Ireland Trip: Part 37: King John's Castle Museum & Henry VIII

This is Part 37 of our Ireland trip, the second part of our tour through King John's Castle. Built in the 13th century by King Johns Castle has had a very long and turbulent history. 

  HENRY VIII CONNECTION - Tom is an amateur historian on the English Tudor dynasty history and we found a connection to Henry VIII here. 

Henry VIII display and Tom

There is some debate about why Henry VIII decided to re-conquer Ireland. However the most immediate reason was that the Fitzgerald dynasty of Kildare, who had become the effective rulers of Ireland in the 15th century, had become very unreliable allies of the Tudor monarchs. 

Rob and Henry VIII

A look from the inside of King John's Castle

The funny sign

    In 1536, Henry VIII deposed the Fitzgerald dynasty as Lords Deputies of Ireland (the new Kingdom of Ireland was declared by Henry VIII in 1541) and 1691, when the Irish Catholic Jacobites surrendered at Limerick, confirming British Protestant dominance in Ireland. This is sometimes called the early modern period.


THE SIGN WITH A TWISTED SENSE OF HUMOR - Right after the display about Henry VIII, there were several (fake) heads on pikes, hung on the wall. During Henry's reign, whenever someone was beheaded, they would put their head on a pike on the London Tower Bridge. What I found oddly funny, was just 25 feet away from that display was a sign telling people what direction to walk for the next exhibit. The sign said "Head this Way!" 

OUR SHORT VIDEO: We took a quick video (22 seconds) pan around the castle. It was extremely windy, and you'll hear the wind in this video! 

VIDEO VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE CASTLE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KxCI5OiF98 

Ireland Trip: Part 36: King John's Castle Museum & Brehon Law

This is part 36 of our Ireland Trip, where we drove to the city of Limerick and visited King John's Castle Museum. This was truly one of the best-ever castle visits. It was in the ruins of a castle that also housed a new museum. The outlying castle wall remained in place as did part of the original castle. A new museum was built inside that had historic displays, short videos, lots of amazing history, and you even got to walk under the castle and see an archeological dig that uncovered different walls, and outlines of rooms.
   King John's Castle museum was by far one of the best museum-type attraction we've ever visited. So, come along with us as we take you through some of the castle!

Tom as a Viking in King John's Castle

WHAT IS KING JOHN'S CASTLE?  It's a 13th-century castle located on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland, next to the River Shannon. 

Rob as a Knight in King John's Castle!

  The site of the castle actually dates back to 922 when the Vikings lived there. The castle was built on that old Viking site by order of King John in 1200. It's called one of the best preserved Norman castles in Europe, the walls, towers and fortifications remain today.  The remains of a Viking settlement were uncovered during archaeological excavations at the site in 1900 - which you can see on a walk under the castle museum! 
 

  WHAT IS BREHON LAW? - Early Irish law, also called Brehon law, comprised the statutes which governed everyday life in Early Medieval Ireland. What's interesting is that when it comes to women's rights it was much more modern and progressive than any other law at the time. In fact, the U.S. didn't "catch up to it until the 1900s.

Brehon law provided women equality!

  They were partially eclipsed by the Norman invasion of 1169, but underwent a resurgence in the 13th century and until the 17th century, over the majority of the island, survived into Early Modern Ireland in parallel with English law. Some of these laws conflicted with canon law of the Catholic church. The laws were a civil rather than a criminal code, concerned with the payment of compensation for harm done and the regulation of property, inheritance and contracts; the concept of state-administered punishment for crime was foreign to Ireland's early jurists.

model of what the castle and town looked like

  WOMEN'S RIGHTS: Women could divorce and they also had property rights under this ancient Irish law. It appears that once canon law from the church took over, it removed a lot of women's rights and brought society went backward. It took 500 years to reclaim those rights for women.  

