HELP! What To See And Do In Ireland?

Poststructural Pub
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I’ve got me passport and plane ticket, so watch out, Ireland: 160 years after they left, the O’Bans are coming back!

We’ll be leaving shortly for a 2 week stay in Ireland (Mid May - Early June). Our plans are to land at Shannon Airport and travel along the coastal region from around Mayo or Galway to Waterford, hit Cahir in County Tipperary (for some family research in the church records, hopefully) and return to Shannon via the Midlands. We have no plans of travelling to Dublin due to our feelings that if you’ve seen one large city you’ve seen 'em all, plus my wife will be doing most of the driving and she’s not too comfortable with the left-hand side of the road thing out in the boonies, let alone in some large city.

Any information that anyone can provide on any of the following topics is greatly appreciated:

  1. Places to listen to some good Irish music in those areas mentioned above.

  2. Out-of-the-way places to get a feel for true local color and customs.

  3. Good eateries. Any foods we have to try.

  4. Must see things (we know about the Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, the Burren). Anything else?

  5. My wife wants me to be able to say I bought a whistle while there. Any suggestions?

  6. Driving on the left, car rentals, lodging?

  7. Any other info or advice about anything whatsoever?

Thanks!

Will O’Ban

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Wil,

Don’t sweat driving on the left–you’ll be amazed how quickly you adjust. The only problem I had was mixing up the switches for the turn signals and the winshield wipers :laughing:

I’m very fond of Westport, Co. Mayo. There’s usually music going on at Matt Molloy’s pub. Take a day trip from there to Achill Island.

Mostly, don’t be in a hurry. Find a place you like and stay for a few days. No one will deny that Ireland has beautiful scenery, but her real treasure is her people. Get to know some of them.

Have a great trip,

No E

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Must see: Bunratty castle near Shannon airport, and King John’s castle in Limerick, Rock of Cashel (near Cahir), Newgrange (30 miles north of Dubin), and downtown Dublin (don’t drive it, get a B&B on the outskirts and take a bus to city center). If you know much about the history of Ireland, Dublin is a must. Go to Dingle and take the archeological tour offerred by Timothy Collins and hang out in the small bridge pub (it has a Gaelic name I can’t spell or pronounce) for great music.

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If you’re non-city people like my wife and me, we really enjoyed Keadue, which is where O’Carolan died and is buried. It’s a tiny little place sort of in the southern part of the lake district; there’s a memorial to him, and his grave is a couple of miles outside the town. We were kind of stressed after a couple of weeks of traveling, so it was nice to sit, walk, and generally chill for a couple of days.

I also highly recommend the Waterford Crystal tour. The sheer scale on which glassblowing is occuring is mind-boggling.

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What Blackhawk said. And right across the street from Bunratty castle is a Blarney woolen mills store. I bought some great CDs there as well as a nice wool throw that we curl up on during cold winter nights. I hope you have a digital camera. We took 1200 pictures in 2 weeks. We ate at the pubs every night. The food was cheaper than at restaurants and better too. The Salmon is great and so is the beef but I love there fish and chips. Envy! Envy!

Ron

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Find a place called the Railway Tavern… wish I could give you more info, but that’s about it. It’s by the west coast, I seem to remember it being before Dingle… sorry, the whole trip was a guinness and beef pie filled blur. Do the North if you can, won’t be sorry.

And yes, a city is a city… but it’s Dublin, seems to me a bit of a waste to go to Ireland and skip Dublin. You might think that you won’t see the real culture and people in Dublin, but Dubliners are Irish too (you don’t need a thatch roof cottage and a herd of sheep to be Irish).

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Make sure that you…

Stay in bed and breakfasts
Get out to the countryside

See…

The Burren, Cliffs of Moher, Connor Pass

We liked Galway and Kinvara a lot, Dingle and Doolin.

If you get to the Jameson Heritage Centre volunteer for the whiskey tasting at the end of the tour.

If you rent a car the insurance can be expensive. We got a MasterCard for the rental and it included auto insurance.

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Just FYI, I think it needs to be a Gold Mastercard, but then it certainly is free car insurance at that point.

Also, someone above mentioned seeing the Burren…if you do (and it’s a great idea), the Poulnabrone Dolmen is a must.

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I dunno if we got swindled or what, but they wouldn’t take the insurance from any of our cards. I think this was a Hertz at Dublin airport. They said only platinum (can’t remember whether it was Master or Visa); this was when platinum cards had just come out. We had just made an overnight flight, so were in no shape to fight. You probly wanna check with your card company before you leave.

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yes, defnintely check your credit card’s web site regaring insurance. with mine, it cover damages only, and not liability (if god forbid i hurt or kill someone). also, double check the deductible; could be high. although i doubt it, there could be clauses regarding renting outside US, er, your country.

regarding travelling in ireland: less is more. i.e. don’t try to do too much. if you can, stay in one area/locale for more than a few days to really soak things up. go with the flow…

have fun. i’m jealous!

