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Published: June 18th 2009
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The Maid of Erin pub,Tipperary
Named for our #2 daughter Erin.....................and we bet they serve a great Guinness.Unfortunately we were too early in the day to indulge Wednesday 10th June
“Its a long way to Tipperary,its a long way to go............”
Well that was the tour directors plan for today but first we had some administration to do like catching up on email and booking ahead for the next couple of nights after a second night at Limerick.Gretchens cold does appear to be improving except for the COUGH!!
We thought the Information Centre would be a good start as they would know where an internet cafe was.The Travelodge we are staying in at Limerick has only been open 3 days and they haven’t yet sorted out their internet connections.
Whoever heard of an Information Centre not having parking for people visiting it in a car??!!Well her in Limerick that is exactly what you get.We knew where the centre was and drove past it twice trying to find where to park.In the end we finished up in a car parking building and walked to the centre.Only to find that the internet was available in the shopping centre attached to the parking building so that we hadn’t even needed to go to the centre at all !!
With the admin done it was on the road and the short run
House for sale just outside Tipperary
Spotted this as we were passing and with the sun shining(of sorts) we thought it must be a bargain. down to Tipperary through more pleasant farmland on a road that wasn’t busy.
We had lunch in a park and then walked around the small shopping area of the town and found a Post Office to post home our first copies of videos and photos after having successfully taken copies on the external DVD drive we have with us.
The town has a cemetery devoted to people who died during the potato famine of the early 1900’s and although we found a couple of street signs pointing to where it should have been we couldn’t find it despite taking a couple of different streets.
The town also has a pub called the Maid of Erin(daughter #2 name)but it was a little early in the day for a Guinness.
We then plotted a course for the town at the Mouth of the Shannon in the west called Ballybunion!!Where do they get these names from??!!
Again it was a pleasant drive through farmland with rolling countryside and finally climbing a small hill at Listowel before dropping down to the coast.
Ballybunion is a seaside town where the Irish so for their summer holidays.There is even a nice looking sandy beach in a
The beach at Ballybunion
Notice that there is no one actually in the sea above their ankles.This despite it being sunny with no wind and in the low 20's.The sea must have been freezing!!! sheltered bay and with the sun shining brightly there was a good crowd of young people down on the beach.They were playing ball games and we didn’t notice anyone sunbathing and of the dozens of people on the beach there was only one person braving what would have been chilly sea and even then they were only wading the shallows.
There were a large number of mobile homes that seemed to have permanent residents in two separate caravan parks.We had seen this previously in a west coast seaside town further north and it is hard to figure out why people need to live in this type of housing in a country that appears to have enough more solid housing for its population.There didn’t also appear to be any industry in the area that would have increased the population requiring a workforce.So we assume that people living in these mobile homes are either retired or unemployed and it is cheaper than living in the cities or larger towns.
We made Ballybunion our pub visit of the day at Feale,a very old and traditional Irish pub and enjoyed a Guinness with the proprietor.
The road back to Limerick started out over farmland
The seaside town of Ballybunion
This is a favourite holiday town for the Irish.Shame about the name. and then dropped down to run next to the Shannon giving pleasant views over the water to the land on the other side.It was a nice drive and before we knew it we were back in Limerick.
It hadn’t been as big a day as we had been having as we had only been out for about 7 hours although tomorrow looks like it will be a longer day with the Ring of Kerry to drive.
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Chris
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Buns in Ballybunnion
We needed a loo stop so went to a pub in Ballybunnion, had a coffee, muffins and met the barmaid from Taranaki. Did you get to Cahirsiveen? They love to dance, sing and drink even in the early afternoon.