"Few pictures from Ireland" a Ireland Travel Page by Buckz

In a time when life expectancy was low, and there was little to spend wealth on, A common form of "investment" was in your trip to the after life.
Burial Monuments are common across Ireland, Dolmen, court tombs, Cists (small dolmen) and cairns being the more common ones. Many pre date Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza.

Like any young nation, Ireland's history is filled with tales of revolution, uprising and rebellion. In 1798 the battles ranged across the country, but the final defeat was in Longford, Ballinamuck. Here the French and Irish forces were finally defeated, the French taken prisoner, and the Irish slain.
This Statue in Ballinamuck is of a Irish Croppy (Rebel) with a pike, the Swiss Army knife of weaponry of its day.

Like most of the world, people are moving from the countryside to the cities. Rural areas out of commuting range from the major cities are suffering terribly from depopulation, an exodus of people that began in the 1840s This is one of a number of deserted houses on the side of Ben Bulben.