Edmund Rice and the Tramore Cliff Road

Yesterday,  Monday, my last day in Tramore/Waterford,  I took the bus into town. It was diverted due to construction and dropped me right in front of my destination,  the Edmund Rice Heritage Centre. I was the only visitor.

Edmund Rice (1762-1844), a Christian Brother missionary, started many schools for orphans and it is still a worldwide force. He helped poor people, a slave, and prisoners. 

And then there were the Penal Laws which, in part, outlawed schools for Catholics. These laws lasted a long time, a crucial part in the English campaign to impoverish and obliterate Irish Catholics. 

The Chapel was beautiful!

As was the podium

His tomb was next to this sign.

After I returned to Tramore, I went walking. I was trying to find the Metal Man but I went the wrong way. I saw it but couldn't get close (walking 3 times around it is supposed to get you a husband within a year). But it is to try and prevent ships from approaching the rocky coast. There have been so many shipwrecks! And Sue (who I ran into on the bus back to Tramore again! She was steaming mad because she'd had to wait an hour for the bus) said there have been cows who fell off the cliffs and a body that drifted from Dublin, a man who jumped off a bridge there, and it touched her friend's foot in the sea!

http://tramore.ie/the-metal-man/

Lovely Newtown Cove off of Cliff Rd in Tramore

This is Guillamene Cove which only allows men (read the explanatory sign before you get upset like I did, much like the anti-Irish cartoon at the Waterford Museum of Time). There was one man swimming! No wetsuit. Though it WAS a gorgeous day...for autumn.

Apparently you have to climb up the cliff to get to the Metal Man. The owner is not very nice about people tromping on his land and the town is trying to work with him (this is info from Sue--so nice to know a local). It looked difficult though I did see two young people running up the path. No, thanks!.