One night we had a dinner date at Castle Knappogue, built in 1467 by the McNamara Clan. Several groups were there for the medieval banquet, and several men were chosen to participate. Jay Edmondson became famous for the second time today by becoming one of the Earl’s four vassal Lords, complete with crown. Russ was chosen to play the nave; on stage, he had to collapse and die from food poisoning. We were seated on long oak tables in Dalcassian... Read more

Just over the border into northern Ireland is Belleek, by which I mean the town famous for its pottery, and we took a tour of the pottery factory and its wares. Belleek Pottery Ltd. is a porcelain company dating to 1884. The factory produces porcelain that is characterized by “its thinness, slightly iridescent surface and that the body is formulated with a significant proportion of frit.” The terms ceramic, porcelain and frit are highly technical! We had an excellent tour through the whole production... Read more

There are many impressive things about Ireland— its generally so clean, you don’t see a bunch of trash lying around on the side of the roads, there are lots of parks and nature reserves, animals are treated well, which makes Ireland a ‘green and pleasant land’. Here’s a bit more about there birds and fauna…. Of course with the temperate climate and the rainfall, and the rich soil, its hard for things not to grow in this environment You feel... Read more

Of all the little villages and seaside towns in Ireland that we visited, in most ways Kinsale was my favorite, for a lot of reasons, the first of which is that our local guide, Barry Maloney (pictured above) was not full of bologna, or as the Irish would say, blarney…. quick word study…. here is where that word seems to have come from… But still you’ll hear some woolly tales… or is it woolly tails…. Kinsale is important for a... Read more

Whilst in County Kerry and in the general vicinity of Dingle, we paid a special visit to a pub which honors a genuine Antarctic explorer and hero (and celebrates him with a remarkable lager). Tom answer the following call—- Here’s some of the story as told in the papers back then… Here’s a simple summary courtesy of me wife— Thomas Crean (1877-1938) was a member of three expeditions to Antarctica on three different ships, the Discovery (1901-1904), the Terra Nova... Read more

Since time immemorial, people have been fascinated by and pondering the meaning of stone circles and standings, especially those that seem to have patterns or writing on them. Naturally, our thoughts gravitate to something like Stonehenge on Salisbury plain, but in fact there are far more such stones, and more impressive ones in some respects, in Ireland. On the south side of Dingle Bay, there are the Dunloe Ogham stones. If you look carefully you will see the man-made strirations... Read more

The Ring of Kerry is one of the most beautiful of all areas in Ireland, by all accounts. Gorgeous lakes, pastoral scenes, and a national park, Kilarney National Park. First, here is one of the smallest lakes in Ireland’s equivalent to the Lake District in England… There were jaunting carts aplenty traipsing through the park, so we went for a ride. The same family has been providing jaunting cart rides for over 220 years here in this area. Our driver... Read more

Kenmare is a cute little tourist trap with lots of shops, including sweet shops in county Kerry (from whence the name of the famous butter— Kerrygold). For those of you who don’t know what a macaron is or looks like, doubtless there are all types, but the French ones are the most famous, and the Irish, not to be outdone, produce just as sweet and colorful ones. The town is also famous for its lace making (which is how some... Read more

Crossing into County Cork, we arrived at Blarney Castle, certainly one of the more familiar tourist destinations in Ireland. The extant castle dates to the time of Dermot McCarthy, which is to say about 1446. One of the regular features of castles, and churches in Ireland is round towers. These were originally perhaps bell towers, but they were also where the monks went to hide and protect themselves from Vikings and other invaders, and simply became part of the regular... Read more

On our way from Dublin to Blarney (on which more later in another post), we stopped in Urlingford, at Hayes Pub. It is a beautiful traditional pub where they very kindly opened early and served us tea (or beer) and scones. Yummy. Here’s our friendly barkeep and owner…. By traditional I mean it has traditional furniture, mirrors, taps, etc. It’s quite fetching. Pubs are not just places to go and have a beer, they are in fact community gathering places... Read more