1995 Ireland Part I Shannon, Dingle, Ring of Kerry & Blarney

IRELAND — MEET THE PEOPLE TOUR W/B&Bs – Brendan Travel Tours

            Map above shows our general itinerary. We began and ended in Limerick.

June 25, Sunday

Annette and Fred Wulff  left Minneapolis at 1:15 p.m. Our Delta flight arrived in Atlanta, Georgia at 6:16 p.m. We left Atlanta 7:45 p.m. on Delta to Shannon, Ireland. Overnight flight took about 8 hours. We arrived in Shannon at 10:20 a.m. after a brief stop in Dublin (no change of planes). From the air we could see the “forty shades of green” of the Emerald Island, an island only a little bit larger than the state of West Virginia.

Practical information:

The temperatures of Ireland for June range from a minimum 50 degrees to a maximum 60 degrees plus. The average afternoon high in June for Killarney is 62 degrees; Dublin 65 degrees; and Galway 62 degrees. We brought warm sweaters and an umbrella. Actually the weather was uncommonly warm and even reached a record 90 degrees.

Daylight lasted until about 10 PM in late June, so we enjoyed long days.





The unit of currency was the pound or punt (pronounced punt). It is divided into 100 pence (100p). Visa there is called Carte Bleue. We asked for tax-free vouchers whenever we shopped.

English is the everyday language of the majority of the population. Most road signs are in both English and Irish. Irish words that we will need to know are outside of toilets: Fir for men and Mna for women.

Most rooms during our stay were twin-bedded and all had private bathrooms.

Price for the tour included all breakfasts and dinners at guesthouses (breakfast at all hotels), taxes, hotel tips, and baggage handling.

The classic Irish breakfast consists of eggs, bacon, sausages, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, toast and tea that set you up for the day. See the article “Irish Homes” by Everett Potter or “Table Talk” by Betty Fussell (Ireland, 1994), pp. 10-14. See also Robin Krause, Ireland, pp. 31-32.

All of our meals were ample, delicious and very Irish. The hostesses of every B&B were extremely friendly and helpful. The rooms were usually quaint and tastefully decorated.


All of the B&Bs had yards with beautiful flowers, mostly roses in full bloom.

June 26, Monday

At the Shannon Airport, a small airport with only one terminal building, we were met by our Irish guide Tommy Barnes and transferred (driving on the left hand side of the road) to our hotel in Limerick, the Limerick Inn. From the hotel we could see the ruins from the nearby Cratloe Castle. Our guide informed us that there were hundreds of these square Norman-type castle ruins in the area.

Most of them had been defensive works of the O’Brien clan to ward off the rival MacNameras. On the road from the Limerick Inn to Bunratty I took another video of Cratloe Castle through the bus window.

The sign for the 15th century Bunratty Castle was written in two languages —English and Gaelic (or Celtic). The Castle is the most complete and authentic medieval fortress in Ireland.

Bunratty Castle overlooks the River Shannon. The castle is in excellent condition and was well worth the visit. Bunratty Castle is one of the finest surviving examples of an Irish tower house. Although it is hard to believe the castle has had a bloody and violent history.




Its strategic position on the river Shannon made it the centre of many a battle, and it has it has been destroyed and re-built on at least eight occasions. Originally, the Vikings built a fortified settlement at this spot, a former island surrounded by a moat. Then the Normans came: Thomas de Clare built the first stone structure on the site in the 1270s.

During the afternoon Fred took a stroll around the castle and the nearby Folk Park while Annette recovered from jet lag. Within the grounds of Bunratty Castle is Bunratty Folk Park where 19th century life is vividly recreated. Set on 26 acres, the impressive park features over 30 buildings in a ‘living’ village and rural setting. Visitors meet and chat with the Bean an Ti (Woman of the House) and various street characters including the Policeman and Schoolteacher who give the site its sparkle.

Stroll from house to house or around the charming village complete with school, post office, doctors house, hardware shop, printers and of course the pub! Bunratty Walled Garden Another very interesting feature is the formal Bunratty Walled Garden, modeled on the original Regency period garden which supplied fruit, vegetables, and flowers to Bunratty House built in 1804 and now refurbished in typical Victorian style.

Bunratty was originally the chief seat of the O’Briens of Thomond. The keep has four angle-towers, the north and south of which are linked by high level arches. The whole castle and its interior were restored in 1956-8.

Later, after viewing the castle from the outside, Annette and I approached the entrance and were met by costumed greeters. Inside we saw: Slot openings in the walls that revealed the thickness of the walls, a large banquet hall with vaulted ceiling and medieval furnishings.



