Our last moring in the City of Cork started gently, with a five minute drive from our hotel to Holy Trinity Friary and Church along one of the inner city waterways of Cork. The day was overcast and threatening rain, which thankfully held off until we were well out of of the city environs.
This church, still under the care of the Franciscans, dates back to the early 1800s following Catholic emancipation and was completed much later after the Famine was 'over', though never forgotten.
Holy Trinity is a large church by some standards, and for me at least was a little dim in places. The highlight architecturally were the three Clarke stain glass windows, which unfortunately were not able to display their full brilliance because of the external weather.
As always, we were made to feel "most welcome" by Brother Laurence who greeted us and explained some of the history of the building before Mass began. And after Mass, it was back on the bus (quickly before the Garda caught up with Conor's potentially illicit parking) and we were heading out of Cork towards our next stop, with today's ultimate destination being Tralee in County Kerry.
The trip from inner city Cork to Blarney Castle is relatively short - less than 30 minutes - and along the way our guide, Fionnuala, shared the castle's history with us in preparation for the visit.
The weather was foul by the time we got to the castle, raining rather heavily and making the whole experience potentially murky, so Mum and I, who had visited the castle and its gardens before, decided to stay in the Woollen Mill and its restaurant. It was, as it turned out, a very wise decision.
Which meant, of course, that I didn't kiss the Blarney Stone (though one member of the pilgrimage group cheekily suggested that I had no need of its alleged properties!), though I was never going to venture that high and adopt the necessary position to do so in the first place.
After some time in Blarney, including taking lunch, we were once more on the bus and heading to our overnight stay in Tralee, where we would be based for three nights.