Caisleán Luimnigh

Day 3 Continued

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We were exhausted and hungry after our hike along the cliffs. We headed towards Limerick, which is the hometown of my favorite band at age 5_ The Cranberries (still love them)! A girl at a gas station made us homemade sandwiches, it was like subway, but you can get normal lunch food that you might pack in a brown paper bag, too! Then off to King John's Castle (Caisleán Luimnigh) before driving back to the airport.

What I hadn't realized about Ireland is that they were very much colonized by Great Britain. The classic dichotamy of European colonizer vs. the colonized rest of the world has become much less crisp as I have learned more about European history. Too many invasions and details to go into here, though!

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Another thing clicked for me on this visit - I was aware of strong Irish Catholicism ever since I lived in Boston as a child, but now all the details have coalesced and it all makes sense.

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Ireland was also cool for my sister and I because we did Irish Step Dancing when we were younger, living just outside of Boston. It was so cool to hear the accents and customs and be reminded of Sally and Liam, the kind but tough woman and her Riverdance-famous son who taught us at Harney Academy when we were going there. Our mom would curl our hair in tight ringlets for feises, and we'd even dance with other Irish Step friends at school on St. Patrick's Day. I loved my dress!

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On our way to the airport, we ran into a crowd of people leaving a rugby stadium just outside of Limerick.

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At the airport, we found a rugby statue AND ran into one of the teams who had competed in the stadium and were on their way out.

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