How to begin? During the negotiations to bring the conflict to an end certain brave men, drivers of Black Taxis, drove through the gates to carry the negotiators and others to the meetings in the Monastery in the Protestant section. Gates? Protestant section? This was our tour as our Black Taxi driven by one of those brave men showed us where the walls are and drove us through those gates. The walls are still up 20 years later and they are the highest barriers you can begin to imagine. The gates still close at 9 or 10 pm every night. The Protestants, Unionists, feel safer separated by the walls from their Catholic, Republican neighbors and vice versa. There is a third area where there is no separation or walls, that is where the educated and well off people live. They too are either Protestant or Catholic, but they live entwined and they intermarry. 

The tour ended at The Felons Club. The credential for membership is  being  an IRA member and having served time in under the British. We sat for over 90 minutes with three men. A Protestant Unionist,  who served 16 years and a Catholic  member of  Sinn Fein who was a member of the IRA and served 17 years of a life sentence, and a British infantry man who served in Belfast during the troubles. These three men who would have been glad to kill each other in 1990 are now able to present there stories to groups like us and to share a friendship that seems unthinkable. None of them think that it is likely to be wide spread in the near future.

Terminology. Unionist wants to remain united with UK (well until Brexit anyhow) Republican wants to reunite Ireland into one country. Ireland is made up of 32 counties. 26 counties make up the Republic of Ireland and 6 are the Irish part of the UK in much the same manner as Scotland and Wales. Just to make it more murky, Ulster is a Province of Ireland and the 6 counties of Northern Ireland comprise 6 of the 8 counties of Ulster. By definition, most Protestants are Unionists and most Catholics are Republicans. They inhale this with their mother’s milk.

On Tuesday we set out  to see two of the “must see” attractions on the north coast of Ireland,  the Antrim Coast. Our first stop was the Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge which extends 70 feet over  the ocean to  a small island that fishermen used to reach further out into the fishery.

From there  we went back up the coast to The Giant’s Causeway. This is a product of vulcanism  followed by glaciation. The basalt formed hexagonal pillars which from above look like a tessellation and from the side look like giant pillars.

During the glaciation the retreating glaciers stripped  away any soil leaving the rock formations exposed.  Some of us went with Rowan for a rather extended  hike to a promontory well beyond the Causeway for a different point of view. This brought us back to the Visitor Center where we rejoined those who elected not to take the hike for the ride back to Derry.

Wednesday, today as I write, we retraced much of that route with a pause in Bushmills, the home of the oldest licensed distillery, for relief while we continued on to Belfast with another stop for lunch following a nice walk down to a waterfall in Glennariff Forest Park.

 Fortunately the bus came down to the lodge to pick us up so we didn’t have to climb back up with full stomachs.

You may notice that these images show bright sunlight and even people in summer dress. Yes this is Ireland! the land of cool moist days with rain at least once a day and four seasons every day. The Irish are overheated and hiding from the sun. The tourists, us, are reveling in it.

I have great notes on the trip which I will try to encapsulate when I have some time as well as pictures. 

Today was something very different, we crossed from The Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland to the city of Derry, known among Unionists as Londonderry. We have been submerged in the history of Ireland since we arrived and an ugly history it is. The Great Famine was really the Great Hunger and there was plenty of food for export to  Great Britain and its colonies, but only potatoes were permitted to the Irish and when the blight struck the landlords would not permit the Irish to eat the food they were producing. 

In the early 1900’s Ireland was partitioned and the British kept the 6 northern provinces as part of the UK and made the rest of Ireland a part of their empire. Eventually the Irish were made a free state by revolution, but in the treaty they were not permitted to  keep  the northern provinces and a civil war commenced among those who wanted to keep the treaty and those who were prepared to fight to the death for a united Ireland. The Irish are (were?) primarily Catholic and the British  are Protestants. They have never gotten along. 

In Derry the divide was and is to this day rigidly maintained. Marching Season dates back to 1604 when King James – then Catholic -was stopped at the city gates by thirteen protestants who barred the gate. He laid siege to the city and every year the Catholics march down to the gate to commemorate  the event.had a recent history

In 1972 that march lead to Bloody Sunday when the British brought in paratroops to stop the parade. Of the 14 who died that day 8 were shot by one trooper known as “F” . Today we met the grandson of the first to die and he told us the history of that day in bloody detail. I asked him if he could imagine  free mixing of Catholics and Protestants in his lifetime – he is 21 – and he said no. They have no particular animosity, but the last of the fighting was only 20 years ago. 

The only thing that he, and others, see as bringing change is Brexit which will be devastating to the already poor economy of Northern Ireland. The creation of hard borders between the Irelands will be crushing to the tourism trade they are building.  

