The Lost City of Clonmacnoise

So I wrote this whole post and realized that I haven't explained who Mary is and why she's a part of CASA. Mary is a nun who was a huge part in opening this breakhouse. She used to be a paid worker for the organization until her MS got worse. Now she lives in the house and still joins in on activities from time to time. She wanted to take all of us volunteers to Clonmacnoise and Tullamore, where she grew up. Ok now back to my post. :P


Today we the volunteers, Mary, and Mary's PA Omina all squeezed into the bus (literally 6 inches of leg room between seats) and headed out to County Offaly to see the lost city of Clonmacnoise. This place is truly amazing! It is a little bit of land with many ruins of old buildings that once made up a monastery and a university (older than Oxford and Cambridge!) It was founded by St. Ciaran in 545. Now all that is left is a few ruins and a LOT of graves. The monks were all buried around the buildings, and there is a public lot behind all of that. It was strange to walk around all the headstones. Most of them were not legible anymore, and quite a few are starting to sink into the ground! The city is right along a river and it is so beautiful. Please look at the pictures I have on Facebook! :)

My favorite part of the whole place was a small open chapel they have outside. They built it about 30 years ago. It had 3 glass walls and a roof that only shelters what would be considered the altar. There is a place for a priest to sit and also a podium. On the wall inside there is a stone tablet that says: His Holiness Pope John Paul II Prayed Here Sept 30th 1979. How cool is that??? I can only imagine how crowded that little graveyard was on that day!

There is so much more I could say about this place, but I'm afraid I might butcher some of the details. For more info, check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonmacnoise

After we looked around for a while it was time to head out. Mary wanted to take us to lunch at the rectory of the church where Fr. Frank Murry lives. He is Paddy Murry's brother, who is another big person in the world of CASA. He also lives here! Anyways, Fr. Frank and his helper Mary made a lovely lunch and we all had a good time. After that, we were off to see the house where Mary grew up. I expected a modest house that would be really old. It was HUGE! I wish i got a picture of it! haha

We headed back home extremely full from the lunch, and ready to get out of that damn bus! :)

I have a group this weekend, and this time it's kids! I'm really excited. Pray that the weather is nice (that's a big prayer around here) so that we are able to take the kids to the zoo.

With love,
Claire