Ever since I found out there was a Krishna dham-style island in Ireland, I started looking for every opportunity to visit it. The only issue is, it is in a rather isolated, rural part of the country. It is located in Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Luckily, Dublin Krishna Temple was organising a bus there this March for Gaura Purnima (Hare Krishna festival), and I signed up in a heartbeat. We boarded the bus nice and early from Dublin temple at Abbey St. Lower. It took around 2.5 hours to get to the Enniskillen, where the island is. We were lucky that the skies became clear as we arrived, having seen a few showers in the course of the journey.
As is evident from the photos, we need to cross a lovely lake on a barge to get to the island. At the centre of the island is the temple - the sand-coloured building. I just loved the barge - with "Hare Krishna" painted on its sides. Once you step onto the island, you will be greeted by beautiful murals of Krishna leela painted on wooden boards. We entered the temple, which was already packed to the seams with other devotees coming in from other places. The deity room is a long, narrow room. The rest of the rooms of the temple building are dedicated to other purposes - a kitchen, a souvenir shop, and rooms for resident devotees. I was most happy to see the beautiful marble deities! They are almost life-sized, delightfully adored and visible even to those at the back of the temple. There is a Prabhupada deity at the back of the room.
After about an half hour of mesmerising kirtan, they proceeded to do an abhishek of the Gaura Nitai deities, which was followed by a class about the significance of Gaura Purnima - the appearance of Lord Chaitanya. During the abhishek, I couldn't help but admire all the beautiful decorations around the deity room, the one on the top left being my absolute favourite:
Following which, we were served sumptuous prasadam - the portions were incredibly generous, but I didn't want to leave behind a morsel. This was just the beginning:
By then, it started raining again, and we had a good one hour before the bus back to Dublin, so I began exploring the island. Here are some shots of the lovely murals around the island, as well as some peacocks! The peacocks were an unexpected surprise, but then again, why should I be surprised given where we were? Additionally, there was a cute summer house, a snacks shop which didn't happen to be open that day, and a goshala, but I couldn't see any cows.
I had an incredible time here and would love to be back.
I had an incredible time here and would love to be back.
March 2020