The history is long ugly and complex. There are at least four different sides. The pressure behind much of the fighting  can be found in our own Civil rights struggle and that of other nations around the world. They called for one man one vote and the end of Gerrymandering, which has a the same meaning as ours but was enforced at the level of household, religion and business. The Catholics with a majority in the population had only 12 seats in the government of 60! 

Here are pictures of some of the murals in Bog Side,  the Catholic area:

I’ll stop the convoluted story of the history there with only the one comment, we have yet to find a country to visit that has not  had a recent history of of violent abuse of members of the  society.

I will incorporate any corrections to details in this history, I am working from memory of several presentations over the past 10 days.

On our way to Slea Head we stopped at Edan’s farm. He raises Sheep and we got to pet, hold and feed baby lambs. Aw, Cute!  We also visited the Bee Hive Huts on his property which date back over 1,000 years. These are dry-stone structures which have with stood the weather for many years and have not been destroyed by interlopers looting the stone because of the remoteness of the area and the poor quality of the land for large scale agriculture. 

We proceeded from there to the Blasket Center Museum to learn the history of these islands which were evacuated in 1953 due to a declining population and increasingly dangerous weather. This was an Irish speaking community that had not been forced to 
English speaking because of their remoteness. We took a 3 1/2 mile hike along the coast from which we could see the incredible views of the ocean and across to the Blasket Islands themselves.

Oh yes, this is Star Wars territory so we climbed up to a site from which some of the scenics from one of the recent Star Wars movies was filmed.

This picture of the remains of a school house from yet another movie set in Ireland is for a quiz, answer next post.

The last day of our pre trip and the first day of the  trip coincided as usual. We mostly drove from Dingle to Ennis with a stop for lunch and shopping in Adair which must be the quintessential Irish tourist village with its street of shops and restaurants and cottages with thatched roofs. We ate in Good Room and we shopped without helping the Irish economy or incurring packing difficulty.

The major excursion for the day was Cliffs of Moher with a stop  at Bridget’s Well followed by a stop at a pub for lunch and return to the hotel.  This was a long bus ride, well worth it.

[Pictures to be added-someday]

As part of our historical walk in Ennis we stopped at Knox Pub where some delightful young musicians performed for us and talked about their instruments and their training. Following this the rest of the tour left and Carol and I stayed behind in our excellent seats for 1 1/2 hours of rousing Traditional Irish music. There is an Irish music festival o n in town this week and we were able to enjoy a taste of it.

The first stop of the day was Daniel  Kessenich’s farm. He was a dairy farmer with a small herd  of 24 head who could no longer make a go of it so he sold the herd and  augments his income by giving tours and explaining why small farming is no longer possible. Margaret his wife bakes scones with some “help” from the tourists. They are quite delicious!

Toward the end of the tour a tray of small glasses of holy water or Poteen appeared.  In Ireland Poteen has a different meaning than in Canada. It is known in the states as ‘shine. This was much better than what I have sampled back home.

We learned that “an inch is a mile” at this stop on Inch Beach which is indeed a mile long

Finally we stopped at Tom Crean Pub. Tom Crean was one of the three survivors of the Shackleton attempt to  be the first to reach the South Pole. Amundson beat them by three weeks and the group making the final push all died on the return. Crean and two others had stayed back to permit the lead group to make the final push. Tom Crean endured 450 miles with his two team mates then pushed the last 35 miles solo, barely beating a storm into the base camp. The publican bought the pub which was originally built by Crean and continues to tell the story.

Stop at a great v

Our last stop, after checking into our hotel was Dick Macks, famous for its Coffee Stout. It is definitely worth the trip.

Carol and I were desperate for some “Trad” music so we headed across the street for dinner at Dingle Pub. The dinner was okay – pub grub – the music was fun and then David Geaney took the floor:

https://photos.google.com/u/1/photo/AF1QipNXa6PIg3prLR3z_1Vq-MMxjTRXlL43aJ0BsF0m

We started out at the reasonable hour of 9:50 AM  with a short bus ride to Ross Castle  where joined out boatman Dennis for a ride across three lakes in an open boat. The lakes are Lough Leane, Muckross and Upper Lake  as well as Long Range River. We were prepared for chill and rain, but it was not very cold and the rain stayed away.  After lunch at Lord Brandon’s Cottage we mounted our horse drawn carriage – Jaunting Cart – through Gap of Dunloe to  Kate Kearney’s Cottage. Irish Coffee for all, yum! these carriages were two wheeled, lighter for going over the pass. 

