Action (C4-05) – James McCreary
A trip with James McCreary and Takahiko Hayashi to see the megalithic passage tomb at Newgrange.

Saturday, 17th January, 2009

‘Stormy Weather’
We saw the 5,000 year old carvings in the inner chamber, and the 19th century graffiti. We had very little time to see the outside of the tomb because of the atrocious weather. There are facsimiles of the kerbstones encircling the tomb on view in the interpretive centre; they looked like giant sea creatures at the bottom of the ocean.

The last time James visited the site there was no interpretive centre, no shuttle bus, and no guide, you just drove up and had a look around. Hayashi San had looked forward to visiting Newgrange for a long time – the imagery of the tombs has influenced his prints and paintings.

On the way back we made a short detour to Saint Peters Church in Drogheda to see Oliver Plunkett’s head, and afterwards had a pint in Peter Matthews Pub. The match was on tele – United scored in the last minute and the pub went wild.