NEXT: KING JOHN'S CASTLE TIES TO HENRY VIII

VIDEO FROM INSIDE THE CASTLE WALLS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJliv_7psCc
 

NEXT: EXPLORING MORE OF KING JOHN'S CASTLE!

Ireland Trip 35: Video Introduction of King John's Castle

Archaeology under the castle

This is part 35 of our Ireland trip, and we're going to give you a 2 minute (produced) short video introduction to what you'll find at King John's Castle...

View of the River Shannon

Welcome to King John's Castle, on 'King's Island' in the heart of medieval Limerick City. The stunning new exhibition at King John's Castle brings to life over 800 years of dramatic local history.

Tom and Rob

Although this features two young kids, and there are things for kids to do there, it's really full of history for adults. You'll learn about the area from the time of the Vikings through the Irish rule to Henry VIII to today.

  You'll get to experience a bit of some of the video displays, who take you through attacks on the castle and tell you about different people who worked in various professions within the castle.


 NEXT: THE CASTLE AND BREHON LAW

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/qKbaRi0yET4

Ireland Trip Part 34: An Outside Video Tour of Dromoland Castle

Tom and Rob outside Dromoland Castle

This is part 34 of our Ireland Trip, where we walked around Dromoland Castle and we give you a short video tour at the front of the castle. It was another cloudy, grey day with rain in our memorable adventure. 

THE CASTLE COMPLEX - In the previous couple of blogs about Dromoland, we told you that part of the castle is used for weddings and other big functions. 
  The castle is built on acres (or hectares) of land that offers a large golf course, archery, falconing, horseback riding, nature trails, fishing and more. We only stayed one night and didn't experience any of those things, but finding chocolates on the pillow at night made up for it. 

BEAUTIFUL GARDENS - Outside the front of the castle was a beautiful English garden with styled boxwood shrubs (which Tom likes, but I think they smell like cat pee!). 

Side View of Dromoland Castle

BEST ROOM IN THE HOUSE -  Anne Marie of Across the Pond Vacations booked us in the most elaborate room on the fifth (top) floor of the highest tower, so we had no "next door" rooms. All of the rooms were below us.

OUR SHORT VIDEO TOUR OUTSIDE DROMOLAND CASTLE - We made this 60 second video tour to give you a good feel for what it's like to stand outside the front of the castle and look around. Tom even points to the tallest tower where our room was located. It's quite the elaborate place! (VIDEO BELOW)

                          NEXT: KING JOHN'S COOL CASTLE/MUSEUM IN LIMERICK! 
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Ui1-DeU6leo 

An Observation - A Dying Breed Lashing Out

Just an observation. Over the last week, I've noticed that since bigots in all forms are lashing out.
   Since the murders of those 9 people in the SC church by that white supremacist and the call for the removals of the
Confederate Flag, 6 black churches have been burned to the ground (this past  weekend).
  Now that gay marriage is legal across the U.S. the religious and political bigots are furious.
   WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?  - I believe that these bigots are all threatened that their hateful, intolerant, bigoted ways are no longer being accepted or ignored. Just like a dying wild animal, they're lashing out.
      Soon, however, I believe the country will be a more welcoming, accepting place when all of these bigots are gone.

Another Rescue Dog Adopted! Harley Heads Home!

We've been working with dog rescues for about 7 or 7 years, and through an event, on Saturday, May 30th, I (Rob) got to work with a rescue that was trying to place their last couple of dogs, so the rescue manager could retire. On that date I had a table at the MId-Atlantic Doxiefest in Belair, Maryland  to promote my book "Pets and the Afterlife." - It was an outdoor event and fundraiser for Coast-to-Coast Dachshund Rescue. I met a lot of great people and dogs, and dogs looking for forever homes, too.

Author Rob Gutro and Harley- looking for a home

While there, I met Jane, who was volunteering and helping a Fredericksburg, Virginia dog rescue. The rescue is managed by Yolanda McEntire, who is working to get her last few dogs adopted as she is retiring.  