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Ding, ding!

Blackhawk is correct. It does need to be a Gold Mastercard.

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If you get to the Dingle Peninsula
I recommend some of the villages west of Brandon Mountain
like Feohanagh.

:slight_smile:

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There’s so much to see if you go looking. With an itinary like you have, from mayo to Waterford , the midlands and all I suppose you will see hardly anything of a lot of places. I would prefer to see more of fewer places and really get a taste of the place.

For an alternative view on a good day take the boat out t othe Cliffs of Moher:







There’s loads of music in Clare, for CDs and whistles maybe not rely on the Blarney Woollen Mills but go to Custy’s in Ennis [buy a few nice photos of musicianers while you’re there :smiley: ].

and Poulnabrone, well it’s there and I suppose everybody goes there. Have a good time.

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Yes, this is worth mulling.

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As others said, don’t miss Dingle but don’t go JUST to the town of Dingle. You want to do the entire Dingle Penisula (can be driven around in an afternoon). The views are breathtaking (nicer than the Ring of Kerry, IMO) and there’s a vast quantity of cool ruins, such as Dun Beag, an old Norman fort, and the Gallarus Oratory, etc. Trust me on this. When I was there, the weather was splendid and the views were just stunning. My avatar is me on the Dingle Penisula.
http://www.dingle-peninsula.ie/

What else? If you do Dublin, check out the Musician’s Pub Crawl.
From an earlier post by me:
I second the idea of the Musical Pub Crawl. I thought it would be corny, but it was fun. The group was small enough to feel homey, not touristy. Plus, there was a chance to play! There’s a rotating group of musicians that do the Crawl (I got a banjo and guitar player–both excellent musicians and VERY funny) and I think for at least SOME of them, they routinely ask at the end if anyone has any music to contribute. In the TRUE spirit of a session, they want it to be community-oriented, collaborative. They were very encourgaing and wanted people to do anything–just get up and sing a song, even if you couldn’t sing well. Very informal.

Of course, I had my whistle with me but it was my first night in Ireland and I was beyond shy about my playing. Especially as I was such a beginner compared to the musicians, and as well, I only know a couple of ITrad tunes (some waltzes). But afterwards, I went up to buy their CD and mentioned I play the whistle and they were like, “What the hell? Why didn’t you play? That would have been GREAT!”

I got the feeling they would have joined in and it would have been cool even if I’d only been able to poorly fake my way thru Amazing Grace. And I am usually the type of person to DO IT, whenever there’s a choice, because I hate having regrets. Between regrets and embarassment, I’ll take embarssment–usually. But this time I was too shy…and I DO regret it! Since I don’t play ITRAD, I know I’ll never be in a session and so I missed out on maybe the ONE beginner-friendly opportunity I had to play my whistle in Ireland with other musicians.

So, do the Crawl and if they invite people to play, DO IT!!

You hear people say that it doesn’t matter where you go, though, that all of Ireland is great, and I think that’s true. Try and relax and soak up the culture, or the scenery, and you really can’t go wrong.

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I recommend touring the Dingle Peninsula; many rate it higher than the Ring of Kerry for views. The drive is beautiful particularly going over the pass from the north side to Dingle. Dingle is a cute little town (some nice B&Bs). But if you go there you must plan to drive out to Slea Head around 8pm (in the summer) to watch the sunset. We were out there listening to trad music on the car radio, watching the sun go down then happened to notice 2 or 3 guys out surfing :boggle: in the N. Atlantic. You really gotta like to surf!

One other suggestion: stop and take the guided tours of things. I know it sounds touristy but I had some great interactions with the people this way particularly in the more out-of-the-way sites. For instance, the city of Drogheda (north of Dublin) offers historical walking tours of the city. I showed up at the advertised time and was the only one there. So I got a one-on-one tour of the city from an amiable older gent. We had a great conversation and I think I probably saw more than he normally shows people just because I kept asking questions.

Oh yah, Dublin. I wouldn’t drive either but you don’t have to. Most guide books have a map of the DART line (Dublin Area Rapid Transit). We found the station at Malahide (north of Dublin) and just took the DART into the center of town. From there you can walk to places like Trinity College, Stephen’s Green, and Grafton Street.
I AM JEALOUS! HAVE A GREAT TIME!

Oops, Kar beat me to the Dingle recommendation - she and I have done this in other threads.

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I hope you’re getting the message from several of us by now:-

Dingle linger
in the Peninsula
Not just Dingle town
Take some time to tour around
:party:

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and please say “hi” to fungi the dolphin for me when you’re there too! Thanks!!!

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:roll:
Oh Paleeeeeeze don’t.
Leave the poor porpoise alone.
There is more to Dingle than
diving in the harbour with a djembe and all
and publicly indulging in a non genital orgasm
at the sight of a dolphin leaping …

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just joking, btw. glad somebody picked up on the absurdity of it…