“Ireland – Wherever Green is Worn” By Ron Strange

“Wherever Green Is Worn…”
… Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
———— W.B. Yeats

Having traveled with my wife some 20 years ago in Ireland on a one week Neolithic archeology quest, I looked forward to planning a return trip for four friends that would expand the itinerary somewhat though I still wanted to include a solstice site in a Neolithic burial mound on an isolated mountain in the far west. We had 18 days to explore and a group that was amenable to being on the move. I put together a driving itinerary, with input from all, to circumnavigate the Republic counter clockwise staying fairly close to the coast. My friend Sue asked why I had not included Northern Ireland. Good question. I love history, but the more current history that included the “Troubles” in the north did not interest me that much.

My plan was still focused on the history between Neolithic times to the middle ages with additions to visit the traditional weavers in county Donegal in the extreme north west and a good helping of traditional music in pubs in  the far west that are famous for such But, Sue made the plans for the north and it made all the difference.

On our first day on the road north out of Dublin we toured the sectarian neighborhoods of Belfast that had been an epicenter of conflict from the 70’s through the 90’s, with a guide designated for just that task, someone who had lived through these troubled times; who lived the history. This one tour ended up expanding my limited knowledge of Irish history and the struggles of its people in both the north and the south; what they have been through and why it is still relevant today, either just under the surface in the Brexit issue or in contemporary ballads that keep the history current.

The history of the Irish is alive and present in the ground they live on and in the arts they create. Whether it is the jewelry that references Neolithic burial mound carvings, to the Celtic La Tene art,12th century high crosses, contemporary music that remembers the famine of the mid 19th century or the Easter uprising of 1916; all of this came together daily as we traveled and talked with locals and guides. It changed the nature and mood of the trip I had imagined prior to leaving home and expanded my idea of what Ireland is.

We visited many of Ireland’s major and minor sites, from the geological and mythological marvel of The Giants Causeway on the extreme north coast to the wind swept Aran Islands, a bastion of traditional culture, in their isolated position off the west coast with its Iron age forts. Driving about 1200 miles in total around this 300 mile long island we were able to visit the coast line where the movie maker David Lean set is 1970 film “Ryan’s Daughter” and the beehive huts from the 6th. Century, used first by solitary Celtic Christian hermits and then showed up in a recent “Star Wars” movie.

The fine hand crafted ceramic art of the historic Belleek factory in County Fermanagh in the north, close to the mysterious pre Christian janus stones in an ancient graveyard on Boa Island are visited. From William Butler  Yeats country “Under Ben Bulben” near “The Lake Isle Of Innisfree” to the General Post Office in Dublin where the 1916 Easter Rising took place,on a daily basis we were introduced to the people and the history and the country that Yeats referred to as “The Terrible Beauty” that comprises this land of the Irish.

A long complicated history, endured by a feisty determined people, has created a culture that reveals itself to the traveler who will take the time to look and listen. Prepare to be changed, changed utterly.