The last Guinness is drained, the last brandy and dry is sipped. We used our final Sunday afternoon to visit one of Dublin’s few remaining pubs with original Victorian decor, The Long Hall in South Great George’s St, which had…
Donegal and Derry Highlights
Glenveagh Some of the landscape shots from the previous Donegal post were taken in the Glenveagh National Park. Also in this park is Glenveagh Castle, a sort of folly (perhaps like Larnach’s Castle in NZ) built in Scottish Baronial style.…
Derry Murals
First of all, which is it? Derry or Londonderry? Well, if you are a nationalist (typically the Catholic community) it is Derry and if you are a unionist (typically the Protestant community, wanting to keep the ties to the UK)…
Donegal and Derry Landscapes
One major area of the country that has so far eluded us is Donegal and its Northern Ireland neighbouring county Derry. In the rankings, the North is probably well down the list of places that tourists visit, so we approached it with a…
Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli has just completed a 4-city tour of the UK and Ireland: Sheffield, Glasgow, London and Dublin. We were very fortunate to be given tickets to the show at the 9,500-seat 3Arena plus free entry to the attached 1878…
Cashel
In April 1863, Mary Jane Flanigan, aged 9, left her native Ireland and set sail for New Zealand on the ship Elizabeth Ann Bright. She was travelling with a Mrs Ryan. Was this her mother who had remarried? Was Mary…
Glendalough revisited
We have been to Glendalough twice before. It is an hour or so’s drive from Dublin in Wicklow to the south and is the site of one of the most important monastic settlements in Ireland dating from the 6th century.…
Bray to Greystones
These two towns are on the coast south of Dublin and there is a popular walking track along the cliffs between them which we walked on Saturday. To get to Bray is relatively simple – we walked from our apartment…
St Mel’s Cathedral
Well, we have a Mel in our family. Is she a saint? Ummm, can I get back to you? St Mel’s cathedral in Longford was accidentally destroyed by fire on Christmas Day 2009. It was opened recently after a €30…
Killarney
We have been to Killarney a couple of times before, mostly just passing through on the way to somewhere else, so this time, after our two nights at Macroom we booked a B & B in Killarney for one night…