Photos: David Paul Appell
For many in the United States in particular – and not just those of Irish ancestry – visiting the Emerald Isle is a prime bucket lister. Yet in my nearly 40 years and 65 countries´ worth of travel as an adult, I had never gotten there. I was always interested in “different” – meaning mostly non-English-speaking – cultures, and Ireland had always struck me as somehow bland and uninteresting. That changed this year, as I determined to finally get a taste of the country I´d a few years ago I discovered half of my biological family hailed from (an adoptee, I learned this from the biological mom I finally found in 2013).
So I set about designing an itinerary that would take me to the Oud Sod´s most iconic destinations; finally carried it with my husband out this past spring; and am so immensely glad I did (It also helped that it provided a breather from a heat wave in Madrid where I live). And here´s a brief sampling of my experiences and impressions.
Of course we started in the capital (pop. 1.3 million), and found it a low-slung, comfortable, and refreshingly unpretentious affair, with none of the monumental (some might say bombastic) architecture and sites you´d expect in a European capital city. We started out with a hop-on/hop-off bus tour – yes, I know, massively touristy, but no apologies: it serves up a great (and narrated) overview and helped narrow down things that we did and didn´t feel inclined to make time for in the three days we had here. Thumbs-ups started with Dublin Castle (below), founded in 1204, rebuilt in the late 17th century, and during British rule was the seat of its viceroyalty; today it's home to halls used for Irish government ceremonial events. The tour includes the medieval "undercroft" (including a section of original walls), the Chapel Royal, state apartments, and ceremonial halls.
Also interesting was St. Patrick´s Cathedral, which though founded as Roman Catholic in 1191 has since 1540 been Church of Ireland (Anglican); its ornate tiled floors are of a type we don´t recall seeing in any other cathedral. Another definite highlight was Trinity College Dublin, founded in 1592, whose central allure for visitors is the exhibition surrounding the legendary Book of Kells, thegorgeously illustrated 9th-century manuscript of the four Christian gospels which has an extensive museum dedicated to it: apart from the open book itself, there are several rooms displaying various leafs with extensive explanations, along with an atmospheric library. The National Museum of Ireland´s archaeology collection offered an enlightening look at the island´s deep past (especially captivating were the ancient human remains found in peat bogs). Dublinia, devoted to the city´s Viking and medieval history and located in a part of Christ Church Cathedral, was another favorite.
And of course we took a stroll through 18th-century Merrion Square Park, at the center of the eponymous tony Georgian square, with its star attraction, the louche, lounging statue of seminal (and controversial) gay 19th-century writer Oscar Wilde installed in 1997.
And as for nightlife, we didn´t indulge in the notorious Temple Bar scene but rather dropped in on a "trad session" of traditional Irish music The Cobblestone in the Smithfield neighborhood, joined the punters for a pint of Guinness at Arthur´s Pub in The Liberties (with an upstairs room that´s a restaurant by day and a blues/jazz club by night), and checked out three of Dublin´s LGBTQ nightspots: PantiBar, PennyLane, and The George, which bills itself as the city´s only true gay "nightclub," with a cozy pub section and a rip-roaring dance club.
Things we passed but didn´t follow up on included Phoenix Park (at 1,750 acres Europe´s largest enclosed park and home to various monuments, trails, and recreational facilities as well as the residence of Ireland´s president); the slick Guinness Storehouse brewery and Jameson Whiskey Distillery tours (a stiff 30 euros for each, and really, we´d seen plenty of their like before); and the EPIC Irish immigration museum, an interactive, multimedia extravaganza that for sure looked intriguing but we definitely saved for next time.
