I seem to experience things as the relate to whatever we're reading. This weekend we visited Cork, Blarney and Kinsale first and then we moved on to Killarney. Killarney although very touristy, did have some very interesting spots. We visited the national park where this waterfall and the Muckross house is located. It was interesting because it was a look into how the wealthy irish lived in the 19th century. They had interesting specificities like seperate writing desks for men in women-- the women would be seating like ladies of course. They had more than enough rooms, each with a specific purpose and some with rules; like th billiard room where women weren't allowed. There were fold down panels by the fire so that the ladies' wax makeup wouldn't melt off when it became hot. We even took a look into their kitchen and dining habits. The dining room was on the top floor on one side of the house while the kitchen was in the basement on the other side. Because of this long trek, there was a warming room to rewarm the food before serving it. At this point someone asked our guide how many people worked in the house and 30 people were what it took to make the house run. Most of them were women-- and as our guide demonstrated the heaviness of the serving dishes I thought to myself that this was ridiculous grueling work-- and then the guide explained that this house peaked when the famine was going on and that the people felt like it was a luxury to live there. In modern times this kind of work would be close to a punishment, but the empoverished Irish it was a refuge. Looking back to the images in Black Potatoes it's understandable that people would view Muckross house in this way-- especially because they would be avoiding eviction, workhouses and ultimately, starvation.
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