Ireland "Soul Friends" Tour 2013

WorldChristian Tours presents: Ireland "Soul Friends" Tour 2013

Exploring the Heart of Ireland

In the eight trips to Ireland that our tour hosts (authors Steve and Lois Rabey) have made, somehow they've never kissed the Blarney Stone. That's because they've been busy seeking out other, more interesting places, many of which are featured in their books on Ireland and Celtic spirituality.

Now, WorldChristian Tours would like to share their love of Ireland with you through our 14-day "Soul Friends" tour. Together, our tour group will journey through Ireland's rich cultural and historic legacy.

If you are moved by spirituality, history, culture, literature, music, the sheer physical beauty of a place, or a fresh pint of Guinness, you will find all this and more on our Ireland tour. With a group size capped around 20 travelers, we will experience some of the most impressive sites that have made Ireland what it is and allowed it to shape world history.

Our tour is based around the Celtic concept of Soul Friends ("Anam Cara" in Gaelic). Summarized in an Irish proverb, the concept is: "Two shorten the road." We will enjoy the amazing Emerald Isle together, and share our experiences as we travel.

Join us September 8-21, 2013 as we explore some of the people and places Steve and Lois wrote about in their books: • Celtic Journeys: A Traveler’s Guide to Ireland’s Spiritual Legacy (Citadel); • In the House of Memory: Ancient Celtic Wisdom for Everyday Life (Dutton).

The tour includes ALL entrance fees for the many sites we will visit, ALL hotels (13 nights), ALL breakfasts (13 mornings), seven evening dinners, informative insights from hosts Steve and Lois Rabey and our Irish driver/guide, and incalculable number of beautiful sights and happy memories. The Tour cost is $2,995 (per person, double occupancy, not including airfare).

Itinerary: Ireland "Soul Friends" Tour 2013

Day 1: Welcome to Dublin (Sunday 9/8/13) After your arrival at Dublin Airport, a shuttle will transfer you to our Dublin hotel. At our Welcome Dinner, you will meet other group members and learn more about the tour. We will spend three nights in Dublin.

Day 2: The Heart of Dublin Rise when you wish for breakfast at the hotel. Then explore some of this cosmopolitan capitol's sites, shopping centers, restaurants and pubs until our group meets at Trinity University in the afternoon for the Book of Kells exhibit. Celtic monks lovingly created this gorgeous illuminated manuscript some 1,200 years ago. The Book of Kells, a beautiful rendering of the Gospels on calfskin, illustrates the flowering of art and literature that accompanied the rise of Celtic Christianity. We then walk to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a beautiful Evensong service. Founded as a Roman Catholic institution, the church became part of the Church of Ireland after the English Reformation. The Cathedral’s most famous dean was Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels). We end our day with the acclaimed Literary Pub Crawl. Local actors will escort us to the places where James Joyce, Brendan Behan, Samuel Beckett, W.B. Yeats and other Irish authors drank, argued and sometimes even wrote.

Day 3: Ancient Ireland: Newgrange, Slane and Tara We travel north of Dublin to journey back in time to three sites that played important roles in different phases of Irish history. In the Boyne River valley we visit Bru na Boinne, a stunning World Heritage Site where ancient people buried their dead in massive stone tombs that are as old as Egypt's pyramids. Every year during the winter solstice, sunlight enters Newgrange's stone passageway that leads more than 60 feet to a cruciform central burial chamber deep within the monument. High places have long been important to Irish and Celtic people. The Hill of Tara was a meeting site for the High Kings of Ireland for centuries. The Hill of Slane is the site where St. Patrick ignited a huge bonfire in 433 to celebrate Easter and challenge the supremacy of Ireland’s pagan/pre-Christian beliefs and practices. Our day concludes with a group dinner.

Day 4: Kevin's Glorious Glendalough We leave Dublin behind and travel into the Wicklow Mountains to see the remains of a major monastic community founded by one of Ireland's favorite saints. St. Kevin was a sixth-century recluse who retreated to a cave in the side of a cliff. Soon enough, this renowned holy man attracted a large following, which led to the creation of a large monastic community in this beautiful valley.

We will tour the monastic site with its many remains together. Then you will have plenty of time to explore the site on your own or hike along the surrounding hillsides and lakes on lovely forest trails. We stay at the Glendalough Hotel, which gives you access to the monastic area throughout the day and night.

Day 5: Cashel and Glenstal Abbey As we begin journeying to western Ireland, we visit the Rock of Cashel, an important site from pagan times to the days of the Chiefs of Munster. Located in County Limerick, the Rock houses are one of the most spectacular examples of Celtic architecture in Europe. For centuries, Irish kings and saints like St. Patrick called this commanding limestone outcrop their home. Today, we can visit the Rock's medieval castle, cathedral and the restored Hall of the Vicars Choral.

