Ireland, Day 2, June 10

Our first tourist stop was Jerpoint Abbey. With the help of a very friendly native, I was able to pay for our tickets, return the tickets, and purchase an OPW pass - the equivalent of a National Parks and Monuments pass. Best purchase ever. We got a book with the pass of all we were eligible to enter for free, and little write ups about each of them. We got so much out of that book. I highly recommend it.

Euros are different than American dollars, mostly because the bills are all different sizes and colors, and their coinage goes to two dollars. I had the most trouble with the coins. I'm not sure I got better as the week went on, but we did manage to pay for everything we needed.


Jerpoint Abbey was a Cistercian Monastary founded in 1180. The Cistercian Monks were tired of the corruption of the Catholic church and the enslavement the church was under because they accepted money from those who, lets say, didn't have the interests of the church at heart. So the Cistercians developed to avoid the influence of those who influenced the Catholic church at large. Their main emphasis was on being self-sufficient and producing all they needed to survive, as well as focusing on manual labor as being pleasing to God.

This particular group farmed, with the help of local townsmen who worked on the abbey grounds without being officially monks. The lay workers had nothing to do at all with the monks. Their food was prepared in the same space, but they did not eat together nor sleep together. The lay workers received some protection, and stable job, and lodging. The monks received a steady supply of food and time to study the scriptures more fully and worship God.

At it's height, the abbey grounds were several thousand acres, and supported farming, sheep, and crafting. It was turned over to the state of England during the reign of King Henry VIII, after the Dissolution of Monastaries Edict between 1536 and 1541. King Henry was the supreme head of the Church of England, and was (disappointed, jealous?) concerned about the large amount of land and wealth all the monastaries, nunneries, and abbeys had appropriated for the church (which was tax-exempt). King Henry demanded and recieved all the lands held by religions organizations, as well as all the money in their coffers.

Jerpoint Abbey was turned over to the Office of Public Works in 1880 for restoration and preservation. It was a gorgeous site, and the tour guide was wonderful, pointing out to us old carvings of the 12 apostles and Irish saints, explaining the lay out, and giving us our first taste of Irish history.



The courtyard:



The main walkway. I am standing in the chapel, looking toward the secondary chapel.



An Irish high cross, very old. (I didn't write it down!)





The ceiling of the tower, directly above where the monks worshipped.





Jeremy looking at a sarcophagus inside the abbey. I believe it was the first abbot of the abbey.





The watch tower.






My husband

An Irish high cross inside the grave yard. These graves date from the 1700s, and those are the ones with headstones we can read. In Europe as a whole, people are not embalmed. They are interred in a simple pine casket and left to nature's work. Families would be buried in one hole, generation on generation. While we think that is strange, it is completely normal in Ireland. After one generation of being in the ground, all that may be left of your parents may be bones, or simply rich dirt. The head stones had lists of people buried there, added decades apart, that may include the great- or great-great-grandchildren of the original occupants. Jerpoint Abbey's graveyard was still active, with descendants of the original occupants (so to speak) continuing to use the family plot. New families were not allowed to start plots in the grave yard, however.

Jerpoint Abbey from the road.

Us after "sleeping" on the plane. We might look discheveled and tired, but we were excited to start our adventure!