our final full day at tralee and the ballygarry house hotel. tonight we are spared the noisy party guests, unfortunately other co-pilgrims are not so lucky, they suffer from a rather rowdy crowd leaving this night’s wedding party at about 4:00 in the morning. the lady at reception kind of just shrugs her shoulders and replies that it’s not their fault — which ticks me off into voicing my disagreement with that statement…to little avail as her reply is that “they were celebrating a wedding“. my response that, surprisingly as it may sound, we were trying to sleep just draws the standard answer that i could talk to the manager once he’s in. yes. right. thank you. i almost forget to ask whether there’s a possibility of not being blasted by national radio during breakfast.

the weather is billed as “damp all day” — which translates into all-penetrating, fine strong drizzle rain all morning. i realise almost too late that that kind of rain is as effective at soaking my stuff as a strong shower…

first stop today: brendan’s chapel west of tralee for a moment of quiet and reflection. brendan’s chapel is a rather modern building with nice clean architectural lines inside — i quite like that little church and enjoy the prayer, reading a psalm, and the moment of quiet.

next stop: an daingean aka dingle for about 2 hours of sight seeing and some shopping: i need super glue to fix my glasses which have developed this nasty habit of just falling apart at the center piece at the flick of a finger i do finally find a tube of that stuff at the eurospar in an daingean and together with mrs d first locate the post office (two stamps for postcards to the continent) and then the nice little an cafe liteartha hidden away in the back of a bookshop which itself is hidden away in a little side street of an daingean.

at 12:00 we reconvene in our pilgrim’s bus and the whole band of pilgrims is on its way to slea head again to take some “rainy day” pictures, the real target though is the gallarus oratory, a square chapel dating from around 500AD build in the “classical” celtic style: layers of stone slabs, each slightly tilted with the inner edge ending up a bit higher than the outward facing edge, thus, preventing the rain from getting in. our pilgrimage’s guide, mr tambour, buys the tickets for the group and we make our way through the café-cum-souvenir-shop-cum-ticket-counter out to the other side, then follow a gravel path slightly up the hill through a gap in the enclosing wall and end up a the oratory. the chapel has a doorway facing west (i need to duck to get through) and a small-ish window opening towards the east. wanting to get a “feel” for the place, i wait patiently until most of the group has been inside, taken a picture (flash, flash, flash), peeked out through the window opening, peeked into the oratory from the outside through the window opening, collided with me1 — and manage to catch a minute or so to myself.2

while the rest of the group is still lingering around the oratory i retreat to get away from the hustle & bustle for a bit — and to take a leak. when i approach the outbuilding hosting “the facilities” my ears pick up what sounds like a race track commentator. entering the gents section it turns out to be a live radio feed carrying some running commentary of a horse race being piped into the gents toilet (the radio feed not the horse race, that is)…

we make our way back via an daingean and inch strand — where ms r-w surprises us all by making a run for the beach and taking a bath in the atlantic. to each her own.

dinner is a bit earlier today: we are going to the siamsam tíre theater tonight for a performance of tearmann:

[…] a moving journey to the poorhouse and the Great Irish Famine. Many of those who perished during the famine carried in their folk memor an unknown library of music, song and dance. For some, the last refuge was the Poorhouse. As the drama unfolds, a pair of dance shoes becomes the embodiment of not only all that was lost, but everything that was saved, everything that is still cherished in Irish folk traditions. The dance shoes come to symbolize this wealth of culture – these are magical shoes, they have a life of their own… [siamsam tíre]

and it is a very impressive performance, telling exactly that story with very few words but lots of music, (step) dance, and expression. enjoyed it very much.

1. standing in the southwest corner of the chapel, just to the right of the door, i’m not immediately visible… ↩
2. the longer the pilgrimage takes, the more i realize that i’m not really the group traveling kind of person — though i really do enjoy learning about celtic spirituality as well as the stories about ireland’s past. ↩