0:00:05 > 0:00:09Ireland's beauty has captivated artists and writers for centuries.
0:00:11 > 0:00:12It's easy to see why.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17I'm Martha Kearney and I was born in Ireland,
0:00:17 > 0:00:21but I left when I was a small child, so in the course of this series,
0:00:21 > 0:00:26I'm hoping to rediscover the land that I once called home.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31My guide is going to be a 19th-century Irishman.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35He was an artist and surveyor and he made it his life's work
0:00:35 > 0:00:38to chronicle the country's landmarks and treasures.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42His name was George Victor Du Noyer.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Du Noyer was part of a team
0:00:47 > 0:00:51which undertook a groundbreaking series of surveys in Ireland.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56Mapping its landscape and its geology.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59But Du Noyer was also an accomplished artist
0:00:59 > 0:01:03and he was inspired by all that he saw on his travels.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09His work is like a memory map of the country as it once was.
0:01:11 > 0:01:12As a journalist reporting from
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Northern Ireland through the Troubles,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19I've seen this place transformed by conflict and by peace.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24Du Noyer drew some of the North's more iconic places,
0:01:24 > 0:01:26some that resonate with its tense past
0:01:26 > 0:01:30and others that help us to understand the place better,
0:01:30 > 0:01:31and I'm off to visit them.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46In 1922, Ireland was partitioned.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48Out of the 32 counties,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52six remained under British rule and this became Northern Ireland,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55but the northern counties of Ireland had always been different.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Its proximity to Scotland and the nature of its people
0:01:58 > 0:02:02had made it a very distinct place from the land further south
0:02:02 > 0:02:06and Du Noyer captured some of the places and people that helped
0:02:06 > 0:02:09give this part of the country its unique history and character.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28I feel a real affinity with this part of the world
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and that's because my family have got so many connections here.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36My great-grandmother was born just along the coast at Carnlough,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38my great-grandfather was a mayor of Ballymena
0:02:38 > 0:02:41and my mother, who grew up in Northern Ireland,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44used to have her childhood holidays in Portstewart,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46a pretty little resort,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49but I also sense that this area can shed real light on
0:02:49 > 0:02:53the competing identities which should have both shaped
0:02:53 > 0:02:56and, indeed, scarred so much of Ireland's history.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03This is the north-east coast of Ireland.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07It was once part of an ancient Gaelic kingdom called Dalriada,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09which spanned the Irish Sea.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12The people in this part of Ireland, known as the Scoti,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16migrated to the land that you can see from here on a clear day
0:03:16 > 0:03:18and the clue is in the name -
0:03:18 > 0:03:19Western Scotland.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24That closeness to Scotland has meant that, since ancient times,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27there have been strong cultural and trading links
0:03:27 > 0:03:29amongst all the people who live in these areas,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32but, of course, some skirmishes and battles as well,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and you can see that most dramatically
0:03:35 > 0:03:38in one of Northern Ireland's most stunning landmarks.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45Perched on top of spectacular cliffs,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Dunluce Castle is a perfect vantage point from which to keep watch
0:03:49 > 0:03:54over ships crossing the Irish Sea, friendly or otherwise.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56Today, it's a haunting ruin,
0:03:56 > 0:03:59but in its day, the castle played a key role
0:03:59 > 0:04:03in the development of this corner of Ireland as a place apart.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05When you look up at Dunluce Castle,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08this dramatic setting of the sea beyond,
0:04:08 > 0:04:11you can see why it inspired so many people,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13like Edward Lear with the nonsense poems
0:04:13 > 0:04:16and CS Lewis, who lived in Belfast,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20used it for his Narnia stories, the castle of Cair Paravel.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24My own father put a photograph of Dunluce Castle
0:04:24 > 0:04:27on his book, British Isles, a history book.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29And, of course, Du Noyer came here
0:04:29 > 0:04:32and created one of his more dramatic sketches.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Du Noyer's 1839 sketch shows the castle
0:04:37 > 0:04:41as it would have been seen by travellers arriving by boat.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43I'd imagine it was quite a perilous journey.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48This really is the most brilliant castle for exploring.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52It was built more than 500 years ago by the McQuillans,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54a powerful local family along this coast,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56but then, from across the sea,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58in fact from Islay, which you can see now,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01there came a family who were once Lords of the Isles.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04They were the MacDonalds. They vanquished the McQuillans
0:05:04 > 0:05:08and then became the dominant force on the North Antrim coast,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11establishing a strong Scottish presence.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17So, what do you think the significance was of the MacDonald's
0:05:17 > 0:05:20taking control of Dunluce Castle? What did that mean?
