The town of Wicklow (Chill Mhantáin) is a short train ride from Dublin. We are staying with friends of Fr. Kerry, at the home of Jane, a former parishioner from Caringbah, who was away on holiday herself. But her mom Sally was a very good host to us. We visited the church of St. Patrick (It seems a lot of places are named after St. Patrick) up on the hill before heading down to Avoca.

Avoca in County Wicklow, Ireland, ” … is immortalized by Thomas Moore in the famous song The Meeting of the Waters. The name of the song derives from the meeting of the Avonmore and Avonbeg rivers, about two miles from the village of Avoca. The song is said to have been written under a tree, the stump of which remains by the Meetings.”

We had lunch of chicken & vegetable soup, and brown bread.

Then we spent some time in town visiting the ruins of the Black Castle. Across the Irish Sea to the east is Wales.

In the evening, our last in Ireland, we had dinner at the Bridge Tavern with Sally. We had met other members of her family the day before and they had us over for dinner at their home. Thank you Marie and Michael.