Speaking of the Queen...

A photo of Killarney National Park, Killarney Ireland, Co. Kerry

The Muckross House at Killarney National Park

This past May I had the awesome opportunity to visit Ireland with the Messiah College Concert Choir. For ten days we toured the southern part of the country, visiting pubs and popular tourist locations by day, and then performing by night (though not every night, fortunately) - mostly in Catholic cathedrals. Among the places we visited was Killarney National Park. On the grounds of the park is the famous Muckross House (featured above) which was dedicated by its owners to the park for museum purposes. We were given a fascinating tour of the house by one of its tour guides (p.s. I LOVED hearing the tour guide's accent!). Throughout the tour, our guide kept pointing out decorative elements in the house etc. that were added by its owners in honor of Queen Victoria's visit to the house. Its earliest owners, Henry Arthur Herbert and Mary Balfour Herbert, spent 6 years preparing for the Queen's two-days stay at the Muckross House! Their goal was to score brownie points with the Queen when she came to visit them and they expected that she would compensate their warm hospitality by honoring them with the titles of Lord and Lady Herbert. However - her visit happened shortly before Prince Albert's young death at 42 and apparently the Queen was so devastated by his death that she completely forgot about the Herberts and never offered them the ranking of lordship. The tour guide said this lack of attention from the Queen probably led to the Herberts decline in finances and social standing - an unfortunate circumstance for them, but who can blame Queen Victoria? Prince Albert was an amazing husband and if he looked anything like Rupert Friend in real life, I'd also be grieved by his death! According to "The Young Victoria," Queen Victoria had Albert's clothes laid out every morning of her own life, after he died. She never could forget him I suppose!

A photo of me standing in the gardens surrounding the Muckcross House which included a variety of beautiful plants! The rhododendron bushes (pronounced "rhodeeedendron" by the Irish) were absolutely enormous!