0:05:20 > 0:05:22Initially, they had established themselves
0:05:22 > 0:05:25in the Glens of Antrim, at the beginning of the 15th century.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29And we see a process of expansion of their territory
0:05:29 > 0:05:32during the 16th century, and in that time,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Dunluce Castle is the power base
0:05:34 > 0:05:36and we know that this place was an important place,
0:05:36 > 0:05:40going right back maybe 1,500 years ago to the time of Dalriada,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43which would have spanned the North Channel
0:05:43 > 0:05:45between North Ulster and the Hebrides.
0:05:45 > 0:05:46And what do you think it means
0:05:46 > 0:05:50when we look at the subsequent centuries in Northern Irish history,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53the fact that the MacDonalds took Dunluce Castle?
0:05:53 > 0:05:55At the beginning of the 17th century,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58the political landscape in Ulster changes dramatically.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02The leading Gaelic families, who had controlled Ulster
0:06:02 > 0:06:04for centuries and centuries beforehand,
0:06:04 > 0:06:08after a period of prolonged warfare with the Elizabethan English,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10are defeated. That leaves a power vacuum,
0:06:10 > 0:06:13which the English are very happy to step into
0:06:13 > 0:06:17and under King James, a plantation scheme is developed.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Now, the MacDonalds stand out in this
0:06:19 > 0:06:22because, through some adept political manoeuvring,
0:06:22 > 0:06:24they manage to retain their lands
0:06:24 > 0:06:28and, in fact, they become one of the largest landowners in County Antrim.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33The MacDonalds were lucky they managed to hold on to
0:06:33 > 0:06:36their splendid castle at Dunluce.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40But the 1600s marked a period of massive change.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Thousands of Scots moved west to Ireland
0:06:42 > 0:06:45under a scheme known as the Plantation,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47launched by King James I.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50They were mostly Scottish Protestants.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58It's funny that the only part of Ireland nowadays
0:06:58 > 0:07:01that is still part of the United Kingdom,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04that is a part of Ireland which traditionally was the most Gaelic
0:07:04 > 0:07:08until the collapse of the Gaelic order in the 17th century.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13So, in the 17th century, there was a huge process of plantation
0:07:13 > 0:07:16in order to ensure that it never again became
0:07:16 > 0:07:19a bastion of resistance to British rule
0:07:19 > 0:07:23and that had the effect of transforming it for ever.
0:07:24 > 0:07:32The fact of the Plantation of Ulster led to a huge sectarian rift
0:07:32 > 0:07:35because they were put on the island
0:07:35 > 0:07:39not merely to ensure that Ireland was not a place of rebellion,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43but it was to ensure that Ireland converted to Protestantism
0:07:43 > 0:07:48and when you mix religion with all other concerns,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50religion tends to triumph.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56This peaceful valley with a river running through it
0:07:56 > 0:07:58lies 130 miles south of Dunluce.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03It was named after the goddess Boann in Irish mythology.
0:08:03 > 0:08:04It may seem tranquil today,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07but more than 300 years ago, a battle took place here
0:08:07 > 0:08:11that has become ingrained in the story of Northern Ireland.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13This is the River Boyne.
0:08:17 > 0:08:18But, of course, nowadays,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20the word "Boyne" has a very different resonance,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23which is all to do with the battle which took place here
0:08:23 > 0:08:26between the Protestant William of Orange
0:08:26 > 0:08:28and the Catholic king, James II.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31The day on which that took place, the 12th of July,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34is still marked every year by loyalist Orangemen
0:08:34 > 0:08:38in Northern Ireland, who see it as a celebration of their own identity.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43But I know, from my own time as a reporter, that these parades
0:08:43 > 0:08:46can be divisive when they go through Catholic areas.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Today, the Battle of the Boyne
0:08:48 > 0:08:50is commemorated by northern Protestants,
0:08:50 > 0:08:53but the backdrop at the time was much broader.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56It arose out of a bid to become the most powerful monarch
0:08:56 > 0:08:58in 17th-century Europe.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02The Protestant Dutch king, William of Orange,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05had usurped the Catholic King James II of England.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09James, with the support of the French King Louis XIV,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12arrived in Ireland where he had many supporters,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15determined to win back his throne from William.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17The more pragmatic of the Irish landowners realised
0:09:17 > 0:09:21they risked losing everything if they supported the wrong king.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25And that's the story behind this castle, Dunmow,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27painted by George Victor Du Noyer.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33The owner in 1690 was a man named George D'Arcy,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37rumoured to have entertained both King James and William of Orange
0:09:37 > 0:09:39on different occasions.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42So, as the power shifted between different kings,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46between different religions, that presented problems for people
0:09:46 > 0:09:48like the D'Arcys, here in Dunmow, didn't it?
