ADVENTURING IRELAND ©
by Tira Brandon-Evans
Spring is the time of year we begin to plan our travel adventures. Ireland is a wonderful place to visit. The people are as friendly as they are reputed to be. The land itself is beautiful. Everyone speaks English. The pubs are excellent and there are a lot of things to see and do.
I have travelled in Ireland many times and there are some things everyone should know before setting out to adventure Ireland.
YOUR ITINERARY
The best advice I can give you is, don't make one. Keep your schedule really lose. Have a general plan of things you would like to see, but know you are not going to see even half of them. Make a list of the top ten things you want to do in Ireland, then cross off five – you may just be able to do those. If you begin in this way, you can relax and enjoy your Irish adventure. If you make a strict schedule, stuffed with things to do and places to see, you are going to be disappointed and very frustrated.
Everything you do in Ireland is going to take at least twice as long as you think it will. This is just the nature of Ireland and the Irish. No one is in a hurry. "Rush" is not in the Irish vocabulary. If you can slow down, relax, and allow all, you will have a wonderful time. If you can not, you will have a miserable time. Whatever expecations you have, let them go before you set foot in Ireland. Accept the adventure as you live it.
GETTING AROUND
TRAINS
If you do not mind spending most of your time in train stations, and plan to visit only those locations near a rail line, trains are a viable option. You definitely do not want to drive a car in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, or any large city in Ireland. The traffic in Dublin, and other cities, is pretty well in permanent gridlock. If you want to get out into the counrtyside and adventure on your own you need a car.
BUSES
If you want to waste almost all your time in Ireland, take the bus. I found bus travel in Ireland singularly unpleasant. The schedules are a pretense. The buses are old and the drivers have a penchant for playing loud pop music. Buses going to out-of-the-way places are milk runs. The buses stop for long periods of time at every hamlet and village, and sometimes in places that appear to be open fields. There are no washrooms on the buses. It once took me five hours to get from the Dublin airport to Athlone – a distance of only 70 miles. It was this unpleasant and frustrating bus trip that convinced me to rent a car.
RENTING YOUR CAR
When you rent your car, check to be sure the side mirrors fold up BOTH WAYS – back and front – or that they can be folded back against the car. I lost a mirror on a narrow street in a little town when I had to squeeze over to let a delivery van through. In the towns the streets are terribly narrow – with parking on both sides. Broken mirrors are common. If you are afraid to drive in Ireland, read on.
TIRA'S NO-CRASH COURSE IN DRIVING ON THE 'WRONG' SIDE
When you first arrive in Ireland you soon notice the drivers are all trying kill you whenever you cross the street. Right? Or do I mean left?
The reason we think everyone on wheels in Ireland is out to get us is because of a deeply ingrained habit we formed when our moms taught us to look both ways before crossing the street. Think of exactly what we do when we are preparing to cross the street.
We look to the left, because that is the direction from which the car nearest us will come. Seeing the left lane clear, we look right, to the far lane, to see if any cars are coming. If that lane is clear we look to the left again, just to be sure no car has suddenly appeared in the lane closest to us. Assured all is clear, we cross the street.
Now in Ireland everything is turned around. The car nearest is on the right – not the left. The car in the far lane is on the left. When we look left, right, left – as we do here – we are sometimes alarmed to discover a car in the right lane bearing down on us when we step off the curb.
So, in Ireland, whether you are crossing a street on foot, or proceeding into an intersection in a car, you must do the opposite of what you do here.
You look right, to see if the near lane is clear. You look left to determine if the far lane is clear. Then you look RIGHT again.
I found the time of most danger to me was when I was coming out of the driveway of the B&B first thing in the morning. The first time I did that I backed out onto a busy road, nearly killing myself and the innocent driver who almost hit me. It is hard enough to remember everything is backwards when one is going forwards without complicating matters by entering a road behindwise. So, even if you have to do some fancy manoeuvring, never back out into a road, always enter any road hood first.
The whole time I was driving, whenever I had to make a turn, enter a road, proceed through an intersection, or turn onto another road this was my mantra:
Look right, keep left, keep the *itch in the ditch.*
(* Imagine you have as passenger the most horrid woman you know and "keep the *itch in the ditch.")
Another odd thing about driving in Ireland is that, except for one freeway-type highway, the main roads are generally only two lanes. But most have wide and solid shoulders. The Irish drive like bats from the pit. I found the habitual tailgating annoying at first, until I realized they use the shoulders as pull-over lanes. When someone comes up behind you, just pull halfway off the road and they take the 'middle lane' along the median divider line and go around you. You don't even have to slow down much, just drive half on the road and half on the shoulder. Same thing when you get behind a slow poke. Everyone does it. Just be sure the shoulder is solid. I nearly got into trouble driving in bog country one day.
