Enniskillen - Devenish Monastic Site

While being hosted by the Enniskillen club last weekend, we visited the Devenish Monastic site on Lough Erne. Rotarians Archie and Colin were kind enough to take us to this spot. Here are some pictures of the ruins of this once church settlement. The weather was interesting that day...changing between sunny and blue skies, then torrential downpour. We did see a few rainbows though!

The Enniskillen club kept us busy not to mention well fed! We also did a tour of the Marble Arch Caves and an exclusive drive through the nearby geopark (felt like a safari tour, but with sheep not elephants and zebras), tour of the Enniskillen County town hall and attending the club meeting.

Thanks to the Enniskillen club for being very fun and sociable hosts!

Sligo, tour of Lissadell

We have been exceedingly lucky with the weather this trip. Anytime we go to a major venue, it the weather seems to clear up. Here is Lissadell in Sligo. Thanks to the Sligo club for bringing us there.

Lissadell is a restored mansion which is largely known for the famous Irish poet Yeats spending a great deal of time there. It is situated on a large property, and highlights of the ground included the Alpine and Walled gardens -in which there were over 160 different varieties of potato. Take it from me... that was a lot of potatoes. We also were able to go on a tour inside the house, and the highlight for me was venturing into the basement where we were able to see the areas the servants and house staff prepared food, ate food themselves, and relaxed. We don't seem to normally get to see that side of mansions. Photos of potatoes and other things to follow!

Lissadell from the distance. Only the upper floor is visible, very large and stone looking.

Potatoes! Who knew there were so many. We only eat such a few varieties of food these days. Good to see that the owners of Lissadell are making efforts to save heritage varieties. Here are 3 of 160 types.

Walled kitchen garden. Food from this garden is used onsite at Lissadell's cafe. I had a quiche that originated in this garden. It was quite tasty.

Alpine Garden and Maureen.

Lisadell was just one of the many things we did in Sligo. More to come!

Galway

Our next stop was Galway, where we started our visit at the Galway Club meeting. We met DG Wes at the meeting as we did in Dingle as well It was my birthday, so DG Wes and the Galway club had a cake and candle ready for me and they all sang Happy birthday. Very sweet of them! After the meeting Rotarians Rick and Michael (both coincidentally from the USA!) and Rick's lovely wife Marcia took us on a short tour of Connemara. This was as stunning scenery as you can get in Ireland and you can see us there as a group posing at one of the area’s beautiful beaches. Rotarian Phil and Galway Club President Paul Nolan joined us for dinner at world famous seafood spot McDonaghs on Quay Street.

The next day was a rest day for the team, so we spent sometime exploring the city of Galway. We all met up for my birthday dinner at the Malt House and had a delicious meal before meeting up with Galway Salthill club members Pearse and Damien, and club president Gerry. They took us to O'Connors in Salthill where we enjoyed great traditional music and craic as the Irish call it! Craic, by the way, means having a good time or a good laugh.

Thanks to both Galway clubs for their great hospitality! We all agree that Galway is a place we want to visit again.

Limerick

After a lovely time in Dingle our fabulous taxi driver/tour guide Diarmud left us in Tralee where their local Rotary club drove us to Limerick after a stop for lunch. Thank you Cadance and Rory for the hospitality!

Next stop was Limerick where we spent 3 days enjoying the company of the Limerick Shannon and Limerick Thomond Rotary clubs, as well as another round of vocational visits. I visited Rotarian Gerry Reeves, Regional Manager at the Bank of Ireland. He had a wealth of knowledge to share with me, particularly with the economic downturn that has also greatly effected banking and credit in Ireland. Thank you Gerry and Bill for the great visit!

While in Limerick we also enjoyed a boat ride on the River Shannon up to Tipperary County with Rotarian John Ryan. We stopped at Larkins pub in Garrykennedy to enjoy the hurling final. If you've never heard of hurling, You Tube has some great footage of this exciting sport! We had a great time sitting with the locals as their home club Tipperary (or "Tip") won the final. Well done Tip!!!

We also had a visit to Bunratty castle for a medieval themed meal and a dinner hosted by the presidents of both local clubs. All in all, Limerick was great and we were again showed that famous Irish hospitality. I had a lovely time with my host family - thank you Anita, Michael, Ruth and Hugh for being so wonderful to me!

Onward to Galway!

Dingle!

After 3 great days in Cork, we took the train to Tralee then had a ride from our lovely taxi driver Diarmud out to Dingle. We wet through the breathtaking Connor Pass, enjoying a few stops along the way to take pictures. Diarmud was a great tour guide and we learned a lot about how life was in this area decades and centuries ago.

When we arrived in Dingle, we joined the Dingle club's meeting. DG Wes was there to speak to the club, so we had some brief introductions but saved our presentation for another time. While in Dingle, we stayed at the guesthouse of Rotarian Jim. It was great to have the 6 of us stay together and enjoy the lovely beachfront views.

We also did some touring around Dingle and went up Sleahs head drive to the most western point of Ireland. Again, the views were spectacular. After our tour, we had a bbq at the house with some Rotarians and their families joining us. It was a great visit to Dingle and we all have Dingle on our list of places to visit when back in Ireland.

On to Limerick next!

Cork Day 2

We had vocational days our second day in Cork and got to learn how businesses and organizations functioned. We appreciate our host families for their hospitality, and for making us feel welcome. We had a BBQ social in the evening with all four clubs that was relaxing and fun. Thank you Cork clubs!