0:09:48 > 0:09:51This uncertainty over land ownership,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53and after all land was a source of wealth and power,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57it was summed up quite pithily by the inhabitant of this castle
0:09:57 > 0:10:00around the time of the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03The head of the household apparently quipped of his dinner guests that,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05"Who shall be king, I do not know,
0:10:05 > 0:10:07"but I will still be D'Arcy of Dunmow."
0:10:07 > 0:10:09And it does tell you that, from the point of view
0:10:09 > 0:10:12of Irish Catholic landowners at the end of the 1680s,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14they were aware that they lived in a precarious time
0:10:14 > 0:10:17in which they could be stripped of their patrimony
0:10:17 > 0:10:18or they could hold on to it.
0:10:18 > 0:10:19It really was a case of
0:10:19 > 0:10:22accommodating yourself to whichever regime succeeded.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26It was rare for two kings to meet in battle,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28but James II and William of Orange
0:10:28 > 0:10:31led their armies here to the Boyne and the outcome
0:10:31 > 0:10:34was to change the political landscape of Ireland yet again.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39Now, the Battle of the Boyne has a particular symbolism
0:10:39 > 0:10:42because it was the only battle at which both kings were present
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and that's crucial to how it was remembered.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48If you were an Irish Catholic supporting the Catholic King...
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Well, many Irish Protestants had flocked to William's banner
0:10:51 > 0:10:54because they felt that they were in danger of being dispossessed
0:10:54 > 0:10:57or wiped out by Catholic forces and that William might save them,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00so from an Irish point of view, it was a very simple symbolism.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02The Catholic King fought the Protestant king
0:11:02 > 0:11:03and the Protestant King won.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09We think today, in the 21st century,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11of an organisation like the Orange Order,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14founded to celebrate the legacy of William of Orange
0:11:14 > 0:11:15and celebrate it as a victory
0:11:15 > 0:11:18because this was the victory that had apparently, or allegedly,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20secured Irish Protestants from destruction
0:11:20 > 0:11:22at the hands of their Catholic neighbours.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Now, whether this was true or not is immaterial,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27the point is it was believed to be true
0:11:27 > 0:11:30and that's by the Battle of the Boyne is still commemorated to this day.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32The Orange Order is still a vibrant organisation,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35not uncontroversial, but its essential purpose
0:11:35 > 0:11:37is to celebrate a 17th-century battle
0:11:37 > 0:11:39and that 17th-century battle is basically seen as
0:11:39 > 0:11:41a life-or-death struggle in the history of
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Ireland's Protestant community, that's why it's remembered.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57You could argue that Northern Ireland was forged out of
0:11:57 > 0:12:02life-or-death struggles between the Scottish, English and the Irish.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04After the Battle of the Boyne,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07a policy of Anglicisation was put into action across Ireland,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11in Parliament, law, education and land ownership.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15Even the names of places and people were Anglicised,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and as my own name is Irish, it's part of the story too.
0:12:18 > 0:12:20As I've been travelling around Ireland,
0:12:20 > 0:12:26I've become more curious about the origins of my own surname, "Karney",
0:12:26 > 0:12:28or "Kerney" as they call it in the North.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32It's shrouded in mist, a bit like today really.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36My father used to say it was based on the idea of a mercenary soldier,
0:12:36 > 0:12:38the kerns and galloglasses
0:12:38 > 0:12:40that are mentioned in Shakespeare's Macbeth.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Well, I'm hoping to find out more
0:12:42 > 0:12:44in the course of the journey I'm making today,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48with Du Noyer as my guide, to a place he once painted.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51It's called Kearney Point.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57This beauty spot is on the north-east coast
0:12:57 > 0:13:00and I'd much prefer if my name was linked to it
0:13:00 > 0:13:02rather than to a type of mercenary.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06I've come here to see if I can find something out about my own surname
0:13:06 > 0:13:09and where better to start than "Karney" Point,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11or "Kerney" as I guess they'd call it round here?
