Today we head back to Dublin, with several important stops on the way.
Newgrange is a megalithic passage tomb in County Meath. It isdescribed by Clare Tuffy as "one of the finest monuments of European pre-history. Dating to circa 3200 B.C., it was built during the Neolithic or New Stone Age by a wealthy farming community that prospered on the rich lands of the Boyne Valley"
The Battle of the Boyne took place about four miles west of the town of Drogheda on the Boyne River. In the battle the Catholic King James was defeated by the Protestant King William of Orange.
The Hill of Tara (Temair) was the seat of the ancient kings of Ireland. St Patrick is also said to have come to Tara to confront the druids.
(The stops at the site of the Battle of the Boyne and the Hill of Tara are tentative depending on time)
When we get back to Dublin you will have two free days to explore Dublin and its environs and to prepare for your report. Because Ireland is rather small, by US standards, and it has good bus and train service, you might want to explore some of the areas of Ireland that we will not have visited. For example, we did not see much of the counties in the interior of the Island. A visit to a small town, off the tourist path, could be quite interesting
Our flight from Dublin to New York is currently scheduled to depart Dublin at 10:45 AM on May 21st with arrival in New York at 1:15 PM. We will stop for a snack on the way back to Elmira and hope to arrive back on campus by 9:00 PM.
We will then have class each monring the week of May 23rd. Our last day of class will be May 27th.
