Tell me how to fall in love with Ireland

Old Dec 5th, 2010, 11:21 AM
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I had to resurrect this thread

<Tell me how to fall in love with Ireland>-----just go there!!!

As you can see by my above posts, I was very apprehensive about giving up France for Ireland. I still do love France and will go there again, but now have added Ireland to my favorites. So we'll go to Ireland again in May(skipping our usual Caribbean March vacation) and France in September---sounds like a good plan to me.
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Old Dec 5th, 2010, 11:32 AM
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Glad you resurrected it. Was just talking about this subject last night at dinner.

How can we ever predict,right? Over 20 trips to Paris, figured Ireland would just not be "me"...

I'd go back in a second. And I don't even like Guinness
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Old Dec 7th, 2010, 02:21 PM
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Glad you liked it!

Will be going again in 2 1/2 weeks for 2 weeks.. and I second Alessandra's reluctant stance on Guinness.. Murphys is much better

I just hope they will get rid of the snow and ice until then.. or I rather book a connecting "ride" with Santa's sleigh from DUB than hope for Bus Eireann
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Old Dec 7th, 2010, 04:32 PM
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In answer to the original question, the best way to fall in love with Ireland is to stay home, rent "The Quiet Main" and drink Jameson. Just don't go anywhere near the place.

Rule #1 of travel: anywhere the rental company asks you if you want tire insurance is a good place to avoid.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 09:08 AM
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Speaking of Guinness, I'm a wine drinker and I surprisingly loved the dark Guinness. It wasn't at all like other bitter beers. It was nice & cold and the foam on top was so creamy.

Imhornet-----my you are grumpy! I'm glad you are staying home.

BTW, just watched "Leap Year" with Amy Adams. A "chickflick" with a thin story, but some nice Irish scenery to look at. It looked like the Connor Pass view at one point, but I don't know where the castle came from. IMO. they could never make"The Quiet Man" in this day and age with the very chauvinistic John Wayne role.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 09:22 AM
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The best of Ireland is on view in smaller town pubs, preferably with a traditional music session going. The charm of Ireland is the people. They love to engage in conversation. To me it seems like visiting relatives you really like but don't see often enough.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 03:12 PM
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TPAYT--Ironically, your description of Guinness is why I don't like it! I'm into "hoppy" beers and drinking Guinness is like drinking bread to me. But believe me, I'm a total "chaque a son gout" person (am too tired to add all the accent marks), so I'm not accusing anyone who likes Guinness as not having good taste in beer. It's just that my tastes and Irelands don't match. It may have been Budman who told me I could drink Smithwicks and be fine. Whoever it was, he was right.

Oh yeah, "Leap Year" was one of the worst movies I've ever seen--except for the scenery. My youngest and I had a great time picking out the "real" locations as opposed to the supposed locations. Did make me want to go back ASAP.

Oh Publius, I just teared up with your post: "To me it seems like visiting relatives you really like but don't see often enough."

That's enough. I'm going back.
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 04:58 PM
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I know people who go more often, but we have been to Ireland 7 times since 95. We go to some of the same places but try to do some different things each time. DH loves the Guinness. I like Smithwicks, Harp, and when I can get it, Kilkenny ale.

We feel the pull of Ireland. Not everyone does and that's okay. We went to London one year and we didn't love it. We went to Paris and we loved it and went back again. I said we weren't going to Ireland next year because of a couple of big expenditures in 2010. But don't tell DH: I started pricing airfare today!
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Old Dec 8th, 2010, 07:16 PM
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Let someone else do the driving! Without that worry, you should have absolutely no trouble!
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Old Dec 12th, 2010, 02:04 PM
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Just found this thread and enjoyed so much reading everyone's responses. So many of them resonated with me as well.

I'm a long-time lover of Ireland...first trip back "home" to the land of my parents must have been when I was about two. About 30 trips later, ranging from two weeks to four months in length, have not diminished my surprise and delight at new things I find every trip! Have traveled many other places and still would like to explore more of the world but I, like so many others, am drawn back time and time again to Ireland.

Each time I go, when the car is removed from storage and "freshened up," I load up with the newest little red pocket-sized Michelin road map for Ireland, my bag of Ordinance Survey maps (about 30 and collection always growing), my picnic cooler bag with electric travel teapot and cups, old ice cream boxes now used for sandwiches and biscuits on the road, my Swiss army knife, my roll-up travel rug, my lists of festivals/agricultural shows (favorite being the national at Tullamore in August), my discount passes, my Irish cell phone with prepaid card, my Rick Steve's Best of Ireland book, my Smith & Hawken French rain shoes, my tall Wellies, my rain gear, my fleece jackets, etc.

Like all intrepid pioneers, I then venture out, say, five miles outside Galway City to be lost again on some small laneways near Lough Corrib, finding an O'Malley castle (Queen Maeve's perhaps?), unmarked old ruins I can pretend I just discovered, and a solitary thatch cottage restored to its former glory. The smallest drive for me is an adventure. Every turn, the opportunity to see something more beautiful or mysterious than the last.

I, like the others, can't really describe it. It must be in the blood...or the soul. And, again, after just getting back from four months in September, I'm raring to go again!
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Old Dec 19th, 2010, 06:07 PM
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Just found this thread as well. Part of Ireland's allure for me was the fact that my ancestors came from there. Unlike most people my age, which is 24, I take great pride in where my ancestors are from and want to research further where they lived exactly. I attribute this to my mom who is a genealogist. She has binders and photos of her grandparents, we have canes and pipes, documentation from their arrival at Ellis Island. All of that stuff drew me to the country and made me want to explore the Emerald Isle.

I took my first trip a few years ago to study abroad at NUIG for a few weeks one summer. We took day trips as a group and explored on our own in the afternoons around Galway and surrounding locations. When my parents came over, we took a bus tour to see even more of the country. Everything appealed to me. The simplicity of life, the pubs, the people, and the slow pace that things seem to move at in the smaller villages. We also visited the hometowns of my ancestors. We saw churches where family members were baptized, we saw graves where distant relatives have been put to rest, we even saw old family homes that no longer house anyone besides a few cows.

I'm drawn back because of what I mentioned above, simplicity of life, ancestry, and then some other reasons like the sports (hurling), the history (Easter Rising), and a few other reasons. There's something about the country that just appeals to me. There's a song by Gaelic Storm called "Faithful Land" that sums it best, "It's in my bones, it's in my blood, don't know what it is, but I know it's good." I don't know what it is, but it's good and I love it.
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Old Dec 19th, 2010, 09:19 PM
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OH JAKtravels, I had completely forgot about hurling. We were glued to the TV in awe, saying over and over again, "This HAS to be the best sport ever."
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Old Dec 19th, 2010, 11:09 PM
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If you like hurling you should also see Shinty in Scotland...very similar...in fact every year the champions of each country play a 'shinty-hurling' match....one half one set of rules, the other half the other.
I've always described shinty as dangerous hockey!
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Old Dec 20th, 2010, 05:47 AM
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Not everyone CAN fall in love with Ireland. I first went there in for eight days in April of 1999, as a 'Check The Box' / satisfy my wife's desire to see the Land Of Her Ancestors. I'm NON-Irish and had NO great expectations.

Eleven years and 12 visits later, I am TOTALLY enamoured. we have two planned visits for 2011 and expect to do two MORE, in 2012.

I wrote THIS for a Trip Report, back in 2006:

The FULL Report:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...newal-tour.cfm

WHY IRELAND?

I've made visits to Ireland in April of 1999, June and July of 2000, April of 2001, February of 2002, April of 2003, June of 2004, 2005 and most recently, in April of 2006. Friends and family ask me why we keep going back. Why not go somewhere else? Why keep going to the same place, over and over? Why go to Ireland, at all?

