Joseph Rosendo’s Travelscope

-Welcome to Joseph Rosendo's Travelscope," where you join us as we accept the world's invitation to visit.

-[ Chuckles ] Come with me.

Today on "Travelscope," I explore Ireland's Ancient East, and celebrate Irish music, food, myths, and legends.

-[ Laughing maniacally ] -[ Singing operatic music ] [ Dancers singing ] -EVA Air flies from eight cities in North America to Taiwan, and, with one stop, onward throughout Asia.

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-The history of Ireland dates back 10,000 years, and the Ancient East, encompassing 17 counties, celebrates its history... myths... and legends.

Their observance is often the root of Irish festivals, where rousing times and mystical meanings meld.

One particularly spirited 5,000-year-old myth is Samhain -- Irish Halloween.

The new Pca Festival is a celebration of Samhain's fairy tales, colorful creatures, and sacred sites.

-So here we are, Joseph, at the Hill of Ward -- or Tlachtga, as it's known locally.

And this is a Samhain site, around which the Pca Festival traces back the origins of Halloween to this region -- the Boyne Valley region here.

This is the authentic home of Halloween.

So when you in the States, and you find congregations of Irish people, you'll find a strong connection to Halloween.

Now we're encouraging people to look home, look back to the Pca Festival.

Turn your head towards this point as we're standing here.

-Mm-hmm.

Think of this hill.

Think of home.

-Now, is this a burial site?

I see all the mounds here.

No, actually, these are ritual mounds.

They're ditches and banks.

If you were to look at this from an aerial view, it would look like there were a series of concentric rings, and it creates a ritual space.

We can only kind of extrapolate as to what that ritual actually might be.

But what we do know is that it was related to Samhain.

At a time of Samhain, as the legend goes, that all the fires in the world, which would be from here around us, were extinguished.

And the king on Tara, over there, would look over towards here, look for the igniting of the new flame of the new year.

Just off-site, we're going to have a fire sculpting, where you will see representation of Tlachtga, the goddess of the hill, and you will also see some interpretation of the site itself.

Samhain is the darkest time of the year, when all of the crops have been gathered, the animals are chosen for slaughter.

It's a time for remembering and being thankful for the year that's passed.

There's a time when the veil between this world and the other world was also present.

And that's where you get your ghouls and your mysterious, mischievous creatures coming in, and going off from, this world.

-Now, there's many creatures or spirits associated with the Feast of Samhain, or the Pca Festival.

-Absolutely.

-What's your favorite?

-My favorite one is the Morrigan.

-Morrigan.

-Absolutely, yeah.

-The goddess of death.

Absolutely, but she features so much across our mythology.

Same as the Pca, same as the fire gyro, same as Boann herself.

And we're here in the Boyne Valley, so Boann would be very close to my heart, as well.

-The Boyne River inhabits a special place in Irish history.

Along its banks, in 1690, the Battle of the Boyne was fought, which established the foundation on which Protestant dominance and more than 700 years of Anglo rule was built.

Legend holds that the river was a creation of the goddess Boann, one of the spirits of Samhain and the Pca Festival.

We're actually here on the Boyne River to celebrate Boann.

Now, tell me a little bit about Boann.

-Boann is one of the larger-than-life characters, I suppose, now associated with the Pca Festival, but she's also hugely important to the origins of the River Boyne, because back in ancient history, there was a well called the Well of Segais.

And this well was surrounded by hazel trees, and the hazel trees would drop their hazelnuts into the well and create knowledge.

So the Irish held all the knowledge of the world until we traveled and spread it out around.

-Thank you for sharing it with us.

[ Both chuckle ] -Yeah.

But this well could be accessed by the kings, and they could drink some of the water and gain knowledge.

But Boann didn't like the fact that the Queens couldn't access the well at the same time.

-Ah, the first Irish feminist.

-There you have it.

Exactly.

And she decided to defy the gods, went to the well, but in so doing, she angered the gods to the point where they sent for such a massive flood that gushed out of the well and washed Boann away, down to the sea, and created to the Boyne River.

Very clever water.

-Ross, you're keeping up the tradition of emphasizing the history of Ireland and introducing people to the history and the myths and legends by taking people out on this ancient boat.