The grounds outside the castle were well kept. Returning to the out buildings one again meets various farm animals, such as chickens, goats, a horse, peacock, pigs, and ducks. The thatched roof cottages had yards adorned with colorful flowers.

Just outside the Dunratty Park, I took a video of the bridge over the Ratty River (tributary of the River Shannon) with the Durey Tavern (built in 1620) in the foreground and the Dunratty Castle in the background.

This evening we were guests at a traditional Irish Ceili — wine and dance in the village barn (Corn Barn)

...With local folk to entertain us with country-dances, singing and music. My home video includes: lively Irish girls dancing...

... Served meals of Irish potatoes, Irish stew (with mutton) and berry dessert with cream...

...Musicians playing violin, tin whistle, bag pipe and accordion; singing, ballads; and of course, audience participation. Fodor’s 94 Guide rightfully states: “Hospitality in Ireland is counted among the greatest virtues.”










Evening lodging at the Limerick Inn. This modern, comfortable motel had 133 rooms, a commendable Continental restaurant, and above average service. Amenities included a new leisure center with a swimming pool and a gym. Birnbaum recommends it. Birnbaum, Europe, 1990, p. 127-80

June 27, Tuesday 

In the morning we drove through the city of Limerick. The city dates from at least the Viking settlement in 812. The Normans redesigned the city in the 12th century and added much of the most notable architecture, such as King John's Castle and St Mary's Cathedral.









During the civil wars of the 17th century the city played a pivotal role, besieged by Oliver Cromwell in 1651 and twice by the Williamites in the 1690s. In 1691, the Irish retreated to the walled city of Limerick after the Battle of the Boyne. Wm of Orange, who made three unsuccessful attempts to storm the city before marching away, besieged them. A year later, another of ß armies overtook the City.

The drive through Limerick took us along the River Shannon, the longest river in Ireland.

Across the river, on the other side of a massive arched bridge, stood King John’s Castle (#4, very top of map). At this end of the bridge is a national monument marking a Treaty Site.

In 1210 King John ordered a bridge and castle to be built here. During the 17th century it was several times besieged and captured. The last year was in 1691, the year of the broken treaty, when after a valiant defense, 10,000 Irish troops were granted the right, under a treaty signed by William of Orange himself, to march out with full military honors.


The Irish nobility were granted free passage, but the English Parliament rejected the religious freedom granted in the treaty, refused to ratify it The Irish troops thereupon went to France and took service in the army of Louis XIV. Baedeker’s Ireland, p. 224

The city’s most acclaimed literary association is as the home of the limerick, that famous five-line rhyme derived from a round game in which an individual extemporized a nonsense verse. The rhyme scheme (devised by Edward Lear) is aabba. A typical limerick goes like this:

There once was a fair Irish city.
That lent its good name to a ditty;
Though of dubious worth
The verse caused great mirth,
Now the limerick outshines Limerick City. Birnbaum Ireland 95, p. 192.



Tommy Barnes, our guide, said the Limerick developed when soldiers stationed here to combat the forces of Oliver Cromwell used their time by constructing little poems. Most of them were naughty and unprintable. According to Tommy, one of the milder ones went like this.

There once was a monk from Siberia
Whose morals were rather inferior
He did to a nun
What he should not have done
Now she’s a mother superior

However, the origin of the limerick verse is uncertain. Baedeker’s Ireland, p. 224, states that in all probability it originated in England.

We left Limerick for a morning drive along the shores of the Shannon River and through the country dotted with castles of Norman origin.

We took a break to look around the city of Listowel. Right off the central square (or triangle) was this beautiful castle of Listowel (1303).

Across the street were the quaint neighborhood pubs. The town is sometimes described as the "Literary Capital of Ireland," and a number of internationally known playwrights and authors have lived there, including Bryan MacMahon and John B. Keane. Of Listowel, the latter wrote:
"Beautiful Listowel, serenaded night and day by the gentle waters of the River Feale. Listowel where it is easier to write than not to write, Where first love never dies, and the tall streets hide the loveliness, the heartbreak and the moods, great and small, of all the gentle souls of a great and good community. Sweet, incomparable hometown that shaped and made me."

As we continued on our journey toward the Dingle Peninsula we came across “an Irish traffic jam,” sheep being herded down the highway. Note the sheep dogs on the video at work.

After going through the valley of Tralee (Tralee as in the song “Rose of Tralee”), we proceeded to the city of Dingle. (Tralee is on right side of map #75; Dingle is #62 on the peninsula.)