0:13:11 > 0:13:14It could have come from the surname "Kerney" or "Karney"
0:13:14 > 0:13:17and we do know that there were several families with that surname
0:13:17 > 0:13:19living in the Orange area in the 17th century,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21so we know that there were Kearneys here.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23The second possibility could be
0:13:23 > 0:13:26that it comes from the Irish term "carnach"
0:13:26 > 0:13:31which means abounding in heaps, full of heaps or piles,
0:13:31 > 0:13:33and the third option could be
0:13:33 > 0:13:35that it comes from another Irish term, "cearnach",
0:13:35 > 0:13:38which means angled rocks.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42Personally, I think it could be one of the two Irish terms
0:13:42 > 0:13:44because about five miles maybe north of here,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46there is a place called Cloughey,
0:13:46 > 0:13:49which means kind of a stony ground or stony area.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51The surname one, I wouldn't be too convinced about, to be honest.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53That's probably what you don't want to hear.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57There goes the romantic dream that this is my ancestral homeland!
0:13:58 > 0:13:59How did the whole process begin,
0:13:59 > 0:14:04where Irish place names were changed to English versions of them?
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Prior to the 17th century,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09the native Irish wouldn't really have had any need to record names down,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12whereas, when the English and Scottish settlers came over,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14they had more of a need,
0:14:14 > 0:14:16for administrative purposes and taxation purposes.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19The English didn't go about translating the names,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23they didn't take an Irish term and then have an English equivalent,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25what they were doing was transliterating,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28so they would've taken a name and written that name down
0:14:28 > 0:14:30the way it sounded to an English speaker.
0:14:30 > 0:14:35So an English-speaking person would have heard the name Carnach
0:14:35 > 0:14:36and written it down as if it was English.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39What effect do you think it had,
0:14:39 > 0:14:43changing those Irish place names into Anglicised versions?
0:14:43 > 0:14:47The native names of Ireland usually describe physical features,
0:14:47 > 0:14:50natural features like rivers or hills or trees,
0:14:50 > 0:14:52and by the process of transliterating these names
0:14:52 > 0:14:55into something that doesn't mean anything in English,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57all that richness and all of that information was masked.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And here is Du Noyer's sketch of Kearney Point,
0:15:02 > 0:15:04as I like to think of it.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07The Irish landscape was, in effect, rewritten
0:15:07 > 0:15:10with that complex layering of identities
0:15:10 > 0:15:13that survived to Northern Ireland today.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18The Ordnance Survey worked on by George Victor Du Noyer
0:15:18 > 0:15:22anglicised the Irish names of the land they were surveying.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27It's just one example of how the British
0:15:27 > 0:15:30put their stamp on Ireland during the 19th century.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33You can also see that stamp
0:15:33 > 0:15:36in landmarks built by the Anglo-Irish aristocracy,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40such as this one at Scrabo in Newtownards.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44The tower was built as a memorial to a member of the Stewart family,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46the Marquess of Londonderry.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Du Noyer came here and sketched a little part of it,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52but his focus was the local sandstone quarry
0:15:52 > 0:15:57which the tower is made of, but also so many of the Victorian buildings
0:15:57 > 0:16:00which lie in the city beneath us, the city of Belfast.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11Belfast reached its heyday during the Victorian era.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13The wealth which came from industrialisation
0:16:13 > 0:16:17can be seen in the prosperous buildings from the period.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21Du Noyer made a sketch that beautifully illustrates
0:16:21 > 0:16:23the changes taking place.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27He drew a 200-year-old bridge just before it was pulled down
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and renamed Queens Bridge in honour of Victoria.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34Close by, there is even a clock in memory of her husband.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41The Albert Clock is a magnificent monument to Belfast's Victorian past
0:16:41 > 0:16:43and it was actually constructed out of stone
0:16:43 > 0:16:46from the quarries sketched by Du Noyer.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Now, when I used to come to Belfast, I was understandably more
0:16:50 > 0:16:54focused on the latest bout of violence or political negotiations
0:16:54 > 0:16:58than I was on the city's history, so I've been fascinated to discover
0:16:58 > 0:17:02just how much Belfast changed in the course of the 19th century.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Every busy Victorian metropolis needed a department store
0:17:09 > 0:17:12and Robinson & Cleavers was Belfast's version of Selfridges.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Glenn Patterson has written extensively about the city
0:17:16 > 0:17:20in novels that span the 19th century to the present day.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25Where we're sitting now used to be a great Belfast landmark, didn't it?
