OT Ireland. Cavan, HCE, others:

by Jay @, San Diego, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 11:38 (604 days ago)
edited by Jay, Saturday, July 08, 2023, 15:33

Going for the game weekend, but I haven't booked a flight yet, and now I'm thinking I might extend it by a few days to see some of the homeland.

Do you guys have suggestions for off-the-beaten track stuff to do in country? Background is I've visited Ireland half a dozen times before (for fun and work) and I feel like I've hit the major tourist-approved sites. (n.b. I have not been to Belfast, and would add that to an itinerary if it comes recommended). Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Tags:
travel

Cong & Glendalough & Ballenrobe

by BillyGoat, At Thanksgiving with Joe Bethersontin, Sunday, June 18, 2023, 07:55 (601 days ago) @ Jay

Cong is where they filmed The Quiet Man. One street was used as "Innisfree" and the other was used as whatever the other town was. The church is still there, as are most of the main landmarks. There's an entertaining walking tour. There are also some cool ruins and a pretty river through the town. Near Galaway and Westport.

Glendalough is in the southeast. I believe it's a national park. It's where St. Kevin lived as a hermit. Beautiful Irish forests that would look hackneyed if they were in a movie of Ireland. And very cool ruins.

Ballenrobe for the horse racing. I don't really care about the racing, but the experience was cool as hell. There were 2 groups of betting. 1 was the official windows. But then outside the paddock there were all these other bookies keeping their own odds. So you could shop for the best odds on the horse you wanted. Then you can watch from the rail as the horses thunder past.

Good luck! Booked 2 weeks ago and flights and hotel

by Turtlecrack, Friday, June 16, 2023, 12:16 (603 days ago) @ Jay

Were brutal! Post gameday weekend going to Galway and Killarney and dingle.

FYI, the Guinness at Dick Mack's is the best in Ireland

by HCE, Monday, June 19, 2023, 09:55 (600 days ago) @ Turtlecrack

I suspect those are fighting words, but I stand by them. They also seem to have started brewing their own beer since my last visit there.

Dingle is lovely, and it has an absurd number of great pubs, particularly for a small town whose economy is largely based on an unusually friendly dolphin. I highly recommend ending any pub crawl by getting pizza at the Blue Zone, a rather incongruous jazz and wine bar that happens to make really good pizza.

Thank you!!!

by Turtlecrack, Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 14:21 (599 days ago) @ HCE

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Go North, young man, but I’ll plug Mayo also

by Jack @, Friday, June 16, 2023, 10:14 (603 days ago) @ Jay
edited by Jack, Friday, June 16, 2023, 10:42

Belfast is worth a couple of days, but make sure you take a Black Cab Tour, which covers the Troubles and goes to Falls Road and Shankill Road. We weren’t planning on it (thinking it would be depressing on vacation) when we visited until we were convinced by the hotel concierge. It turned out to be phenomenal. The first thing the cabbie told us was that his brother was killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force; the whole thing was astounding.

(Edit: after I wrote the above I read HCE’s and IrishCavan’s posts below. HCE is right about “Conflict Tourism”, which is the reason we weren’t planning on that tour, but it turned out to be terrific and as IrishCavan says, you simply must do that tour. And it only took a couple of hours; on a similar note, we just got back from Berlin on our vacation last week, and if you don’t watch it, you could overload on Nazis and Communists and miss what’s in that great city today, but there are some things you simply must see from those eras).

Derry also looked very interesting - it’s a walled city - but unfortunately we had very little time there.

The other must-see is the North Coast, most especially Dunluce Castle and the Giant’s Causeway, which of course are world-class sites. And plenty of other incredible scenery in the “Game of Thrones” country. We stayed in Portrush which turned out to be a very good choice. The Glens of Antrim are also worth a visit.

If not going north, I’ll give a recommendation to my ancestral home of County Mayo. People often go to Galway but don’t go north of Connemara. Well, my grandfather was born in southwestern Mayo just north of the Killary across from Leenane, Galway in Connemara, and the Mayo coast and inland as well is kind of the Undiscovered Country. Westport also is very nice town as a base. If you do go to that area and decide to take a boat tour of the Killary, the pilot may well be my second cousin (once removed) Colm. Tell him you know me, maybe you’ll get a discount. By the way, if you’ve ever seen “The Field” with Richard Harris, it’s filmed in Leenane. My cousin Martin (Colm’s dad) was an extra and is in many scenes. He’s the Irish-looking guy, can’t miss him.