Next stop: Glenstal Abbey, a vibrant Benedictine monastery with 50 monks. We will attend liturgical celebrations with the monks, who are known for their recordings of Gregorian chant in English and Latin. The Abbey embraces a worship style characterized by beauty, harmony, a celebration of God’s presence, and loving reverence. We will explore Celtic Christianity with one of the brothers and enjoy the historic tradition of monastic hospitality by dining and staying overnight in the Abbey guesthouse. Our time at Glenstal Abbey will help us experience this unique sacred space and connect the dots between historic Celtic Christianity and contemporary monastic observance.

Day 6: To Dingle Town After breakfast we enjoy a driving tour of Frank McCourt's Limerick, the city that was made famous in the bestselling memoir and popular movie, Angela's Ashes, which describes McCourt's miserable, impoverished childhood. We continue on to Dingle town, a small but bustling town located in County Kerry's scenic Dingle Peninsula. Dingle's pubs offer Irish music, and its restaurants overflow with great seafood. We stay two nights in Dingle. Dinner.

Day 7: Exploring the Dingle Peninsula Dingle is located within a Gaeltacht area, where the traditional Irish language is spoken and honored. The area is also unusually beautiful and boasts more than its share of unique cultural and historic sites. The Gallarus Oratory is one of the best-preserved early Christian churches in Ireland. This striking structure, which resembles an overturned boat, has stood for 13 centuries even though its builders used dry stone construction techniques (there is no mortar or adhesives). The Blasket Islands were inhabited until 1953 and produced many storytellers who wrote about their unique island culture in memoirs that still remain popular. Today the Blasket Centre tells the story of the island’s unique heritage. We will also visit Dunbeg Fort, a promontory fort dramatically perched on the edge of a seaside hill that was built 2,500 years ago. At Dunbeg we can see what life may have been like for ancient Celtic people.

Day 8: The Beautiful Burren Heading north toward Galway, we will travel through the otherworldly landscape of the Burren ("great rock" in Irish). We will visit the iconic Cliffs of Moher, which tower hundreds of feet above the pounding Atlantic, providing you with stunning views of many bird species as you look west toward America. We spend three nights in Galway. Concludes with dinner.

Day 9: A Good Day in Galway You have a day to explore this bustling coastal city, the largest town in the West. Home to the National University of Ireland, Galway boasts a thriving community of students, artists, shops, bookstores, galleries, pubs and restaurants.

Day 10: The Island of Inishmore Ireland is an island surrounded by islands. We travel to Inishmore, the largest of the three western Aran Islands, via ferry for a day trip. On the island, choose your form of transportation (feet, bikes, horse drawn carts or motorcar) to visit Dun Aengus, the most impressive of an estimated 40,000 Irish Stone Age forts. Dun Aengus is a massive fort that is precariously perched on cliffs that fall hundreds of feet to the surging ocean. Also visible on this remote, rocky island are sites that inspired J. M. Synge, who spent six summers on the island collecting anecdotes and folklore for his plays, Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World.

Day 11: Joyce's Connemara to Westport We travel through the scenic Connemara region, with its mountains, hills, rivers, streams and millions of shades of green. Since the 14th century, this area is home to the Joyce clan (ancestors of writer James Joyce). Along the way we will stop at Kylemore Abbey, a stunning site that offers walking, eating and shopping. We will visit (and some of us will climb) Croagh Patrick St. Patrick's majestic holy mountain, which is the site of an annual pilgrimage hike for thousands of Irish faithful. In the evening we'll enjoy a group dinner together. Then we can go pub hopping for authentic Irish music at Matt Molloy’s, a pub operated by the flute-playing member of the pioneering Irish musical group the Chieftains.

Day 12: Titanic Town

We leave the Republic of Ireland to enter Northern Ireland, which is part of Great Britain, traveling to Belfast, where we tour the site where the Titanic was built, and visit the new museum dedicated to the ill-fated ocean liner. We will also view sites that were part of the "Troubles," which for decades pitted two groups against each other: Unionists (who favor union with Britain), and Republicans (who favor an independent Republic separate from Britain).

Day 13: Dublin North and Farewell Dinner We return to the Republic and to northern Dublin, where we gather around the table a final time, raise our last toast, and bid each other farewell until we meet again.

Day 14: Breakfast and Goodbye (Saturday 9/21/13) Enjoy breakfast in the hotel before (if that is your plan) the shuttle takes you to the airport for your return flight.

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