King John's Castle

We took the day off from school work in honour of the Baha’i holiday of Ridvan. So instead of school work we went into Limerick to see some of the sights. The first stop was Saint Mary’s Cathedral. It is a beautiful old church with quite a history. It started as a castle in the eleven hundreds and was turned into a church when its owner converted to Christianity.

It was interesting to see some of the carvings on the old pews. I’m not sure what some of the carvings were trying to illustrate. It was a bit strange to see a wild cat eating a deer of some sort on one of the seats.

The stained glass was beautiful and the tall stone arches were majestic. Elizabeth showed us the chandeliers that were lighted only with candles for the Christmas Eve services. The atmosphere must be amazing for that.

We then made our way to King John’s Castle. King John didn’t actually live there, but it was built on his behalf to stake his claim on Ireland. The castle has a violent history of many battles valiantly fought by the Irish.

The displays and information centre were well done, but of course the castle itself was the most fun. I particularly enjoyed the view from the top of one of the towers. Limerick is a really pretty town set along the wide river Shannon. You can see why it would be a good choice for a settlement.

The girls joined Julia in her speech and drama class. They had a great time with that and then we all went for tea at Sonja’s house. Sonja is a good friend of Elizabeth’s and she has a daughter, Molly who is good friends with Julia. The adults had a nice tea while the kids ripped and roared around the house. It felt a little like a playgroup Saturday at our house with all the kids bouncing off the walls with all the fun that they were having! There was even a trampoline which reminded us of our neighbours and Kendra who also has a trampoline. Once again we’re making ourselves at home.

CM