the walls. 

This room contains a special Chippendale chair which was used by Lady Talbot de Malahide at the Westminster Abbey coronation of King George V. Apparently the folks in charge said she could take something as a memento, so she took her chair. 

The Large Drawing Room next door is just as lovely. It includes a courting couch that would require the couple to sit back to back, and has an attached chair for the chaperone. The courting couple of the 18th century could talk only of weather, politics and the daily schedule. That would have kept the conversation dry, which was the point of it all.

There are a lot of loaned painting here, including a Rubens painting over the fireplace. The fireplace also has a screen in front of it to protect ladies in the room from direct heat. Makeup at the time was composed of beeswax which could melt, so the screens “save face”. Makeup also included arsenic and lead; screens couldn’t help with that. 

In the stairwell there is a lovely portrait of the last two Talbots as children. They both lived a long time but since neither of them had children of their own, that was the end of the family line. 

Another ghost is the White Lady, who has a vague history. At one time a painting of a beautiful woman in a white dress hung in the great hall. The story was that she would leave her painting and travel the halls in the night. The painting is gone now but the Lady (allegedly) remains. 

The Ladies' Bedroom is home to a huge bed - unusually large, especially for a time when people were smaller. 

A ladies' dressing table sits nearby, ready for the lady of the house to prepare for an exciting evening 

The Main Bedroom has another large (but not quite as large) four poster bed.

One one side of the room is a nice set up for the man of the house, including a small toilet.

The actual bathroom includes, of course, a bath - in this case it's a large copper tub which would have to be filled and emptied by hand. I particularly liked the tabletop mirror, with attachments for holding small toiletries and 2 candles.

The Childrens' Bedroom is nearby, with a smaller bath and baby clothes drying over the fireplace screen. The toys include a Noah's Arc set that was only played with on Sundays, and a pretty child's carriage

One of the things that make me love old houses so much all the attention to detail. Everything works together to form a pleasing picture, from ceiling decoration to window trim. 

 Outside the view is just as important. 

Malahide Abby, in ruins now, served as the parish church and graveyard. The current ruins are from the 15th/16th century 

We wanted to walk through the gardens but the path that logically led us there had a locked gate. We walked a bit farther and turned back just as two guards approached. Although there must have been another way in (evidenced by the sight of people already in the garden), they kindly unlocked the gate for us. 

The white framed greenhouse was home to several plants, but this early in the season there were not many blooms. No worry, we enjoyed what was there.

The outside gardens included trimmed hedges, small flowering plants, and this "parterre" style of garden, mimicking the pattern in the wood panels in the Great Hall. 

A nearby hothouse was home to delicate orchids and even more delicate butterflies. It was so humid in there that I hurried back outside, fearing to get humidity in my camera.

Eventually our time at the castle was over and Brendan drove us back to the hotel for dinner. Randy dined on goat cheese salad (the cheese was deep fried), baked hake, and double chocolate mouse.

I had chicken & mozzarella croquette, pumpkin ravioli, and lemon cheesecake, and we both drank a lot of tea. Afterwards we retired to the hotel bar, where we were entitled to one drink. Randy had the historic first of a long line of Guinnesses. 

And the rest of the gang wasn't far behind!

Brendan joined us awhile. We learned that although he loves Guinness, he doesn't drink it during the several months that he drives a tour bus. Apparently he enjoys enough of it that the next day it would still show up in his system. He likes his job and doesn't want to lose it for "drink driving".