0:17:25 > 0:17:28This was one of the great department stores of Belfast,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30certainly one I remember from my childhood.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33Robinson Cleavers had...
0:17:33 > 0:17:37I mean, it was a grand entrance and it had this phenomenal staircase
0:17:37 > 0:17:41with a figure, I think, of Britannia on one newel post
0:17:41 > 0:17:44and, on the other, Erin, so it was kind of a great statement.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48I suppose it's very typical of the kind of architecture
0:17:48 > 0:17:50that was fashionable in Victorian Belfast?
0:17:50 > 0:17:53It is. This is late-Victorian Belfast.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55I think it was finished around about...
0:17:55 > 0:17:57the last bay of it was finished about 1890.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I think it's really one of those statement buildings of Belfast
0:18:00 > 0:18:03that completed that vision of Belfast
0:18:03 > 0:18:08as this very go-ahead, expanding city, which it had become.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12It started the 19th century as a town and a relatively small town.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15As the 19th century went on, it became Linenopolis,
0:18:15 > 0:18:17it became a heavy industrial city
0:18:17 > 0:18:19and it also became a great trading centre.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23So Linenopolis because the fortune was based on linen?
0:18:23 > 0:18:26The linen trade transformed Belfast and, of course, shipbuilding.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30There was a great story, which is that when Belfast...
0:18:30 > 0:18:34The traders of Belfast wanted faster access to the port
0:18:34 > 0:18:38and so they petitioned for a cut, to make the access deeper
0:18:38 > 0:18:41and straighter to the city centre, and in doing that,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45there was a whole lot of soil dredged up, silt dredged up,
0:18:45 > 0:18:47and dumped on the east bank of the Lagan
0:18:47 > 0:18:49and what that gave us was the Queens Island,
0:18:49 > 0:18:51which became the home of Harland and Wolff,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54which produced the Titanic, and what I love about that
0:18:54 > 0:18:56is that the traders of the city wanted one thing
0:18:56 > 0:18:58and what we got was something completely different.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02We got that which really made the name of Belfast shipbuilding
0:19:02 > 0:19:04in the late 19th and early 20th century.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08What do you think the character of the city was like at the time?
0:19:08 > 0:19:10There's a great description of Belfast by a writer
0:19:10 > 0:19:12who came here in the 1850s
0:19:12 > 0:19:16and he remarks on the difference between Belfast and Dublin.
0:19:16 > 0:19:21He says, "The people of Belfast seem to have matters of importance
0:19:21 > 0:19:24"to attend to and they go about them in right earnest."
0:19:24 > 0:19:26And I think there is a little bit of that,
0:19:26 > 0:19:28whether it's building things up or tearing things down,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31we have a singleness of purpose that would frighten you,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35so, you know, there are periods of rapid growth in the city
0:19:35 > 0:19:40and they are punctuated by periods of rapid decline,
0:19:40 > 0:19:42often at our own hands.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50The Victorians transformed the landscape of Ireland.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52They built railways everywhere,
0:19:52 > 0:19:55including this one which hugs the northern coastline.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00On one trip north, Du Noyer visited this beach.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Just before the railway engineers blasted their way through
0:20:04 > 0:20:07the cliff face, Du Noyer took out his drawing pad.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Du Noyer walked along the beach to make a sketch of this view
0:20:13 > 0:20:18before it would be changed for ever and there are striking differences,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21for example, the rock arch there has disappeared,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23it must have been blasted away by the engineers.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25But one feature does remain
0:20:25 > 0:20:30and that the small domed building perched on the top of the cliff.
