Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Back from Oireland (well four days ago!)
I was over in Ireland last week with the family (i.e. the folks) to Buncrana in Co Donegal, and it was actually quite a pleasant little holiday, we took the bus, so it took about 9 straight hours to get there, so it was a rather long haul. The only snag for me on the holiday was much to my embarrassment most of the passengers were OAPs so I did feel just a little bit out of place on the bus. Nevertheless the experience of Ireland itself pretty enjoyable, it was nice to be in another country for a change.
Over the five days we were there (OK four and a bit) we went to different places such as Letterkenny (which was rather nice), Dunlewy (which was OK), Doagh which was rather stunning (home of the Doagh Famine Village which we were given a tour of, and turned out to be fascinating). We also travelled to Derry (or Londonderry) which any of you who has been to Derry will see the sign posts that say "Londonderry" with London sprayed out. This has caused alot of controversy within the city of Derry itself as catholic and protestant factions in the city remain divided on whether the city should be associated with London given its history. We were also given a tour of the city by a rather passionate speaker, who spoke frankly of the city's historical troubles with the British army and the IRA and it was rather scary to hear that the army presence hadn't fully left Derry until last year! To look at it now Derry seems such a thriving place to be in and its seems difficult to believe it has had such past troubles, but you could still get a feel for its past time trauma especially with the murals of Bloody Sunday shown in one of the urban streets. The final trip we did though was Donegal town, which was very nice indeed.
So overall it was nice stay if you can forgive the Irish's over indulgence when it comes to food (this time though I could handle it! Unlike the last time in Dublin) and its insistence on using the Euro and Pounds (just to confuse you!) in the South and North, I'd recommend a jaunt over there.
Over the five days we were there (OK four and a bit) we went to different places such as Letterkenny (which was rather nice), Dunlewy (which was OK), Doagh which was rather stunning (home of the Doagh Famine Village which we were given a tour of, and turned out to be fascinating). We also travelled to Derry (or Londonderry) which any of you who has been to Derry will see the sign posts that say "Londonderry" with London sprayed out. This has caused alot of controversy within the city of Derry itself as catholic and protestant factions in the city remain divided on whether the city should be associated with London given its history. We were also given a tour of the city by a rather passionate speaker, who spoke frankly of the city's historical troubles with the British army and the IRA and it was rather scary to hear that the army presence hadn't fully left Derry until last year! To look at it now Derry seems such a thriving place to be in and its seems difficult to believe it has had such past troubles, but you could still get a feel for its past time trauma especially with the murals of Bloody Sunday shown in one of the urban streets. The final trip we did though was Donegal town, which was very nice indeed.
So overall it was nice stay if you can forgive the Irish's over indulgence when it comes to food (this time though I could handle it! Unlike the last time in Dublin) and its insistence on using the Euro and Pounds (just to confuse you!) in the South and North, I'd recommend a jaunt over there.
# posted by kenny @ 10:46 pm 
