The Odyssey: The Emerald Isle

Trim Castle

Between Madrid and NYC, our trip took us to Ireland which was not unexpected since we were flying Aer Lingus.

We visited Ireland after Spain because we believed that the extra month would give Ireland time to warm up. Although it's much further north than New York, Ireland never gets really cold. The Gulf Stream bathes Ireland with warm Caribbean waters, and brings some tropical seeds, too.

In Ireland, we stuffed our backpacks into the trunk of a rental car and drove inland southwest from Dublin to Cork via Kilkenny. We had made reservations to be in Cork for St. Patrick's Day, but still had time to overnight in Kilkenny and explore the castle and town the following day. Having only two weeks in the Republic of Ireland in order to get home for Passover, we limited our trip to only the south.

Customs officials at DUB

Irish Countryside

The car was not the one that I ordered. I was given a 'free up-grade,' something that I did not want.

I had ordered a four-seater, but they had few with automatic transmissions, so I was given a five-seater. [Whoopie!!!] I wanted a four-seater because I knew that Ireland's roads would be narrow and I wanted automatic transmission because it was enough to be driving on the left without having to also shift with my left hand rather than my right hand as in the US.

As it was, dealing with on-coming cars and trucks caused Sarah to start shouting "Oh my God" about every two or three minutes. I offered to duct-tape her mouth. [We travel with duct tape.] But she started to control herself with fewer outbursts. It made for less distracted driving.

Having the wider car made driving more difficult. The roads in Ireland are narrower than in the US and not only is there not much of a shoulder, but sometimes the shoulder line is right up against a wall or actually goes under a hedge. Sarah refused to drive.

Two-way road

During our visit to Ireland, we stayed in two cities: Cork and Dublin. We also explored and stayed in several villages and towns as we drove to and on the scenic western peninsulas. After seeing the Cliffs of Moher on the Atlantic, we turned east toward Dublin, our final destination, and toured sites along the Galway - Dublin Motorway.

We had plenty of opportunities to interact with the Irish people. From their driving, I soon concluded that the Irish must be the politest people. Most cities have streets platted during medieval times, but are used by today's motor vehicles. This means a lot of weaving in and out and up on the sidewalk for two-way traffic to negotiate what we would consider a one-way street. Nary a horn blast nor a harsh word was heard; motorists patiently waited for an opportunity to move forward.

Kilkenny

Kilkenny Castle, one of the larger castles.

Scenes around Kilkenny

In St. Canice's Cathedral (above right) is the sarcophagus (below) of a woman who played a large role in Irish history.
We came across her name and image several times during our two-week stay in Ireland.
I don't remember who she was or what she did, but it was important.

[The round tower, a place of refuge during raids, pre-dates the church by several centuries
and is the oldest structure in Kilkenny.]

Traditional Irish pub food.
Sarah had some fish & chips.
Allen had a little lamb.

Rock of Cashel

After a second night in Kilkenny, we headed to Cork by way of Cashel to see the Rock of Cashel, or rather the collection of medieval buildings which sit on top of it. I missed the turn, so we took the scenic route. Since it was all back roads anyway, it was probably just as scenic as any other route.

Ireland is littered with the stone remnants of old churches, abbeys, friaries, monasteries and the like. Having been constructed of stone, the remnants last a really long time. Some that we saw were nearly 1500 years old.

The buildings on the rock date from different centuries. As in Kilkenny (above), the round tower below pre-dates the church next to it by at least a century. Round towers are typically Irish. There are about 100 round towers extant in Ireland dating from the 9th to 12th century.

Although the interior looks bare and sparse, the traces of paint and tile on the walls shows that in ancient times it was vibrantly colored and decorated.

Cork

On Ireland's south coast, Cork is Ireland's second largest city with about one tenth the population of Dublin. The Titanic left from Queenstown (now Cobh) in Cork harbor on its ill-fated trip to America. We came to Cork to participate in the St. Patrick's day festivities. We did not visit the Titanic embarkation site. [It was a boat. It sank. Get over it.]

The parades in Ireland are not as elaborate as the ones in the US (especially NYC & Chicago) and, except for Dublin's, are family-friendly affairs.

We walked from our B&B into town a little early to get a good seat and found one not far from the Lord Mayor of Cork. (The man in the red cloak.)

Social, school and athletic groups predominate in the parade

And the saint himself chasing those pesky serpents

The new faces of Ireland

Holiday festivities

Scenes around Cork:

The main street

Row houses

Late-night snack on the way 'home' from city center

A river runs through Cork.