Mayo just win the All-Ireland in football for the first time since the 50’s, so they’ll be in an especially good mood. They beat Dublin, which is like beating Alabama.

GAA Senior finals aren’t until end of July

by HullieAndMikes, Yelling at Sam Cane, Dunedin, Friday, June 16, 2023, 14:12 (603 days ago) @ Jack
edited by HullieAndMikes, Friday, June 16, 2023, 14:20

It’s possible Mayo beat Dublin in a junior or lower competition but they aren’t in the same pool this year and the knockouts haven’t started yet.

EDIT: found it. They won the second tier competition over Galway. It’s a confusing system: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_National_Football_League_(Ireland)

Yeah, my mistake

by Jack @, Friday, June 16, 2023, 14:34 (603 days ago) @ HullieAndMikes
edited by Jack, Friday, June 16, 2023, 14:44

I’m not only not an expert on the GAA, I’m barely a dilettante.

My excuse is I got the information second hand while on vacation in Germany from an Irish waiter (from Mayo) and then an Irish couple from Cork on a tour we were on. It did seem odd to me - in 2019 we were in Ireland during the finals, and we were there the last week of July and the first week of August.

Do the Aran Islands if you haven't previously

by Aaron (Shakespeare), Friday, June 16, 2023, 06:36 (603 days ago) @ Jay

It's a short ferry ride from Galway. My wife and I did it as a day-trip on our last visit; at some point in the future would like to stay there overnight and take it even more.

If you've been to Ireland six times then I doubt Dingle is uncharted territory for you, but it's one of our favorite places in the world, and I made sure we'd have two nights there on this fall's trip.

This board is a wealth of Ireland knowledge - I've already bookmarked the thread posted a month ago with some great recommendations from HCE and IrishCavan.

I prefer the Aaron Islands, just outside Naperville.

by Coach Gillespie @, Omaha, Friday, June 16, 2023, 08:57 (603 days ago) @ Aaron (Shakespeare)

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Throw em out Marianne.

There is also a ferry from Doolin.

by Bryan (IrishCavan), Howth Castle and Environs, Friday, June 16, 2023, 07:37 (603 days ago) @ Aaron (Shakespeare)

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Just got back

by terribletr, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 18:31 (604 days ago) @ Jay

We basically drove the Atlantic Coast Road and stopped everywhere that was visually interesting.

I loved Galway but Derry was my favorite place. We walked the whole wall and the pubs there are awesome on top of all the obvious history.

My advice is to pick a vector and be adventurous.

For the golfers, European Club is a great course and you don’t have to take caddies. Easy drive from Dublin just south of Wicklow.

I also loved Derry

by IrishGuard, Friday, June 16, 2023, 05:31 (604 days ago) @ terribletr

And I'd put in a vote for Slieve League, Donegal, and Glenveagh National Park.

Bohs are playing August 25 on the north side

by HullieAndMikes, Yelling at Sam Cane, Dunedin, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 16:44 (604 days ago) @ Jay

Senior GAA won't be in season, but League of Ireland will still be going on: https://leagueofireland.ie/match/bohemian-fc-vs-derry-city-fc/id-1386787

(GAA has it's own streaming service now if you want to scratch the itch)

There is an outside chance of a provincial rugby friendly, but likely not since the World Cup starts in early September. (You could always see the new International Rugby Experience in Limerick)

I'd do research on sports and concerts. There are tons of cool things most people don't see or do, small towns like Kenmare and interesting sightseeing along the Burren, but Irish people are at their best in stadiums and theaters.

I'd also recommend seeing where Michael Collins was killed, but you'll need a car for that.

Belfast, Cork, Galway...

by ndbk32 @, Los Angeles, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 15:33 (604 days ago) @ Jay

Galway's a bit more on the beaten path, but I do love that city.

In Belfast, we enjoyed the Titanic museum. It's very well done. But YMMV. Kelly's Cellars is top notch. I'm hoping to go back again to Belfast before the year is out.

I haven't been to Cork in ages, but it's got quite the culinary scene these days and supposedly has come a long way in the last decade.

The area I'm most familiar with is the midlands. Tullamore, Offaly, that area. Head west out of Dublin on the M4. Tullamore Dew has a nice new visitor center. Just south of there is Kinnitty castle which is a nice old castle estate, good for visiting.