Experiences flash in and out of memory, the images from each trip flicker brightly and then fade, growing dim in my mind’s eye. They blur and run together, until I am no longer certain which memory – which image – is unique to which journey. I tell myself that each trip is meant to further my research, with specific goals and objectives, unique to each Spoke in the current segment of the Wheel. That is what I tell everyone. It is what I tell myself. But, I’m not certain whether that is the truth, anymore. Being in Ireland has robbed me of all objectivity. I only know that something calls me back periodically, as if to refresh some cherished, childhood memory, like the nurturing scent of freshly baked bread.

There is something about Ireland that resonates in my soul. Being there is like savoring that first taste of coffee in the morning. After that instant in time, the sensation is never again repeated. It can never, ever, taste that good again, until the next morning comes back around. Sensations diminish with time, until they becomes little more than faded memories. Once that happens, I must return to the well, once again and be renewed.

When I stand upon the mountaintop of Mushera, at Knocknakilla, or traverse the narrow boreen that meanders past Castle Donovan, enroute to Coomleigh, I am at peace with the world and with my place, within it. More importantly, I am at peace with myself.

I stand at the base of the Rock of Cashel, enraptured and remark to Patricia that there is more history, in just that one limestone scalp, then exists anywhere within our entire country. I find that realization comforting. Oddly, such moments trivialize my own insignificance, for if my homeland’s legacy pales in comparison to one rocky dome in the midst of the Golden Vale, how then can my own failings matter? I walk away refreshed, knowing that they do not. Ireland grants me absolution.

So, Ireland holds my demons at bay, for a while, at least. She has that power and I embrace her generous Mercy.

Timelessness drips from the hills, the bogs and the sky. Great, gray, mossy woolen clouds hang low, over hills of glistening emerald. Tendrils of gauzy, linen opaqueness trail silken traces of soft, buttery dampness that yields a gentle moistness, to caress the skin with a tender touch of satin. These are the fabrics and textures of Ireland. They form a cloak that envelops the body and nurtures the soul.


Given that, WHY NOT, Ireland?

Bob
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Old Dec 20th, 2010, 10:27 AM
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Bob----are you sure you're not Irish? You do have a way with words. Or is that last paragraph from a book?

Either way, you make me long to be there. I'm taking notes from your trip report.
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Old Dec 20th, 2010, 10:52 AM
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TPAYT:

Yes.

Thank You.

And YES, In A Manner Of Speaking -- Though the 'book' was mine -- a NON-Commercial, self-published Family History.

Bob
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Old Dec 20th, 2010, 12:18 PM
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Bob...I am sure there's an Irishman in your history somewhere..What a statement of truth you have written...I loved Ireland on our 2 trips there and unless my time is up soon I hope to return again..My " Irish Eyes are smilin"
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Old Dec 20th, 2010, 01:06 PM
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AlessandraZoe:

The first time I was in Ireland we asked someone what to do for sports besides soccer (football), and they recommended hurling. A few of us were at a pub and we heard about a bus going to Thurles for the Galway/Cork match in the 2008 Championship. We knew we had to go to see what it was all about. Hands down one of the best, if not the best, sporting event I have been to live. I loved everything about it from the action, the stadium, the fans, the whole atmosphere was amazing. Ever since I have been a follower of the sport. At times over the last 2 years I could tell you more about hurling news than I could about some American sports.

The last time I was in Ireland I went down to a pub off of Graffton Street to watch a quarterfinal in football. I ended up staying in the pub talking with the 'keep and a couple of locals about the sport. I learned a lot, got a lot of free pints, and felt like a local in a country far, far from home. The next day I was glued to the TV in my hostel watching Galway in another hurling match.

I've said it to people I talk to about my travels, if the opportunity arose, I would pack up what I could and move to Ireland. It'd be tough to leave everything, but I would love it.
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