Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Fergeal's Wonderful Weekend! Part 2

I just found out while we were in the Bushmill's distillery that my name should be spelled Feargal and that it means Golden One....very appropriate I think. I found out also that i like a drop of whiskey...and a drop was all I got!!



We went on to the Giant's Causeway, somewhere I have always wanted to go...and we weren't disappointed. Here is proof!! I wuz there!!



They held on to me really tightly...I found out why later!!!





I think we saw some signs of the Giants.



Pretty scary!! I was really interested in the story of the Giants...this is what Wikepedia says..... remember Fionn is our grandson..this is another story about his namesake.

Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.

Another variation is that Oonagh painted a rock shaped like a steak and gave it to Benandonner, whilst giving the baby (Fionn) a normal steak. When Benandonner saw that the baby was able to eat it so easily, he ran away, tearing up the causeway.

The "causeway" legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal's Cave on the isle of Staffa in Scotland.


Oh man! we just couldn't stop taking photos. It was so funny when we heard a voice behind us say...."would you mind doing that again...I have never seen anything like that!!" So I was held up again in front of that wonderful view and he took my photo. I couldn't believe that he had never seen a leprechaun before. We are all over the place but you got to know where to look.

The bus driver told us a leprechaun story.... a woman went into a garden centre and asked for a leprechaun ( she really meant a garden gnome I think!) well the man behind the counter dashed to the door and ran outside. He came back a few minutes later and said "darn it they have all gone, there were 5 of them out there last time I looked!!"

We sure are slippery customers!



Isn't this amazing, I bet Brendan would enjoy coming here.

3 comments:

  1. Fergal is such a lucky leprechaun to get to travel around like that and peek in on the fabulous needlework going on!

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  2. Lucky Fergal to visit all these wonderful places. Very interesting legends about the Giant's Causeway. Thanks for sharing the wonderful pictures and Fergals adventures.

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  3. This is great. I am having lots of fun reading about your adventure, Fergeal. I especially like the part about the man running outside after the lady asked for a Leprechaun!

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