Just west of Kinnitty is a town called Birr, with its own castle and grounds. This is actually a pretty fascinating tour as the old noble was a scientist and so there's a great scientific/technological history to explore there. I love Birr, having lived there a couple of summers growing up and visiting multiple times since. Think it's a great example of a random Irish town so alive and yet so easily passed by.

Also in the area are the Slieve Bloom mountains which aren't so high, yet it's great for an afternoon in the country. It's bog territory, too. And there's plenty of old monastery ruins around as well (Clonmacnoise being the prime one).

Agree with Birr Castle

by Bryan (IrishCavan), Howth Castle and Environs, Friday, June 16, 2023, 07:39 (603 days ago) @ ndbk32

Really interesting place. The gardens and the telescope are pretty awesome. I think kids would even like it.

Belfast is definitely worth a visit

by HCE, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 12:34 (604 days ago) @ Jay
edited by HCE, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 13:46

It's intense, and some of the attractions flirt too much with "conflict tourism" for comfort, but it also has the Ulster Museum and the Crown Liquor Saloon, which is probably the most beautiful place I've ever gotten drunk in, for whatever that's worth. Belfast is also a good starting point to visit Dunluce Castle, which you might recognize from Game of Thrones, and Giant's Causeway, which you might recognize from Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy cover. (Dunluce, in addition to being the coolest Irish castle I've ever visited, is near the Bushmills Distillery, if Protestant whiskey is your thing.)

In other castle and museum recs, I have fond memories of visiting King John's Castle in Limerick and the Kerry museum in Tralee. The latter of these has a Roger Casement exhibit going right now that I would very much like to see myself.

Closer to Dublin, I have a soft spot for the Joyce Tower Museum, both because it's where the first episode of Ulysses takes place and because I once lived down the street from it. If you have any interest in Joycean things, including the man's guitar and a necktie given to him by Samuel Beckett, it's worth a stop.

In other literary things, Sligo is worth a visit for the Yeatsian stuff and some truly great Irish music.

Finally, if you can, try to catch a GAA match. I'm not sure how the schedule lines up, but I once caught a Clare-Down Gaelic Football match in Ennis that was well worth the cost of admission.

Edit: Of course, the best thing about visiting Ireland is exploring the pubs. If you need recs for specific towns, I'll see what names I can conjure from the Guinness-soaked haze of my 20s.

Good suggestions. Some thoughts

by Bryan (IrishCavan), Howth Castle and Environs, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 14:23 (604 days ago) @ HCE
edited by Bryan (IrishCavan), Thursday, June 15, 2023, 14:29

Belfast notes from my last trip there:
Black Cab Tour – you have to do this – it will show you around the areas where the Troubles took place and show you the murals in Falls Road and Shankill Rd.
Excursion to Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Bridge (if you are ok with heights) and Bushmill Distillery (these 3 are often done on the same tour)
Game of Throne’s Tour – never done it but hear it is pretty good
My wife and son did the Titanic Museum when he was young – he liked it. Beware that places like this are usually full of tourists and school trips, depending on the time of year.
Crumlin Road Gaol (I think there is a Troubles Tour as well but have not done that – might be similar to the Black Cab Tour).
A number of newer distilleries here – the Boatyard and Echlinville are both good
Belfast City Center closes down pretty early at night – legacy of the Troubles – but you can find some good pubs open (Crown is cool; Kelly’s Cellar is my favorite).
In general, the coast of NorIron is pretty damn impressive.


For Dublin, some places that you might have missed: the Emigration Museum is really good, Irish Whiskey Museum, Teeling Distillery, Collins Barracks, Glasnevin Cemetery followed by lunch and a pint at Gravediggers. If you have a big crew, see if you can schedule hurling lessons at one of the GAAs.

There are also some good craft beers in Ireland now. Galway Bay is probably my favorite (the owner worked in breweries in Washington and No. Cal -- one of their beers is modeled after Pliny the Elder. I also like Porterhouse Pub in Dublin for some good craft beers from around the world.

If you've never been to Cork:
English Market
Cork Rebel Tour
Cork City Gaol
Jameson/Middleton Distillery
Cobh (about 30 minutes away) – emigration museum, Spike Island
Sin E pub

good stuff fellas, thanks

by Jay @, San Diego, Thursday, June 15, 2023, 14:38 (604 days ago) @ Bryan (IrishCavan)

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