Dingle is the key city of the Dingle peninsula. Here we stopped at Murphy’s Pub for fish, chips, and Guinness beer. Video of the main street and harbor of Dingle. Leaving Dingle we went on to the dramatic Dingle Peninsula formed by rugged mountains, glacial valleys, and rich in antiquities, especially prehistoric and Christian ruins.

















Here we saw Pre-historic Beehive Huts used by hermit monks. Beehive huts are structures made of piled stones that get their name from their oblong shape. Krause, Ireland, p. 122.

As the bus drove through the winding roads I videoed the rocky countryside where Far and Away was filmed.

The peninsula has long sandy beaches and rocky cliffs pounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Although the Dingle Peninsula is notorious for rain and ocean mist, we had beautiful sunshine.











One of the first of Ireland’s bloody religious uprisings broke out against Henry VIII’s daughter, Elizabeth I, in Munster in 1579 The Irish leader, Sir James Fitzsmaurice, was killed, and a force of some 700 Spanish and Italian soldiers sent by the Catholic Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIII, was ruthlessly massacred near Dingle by Elizabeth’s troops headed by Lord Grey and Sir Walter Raleigh. Elizabeth then confiscated 200,000 acres of Catholic-owned land and turned the land over to Englishmen. One tract was given to Raleigh, and it was here that he planted the first Irish potato, destined to bring the country more suffering. Ireland, (Time/Life, 1964) p. 46

The Kerry Examiner of 8th February 1847 records “The State of the people in Dingle is horrifying. Fever, famine and dysentery are daily increasing, deaths from hunger daily occurring…From all parts of the country they crowd into the town for relief and not a pound of meal is to be had in the wretched town for any price”.

It seemed as if walls were everywhere. Of Ireland’s walls Richard Conniff once wrote: ”The walls look as though they were there forever: mottled with lichen and bearded with moss; woven together with vines, hedges, and trees; running, in more than one place, straight across a shallow stream bed, as if the wall were there before the water; emerging, in other places, from the low tide mark, as if the walls splashed ashore with the first settlers in Ireland, 8,000 years ago.”



(Walls had many uses: defense, wall in farms, confine cattle, mark boundaries...) Most walls went up no earlier than the agricultural revolution, beginning about 1750 —enclosure of common land. And of course, they were a place to put stones when the fields were picked clean. Richard Conniff, Irish Walls (NY, 1986)

Our scenic bus stop on the peninsula allowed us to see the most western part of Ireland and Europe, Here at Slea Head we took in the beautiful scenery of mountains, beaches and islands. It was in this area that some wreckage of the Spanish Armada washed ashore in 1588.

A little further along we came to the beach (Inch Strand) where Sarah Miles walked in the movie Ryan’s Daughter. The film "Ryan's Daughter" takes place at a village on the Dingle Peninsula in the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Easter Uprising, and was shot on location.

Later we meet our hosts for a relaxing two-night stay in their Killarney home. The flowers (especially the roses) here at the Reels (mountain) View B&B were gorgeous. The Irish dinner at our home-stay was up to par. That evening we watched Gaelic football (a combination of volleyball, basketball, and football). Our B&B overlooked the field where a competition was taking place.

June 28, Wednesday (Fred’s Birthday) 

After a full B&B breakfast, we put in an exciting day as we took one of the “most scenic drives in all of Europe” — around the famous Ring of Kerry. Poets, painters, writers, and musicians have all tried to convey the beauty of its mountains and lakes.

The trip covers 110 miles if you start and finish in Killarney. The Ring includes Staigue Fort (2500 years old), Little Skellig, Cahirciveen (main market town), Glenbeigh — many cities associated with the “Liberator” Daniel O’Connor who campaigned for “Catholic Emancipation”.







We traversed “The Ring” counterclockwise. Our first stop was at the Lower Lake at a spot known as Aghadoe View. There was a charming old 12th century church ruin, round tower, and cemetery nearby, so I videoed them first. Then I took shots at the Lower Lake.

A little further around the Ring we stopped at a woolen shop. Here Tommy served us cups of Irish coffee. This warm and comforting drink is made of Irish whiskey, a little sugar, and hot black coffee. After it had been stirred well and the mixture settled, it was topped off with a spoonful of whipped cream. Quite tasty. Annette liked it! This rest stop provided an opportunity to view more flowers.

Our next stop was at the Caragh Lake region (near Killorglin on green map above). Here we had a chance to see donkeys and side baskets that were used extensively in western Ireland. We also learned what offspring of foxes and dogs look like. An old abandoned railroad bridge gave evidence that there was once a railroad extension out into the peninsula. A little further we stopped to see Dingle Bay and the Dingle Peninsula that we had been on the day before. Not far from our highway were railroad tunnels — more evidence of the past railroad line.


