The luck of the Irish!

With a bit of Irish luck, we scored the best weather for our few days in Ireland! Apparently bright sunny days "NEVER happen" so it explains why all of the Irish we met were in an extra good mood. We flew into Shannon Airport on the famous Shannon River that I have been hearing about from every Irish person I've ever met my entire life. Thought I should take a look.

We stayed at the close by town of Limerick which proved to be quite quaint yet very lively at the same time. Settling in for the night we ordered our first whiskey and Guinness of the trip.

We were up early the next morning to walk along the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. The views were stunning, and provided the best backdrop for our 11km walk along the cliff's edge. We are told that in this location particularly it is usually extremely windy, wet and very "Irish" weather. However, our luck brought nothing but sunshine and calm air, which I'm really glad as those cliffs are very high and those paths are very close to the edge...

Next up, we were on the road to the town of Kilkenny in the south of the island. A must-see was Kilkenny Castle which was built in the 13th century by the 4th Earl of Pembroke. This castle became the home of the powerful Butler family and continued to be their residence for over 600 years.

After selling off all of the items in the home, it was then sold to the people of Kilkenny in 1967 for fifty pounds! Nowadays it contains era furniture and wall coverings that were refurbished or remodelled.

We drove on to our final stop - Dublin, where we were quick to jump into a whiskey tasting tour at Pearse Lyons Distillery.

This distillery is very new, but is set in an old church and graveyard which had bee abandoned in the centre of the city. It even has whiskey inspired leadlight windows. I'm not so sure how sacred whiskey is thought to be in the rest of the world, but in Ireland, it is everything!

The sunshine continued and we set foot on a walking tour of Dublin. Our guide was very informative on all things Irish, and we learnt about the 1916 Easter Rising - a major pivotal point in Irish history where the people of Ireland rebelled against the English during the first World War. The tour gave us a great insight into the reasoning for the Rebellion and the tense relationship the nation has had with England, so much so that the Queen Elizabeth II had her first visit to Ireland in 2011 being the first British Monarch visit since her grandfather visited in 1911. I guess she wanted it to go well, so she arrived wearing green and speaking a sentence or two in Irish (good PR!).

Dublin has great nightlife and we ventured to many of the pubs around Temple Bar playing live Irish music with locals and tourists getting into the full swing of the singing and dancing.

A typical Irish pub pours an excellent Guinness, serves a stew for lunch and often a full Irish Breakfast. Plenty of pints and stews were had on this trip, but w had to go to the Guinness factory in Dublin to see how this well-loved beverage is made.

The Guinness Factory itself is huge! The tour takes you through the stages of the production process via a self-guided tour, and ends with a pint on the top floor of the building which provides the best view over Dublin.

In the centre of the city also lies Trinity College - the most prestigious university in Ireland and one of the seven ancient universities in Britain and Ireland.

Notable students include Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), Oscar Wilde (playwright) and Courtney Love (singer/songwriter married to Kurt Cobain, and was kindly asked to leave the university....).

To finish our trip, we took a tour of the Kilmainham Gaol which opened in 1796. It closed its' doors in 1924, but today the building maintains its' place in history as the holding place of the leaders of the 1916 Rising who were captured and executed. It also housed petty criminals, including those who were waiting to be sent to Australia.

For many, the Irish life evolves around drinking, dancing and singing, which they learn from a young age (not the drinking part!). We have been told that students will learn a sweet song about a lady fishmonger, Molly Malone (below), who just happens to be a prostitute, although that part isn't in the children's rhyme! The bronze on the breasts have been worn down a little from too much public molestation, as legend has it that if you touch one of her breasts you will have great luck, but not both, as that is considered greedy...

Our trip to Ireland gave us a great love of the Irish people. Everyone was super friendly and helpful, and generally just a happy population -  a little quirky, love a good time, and love to chat! With any (Irish) luck, we will be back!

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