A BIT ABOUT IRELAND

                                       Irish Trivia
        The Republic of Ireland became independent in 1921. The island country is 175 miles wide and 300 miles long. Ireland is divided into four provinces: Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and Connaugh. Within the four provinces are 32 counties, 26 of which are in the Republic of Ireland with the remaining six in Northern Ireland. It is a country of horses, sheep, poets, writers and thousands of storytellers in a place where story telling is an art, and where elegance of speech is prized more than affluence. Ireland’s population is about 5.7 million with over 4 million living in the Republic. Over half of the country’s population is under 30 years old. There is a rich diversity of ethnic groups and cultures.

     The Shannon River is Ireland’s longest. The countryside is dotted with 900 castles in a country of breath-taking scenery, quaint villages, picturesque harbors, jagged coastline, historic castles, religious houses, museums, Celtic culture, a long history as well as shamrocks, Guinness, and little people. Known for its friendly and hospitable citizens, it also is a country of infinite charm where a relaxed air and tranquility great the visitor.

     During the occupation of Ireland when the English banned bagpipes from being played the Irish adopted the harp as the country’s symbol. It appears on bank notes, banners and the famous stout drink, Guinness. Ireland’s currency now is the Euro.

     The Irish flag has three even vertical rectangles. The green, closest to the flagpole represents the Irish people, most of whom are catholic. The orange on the far right represents the British supporters of William of Orange who settled Northern Ireland in the 17^th century, and the white in the center represents peace between the two groups of people. The flag was first used in 1848.

     Nomad travelers, called Tinkers, have a rich and different culture including their own language. Once 20,000 tinkers traveled in unique vehicles called barrel top wagons. We saw none and were told that today they travel in caravans of SUVs. They are adamant that they are not gypsies, but nomads

      A thin drum called a Bodhran, pronounced Bough-rawn, is used in traditional dances. The Irish Bodhran drum is constructed from a laminated, shallow, round, wooden frame. In most cases the frame is reinforced with a center wooden crossbar. Ireland is one of six Celtic regions that utilize the Bodhran drum in varying styles and techniques. Skin of goat, calf or even greyhound covers one side of the drum, and that side is struck with the hand or a stick called a tipper. The stick comes in many shapes and sizes, and varies based on the individual style of the player, and the region from which the player comes. Since the Bodhran drum is open-ended, various shifts of timbre and pitch can be achieved by manipulating the hand, fingers, or arm on the inside of the skin.  Music is central to Irish life and society.

      I found the many dry-set stone walls marking ancient boundaries across the country picturesque. Roads throughout the country are very narrow and have no shoulders. The soil is often soft on the roadsides because of the abundance of peat bog/soil.

ABORIGINAL DREAMTIME

                                   Dreamtime  (Tjukurpa)

      Dreamtime is not a dream when sleeping, it has nothing to do with sleep, but is the concepts and laws by which  aborigines live their lives. All aborigines share the view of Dreamtime, an English term for the system of aboriginal law and beliefs. Rich in mythology and religious ideology, it is a basic belief of life.

       Believing they have two souls, one is mortal, the other is immortal linked with ancestral spirits and totem.  Tjukurpa is existence itself, in the past, present, and future. It provides answers to important questions such as the creation of the world and how people and all living things fit into the picture of life. It is the Law relating to appropriate behavior of people to each other and of people to the land.

Aborigine art depicting a walkabout

       Dreamtime is the mystic age when the earth was formed by ancestral beings who roamed the planet creating life in their image and imbuing the animals, plants, and landscape with their spirits. The spirit and Dreamtime live on, a dimension that can be entered through dreams, art, and creative acts. The Dreamtime encompasses all aspects of life. The earth was flat and creatureless. Spirits dropped out of the sky and traveled around to create the land. One inherits the dreaming from his father’s side.  The place of conception is very important. Aborigines believe women and children make men civilized. 

Aborigine playing didgeridoo

Although there is much more to tell about Down Under I will be returning
to roaming the globe next time. Meanwhile you may want to visit the following posts: Kangaroos 1/25/10 & 1/30/10, Koalas 1/12/11, Tasmania 3/12/14 & 4/7/10, Sydney Opera House 11/18/10. Port Arthur 6/29/11, Fairy Penguins 9/13/12, Tasmania Devil 12/2/11, Down Under 11/1/14, 3/12/14 & 6/25/14, Ayers Rock (Uluru)12/22/10

ABORIGINAL CULTURE

                 A Fascinating Culture

       Aborigines, one of oldest civilizations on earth, are the indigenous people of Australia and have inhabited the continent for over 30,000 years. The word aborigine, in Latin, means from the beginning.         On both trips Down Under I had the good fortune to meet and talk to some of the indigenous people.                   One was more interested in telling about his experiences of which he was justifiably proud, but we wanted to learn about the culture. The second time the couple was most accommodating and freely explained their culture and answered questions.

     There were a wide variety of lifestyles among the aborigines. Hundreds of tribes had their own territory, language, and customs, developing their culture free from outside influences. Many were hunters and nomadic, living in temporary mud dwellings.

    The boomerang originally was meant as a throwing stick for hunting, fighting, making fire, or stoking coals when cooking.

    These people mastered the challenges of living in a harsh environment. They passed on their spiritual practices, planted crops, diverted streams, dug native wells, and maintained grasslands by deliberate burning to attract game for food. The population continually increased over the last 3000 years and across the continent the different tribes traded with each other. Among the exchanged items were shells, ochre, and wood.

     During colonization, aboriginal life changed dramatically. Unfamiliar diseases killed thousands. Arbitrarily displaced from the most fertile areas, many were confined to reserves in the misguided effort to overcome widespread poverty. They presently make up 2% of the country’s population, with about 90% living in the cities.  Many of the cultural groups, similar to tribes or clans, are still present today, with over 50 languages surviving. Walpiri is the largest spoken language.

    The Outback was home to many of the native peoples. The area is dry and can go years without rain. It is an area of red rock, ochre plains, purple mountains, and brilliant blue skies. Still today, towns with only basic facilities are few and far apart.

   In the aboriginal culture there is men’s business and women’s business and neither touches the business belonging to the opposite gender. This was made very clear.

   Men’s business includes playing the didgeridoo which is a long small hollow log-type instrument making a very deep sound when blown into. Men’s work also included walking, hunting, spearing game, and making spears.

   Women’s business includes concerns about human rights, providing food (the more wives, the better a man ate), digging for yams, digging for honey, grinding flour, and digging for grubs under the witchery tree.

   Common law does not recognize aboriginal law. Each tribe has a law person. Respect for the elders is very important. Traditionally teaching was verbal in the form of storytelling. Aborigines are returning to this today. Songs tell the story of Dreamtime. Tribal boundaries are crossed only by invitation.  Breaches of aboriginal law bring severe penalties.

   One is born into a skin name group. Names beginning with the same letter, such as N are for women, and those with another letter are for men. This is done for identity purposes and to avoid incest. Extended families are large, and sex between family members is forbidden.

   Men are polygamous with many wives, but the women can only have one husband. A male is not a man until he takes a wife. In the old days marriages were arranged, and it was common for a girl to be promised when about 13. Aborigine women had children at a young age. Because aborigines had little in worldly goods, the number of wives a man had proved his wealth, the more the wealthier.

       Boys used to be taken on a walk-about for two years, but only go for six weeks now, to learn lessons and culture. Then he was promised a wife; In-laws do not fight, particularly a son and his mother-in-law. Avoidance is a show of respect.

      Aborigines were not allowed to vote until 1962, and were not allowed to own land until 1976, when a land council was established to negotiate with the government. Now where rights have been established, the land cannot be altered in any way. In 1979 aborigines were granted title to 144 former reserves.

       In the 1970s the art world started to take aboriginal art seriously. Their art depicts religious and daily life. The carpet in the Sydney airport is in an aboriginal print as is the carpet in the Ayers Rock Hotel. Each has a different design.  Dances communicate with their ancestors.

       Men wear headbands made of hair. After eating kangaroo, the remains are covered with dirt and a burial is held. Yet, aboriginal children learn to endure pain at an early age. When death occurs, men show their grief by cutting themselves. Widows hit themselves on the head or are beaten by another woman because it is believed she caused the death. The mourning continues for three days to a week. All such mourning is done in the respective men’s or women’s camp.

      It was an interesting evening and we all enjoyed learning about this unique culture.

ALICE SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA

                                    The Isolated Outback

      Alice Springs in the far-off outback is a small community but held several wonderful interesting visits. We rode the overnight Ghan Train for the long trip. Afghani camel-trains, carrying supplies, made the long 970-mile trek between Adelaide and Alice Springs for many years, thus the name Ghan Train.

     A paved road between the two cities did not exist until 1980. The train traveled over level ground in the center of the country. After the wheat fields of the Flinders Range, it was flat expanses of salt bush. Flat, flat, flat!  

    After the really nice hotels we’d been accustomed to, the very basic hotel here was a bit of a surprise, but was about the best the city offered. It was clean and adequate. We then wandered around the city---all five blocks of it--before visiting the small mall. Not being very big, it held our interest for only a short while. We studied some aboriginal art which is an interesting art form before lunch.

     When I asked for a cup of tea and a glass of ice the waitress said, “We have iced tea.” That made this Texan’s day!

    The city was originally named Stuart after an explorer but renamed Alice Springs after Alice Todd, the wife of the telegraph station building project foreman. In 1939 the population was 700, today the population is 26,000, and the city is the center for Aboriginal artworks, and the base camp for Outback travelers.

     Alice Springs started as a cattle town, and as late as the 1970s the city still had a wild west image. It now survives on the tourist trade. In the Northern Territory, twice the size of Texas, the 178,000 people are outnumbered by sheep and rivaled by kangaroos, dingoes and Afghan camels. There are 1600 Americans living in Alice Springs, most are involved in the NASA tracking station at Pine Gap.  Aborigines account for 20% of the city’s population.

     At the 1792 overland telegraph station a guide took us around the grounds and buildings. The telegraph station was set up in Alice Springs as headquarters for a communication system.  The system consisted of 12 relay stations, one located every 250 miles from the station to Darwin. The site, three miles from the present city, was set up at what was thought to be a watering hole, but which turned out to be runoff from the river. Supplies came once a year via camel. Talk about isolation.

     The station had several well-preserved buildings. In one of the homes was a piano that arrived by camel. For the trip it was balanced with water and had to be unloaded each night and reloaded each morning.

     We ended our stay in Alice Springs with an early morning balloon ride over the outback. In the clear dawn we saw mobs of kangaroos hopping around as well as cattle and wild horses moving about.

     We were too distant for my camera to capture the mounds of tan that was spinifex, a mounded beach grass that covers a lot of the bush country. The 30 varieties survive on little water by developing rolled, sharp blades with cactus tip barbs.

     We did all the traditional things of helping to get the balloon ready for flight and having a champagne breakfast afterward. A delightful memory of this small outback city.

You may want to visit A Unique School 10-5-11  and Flying Docs 5-15-15

SYDNEY continued

                    More on Sydney

     We eventually made our way to the Harbor Bridge after lunch. I  contemplated of perhaps  climbing the bridge, not realizing it was such a popular attraction. We found the 200 steps leading up to the bridge level.  Walking to the second pylon we had a wonderful view of Sydney Harbor and the city. The Bridge was a

monumental engineering feat when completed in 1932. The arch spans 503 meters. It is 134 meters up to the top of the 1149-meter long, 49-meter wide arch. After getting a good view of what lay ahead we were only minimally disappointed to learn there were no openings to climb to the top of the bridge. After seeing the steep  steps, we agreed it would be a really tough climb. Looking up to the top the tethered walkers were dwarfed to the size of tiny people, but we clearly heard the occasional screams.

     Policemen in shorts and knee-high socks, as seen in Bermuda, were a common sight. I like the look!

The Nurses Walk was only a block from our hotel. We learned the colony’s first hospital was established in this area.  Many of the first settlers suffered dysentery, smallpox, scurvy, and typhoid after the long voyage. A few days after landing Governor Phillips set up a tent hospital to care for the worst cases.  When the second fleet arrived in 1790, a quarter of its convicts had died and many others were critically ill on arrival. The Second Fleet carried a prefabricated hospital, which was quickly erected, and immediately filled with patients.

     The city’s largest church, a Catholic one, burned twice, and it was vowed that it would be burned whenever it was finished. Today the church stands with its two towers unfinished! 
      During World War II many a service man knew and visited Harry’s. The establishment moved twice and at one point it was ordered to be disposed of, but a petition with 90,000 signatures from all over the world was presented to the legislature who then decided to save and preserve it. Harry’s, now a national landmark, is still in business at its waterfront location.

     Paddington is an old residential area with a New Orleans flair. Decorative wrought iron grillwork is prevalent. Originally the grillwork was created from ships’ iron ballast—a nice contrast from the sandstone facades in the Rocks. New South Wales has little timber for building so most homes were brick or stucco with tile roofs. Apparently there is a big termite problem so these construction materials serve their owners well.

     It is 179 miles around Sydney’s deep harbor. The city boasts 34 beaches, perhaps the most famous is Bondi because it’s an optional topless beach. The sand was powder fine. The inland side of the street is lined with various shops—typical beach décor.

     The rolling parkland of the Royal Botanical Gardens forms the eastern boundary of the city. A farm garden in 1816, now the Gardens have duck ponds, groves of palm trees, a cactus garden, and acres of lawn and pathways. It also houses Mrs. Macquarie’s large sandstone chair that was carved by convicts. She used to go and sit in her chair overlooking the harbor, and there are two stories as to why. One that she was homesick for England and longed to return, the other that she contemplated on how she could help her husband, the governor, solve the many problems he faced. The chair is large enough for two to sit in and it still seemed to swallow us.

      Sydney Tower, top of the Centerpoint shopping complex is the highest vantage-point in the city. It actually is the highest public building in the Southern Hemisphere. Besides the viewing area for a spectacular view any time of day, it also houses two revolving restaurants.

     We enjoyed quite a lot of sidewalk entertainment throughout the city. A couple of the mimes, one the Statue of Liberty, were exceptionally good.

     On one of our excursions out of town our driver told us, “In the 1970s the government began redeveloping The Rocks while keeping its heritage intact. The blend of history and culture mingled among tropical palm trees, flower gardens, ponds, and grassy lawn areas all blends to give the area a distinctive personality. The preserved sandstone colonial architecture provides facades for many shops and restaurants. The many architectural styles include colonial convict, colonial military, colonial Georgian, contemporary expressionism, early colonial, modern expressionism, Victorian, and Victorian lace.”

     It seemed to me that is an excellent summary of this large city. I have not mentioned the famous Sydney Opera House as I described the fabulous building in an 11/ 2010 post. It should be on every visitor’s list to tour with a docent. Truly a not to miss facility.