At the small town of Kells we had a rest stop. I took a shot of Tommy and Annette by the bus. At the end of the peninsula we had a panoramic view of the landscape and the Atlantic Ocean and Kenmare Bay. Old Spanish ship ruins from the Spanish Armada have been found here. Some say there is some treasure out there too. A monument to Mary had been erected here; reminding us that 94% of the Republic of Ireland is Catholic. Music from a musician can be heard in the background.

As we moved on along the Ring, I took a video from the bus of Fort Staigue. This is one of the finest examples of an Iron Age stone fort in Ireland. Approximately 2,500 years old, this structure, made from local stone, is almost circular and about 75 feet in diameter, with only one entrance, on the south side. Between the Iron Age and the early Christian times (500 BC to the 5th century), such forts were in fact fortified homesteads within which several families of one clan and their cattle lived. It is located on private land. Fodor, Ireland, p. 256.


During the next stretch of meandering road, I took a video from my seat out the front windshield. In the background Irish music is  playing (such as “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”) from one of Tommy’s tape.

The bus stopped at Ladies View so we could take pictures of the Middle and Upper Lakes. This is said to have been named Ladies View after the Queen Victoria’s Ladies-in-waiting, who, during the Queen’s visit to Killarney in 1861, decided this was the ”finest view in the land.”









And then back to Killarney:Killarney is a sheltered Camelot-like town, surrounded by 23 square miles of idyllic lakes, mountains, castles, waterfalls, and parkland. However, the rains and mists come often to Killarney. The natives say the moisture is what keeps it such a naturally verdant paradise. The scenery made Victorians the most enthusiastic travelers to Killarney.

From downtown Killarney we took a horse drawn jaunting car ride along the lake to see Muckross Abbey and Muckross House. That’s us in the back seat.

The Franciscan friars founded Muckross Abbey in the 1440s. It flourished more than 300 years, until the Penal Laws suppressed it. The present well-preserved remains include a church with a wide belfry tower and beautifully vaulted cloisters, with an arched arcade surrounding a square courtyard. Birnbaum, Ireland 95, p. 176.

Although it was completely wrecked by Cromwell’s British troops in 1652, the Muckross Abbey is amazingly complete, although roofless. Fodor, Ireland, p. 254


Muckross House, a splendid Elizabethan-style house, built in 1843, is a showcase of 19th century architecture, adorned with mullioned and stepped windows and 62 chimneys. It is also a folk museum.




There are workshops in the basement where visitors can watch artisans practicing the crafts of earlier days. Outside is a manicured garden and nature trails. All of this is part of the Killarney National Park. Birnbaum, Ireland 95, p. 176.

Our guided tour of the Muckross House acquainted us with various furnished rooms. One of the bedrooms was used by Queen Victorian when she visited Ireland. Our guide explained the kitchen operations. Once outside we toured the beautiful gardens.

That evening we returned to the Reek’s View B&B in Killarney. After refreshing ourselves with a fine Irish meal, we headed to the Killarney Manor House for an evening of cultural activities.

“Lord and Lady “Killarney” greeted us in the 1860 castellated manor house. A See also Fodor, Ireland, p. 293.) The performance in the banquet hall included Irish singing and dancing. Naturally, they served Guinness Stout Beer. A nice way to celebrate O’Fred’s birthday.



June 29, Thursday

After a full B&B breakfast, we made a morning visit to Blarney Castle, only a ten-minute drive from Cork.

The castle is a mid 15th century ruin with its famous magical stone of eloquence (smooth talk, gift of gab, flattering talk or blarney). This was the stronghold of the MacCarthy clan and it was the efforts of Cormae Mac Carthy to smooth talk Elizabeth I of England that gave the English language the term “blarney” to describe flattering Conversation.



The Blarney Castle has a massive square keep, or tower, with a battlemented parapet, which has survived centuries of sieges by such attackers as Oliver Cromwell and William III.

Video shots on the exterior included the main portions of the castle, the round tower, and musicians performing Irish songs by the entrance. Inside I videoed the main floor, the banquet hall, and the chapel.

Locating the spiral staircase we climbed the 120 stone steps and dangled upside down to kiss the Blarney Stone. It was good fun and not at all dangerous, and it made for a good video.


We had time to visit the Blarney Woolen Mills. And to see a spinning demonstration. They had a nice collection of dolls and Waterford crystal, too tempting to pass up.




GO ON TO 1995 IRELAND PART II