    Jane brought over Harley, a 13 year old, senior black and tan dachshund.  I immediately took to him and really wanted to see him go to a good home. He had been with the rescue for over a year, and Yolanda really wanted to find him the perfect place.So I offered to help.

Harley's close up!

Jane and an adoptable dog

 What I've done with Coast to Coast Dachshund Rescue (where Tom and I are members and volunteers) is that I take a short video of the dog, take several photos (and after assessing the dog's behavior and talking with the foster parent) I write a biography. I've learned that many people really, really want to see a video and read a bio about how the dog behaves, his habits, training, health, etc. so I include all of those things. 

   I've now used this format for 5 dogs and all five have been adopted within 2-3 months of making the videos and biographies live. What a wonderful reward to find these dogs homes. 

   Well, on July 4th, we received an email from Yolanda that Harley had indeed found a forever home in West Virginia.  That totally made my July 4th (and the week).

A short video of Harley I made

 

A Blog About Tom: Being an Architect is Hell

 Our friend Gretchen is an architect like Tom. Both of them can always spot the flaws in any building. Gretchen sent us the article (reposted below), because it also aptly describes an architect's personality.
  In the article  called ‘Dating an Architect‘ the author, who is an architect (LIKE TOM)  said the following:

Architects don’t seem to love anything that actually exists. They might say that they really like something … but even then they will systematically point out all of its flaws.

 What's interesting is that Tom doesn't just "do" architecture and the practice, he LIVES IT. For example, when I make dinner he'll say "I liked it, but it could be better." Or if I wipe the kitchen counter, he'll always see the one tiny smudge I don't see (because I'm not an architect and prone to detail). 
    
While average people like me miss little things, Tom and Gretchen's "Superpower" is that they see all details. Of course, when they hang around people like me, I drive them crazy because I don't see what they see. That just means Tom has to accept me with all my "flaws"  LOL.   

I will say, that I've come to appreciate a more orderly house and can see flaws in things I've never seen before. I do like the way he puts all the canned goods facing front, and organizes the drinks in the refrigerator. He's also learned that I just don't see the world like he does because Tom has that "Superpower."  

We all have our superpowers. I help dogs and talk with dead people. Tom tries to make the world "Mr. Monk" perfect - and that's a much harder job than I have!  - Rob 

Being an Architect is Hell

Bob Borson —  June 29, 2015 — 35 Comments

This was a day, just like any other day. I was minding my own business when I was visually assaulted by my hotel shower. (That’s right … assaulted.)
For most people, they probably wouldn’t have even noticed. They would have taken their shower and moved on to the next part of their day without realizing just how close they had come with …
THIS!!
(look at the picture below if you haven’t figured out that “this” is what I am talking about)
Can you believe it? I’m sure you can see it just as easily as if there was a frog sitting on my head. You do see it, right?
There is alignment chaos going on in this shower and I haven’t been able to ignore it. I took three showers in this space and all I could do the entire time was look this shower niche and wonder:

Did the tile mason know that they were doing a bad job?

Was an architect used? Surely they wouldn’t have intentionally drawn it up this way?

I wonder if all the shower niches look like this or is this one unique?

Did any of this show up on a punch list?

I wonder if this was the first time this person had tiled a shower niche?

Maybe the tile mason got batter as they did more showers in this hotel.

Seriously … the tile mason had to know that this sucked.

… and on and on and on. Literally every time I took a shower, these questions rolled endlessly through my head. After I ran through the questions, I would start telling myself what I would have done if I was drawing up this shower … you know, in case I didn’t already know.
Why does the shower niche engage the mosaic border? Why wouldn’t the top of the niche align with the similar tile on either side. Why switch tiles – they could have made the entire niche out of the mosaic tiles. Why was the top tile left too long?
Argh!!!
To make matters even worse (as if that were even possible) the tiles were out of plane with one another as well.
Seriously?!? How does somebody not notice these things? Well, I shouldn’t put it that way because I know who notices these things … architects. In an article I wrote called ‘Dating an Architect‘ I said the following:

Architects don’t seem to love anything that actually exists. They might say that they really like something … but even then they will systematically point out all of its flaws.

