Sean Daly hand cut and hand polished crystal at Waterford Crystal. Sean started as a young apprentice at the age of 17 at Waterford Crystal and studied for 15 years to become a master cutter.
When Waterford decided to move production overseas, Sean wanted to keep the tradition of crystal cutting alive in Ireland. Dingle Crystal was established in 1999.
The tradition of Irish crystal cutting dates back to the 18th century, but Sean is one of the last remaining master cutters in Ireland. Four thousand crystal cutters were out of a job.
An apprentice starts by making a star on the bottom to level the piece. All cuts have to have the same depth. If you are good, you can learn how to do it in 5 days.
The product must have 24% lead oxide to be considered crystal. Dingle Glass has 26%.
On St Patrick’s Day, the Prime Minister of Ireland gives the US President a piece of hand cut crystal. This tradition started with JFK and continues today.
We drove along the famous Slea Head Drive, voted the most beautiful road in Ireland.
Dingle Peninsula is on the Gulf Stream so there is no snow. They have an annual rainfall of 80″.
In Ireland one must pay for an annual TV license for every television. The licence fee funds their public television. It costs 160€ ($187) per television. If one doesn’t have a license, the penalty is 1,000€.
Seaweed is harvested and used to eat or for fertilizer.
Grass is always green. High quality meat and dairy products come from their livestock as they are all grass fed.
They use reeds that we call phragmites for the thatched roofs. It is invasive in the USA.
A good Irish crossroads has the 3Gs: God, groceries, and Guinness. Country Stores had everything from “needle to anchor”. Now there is house delivery from Amazon.
Far and Away was filmed on the Dingle peninsula. It is not considered a good movie. The Irish say, “The farther away the better.”
In 1858 on Valentia Island in County Kerry, Queen Victoria sent the first official transatlantic telegraph message to James Buchanan to congratulate him on his presidential win. The line speed was extremely slow (taking over 16 hours to transmit the Queen’s message). However, this moment was like getting a transmission from the moon.
Balley means Valley. Bonn means Mountain. Tog Bog É means chill out in Gaelic.
Gallarus Oratory
Gritstone of the area was used as material for the building. The roof is formed by the gradual rise of the side walls from the base upwards. It is still waterproof after several centuries of buffeting by Atlantic gales.
Corbeling is an architectural building method where each successive course of stone or brick moves slightly outward from the layer below it. Builders use this overlapping technique to construct structural supports, decorative cornices, and false arches or vaults without needing temporary internal framing.
More History
Cornwallis avoided mistakes made in the USA that brought the French and other countries to come to the aid of the Americans. He felt that the same thing would happen in Ireland if the response to the Rebellion of 1798 was harsh and heavy handed.
Years ago tenants were part of a feudal system. Subsistence farming gave them the potato. When possible buttermilk would then round out a complete diet. Potatoes were eaten at every meal for the poor.
During the famine religious groups came to offer soup to those who who would convert from Catholicism to Protestantism. If someone did, they were called soupers. In Dingle, they were even offered housing. Catholics told them if you converted, things will be bad in this life and even worse in eternity. Someone who took the soup was called a souper. There were five families who did so and their family names still bear the sign of traitors. The catholics were not allowed an education.
The admirable Quakers gave food to all who were starving! They were the best example of the love of Christ.
The Great Blasket Centre has preserved the language, literature, and daily life of a traditional Gaelic Blasket community.
Blasket Island is a remote island. The Blasket channel is very rough with currents coming from both ways. Blasket had no services. Blasket had a dangerous reef.
The Great Blasket’s only tenuous link with the outside world was by sea, a link that was always dependent on the state of wind, sea, and tide. A morse radio set installed only in 1941 was very unreliable. In cases of emergency when it was not possible to summon help by sea, a bonfire would sometimes be lit to let people on the mainland know that they were in distress.
People lived on it until 1953 when the population was older and the future could not be imagined. They asked the president for plots on the mainland. There are only two people still alive today from the island.
The Blasket Islanders walked in single file because the paths on their rugged, rocky island were extremely narrow and steep. This was deeply ingrained and they continued doing it long after moving to the mainland.
Some Blasket Islanders immigrated to Springfield, Massachusetts.
The people were basically hunter-gatherers and their life revolved around the sea. Salt was purchased on the mainland. They ate seabird eggs, rabbits, and sheep and used dried bog for heat. They had plenty of fresh water on the island with 22 spring wells.
The Islanders were social and fond of music and even made their own instruments. Women spent most of their time weaving.
The Blasket Islanders were great story tellers especially about fairies and ghosts. They were asked to write down their stories and also about life. There were 50 books written of which The Islander is the most famous. Rob purchased this book.
Have you ever heard of an Andrew Carnegie library? I had not. In 1906, a library was built in Dingle. Between 1883 and 1929, Carnegie funded the construction of 2,509 libraries. A common feature is steps to a pillared door with lanterns to symbolize enlightenment. Over 50 Carnegie libraries were built in my home state of Kansas. What an impact this man had that very few of us realize today.
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