Northern Ireland

If you know nothing about the history of Ireland (and yes, I did just link you to Wikipedia... it's actually a pretty decent article though), you'll know they've had a wee bit of trouble in the past, particularly in the North. In fact, those times are referred to as "The Troubles," and they had to do with a long history of Catholic and Protestant fighting (or, more accurately, Irish and British fighting) over who gets to control the country. You should at least read up about this when traveling, because it makes the whole experience much more interesting.

When you travel into the North of Ireland, you'll know right away that you're in another country. There are no "Goodbye, Ireland" or "Welcome to Great Britain" signs to see like I've come to expect when I leave Ohio and enter Indiana. There was, however, a bar we saw upon entering the United Kingdom that was emblazoned with Red, White, and Blue and surrounded by Union Jacks, one of which had a picture of the Queen on it. The picture on the left is of one of the local Protestant defense leagues, which are famous for lighting bonfires celebrating the British victory at the Battle of the Boyne, which, coincidentally, happens to be viewed by the notably larger Catholic community in Ireland as the battle in which the Irish completely lost control of their country to the Brits. Then there are the marches. A friend of mine from Belfast said the Irish calendar starts with January, February, March, March, and March... The Orange Order (read "Protestants") march through largely Catholic neighborhoods celebrating this English victory, which tends not to go over well with the Catholic community. Think rebel flag being flown in Detroit.

Still, after the Good Friday Agreements, most of the country has accepted the fact that the British control the North (not withstanding a small, radical minority who haven't), and the most it will mean for you will be that you'll need to exchange some Euros for British Pounds and the speed limit will go from Kilometers per hour to Miles, which is much better anyways. Going to the North is worth the small inconvenience by far, however, and you shouldn't skip it.

Going to the North had a special significance for me, as family research revealed that I was of the "Orange Irish" heritage, so we stopped in a town that my ancestors supposedly lived in. I'm not recommending you go here, but Tobermore was one place I had to say I'd visited. There are a lot of "Boones" in the graveyard, and yes, Daniel Boone was of Scotch-Irish heritage, so who knows?

After stopping in Tobermore, we drove up the Antrim Coast to see the Giant's Causeway, allegedly built by Irish warrior Finn McCool and used as stepping stones for the feuding giants of Ireland and Scotland. It's definitely amazing to see the formations in the earth, and after you're done you can go visit the Bushmills Distillery, just three miles away in the town of Bushmills. We didn't have time to go, but we made sure to get a bottle of Bushmills before we left.

One of the great things about Ireland is all of the unplanned smaller stops. We found Dunluce Castle that way, which is an amazing castle ruins that is literally falling into the sea. It's still mostly there, however, and was probably one of our favorite stops on the trip, something you just have to see to fully appreciate.

Our final destination for the day of travel was the next B&B, Breezemount Guest House in Coleraine, which is in the province of Ulster. It was a spacious room with a small kitchenette, which was nice, as most places closed surprisingly early. Eating someplace nice on our anniversary was next to impossible, as everyplace was already closed by six! We ended up eating at "Cactus Jack's," which wasn't exactly what we had in mind. Nonetheless the room was nice, although breakfast here could have been better. Not sure anywhere after here lived up to the Irish breakfasts we had in Dublin.

Day 2
Coleraine is a great place to stay and see a lot of the North. On our first full day there we wanted to visit the beautiful Mourne Mountains, where C.S. Lewis liked to visit and were the inspiration behind The Chronicles of Narnia. If you go, make the Silent Springs reservoir your main destination. This reservoir was designed to provide water for Belfast, and is in a beautiful location. You'll also enjoy getting stopped by some sheep herding along the way and see a lot of stone fences along the roads. There's also a great little cafe, the Silent Valley Cafe, which has amazing views and great bakery items. Nice place to have tea.

That, however, was in the afternoon. In the morning we headed for Newcastle, a coastal town that has great shops and even better scenery. It's a good place to do some shopping and have some really good fish and chips. You can walk along the beach there and find some nice mementos of your trip.

That night while watching a local TV station, I saw the show "Ultimate Ulster," which listed the top ten votes by locals for weekend getaways. The Mourne Mountains were #9, Newcastle was #3, and Giant's Causeway was #2, so I guess we did all right for our first day out.

Day 3
Last night was our last night in Coleraine on the marathon of Ireland that we were on, so this day saw us visiting and traveling, which wasn't too stressful as long as you leave enough time to see the things you want to see. Before leaving the North, I wanted to see the town of Londonderry, or Derry, depending on whether you're Protestant or Catholic. Aside from the fact that one of my ancestors came over to the US from here, it's also a very historic town for many reasons. Protestant pride and Catholic demands for independence and civil rights have clashed here for many years, including the infamous "Bloody Sunday," where Catholics demanding their civil rights were gunned down by a British paratroop regiment in 1972. Still, it's a very cool town where we stumbled upon an historic re-enactment, saw the amazing wall around the city and toured the local shops. While leaving the town you will see a very cool mural on the side of one of the Catholic apartment complexes that reads: "Now Entering Free Derry," a reminder that under the surface, tensions remain.

After that we ventured haphazardly towards our final destination for the day: Kinvara.

Upon leaving the North we stopped at the church where W.B. Yeats is buried, in Drumcliffe, County Sligo. You can read his famous self-written epitaph and walk the grounds of the church, which was the site of an ancient monastery founded by St. Columba, the famous Irish missionary who took Christianity to the Picts in Scotland in the 500s AD. There is an amazing 10th Century stone High Cross (pictured left) with biblical scenes carved into it next to the cemetery, and a great example of the round towers that are found throughout Ireland, which served as places of refuge from the Viking raiders who tore through the island in the 800s and on into the next millennium.

The last leg of the journey to Kinvara consisted largely of beautiful scenery and short stops, with one of those stops being an 11th century church that lay in ruins in County Sligo. Take as many of these unplanned stops as possible! We did, however, have one last surprise before arriving at our final destination for the night when we heard our GPS tell us to "take the ferry" after driving for a few hours. We lucked out and ended up getting the last ferry of the day across a large harbor and arrived safely in Kinvara in time for dinner. We chose to stay in Kinvara as a break between the long trip from the North of Ireland down to the Dingle Peninsula, but had we known how nice the town was, or the fact that it is one of the go-to spots for traditional Irish music, we would have planned on being here an extra day. We had a bite to eat, however, and spent the night at the Clareview House, a nice B&B with friendly owners, although a little too far from town to walk.

We ventured into town for dinner and ate at the Pier Head, a very nice restaurant overlooking the harbor where we struck up a conversation with a family originally from Great Britain, but now living in New Zealand. It seemed that Kinvara was a great place to meet fellow travelers, as we went down to Connolly's, a local pub, to hear some traditional music and met a couple from Vermont who was biking across Ireland.

After a long day it was time to head back, get some rest, then wake up and head down even further South to the town of Dingle.