A Visit to Ireland’s Ancient East
In May, I spent a week and a half traveling through Ireland, following a loosely woven path of curiosity, intuition, scenery, and sheep. As a fiber artist, I’m drawn to the places where history, handcraft, and daily life overlap — and in Ireland, that overlap felt beautifully present everywhere we went. Ireland has been on my list of places to visit for a long time and it did not disappoint. I’ll break my trip up into several posts, one for each area we spent some time in. So, join me for some of the highlights starting in the Ancient East.
For the first five days we based ourselves near the village of Thomastown, in County Kilkenny, giving us easy access to much of what the “sunny southeast” had to offer. The grounds of the hotel, the Mount Juliet Estate, felt full of magic with huge oak trees, spring wildflowers, gardens and trails.
Just down the road we stumbled upon Jerpoint Abbey, a medieval Cistercian abbey dating back to the 12th century. It was well worth the small admission fee to be able to explore the atmospheric grounds with all its carvings, nooks and crannies. The attention to detail was mind blowing.
We took some time to visit two nearby cities: Waterford and Kilkenny. Waterford is Ireland’s oldest city, rich with Viking history, home to Waterford Crystal, the Irish Wake Museum, lots of really impressive mural art and one of the best meals of our trip at MOMO.
To the north we explored Kilkenney where we took in a haunted walking tour, more mural art, and some Irish trad music at Cleere’s Bar. We also learned about Ireland’s first accused witch, Alice Kytler and the tragedy of her handmaiden, Petronella, who took the fall and was burned at the stake after the wealthy and well connected Alice fled the country. Alice’s real crime was not witchcraft but rather poisoning multiple husbands. Sadly, the witchcraft accusation was easier to get to stick than murder.
And as for fiber art, we stopped at Cushendale Woollen Mills which has operated since 1204. Monks crafted wool, yarns, and cloth, exporting them to the great textile centers across Europe. At the Bealtaine Fire Festival we saw lots of traditional fiber crafts like weaving, spinning, and a sewing circle.
These blog posts about Ireland are definitely more about showing you the pictures than writing. I hope you enjoy this little glimpse. In the next blog post I’ll share some of my experience in the Connemara region, which really stole my heart. And so many sheep!!!
