10 Questions About…

On the way home from Dromahair, we stopped in Trim. There was a Jonathan Swift Festival, which is always a winner with kids. Actually there was a bouncy castle – so that was fun for Aine. There is also a huge castle in Trim.

It was built around 1174 – and there were 2 major renovations. The first time they create too many sides so it was too easy for enemies to climb up the walls and/or dig under various castle walls to undermine them. (I didn’t get that etymology before.) The first iteration broadened the bases of the castle so that the sentries could see the bottom and catch the enemies. The second iteration made the castle taller.

The other kind of creepy but cool thing was the number of doors they had to protect the people in the castle. There was a moat around the castle, there was only one door and it was a floor up with only one staircase up to it. Then there was an antechamber of sorts before the real castle. It reminded me of the old Frankenstein movies where the people tried to break down the door of the castle.

The castle had 3 stories. There were cool walkways from one end to the other.

If you’ve seen Braveheart, you’ve seen the castle. Since I haven’t seen Braveheart I can’t really tell you what part – but I remember something about the siege of York.

Outside the Castle there was a big political debate. Patrick thought it was interesting. The majority of our crowd found it painful.