If people really want to get to know Ireland, this is a part of Ireland they need to know.

I mean, the Ancient East is great because it has so much of the history of Ireland.

But, you know, it's not just about having a Guinness.

-No, no, exactly, although there's always space for that, too.

-Always some Guinness and Irish Whiskey and the great foods of Ireland.

But getting to know about the history and the mythology and the trials and tribulation and the struggles of the Irish people is very much a part of the Ireland experience.

-Most of our tours would be experiencing everything that we have here on the canal, from the Battle of the Boyne, because we're in the battle site, and a really beautiful part of County Meath.

-Oh, it's beautiful here.

To unravel Samhain and the Pca Festival's deep cultural connections, I enlist the help of Kelly Fitzgerald, doctor of Celtic studies and folklore.

-I mean, this is all about mischief and devilment.

And the trick-or-treating side of it, I mean, we say that in America -- we say "trick or treat" -- but we rarely trick anyone, do we?

-Yeah, you're right, not really.

-[ Laughs ] Seeing the Pca Festival here, we're seeing elements of earlier traditions.

We see that this is a kind of intersection of the otherworld, the supernatural, the preternatural.

That's the Pca.

But we also have the world of the dead.

And then we have that coming together.

And, now, you would never confuse the otherworld for the world of the dead.

So, similarly, the spirits of your, you know, your family members who have passed on -- a sense that they are coming back this evening would be a part of the original traditions here.

-I see it as the interaction between the Irish culture and their mythology.

-Yes.

-How does modern-day recognitions of ancient mythology and ancient culture support that revitalization of the Irish identity?

-If we think of the Celtic revival at the end of the 19th century, this was a time when Ireland was fighting for home rule, and they were saying, "Look, we were an amazing nation once, and we will become that once again."

That had people thinking about their history and say, "This is a part of my identity."

I do believe that's a really important thing.

-With the lighting of the fires at the Hill of Ward, or Tlachtga, the Pca Festival beings reveal themselves.

-[ Laughing maniacally ] -Pca, trickster and shape-shifter, leads a festive procession to Trim Castle, where lasers cut through the autumn night, figures dance on castle walls, and aerialists fly to usher in the ancient New Year's celebration.

We're at the gathering place before the procession that will go through the streets of Trim and then over to the Trim Castle, where all the festivities will take place.

Pca has some very special traits.

All of these characters do.

When she's good, she's very, very good; and when she's bad, she's horrid.

So she really embodies the trick-or-treat aspect of what this became, Halloween, in the States.

So, she's leading the parade tonight as we go in to Trim Castle.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] -[ Laughing maniacally ] -So many different characters that are part of the Pca Festival -- different spirits and gods and goddesses and fairies.

-Very dark.

We're sneaky little goblins, like.

-Yes?

-We can steal children who are mischievous.

-You can steal children?

-Sometimes.

Do you have any kind of certain sounds or music or songs that you do or anything like that?

-Just have a little [Laughs maniacally].

-Can we hear all that from everybody?

[ Maniacal laughter ] Oh, alright.

So you're going to have a good time tonight at the Pca Festival?

-Yeah!

[ Up-tempo music plays ] -[ Speaking Gaelic ] -Besides the official Pca Festival sites, local venues, like Slane Castle, the home of the Conyngham family since 1703 and a famous concert venue since 1981, join in the All Hallows Eve observance.

[ Up-tempo music plays ] No, no, stop.

Don't go any further.

You're at the edge of the pale.

Beyond this is only the ferocious Gaelic Irish.

When the Irish say, "Good crack," they mean, "Have a great time."

And that's what everybody is doing here tonight.

A banquet that begins with their own whiskey cocktails... -[ Speaking Gaelic ] -...evolves, as most things do in Ireland, into an evening of good crack, high times, and misdemeanors.

- Oh, oh, oh [ Up-tempo music plays ] [ Cheers and applause ] [ Drawer sliding open ] Welcome to Causey Farm.

[ Chuckles ] Everybody gets into the Halloween spirit here in Ireland at the end of October, and even Causey Farm, which like in many countries that we visited, it's a place where visitors and locals can come and get a country experience.