Known as Corcaigh in Irish Gaelic, Éire´s second largest city (pop. 224,000) was next on the itinerary, a 2½-hour drive south of the capital. Ensconced between two channels of the River Lee, its history stretches back to its 6th-century founding as a monastic settlement (even earlier than Dublin), and these days amid its mostly Georgian architecture it has something of a maverick reputation; a cosmopolitan and progressive air (when we visited, there were gay Pride and Palestinian flags fairly prominently displayed on the partly pedestrian main drag St. Patrick´s Street and throughout downtown); and a pretty good foodie scene (including some great international offerings, (such as Thali Nepal Restaurant, hands down one of the best Nepali/Indian eateries I´ve ever come across). The epicenter of the latter, of course, is the 237-year-old English Market (which curiously has kept its name despite Corkonians´ fierce independent streak and pride as Ireland´s "rebel city") with fancy vaulted ceilings and a series of market stalls featuring plenty tasty local comestibles (including tasty chocolates, which we were more than happy to sample), though I have to say some of the local specialties - such as tripe, crubeens (pigs´ feet), and drisheen (blood pudding) - were not my speed, to say the least.
Other spots well worth seeing include the early-17th-century Elizabeth Fort (which besides a museum of Cork´s military history also offers good views over the city from its ramparts) and across the Lee in the northside Shandon neighborhood, near the early-18th-century Church of St. Anne (better known as the Shandon Bells and Tower, a symbol of Cork but which was closed when we were there), the impressive Old Butter Market building (now home to a museum about the butter trade, of which Cork was the world´s hub in the 19th century). The Cork Public Museum founded in 1910 in the landscaped, 18-acre Fitzgerald Park also makes for an illuminating overview of local history. And then there´s the hulking Cork City Gaol (left), a 20-minute stroll outside downtown, once a notorious 19th- and early-20th-century prison, now a museum where you can check out the various cells (now occupied by effigies of prominent prisoners accompanied by their stories and see exhibits relating to daily life including punishments and sometimes dubious methods of "rehabilitation."
And of course no visit to Cork would be complete without an excursion to Blarney Castle, a 15-minute drive out of town. The uppermost parapet (85 feet up) of this partially ruined stone tower (whose current structure dates back to the mid-15th century and was originally clad in white back) is famously home to the Blarney Stone, a chunk of limestone whose origin is shrouded in mystery; one legend holds that it was a piece of Scotland´s Stone of Scone, but that chunk of rock is sandstone, while geological analysis shows that this one probably came from this area. In any case, the ritual of smooching the stone supposedly endows the smoocher with "gift of gab" eloquence, and so every day tourists spend an hour winding their way up 125 narrow steps (including claustrophobically narrow passageways) to lean under the parapet - with the help of an assistant - and pucker up (that´s me doing the deed at right). It helps that along the way there are various written explanation of the castle´s various rooms and spaces to help keep us entertained.
Also a day trip from Cork but deserving of its own entry because of its iconic place within Irish tourism, this 111-mile circuit in County Kerry and its Dingle Peninsula doesn´t have any big "sights" per se but is packed with all sorts of picturesque beauty spots, and if you don´t have the time or patience to drive it on your own, there are several Cork-based bus tours to get you around. Ours made its first stop in the area´s largest town, Killarney (pop. 14,000) which has its charms, including the mid-19th-century Tudor-style mansion Muckross House, mid-15th-century Muckross Abbey, the mid-19th-century St. Mary's Cathedral, and of course 39-square-mile Killarney National Park (home to the comely Killarney Lakes and McGillicuddy´s Reeks, Ireland´s highest mountains, averaging 3,400 feet); we opted for a peaceful, bucolic horse-drawn-carriage ride through the park, but I have to say, overall the feel of the town was a bit too touristy for our taste. We then passed through the town of Kilorglin, home of August´s Celtic Puck Fair, one of the world´s oldest still celebrated festivals, dating back to 1613, in which a goat is crowned king of the village), on the way to the 34-year-old Kerry Bog Village, an assemblage of 18th- and 19th-century huts illustrating life among poor peat cutters of that era (a highlight here for us as dog nuts was getting to know several of the huge Irish wolfhounds kept onsite!). Continuing along the coast of the peninsula - a route known as the Wild Atlantic Way" - we took in and occasionally stopped to snap pics of the sweeping views out over Dingle Bay like the one above (including the pair of famously craggy Skellig Islands, one of which is home to the ruins of an ancient monastery). We also stopped at a couple of picturesque little villages, Waterville (pop. around 560, where we stopped for lunch, and which has a couple of hotels, vacation cottages, and is also known for being a favored vacation spot for Charlie Chaplin and his family in the 1960s) and even smaller Sneem (below), with barely 400 and one of Irelands most charming, divided in two by a bridge over the Sneem River). The last stop was 66-ft. was Torc Waterfall (second photo below) at the base of the eponymous mountain (which by the way is quite popular with hikers), a gorgeous spot reached via a short hike through a piney, deliciously primeval-feeling woodsy stretch.
