Before Diane and I left for Ireland earlier this year, I posted an offer in this space to take photos while we were there for anyone who had a specific place or thing in mind. Our friend Ronnie Peterson took us up on that, as did a friend of mine over on Flickr.
Ronnie's request and its great benefits to us have been chronicled here earlier. Linda ("chocolatepoint" over on Flickr) asked thusly for something that proved, similarly, to be of more benefit to us (in the places we sought out that we might not otherwise have seen) than to her:
Thanks for the kind offer to take a photo that I might want. I don't have anything specific in mind. If you happen to roll by an interesting old cemetery, though, and feel like taking a few shots, I wouldn't mind seeing the photos. You know how I love old cemeteries and genealogy and such. Don't go out of your way, though!
Our ultimate response to Linda can be seen by clicking here, transporting you over to sharrington.net. The set that lives there includes, among others, these sights:
Passage to the heart of the Neolithic tomb at Knowth,
the 12th Century Dominican Priory ruins at Lorrha, far northern Tipperary,
the ancient monastic city at Clonmacnoise on the Shannon, and
4 comments:
Sherwood,
Your photos of Irish graveyards (and their nearby environs) are outstanding! Thanks so much for taking the time to fulfill my "wish" and put together the excellent webpage (including links) at sharrington.net. Please thank Mrs. Fort, too, for being a visual aid to determine the scale of certain stones.
I'm going to read more about passage graves, in addition to knowlth.com. I find them fascinating. As for their builders, it's hard to imagine a society that old. Somehow, though, you and I emerged from that long line of dwellers in Ireland. Sadly, ancestry.com does cover things THAT far back. Drats.
The monasteries, priories and abbeys (I'm a little fuzzy on the hierarchy) must have been quite something to behold back in their prime. Their graveyards are a treasure trove of history, as are old graveyards everywhere. I've often wondered about what might be lost historically with cremations being fairly common these days. I've decided that it's no big deal. This being the computer age, once your name is entered in a computer somewhere someplace, by the government or some business entity, you can NEVER get your information off the internet. We've become digitally immortal -- for better or worse!
Thanks again for your efforts. I enjoyed the result immensely.
Take care,
Linda
What a beautiful collection. Thank you so much, Sherwood. Love all those Celtic crosses rising from the earth, reaching to that infinite sky ---
[not that I think that's exactly where "heaven" is - or that it is truly infinite - but I do not know its limits and that's good enough for me]
The remains of the dog brought to mind one of the few things I remember from touring Holy Trinity Cathedral in Dublin, which is that they had on display the skeleton of a cat that had been discovered when they moved an organ, forever frozen in an attitude of pursuit, and the skeleton of a rat, also found when the organ was moved, forever frozen in an attitude of flight.
There should be more animal skeletons included in tours.
Interesting tthoughts
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