Dichroic Reflections

Song of Ireland

I never know how to tell people about a trip without having it take all day. In
just over a week, we spent two days in Dublin, then put 900 miles (not km, miles) and a couple of scratches on the rental car, we walked around and over castles, cathedrals, abbeys, and museums all over the southern two thirds of the island, we saw innumerable sheep and looked for baby lambs, we drank a reasonable amount of Guinness and Smithwick's, we slept in lots of tiny beds. It all took 15 pages in my travel diary, which is why I have trouble condensing it here.

Ireland is noisy pubs, green fields bounded by hedgerows, cliffs over the ocean, worryingly narrow roads without centerlines. Friendly people. Mediocre food, good beer, easy and convenient B&B's with no beds larger than a double. (Actually I'm not even sure they're as big as an American double.) It was easy to drive into a town, stop at a convenient B&B -- they had signs to all the ones off the main road -- and put up for the night. One I got used to the size of the roads, I realized it's a very good road system; you can get from anywhere to anywhere, and there are signs to all towns and attractions -- though some are more readable than others. We did scratch the rental car, though -- good thing we'd paid for the damage waiver. (You know how VISA cards insure car rentals in most countries? Not in Ireland.)

Every town seemed to have a ruined castle or cathedral or abbey. You can see it in the place names: "cill" is Irish Gaelic for "church", so Kilkenny and Kildare, Killarney, Kilkelly, and Kilcoole were all major church centers. Some castles weren't ruined; we toured beautiful Georgian rooms in Dublin and Kilkenny. I think my favorite is Blarney; it's ruined enough to let you see how it's laid out, but restored enough to have bars in all the dangerous places and yes we did kiss the Blarney Stone. You have to lean way back on the top of the castle, so it's a bit scary. There are bars beneath though, and someone to hold your legs; I think you could fall out but you'd have to try hard.The castle is in beautiful grounds, too -- this is from a high-up window:

As mentioned, there were a few drawbacks; I'm convinced the Irish drink so much beer because the food isn't that great -- "and such small portions!" The beer is awfully good, though. Here's us at the top of the Guinness tour, looking out over
Dublin:

We drove from Dublin down the coast, to Waterford, to Kilkelly, to Cashel, to Cork, to Dingle, to Galway to Castlebar to Boyle to Trim to Drogheda to Dublin. The oldest things we saw were the 2000 year old beehive huts along the beautiful Slea Head Drive at the tip of the Dingle peninsula, that were still standing despite being built of drystone (no mortar) and a 5000 year old passage grave at Newgrange. We also saw any amount of prehistoric goldwork at the Dublin Museum. The oldest place we stayed was the Rising Sun Inn, built in Cromwell's time. It seems odd how many of the things we saw were built at rough times in Ireland's history; most of the older castles and cathedrals date from the 1200s, just when Henry II was conquering so he'd have something to give his favorite and youngest son John (the Magna Carta guy), and that inn and some tower houses build while Cromwell was ravaging the place. Also, a lot fo the newer churches, still in use, weren't contructed too far before or after the Great Hunger.

A partial list of what we saw is Dublin Castle, the National Museum, Dublinia (an
interactive history thin, not particularly recommended except for kids), the Guinness tour, Christ Church Cathedral, Ferns Castle, Kilkenny Castle, St. Canice's Cathedral, Blarney Castle, the Dingle Peninsula including the Slea Head Drive and Connor Pass, Ballintober Abbey, Boyle Abbey, the King House, Trim Castle, Newgrange. And I know I'm missing things in that list. The time constraints made us miss far too many things I'd wanted to see: the Giant's
Causeway, the Bushmills' brewery, the high crosses at Monasterbuice, the Ring of Kerry....

That's all right, though. It gives me plenty to see next time I go. And I won't mind going back at all, at all.