Day 17 – The Feast of Corpus Christi Parade

We awoke Sunday to another cloudless morning.  Does it ever rain in Ireland anymore?  We did actually get a shower in mid-afternoon, but it was sunny again by dinner time.

Today we drove north to Clifden for the day.  Along the way Elaine yelled at me to stop, turn around, and go back to take a picture.  Obedient as always, I did.  I must say the view she had seen was certainly picture worthy and may turn out to be the best picture(s) of the trip.

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At Clifden we first drove the Sky Road high above the town before returning to the town center.

On the Sky Road

 

 

All along the picturesque High Street (Main Street), stores had set up offertories to Jesus.  Good religious people like we are, we had no idea why.  Elaine chatted an older gentleman setting up one of the more eleaborate displays to find out what was up.  It was to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart and/or the Feast of Corpus Christi or something to do with that (as those days are usually Thursday or Friday.

“The Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on the Friday after the octave (eighth day) of the Feast of Corpus Christi. The traditional date of Corpus Christi is the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, which falls one week after Pentecost Sunday. Thus, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus falls 19 days after Pentecost, which is seven weeks after Easter.”  Huh?  How obtuse is that

Anyway, there is a procession from the church through town and a blessing at one of the displays before a return to the church for the benediction.  We watched the procession.  (Interestingly, the similar procession in Galway itself, we found out later, was held several hours earlier than usual so as not to interfere with a scheduled celebration for Galway’s successful Rugby team victory.  (Rugby first, God second, I guess.)

 

 

 

 

After stopping at a couple of beaches, we headed home through Roundstone, a picturesque town, where we ran into a shower.  We parked and had a beer in a pub and checked out the little Sunday market, but it was diminished by the rain.  Then it back to Galway.

After a rest (and nap, for me) we walked down the Salthill Promenade for dinner at the Black Cat, a tapas restaurants that had good reviews.  It was excellent!  We shared four dishes: gambas (tiger prawns and chorizo in a delicious broth), fried calamari rings, beef cheeks (a first for us), and pork belly.  We also got delicious grilled bread and a nice bottle of Cotes du Rhone.  We both had (no sharing here!) a warm brownie with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream for dessert.  It was good enough that we booked for tomorrow night as well as there were other tapas choices that we want to try.