American Battle sites vs. Irish Battle sites

As someone who has lived in Gettysburg for 2 and a half years and has been to the battle field countless times, on my own, with friends, family and had at least 3 of those tours where the park ranger drives your car around. And having grown up with a father who loves history and has taken me to countless battle sites and other historically significant places, I think it would be safe for me to say that I know what to expect when it comes to battles sites.

The Battle of the Boyne is a very famous battle that took place in Co. Meath, Ireland. Here's a mini bio on it..

The Battle of the Boyne (Irish: Cath na Bóinne) was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants for the English, Scottish and Irish thrones - the Catholic King James and the Protestant King William, who had deposed James in 1688. The battle was won by William, was a turning point in James' unsuccessful attempt to regain the crown and ultimately helped ensure the continuation of Protestant supremacy in Ireland.
The battle took place on July 1, 1690 (Old Style) just outside the town of Drogheda on Ireland's east coast. The armies stood on opposing sides of the River Boyne. William's forces easily defeated those of James who led an army of mostly raw recruits. The symbolic importance of this battle has made it one of the best-known battles in British and Irish history. It is a key part in Ulster Protestant folklore and is still commemorated today, principally by the Orange Institution. As a consequence of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar ("New Style" dating), the battle is now commemorated on July 12 each year.


Now it all sounds very cool and what not, but seriously.. this battle site was so lame! They had a 3 room museum type thing. One room had tents with what each James and William were probably doing the night before the battle. The other room had quotes written on the wall about the battle. Then the last room had some guns and stuff and a large board with lights showing where the two side's troops were at what times. That was actually pretty cool, but didn't Gettysburg have one of those and now it's like totally obsolete?

Gettysburg on the other hand, has an entire museum as part of their visitors center. I know this is new, but it's wicked cool. The museum is huge! It has like 5 videos as part of it, interactive games, lots of memorabilia and lots of other cool stuff.

The video about the Battle of the Boyne, while it was free, (actually this might not be true. I think you had to pay to get into the museum, which you don't have to at Gettysburg.) was actually quite funny, which isn't good. It was random and weird and the re-enactments filmed for certain scenes were horrible. And it was only 7 minutes, without stadium seating.

The Gettysburg movie on the other hand has Morgan Freeman. Need we say anything else? Not to mention they cyclorama.

There were no monuments at the Battle of the Boyne site, compared to the hundreds at Gettysburg. And I counted no more than 3 cannons, though there may have only been 2.

The most disappointing thing about the battle site however, was the size. Now I know that you cannot plan out ahead of time how big the battle site will be, but seriously, it was tiny! My Dad has done like, at least 10, battle field walks at Gettysburg. You could have easily walked around the entire Battle of the Boyne site in 30 minutes. In fact, we almost did.

Here are pictures..




These two pictures are from more or less the same place looking in opposite directions. And that's pretty much the entire site.

Overall, I think that as someone who has been living in Gettysburg, my hopes were high for the Battle of the Boyne site, but it did not deliver. Sadness..