Kerry Ireland

Kerry Ireland

The tour focuses on two key areas rich in tradition: North  Kerry Ireland  and the Burren. It also gives you the opportunity to visit one of the Aran Islands on a day excursion. The influence of music, song, dance and the customs that have lived on in these two very different regions combine to make this a wonderful and very different holiday.

Kerry Ireland

North  Kerry Ireland , being less mountainous than the rest of the county, is good agricultural land. It is rich in historical sites such as the castles of Ballyheigue, Rahoneen, Carrigafoyle) and the abbeys of Ardfert, Rattoo, Lislaughtin). Historically the most important site is Ardfert, a missionary centre found by St. Erc in the 5th century. St. Brendan was educated here and also established a monastery here. It has a 13th century cathedral, along with several other ecclesiastical buildings, and remained a diocesan centre until 1660. The cliff scenery around  Kerry Ireland  Head, near Ballyheigue, rivals anything that Dingle has to offer, but is much less frequented.

Kerry Ireland

Nearby is Tobar na Súl (‘well of the eyes’), one of the finest holy wells which abound in the area. 

‘Burren’ is derived from the Irish word boireann meaning ‘place of stone’, and the name could not be more apt. There is no part of Ireland where rock so obviously dominates the landscape as it does in the north-west corner of County Clare. The Burren covers an area of some 260 square kilometres and is famous for its bare limestone pavements dissected by deep crevices and traversed by countless stone walls.

Almost devoid of trees and surface water, it has been described as ‘lunar’ in its appearance, an ancient limestone plateau beneath which is a labyrinth of pot-holes, caves, streams and lakes. Surprisingly, this bizarre and apparently hostile environment is a botanist’s paradise as around ¾ of Ireland’s plant species are found in the Burren (more than any other region). Doolin, where you will be staying, is the cradle of traditional Irish music.

Courtesy By: http://www.southwestwalksireland.com/hiking-vacation-traditional-ireland.html

Ireland Countryside

Ireland Countryside
Ireland Countryside
Ireland Countryside
Ireland Countryside
Ireland Countryside
Ireland Countryside
Ireland Countryside

Ireland Castles

Imagine a harsh, eerie moonscape with sporadic vegetation sprouting in bizarre places. The visitor’s center describes plant species ranging from artic to sub-tropical thriving within the cracks and crevices of this hostile, rocky terrain. Efforts to cultivate this land resulted in unending rock walls lining the narrow roads that were truly meant for horse and cart … not modern vehicles. Somehow, the cattle, sheep, and horses graze among the rocky fissures that were formed beneath the sea a million years ago. On the southwestern edge of The Burren, the Cliffs of Moher drop dramatically to the Atlantic Ocean and extend for five miles along the coastline. During north Atlantic gales, the pounding surf rivals nature’s drama seen along California’s Big Sur.

Visitors to Ireland expect to hear traditional Irish folk music and only the early-to-bedders will be disappointed. In Doolin, a village famous for Irish music, the musicians start playing around nine o’clock. We listened to live Irish music in Killarney, Limerick, Dublin, and places in between and it’s late before the entertainment begins.

In Limerick, we stumbled on the best Irish music during our trip. The Locke had an incredible band that creatively blended traditional Irish with Bluegrass music. Anyone familiar with Riverdance will understand how the first influenced the second. Dolan’s Pub featured various local musicians who came to jam with fiddles, flutes, guitars, banjos, even spoons. They treated us to great, spontaneous Irish music and we loved it. Dolan’s also owns a concert hall that offers a litany of performances by famous groups.

Ireland Castle
Ireland Castle
Ireland CastleAt O’Shea’s in Dublin, just north of the River Liffey, we enjoyed live Irish music as well as great, impromptu dancing from visitors staying at the hotel. A gracious, talented gentleman helped me kick up my heels during an easy-to-follow Irish dosey-doe. At An Pucan in Galway, we listened to an entertaining guitar player from Virginia until ten o’clock when an Irish band finally set up to play. They opened with a polka and we left.

Despite the enthusiasm for traditional Irish music, Americans won’t get homesick for their familiar tunes. When the musicians are absent, good old rock ‘n roll, blues, country western, and Motown are pervasive in pubs throughout the country.

If the Irish approached every aspect of life with the same fervor as their sports, the country would undoubtedly become a world superpower. We think our NFL players are gladiators. HAH! Watch rugby or hurling. Irish players are hard-bodied, zealous athletes who bring new meaning to the term physical contact. Rugby reminds me of American football without protective equipment or rules … any rules. Hurling is similar to rugby with the added advantage of a stick used to inflict more harm on an opponent. Imagine football, ice hockey, and lacrosse being played at the same time. That’s hurling. The Irish are passionate about their teams and entire towns turn out for the local rugby and hurling matches.

