Ireland 2016

Ireland, the home of my ancestors, sure turned the beautiful weather on for our arrival - a sunny 20 C greeted our 5.30pm arrival to Dublin. Sadly the car rental companies don't seem to operate as efficiently as we have experienced in America and France, but eventually we were on our way, and headed for the West coast. 

Our main first stop was Dingle in County Kerry. It really is a beautiful area, and this was our third visit here. The BnB we booked here was built in 1909, and was right on the water. Best of all it was only a short walk into Dingle's hub (small as it is) and the numerous pubs. We enjoyed our meanderings along the Slea Head Drive where we passed the beehive cottages (date back to the 12th Century) and re-visited the beautiful scenery made famous in the 1970 movie Ryan's Daughter with Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles. 

L-R: Murray, Meg's partner, me, Meg and Lorna

We also met Meg, a friend of our Ballina friend Celia. Lorna, the owner of the cafe where we met Meg happened to be the daughter of our BnB's landlady, and is also known to Celia, so we got a group photo to immortalise the occasion, but mainly for Celia to see her Dingle friends.

Colourful Dingle - photo courtesy Wikipedia

Dingle B and B

Dingle Harbour

Lured by pretty seaside villages, we also spent 2 nights in Kinsale, County Cork. Chef Keith Floyd once lived here, and many local restaurants are highly renowned. We ate at a few different places, but ended up on both nights at Kitty O Se's to enjoy the lively Irish music. Our last night was a Saturday night, and two hens parties wandered in and livened the place up - the music got faster and louder, and before we knew it, most of us were up dancing, including yours truly. It was a lot of fun. 

The next day we made our way to Tramore in County Waterford - home to the longest beach in Ireland (5 kms/3 mi) and also home to my cousin Ellen and her daughter Clodagh. Not far away lives another cousin Bríd and her daughter Shona, and we were treated to a lovely lunch at Ellen's home where we all caught up. Bríd and Shona have been to Ballina several times, and have stayed in our home twice - sadly we were in the USA at the time, so it was great to visit them on their home turf.

During our stay at Waterford we took a drive to the seaside town of Dunmore East. As luck would have it, they were filming an upcoming BBC series called Redwater - due to be aired in 2017. It is an off-shoot of the long running Eastenders, and Kat and Alfie Moon from that series will be in the new one. We stood and watched while they did a few rehearsals, trying to get the lighting right with the cameras…I wonder why they didn't ask Murray to be an extra - perhaps wearing shorts to church didn't fit their dress code! If you google 'Redwater BBC' you can read all about it.

We couldn't visit Dublin without another visit to Taylors Three Rock - 'Ireland's Best Loved Pub and Entertainment Venue' that boasts it has the largest thatched roof in Ireland. It is also home to the 80 plus year old Irish comedian Noel V Ginnity (who was the main draw card for our repeat visit) and Irish Tenor Rob Vickers who has played the lead role of Jean Valjean in West End's musical Les Miserables. We recognised the lead male Irish dancer from our visit 2 years ago - his looks and cheeky antics and interaction with the other musicians and dancers on stage throughout the night reminded me of my eldest son Benn. At the end of the evening Murray took a photo of me with him. It is in the collage below.

Although I have two cousins in Dublin, unfortunately Mary was away in Spain, but Joanne took time out of her busy schedule to meet up with us after the show above. We met her for the first time 2 years ago, so it was so nice to catch up with her again. 

After 10 weeks of travel where we visited 13 countries, we are now ready to get back home and enjoy NOT living out of a suitcase. I'll leave you with these scenes from around Ireland.

Scenes around Ireland