Our first challenge when driving off Oscar Wilde was to remember to drive Cecile on the left hand side of the road. This past five months of European driving has conditioned us to the right hand side of the road. To add to the challenge, Cecile is a left hand drive car, so that makes it something like a double-negative...always confusing. It seems strange for the driver (not able to see oncoming traffic) and for the passenger (whose job is to advise the driver if it's safe to overtake!) so we've painted a little 'L' on the driver's side of the windscreen to remind us to keep left. So far, so good.
In an old song Johhny Cash told us we would see forty shades of green, and he was right. We saw forty shades of green within our first half hour in Ireland. We also saw every other colour as we drove through the lanes and along the hedgerows with their display of late summer wildflowers and early autumn leaves.
We slept our first Irish sleep in friendly Cappoquin, County Waterford where, during the day, the farmers bobbing along in their tractors smile and nod as if they know you. On to Dingle. Nothing prepares you for the beauty of the Dingle Peninsula!
We crossed the Shannon River at Tarbert singing with the Pogues or Mary Black as we went along. When we reached Galway and ancient little bell rang in my mind. I recalled the old song that went '....watch the sun go down on Galway Bay', and little by little as I rummaged around in the attic of my mind I recalled each verse of this song that I had learned as a child, sitting on Pa's knee while he pumped the pedals of the pianola.
In Dublin's fair city we visited the prettiest girl, Molly Malone; we wandered along the Liffey, through Trinity College, St Stephen's Green, had fun in Temple Bar, mooched around in art galleries and conducted a more than fair sampling of Dublin's pubs. As it rains five times every day we enjoyed a balance of indoor and outdoor activities!
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| Well, that would depend which way you're going. For us it was our first Irish pub. So we had to stop for an important event..... |
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| Very first one....ever! |
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| Everywhere the hedgerows were bloomin' bursting with colour |
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| We enjoyed breakfast at Barron's Bakery in Cappoquin and we met the current proprietor - Esther Barron - sixth generation Barron running the bakery here. Delightful. |
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| How could we not go? |
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| Poking around Killarney |
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| 1958 - 't was a good year. |
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| Inch Strand. Remember Ryan's Daughter? |
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| Our night out in Dingle began with dinner at what must be Dingle's best restaurant ...... followed by |
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| O'Flahertey's fun......then |
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| .....on to John Benny Moriatry's pub, where his wife was singin' and playin' the whistle.... |
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| ......but on the way we couldn't resist stopping off at Murphy's for some more fine music and plenty of the black. |
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| Beautiful Dingle Peninsula |
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| The Dingle Marathon is on tomorrow. Full runners? I think that's an Irish thing. |
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| The Gallarus Oratory. Dry stone church built in either the 6th, 7th or 8th century....either way that's a long time ago. Extraordinary to stand inside its stone walls and look up to its perfectly pitched roof in the same condition as it was all those centuries ago. Seamus Heaney even wrote a poem about it. |
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| The 12th century Kilmalkedar church |
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| We love a good organic farmers market, and have enjoyed visiting and sampling many throughout Europe this summer. |
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| Over the spectacular and narrow Coner Pass |
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| The edge of the Atlantic and the magnificent misty Cliffs of Moher |
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| O'Brien's Tower |
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| The Burren |
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| One little Connemara boy missed the regatta : ( |
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| Connemara....that's all there is there....nothing else! Let's say it's beauty is ethereal. |
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| Trinity College's beautiful Long Room and marble busts. The current exhibition is "The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet and Doctor Merryman" (Jonathan Swift), the School of Medicine 1711-2011. Fascinating collection relating to 300 years of the School of Medicine history in Ireland where we learned such past gems as: "to cure whooping cough take some house mites, flay them and dry them in an oven, then make them into a fine powder. Take the powder first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Or this one: "woodlice or millipedes boiled in oil are good for earache"! |
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| Its splendid oak bookshelves and beautiful spiral staircase |
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| From the sunny James Joyce verandah at Bewley's Cafe, Grafton Street. Yes, it is a lovely spot to sit and write. |
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| Grafton Street |
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| Ah, the Liffey! |
you are a wonder. i can't believe you got a picture of the long room! mumma if i ever come back as a friendly ghost (or moaning myrtle) I want to live on the oak stair case and read the books. Love you so very much.
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