Let's see what we discovered.

[ Up-tempo music plays ] [ Camera shutter clicks ] -Go ahead.

Go ahead.

-Here they come.

-Good job.

-Really doesn't matter what you do, as long as you have fun doing it.

In addition to showcasing Halloween and Ireland's rural heritage, Causey Farm participates in Taste The Island, an islandwide celebration of Ireland's food-and-drink culture.

I join Deirdre Murtagh for a hands-on demonstration of the art of making Ireland's iconic soda or brown bread.

If you're coming to Ireland and you don't have brown bread, then you really haven't tasted Ireland.

-How could you be in Ireland without having soda bread?

-That would be terrible.

And you really only need a piece of brown bread, and you're finished for the day because it's so nutritious.

-It's very filling and very nutritious.

-Okay, so, let's get started.

A full cup of plain white flour.

-Into there.

Is that enough?

-Yep.

And almost a full cup -- just slightly less -- of what we call wheat meal or brown flour.

Next, we need bread soda, or baking soda.

So, one level teaspoonful.

-One level teaspoon.

-Now, just a half teaspoonful of salt.

Now the magic is air or oxygen.

So we want to get as much air into as we can.

And to do that, it falls.

Lift it up and let it fall through your fingers.

I'm going to pull up your sleeves.

-Okay.

Could you please?

Yes.

-You really look like you're working.

No, you're good.

-[ Chuckles ] -I think that's pretty good.

-You think so?

-Yeah.

What a flourish.

-That's really fun to do.

-So, we're going to add one egg.

-Okay.

And these are farm-fresh eggs right here from the farm?

-Indeed, yeah.

-Whoo!

-And so now we'll take half a cup of buttermilk.

And in fact, if you don't have buttermilk, you can just use sour milk instead.

It has the same effect.

-Ah.

Well, that makes sense, because, you know, you don't waste anything.

Ireland is a country that's gone through a lot of trials and tribulations in the past, where there wasn't a lot of food.

-Exactly.

-So wasting was not an option.

-Definitely not.

-So, we're good here?

-There we are.

Yeah.

It's looking good.

-It's looking good.

You think?

-Yeah.

-I think you can just roll it in.

-Just roll it out and in there.

-And traditionally, we put a cross on that.

-Really?

-You're getting to be quite the pro at this cooking.

-Yes.

Thank you.

You've made a few of these, I imagine.

-A lot of them.

That's right.

That's very good.

-So, I was going to ask you, when do we eat it?

Because the best part of cooking is the eating, as far as I'm concerned.

-Oh, 30 minutes.

And there's nothing like bread straight out of the oven with good country butter on it.

-Ah, fabulous.

And by the way, what I am an expert at is the eating part.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -Looks fantastic.

-Ah.

-That's not so bad.

-That looks great.

-Wow.

Fabulous.

Okay.

-Cooked really well.

-Please?

More, please.

-Definitely, my dear.

-Oh!

-I want to taste this one -- Oh!

-- taste this one myself.

-Oh, look at this.

-So, this is -- Oh, you've got the butter, and this is chutney.

So, we make this here -- kind of homemade tomato chutney.

-So, this is an option.

You have cheese.

-I love cheese and chutney with the brown bread.

That's a real treat for me.

-I have to have some Irish bread.

And it's hot, right out of the oven, so it melts beautiful.

Well, I understand we say "Bon apptit" in Ireland.

Is there another way to say -- -Not really.

We just use "slaint" for drinks here.

We're don't do anything for eating.

-Cheers.

-Cheers, indeed.

-Mmm.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Too bad you're not here, eating this with us.

-It is delicious.

-That's delicious.

-Very good for a first-timer.

-Slinte.

[ Chuckles ] -Whoo!

Delicious.

-Delicious.

Taste the Island, a fall festival of food and drink which spans the north and the south, showcases the kitchens of pubs, restaurants, country manors, and celebrity chefs like Kevin Dundon of Dunbrody House, where every great meal begins in his garden.

-I love this place, though this time of year, it's kind of like dying down a bit.

I love this part because you're actually planning for next year what we're going to grow.

