HOLIDAYS in IRELAND

A woodland stream high in the mountains.

Connemara ponies grazing away behind an Irish stone wall.

The ruins of a Mac Carthy castle by a lake.

The Basilica at Knock Shrine today.

 The enclosed Shrine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we are at the height of our season i continue to be very busy and just have not had time to Blog as regularly as i would like to. The weather has been very disappointing and we have had a more than usual amount of rain, but it never ceases to amaze me just how little people seem to be affected and still manage to enjoy their Irish holiday. I have been touring lately with people from the USA who were escaping from extremely high temperatures at home and delighted to stroll in the light rain and the lovely cool fresh air here in Ireland. Today was an welcome change, weatherwise, and i spent most of my time in Knock, that Holy Shrine in County Mayo, where Our Lady appeared back in the eighteen hundreds. This is a Shrine which is recognised by the Catholic church and hundreds of thousands of people visit here every year seeking both spiritual and physical help. Above you can see pictures which i took there today, one is of the Basilica, and one is of the enclosed shrine which was built onto the rear of the old church. The apparition appeared on the rear end wall on the outside of the old church and the images were later identified as Our Lady, John the Evangelist, and St Joseph. There was also an altar with a large cross in the background and a lamb on the altar with a half circle of angels around the outside. The images are commemorated in white marble as you can make out in the picture above.
People from all over the world visit here, people of all creeds and denominations, colour and race. 


Now with the Olympic games about to start we expect an overflow of people coming to Ireland so if you are interested just give me a call and i will see what i can do for you.