The Tour de Fleece ended just a few days ago. No at all coincidentally, I am really behind on summarizing our trip so far. We've been in Ireland about a month now. We've been resting, doing work, adventuring about the place, and of course I've been spin…
The Tour de Fleece ended just a few days ago. No at all coincidentally, I am really behind on summarizing our trip so far. We've been in Ireland about a month now. We've been resting, doing work, adventuring about the place, and of course I've been spinning. I've been posting regularly on Instagram, but in this space, I like to take the time to slow down and go into more depth about what I've seen and experienced, not even further abridge our adventures. Indeed, our time in Ireland has been so special that I want to take the time to appreciate it.
Like so much of Europe, Ireland is a place with an incredible depth of history, and amazing diversity within itself. Unlike much of Europe, that history feels very close to the surface, and relevant to current events with an immediacy - I might even say urgency - that comes directly out of the living memories of the people who live here. Having stayed a month, entirely in the northern half of the island, we've only scratched the surface, even though we've seen so much! So I'm going to take my time, do a few of these posts over the next couple of weeks, and maybe come close to doing it justice.
Tour de France to this point
During this first week, I started plying my skein of 50/50 Ramboullet/Qiviut.
Lisburn
For our time in Northern Ireland, we've been based in the city of Lisburn. This smaller metropolis is just to the southwest of Belfast. This is the city center.
The building you see before you is the Lisburn Museum and Irish Linen Centre. I did not know this one bit, but the production of Linen is hugely important in the history of Ireland, especially from about the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s. The museum itself is built overtop of the old brown linen exchange, where spinners and weavers in this massive cottage industry would have gathered to sell their unbleached linen products.
I do not have any pictures from inside the Irish Linen Centre, however, I did obtain kind permission from the museum to film their exhibits for the Wool Circle. Their guides as well shared their presentations on camera, and answered my myriad questions. So if you're interested, pop over to our patreon and subscribe to Wool n' Spinning at the Wool Circle level. You see Rachel's face when you get there, but 10$/month gets you access to my podcast, and the nearly fifty episodes I've shared there over the last year and a half! The episode with the Irish Linen Centre segment has been delayed to next Tuesday, July 30th, so you can still catch it live if it sounds up your alley. It was a real treat to hang out with these historians and makers, and I think you'll enjoy it, whether you're a spinner, weaver, or just curious about history.
Yeah, OK, the Irish Linen Centre was my favourite part of Lisburn as a place. But the reason for being there was even better. We are based in Lisburn for these five weeks because dear friends of ours - indeed the bishop who recruited us to move to the Arctic in the first place, and his family - live in Lisburn. We've been saying since they moved back to Northern Ireland five years ago that we would come and visit, and now that we finally have, they've let us stay in their place for our visit. For most of that time, they're on their own holiday, but at the beginning of our stay we got to spend a week with them. The girls enjoyed getting to know L, now eight years old, who as a generous only child is perhaps now cured of his desire for siblings!
I admit to being slightly smitten with their dog, an energetic French bulldog who is a little obsessed with having his bum scratched.
Passing right by Lisburn is the River Lagan, with its accompanying Lagan Towpath. Unlike the C&O Canal towpath, which follows the man-made canal which is bone-straight and mind-numbingly boring to walk (I literally got highway hypnosis trying to walk it all day once), this towpath is perfectly gorgeous to walk. Theoretically, you can follow it all the way into Belfast. That'll take you most of the day, but don't think I haven't considered it.
Lisburn was also the home of Sam McBratney, a teacher best known for the children's book, Guess How Much I Love You. I remember first learning about this book from our friend Liz, who had kids long before we did, and framed pages from it on her kids' walls. So we got our own copy that we enjoyed when the girls were small. Lisburn has a commemorative walk for kids, a sort of treasure hunt with pictures to make rubbings of, with statues and artwork from the book all over the place.
Carrickfergus
The next stop on our tour is on the north east of Ireland, in the town of Carrickfergus, where our bishop used to serve many moons ago. (You never forget these places that formed you, do you?) The highlight attraction of the town is the castle. This is one of many Norman castles built in Ireland, but what makes this one special is that its situation made it useful in different ways right up through the Victorian age, so it's grown and been innovated upon ever since. It underwent major excavation in the 50s, and has been adapted and interpreted for the public to see and enjoy.
Carrickfergus was a very literal example of the layering of history we've been noticing all during our time in Europe. You have to understand: as an American of European descent, the idea of history before the 1776 is very vague. Yes, in school you learn about the era of settlement back to the 1600s, you learn a bit about Europe here and there, and maybe (maybe) you learn a little bit about the indigenous Americans that we displaced. But when we think about the history of our people, my brain stops at 250 years ago. Maybe that's in part because the largest part of my ancestry was German, and there was some motivation to lose that heritage. And the erasure of indigenous culture and history is a topic too big for me to even broach, except to say that it's massive and essential. Please forgive me for this truncated passing mention. But all that to say, that's just how our brains work, or at least my brain. I have had friends of European descent who have had a deep sense of their ethnic heritage, be it Irish or Scots or what have you, but they are the exception.
So you walk into a place like Carrickfergus castle and you're confronted by about 800 years of history, all on top of each other, all at once. And you have to try to wrap your head around all of it to understand the stories you are seeing. I've been trying to get the cliffs notes (there was a history book for children that I managed to take in), but if I tried to explain it to you, I'd just embarrass myself.
This castle was built, or at least begun, but a Norman lord, who came over to Ireland from Britain back at the day. The Normans did this, and the Celts who were already here didn't like it, but the Normans seem to have mostly naturalized, taking on an Irish identity and siding with the Irish when the English came back to cause more problems, which they did more or less continually. Anyway, this Norman lord built the first part of this castle, with a great big keep and a small court yard. Then those who came after him expanded, adding walls with defensive towers that could look out on the sea or land. There were more expansions, and then innovations. The town-facing gun emplacements were added in Tudor times, with their clever design being wider on the outside of the wall for easy swiveling. This cart railway, complete with turntable, was added in Victorian times, for the easier movement of munitions.
That's what I've been taking in in Europe. It's all here. All of it at once.
I haven't a lick of Irish heritage in me; it's mostly German and Swiss German with a vague bit of English (thanks to my family members who have done that research; I have not). So I appreciate the fact that, as a Christian and a minister, I am a part of this history too. For better and for worse - these days, it's fashionable to focus on the worse, but all around me was the better. Above is the only original carved stonework left in the castle, and it's over the little chapel.
We concluded our expedition to Carrickfergus with a drive up to the Knockagh Monument, dedicated to those lost in the Great War. This quiet spot has a delicious hill for rolling down, and the most amazing view of Belfast Lough, especially on a beautiful day like the one we got.
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