Architects examine everything they see and look for all the things that were either poorly executed or things that could have been done differently to achieve something superior to what currently exists. This is a character trait that every architect I know shares and let me tel you … it is HELL!!
Every space I ever walk in to, I look at … intensely. I scrutinize, evaluate, process, and redesign. Every. Single. Space. There are times when I wish this didn’t happen … most of the time actually. Being blissfully unaware of unresolved plan geometries – particularly when I am not “on the clock” sounds pretty good but I know it won’t ever be that way for me any longer. I have completely crossed over to the architect side.
During this same trip – and in the same hotel – my wife would confirm (if you could ask her) that I pointed out all sorts of things that weren’t very good – at were at least not as good as they should have been. One of my biggest peeves is outlets that are half in – and half out – of the wood trim. That is clearly an item that doesn’t require a whole lot of effort to get correct – all you have to do is draw the outlets in place. Seems easy enough, doesn’t it?
The real issue here is that it is probably more likely that nobody is drawing these things and the coordination isn’t happening. While I can’t say with certainty why this is true, I would venture a guess that it has something to do with paying the architect to do these sorts of things. The other concern is that it is possible that an architect wasn’t even used in the areas I just pointed out.
I am troubled that it is becoming a matter of spending more and more money in an effort to makes things right – or – people just don’t care anymore and close enough is good enough.
Here’s to hoping that I’m wrong,

SOURCE: http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/being-an-architect-is-hell/

Ireland Trip Part 33: A Ghost We Encountered at Dromoland Castle

Rob's sketch of the ghost who walks in Dromoland Castle

This is part Part 33 of our Ireland Trip and it's about an unexpected ghost we Encountered at Dromoland Castle. As we mentioned in yesterday's blog, Dromoland is a former castle from the 5th century, updated, refurbished and turned into quite an elaborate Bed and Breakfast.
  There's no record of any ghost in Dromoland Castle. As we mentioned in the previous blog, the building we were in was built in 1835 (although we had no idea when it was constructed when we were there). What we did know, however, is that on the third floor, there was a woman who used to live there and never left. She was from the 1800s, and I made a sketch of her as she walked down the hallway. Of course, no one else could see her- but she was pretty clear to me. 

Photo of the hallway where the ghostly woman walked

  THE GHOST WE ENCOUNTERED - This woman was in her 50s or 60s and had dark, wavy hair. She was on the slender side and had a moderately sized bust (I'm guessing here- as a gay guy). She was in a darker colored dress- like a dark blue, satin gown with a collar that stood up straight (like a tab collar). Her dress sleeves were pointed at the top of her hand.  She told me that she lived in the Castle in the 1800s - but I didn't get a name. She continually wanders down the second floor hallways on the left side of the castle (looking at the castle from the front) , and the hallway is next to the grand staircase that descends into the dining room area.

Grand staircase down to the dining room

WHY WAS SHE THERE? - She loved the castle and thought that it would be a fitting place to spend her afterlife. She considered Dromoland "heaven on Earth." She was content and not about to go anywhere, so we didn't attempt to convince her otherwise. I'm just glad that our room was on the 5th floor and not on the second floor, because I'm sure she would've kept me awake at night, walking around the hallways.

