22 Apr Ireland – A land of Saints
Every area of Ireland has its particular saint, as do more or less all days in the Irish calender. Apart from Patrick, Columba and Brendan, the best known, there are a number of others worthy of special mention here. Among them is St. Brigid founded a religious order which reputedly featured a perpetual fire tended by virgins, and reputedly shares the grave at Downpatrick with St. Patrick and St. Columba. St. Kevin, founder of the Glendalough religious site, repeatedly had the ability to pray for so long that a blackbird has time to lay an egg and hatch it on his hand. A later figure , St. Malachy, Archbishops of Armagh in the 12th century, persuaded the Pope of the time to establish the archbishops of Ireland separately from those of England, and abolished hereditary assumption of important ecclesiastical positions. A later Armagh archbishops, Oliver Plunket, was falsely accused in the late 17th century of attempting to bring French troops into Ireland to expel the English. He was martyred in 1681 at Tyburn in London, where he was hung, drawn and quartered for his ‘crimes’.
Ireland Luxury Tours can actually plan a tour of Ireland with a “Saintly” itinerary.