Blogs from County Kerry, Ireland, Europe - page 32

31/12 We woke up this morning to a “fry up” (bacon, egg, sausage, beans and tomato) which was well needed after a night on the Ireland town. What started out being a warm up night for new years with a couple of drinks turned out to be 5 or 6……..pints plus a couple of shots. We met up with another couple who were also staying in Killarney but happened to be Americans. A lovely couple who were teaches (English and maths and grade 3). The pub had a band that were playing some traditional Irish music with traditional instruments until 2300 then a live rock bad started to play, At 1200 Rhiannon dragged me home for the early start today. The bus picked us up at 1000 and we started off to the Ring of Kerry. ... read more

Ireland. Who isn't part Irish? No-one that's who. In Italy, being of fairly dark complexion, I had to get used to people assuming I was Italian and hurling a barrage of indecipherable language at me, and having to shrug and say, "Me non parlo Italiano!" In Ireland, it was Sarah's turn to be mistaken as a local, and have people hurl indecipherable language at her. From our arrival at the non-existant town of Shannon on the Western coast of the Island, we hopped into a rental car and tuned the radio to a Gaelic station and had Irish jigs as road music. The pocket of Ireland we chose to visit for this Autumnal October weekend was the Dingle Peninsula - the most Mountainous part of Ireland, jutting out like a pointing finger into the Northern Atlantic. ... read more

Thursday, 6 September: We departed Cork at around 10.30 am and began our tour of the Sliabh Luachra (pronounced SCHLEEVE LOO-kra, Gaelic for "Rushy Mountain") region, which straddles the border of Cork and Kerry Counties. We took a winding (no other is possible in Ireland, believe me!) route through Mallow, Rathmore, Knocknagree, Ballydesmond, Knocknaboul Cross, Newmarket Cross, Cordal, Castleisland, and Scartaglen to look at various places of interest regarding Sliabh Luachra musicians. My favourite of these was Newmarket Cross, the site of the home and school of Padraig O'Keeffe. A monument to him is there also. O'Keeffe was a schoolmaster-turned-traveling-fiddlemaster who taught an entire generation of children in the area to play during the beginning of the 20th century. He walked everywhere, usually traveling 15-20 miles a day. We went back to Castleisland for lunch, and ... read more

Haha yeah, so on the way from Galway to Killarney we decided to go see the Cliffs of Moher. Just about 10 minutes before we got there mom hit a "mobile bank" truck with our rental car. Keep in mind the truck was stationary, we hit it going about 2 miles per hour. No one was hurt but the truck acted as a can opener on our poor rental car's door. The guys were very nice about it but they had to call the "Guard" or police to take a report. Mom and I couldn't stop laughing because he was so serious about his job, but when he pulled out his pen to start writing it was a big red one with happy faces all over it. Anyway, after that we proceeded to the Cliffs of ... read more

I think that the best way to have a good night’s sleep is to down a few Bailey’s on ice the night before - it always seems to do the trick! Thursday was looking like a pretty miserable day - weather wise, but we had to make the most of it - after all, we were driving through the Ring of Kerry. I am sure that the majority of people who visit Ireland would take time out to view this remarkable stretch of coastline - many say it is the most spectacular part of Ireland, and I would be hard pressed to argue that. I let Izzy take the wheel again, as we whizzed out of Kilarney, and onto the Kerry route. He was back in rally driver mode! The road is very narrow in places, ... read more