THE MIDKNIGHT GARDEN: Home to The Serpent Priesthood & Knights of the Red Order.

QUEST TWENTY SIX: IRELAND:

• PART ONE:
  
• Angelsey, Holyhead, Dublin, Ballyonan
• Navan: The Hill of Tara
• Cavan: St Patricks Cathedral
• Blacklion: St Patricks Church
• Belfast Public Records Office
• Newcastle & the Mountains of Mourne
• PART TWO:
• Newry: Newry Cathedral/St Patricks Church
• The Giants Causeway
• Derry: St Columbas Church
• PART THREE:
• Dublin: St Andrews Church, Christ Church Cathedral (St Patricks Cathedral)
  
• Dundalk: St Nicholas Parish Church
• Belfast: Belfast Synagogue, Belfast Cathedral, St Thomas Church
• Dublin, Holyhead and home….

And so it was at the end of September 2018, we began our much anticipated week-long quest to that beautiful and magical island: Ireland. With so many mysterious and exciting places on our itinery we were just aching to get there. We travelled by car on the Sunday to Anglesey in Wales where we stopped briefly over night before catching the Irish Ferry ‘Ulysses’ from Holyhead, which ferried us very safely and comfortably to Dublin in Ireland. From Dublin we drove to County Louth, to a small village alongside a beautiful estuary, called Ballyonan, near Lough Tain – a very hard place to find even on a map!

 

Arriving in Ireland at the Port of Dublin wth dust falling along the estuary as we made it to our digs

So begins Quest Twenty Six; Ireland is a very beautiful, deeply religous and spiritual country, albeit with a very chequered history, as is told within the passions and ideals of it’s peoples, clashing over time, within and without.

 

THE CELTIC CROSS: The Celtic Cross is very much symnominous with Christianity and of course  the Celtic lands; yet the symbols history gos much further back in time with much deeper meanings and do infact connect at different levels of understanding to the teachings of The Priory. In Ireland, the spiritual symbol of the Celtic Cross endures throughout Irish history and remains forever  prominent  in the Irish culture; it is an honour to see the symbol in it’s rightful home, just as it should be…

It is popularly believed that St. Patrick introduced the Celtic Cross in Ireland, during his conversion of the kings from paganism to Christianity. Other beliefs are that it was St. Columba or St. Declan who introduced it and that further the circle stands for the Roman sun-god Invictus, thus giving the name of Celtic Sun Cross, while other beliefs connect it to a reprentation the Celestial Sphere. It is also said to represent the halo of Jesus Christ.  Many beautiful Celtic Crosses adorn graveyards and gravestones throughout Ireland and the UK. It is a symbol used by many different cultures across our planet in religous rites and sacerd spaces; different cultures attributing different names and meanings to the four points.

 

The Celtic Cross photographed across the northen part of Ireland; sometimes in surprising and unacustomed formats…

Day One: The Hill of Tara: The Hill of Tara is located near the River Boyne and is an archaeological complex that runs between Navan and Dunshaughlin in County Meath and according to tradition  was the seat of the Hight Kings of Ireland^, so a very important part of our Templar Quest in researching the bloodline and origins of the ‘Neville’ surname, as those of you who are following us will be well aware of, so therefore ticked quite a few boxes for us on this visit. The Neville ancestory line can be traced right back through history to the Kings of Ireland; those High Kings who would have been crowed here all those many years ago…

Liathdroim (The Hill of Tara) and the Lia Fail (Stone of Destiny) in County Meath, known as the Seat of the High Kings; the place where the true high kings were crowned. According to legend, the stone would scream if a series of challenges were met by the would-be king. At his touch the stone would let out a screech that could be heard all over Ireland. When touched today, one may receive personal visions from the stone…. The Hill of Tara is documented in certain ancient texts but always from a mythological point of view, yet hidden within those old texts, jumping out from the myths and legends, hidden within the very land itself the truth can always be found…

At the summit of the hill, to the north of the ridge, is an oval Iron Age hilltop enclosue measuring 318 metres (1,043 ft) north-south by 264 metres (866 ft) east-west and enclosed by an internal ditch and external bank, known as Ráith na Ríogh (the Fort of the Kings, also known as the Royal Enclosure). The most prominent earthworks within are the two linked enclosures, a bivallate (double-ditched) ring fort and a bivallate ring barrow known as Teach Chormaic or Cormac’s House and the Forradh or Royal Seat. In the middle of the Forradh is the Lia Fail at which the High Kings were crowned. To the north of the hill is a Neolithic passage tomb Dumha na nGial, aptly named ‘The Mound of the Hostage’ with secrets of its own hdden within time and tellings… The Mound of the Hostages was constructed around 3,400 (cal.) BC. Its is the oldest site at the Hill of Tara.

 

Nearby at the site entrance is the Church of St Patrick with St Patrick’s statue overlooking the land. The “Rath of the Synods” has been partly destroyed by its churchyard; the modern church being built in 1822–23 on the site of an earlier one. The earliest evidence of a church at Tara is a charter dating from the 1190s. In 1212, this church was “among the possessions confirmed to the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Kilmainham by Pope Innocent 111. Read more about the site from the link below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_Tara

 

An important site in respect of the true (now hidden) history of these lands, of our true ancestors (or creators) and from whence the true royal bloodline spread its light across these sacred lands…

Filming atop the Hill of Tara and from the adjacent burial mound: it was so windy up there as you can hear, so no commentatary at this point as i had a job even holding the camera steady. A magical place full of untold history with many hidden conections to the true path as taught by The Priory, and a magnificant view across Ireland

 

The Hill of Tara and The Giants Causeway

 

• Bloodline Connections: The Neville Line (the Bloodline of the ‘Neville’ surname) “
• The High Kings List (the Neville line one and the same; )

Cavan: St Patricks Cathedral: The Cathedral of St Patrick and St Felim, also known as Cavan Cathedral, was next on our list for the day. It is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Cavan and is the seat of the Bishop of Kilmore and the mother chrch of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kilmore. In 1152, the Diocese of Kilmore was formally established by Cardinal Giovanni Paparoni at the synod of Kells. In 1454, Pope Nicholas V gave permission for the ancient church at Kilmore (founded in the sixth century by  Saint Felim to be the catherdral church of Kilmore diocese. It was rebuilt and became to be known in Irish as An Chill Mhór (meaning Great Church) and anglicised as Kilmore, which gave its name to the diocese, a name which has remained ever since.

 

Cavan; an Cabhán, meaning “the hollow”, is the county town of County Cavan and lies in Ulster, near the border with Northern Ireland. Cavan was founded by the King of East Breifne, Giolla Íosa Ruadh O’Reilly, sometime during his lordship between 1300 and his death in 1330. During his lordship, a Franciscan friary was established close to the O’Reilly stronghold at Tullymongan and was at the centre of the settlement close to a crossing over the river and to the town’s marketplace.

We were unable to film inside the cathedral as people were praying which of course we respected, but we did manage to tip toe around and take some photos.

 

The beautiful mosaic flooring of Cavan Catherdral

 

The stunning windows and artwork of Cavan Catherdral

 

Is she actually ‘Mary’ or does she represent somethng else? The ‘Holder of Life for example’? She certainly is cluthching the red and white roses; the symbols and colours of the Neville family

You may read more here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavan_Cathedral

 

• Bloodline connection: Our head researcher’s great granfather x 2 Bernard Fordham was born in Cavan in 1870.
• The cathedral contains references to the red and white rose (and colours) of the ‘Neville Line’

 

 

Wild dramatic scenery and spectacular weather was encountered as we drove to St Patricks Church, Killinnagh, Blacklion

Killinnagh, Blacklion: St Patrick’s Church: The present Church, dedicated to St. Patrick, was built in 1846. It was a thatched structure at that time, a barn church, and would have been used for communal threshing during the week. It was not big enough to accommodate the congregation so it was decided to put in a gallery in 1889. It had to be raised. Money must have been very scarce at that time because second hand slates were bought to roof it and the timber used to construct the gallery was very poor quality.

 

St Patricks Church & graveyard; a stunning church amidst stunning scenery

A very high standard quality of renovation and improvement was carried out between 1930 and 1932. This was funded by Sir Patrick McGovern, a native of the area, who had been very successful as a contractor in America. A basement was built under a new sacristy and a coal-fired furnace was installed to provide central heating. This would have ranked it among the most modern in the country at that time. This lasted until the 1990’s when it needed major renovation. This was carried out in 1995 and the Church now has all modern facilities.

 

 

The sumptuous interior of St Patrick’s Church where marble has been used extensively throughout. More about the rather interesting windows can be learnt by clicking on the video link below:

 

• Bloodline connections relate to the Neville and Fordham lines
• Bernard Fordham was born nearby in Cavan in 1870

A little more about the church here: http://www.glangevlin.com/index.php/parish-churches/75-st-patricks-killinagh-church-blacklion

As i was unable to find anything on the internet in respect of Killinnagh itself, you can read about Blacklion here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacklion

 

Follow our link to learn more about the three churches we were able to film at:

Cavan Cathedral, St Patrick’s Church & St Columbas Church

 

Day Two: Belfast Public Records Office:  Lovely sunny weather and a steady drive northwards bought us into Belfast and into The Titanic quarter of the city, to visit the public records office where valuble information was obtained;  yet to be fully incorporated into our quests. We did not stay long in Belfast itself but i did snatch some quick photos from the car! Belfast is a very large vibrant city which like most cities one cannot get a true sense of it from the car, but looking at the brochure i picked up in the record office it is a city of many cultural and arts events all year round and we certainly did see many fine artworks whilst driving through.

Belfast is Northern Ireland’s capital. It was the birthplace of the RMS Titanic, which famously struck an iceberg and sunk in 1912. This legacy is recalled in the renovated dockyards’ Titanic Quarter, which includes the Titanic Belfast, an aluminium-clad museum reminiscent of a ship’s hull, as well as shipbuilder Harland & Wolff’s Drawing Offices and the Titanic Slipways, which now host open-air concerts.

 

• Bloodline Connections confirming Fordham & linking Neville line.
• Check Ford line from Ireland from 1700’s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfast

 

Newcastle and the Mountains of Mourne: Next we headed south again and to  Newcastle; a magical town nestling right besisde the coast, where the Mountians of Mourne roll down to greet the sea; everywhere one looks is a stunning view, made even more beautiful when the mists roll like tears down the face of the majestic mountains. We stayed a few hours; an afternoon of wandering and chilling and a very tasty meal too! No Craft site as such to visit but checking out the energies and future connections of the land.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle,_County_Down

We drove up high on winding narrow roads to where the mountains met the skies. It felt like being in a time portal for there is no sense of time or space here, just a maginificant sense of presence and peace and of course beauty all around.

The Mountans of Mourne

Newry Cathedral/the Cathedral of Saint Patrick and Saint Colman:  So leaving the mountains and our hearts behind, we made our way to Newry and to the cathedral there. This is a Roman Catholic cathedral which acts as the seat of the Bishop of Dromore, and the head church of the  Roman Catholic Diocese of Dromore. We did not expect it to be open for it was now late in the day, but still managed some good outside shots, but hoped to return.

Newry Cathedral just before nightfall

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newry_Cathedral

 

• Bloodline Connections relate to ‘The Land of the True Knight’
  

“It was never ours
Yet we deemed to own G-ds land.
The rainbow arc shone in many colours
Yet no-one saw
And the price is always paid
When G-D’s covenant is broken…”

 

‘The Keeper of Scrolls’
October 2018