Any Jacobites in the House?

On my tour of the Boyne River Valley, I stopped at another famous site: The Battle of the Boyne site along the Boyne River. This was where William the Orange defeated James the II in 1690. So what, you say? Yeah, that's what I said, too. So I did a little research.

This was one of the roots of the Protestant and Catholic conflict in Ireland. William the Orange (a.k.a William III) was the reigning protestant King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He deposed his father-in-law, James II - a Catholic under the guise of freeing the English Protestants from James II's Catholic tyranny.

James II fled to France where he had support from King Louis XIV of France. In 1689, James II, gathered an army of Jacobites and French and landed in Kinsale in Ireland (southwest of Cork) and marched all the way up to meet King William III's troupes along the Boyne River in July of 1690.

William III's 36,000 men went on to defeat the 23,500 men of James II's army in three days. This remains the largest battle to have occurred on the island of Ireland. This is sometimes recognized as a key point to the complete colonization of Ireland by the British. In fact, in the 1920's Irish Republican Army (Catholics) blew up a monument at the battle site as well as a statue of William III (Protestant) at Trinity College in Dublin.

So the question remains: What the hell is a Jacobite?

A Jacobite is a supporter of the Catholic King James II. It's taken from the latin for James - which is Jacob. The Jacobite movement is the movement to restore the House of Stuart to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. The current rulers are of the House of Windsor.

One final question: If I'm in Ireland, should I visit the Battle of the Boyne site?

No. For four Euro, you can see a limited museum and walk the grounds. Actually, you can walk the grounds for free - you get what you pay for there. Drive past the site and move on to the burial mound a Newgrainge. If you want information on the battle, go to a library and find a book on it.

One last piece of trivia - William III and his wife Queen Mary II (daughter of James II) are the namesakes for William & Mary College in Virginia.

The Hill of Slane

Just west of Newgrainge, is the town of Slane. Slane sits on the River Boyne and is overlooked by the Hill of Slane. The significance of the Hill of Slane is that it is said that in 433 A.D., St. Patrick lit the paschal fire on this hill in defiance of the pagan kings that ruled at the time. As you can see here, St. Patrick is still up to his charitable ways, holding on to a hat for a young lassie who lost it.

There are some wonderful views from the Hill of Slane. You can see East all the way to Drogheda and the Irish Sea. Best of all its free! This is a highly recommended stop if you're in the area.

Newgrainge - Bru na Boinne

After my Dun Laoghaire post, I decided to take things one topic at a time. I had a hard time getting all the pictures together into one post. So here is some information about one of the more popular attractions people go to see when they're in or around Dublin. That attraction is the burial mound at Newgrainge.

Newgrainge is about an hour drive north of Dublin (just west of Drogheda). When you get to to Newgrainge, you enter the Bru na Boinne Visitor Center. You buy your tickets to the burial mound and commence waiting. When I went there was a wait of over an hour to get on the bus. However, the Visitor Center is well put together, so you have plenty to do while you're waiting. It has a short film about the site, a recreation of the inside of the site, information about the people who built the mound, information about the archaeologist who reconstructed the sit, and information on the iconic art that decorates the kerbstones and tomb.

Here's the short of it. The tomb was built over 5000 years ago. It dates back to about 3000 B.C. It wasreconstructed (circa 1962-1975) to what an archaeologist believed was its ancient splendor. They called it a tomb because the found charred human remains inside though no actual charring of the stones. Thus it is believed that the cremation occurred outside of the mound before they were laid to rest inside.

The real glory of the tomb is that it is perfectly aligned to the winter solstice. On the morning of the winter solstice, the sunlight shines in for a whopping seventeen minutes - if the sun happens to be shining in Ireland that day. While your there you get a recreation of that effect, but it's hard to see the beam of light on the floor because the tomb is packed with 24 tourists. It's kind of anticlimactic. If you plan on going during the winter solstice, think again. There's a lottery to get into the tomb on those days.

However, the price is good at 6 Euros for the whole experience. I recommend it if you're in the area. Here are a couple more pictures: