Ireland

My dear Friends

This time last week I was in the air above Dublin and flying back to Stansted. I had been in the Republic for a week and had an absolutely wonderful time! I had been to Co Galway before, three times in fact, but this was the first time I was in the south-east. Of course the whole thing was made better because I went to an old friend, a Religious Sister, Sr Christina, whom I had known over the years in her little community in Cambridge. So we go back a long way...

The place of their community is called Ferns, and is a village on the Dublin -Wexford road which takes about two hours to get to by bus. I had not realisd it is an old monastic foundation, dating back to the first Bishop, St Aidan, who live around 635AD. His traces were everywhere and I had the feeling he was following me around...

I spent the week in a little hermitage in the grounds of the monastery, praying, cooking, thinking, writing, and in between going to the mountains and the sea. I got rather fond of my little hermitage, fully equipped with its own kitchen, bedroom cum sitting room and bathroom. and the garden faced on to a famous hill whose name escapes me, anyway I couldn't pronounce the Gaelic which is delightfully everywhere.

I explored the castle with the help of Connor, one of the staff at the visitor centre, which was opened by Mary Macaleese, the President of Ireland. Several women of the village of Ferns got together and made 26 tapestries depicting the history of Ferns up to the Norman Invasion and the Vikings. I used to drop in for tea there and chat and felt sad to leave them even after only a week.

More tomorrow
Shalom from
Sister Gila