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Come on in!  I'll tell you about Ireland!

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    Dave and I spent April of 2003 in Ireland.  How was it, you ask?  Well, it was pretty darn cool!  We flew into Dublin (Portland to Frankfurt direct on Lufthansa, 10 hour flight, ugh) and spent several days there.  We had a great time seeing things we missed last time, and recognizing places from our earlier visit. We visited the Guinness brewery, and the Jameson whiskey distillery .  We also saw many interesting things in the streets of Dublin.  Here's a photo of the keg truck .  This truck is one of many that travels the streets of towns and villages all over Ireland every morning, picking up the empty kegs from the night before.  The pubs just leave the empties out on the curb.  We also saw this judge outside Ireland's Supreme Court building, nice powdered wig!  

    We also visited Kilmainham Gaol (jail).   It hasn't been used for years, but during its time it housed not only political prisoners (people who wanted the English out of Ireland) but also children--some as young as five!  After going to jail, we went to church...we visited St. Patrick's , which was quite impressive.  We also saw this in the window of a local butcher shop, which was not quite so impressive .  I wonder how one should prepare snout?

    After we picked up our rental car, we headed north of Dublin to Newgrange .  Newgrange is a 5000 year old passage tomb.  It is possibly the oldest man-made structure in the world, it's older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids.  It's huge, covering one acre on the top of a hill and containing 200,000 TONS of dirt and rock.  There is a tunnel--or passage--that goes 62 feet into the middle of the mound and at the end of the tunnel is a 20 foot tall chamber.  The tour allows you to go down the very narrow tunnel and into the chamber, which is still water-tight after 5000 years--a tribute to the "primitive" engineering skills of our Neolithic ancestors.  The tomb eventually fell into disrepair.  The white stone walls around the outside collapsed, and the tomb blended into the top of the hill.  The passage wasn't re-discovered until 1699.  It was extensively restored to its previous grandeur, including the precise reconstruction of the white stone walls, in the 1960's. 

    It is thought that Newgrange was built to hold human remains (possibly cremated).  What would have possessed ancient people to invest years (scientists estimate it took a minimum of 70 years to build) and back-breaking labor into building this structure?  The outside of the mound is ringed with 55 large stones, all weighing in excess of one ton.  Scientists (again) estimate it took 80 men 4 days to move EACH stone from where it was quarried 10km away.  And this from people with an average lifespan of only 30 years! 

    Many of the 55 stones are finely carved, including the entrance stone shown here .  Here's us by the stone.  There's a pretty interesting feature of Newgrange.  Do you see the stone rectangular box above the door?  It is positioned so that the light from the rising sun of the winter solstice passes through the box and illuminates the inner chamber.  The winter solstice is the only time of the year that that happens.  How amazing is that? 

    After Newgrange, we drove west across the country to the city of Galway.  Galway is a lovely place, built around a river and its various channels.   It's a college town, and has some great nightlife. It is also home to an area known as the Claddagh .  This was a fishing village in the olden days, home to a fiercely independent people.  It is also credited with being the birthplace of the creator of the Claddagh, which is one of Ireland's most famous symbols.  

    After Galway we headed south to the village of Doolin, a famous center for traditional music.  In addition to enjoying some fine music, and mourning the loss of the patriarch of Doolin's traditional music scene, Gus O'Connor, we also visited the Cliffs of Moher.  We visited the Cliffs on our honeymoon, but they're worth a second look .

    From there, we went to our home away from home, our cottage "Oceanview House".  The oceanview was in the backyard, as you can see in this photo of our closest neighbors, the cows that lived in the field behind the cottage.  Our day wasn't complete until we'd had a visit from them .  

    The cottage was located on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, in the southwest of Ireland.  We were 15 miles from the town of Tralee, which has about 25,000 people.  We were one mile from the village of Castlegregory, which has about 100 people.  Castlegregory is famous (in Ireland) for its beaches.  Here's one of them .  There's a windsurfing school at this beach.  The entire Dingle peninsula is home to 10,000 people...and a half million sheep!

    While we were staying at the cottage, we visited a lot of other towns and sights all around the southwest of Ireland.  Ireland is a small country, so things are close.  However, Irish roads leave a bit to be desired, so just because something is close, that doesn't always mean you can be there soon!

    One town we visited was Cork, in the south of Ireland, which is Ireland's second largest town with 150,000 people (Dublin has about a million).  Cork is built around a river, and the downtown is actually on an island in the river.  We loved Cork because of this: .  This is the "Thirsty Scholar" (it's across from the university), which is our favorite pub.  And it's our favorite pub because of this: .  Potbelly Folk, which is our favorite traditional music group.  They are the best!  We heard them twice, and found ourselves drinking Guinness and singing the traditional favorites along with the locals.  It was the kind of night every tourist in Ireland dreams of having.  We chatted we them after one of the sessions, and got a copy of their CD.  It was an experience to remember.

    While in Cork we also saw a car being towed .  They have to do it a bit differently than we do here, because the streets are so narrow.  It was quite interesting!