So we have meetings with the gardener.

But we do produce food in here year 'round.

Just not as much as during the summer.

-Of course.

-So you've got Romaine lettuce.

Here, you've got our strawberry beds.

And we talk about the taste of the island.

Wexford isn't really known for its strawberries.

So, this is kind of all the onion part of the garden.

So, you've got your leeks.

-I see them.

-You've got your red onions and our white onions.

-What would you use those for?

What kind of a dish are you using your onions for now?

-I like to showcase them correctly -- anything we take out of the garden.

So, on tonight's menu, I'm actually going to take some and caramelize some onions to put on top of this strip-loin steak with the barnaise sauce.

Hopefully, you're going to try that tonight.

-Sounds like you're selling me on that steak.

It's going to be wonderful.

-So we do need to grab some of these.

-Here, I'll help you out.

I just might...

This is what I do well.

You know?

-[ Laughs ] Good.

-Carry things.

-So, when you look here, you got -- Oh.

Beautiful leek, though.

You pull that back like that.

-Mm-hmm.

-I just -- When you smell that... -Ah.

-...it's so vibrant.

-Yes, yeah.

-All you need to do is you just get a knife and slice them through, a little bit of butter, a little bit of lemon juice, little bit of salt, pepper.

And the flavor you get is just, like, unbelievably good.

-Alright.

Now, the fact that you have this right here at hand, fresh.

it just gives your food a whole kind of a moment -- happening right now.

-Yeah.

-Because the minute you pull these things out of the ground, they start to kind of lose their favor pretty quickly.

-Absolutely, yeah.

-So you want it out of here, into the pan, kind of thing, right?

-So, basically, our gardener would actually pick in the afternoon and bring them down to us.

And then, from there, I mean, you design from that.

And there you have it -- what I would call the perfect steak -- strip-loin steak, barnaise sauce, crispy onions, watercress salad, and finish off with those beautiful carrots.

Beautiful.

Really good.

-While today the Irish menu overflows with abundance, in the period from 1845 to 1852, the cupboards were bare as the Irish potato famine ravaged the people.

Thanks to years of crop failure and inaction by the British government, more than a million Irish died and close to 2 million emigrated.

Most of them left on sailing ships, like the Dunbrody, docked in New Ross, where crowded conditions, sickness, and a 20% to 50% death rate earned them the name "coffin ships."

So, Lorraine, here we are in the lush accommodations for the people who are finishing their journey from their tenant farm to the United States.

-Yeah, 80% of the 2 million that left.

-What do we have in front of us here?

-This is a ship's biscuit.

Now, this one's not too bad, but a lot of them were filled with weevils and flies.

So you'd want to bring some of your own food with you, as well.

-What do we bring with us?

-Well, you only have about 10 feet for you and all of your luggage.

Also, they would have sold everything to pay for your ticket.

So we've scrounged a couple of eggs.

Okay, we have three boiled eggs.

-Three boiled eggs.

-Three boiled eggs.

We'll try and stretch those out over the three months.

-Good, good.

Over the three months?

-Yeah, possibly, if the weather's bad.

-It's like an egg a month.

-Yeah, a bit of protein.

-Alright.

-And this is stirabout.

It's oats.

-Looks like oatmeal.

Well, I'm going to boil a little bit of that with water and make kind of a thick porridge.

-Now, we're talking about feeding one person.

-Well, no, we're talking about feeding the whole family, actually, maybe up to six people.

-With this amount of food?

-With this amount.

And then this is probably the most important one.

This is frog bread.

You take a frog, you roast it, you pulverize it, you mix it in with the dough, and then cook it as normal.

And that should stop you from catching dysentery.

-So, how many didn't survive this journey?

-We think around 200,000 died.

-How did it affect the character of the Irish people and the Irish as an identity?

-It started the whole United Irishmen, the rebellions.

All of that kicked off in force after the famine.

It changed Irish culture, as well.

It changed our language.

We began to speak English after the famine.

It changed everything -- absolutely everything.

-The Irish people have contributed so much to the world.

And you do actually have a Hall of famous Irish-Americans on site here.

-I think those people that went through this experience, it gives them a certain grit, you know, and it makes them strive for better in life and push their children further and further and further.

So it's amazing, actually, some of the people who survived these ships and where their children ended up.

-Wexford, a popular seaside destination with a rebellious history, is noted for the Wexford Festival Opera, a volunteer-rich event that is celebrating close to 70 years.

[ Indistinct conversations ] -Wexford Festival Opera was founded by a group of local opera enthusiasts who met as part of the Wexford Gramophone Society.

And after some prodding by Sir Compton Mackenzie about, "Why don't you guys actually put on an opera?"

that's what they decided to do.

And they set out to put on the first opera performance here.

And after the success of that, said, "We should look at making this an annual event."

And it's grown from there to where it is now, as an internationally renowned festival.

-Fabulous.

We're bookending our visit with two festivals.

-I think the need for festivals is a human need -- that we need to have something to celebrate.

We need to come together as people.

-And it fits the Irish spirit, because the Irish spirit is a very celebratory spirit.

-I think that's really what really drove this festival, because as the festival grew artistically, it was the patron experience that really established it.

The only way that the festival really started was by community support coming together to help the founders to mount a festival production, saying, "This is something we enjoy.

This is something that's really good for the community.

Let's do it again."

-So serving the community still remains a very important part of your mission here.

-Correct.

And this festival was born out of the community.

It grows because of the support of the community, and the benefit is shared with the community.

And it's that type of engagement that is quite unique in Wexford.

-Please welcome Rosetta Cucchi, your new artistic director.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Rosetta, you're the new incoming artistic director.

Now, that seems to say to me that things are going to change.

-In the past and also in the future somehow, Wexford Festival Opera has been a place where has been played unique music, unique opera, very rare and unknown.

So people came here to listen at something that they never, ever could listen anywhere.

And this will continue in my time, as well.

Wexford gave me the chance to become an artist.

And what I want to do is to give the possibility to other artists, as I am, to fly.

-And what I also understand about this particular festival is it's very connected to the community.

-The community around the Wexford Festival Opera is something amazing.

You go along the street, and people stop you and say, "You are from the festival.

It's our festival."

And they are so proud and so engaged in this adventure that when you arrive in Wexford, everything is magic.

You will have your heart to feel fueled by the empathy and the friendship of the people around the festival.

[ Operatic singing ] [ Up-tempo music plays ] [ Cheers and applause ] -As is our custom, please rise and join hands and greet each other.

Till we meet again.

- Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot And days of auld lang syne?

[ Instrumental music plays ] -Thank you for joining me on my tour of Ireland's Ancient East, an area rich in history, myths, and legends.

While I experienced this beautiful part of Ireland in many ways, I viewed it through the prism of two festivals: the Pca Festival, an ancient observance reborn; and the Wexford Festival Opera, an example of Ireland's diverse nature and love of community.

I've seen the many faces of Ireland.

And the festive theme was an appropriate one, because the Irish are a celebratory people ready to rejoice at the beat of a drum, a note of a song, and a burst of laughter.

And heaven knows, they have much to celebrate -- their heritage and culture, their struggles and survival.

And each time I come, I'm honored to join their party.

Until next time, this is Joseph Rosendo reminding you of the words of Mark Twain, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."

Happy travels.

- ...of auld lang syne -Joseph Rosendo's "Travelscope" is made possible by... EVA Air -- connects eight North American cities to Taiwan, where, with one stop, travelers can fly on to destinations throughout Asia.

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-From travel tips and destination explorations, to exotic adventures and intimate tales, "Musings: The Short Happy Pursuit of Pleasure and Other Journeys" is a collection of entertaining, humorous, and inspirational stories drawn from my travel and life experiences.

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Everybody gets into the act here in Ireland, for -- [ Laughs ] -[ Laughs ] -Including the spider lady.

Look at this.

It's spider hands.

Oh, beautiful.

Thank you.

-Go ahead.

[ Up-tempo music plays ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

[ Laughs ] Go get 'em.

Okay, you can take me back now.

[ Dramatic music plays ] Is there anybody who doesn't want us to use their image?

-Will his wife see it?

[ Laughter ]