0:20:30 > 0:20:31It's called Mussenden Temple
0:20:31 > 0:20:34and it's an iconic landmark in Northern Ireland.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38But the story of the man who built it is even more remarkable.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47If there is one thing I've learned about Du Noyer,
0:20:47 > 0:20:49it's that his sketches sometimes lead you towards
0:20:49 > 0:20:51surprising places and individuals.
0:20:51 > 0:20:57Here on this wild stretch of coast is Downhill Demesne,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00once a house so luxurious that its walls
0:21:00 > 0:21:04were hung with Rembrandts, Raphaels and Caravaggios.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07It was built in the 18th century by Frederick Hervey,
0:21:07 > 0:21:09the Earl Bishop of Derry.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12He also built a library at the cliff edge.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15This became known as Mussenden Temple.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17Fun loving and eccentric as he was,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20the Bishop was also a beacon of tolerance
0:21:20 > 0:21:24amidst the sectarian tensions of the times.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28- Hi, there.- Hi, Martha.- This is such a stunning view, isn't it?
0:21:28 > 0:21:32And a perfect location for such an elegant building.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34It's an amazing view and the building itself is amazing
0:21:34 > 0:21:37because it's one of the finest neoclassical buildings in Ireland.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42It's based on the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli in Italy,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45a building which the Earl Bishop saw, because he loved travelling,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47loved everything classical,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50and he wanted to buy the Temple of Vesta, but of course,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53he was prohibited from doing so, so he did the next best thing.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57He used inspiration from that to build this circular rotunda.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59What do you think people round here at the time
0:21:59 > 0:22:01would have thought of a building like this?
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Mind-boggling, to be totally honest and, of course,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06this most spectacular location,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09which famously was said of a contemporary source at the time
0:22:09 > 0:22:12that only a romantic would expect to find a house here
0:22:12 > 0:22:14and only a lunatic would build one here.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18So, who was the romantic lunatic who built the Mussenden Temple?
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Frederick Hervey. His father was the first Earl of Bristol.
0:22:22 > 0:22:23Their family seat was Ickworth in Suffolk.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27His older brother, George, was Viceroy of Ireland
0:22:27 > 0:22:31and he got him a job as the Bishop of Cloyne,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35but it was really just as a waiting moment for Frederick
0:22:35 > 0:22:37until the bishop's seat at Derry,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40which was the richest in Ireland at that time, be came vacant.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42He had plenty of money, didn't he?
0:22:42 > 0:22:45I mean, from his income as Bishop of Derry,
0:22:45 > 0:22:48but then he also inherited an aristocratic title.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52£10,000 is what we believe he earned as the Bishop of Derry
0:22:52 > 0:22:56and in today's money, it's roughly around about 1.6 million per year
0:22:56 > 0:23:00and when he came into the Hervey title of Earl of Bristol,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03he suddenly inherited all the Bristol family estates.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Someone said to me one time before,
0:23:05 > 0:23:10"It's Branson-esque type wealth in the late 18th century."
0:23:10 > 0:23:15Of course, the 18th century was a time of trouble, of tension.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17How did he fit into that?
0:23:17 > 0:23:19A man ahead of his time.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23When we think of this time, we all think of the penal laws,
0:23:23 > 0:23:24which basically meant
0:23:24 > 0:23:28that Catholics couldn't and didn't have access to churches,
0:23:28 > 0:23:32but, of course, the Earl Bishop was in favour of Catholic emancipation.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36He saw this as being a problem that could be fixed.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41At a time when Catholics weren't able to say mass,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44the Earl Bishop allowed them access to Mussenden Temple.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48So, he was allowing Catholics to hold masses here in the temple,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50when it was actually illegal?
0:23:50 > 0:23:52Yeah.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54- LAUGHING:- Risky to do so!
0:23:54 > 0:23:56He was an extraordinary character
0:23:56 > 0:23:59and probably felt frustrated when he left Ireland
0:23:59 > 0:24:01because there was so much he could have done,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04so much he wanted to do, but of course we do have the legacy
0:24:04 > 0:24:08of his building works and of course the great stories that surround him.
0:24:15 > 0:24:16Extravagant as he was,
0:24:16 > 0:24:20the Earl Bishop seemed to be an enlightened church leader
0:24:20 > 0:24:23who welcomed Protestants and Catholics into his home.
