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Ireland September 2009

We arrived in Dublin about 9am and took an Air Coach into Dublin near Trinity and did the short walk to the Clarence in Temple Bar, partly owned by Bono of U2. Fortunately a room was available immediately. We were tired but we immediately went out and did a tour of Trinity and saw many interesting things including the Book of Kells, walked down Grafton Street, and through Stephens Green, went to the Irish National Museum and took a quick hop on hop off bus ride through Dublin, then ate out (Irish Stew and Boxty) and then to Gogarty's for Traditional Irish folk signing til about 11 am, the latter in Temple Bar... very entertaining place and full of restaurants, bars, and music. The Gogarty place was totally packed and the crowd sang along with the folk songs all of which were new to us. The crowd would never meet Calif. fire codes. Next day, got on bus again, and took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse (great must do in Dublin). Connie and I have drunk more Guinness on this trip than the rest of our lives combined. Then toured Kilmainham Gaol (Jail), which had all the history of the 1916 execution of the leaders of the Irish Easter Rising of 1916 and the subsequent rebellion that eventually led to a Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921, which divided the island into Northern Ireland and the rest, a bloody civil war, an Irish Free State in 1922, (see the Michael Collins movie) and finally the Republic of Ireland in 1949. (Now we saw a crowd march and demonstrate against Nama, the Irish bank bail out. There is also an ongoing debate about the EU Lisbon Treaty.) That night we ate out again at the Quay in the Temple Bar and then turned in earlier. Rented car, drove across Ireland towards Galway and down to the Cliffs of Moher. Very windy, about 50 mph winds. Saw puffins and all. Drove through Lisdoonvarna looking for where Karl and Carol Ann stayed but never saw it. Stayed in Doolin at a BB with stone walls and fairly new, and went to pub for dinner, Guinness and more folk signing. Wind howled all night. Next day drove to Kilrush and Killmer for the ferry across to Talbert, then down to Trallee and on to Killarney. Drove through the Killarney Lakes, took a jaunty ride, toured Muckross House in Killarney National Park. Very scenic lakes. Decided to forgo the Dingle Peninsula and the Ring of Kerry in favor of the Beara Peninsula. Stayed in Killarney at the Fairview right downtown, walked the town, and ate a great meal at the Fairview. Today, drove to Kenmare and around the Beara Peninsula and most importantly over the Healy pass. Healy pass was very scenic, was up high with sheep all around and beautiful views of lakes on the Kerry side and a more barren landscape on the Cork side. Drove into Bantry, where Connie was determined to do genealogy (are we done yet) and toured the Bantry House (baron was titled the land for whatever brave thing he did stopping the attempted invasion of Bantry in 1796 by Wolfe Tone and 43 French ships. He mostly won by dint of bad weather for the ships, but got his title anyway. Pretty gardens etc. After just about giving up finding a decent place to stay in Bantry found the 2.5 year old Maritime Hotel, which is great! And even has wifi. Tomorrow, Connie plans to go to Bantry museum and a graveyard looking for a great great great grandfather and whoever. Btw, no problem whatsoever with reservations etc. anywhere we've gone. Although armed with books listing places, we've just done it all on the fly and most times were not at the counter asking about a room until about 6 pm. Seems the recession has hit tourism hard. We were told that last year our modus operandi would have been disaster. Connie volunteered to drive and has done very well. I'm happy to be the navigator, but I have to say driving these roads is a Mad Hatter ride (Connie corrects me to say its a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride).