couple of Ireland trip notes

by Jay @, San Diego, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 10:12 (520 days ago)
edited by Jay, Friday, September 08, 2023, 07:46

I hit some spots on this trip I hadn't visited before, and had some recs to pass along.

1. Took the ferry out to Inishmore (Aran Islands) and rented bikes to tool around the island. Totally lucked out on the weather; it only sprinkled when we were riding back to the port village, and only lasted about the length of time it took to drink a Guinness at Joe Watty's pub. Highly recommend Inishmore. There's a Bronze Age fortification (Dun Aonghasa) which is fascinating in that even the docents at the modest museum there know little about it. It's craggy and eerie.

2. Not too far from Galway city we took a random detour to hike around Coole Park Nature Reserve, which also features an estate owned by Lady Gregory, a founder of the Abbey Theatre. Gregory used to host artists like Yeats and Shaw for writing and drama workshops. There's a nice cafe in the old courtyard and multiple hiking trails through the reserve.
https://www.coolepark.ie/

3. Also visited the Rock of Cashel in county Tipperary, on which stands an ancient tower and a medieval cathedral. Had always been on the list (along with visiting the town of Kilkenny) and it was really worth it. The Rock is quite dramatic, this ancient ruin perched on a lonely hill. There's another ruined cathedral in the valley about a 30 min hike away, and it was fun to do the whole loop.

4. Nearby Dublin visited the suburb village of Dalkey which was having their annual Lobster Fest. It's about 45 min south on the DART and has a number of nice pubs and restaurants, including the Club bar and restaurant which has a beautiful interior and which was a great place to watch Liverpool vs Newcastle.
https://pub.ie/visit/the-club/

Anyway, just wanted to pass along a few notes from the latest trip to add to the travel tips file for Ireland. In addition to meeting up with a lot of friends from the 91-92 classes, it was great to catch up with KGB and his entourage, as well as meet CW in person for the first time.

Here are a few photos I culled into a short album:
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0d5M7GFPL1ZGz

Tags:
travel

The Rock of Cashel cathedral ruin

by Jack @, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 14:41 (520 days ago) @ Jay

Walking through it, I couldn’t help but think what it would have looked like had it not been deliberately ruined (by Henry VIII’s army). A dirty shame, that.

I would love to see an artist’s rendering of what it might have looked like.

I'll piggyback off this

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 13:25 (520 days ago) @ Jay
edited by KGB, Friday, September 08, 2023, 15:22

First off, I can't thank you guys enough for offering such great recommendations both in location and sites. I tracked the first thread here back to either late 2019 or early 2020 when I was initially trying to put my whole thing together. Having to cancel everything I'd booked (all but game tix, basically) in the summer of '20 was a major kick in the stones, but that legwork provided me the framework for the trip that I knew I wanted to eventually take. So when the game reschedule was finally announced, I was able to hit the ground running and rebuild my itinerary quickly. I had very high expectations going in based on folks I'd talked to, including many outside of the ND community who counted Ireland as one of their favorite destinations. The trip met and more often exceeded that.

Dublin - Hit on the front & back ends of the trip. Arrived on the red-eye, dropped our shit at the hotel and had our first pint at Kehoe's before 11 AM. It did not disappoint. The regular bartenders (Richie & Sean) were engaging and hilarious and offered some great recommendations. One of those eventually led me to my best Irish pub meal at Sheehan's two weeks later on our final full day in Ireland. The lamb shank was delicious, and I suspect that other traditional standards offered (Guinness stew, corned beef & cabbage, etc) were similarly on-point. The Guinness tour was well worth the trip, if only for the 360-degree view of the city on the top-floor bar at the end. But it was engaging and informative as well. The music and scene at O'Donaghue's were excellent, although the main room of the pub gets almost claustrophobic-level crowded at times on weekend nights. When Jay, CW and others came to meet up the night prior to the ND game, we ended up drinking outside basically standing on the edge of the curb.

(As an aside, one thing I figured out quickly about drinking in Ireland is that there aren't exactly a ton of rules around when, where and how you do it. Alcohol is inextricable from Irish culture, and in my experience, they handle their booze so much better than people here in the States. I went to probably 50 pubs throughout the trip and never saw a fight or hardly even an altercation (kid in Galway who was denied entry to a club and screaming at the bouncer from the street was the worst of it), rarely did anyone even stagger about. And I think that affords the sort of leeway that allows for odd culture-shock moments like when we walked both into and out of Aviva with beers or when a bouncer ushering us out of a pub at closing time carried around a sleeve of plastic cups so that we didn't waste the rest of that last pint we'd ordered. Wild stuff, man.)

Donegal - Part of my goal for the trip was to create sort of "urban/rural/urban/rural" pattern, and Donegal was most definitely a downshift from Dublin. But the town itself featured a small, lively main square which would get crowded with pedestrians even on weekday afternoons. McCafferty's was my favorite bar in town, starting small inside before opening to a large, high-ceilinged back room and a sizeable outside patio behind. Had dinner at an excellent Italian restaurant called La Bella Donna. One day, we drove down to a lovely little surf town about 10-15 minutes south called Rossnowlagh Beach, walked the beach, dipped a toe in the surprisingly-mild water and climbed the road to the cliff above for lunch to eat the best fish & chips I had in Ireland (Smuggler's Creek) with a stunning view of the beach and surrounding area below. We also took a drive out toward the western point, stopping at Fintra Beach and Muckross Head (very narrow road, very incredible views) to get to Slieve League. The natural beauty of the mountains here along the coast was truly stunning, well worth the drive and hike up the hill.

Galway - I was really happy with the spot we stayed here. It was a brisk 5-minute walk to the Latin Quarter and featured a large rooftop space with scenic views from which we could actually make out a number of the songs being played by musicians in the pubs across the way. Galway was a fucking candy store for me, basically like Dublin distilled down to its essence of shops, pubs and restaurants with all of the government buildings and bullshit stripped out. You could throw a rock and hit a great pub, but my favorite was probably Tigh Neachtain, which has apparently been open since 1894 but felt at least twice that old and steeped in Irish history. The best for music was either Taaffes (traditional Irish) or Monroe's (larger space, wider variety in style). We took most of a day and rode the ferry over to the Aran Islands (lovely though we were limited somewhat by spotty weather) then floated past the Cliffs of Moher on the return, which was by far the best way to see them given the lousy conditions that afternoon.

Dingle - Again, I was ecstatic with where we ended up, in a little farm cottage at the end of a long country road overlooking vast Irish hills, valleys and the sea. We were only a couple hundred yards away from Minard Castle and a low-slung beach below (highly recommend this, mostly visited by small groups of hikers and a couple locals). Just breathtaking scenery all around. The town itself was extremely lively; I got the impression there were a lot of natives getting one last trip in prior to the start of school. Two of my favorite pubs on the entire trip were Dick Mack's (h/t TPG!), which featured a stirring impromptu Sunday afternoon gathering of local musicians, and Foxy John's, which was part bar, part hardware store and part bicycle shop. The ability of the Irish to incorporate drinking into the rest of its commerce should never be doubted. We made the Slea Head drive out to Dunmore Head and Coumeenoole Beach, which was gorgeous and windy as shit. Dear lord, I'd have lost my phone when taking photos if I didn't hold it with both hands. Stopped on the drive back to pop into Kruger's, billed accurately as "Ireland's most westerly (mainland) bar". Every part of our 2+ days here was gorgeous and fun.

Kinsale - We dropped my buddy's wife at the airport in Cork and stopped in town to check out the English Market and have lunch. It was nice but seemed to be more of a city than anything else I saw outside of Dublin. I was pleased with our decision to stay further south in Kinsale, which was considerably smaller and more manageable. If you listen to one recommendation I make coming off this trip, it's this: if you end up in Kinsale and the weather cooperates, take the scenic walk out of town towards Charles Fort. Stop at The Spaniard on the way up the hill and have a pint. Spend an hour or so walking around the old fort; the preservation of everything given the history is impressive and the views are superb. Begin the walk back down the hill and stop to have another drink at the Bulman Bar, maybe a meal if you can get in. The walking part takes an hour or so and involves a good amount of up & down, but if you can manage it, the views of the town and harbor as you ascend and descend are...noteworthy. The town is easily walkable and not large but certainly big enough to keep your attention for a few days. Great restaurants abound, and Sam's Bar and The Tap Tavern (where I actually met CW (Rakes) without even realizing it!) were worthy spots to post up for a pint or six. Made the drive down to Old Head the next morning for another slackjaw-inducing ocean view, ho hum. On day 4, I told myself I wouldn't see anything the rest of the trip as overwhelming as what I was immersed in at that moment. By day 8 or 9, I was resigned to the fact that Ireland would find a way to outdo the previous spot with each new location I visited. Just plain incredible.

I have a few other things to say about the game setting, the driving experience and the country at large but have to cut it short (LOL) for now. But thank you again for your guidance here, every last bit of it was intoxicating and I very much look forward to returning and exploring more of the country in the future.

Concur on all the Kinsale recs

by CW (Rakes) @, Harlan County, Saturday, September 09, 2023, 05:39 (518 days ago) @ KGB

The Bulman is so cool. If it's nice getting to take drinks out onto the walls overlooking the harbor? Doesn't get better. Fishy Fishy A+.

Also if you go to Tap Tavern (where the ghost tour gathers at 9 pm) you will meet KGB (but not realize it) and his buddy will buy you all shots because you're having such a nice time. You'll then run into them the next night in Dublin and also Jay (which was a great surprise, still owe you a beer). Also if you've ever thought "no way KGB has three different cool hats to wear on three consecutive days" you'd be wrong.

Hah.

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Saturday, September 09, 2023, 07:40 (518 days ago) @ CW (Rakes)

When you walked up at O'Donaghue's, I had sort of a "Kujan in Usual Suspects" moment of epiphany when all of the pieces came together for me. Truly hilarious. Good times!

Does Foxy John's have a women's bathroom yet

by HullieAndMikes, Yelling at Sam Cane, Dunedin, Friday, September 08, 2023, 07:48 (519 days ago) @ KGB

Doesn't get much older school, for good and ill, than that place.

I assume that it does.

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Friday, September 08, 2023, 08:47 (519 days ago) @ HullieAndMikes
edited by KGB, Friday, September 08, 2023, 09:30

We had a couple of women in the group, and I'm certain that we'd have heard plenty about it if they didn't have their own space.

What was more interesting on that front was the concert in Dublin we attended the day after the ND game. It was an outdoor, festival-style arrangement and women's bathrooms made up about 90% of the facility space with long, winding lines to match. The men's space was off to the side and comparatively miniscule, with only a smattering of port-a-johns and 4-man urinal posts. There was almost no one waiting here. Everyone seemed resigned to the fact that the men were going to walk in and do their business on the side of a port-a-john or stone wall and be on their way. It was highly efficient but not exactly the pinnacle of sanitary standards. I'm not sure if that was a one-off or reflective of how outdoor events operate over there, but it was certainly a different scene.

(And, again, getting back to the alcohol, there were a TON of people at the show who were walking around with 4 or even 8 beers in nifty little cardboard carriers with handles. Nothing like what you'd see at a similar venue in America with our "max 2 drinks per customer" guidelines.)

I love this post

by HCE, Friday, September 08, 2023, 07:43 (519 days ago) @ KGB

It brings back a lot of really wonderful memories, so cheers to that.

thanks - happy to relive it!

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Friday, September 08, 2023, 08:50 (519 days ago) @ HCE

- No text -

Many thanks to you and Jay for all the videos and pics

by NDinVA @, Yorktown, VA, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 17:50 (520 days ago) @ KGB

you two posted on Facebook (or whatever we are supposed to call it now) from your trips to Ireland.
That was fun to follow.

Great summary! Where did you stay in Galway?

by San Pedro @, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 17:03 (520 days ago) @ KGB

I’ll be there next month.

We stayed at a condo at Semple Mill.

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Friday, September 08, 2023, 06:54 (519 days ago) @ San Pedro

Just on the other side of River Corrib from the LQ. Found the place on Airbnb. Like I said, it was accessible without actually being in the middle of the shit.

check out the Crane Bar in Galway

by Jay @, San Diego, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 17:37 (520 days ago) @ San Pedro

It’s owned by Crehart’s cousin Mick, and features live music most nights. Mick himself plays too. It’s a gem and it’s off the beaten tourist track. Let me know before you go and we can tell Mick you’re coming.

Re: lodging, we stayed at the Leonardo hotel which was very centrally located and pretty reasonable. Good breakfast and there’s a pub onsite. Thumbs up. The car park next door is a claustrophobic nightmare; there are better parking options a short walk away.

Thank you Jay!

by San Pedro @, Friday, September 08, 2023, 06:43 (519 days ago) @ Jay

- No text -

if you're going to Dublin and you like cocktails

by Jay @, San Diego, Friday, September 08, 2023, 10:21 (519 days ago) @ San Pedro

Bar 1661 was fantastic. The menu is a hardbound book with lavish photos and descriptions. I need to buy a copy.

https://bar1661.ie/

article on the place and its focus on poitín cocktails

https://www.liquor.com/articles/bar-1661-dublin-poitin-bar/

Thanks.

by San Pedro @, Friday, September 08, 2023, 16:59 (519 days ago) @ Jay

We will be on the west coast only for a family wedding in Westport. The Galway trip is a one night getaway with my wife.

That is one hell of a great itinerary

by Jack @, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 14:49 (520 days ago) @ KGB
edited by Jack, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 14:57

And while there are a few other places to hit on your next trip, you hit a whole bunch of my favorites. Great descriptions also, exactly my experiences in those places including specific pubs (McCafferty’s in Donegal town for example - dead on).

Did you perchance get to O’Flaherty’s pub in Dingle? It’s kind of like if O’Donoghue’s (my favorite Dublin pub) was placed inside a 17th century barracks building in far off Kerry, from the standpoint of size, ambiance, clientele and music.

Agreed, O'Flaherty's is a great pub

by HCE, Friday, September 08, 2023, 07:51 (519 days ago) @ Jack

On a somewhat random note, they have a bunch of pictures of my old boss hanging on the wall there. I once interned for Dingle's own Joe O'Toole, back when he was in the Irish Senate--if anyone's Irish cousins received a newsletter from him in 2004, there's a decent chance that I wrote it, and an even better chance that I stuffed the envelope.

It's crazy just how many great pubs there are in Dingle, but I suppose Dingle is a singular town. Precious few places have managed the transition from a fishing-based economy to a dolphin-and-pints-based economy so successfully.

Didn't make it there.

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Friday, September 08, 2023, 06:47 (519 days ago) @ Jack
edited by KGB, Friday, September 08, 2023, 06:55

We meant to get there but had two nights in Dingle and spent the end of one at Foxy John's and the other down the street at Dingle Pub, which had a band and an Irish dancing contest and turned out to be a hell of a good time.

loved the cup handout at Devitt's

by Jay @, San Diego, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 14:17 (520 days ago) @ KGB

bouncer: "closing time lads, time to go"

us: "shit, we just got a refill on all our pints" /start to chug

bouncer: "no worries, just transfer to this solo cup and have a great night"

And then he took group pics for us.

by KGB, Belly o. the Beast, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 14:22 (520 days ago) @ Jay
edited by KGB, Friday, September 08, 2023, 08:50

Multiple group pics, lol.

Weaving my way thru the crowd at Devitts upstairs made me feel way too much like Uncle Buck at the high school party where he's trying to track down his niece. I'm not sure if it's was more the age or the American-ness, but it was absolutely not fucking working in there. "Oh hey 'Take Me Home Country Roads', you kids like that one too? Groovy."

I'm glad to hear you liked Dalkey

by HCE, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 10:41 (520 days ago) @ Jay

I lived there for a few months back in 2004, and I have fond memories of that whole area, the Club included.

Just FYI, since you mentioned Irish lit: the first three episodes of Ulysses take place in that part of County Dublin, with "Nestor" set in Dalkey itself, and the other two within walking distance of the town.

oh that's great (edit)

by Jay @, San Diego, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 10:52 (520 days ago) @ HCE
edited by Jay, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 11:01

I was with the poster named Crehart in Dalkey, who has some first cousins who live in the area with whom we had dinner. Seems like a very nice suburban town. It was pretty packed for Lobster Fest.

Since I do not have a premier league team I was pressed heavily by said relatives at dinner into adopting Leeds. They made a pretty compelling case (well, if not compelling, at least passionate). Pros/cons of supporting Leeds? I know they're down a division at the moment.

Don't support Leeds

by HCE, Thursday, September 07, 2023, 11:11 (520 days ago) @ Jay

They have great tradition and fun fans, but trust me, you don't want to cast your lot with a team in the Championship. The last time Leeds were relegated, it took them 17 years to get back to the Premier League, and they only lasted a few years before getting relegated again.

Relegation, to put it in theological terms, is a cross between purgatory and the first circle of hell. Maybe things get better, but they probably won't, and they can always get worse.

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