2025 Ireland Spring

Ireland 2025

I flew into Shannon airport on Ryanair where I had a great experience. Ryanair is not well known for great experiences. My host, John, picked me up and drove us to Ennis where I will spend 41 days. I am assisting Natalya with their 2 year old, Saoirse. I have a cozy comfortable room. After dinner I take Saoirse on walks to the river to see the ducks. She walks on the pedestrian street and looks in the shop windows. Twenty years ago my daughters and I were in this town, but I don’t remember it at all. The Dromoland Castle is nearby and Veronica remembers it from 20 years ago as we have a picture of her on the stairs on my Ireland 2004 blog. After 6 weeks of walking around I get to know this town pretty well !

The River Fergus

Natalya invites me on her trips to Limerick. I found the coffee shop Petit Paris and have been to King John Fort. I also stood where Frank McCourt interjected a story line in Angela’s Ashes. There is also the Limerick City Museum and beautiful Peoples Park. The Shannon River runs through this city and on each side is a walking trail.

King John Castle

John lent me his bicycle and I rode 2 hours north to Corofin where a shuttle took me to The Burren. This is a geographical area scratched out from a glacier and it is magnificent to see and hike. The trail is rocky and like nothing I have seen before. I have lunch at the Morning Dew restaurant and talk to the owner, who is from Toronto.

The Burren

I took a bus to Kilrush - south of Ennis to see Scattery Island but the ferry wasn’t running during the week in early June. Here on the Shannon river Bottlenose dolphins live and breed. I went to Vandeleur Walled Garden and spent an hour chatting with the gift shop personnel.

My hosts invite me to their house under renovation close to Adare -A 13th century town - where the Adare Manor - one of the best 5 Star hotel manors in Europe - is located. I go to the Sprocket and Hubs Motorcycle shop instead. The Courthouse Museum is above a pub now. The Augustinian Friary - founded in 1316 - is beautiful and you are free to roam inside and the grounds. It is pouring rain on the way home.

We go to the Atlantic Ocean just west of Milltown Malbay and it is spectacular - but rather cold and high waves coming in at high tide. Natalya gets us ice cream.

I take a bus to Doolin and the Cliffs of Moher. Just before the Cliffs is this crazy hilly golf course…. These cliffs are just beautiful and the wind is strong enough to make you lose your balance. There are quite a few people here on a week day in early June.

The bus to Doolin is late and I accidentally get off before we reach Doolin Caves. Eventually I catch a bus back.

Natalya drives Saoirse and I north to Galway where John is piloting flights to the Aran Islands. We go to the Aquarium and then to a very good bakery. John joins us for a lovely lunch near the Connemara airport. We stop on the way out of town to see the Wind surfers.

I catch a short train ride to Sixmilebridge on a rainy day. There are castles nearby but too far if walking. I go to the only Cafe that is open for lunch. The library, that was converted from a Protestant church (built 1740), inside is just the most beautiful library I have ever seen.

On June 8th I go south and stay in Cork at the University College of Cork residence. The UCC is a beautiful and large campus. There is the Stone Corridor in a hallway where the earliest Irish names are written.

The Three Sisters Rivers run through Cork and many pedestrian paths run along them. I visit the Elizabeth Fort (named for Elizabeth 1). In the early 1800’s it was used as a women's prison. There are many large churches in this city.

I visit the Franciscan Well Brewery where there is a 5 piece band playing in the early evening. I have dinner on Market Street and talk to the pleasant American couple beside me.

In the morning I walk past Lough Lake and find a nice coffee shop. A train takes me north west to Killarney. It is quite the tourist town. Many restaurants, hotels and Irish gift shops line the streets. It is a cold and cloudy day. My plan was to walk a bit of the Kerry Way but I was not dressed for this weather. I visited a lot of the shops just to stay warm and had lunch at a Fish and Chip restaurant. My train departed at 5:30 and after 3 train changes made it into Ennis at 9:20 pm. There was still some light in the sky.

I really like Ireland and for the most part the people are very friendly and quick to start a conversation. I only have some slight language issues - the accent can be sometimes hard to grasp. The weather has been mostly good and I have got lots of walking in. I even did some running.

The Irish landscape is full of stone fences built by human hands perhaps a millennium ago. The land is quite clean the green fields and many trees seem to go on and on. There are many coffee shops and pubs and castles/friary - some just the walls remain.

The Irish seem rather athletic and the national sports of Hurling and Gaelic Football are taken seriously.

The history seems to show how individuals take a stand and with the resulting hardships do bring about the changes the people want.

Similar to Canadians being adamant about not being mistaken for Americans, Irish are NOT English.!

In a week I will go to London, UK to meet Steph and Link so we can have a short vacation in Southend-on-sea.

Then back to Canada to see the Kaye family and my friends and eventually family in Ontario. One year ago I was in Montreal at the F1 with Venessa and 10 months ago left Canada.