Friday Field Trip

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Friday’s trip was to the Convent at St. Mary’s Church in Dingle, which now houses the Harry Clarke stained glass museum. Really, it is just the convent’s chapel with a written description of the windows and the artist’s history. The picture above is of the original windows behind the chapel’s altar, which came from Germany in the mid 1800’s. Harry Clarke was an Irish artist whose work was 1890’s to 1930’s. His windows were on the sides of the chapel, but photos of his windows were not permitted without prior written permission from the museum.
The convent itself was a beautiful old building with amazing woodwork. It had numerous murals by an American artist from Colorado (whose name I don’t remember). This one is of St. Brigid, one of Ireland’s patron saints, and one of Kelly’s as well since her middle name is Brigid.
This mural is of the Last Supper and it was on the wall of the convent refectory, also known as the dining room. The artist used the faces of local people as her models for the painting.
This mural was in the “Nano Nagle” room. The whole room is filled with murals from the life of the founder of the convent. She began with just 3 nuns in Cork and grew to have convents on 5 continents. They specialized in teaching the poor.
This one is of Nano Nagle in her first hedge school, where she taught children about the faith, which was outlawed by the English government in regular school. Sadly, the order of nuns is almost gone. The nice man at the front desk (who was a big Bruce Springsteen fan and so happy we were from NJ) told us there is only 1 elderly nun left in the order in Ireland. The building is now used for part of the year to house study-abroad students from Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
After the Convent, we were back at the rock climbing place for a few hours. Kelly and Bobby got promoted to the harder wall. It took a lot of hard work, but they made it to the top! Mom tried for the first time, after much convincing by Roy, the man who works there, and made it halfway up the beginner wall. My hands were still shaking an hour later–I’m so afraid of heights! Then pizza for dinner from Novecento, where the owner is an authentic pizza maker from Italy. Delicioso, grazie mille!
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Published by broganfamily8069

We're a homeschooling family of eight - five girls and three boys. Our children are ages 20, 19, 17, 15, 12, 10, 7, and 5. We will be living in Ireland for the next six months, and then going to Tennessee! This blog is a documentation of our travels. Enjoy!! :)

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2 thoughts on “Friday Field Trip”

  1. The wall looks very high! Yikes! Good for the kids to take that challenge! Those little lambs will soon by springing around in the fields. They are very playful as they grow! Will you visit Louis Mulcahy Pottery In Ballyferriter? We bought our kitchen dishes there many years ago!
    L,K

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    1. Yes! I went in by myself when we were on our drive a few days ago. Couldn’t stay long because the kids were in the car, but it was lovely. They seemed to be in the middle of reorganizing the store and many of the shelves were empty. Probably because it is the off-season. There is also a pottery store here in Dingle named Lisbeth Mulcahy and I’ve been wondering if they are related. Haven’t been in it yet though.

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