WHO IS SHE? - My guess is that she is Charlotte O'Brien.  The second Sir Edward O'Brien was the 4th Baronet who lived in the castle. Edward decided to rebuild the castle. In 1821, it was the birthplace of Edward's brother Robert's son, George O'Brien. Work began around 1822. Edward O'Brien chose their neo-gothic designs. The building was completed in 1835.   Edward was married to Charlotte Smith and her inherited wealth was probably essential in covering construction costs of their new mansion. **Unfortunately, I can't find a photo of Charlotte on-line.**

I did learn that William Smith O' Brien urged the formation of a National Guard, and an armed rising was planned. A small group under O' Brien clashed with forty-six policemen at Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary. that ended the rising of 1848 and sent  William Smith O' Brien to prison for 5 years. He was freed and moved to Brussels.No mention of his wife, though. 
From Ireland's Clare Library: http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/smithob.htm 

BELOW - THE VIDEO WE MADE OF THE HALLWAY WHERE THE GHOST WALKS BACK AND FORTH

NEXT: OUTSIDE VIDEO TOUR OF DROMOLAND CASTLE

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Ku9INsgNEhc



  

Ireland Trip Part 32: Overnight at Dromoland Castle & "Nightwing"

Tom and Rob outside Dromoland

This is part 32 of our Ireland trip where we take you to Dromoland Castle and tell you about a guy that looked like a superhero there!
Dromoland is a former castle from the 5th century, updated, refurbished and turned into quite an elaborate Bed and Breakfast. It was here that our friend Anne Marie Clarke of Across the Pond Vacations made sure we stayed overnight. Not only did we stay there, but she got us the highest room in the tower, on the fifth floor and the most luxurious suite. It was really over the top!

Castle Entryway/Lobby

Dromoland Castle

WHAT IS DROMOLAND CASTLE? - It's a 5 star place for sure and it's located in a place called Newmarket-on-Fergus in County Clare, Ireland, in southwest Ireland. 
  There's an entirely new section of the castle with banquet halls for weddings. Of course we walked through all the hallways and explored. 

Our elaborate room on the 5th floor tower

   There's a fine dining restaurant and a cocktail bar, plus a drawing room that offers afternoon tea. Facilities at the luxury spa include an indoor pool, a sauna, a steam room and a whirlpool. There's a golf course and 2 tennis courts, horseback riding, a walking trail, fishing and clay shooting. The grounds are so extensive you can't see them all! For the website, go to: www.dromoland.ie/

CASTLE HISTORY- There were apparently three houses on the site, and building that stands today was finished in 1835. The first building constructed was likely the tower house built in the 15th or early 16th century where we stayed on the top floor. That building was built by Thomas, the son of Shane Mac Anerheny. Other families that lived there later include the O'Briens that we talked about from Bunratty Castle in a previous blog, and the McInerney family. The word "Dromoland" means "Hill of Litigation" according to the historian James Frost.

Hallway in the castle

"NIGHTWING" THE WAITER - One thing we did notice was that all of the

Dick Grayson as "Nightwing"

restaurant servers were men and they were ALL incredibly handsome. Either red-headed with green eyes and powerfully built, or black-haired-blue eyed. That made such a nice dining experience! In fact, being a superhero fan I couldn't help but notice one of the waiters looked exactly like "Nightwing" (Dick Grayson) who is the former Robin to Batman: Handsome, in his 20s, jet black hair, blue eyes, muscular build, and about 5'10". So I asked him if he knew who that was, and he didn't - so I explained that he's Batman's "Robin" all grown up and in a new identity. He was flattered. I learned that he had moved to Ireland from Romania.

 

NEXT: THE GHOST WE FOUND AT DROMOLAND CASTLE 

Ireland Trip Part 31: Tom's Funny Quote of the Week: Sorbet

This is part 31 of our Ireland Trip, and it's just Tom's Funny Quote of the Week! 

At dinner one night, Tom ordered a sorbet that came in what looked like "some kind of hard shell." While he was enjoying the sorbet, he broke a piece of it off and handed it to me to eat. So, I did. After I crunched on it, he asked "So, was that a cookie?" 

Tom's sorbet looked like this

Nice to know that your loving husband has you eat things to determine if they're edible (just like royalty at the time had their subjects eat the food to determine if there was poison in it first). :) 

NEXT: SLEEPING OVERNIGHT IN DROMOLAND CASTLE