Other notable spots on the Ring to which we didn´t get include the also quaint town of Kenmare, Derrynane House, the early-18th-century ancestral home of Ireland´s revered early-19th-century Catholic leader Daniel O´Connor; the Staigue Stone Fort, a circular affair dating back to the Iron Age, around 300-400 CE; the thousand-foot high Kerry Cliffs and nearby Valentia Island, bucolic with a scenic lighthouse; and most regretfully, the aforementioned Skellig Islands (especially the larger of the two, UNESCO World Heritage Skellig Michael, inhabited by monks from the early 6th to early 13th century and known for its "beehive huts," which you might recall from two Star Wars movies, which used them as a backdrop for a remote Jedi hideaway).
(Parenthetically, the outfit we unfortunately ended up using for this itinerary was called Paddywagon (ugh, that name alone should´ve been a red flag), and while said itinerary was perfectly fine and the bus perfectly comfortable, overall I found it pretty cringe thanks to the trifecta of the name, the carntoonishly leering leprechaun plastered all over and the bald, leathery driver/guide, who kept manically addressing us as "guys" at least once, if not twice, per sentence. So if we had to do it over again, we´d instead take a look at Cork City Tours and Kennedy & Carr).
From Cork it was a 2½-hour drive north (and by the way a little less due west from Dublin, actually) to the country´s fourth-largest city (pop. 86,000) - which turned out to be perhaps our favorite of the whole trip. Why? Well, it´s firendly and welcoming, as well as being more intimate than Dublin and livelier than Cork. Much of that liveliness is down to the many trad music pubs and venues in its Latin Quarter (so named because of the influence of the Spanish and Portuguese, who traded heavily with the city back in the Middle Ages), such as the Crane Bar, The Quays, Tigh Ceoli, and Tigh Neachtain; we popped into several of them one night, and it was good craic (fun)! It´s this music culture that made Galway such an excellent European Capital of Culture (an honor which rotates among various cities every year) in 2020. We also enjoyed a hearty lunch at the King´s Head (with a history reaching back 800 years), and toured the old quarters fascinating historical corners. Gaillimh was founded in 1124 by one of the Gaelic kings of the time, and became a prosperous traditing hub until it went into decline beginning around the mid-17th century. These days it´s going strong both a tourist magnet and home to a number of Irish and international companies such as Apple, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, and Microsoft, while plenty of remnants of the past are still in evidence, as we discovered on a medieval walking tour (conducted, funnily enough, by a young Spanish woman who came to visit several years ago and stayed).
Perhaps the most prominent historic landmark is the Spanish Arch (above), built in 1584 as part of the city walls on the River Corrib and now standing in front of the very interesting Galway City Museum (also above), which lays out the city´s history in a very accessible way.
Another must is the St. Nicholas Collegiate Church (above) which since the 16th century has been run by the Church of Ireland, aka the Anglicans but it was built by the Catholic Church in 1320, and it´s suitably Gothic and imposing; the Hall of the Red Earl, the excavated remnants of Galway´s first town hall, established in the 13th century).
Oddest of all, we even discovered a pair of medieval towers and partial city city wall preserved on the ground floor of the Eyre Square Shopping Centre!
