Ireland: Ballyvaughan, County Clare

September 15, 2015

After Gary finishes work, we leave Claisavougha and make the 2 1/2 hour drive to Ballyvaughan in County Clare. After discovering that I had failed to include a crucial part of the address ("Muckinish"-more about that on the next page) in Google Maps, we stopped to ask directions from a couple of blokes having a pint outside a pub in Ballyvaughan. After much consultation and discussion between themselves and Gary, they pointed us in the right direction. We found the right address, and couldn't believe that this home is located right beside the ruins of a castle (again, see the next page)! When the tide is in, the patio is just a few feet from Galway Bay. The scenery is once again spectacular (is there no place in Ireland that isn't?)! After unpacking, we drive back into Ballyvaughan to buy groceries and have dinner at the Hylands Burren Hotel.

September 15, 2015 (Continued)

Our home for the next two weeks is part of a small condominium complex which is situated on the grounds of what used to be a castle. The castle is one of the O'Lochlainn clan "tower house" castles. It was built and occupied in 1580. In 1836 the castle was repaired by Major Kirwan, but half of the castle fell in the mid-1880s. The picture on the right, taken at the turn of the century, is from "The Book of the Burren". Not a lot has changed since the picture was taken. Our castle is "Caisleán Sean-Muiciinis (Muckinish)", which means "the old castle of Pig Island", so we are staying on Pig Island!

September 18, 2015

Tonight we decide to have dinner at a restaurant recommended by Paddy, "Linnane's Lobster Bar" in New Quay. First we drive into Kinvara and go to the Pier Head Pub, which is (strangely enough!) on the pier, for a drink. You can see Dunguaire's Castle, where we will be having dinner tomorrow night, from the pier. We drive the short distance to find the restaurant in New Quay, which lives up to Paddy's recommendation.

September 19, 2015

Tonight we drive back into Kinvara to Dunguaire's Castle (picture on the next page) for a medieval banquet (I am hoping that eating with one's hands is not a requirement here, because if so, I will fail miserably!). The castle, a tower house built in 1520 by the O'Hynes clan, became the "Dún" (Gaelic for fort) of Guaire, who was the legendary king of Connacht.

September 19, 2015 (Continued)

As castles go, it isn't a very big one, which makes for a more intimate evening. We arrive right behind a tour group from Denmark and are one of the last to enter. The evening begins with a cup of mead (honey wine) on the first floor of the castle, with entertainment by a harpist and two singer/actors. We then make our way up the narrow, winding staircase to the banquet hall and are seated on padded benches. We have the great good fortune to be seated across from two lively characters, Tom Feagin and Gerry O'Donohue, or “Tom and Gerry”, as they asked us to call them. These gentlemen have obviously been friends for decades and seem to be known well by the actors. The show consists of the actors telling the history of the castle through music and verse. This is how we learn that the castle was once owned by the very same Oliver St. John Gogarty in whose pub we began our Musical Pub Crawl in Dublin! Gogarty purchased the castle in the early 20th century and began restoring it, establishing it as the meeting place for the leading figures of the Celtic Revival, such as W.B. Yeats (Yeats yet again!) and George Bernard Shaw. The castle was later acquired in 1954 by Christobel Lady Ampthill, who completed the restoration work started by Gogarty. It was then purchased by Shannon Development, an Irish corporation that manages several historic tourist attractions in Ireland. We find it quite remarkable that names and places we encountered earlier in our trip are making themselves known to us at the end of our trip. During dinner, our conversation with Tom and Gerry is steered towards rugby, since earlier that afternoon Ireland trounced Canada in the Rugby World Cup (50 to 7-ouch!).

September 19, 2015 (Continued)

I mention seeing Paul O'Connell in the lobby of the Shelbourne when we checked into the hotel in Dublin. We find out that Gerry actually knows O’Connell’s parents quite well, and he goes on to recount a story about a work colleague who was on his deathbed. It happens that this colleague was a huge rugby fan, and had followed the team to all their European games. Gerry phoned Paul’s parents to ask if maybe he could visit his friend in the hospital. Within minutes, Gerry said, his phone rang and O'Connell was on the other end. To make a long story short, Paul and five of his teammates, bringing with them the European Championship rugby trophy, visited this man in the hospital. Gerry's colleague sadly passed away five days later, but Paul's generosity of spirit and kindness were very much appreciated by the family.

September 19, 2015 (Continued)

So once again, the start and end of our trip are linked together by a common thread. I like to think that this is serendipity!

The banquet draws to a close and we say our goodbyes to Tom and Gerry and the Danes. The food was decent (but not anything to write home about) but the singer/actors were surprisingly good; and because of their acquaintance with Tom and Gerry, we were able to interact with them more than we might have otherwise. What we were afraid was going to turn out to be a "touristy" experience was a very enjoyable evening!

September 19, 2015 (Continued)

Back in Ballyvaughan, we decide to stop in O'Loclainn's Pub on our way home. Gary is intrigued by the "Irish Whiskeys" sign outside. They indeed have an extensive selection of Irish whiskey, and he chooses a Jameson Gold Reserve. I stick with the Guinness! There are a lot of photographs and other memorabilia on the walls of this very intimate and traditional pub (no TVs!). The photograph that caught my eye, however, was a framed picture of Steven Spielberg that he had autographed "To Margaret from Steven Spielberg". I find out that Margaret is the owner of the pub, and I ask her about the story behind the picture. She said that Spielberg was in Ireland on holiday last year with his family and came into the pub nearly every evening, presenting her with the picture on his last night here.