0:24:23 > 0:24:24And in that sense,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27he continues to be an inspirational figure even today.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Northern Ireland is also full of inspiring places.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36My last stop is considered to be its greatest marvel,
0:24:36 > 0:24:37steeped in myths and legends.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41The Giant's Causeway.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44It's world-famous as THE place to study
0:24:44 > 0:24:46how the Earth's crust was formed.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Geologists have flocked here for centuries
0:24:49 > 0:24:51and, of course, George Victor Du Noyer,
0:24:51 > 0:24:55as an artist with a passion for rocks, was one of them.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02And in this lovely early-morning light, I'm able to see it really
0:25:02 > 0:25:06as Du Noyer would have done in the past, without crowds of visitors.
0:25:06 > 0:25:11Parts of it remind me almost of the ruins of an ancient Greek temple,
0:25:11 > 0:25:12with the tumbledown columns.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17No wonder so many myths and legends have grown up about the place.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23The weird and wonderful shape of the Causeway
0:25:23 > 0:25:25has long attracted famous writers,
0:25:25 > 0:25:28even one of the leading figures of the Victorian age.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32William Makepeace Thackeray, the writer,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36came here in 1842 by boat, which must have been pretty tricky.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39I think he fell over and ripped his coat trying to get on board.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42But then he did write in his Irish Sketch Book,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45"It looks like the beginning of the world somehow,
0:25:45 > 0:25:48"the sea looks older than other places,
0:25:48 > 0:25:49"the hills and rocks strange
0:25:49 > 0:25:52"and formed differently from other rocks and hills,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55"as those vast, dubious monsters were formed
0:25:55 > 0:25:58"who possessed the Earth before man,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02"when the world was moulded and fashioned out of formless chaos."
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Parts of the Causeway have acquired some rather fanciful names,
0:26:10 > 0:26:12like the Giant's Boot, or the Giant's Gate,
0:26:12 > 0:26:17that's after the legend that it was Finn McCool who built it.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20Now, this is called The Wishing Chair and I can see why.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22It's rather comfortable.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26It was painted in a watercolour by Du Noyer, but I don't think
0:26:26 > 0:26:28he'd have had much truck with those mythological ideas.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32You can tell by the detail in the painting that, actually,
0:26:32 > 0:26:35he was much more interested in the geology of the Causeway.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Du Noyer subscribed to the theory progressive in Victorian Ireland
0:26:42 > 0:26:46that the Causeway was formed by volcanic activity.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49These theories laid the groundwork for what scientists believe today.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51They attribute the formation of the Causeway
0:26:51 > 0:26:56to the splitting of the North American and European continents.
0:26:56 > 0:26:57Throughout the long period
0:26:57 > 0:27:00of intense volcanic activity that followed,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04the basalt columns were formed by slowly cooling lava.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07What do modern scientists think about the Giant's Causeway?
0:27:07 > 0:27:09For me, as a geologist,
0:27:09 > 0:27:13this wonderful environment is important because of several reasons.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15The first is because it tells us a story
0:27:15 > 0:27:18in the emergence of geology as a science
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and that is important, we mustn't forget that
0:27:21 > 0:27:24and the role that those initial philosophers
0:27:24 > 0:27:26and scientists had in that story.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29The second reason is because, as a geologist,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33I look around this environment and I see that this represents
0:27:33 > 0:27:37a geological time, the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42So this is a very important area in terms of the formation of our world.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45But it will always, I suppose, from the times,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49the early times, the 18th century, when we looked at it,
0:27:49 > 0:27:51it will always, hopefully, create
0:27:51 > 0:27:54some sort of curiosity in people's minds
0:27:54 > 0:27:57and I hope that doesn't stop and I hope that people
0:27:57 > 0:28:00come to the Giant's Causeway and look at it with those eyes
0:28:00 > 0:28:03and I hope they take away some very special memories from it, as well.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10The Belfast poet Louis MacNeice beautifully describes.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13"The hard, cold fire of the northerner
0:28:13 > 0:28:16"Frozen into his blood from the fire in his basalt
0:28:16 > 0:28:18"Glares from behind the mica..."
0:28:20 > 0:28:23I've seen that hard, cold fire at first hand
0:28:23 > 0:28:26in my days as a reporter, but thanks to Du Noyer,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29I'll be taking away some new special memories
0:28:29 > 0:28:31from this journey to Northern Ireland,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34memories that go far beyond the headlines.