Ireland

[Spandex]

Going to go to Ireland for a few days in September. Flying to Shannon. Fancy visiting somewhere southwestish.. open to suggestions.. have only ever been to Dublin.

Ideally we'd like to spend 5 days pissed and listening to people playing widdly fiddly diddly celtic music (haven't told the missus about that bit yet)... a bit like in one of those "Visit Ireland" adverts but with better music, more swearing and absolutely no "vaguely celtic maidens" or "old men with twinkly eyes". Bit of walking around might be good too.

Any suggestions?

[Lighter Thief]

I once went right down to the South Western tip near Skibereen (I think). Took a day trip over on a ferry to Clear Island - recommended.

[nempsey]

i went to dingle, was very nice, bit touristy tho, but the kerry peninsula is amazing. almost as nice as north west scotland.

[V Knid esq]

I'm thinking about going to the DEAF festival in Dublin at end of Oct - anyone else up for it?

http://deafireland.com/

[AVX23]

I'm thinking about going to the DEAF festival in Dublin at end of Oct - anyone else up for it?

http://deafireland.com/

That looks really good, might try and save some pennies :)

[notorious J.I.M]

I'm thinking about going to the DEAF festival in Dublin at end of Oct - anyone else up for it?

http://deafireland.com/

Was thinking the same, the last night could be a goodie with Mauritz and Juan. Matt I've been to Wexford where nana was from and also to Cork where Laura got married let me know if you want any pointers.

[Spandex]

I can turn up there and say "Remember Mary who left in 1945? WELL SHE CERTAINLY DIDN'T MUCK ABOUT AND NOW THERE'S 300 OF US AND WE'RE COMING HOME"

[phil2]

just fuckign go there and do whatever

[notorious J.I.M]

I can turn up there and say "Remember Mary who left in 1945? WELL SHE CERTAINLY DIDN'T MUCK ABOUT AND NOW THERE'S 300 OF US AND WE'RE COMING HOME"

:)

[Spandex]

just fuckign go there and do whatever

That's the plan. But we haven't decided where "there" is yet.

[phil2]

go to cork

[Spandex]

K.

[notorious J.I.M]

Cork is pretty nice it's the second biggest city in Ireland and there's plenty to do indoors when the inevitable pissing rain makes outdoor pursuits a chore. ;)

[phil2]

K.



what?

[soulcheck]

Ketamine.

[platinum ray]

You’ll be grand if you’re planning to hire a car. I recommend all of West Cork and the Dingle Peninsula or An Daingean as we’re now supposed to call it. The beaches near Clonakilty are lovely and it’s a nice town in itself. If you drive araound the ‘Ring of Kerry’ on a clear day you won’t forget it too quick, truley beaitiful. I’d say you should do your walking here, but there will be no escaping the twinkley eyed men as their spawing grounds are in this vicinity. The people of Cork City are really great and they have a unique brand of sarcasm which is hilariuos. If you’re in Cork you’ll be able to strike up a conversation about anything with almost anyone and get a laugh. I also recommend that you drive up to The Burren (north Co Clare). It’s like visiting another planet. If you don’t have a car you can get here by bus easily enough.

[Spandex]

Nice one. Was thinking of Clonakilty actually. Might head down there and then roam around.

[decadnids]

Cork is good. go there.

[love_tempo]

ok. I would recommend:

for music look for good festivals. the willie clancy is a good one, there's also one in east clare in later summer and one in killarney in kerry at some stage. clare is probably the best county for it. If you want more details on music in clare I can ask my uncle what nights are good. there did used to be a good session in castleconnell. ennis, near shannon, is good for music too. stay away from shannon town and limerick city.

otherwise, I'd highly recommend maybe staying a night in cork (cafe paradiso is one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the world!), then making your way down through west cork via kinsale (fishy fishy cafe is good for seafood and lord edwards too), clonakilty, glandore (coast drive rocks), skibereen, cape clear islands maybe, glengarriff (garnish island is v. cool), gougane barra national park, beara penisuala (like the surface of the moon, go over healy pass), kenmare, killarney national park (skip the town) or round the ring of kerry looking out for lovely beaches. dingle peninsuala is good for whale watching. connors pass.

sorry, too much stuff, but that last route will take 3-4 days and take in some of the best scenery. btw, clare, cork, galway and donegal are all very lovely but kerry is still the best for scenery despite the tourists. I hear it's very quiet this year too, so haggle for room rates and it should be nice and quiet.

[nempsey]

also beware ridiculously overpriced restauarants that aren't very good

[Spandex]

Wales was really bad for that when we went recently... everywhere serving slightly below average pub-food at decent-restaurant prices (e.g. £12-15 a main). Mentalists. Fish n chips all the way.

[love_tempo]

Ireland is stupidly expensive for food and drink. The 3 I mentioned above aren't cheap (say £12-15 a main) but at least they are really good restaurants. The Quay Co-op in cork city is a good food co-op that has a good cheap buffet (£5-8) with lots of desserts. There's some good chip shops in cork too, generally.

[garew]

Jeremy Irons wants to be from Cork, like really bad

[Patrick]

I can turn up there and say "Remember Mary who left in 1945? WELL SHE CERTAINLY DIDN'T MUCK ABOUT AND NOW THERE'S 300 OF US AND WE'RE COMING HOME"

Ha, I'm from Wexford and I can guarantee they'll still remember Mary who left in 1945. That's how unexciting Wexford is.
If you do want to visit Wexford, go when the Opera Festival is on. There's loads of fringe events and loads of pubs have traditional sessions during festy week.

I'd second the above recommendations for Cork. Great city, usually plenty going on. West Cork and Kerry is good too. Really beautiful. The Ring Of Kerry is spectacular and towns like Tralee, Dingle and Kenmare are busy and lively during tourist season. If you get as far as Dingle, there's a music shop half-way along the main street that you should visit. The guy who owns it is a bit nuts and will offer you whiskey and play tunes for you on a variety of instruments at 10 in the morning. But he's also heavily involved in the local scene so will be able to point you in the direction of good sessions within a fifty mile radius. Actually, if you ask in "the music shop" in most of the small towns they'll be able to tell you where the sessions are. Just be careful to explain you want real bona fide traditional music and not the sort of Foster and Allen schmaltz of two blokes with a keyboard and bass in matching shirts that passes for traditional in a lot of places these days - especially if there are any tourists from americkay anywhere within a hundred mile radius. Bontempi Fields Of Athenry is not good. Most of the small towns in the south west will have some diddly-i music on somewhere most nights though.

[love_tempo]

here's a list of traditional irish music festivals in ireland. some of the festivals are great.

http://www.irish-music.net/LinkFestivals.htm

[operator]

go to castlebar or sligo, the smack's great.