Finding a Place of Peace in Glendalough

We decided to fly into Dublin because we could do so straight from Chicago. The other big airport in Ireland is in Shannon, and it services the less crowded but popular-with-travelers west coast of the country, where we do want to spend a fair amount of time. But you have to fly from Chicago to New York or Boston and then onto Shannon. So Dublin, with it's six and half hour nonstop flight from the Windy City, it would be.

We knew we didn't want to spend too much time in Dublin, especially with a car. We would be tired, so we looked around for places we could drive to easily on the first day. At first I thought we would go to Cashel, home of the Rock of Cashel,  where ancient Irish kings ruled, and where St. Patrick baptized King Aengus. Cashel is less than a two hour drive from Dublin. But then I saw the Xmas card below that I keep at my desk.

It was sent to my mother-in-law, Mary, in 2008 by her relative, Sister Patricia Sullivan, a Sinsinawa Dominican sister. Sister Pat also taught at St. Mark's for a few years. She was my sister Theresa's second grade teacher.

"Where is this in Ireland?" I wondered and flipped the photo over to see what Sister Pat had written. "I took this photo at County Wicklow in a town called Glendalough which means "Glen of the two Lakes" in Gaelic." County Wicklow is just south of Dublin so Glendalough it would be.

The area is gorgeous with mountains and ruins and lakes and everything that makes Ireland so beautiful. Today, after we toured the ruins of St. Kevin's monastery, we set out to see if we could find where she took the picture.

It's not perfect, but we got close.

Sister Pat also wrote on the card, "I know you already saw the photos I took in Ireland, but this is my favorite and it reminds me of the Peace we all wish for one another at this time of the year.