The Light of Ireland - Day One

(A series of posts leading up to/including The Nocturnes Photo Tour in the West of Ireland, July 15-25, 2013; with a personal Genealogical Research Extension, in and around Ballina, July 25-29 - with follow-up posts continuing here!)

Well now, here we go - with Michele Houghton's journal from The Nocturnes' recent adventure on Irish soil - The Light of Ireland.

As mentioned, we are excerpting portions of it, starting today, with her entry from our first full (VERY full!) day in Ireland - a night entry to follow! The full version of all entries should be available as a PDF Download in the near future; meanwhile, ENJOY!
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First Day in Ireland, Tuesday, July 16th

"Well, the gang has assembled. The Light of Ireland team is a bit worn out, but we were able to successfully shoot the ruins of a historic friary. We are operating on just an hour or two of sleep in the past 36 hours. We drove about 3-hours from the airport (with some stops along the way) to our bed and breakfast.

Our home for the next eight days is Hillcrest House outside of Westport. Hillcrest House is an old country farmhouse outside of the town of Westport in County Mayo. The house is only used for photography travel tours. We have the whole house to ourselves but we have a chef and maid service. The dinner menu for tonight sounds quite delectable. 

Since most of our batteries are on empty, we plan on doing a short photo shoot around the house tonight. There is a statue at the crossroads and a hill to climb for a view of the bay.

So far on our adventure we have:  seen a cattle drive down the highway; stopped at the Anglers Rest pub in Headford, County Galway, for tea and scones; visited the Ross Errilly Friary; visited Westport for lunch and a stop at the bank; watched the Ireland army close and guard the bank while money was transferred. While the money was transferred in little bags back and forth to the van, 5 army officers with automatic machine guns protected the bank.  And no one was allowed to leave or enter the bank until the transfer was complete. It was quite an interesting event.

Ross Errilly Friary is a medieval Franciscan friary, founded in 1351 A.D.  One of the unique features of the friary is that it has a tank used to hold live fish caught from the nearby Black River.

Well, I guess that had better be all for now. I am supposed to be taking a nap. I hope all is well at home.

Michele
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From The [not so] Daily Nocturne