Ireland, a mystical place, is the land of fairies, folklore, flower-filled fields, white sandy beaches and haunted castles. Influential writers and poets including W.B. Yeats and James Joyce have found their inspiration in the country, from the streets of Dublin to the craggy cliffs of Slieve.
Inside Dublin castle. [Masada Siegel photos]
I landed in Dublin, an emerald green city bathed in summer sunlight. History touched me from the moment I arrived, as my hotel, the Merrion, elegant in every way possible, from the rooms to the tea service, was also the place where Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington was born.
Masada Siegel poses in front of castle in Ireland
Brushing jet lag aside (after a three-hour nap), I headed out to explore Dublin Castle. The city gets its name from the Dubh Linn or Black Pool (Dubh means black), which is on the site of the present castle gardens.
Originally built as a defensive fortification for the Norman city of Dublin, the castle later evolved into a royal residence. In 1938, the first president of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated in the castle, and now it continues to host to this ceremony, as well as many other government affairs.
Irish history is rich, complicated and dramatic. While the Jewish population is not large, never more than 6,000 people, influential figures, including a former Israeli president, Chaim Herzog, were born in Ireland and have made an impact in international as well as Irish politics.
The earliest reference to a Jewish presence in Ireland was in 1079, when scholars believe merchants arrived for a short visit. However, the first Irish Jewish politician was William Annyas, elected mayor of Youghal, County Cork in 1555.
The tradition continued, albeit a few hundred years later, when Gerald Goldberg became lord mayor of Cork in 1977.
Not to be outdone, Dublin also boasts two Jewish mayors, a father and son, Robert Briscoe, twice lord mayor of Dublin (1956-1957 and 1961-1962) and his son, Ben Briscoe, also lord mayor of Dublin in 1988.
Dublin, home of the prolific writer James Joyce, is charming and a manageable city to navigate. Many locations Joyce writes about in Ulysses, places his famous Jewish character Leopold Bloom frequents such as the restaurant/bar Davy Byrnes on Grafton Street, are still open for business and marked with metal plaques.
Joyce himself frequented Bewley’s Oriental Café, a European-style coffee house where the atmosphere is easy going – a great place for any meal. It’s filled with Irish stories like the one of a famous Jewish artist, Harry Kernoff, whose paintings are in the Irish National Gallery. He would often eat at Bewley’s, and in exchange for his meal, would do a drawing on the bill.
Another famous Irish author, Oscar Wilde, was showcased at the nearby Gaiety Theatre, with a performance of The Importance of being Ernest starring Stockard Channing. It’s a charming place to see a show, the performance was brilliant, and the audience filled the theatre with laughter.
I even felt smarter in Ireland, especially as I walked down the cobblestoned campus of Trinity College established in 1592. The campus hosts the famous Books of Kells, an ornately decorated version of the Christian Gospels dating from the ninth century. The Vikings looted the book in 1007 for its jewelled cover, but left the manuscript behind.
The 680-page book is known for its intricate artistry, and some historians believe the book contains all the designs found in Celtic art. Part of the exhibition includes the majestic library, aptly named the Long Room. It is 213 feet long and 42 feet wide, and holds about 200,000 of the three million volumes in Trinity’s collection.
Trinity College also has a Jewish connection. The Weingreen Museum of Biblical Antiquities, donated by Jack and Bertha Weingreen, who taught Hebrew at the University, consists mainly of pottery and other artifacts from the Ancient Near East. The collection encompasses the entire Mediterranean world from North Africa to Mesopotamia and from the ninth millennium BCE to the Crusades and is open to the public by appointment.
Ireland also boasts a Jewish museum. Once a synagogue, it was established in 1984 and opened by former Israeli president Chaim Herzog, whose father was Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog, the first chief rabbi of Ireland. The ceremony was held in 1985 during a state visit to Ireland. The museum is filled with photos, paintings and Judaica, and it chronicles the last 150 years of Irish Jewish communities and their contributions to present day Ireland.
Dublin synagogue
I wandered over to the Dublin Hebrew Congregation synagogue. I arrived just as Saturday morning services were ending, and stopped to chat with two Irish people. Stuart Rosenblatt is a pre-eminent scholar of Irish Jewish genealogy, having created an enormous database of more than 42,000 Irish Jews, their family histories and their global connections dating back to 1664.
He and his friend, Anne Lapedus Brest, a photographer who immigrated to South Africa, were kind enough to spend some time talking to me, and they even invited me to share a meal! Talk about warm Irish hospitality.
While I appreciated meeting the locals, secretly I was determined to see a ghost or a fairy. After all, in a land known for its literary tall tales and magical happenings, anything was possible – right?
One of the first places where the possibility existed was Newgrange. A grass-covered, enormous round structure, it is a legendary megalithic passage tomb, older than Stonehenge or the pyramids of Giza, and also a world heritage site. It was specifically constructed so that during every winter solstice, a beam of sunlight shines through the entrance to a passageway to illuminate the chamber inside.
The guide explained the possibilities of Newgrange: perhaps it was a burial chamber or was used for ritual purposes. However, she told us that no one really knows what happened in those chambers.
Castle Leslie exterior
With no fairies to be found, I headed to the Castle Leslie estate in County Monaghan. My tour guide was the senior occupant, Sir John Leslie, the fourth baronet, who is now 93. Sir John never married, never had kids, but is a man of movement, so when he is not entertaining the many guests who stay on the premises, he goes disco dancing every Saturday night at the local club.
Wandering through the castle was a treat – room after room, twisting and turning upstairs and down, I was sure to meet a ghost. (Many guests who stayed in the castle have claimed to see a woman walking through the halls.) Adorning the walls were exquisite family portraits, photos of dignitaries and historical trivia such as Winston Churchill’s christening clothes. The old-fashioned kitchen was still intact, next to a modern-day version that is used when people book parties and weddings at the castle.
Perhaps the most famous wedding held there was Paul McCartney’s ill-fated marriage to Heather Mills. Mick Jagger and many celebrities and royalty have also spent time on the estate.
One of the most magical places I experienced in Ireland was Glenveagh National Park, a Scottish-style castle surrounded by thousands of acres of mountains, lakes, glens and woods. The garden is divided into a few sections, one appropriately named the Pleasure Gardens. Glenveagh is known for its rich collection of southern hemisphere trees and shrubs as well as a diverse Rhododendron collection.
Glenveagh changed ownership a few times and was eventually was given to the government so that tens of thousands of people can enjoy the majesty of the gardens, which are free to enter.
Enchanted with the colourful gardens, fragrant flowers and ornate statues, I could really see how all the great Irish authors found magic in their midst. The blue-tinted light and the cool crisp air enveloped me, and off in the distance, I spotted what seemed to be a small creature flying toward me. Whether it was a ghost or a fairy, I’m not sure. It sprinkled something in my eyes, and left me even more captivated with the exquisiteness of Ireland.
Masada Siegel can be reached at [email protected]