Ireland – Drogheda and Departing

Before departing Ireland from Dublin, we spend one last weekend centered in Drogheda (County Meath, pop 44,135 in 2022). Let's call it an almost-city on the River Boyne, within a half hour of the airport.

Drogheda also is close to the Brú na Bóinne complex of megalithic monuments, which we learned about during our visit to Fourknocks. We check to see if tour times are available, and they are not. We decide to try anyway; we can always just go to the Visitor Centre and look from a distance.

First, a quick tour of Drogheda and a visit to Saint Laurence's Gate (thirteenth century). The Gate is quite pretty but stuck in traffic limbo – cars may not pass through, but there is not enough space to make a plaza or pedestrian zone.

 

 

 

The Visitor Centre at Brú na Bóinne is a group of partially buried round rooms and galleries – which sounds appropriate but is very confusing to inhabit. This appears to be by design, as the intention is clearly to limit the number of people going to the sites.

The nice lady at the ticket counter tells us there are no more spaces available today, and that we may buy tickets to see the Centre but should keep our distance from the monuments.

The exhibits in the Centre are informative, and include a video on Dronehenge, the site discovered by our recent acquaintance, Anthony Murphy. A re-creation of a tomb passage is the grand finale.

We follow the curving stairs down to the bookstore and cafe. Just outside, we cross a bridge over the Boyne to the bus stop. The road leads out to the farmlands, and we can see Newgrange (c3200 BC) just beyond the cows – so many cows.

 

 

 

 

The Drogheda Museum is in the old barracks of the Millmount Fort (twelfth century, restored 2000). The Fort is another Martello Tower, like the one we saw in Balbriggan.

The Museum holds a truly quirky collection of old telephone switches, medieval stone carvings, fourteenth century pottery fragments, and other odds and ends. The first rooms on the ground floor highlight guild banners from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These are painted images on cloth and may have been used in local marches or parades.

The Banner of the Broguemakers (boots and shoes) proclaims their motto, "Prepare the way to Heaven", which (apparently) requires good footwear. St Patrick stands on one side (trampling the snake) and shamrocks decorate the lower edge.

Other banners are reminiscent of housetops quilts, such as the Carpenters Banner (classical temple front) and the Weavers Banner (wreath of thistles). And others are fully pained landscapes, such as the Boyne Fisherman (netting salmon) and the Brick and Stonelayers (winged dragon and St Laurence's Gate).

 

 

 

 

 

Our visit concludes with a guided tour of the Fort. On the ground floor if a mock-up of the Battle of Waterloo, a room-filling model that someone had made during the pandemic – relevant to the Fort because the Martello Towers are in defense of Napoleon.

 

 

Upstairs, the space is renovated and filled with all kinds of battle memorabilia. We do love these odd local museums, and this one is more 'local' than many. After our whirlwind journey through the tourist sites of Dublin, Galway, and Cork, with people yucking it up for selfies, we enjoyed finishing in the calm of this place, with the honest personality of the Irish on display.