    We went to a horse race in Ireland, in a town just north of Cork.  The Irish take their horseracing very seriously.  There is a ritual to the entire event, from the pre-race parade, to the bet placing, to the race, to the post-race parade.  The race itself may last just a minute or two, but the ritual of each race lasts a half hour.  We bet on a horse named Giles , but he didn't win.  We also bet on a horse named Lendl during a steeplechase race, which includes jumps.  His jockey fell off over one of the jumps, which isn't uncommon, but Lendl kept running and finished second!  We also bet on Mr. Dance A Lot, but he had a slow start and never quite recovered.  It was a fascinating day.

    Southwest of Cork city, we visited an old English fort called Charles Fort.  Charles Fort is a star fort, so called because it is laid out roughly in the shape of a star .  It commands a formidable position on an ocean inlet near the town of Kinsale.  A symbol of English repression for several centuries, it was abandoned when the English finally left Ireland in the 1920's.  Now the Irish government is slowly restoring it, and it's a really great place to visit.  You can explore the entire place, scrambling up bastions and battlements, peering out of lookout towers, and poking around buildings still formidable despite decades of decay  . 

    While in the southwest of Ireland, we visited the most southwesterly point of the country.  It is a windswept point of land known as Mizen Head.  There is a lighthouse there by the same name .  Mizen Head is an interesting journey.  The drive is an adventure, and then if you want to visit the lighthouse, you have to cross this footbridge , which spans a 150 foot deep ravine over the ocean.  Keep in mind that this includes a wind almost strong enough to push you sideways.  Fun!  Happily, we lived to tell.

    We visited the town of Killarney several times.  My great-grandmother Mary Ryan left Killarney in 1909 for New York.  Not much remains of the town she would have known, for Killarney is a tourist mecca, and has been built into something that Americans would recognize as Irish, but isn't really so.  It has a Holiday Inn, for goodness sake!  But, it is also in an area of incredible natural beauty, and those who leave the outlet mall will be well rewarded.  Killarney is set on three lakes, and in the middle of one of the lakes is an island called Innisfallen.  Innisfallen island contains the remains of a 6th century abbey.   To get to Innisfallen, you hire a rowboat from Ross Castle (which is pretty cool itself).  Once on the island, you wander around, admiring the ruins.  Dave and I were lucky enough to have the entire island to ourselves, and we had a great time exploring the whole place.

    We visited some more ruins later on, an abandoned village called Killelton.  The inhabitants were evicted by the (English) landlord after the famine, which was an extremely common and horrible practice during that time.  There are many ruins of homes in Ireland, grim reminders of the hardships this island has endured, but to see an entire village abandoned and in ruins was quite sobering.     In addition to the homes, it also contains the ruins of a church.  The village used to be on the main road into the Dingle peninsula, and was only a few miles from our cottage.  No roads go to Killelton now, it's a hike of about a mile.  Here's a photo from the hike .

    We explored the entire Dingle peninsula, which is a really great corner of the world.  The peninsula has the highest concentration of archaeological remains in Ireland, partially because the landscape provides a difficult existence for the few people brave enough to try.  Ringed by the ocean, and crossed by rocky mountains, the Dingle peninsula doesn't make it easy.  But it hides wonderful treasures among the hillsides and in villages where Irish is still spoken.  The westernmost point in Europe, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at Kroger's, which is the westernmost pub.  They even have a jovial pub dog, who really wanted a bite of Dave's sandwich!   Just down the road, we captured this lovely view .  The near gale-force winds in this area are a part of everyday life.

    One of our last adventures in the countryside was a visit to Cahir Castle.  This castle is the best preserved in Ireland, with its outer wall completely intact, which is very rare since the English bashed most of them in.  The castle's excellent condition has nabbed it some parts in several movies.  .  But, although it was built to last, it was not built for tall people!  The Irish were, apparently, a short folk.  Here's Dave navigating the interior of the castle .  At least this one carried a warning...

    We spent the last couple of days in Dublin, and had a great time.  We were able to go to a soccer game, the Irish national team vs. Norway in the early playoffs for the European cup.   It was quite the experience, with singing and chanting and general hooligan-ism.  Happily Ireland won, so we didn't have to contend with any riots.

    We also visited Malahide castle, just north of Dublin.    Many of the castles you tour in Ireland aren't furnished, but this castle was lived in until the 1970's and is fully furnished with beautiful antiques and paintings from the National Gallery.  The same family owned and occupied the castle since its building in the 1600's, which is rare in Ireland, with all the "troubles".  The family donated the castle to the state in the 70's and retired to their lands in Australia.  Rough!

    And lastly, what would a trip to Dublin be without visiting a U2 sight?  This is a photo of Windmill Lane, which is a street that U2 fans have decorated for the greatest band of all time.  Fans from all over the world visit here and write messages for the rock gods of Dublin.

And aside from meeting a one-eyed cat named Lucky, that's about it!