Killarney – Limerick – Sligo – Belfast

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 1: the Lakes of Killarney
Photo 2: View of the River Shannon from our hotel room in Limerick
Photo 3: the Cliffs of Moher. They rise 204 metres from the sea.
Photo 4: us at the visitors centre at the Cliffs of Moher. Murphy is Sue's maiden name.
Photo 5: the Giant's Causeway. Check out nature's amazing sculpture!

On Wednesday 5 June we took and excursion to the museum celebrating the former communities of the Blasket Islands off the south west coast of Ireland. We took photos of the islands which can be seen clearly from land and which were abandoned in 1953 after many generations of settlement. The tour included a video made in the 1980s in which many former residents now deceased were interviewed. It was a fascinating insight into the culture of this part of Ireland.

The weather continues to be good – extremely good according to the locals – and we are seeing south west Ireland at is sunny best. As we drive past fields and farmhouses we can see the old fields higher up the rugged slopes of this very hilly region which, despite being poor and rocky, were potato fields until the blight and famine struck in the 1840s. They have not been farmed since.

We noticed that the countryside features many pine plantations like those found Canberra and its approaches. Apparently timber is a major Irish export worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the economy. It is a funny feeling to see this and other  things occasionally that remind us of home.

The best views today were of Dingle Bay. The bay is wide and surrounded by hills and low mountains which in most cases plunge down sheer cliffs to the rocky shores below.

That night we attended a performance of The National Folk Theatre of Ireland which is based in Tralee. It is called Siamsa Tire (pronounced she-amsa-tier-a). The show was an Irish folk story set to music and dance with songs in Gaelic linking each scene. The story was about an ancient queen who used magic to turn her stepchildren into swans. The depiction of the swans through fluid dance movements was so beautiful it gave us a whole new perspective on Irish dancing. It was one of the best nights of musical theatre we have ever enjoyed.

On Thursday we drove the Ring of Kerry, which is a scenic drive around Dingle Bay and Ballyskellig Bay in County Kerry beginning and ending in Killarney. The views of the bays and the mountains rising out of the sea through steep rugged cliffs were awesome. We were very lucky, according to our tour guide, to be seeing this part of Ireland at its best – mostly sunny and only some mist in the far distance.  We ended the day with a drive to Limerick through more lovely green countryside.

That night we had dinner and a show at Knappogue Castle, built in 1467. We had dinner in the banqueting hall – furnished and decorated in 15^th century style – with the show of Irish singing and dancing taking place during and after dinner. Many of the songs were mediaeval in origin and the dancing was brilliant. We learned the origin of ‘honeymoon’, which comes from an old tradition that newlyweds would drink mead (a honey wine) every night for the first month after marriage. All in all it was another great experience of Irish culture.

On Friday we travelled to Sligo in northwest Ireland via the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs plunge hundreds of meters sheer down to the Atlantic and made for great photos. Further along we came to beautiful Galway Bay. The countryside remains lush and green for the most part, however in the region known as The Burren we saw hills eroded and naturally sculptured by glacial ice and melt flows during the last ice age. The natural beauty of this land is something of which one can never tire.

On Saturday we travelled to Belfast. We crossed the border into Northern Irreland briefly to visit Belleek Pottery and see how this world famous product is made. The intricacy of the work is amazing, a real tribute to the craftsmen and women they employ. We then drove back to the Republic and through Donegal before re-entering the north and visiting the Giant’s Causway. This series of cliffs and bays was carved by nature millennia ago and is spectacular.

The tour group have gelled really well, and we sit at meals with anyone.  There is a great pair of ladies from the USA, and they ask sooo many questions about Australia and its culture.  They are thinking of making their next trip to Aus and New Zealand.  There is also a fun group of 5 from Launceston – 3 of them are coming to Canberra in October, so there has been the usual email and phone number sharing.  The tour is really well paced – we usually leave between 8 and 9, then a 30 min loo stop during the morning, and a 2 hour lunch stop in a major city.  It certainly gives us time to walk off (some!!) of the food we have been eating.  Of our 21 nights on tour, a 3 course meal with a glass of wine is on 11 of those nights.  By the time we add in the optional tours, there will only be 2 nights that we need to find dinner.  It makes it so much easier to get to a hotel, rest for an hour or so then downstairs for dinner and back up to our rooms to catch up on emails etc.  We find it strange to go to a show and come out at 10pm into sunlight!!  The sun is setting about 10.15pm, and rises again just before 5am.  Thank goodness for heavy curtains!!!  Not sure how they get their little ones to bed in the summer!!!