Ireland 2015

Outlook: mostly cloudy with prolonged periods of Guinness later in the day and occasional musical intervals.

Margaret's mother was born in Ireland and many relatives still live there. Margaret hadn't seen them in 15 years and I'd never met them, so a visit was long overdue. I'd only ever been to Ireland once, for 6 days in 1980, 35 years ago. After that trip I'd written in a journal "Ireland - better than expected - can't wait to come again!" (Half a lifetime later, here I was)

We ‘Michael O'Leary’ed’ it (on Ryan Air), having been surprised at the cost of taking our own car and the ferry across the Irish Sea. With a nod to nostalgia I thought I'd dig out and use the maps from 1980 (figuring the towns will still be in the same place, even if their appearance may have changed).

As we drove our hire car away from Dublin Airport onto a three lane motorway, clearly not a part of my historic map, this idea appeared a daft one. This was the new 'iLand. Euro model' and we had to somehow find how to get to Edenderry and the relatives. Logic suggested we go west towards Galway and then Margaret recognised names and the sign posts did the rest in getting us there.

We planned to stay a few days, then have a few days away in the SW and to return again before leaving a week later.

There was a lot of catching up to do. There was plenty of talking, interspersed with cups of tea, making note of all the family members (26 first cousins at the last count!), hearing of their whereabouts (many still live right round the corner), all the news, stories and laughter and tea, bingo, refreshments in Larkin's pub, more talking and more donkeys minus their hind legs and finally photos* and farewells. It was lots of fun, and if personally I didn't always understand every word that was spoken, I understood the bond of families and fond memories. And we only met a small part of the family, there's lots more!
* see: http://mandbtales1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/family-photos.html

In between all this we spent the middle of the week in SW Ireland. Now this was for me a trip down memory lane, but for Margaret, a first. We lucked out by finding a great B&B in Kenmare, County Kerry, run by Maureen Harrington (famous Irish cross-country athlete from the Nineties) and still running all over the place. She had a beautiful house and couldn't do enough for us, even if she spoke so quickly she remained largely incomprehensible to me most of the time (and occasionally Margaret).

Maureen recommended seeing the Ring of Beara as opposed to the more famous Ring of Kerry.

Kenmare Bay, in the sunshine

So, waiting patiently for a sunny day, we set off early morning driving west in an anti-clockwise direction. Fairly soon the road narrowed and we had to carefully make our way past cyclists, but the absence of any coaches or buses (they really wouldn’t have been able to get down the road, simple as that) made for a quiet and less harrowing journey, though concentration was still on high alert. Twisting and winding through wooded and picturesque scenery, with sheep velcro’ed to impossibly steep grassy slopes the road climbed and then suddenly coastal vistas opened up ahead of us in breathtaking fashion. Despite the perfect day for it we were often the only car on the road, which added to the enjoyment. The day should also be remembered as possibly Eire’s ‘Summer’ 2015, Wednesday 15 July it was!!!

Very pretty (and tidy) towns - Eyeries and Allihies - were lovely stops along the way to the end of the peninsula where we had hoped to take the cable car to Dursey Island. 

Pretty and tidy - Margaret and Eyeries

Unfortunately, due to our leisurely pace, so many people had got there before us and due to carrying capacity and the numbers of visitors already on the island it would have meant a very lengthy queue to come back later in the day.

More fuchsia, fern and rhododendron-lined narrow roads took us back to Castletownbere, the largest town we encountered, as the south part of Beara contrasted nicely with the earlier northern drive. The central mountains looked beautiful but we stuck to the ring and arrived in Glengarriff for dinner. We missed the Healey pass and concluded this would have to be experienced another time.

The final section of our fantastic day’s drive was the wider N71 through the Caha pass involving a number of rock tunnels before returning to Kenmare just as the sun set on an absolutely Grand Day Out.

Two things emerged on this day. The town of Glengarriff, that in 1980 I had specifically noted as being somewhere I'd love to spend more time in, looked nothing like I remembered it. And in Castletownbere we found the exact bar photographed on the cover Pete McCarthy's travel book "McCarthy's Bar" that Margaret had been reading before and during our trip. See our picture and http://www.roadjunky.com/657/pete-mccarthy-mccarthys-bar-ireland-travel/

MacCarthy's Grocery & Bar - before the graphic studio doctored the name - see link.

Most other days we enjoyed the empty backroads (avoiding the busier motorways with their tolls) and noticed the litter free towns we past, as the hypnotic swishing of the car window wiper blades accompanied warnings of severe bends, which were heeded as the ‘sea-mist’ (Irish for rain) continued. The Irish do have a way with words, often describing the weather as fierce and/or desperate. A tad extreme, but all part of the fun!

Retro mac and waterfall in the rain

Another Mac Bar. Slainte!

FINAL PLUG:

Not your traditional Irish music that plays in just about every shop and bar you enter, check out a band called 'Frantic Jack' - they're from Edenderry, and they're good. Lots of videos on YouTube.