The Fields of Athenry

Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It’s so lonely ’round the Fields of Athenry

Maybe you have heard the song before, but maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t look up the Fields of Athenry right now before you continue any further. This is one of my favorite songs in the whole world. I grew up listening to it at our church’s Irish party and then found a deep connection to it as I have gotten older and learned more about Irish history. It is about the famine which many sad Irish songs are, but it may be a take you are unfamiliar with. It is about a boy is sent to Australia as a prisoner after being caught stealing food during the famine. It is really sad, but I am not here to depress you with Irish history. I want to show you what the Athenry that exists today through tragedy and hardships.

I have been wanting to go to Athenry forever! Ok maybe not forever, but definitely since I first studied abroad there. Sadly I never made it during my semester there because my weekend trips were dominated by the major attractions and cities. Then when I came back for the first time I thought that’d be a great time to do it because its pretty close, but it never happened. Then the second time I visited I again didn’t make it because we went to Derry. Now I came back again this November for a week. That isn’t long enough to plan a big trip but is also long enough to want to see something new outside of Galway city. Its only about 20 minutes by train if even. As for the cost? It was only 5.10 euros each way making it about a 10 euro day trip as how much you spend there is up to you.

We both were really hungry so when we arrived at the train station in Athenry we headed to the right across the bridge over to the main part of town. It is only a town of about 4,000, which makes it pretty small, although it is about 1,000 people more than my town back home. It felt smaller though. As we got into what would probably be considered downtown, we walked through the old city wall. Not much of it remains, but the Athenry Arch is still the entrance to the town.

It was a bit of a walk (about 15 minutes) to where we wanted to go to breakfast since it was on the other side of town. We decided to use this walk to see the town and make any stops on the way, which we did end up making at a memorial called the 1916 Commemorative Garden. This is where we get into the niche of Irish history, so if you aren’t from Ireland you may be unfamiliar with the Irish War of Independence. The Easter Rising of 1916 marks the start of this war. I specifically say war, because the fight for independence began long before this. In this rising the Irish Republicans seized major buildings and fought on the streets of Dublin. A few hundred died making it remembered as a bloody affair, but it was very significant in obtaining Irish independence from the British.

This memorial in Athenry marks the spot where Liam Mellows gathered up volunteers from Galway for this rising. It is completely Irish, made by the Irish using Irish materials. There is a sign explaining what each item in the garden represents, as there are multiple statues, plaques, rock structures, and imagines throughout the space. You even find imagines from the famine representative of the song and signs acknowledging the Irish diaspora during this time as well. It is the 1916 Commemorative Garden, but it is representative of Irish identity and the events that have shaped it.

As we made our way out of downtown towards the cafe we walked past the sports field and walked along its walls where eventually across the street we heard something. My friend, Honoria, spent much time in Ireland in her life because her mom is from there. She knew instantly in a was livestock auction. We were really curious but nervous to intrude, so we crossed the street and walked up the driveway a bit where we saw trucks carrying away their new sheep and could see a small group in front of a man with a speaker. Then we quickly left and took a selfie because I didn’t want it to be so obvious I was taking a picture of the exchange. It was such an Irish experience though. I loved it!

We finally got to our cafe a little after noon when we discovered we wouldn’t actually be getting brunch because breakfast is only served until noon, but there was still great lunch options. We went to the Coffee District. While it isn’t located downtown, it still was a very cute cafe with great food. I got a cappuccino (my drink of choice in Europe) as well as a ham and cheese toastie with a side of chips. I went through multiple packets of brown sauce! There is really nothing like a warm sandwich with brown sauce! The bread it was on was also so soft.

I would definitely recommend the cafe as a place to eat or at least to get coffee and a pastry in Athenry. I ended up also getting a scone to go and it was the best Irish scone I have ever had. I bake Irish scones so I am currently trying to figure out how to make them like this one because is was so soft and moist with the best flavor and flakiness. It almost seemed more like soda bread than a biscuit in American terms.

After a pit stop at the pharmacy and Aldi for a drink we continued back into the town to see some of its sights. Although, the view from the Aldi parking lot seemed an awful lot like it would be the Fields of Athenry.

There are three places to go to see the old part of Ireland here in Athenry. The first we went to was the Heritage Center. The Heritage Center wasn’t actually open at the time due to a scheduled closure so we couldn’t go inside but we could explore the grounds of what is Saint Mary’s Parish Church. It was bad timing, but it still was nice walking around the church and taking a look at the graves in the yard. Irish graveyards are actually quite interesting. Not only to they have unique tombstones, but there are some pretty old graves and you can easily correlate some deaths with certain events in history.

From here we walked to the second destination which was my favorite, the Dominican Priory. It was built in the 1200s for the Dominican Order but was rebuilt again a few hundred after a fire. Once again it isn’t somewhere we could go into, but we could peek in through the gated door and huge windows. It is really cool! It is essentially ruins, so it is hard to tell what things would have been, but here is a ton of stone inside that you know was once something. There are more graves surrounding the building and even some raised graves which was a point of intrigue for us. This is the kind of place you expect to see in western Ireland.

From here we walked across the street back towards the Heritage Center for our last destination, the castle. Sadly this closes in the beginning of November, so we didn’t really get to see anything. We couldn’t even walk around it like the others as it was completely closed off from visitors. Luckily I knew enough about Irish medieval castles from my history classes and other visits, but it still would have been cool to see the inside or at least get closer. Some day I will have to come back and visit inside these places. Nevertheless it still made for a nice walking tour of the town.

Afterwards we headed back in towards what is most likely the city center and found the Fields of Athenry giftshop which was pretty much just an Irish souvenir store as well as a nice place to get gifts. I didn’t need to get anything, but I still wanted to see what it had. There wasn’t really anything related specifically to the song, but there were still lots of nice things. You will find outside on the wall down the street to the right (when facing it) a plaque with the lyrics to the song. That satisfied my need to see the place of the Fields of Athenry!

We planned about 4 hours in Athenry which was more than enough time given we couldn’t go inside the major attractions. We had a bit of time before our train so we stopped at a store to get some craft supplies on our way to the train station. In the end we ended up taking an earlier train back. Athenry is nice but there is really not a whole lot to do beside the castle and Heritage Center.

For the rest of my week there in Galway anyone we told about going to Athenry reacted with “Why?” or “What is there to do in Athenry?”. That’s the reputation it has in Ireland! It was all because of the song for me. I am glad I went, even if it wasn’t the most exciting place in Ireland. I found it to have a bit of small town charm and I enjoyed the medieval buildings in the middle of the town. It makes a great day trip from Galway, especially if you are looking for something new to do.

If you enjoyed reading about Athenry, I highly recommend checking out my Ireland page to read more of my travels throughout Ireland, because even though this is my only post for this trip, I have lots of great adventures to share from my other trips!