On Wednesday morning I collected, Julia, Shaun and a rental car from Dublin airport, and we headed out of Dublin for the western coast of Ireland - right across the country from one coast to the other. Julia's blog at http://www.juliashaunstrip.blogspot.com/ also has details of this. We saw lots of the green Irish countryside, and scary driving through narrow winding country lanes with stone walls either side, a 100kph speed limit, and me the slowest thing on the road at 80kph. Sheridan and Helen could get their fill of rally driving just going from village to village - and there is even oncoming traffic to add to the excitement.
The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful, but the gale prevented us from doing the illicit coastal path the Kathryn recommended, as we might have joined the gannets flying down the cliff-side. The west of Galway is beautiful in a bleak windswept sort of way, and we marvelled at all the little fields fenced in with stones all dug from the soil they surrounded - back-breaking work over centuries, no doubt. The night was spent in Limerick, with a garrulous B&B owner chatting enthusiastically to us when we arrived at 9.30pm - I thought he was going to spend the night in the room with us, kissing the Blarney Stone!!! But he was very friendly, and his elderly father who did the obligatory Irish breakfast, waved us off like long-lost friends.
Heading towards Killarney the next morning, (with helpful guidance from some locals when we stopped to make a phone call, who honked and waved as we left - more Irish friends...) we met up with Danny O'Sullivan, my second cousin, who at 91 still milks 10 fat cows on his 58 acre farm (plus a few dry stock). He regaled us with tales of the past, including the machine gun hidden in the hay loft when the Garda came looking for hiding Republicans, and blowing up rocks with gelignite to provide materials for building the new house in the 1950s. The original stone house, many hundreds of years old, is still there. But Danny is also up with the times, and daily checks the prices of his Irish Insurance, and Kerry Dairy shares by teletext on his TV. He is truly an advertisement for clean Irish living, and his secret ingredient, which is unpasteurised Irish milk which he claims can cure cancer!!!! Apparently pasteurising takes all the good out of it, and we were presented with a mug of the real thing taken directly from his chilled vat - quite delicious actually - so we are now duly protected. His dog was one of two very friendly dogs we met that day - another one adopted us while we were picnicking in the car later. It abandoned its protection of a nearby farmhouse and came lolloping over to lick us and gaze soulfully in the windows hoping for scraps.
The night was spent in Cahir, a lovely historic town on the way back towards Dublin, with ancient forts and bridge, viewed during another howling gale!!!! The B&B was delightful, with lots of Irish knick-knackery and more friendly Irish people. On the road next day, we headed for Dublin, and I dropped Shaun and Julia off at their hostel for a few days' sightseeing before they head back to the UK. I managed to get lost in the one-way streets of central Dublin for half and hour before I extricated myself and headed to the airport for the plane to the UK then New York.
Ireland certainly lived up to its misty green image, and seemed to be full of very friendly people and dogs!!!!
The Cliffs of Moher were beautiful, but the gale prevented us from doing the illicit coastal path the Kathryn recommended, as we might have joined the gannets flying down the cliff-side. The west of Galway is beautiful in a bleak windswept sort of way, and we marvelled at all the little fields fenced in with stones all dug from the soil they surrounded - back-breaking work over centuries, no doubt. The night was spent in Limerick, with a garrulous B&B owner chatting enthusiastically to us when we arrived at 9.30pm - I thought he was going to spend the night in the room with us, kissing the Blarney Stone!!! But he was very friendly, and his elderly father who did the obligatory Irish breakfast, waved us off like long-lost friends.
Heading towards Killarney the next morning, (with helpful guidance from some locals when we stopped to make a phone call, who honked and waved as we left - more Irish friends...) we met up with Danny O'Sullivan, my second cousin, who at 91 still milks 10 fat cows on his 58 acre farm (plus a few dry stock). He regaled us with tales of the past, including the machine gun hidden in the hay loft when the Garda came looking for hiding Republicans, and blowing up rocks with gelignite to provide materials for building the new house in the 1950s. The original stone house, many hundreds of years old, is still there. But Danny is also up with the times, and daily checks the prices of his Irish Insurance, and Kerry Dairy shares by teletext on his TV. He is truly an advertisement for clean Irish living, and his secret ingredient, which is unpasteurised Irish milk which he claims can cure cancer!!!! Apparently pasteurising takes all the good out of it, and we were presented with a mug of the real thing taken directly from his chilled vat - quite delicious actually - so we are now duly protected. His dog was one of two very friendly dogs we met that day - another one adopted us while we were picnicking in the car later. It abandoned its protection of a nearby farmhouse and came lolloping over to lick us and gaze soulfully in the windows hoping for scraps.
The night was spent in Cahir, a lovely historic town on the way back towards Dublin, with ancient forts and bridge, viewed during another howling gale!!!! The B&B was delightful, with lots of Irish knick-knackery and more friendly Irish people. On the road next day, we headed for Dublin, and I dropped Shaun and Julia off at their hostel for a few days' sightseeing before they head back to the UK. I managed to get lost in the one-way streets of central Dublin for half and hour before I extricated myself and headed to the airport for the plane to the UK then New York.
Ireland certainly lived up to its misty green image, and seemed to be full of very friendly people and dogs!!!!
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