Tonight National Folk Theater Performance and dinner at pub. It was a superb show, the Dance and music was set into the form of a play with plenty of good humor. 

We set out at 9 this morning to drive the Kerry Ring which is a seaside  drive of some 110 miles around the Kerry Peninsula. There are endless wonderful views along  the way, far to many to incorporate in this blog. 

There was one surprise when we approached Waterville, clearly not an Irish name.  It is the nearest mainland point to the eastern end of the first transatlantic cable that made landfall in Hearts Content  New Foundland and Labrador it is on an island just off shore of this village. Who would have thought we would be at both ends of that cable in less than a year. I guess if we had thought about it when we planned this trip it might have occurred to us.

Before reaching Waterville we took a side trip up a  narrow twisty road to see a stone circle fort. For some reason I have never heard of these structures which were such a major part of the Irish landscape.

We had a substantial climb up to the fort which sits atop a ridge line.

Then I climbed to the top for the view the defenders would have had.

Other stops included Lady’s View where Queen Victoria stopped with her retinue for a picnic and later for lunch for ourselves.  I continued my beer exploration with Killarney Red, a lager. The last highlight of the drive was Toric Falls. I know this picture needs some “fixing” but I didn’t bring the tools on my travel computer.

We  headed out to wander and for dinner soon after writing the above.. I had a Killarney Blonde that was quite good with sea bass. No new whiskey as one of the ladies on the tour bought a bottle of RedBreast 12 and offered me a glass. I enjoyed it again, but I have my limits, so that was it for the day.

We woke, eventually, to a very different day. it is grey, cool and misting to raining. It is much more like the weather we have been lead to expect. 

We decided to visit Ross Castle about 2 miles out of town on the lake. As we set out to walk there Michael Hannity greeted us and offered an hour long Jaunting Car ride to the castle through Killarney National Park. So we took a Jaunting Car (horse carriage) ride through the park, as we had contemplated, behind Gypsy Rose:

Even in the cool and rain it was pleasant ride and as it turns out the route we took through the park was far more interesting than the walk we had proposed.

Along the way we paused to look at this former gatehouse which now functions as a tea room. We are quite taken with the thatched roofs we see. The government pays a bounty to encourage retaining these roofs, the insurance companies charge an extra premium for the added fire risk.

Eventually we came to Ross Castle which was battered in the war of 1912 for independence and restored in the 1980’s. It is a great pile of rocks, the first of many we expect to see.  Also note the lush green in these pictures, I’ve done nothing to enhance them. 

At lunch at O’Donahue’s I continued my exploration with a glass of Smithwick Red Ale.  We are sitting in the hotel lobby as the rest of our crew filters in. One lady has missed her flight and will not be joining us until tomorrow.

Beer and whiskey report from dinner, 1 pint of Guinness, included in the meal and a portion of Redbreast 12 as recommended by a dedicated researcher. It is  a fine choice.  Glad to have it on my list.

After two uneventful flights, San Diego to Newark and onward to Shannon, thank you United, we were met by our driver at the exit from customs with no problem. Two hours later we were at our hotel in Killarney. The first thing we learned was to shorten the “i” to the vanishing point when saying K’llarney. As our plane broke through the clouds we were greeted by the greenest green land we could imagine. For most of our drive both of us were swiveling our heads so we would not miss anything. Exhaustion did not seem to catch up with us, yet

We checked into the hotel and set out to find a spot for lunch. This is a tourist town. What wasn’t a restaurant or hotel was a shop mostly with local goods. We made a number of stops and haven’t bought anything, yet. Carol found a wonderful sweater in a green she loves, but they do not have her size and the item is discontinued. I have not bought the sweater, shirt, scarf I have fallen in love with, yet. 

We had lunch in a pub and I had my first Guiness of the trip, yum! Then we walked to Killarney National Park, not more than 15 minutes from our hotel, by the direct route. While listening to the guide describe the history of the house  I fell asleep, standing up! As I started to fall, I woke up and caught myself. We decided it was past time to call it a day. We got lost returning to the hotel, well may be bit disoriented, and took an extra 15 minutes returning. By now the temperature had risen into the 60s and the sun was shining, something every Irish person me spoke to commented on – it is quite rare. 

We slept for just over an hour until awakened by a call from our guide,  Rowan, who had just arrived at the hotel. We felt refreshed and joined him in the lobby for tea and ginger bread, Oh My! Then off to seek out dinner and music all within 10 minutes of our hotel. Rather than start with Jamesons, I had a shot of Crested 10 chased with Murphy’s Stout. It is going to take some doing and record keeping if I want to sample all the varieties available. We crawled back to the hotel with the sun still shining at 9 PM and I am falling asleep as I write this.

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