County Tipperary: Cahir and Cashel

This weekend, I decided to hop on a bus and travel to the county east of Limerick, Tipperary.  Tipperary (often just called “Tipp”) is one of those places that is all farmland with a bunch load of cows, and then a random town with a shopping mall, a few pubs, and a post office every now and then (so sort of like central Pennsylvania).  Also, Tipp is covered with blue and yellow flags, in order to celebrate their recent victory in the All-Ireland Hurling Championship:

Hurling is pretty much like baseball and soccer combined, and was probably invented by some drunk people late one night (like most sports).  Anyway, I decided to check out two of Tipp’s random towns: Cahir and Cashel.  Cahir (pronounced like care; map: http://bit.ly/991IzF) is notable for its rather large castle, visible right away from where the bus dropped me off:

You’re allowed to explore the castle on your own, but for fun, I decided to fall into a guided tour with a group of Swedish senior citizens (complete with a tour guide that spoke English, and a Swedish translator promptly repeating what he said).  Anyway, Cahir Castle was built by some rich noble dude in 1142, and was inhabited by the Barons of Cahir all the way up until 1961.  Obviously, the Barons of Cahir were pretty short, because I had a hard time fitting through some of the doors:

The most notable thing to happen at Cahir Castle was the Siege of Cahir Castle in 1599, which occurred because Elizabeth I of England was sick of the Irish being rebellious all the time.  After three days of fighting, Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, was able to capture the castle.  The battle is immortalized within the castle itself by a cannonball that is still embedded within the castle wall, even after four hundred years:

Anyway, next the bus dropped me off 15 kilometers north of Cahir in the town of Cashel (map: http://bit.ly/bHZAWa).  Cashel is notable for a place known as the Rock of Cashel, a rocky hill that juts above the town proper and was once home to a popular cathedral:

The historic kings of Munster (southwest Ireland) called the Rock of Cashel home as early as the 5^th century, and legend goes that St. Patrick even converted the Munster king (and thus, all of Munster) to Christianity on top of the Rock.  One of the Munster kings that resided on the Rock was Brian Boru, the first man to become King of all of Ireland shortly before his death, and is the first person in recorded history to bear the name “Brian” (represent!).  Anyway in 1101, the Rock was given to the Catholic Church, who proceeded to build a nice, big, pretty cathedral:

That last picture is a replica of the old Latin cross that had been there for centuries.  Legend has it that if you give the cross a hug, and you can put your arms all the way around it, then you will never have a toothache again.  Random, I know, but at least I’ll never have a toothache again!  Finally, at the bottom of the Rock is an old 13^th century abbey known as Hore Abbey (tehehe):

The abbey is now in the middle of some farmer’s land, but the tourist office in Cashel told me that he doesn’t mind if you hop the rock wall around his property and check out the abbey (as long as you don’t mess with his cows).  So that’s exactly what I did!

Not visible in the pictures are all the couples that apparently come to the abandoned abbey to make out (is that why they call it Hore Abbey?).  In response, I sat in the grass in the middle of the former great hall and chilled for an hour with one of my true loves: Pokémon Sapphire on Game Boy Advance.  Now that’s what I call a good time!

Alas, the weekend is over, and I have to return to classwork.  However, keep my blog as one of your “Favorites;” who knows where (or when) I’ll travel to next!