On St. Patrick's day and several other times during our sojourn, I tried to get some corned beef and cabbage to see how it compared with that most traditional of Irish foods served in the US. I found none of it. I learned that the beef raised on Irish pastures was by the British gentry for export. Corned beef in Ireland was expensive. The Irish ate potatoes and bacon & cabbage. A lot of potatoes. A worker might eat as much as 15 pounds of potatoes a day.

When the Irish emigrated to the U.S. in the 18th and 19th centuries, they found that corned beef was relatively cheap; the former delicacy became a common food for the Irish Americans.

Abandoned homes and fields can still be seen in the Irish landscape as the deaths combined with the emigration of about one million cut Ireland's population by about 25%.

The western peninsulas have still not recovered and one can still see the brown of the abandoned potato fields on the upper slopes of the green hills.

Abandoned field on the upper slopes.

After we left Cork, we headed for the scenic western peninsulas of Bera, Kerry and Dingle. The loop roads on these peninsulas are called rings. Since we had limited time, we did not want to drive all three. After speaking with some professional guides that we met in B&Bs and from our tour books we learned that while the Ring of Kerry is the most well known, Bera and Dingle are the more scenic: Bera for its geology and Dingle for both geology and culture. Therefore, we only did some of Kerry.

Bera Peninsula

Dingle Peninsula

Sarah had a little lamb

Stone dwelling

Abandoned home

At the pub for lunch

Primitive church

Irish smoked salmon at our B&B in a private home.

Our host here was great.

We came in on a dreary afternoon (there are a lot of those in coastal Ireland) and she sat us down and served home-baked cakes and hot tea. We later walked into town for dinner and when we got back she sat us down and served different home-baked cakes and hot tea.

For breakfast, there were more home-baked cakes and breads.

Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher are a finalist in the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

Observation Tower

The Cliffs of Moher are just south of Galway, which we saw across the bay, but did not visit. From here we saw some small sites in which we had an interest, then headed east along the Galway-Dublin motorway which is similar to our interstate highway.

There were several interesting sites along this ancient route. The motorway follows a pre-historic pathway of high ground through the boggy Irish interior.

NOTE: Although all of the hotels, inns and B&Bs that we stayed at had central heat, many of the pubs used peat from the bogs as fuel in their fire places.

Brú na Bóinne

The largest of Europe's megalithic structures, the Neolithic 'passage graves' at Brú na Bóinne pre-date the Egyptian pyramids. Sunlight enters through the transom above our heads and illuminates the central chamber only at the solstice.

There are several dozen passage graves and other prehistoric structures on the site which covers three square miles.

This is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Clonmacnoise

Beginning as a monastic settlement in the 6th century, Clonmacnoise was originally wooden structures, but they started using stone to build the major structures about 1000 years ago.

The Clonmacnoise village was decimated more than 2 dozen times by fire, Vikings and Celtic tribes, but was rebuilt each time. They do not seem to have said, "Maybe God is sending us a message."

Castles

There are more than a thousand castles in Ireland. It seems as if everyone and his brother had a cousin who had a castle. They were not all as large or elaborate as Kilkenny Castle, but they afforded a measure of protection in troubled times, such as almost everyday as the Celts, Vikings and Christians were not getting along. Some are still being used as residences, some are in varying states of disrepair, others are in ruins. I have no doubt that you have no interest in the individual names or histories of those castles which we visited, so I am just posting some selected photos.

<--- Adair

Ross --->

A fixer upper

Dublin Castle's medieval section (left) and modern section (right)

And, of course, a man's home is HIS castle.

As I wrote earlier, Ireland is littered with ancient (or at least centuries old) stone buildings in various conditions; some in ruins, some merely decrepit, and some well maintained and currently in use. They range from the neolithic through medieval times to the near-present. Below is a collage of such buildings. There names are not important to me and probably even less to you.

Really old

Recycling: Many of the abandoned decrepit religious buildings have taken on a second use: Cemeteries. We found interments within many of the ruins that we saw.

On our last night before heading east toward Dublin, we stayed at an inn with a pub. It was a good opportunity to try the local brews without the concern of drinking and walking.

After trying ale, lager and stout, we decided that we do not like beer.
The amounts in the glasses did not get much lower than what you see.

The Celtic High Cross is Ireland's contribution to European art. Each cross depicts biblical stories. The city of Kells has four High Crosses. The Market Cross, above, is Kells' most famous.

They have a famous book, too, but it's in Dublin.

A copy is here.

Sarah read in the guide book that a city only 20 km away has 'the best preserved High Cross in Ireland.' How different could it be that would have made the drive on back roads, with too large a car, and driving on the wrong side and diesel at about $8.00/gallon worth the trip?

And I'm not even Irish.

We didn't go.

This post is already too long. I'll have to save Dublin for another day.