While in Galway we also took a day tour, on a bus operated by Wild Atlantic Way Tours, which brought us through a karst landscape capped the Burren to a ferry port in the village of Doolin and onward to Innisheer (above, Inis Oirr in Gaelic), the smallest and nearest of the three Aran Islands. It´s quite a singular place - with barely 350 residents scattered across five tiny settlements, a handful of shops and pubs/restaurants (in one of which we had lunch), and most arrestingly and characteristically, a patchwork of limestone fences. The ruins of the 10th-century St. Caomhán´s Church can be found next to the cemetery, and on its highest hill is the island´s other notable ruins, of O´Brien´s Castle, a tower house built circa 1400. You have to wonder what life is like out here - but it includes no doubt a lot of trips into Galway and beyond, or you´d go crazy.
The second stop on our day tour was the iconic Cliffs of Moher (above), rearing some 390 sheer feet up from the Atlantic Ocean along five miles of coast. They get more than a million visitors a year, and even though it was somewhat foggy the day we visited, they still presented a majestic vision indeed. There´s a visitor center, of course, which features some interesting exhibits (including a couple of films and old photos dating back to the 19th century, when the cliffs first started attracting tourists) and a restaurant.
Carrickmacross and County Monaghan
Never heard of it? Neither had I, till not long ago. So why this very rural county way up north, well off the tourist track? It turned out to be the most personally emotional of our stops for me, because it´s from here that my great grandmother Elizabeth Duffy hailed. I´m adopted, and first learned about her from my birth mother (the three of us lived together in Lizzie´s apartment in the New York City borough of the Bronx. I wasn´t able to learn much about the family tree, but the very little information I did have was enough, when I contacted the public library in the town of Carrickmacross (above, pop. 5,700), to track down a pair of second cousins once removed in a rural area north of town called Dooraa, which Lizzie left for NYC back around the turn of the 20th century.
And so it was that I found myself in the kitchen of farmer Michael Duffy (above left) and his English wife Lorraine, getting to know them, Michael´s brother Francis (above right) and his wife Sandra, and their kids, in their teens or early 20s. We also visited the cottage behind their house where Lizzie grew up; her parish church; her schoolhouse (beautifully turned into a residence by a local man who graciously let us come in for a look around), and attended one of Michael´s sons´ rugby game. The Duffys, we discovered, are lovely people, and even quite progressive, which is something we didn´t think we could take for granted in Irish farm country. But in that regard they´re quite typical of the country as a whole, which from a past under the stifling, obscurantist influence of the Roman Catholic Church has become one of Europe´s most progressive countries (for example, pro-LGBTQ, pro-Palestine, and highly supportive of women´s rights - in fact, they´ve had a gay taoiseach (prime minister) and in two weeks they´re about to elect their third female president, since both candidates are women). And they were very moved by the black-and-white formal portrait photo (right) my mother had given me of Lizzie, since the family had essentially lost track of her over the years.
As far as "sights" in the area, there aren´t many, really. Carrickmacross is a typical Irish country town dating back to around 1630 (and which interestingly, I discovered, was the home of Ireland´s first female judge, Eileen Kennedy, back in the 1960s, as well as Noel Curran, the past head of Irish national television and current director general of the European Broadcasting Union, and in 2012 it elected Ireland´s youngest mayor, a 22-year-old woman named Darcy Lonergan, from the Green Party). The town´s main points of interest are a cotton lace gallery (the town is known for its delicate lace) and a Workhouse (above), one of 130 built across the country to house and help people immiserated by the horrific Irish Potato Famine of those years; it provides visitors a sobering look at the harsh conditions of the time. We stayed in the historic Shirley Arms Hotel, which was nice if rather overpriced at around 200 euros a night. Our stay was too short to catch the walking tour of town but no matter - we´ll be back soon enough to this lovely and underrated corner of the Emerald Isle!
Comments
A great article! And just incidentally, black people in Ireland go back centuries - there was for example a black slave market in 9th century Viking Dublin, and since the 18th century there have been (initially small) black populations in not just Dublin but also Belfast, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford. With increased immigration especially from places like the Caribbean and Brazil, these days they number more than 67,000. and there´s an Africa Diaspora Center active in promoting and supporting them in various areas.
A pretty good summing up, with interesting observations. And I´m so glad you finally found some of your relatives!