Ballintubber Abbey

There is one thing that Ireland is know for that sets it apart from England, Scotland, and Wales in my mind. It is the faithfulness of the people of the Roman Catholic faith. They went through a lot, especially in the last couple of hundred years, to maintain their faith, their traditions, and, indeed, their way of life. If you visit Ireland now, you will find that many young people do not attend church, and this is not just those of the Catholic faith, but of the other churches in Ireland. The younger generation have demanded that Ireland be brought into the twenty-first century, even if it is kicking and screaming. This includes bringing peace to the island, especially in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland has many more people of Protestant faiths, but, to me it seems that they don’t have the same number of ancient or medieval ruins as reminders of how ancient the land is and the people who were first there. That being said, the Republic is home to a great number of abbeys that are no longer used and haven’t been for hundreds of years. However, there are some that have been renovated to use as tourist destinations and some for use by the surrounding neighbourhood. Ballintubber Abbey is one of the abbeys that combine the two purposes.

Ballintubber Abbey has been there in one form or another since 1216. Prior to that, there was a tradition that St Patrick baptised people in the small river at the back of where the Abbey now stands. There is also a trail leading from there to the top of Croagh Patrick where St Patrick is reputed to have fasted for forty days in the mid 400s AD. This mountain is the third tallest mountain in County Mayo. The trail was used in the past for a pilgrimage to the top of the mountain when pilgrimages to Jerusalem were discontinue when the Saracens recaptured the Holy Land. Eventually, even these pilgrimages petered out.

The Abbey is surrounded by a magnificent cemetery. There are very old headstones as well as modern ones. The Abbey also has a Way of the Cross which faithful Catholics follow, especially in time for Easter. There is a Rosary Way, an underground crib, and a small museum. I did not get a chance to visit the museum as our schedule had to be kept.

The Abbey was severely damaged during the Cromwellian years, but the people still continued to meet on the grounds throughout the years. Just prior to 1966, a new roof was put on the roofless building in time for the 750^th anniversary. Recently, there have been renovations on the building and its interior in time for the 800^th anniversary which was or is being held this year (2016).

This building costs a lot of money to restore and maintain. In order to raise funds, the Abbey is open to tourists who are given a tour of the cemetery, along with the Way of the Cross and the Rosary Way, and inside the building itself. Pilgrimages are held at six times a year, Easter, and then once in May, June, July, August, and December. These pilgrimages are the same as is described above. Ballintubber Abbey is a popular choice of location for weddings of both local people and celebrities. Once celebrity wedding in 2001 was for Irish actor Pierce Brosnan and his wife, American journalist Keely Shay Smith. For those of you who don’t know who Pierce Brosnan is, he had the title role of Remington Steele in the American TV series of the same name, and he also played James Bond in a number of James Bond movies.

I enjoyed visiting Ballintubber Abbey as I do have an interest in history and in religious history. I would like to go back to study the Abbey and the surrounding area more and to collect the stories that abound about St Patrick. 

St Patrick's Day 2016

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. For the past few years, I did not do anything special for St. Patrick’s Day, or for many of our holidays, either. When I left the military, I felt a deep tiredness within me. It was hard to decide to do things and I wasn’t understanding why I didn’t have the energy either. I had an interview with Veterans’ Affairs because I was leaving the military. I was doing it just to put my name into their records in case anything came up in the future. The intake worker was going through her questionnaire and writing her notes down. She then started asking me about how I felt, specific questions about stuff that I don’t normally share. At the end of it, she told me that I needed to stay home and recover from stress. I told her that it was not possible as I needed to have an income. She informed me that Veterans Affairs would provide an allowance until it was time for me to go back to work.

I began to hear information about fibromyalgia. When I heard about what some of the symptoms were, I began to think that, maybe, I should get a doctor to check it out. Because of where we lived, I had to wait almost two years after I left the military to be assigned to a family doctor. I didn’t want to get this checked out through a walk-in clinic as I didn’t want to be in a situation where I would have to explain what was happening at every appointment, so I waited until I did have a family doctor. It was then explained to me that there is no test for fibromyalgia. They tested for other things to determine that I did not have the other condition and then sent me to a specialist who had studied all my tests and was able to say that, yes, I do have fibromyalgia. It was good to finally know what was wrong with me.

Because of my medical conditions, there are certain medications that I am on and will be for the rest of my life. These medications are necessary so that my quality of life will remain relatively high. Yes, there are things that I should no longer do, and things that I should do to keep me vertical and moving. They also affect where I can work and what I can physically do. I also had to learn to not let myself get overtired (I still push this too far).

This past year, I have been able to do more physically, which I am glad. However, I kinda overdid it last summer and fall. As I have said in earlier posts, we moved to Newfoundland six months ago. I spent last summer getting ready for the move by getting my family history stuff ready (this took six weeks) and then going through personal and household paperwork, scanning it and shredding the hard copy (another six weeks and could have spent more time doing so).

Before moving, I made the decision that we needed to start downsizing. Hence the scanning. But that is not all. I love to read and I would rather own my own books than get them from the library. I made the decision to get rid of almost all of my hard copy library and go electronic, less shelf and storage space needed there. By the time that I made this decision, it was too late to try to sell my books. I had enough books to be able to kick start a small library in a small community. I decided to find a home for them after we moved. You would think that a public library would welcome the addition of a number of complete series of fantasy books such as The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. I showed up at the library to inquire about making a donation and the answer that I got was because they were not all published in the current year, they did not want any of them. There is no way that an author like these gentlemen could write books like these in one year. It took me some time and through contacting or trying to contact a number of organizations but I found a home for my books. The local high school accepted them as they had very little in their library. They were very happy that I made the donation. I haven’t found all of the books yet, so they will be receiving more.

Back to my opening statement about St. Patrick’s Day. Since 2011, I have not even had the urge to wear green. Almost every year up until then, I made sure that I wore green. After all, it is in my heritage. This year, we went to a St. Patrick’s Day party last week. I didn’t wear green and was asked about it. It just didn’t seem right for that day. However, yesterday, I made sure that I wore green all day. After all, yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. I think that I am now starting to feel that I can do that little bit extra and start to celebrate holidays more than I have recently. It takes time to stabilize medical conditions and to do more than just the necessary stuff. Just a bit at a time, and maybe, just maybe, I will be dressing up for the St. Patrick’s Day party next year.