One of the things I (Pip) am really enjoying here in Ireland is the Irish sense of humour. It’s frequently self-deprecating and often with a keen sense of the ridiculous. An example or two is in the article below, on…
Sculpture in Context
The place of sculpture in Irish art cannot be over-emphasised and it comes as a complete surprise to anyone from NZ where sculpture is rarely seen or given any sort of prominence (although we do have the Waiheke Island outdoor…
A bit of atmosphere for you
I took some video clips of the band at the Tigh Neachtain pub in Galway. We thought they were very good but you can’t really tell from these clips. However, I think they do give a sense of the atmosphere.…
A weekend in Galway
We travelled up by train on Friday morning and returned on Monday morning, so it was a good chunk of time to explore Galway and the surrounding district. First priority of course was to see Galway Bay, as instructed by…
A Dublin Day
This entry is a little different. It chronicles the sights of Dublin on just one day – Monday 22 September, 2014. I am told that a Mr J Joyce wrote a whole novel about just one day in Dublin in…
Newgrange and Tara
About 50 km north of Dublin is one of Ireland’s finest historical sites and certainly one of the oldest. This is the Newgrange cluster of Passage Tombs, the oldest of which dates back to 3200 BC, making it about 5000…
Revenge of the Odmies
Pip’s birthday today. We looked online for a suitable place to go and found the Brasserie at The Marker Hotel in the Grand Canal / Financial district of Dublin. This is an area close to the river Liffey that was redeveloped…
The Ring of Kerry
This is a famous tourist route on a peninsula in the west of Ireland. By now, the tourists are starting to decline in numbers so we went for a Monday to Friday visit last week with our daughter Sarah, son-in-law…
The Troubles in Belfast
We bought a hop on, hop off bus pass shortly after arriving in Belfast. This let us tour the city at will for 48 hours, which we did three times. The first time was just to give us a general…
Belfast
We have noticed that many people in NZ are a little hazy on the geography of Ireland, so to start, a brief lesson. The island of Ireland is about 80% occupied by the Republic of Ireland whose capital city is…