The Dunbrody

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Today we decided to visit the Dunbrody famine ship in New Ross about 25 miles away. The Dunbrody is a replica of a ship that used to cross the Atlantic in the mid to late 19^th century. We learned about the time in Ireland when there was famine due to failed potato crops several years in the row. The ticket cost 3 pounds per person. At the time, a worked got paid 1 shilling per day. To earn 3 pounds, one would have to work 36 days straight without spending it on anything else. You could also buy an acre of land for 5 pounds.

The ship took 6-8 weeks to reach America. It is hard to imagine sailing that long in such conditions. The space in the ship was set up as bunk beds with each area being about 6 by 8 feet. This area was for 6 to 8 people. The captain also made them leave most of their stuff behind and all that passengers were able to carry was what fit into a small basket. The passengers were allowed to go on deck for 30 minutes a day, just long enough to cook their bread and dump their bucket that they used to go to the bathroom. In these conditions, about 20% of passengers died. On some ships, as many as 50% of all passengers did not make the trip. This is what earned the ships a nickname – “coffin ships”.

We stopped at the Johnston Castle on the way home. The castle itself is not open to public but the gardens are. The kids ran around the gardens for a while and then we continued our drive back. We ate dinner at the pub across the street from bed and breakfast and decided to drive to the playground we did not make it to the other day.

Stevie was not in the mood to go but we were hoping he would get into it once we got there. The playground was on top of the cliff overlooking the ocean. Somewhere down below us was the Rosslare harbor.

Shortly after we started playing, Stevie bumped his face on one of the spinners. He busted his lip and got a black eye. I guess we should have listened to him when he said he did not want to go. We went by the grocery store again to get snacks for the ferry in the morning. We wanted to avoid buying food on board again. This was only a 4 hour ride so we should be able to snack until we get to Wales.