Perhaps their involvement in physically demanding sports keeps most Irishmen strong and sinewy. On the flip side, the women are full-bodied … built to give birth and suckle their young until the first pint of Guinness. Without a doubt, Irish women have breasts. Unlike the FDA-approved chests many American women proudly display, these puppies are the real McCoy! They have no need to dress like a pop-singing tart. Just a mildly scooped neckline reveals a lovely hint of healthy cleavage. I thought I had ample breasts; in Ireland, I felt like Twiggy. When hubby caught me scowling at my chest, he kindly suggested that any more than a handful is a waste. Kindness like that keeps marriage alive; ours is pushing thirty years.
Ireland Castle
Ireland Castle
Ireland Castle
Ireland Castle
Driving in Ireland is a sport all its own. American auto insurers will not cover a rental car in Ireland; rental companies mandate their own insurance and it’s expensive. In a small car with manual transmission, I concentrated on opposite-side driving while trying to master Ireland’s answer to intersections … the infamous roundabout! Despite the awkwardness of left-sided driving, I soon became adept maneuvering through roundabouts because I encountered one every quarter mile in the city. On the open highway, drivers can travel almost five miles between roundabouts. Just to keep things interesting, some roundabouts also had traffic signals. Adding to the driving challenge are narrow roads through small towns where drivers park wherever they choose… halfway on the street… halfway on the sidewalks. Few cities have bypasses to circumvent traffic around the downtown area. Hour-long backups are typical in places such as Waterford where major cross-country routes funnel all traffic across a single two-lane bridge in the heart of city. Stretches of national highway are curvy, two-lane roads with no shoulders. Regardless, the speed limit is one-hundred kilometers per hour (62 mph) until drivers reach the next roundabout on the outskirt of a town or village.

Wait! There’s more. I thought the national highways were narrow until I traveled on regional roads. Oncoming carsNarrow winding roads bordered by rock walls or hedgerows are found throughout Ireland cannot pass without squeezing up to a hedgerow or a rock wall delineating the edge of the road. There is no space on either side of the road… zero, zippo, none. Fortunately, vegetation covers many rock walls. When a car brushes against vines, a driver knows that further yielding will cause serious vehicular damage. This is particularly helpful when the approaching vehicle is a tour bus, a sixteen-wheeler, or an oversized farm tractor pulling a flatbed full of hay. While the roads are riddled with hairpin curves, shared with bikers and pedestrians, used for cattle and sheep crossings, the typical speed limit is eighty kilometers per hour (50 mph). Years ago, visitors drove for miles without seeing another car. Those days are long gone, the current road system cannot handle the traffic, and the allowed driving speeds add to the danger. The next time you seek a thrill, forget the latest mega-ride at Six Flags. Just rent a car and go for a drive in Ireland.

Ireland Landscape

Ireland Landscape
Ireland Landscape
Ireland Landscape
Ireland Landscape
Ireland Landscape
Ireland Landscape
Ireland Landscape

The Dalai Lama Visits Ireland to Promote Action for Happiness

From NewsWhip.

Today NewsWhip reports on the Dalai Lama's trip to Ireland. He is visiting the economically depressed country to promote Action for Happiness, a British nonprofit organization that encourages people to value their emotional wellbeing over material consumption.

The Dalai Lama discussed wealth with a Kildare church, saying "The ultimate source of happiness, peace of mind, cannot be produced by money. Billionaires, they are, I notice, very unhappy people. Very powerful; but deep inside, too much anxiety, too much stress."

Even though His Holiness wakes up at 3:30 a.m. every day, he always gets eight or nine hours of sleep, which he attributes to the peace of mind afforded by meditation. He has previously written about happiness in his excellent book The Art of Happiness (which celebrated its tenth anniversary a few years ago), a fact which puts Action for Happiness right in his wheelhouse.

(Read more about what Action for Happiness is doing by clicking my Action for Happiness tag.)

Happiness Course in Ireland Thrives

Dr. Deirdre MacIntyre. From Independent.ie.

Today Independent.ie reports on an Irish happiness class that is receiving offers for international expansion around the world. The class was originally offered only for teachers in Maynooth, but in February of this year, it opened its doors to everyone.

Dr. Deirdre MacIntyre, who runs the course, is the director of the Institute of Child Education & Psychology Europe, Maynooth. She started the course in May 2010 because of pervasive negative attitudes, saying, "We did an online survey of about 400 teachers and parents in May 2010 and discovered that more than 75% of respondents reported that children and young people were anxious about the recession. We decided to look for an antidote to this depression, helplessness, and pessimism."

The course lasts eight weeks, during which participants learn various techniques to improve their psychological wellbeing. Dr. MacIntyre focuses on the positive psychology theory that humans need a 3:1 ratio of positivity to negativity to thrive, and a 5:1 ratio to really flourish.

Dr. MacIntyre partnered with Action for Happiness to offer many scholarships to the €99 course.

Google Hosts Art Competition for Students to Draw Happiness

From the Doodle 4 Google website.

Today in Irish news:  according to this story from The Anglo-Celt, Google is running its third annual Doodle 4 Google competition, in which K-12 students submit artwork relating to a theme. This year's theme is "To me, happiness is..."

As an example of the process, the Loreto College in Ireland received 80 submissions. The student council then picked six entries to go on to the regional competition, during which four made it to the national competition. Now a round of online voting will decide the next finalists. You should vote on your favorite doodle on the website by January 31. The winner gets their art on the main Google page for 24 hours, a laptop, and a €10,000 technology grant for their school.

Google is also doing this competition in other countries, but each one has a different theme and deadline. This seems like a pretty great contest, so remember to vote!