September 23, 2015

After Gary finishes work, we make the short drive to Gregan's Castle. Chef William Dissen, owner of The Market Place, which is one of our favorite restaurants in Asheville, told us that he ate one of the best meals of his life here. Unfortunately, we find out that they are serving only hotel guests in the restaurant. So instead of dinner, we go for a drink in the bar, where we run into a couple from south Texas who told us that they are seriously considering moving to Asheville! The picture on this page was taken from the grounds of Gregan's Castle and highlights the limestone outcroppings that are so numerous in this area. The picture on the previous page is of the fuchsia plant that grows freely in southwest Ireland, the flowers of which they call here, "tears of God". We saw a lot of it growing by the side of the road in Newcastle, and Paddy and Anne had a huge fuchsia plant in their front yard. The plant is not native to Ireland, but was introduced to Ireland from South America.

September 24, 2015

This is what I saw from the bedroom window this morning! We have seen about four or five rainbows here on Galway Bay. This was actually a double rainbow-if you look closely, you can see a faint smaller one to the left of the larger one.

September 25, 2015

Our plan for this afternoon after Gary finishes work is to go to the Farmer's Market in Kinvara, then on to Corofin to the Clare Heritage and Genealogical Centre. Unfortunately, we arrive in Kinvara just as the market is closing, so on to Corofin! I have been unable to trace my ancestry back to when the Shannons came to the U.S., but I have been told that many Shannons in Ireland come from County Clare. My research (in which I do not have a lot of faith!) on Ancestry.com has hit a dead end with my possibly (again, I do not feel confident in the research that I have done to date) 5th great grandfather, Capt. James Shannon, who was born in Virginia in 1757. We stop in to the Genealogical Centre to see if they could be of any help and are told that their records only go back to around 1800, so we leave empty-handed. Back to Ballyvaughan, and we decide to make another visit to the Hylands Burren Hotel, where we stop in the bar in time to catch the World Rugby match with Argentina vs. Georgia. There is a group of Spanish-speaking men , obviously Argentina fans, who are very happy when Argentina trounces Georgia, 54-9.

The Burren

Ballyvaughan is in an area of Ireland called "The Burren", and our home is located in the heart of the Burren National Park. The word "Burren" comes from an Irish word, "Boíreann", meaning "a rocky place". The Burren is a 10-square mile plateau of limestone rock, at first appearing to be void of vegetation, but in actuality, the Burren is rich in flora and is the only place in the world where Arctic, Mediterranean and Alpine plants grow side-by-side. The limestone is also littered with hundreds of historic stone structures. It really is an unusual landscape: at first seemingly barren, but on closer examination, quite full of interesting flowers, plants and birds, many of which we can see from the back door of our house!

September 26, 2015

We get up early today to drive into Galway, about an hour away. There is a festival going on: the Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival. We have tickets for yet another Hop-On, Hop-Off tour, which begins at 10:30. We board the bus with only about four other people. It is a gray and rather foggy day, and the "Hop-On, Hop-Off" part of the tour doesn't appear to be offered for some reason. However, there doesn't seem to be much in Galway that we really want to "hop-off" to see, so after the hour-long tour we get off the bus to eat an early lunch at Taaffe's Bar, one of the restaurants that our tour guide recommended. We are fortunate to catch a parade with some very odd characters, including an "Absudist Pipe Band", pictured here. I'm not sure what the theme of the parade is, but it is quite interesting! Also pictured below is a bronze sculpture of Oscar Wilde (left) and the Estonian writer Eduard Vilde (right) sitting on a granite bench together. This sculpture was a gift to Ireland from Estonia on the occasion of Estonia's accession to the European Union in May 2004.

September 26, 2015 (Continued)

I'm very confused (and a little frightened) by this guy. To me, he looks like some sort of a Tyrolean leprechaun! Even after the other street performers had come and gone; just like the Energizer Bunny, this chap was still there: playing whatever the instrument was that he was holding, wearing his tartan kilt and his little green cap with that odd feather sticking out of the top, and his wooden clogs neatly placed on the ground in front of him!

We leave Galway and head back to Ballyvaughan. Our stay is coming to an end, and we start packing and getting ready for the trip back home. Here are some final memories: pictures of our condo on Galway Bay; the lovely lampshade adorned with images of the ubiquitous fuschia; our little castle on Pig Island; the two inseparable neighborhood dogs (the little white dog was absolutely smitten with his larger buddy, and it was fun to watch them cavorting together!); and finally, the difference in the weather maps featured on Irish television as opposed to the maps used by the meteorologists on U. S. television. As you can see, the Irish map is simple: a couple of arrows, a few clouds and some numbers will do just fine, thank you; whereas the U. S. map is complicated, with all sorts of colors, lines, numbers, symbols, etc. That juxtaposition probably sums up the differences in the two countries, but is exactly the thing that makes Ireland so irresistible. We were charmed and seduced by all things Irish: the warmth and friendliness of the people; their national pride; their love of storytelling and the simple, hypnotic beauty of the landscape.

September 28-29, 2015

We say good-bye to Ballyvaughan and head for Dublin and the flight back home. Gary drops off the rental car and we have dinner at our hotel, the Carlton Dublin Airport. We get up early the next day and catch the 7:00 A.M. shuttle for the aiport. Our flight is at 9:35, so we figure that we'll have time to have breakfast and do some duty-free shopping, but OH, NO-we stand in line for over an hour at the U. S. Air desk because their computers are down and they can't decide which line we need to be in! Then we have to go through security twice. Finally we settle into our seats for an uneventful flight, landing in Charlotte on time at 12:40 P.M.

September 29, 2015

We get the rental car and make the drive back to our lovely Asheville, arriving home around 4:00 P.M. After three months, it is good to see those beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and sleep in our own bed, but we both agree that our Europe 2015 adventure is one that we will cherish and never forget, thanks in part to this diary!