The third disconcerting thing is that the Irish park both ways, not as we park. We park in the direction our hood ornament is pointing. They will cross lanes and park facing oncoming traffic – as they do in England. This can be confusing if you find yourself going down a street where all the cars are parked facing you. It is hard to tell if it is a one way street or if the locals all happened to have parked facing your way. I had more then one fright before I figured this out.
BANKING
Take lots of cash money with you or arrange to get your travellers cheques turned into Euros as soon as you get to Ireland.
Banks are few and far between. They open at odd and extremely irregular hours. In Dublin, or other large cities, you will probably be okay at hotels and restaurants, but once you head into the countryside you will find fewer and fewer places like cashing travellers cheques. ATMs are not terribly common either. Many, many, many towns have no banks at all.
Banks are closed on Saturdays and Sundays, and even on weekdays they open late and close early. The bank branches do not have standard lunch hours, each branch takes their lunch when the staff pleases. This means you may be in a banking town and go to an Abby Bank and find it is closed from noon to one. But, arriving at the next banking town, you find their Abby Bank branch is closed from one to two. It is possible to play musical banks in this way, trying to find one open. I found it best to wait the hour for the branch to reopen, rather then rushing around the countryside hoping to find one open.
MAPS
The first thing you MUST do is get yourself some decent maps. I used Bartholomew's road map for the big picture, but depended on my Ordnance Survey Holiday Map 1:250 000 for finding most specific locations.
"Towns" on the maps often turn out to be only a couple of houses – or nothing at all. This can be quite maddening when you have travelled out of your way to reach some destination and find only a farmhouse there – or an empty field.
PHONE CARDS
Get a phone card as soon as you arrive – along with the maps and car. It is so nice to be able to just use a phone card instead of having to search for change all the time. Alternatively, I am assured by friends who travelled in Ireland recently, one may purchase a disposable cellphone.
WASHROOMS
Public washrooms are few and far between. Most gas stations don't have them. So ask BEFORE you gas up. In 2001 there was only one MacDonald's in central Ireland, so that mainstay bathroom is not available either. Pubs are the best bet for washrooms but you will probably have to make a purchase.
FOOD AND LODGING
B&B's are the best bet and best value. A solid Irish breakfast to start the day will set you up until the late afternoon. Pub food is the best bet for dining out in the evening.
The best lunches I had were from gas stations – most in the countryside are also little general stores. The moms and pops who run these make fresh sandwiches daily. You have to take what is offered and there is sometimes no great selection. My favourite was a chicken and cole-slaw sandwich from a gas station near Blarney. The proprietor offered it to me in an abashed way, and apologized because chicken and coleslaw were all he had on hand that morning. But it was really delicious, and I now make these myself.
A gas station sandwich with an apple or crisps is all you need if you have had a great Irish breakfast.
I stayed at the Riverview House, near Athlone for most of my last Irish adventure. Athlone is a large town located in West Meath near the centre of Ireland. From Riverview House, I was able to day-trip in all directions and easily reach most of the sites I wanted to visit. The advantage of finding a good central location is that you don't have to pack and unpack every day, and you know where you are going to rest your head each night. This removes a lot of the stress of travel. The Corbetts of Riverview House are outstanding hosts and Carmel, who is a lovely person, prepares a wonderful breakfast. The rooms are large and heated and this is a truly outstanding B&B.
When I adventured to Emain Macha, I stayed at the Fairylands Country House. This is an excellent B&B. Maureen Oliver is an outstanding host and the accommodations are stellar. I spent only one night at Fairylands, but hope to spend many more when I next return to Ireland.
(This is my unsolicited opinion. I am not receiveing any money or consideration for highly recommending Riverview House and Fairylands Guesthouse.)
STAYING WELL
DON'T drink the local water. Drink bottled water. This is true any time you travel. The bugs in other people's water are different from the bugs in ours and that is why travellers get sick.
Take Purell® or some other waterless hand cleaner. Wash your hands a lot and you should stay well.
Ireland may be chill and damp any time of year. Take a light coat and warm sweater or two, or treat yourself to a handknit sweater made in Ireland. Be sure to ask prospective B&B hosts if they have central heat AND if they leave the heat on at night. Otherwise expect a cold room in the morning.
WHAT TO SEE
Emain Macha, at Navan Fort near Armagh. Much better than Newgrange and at the top of my list to revisit. They have a wonderful museum and tourists are allowed unsupervised access to the site. The site is free but there is fee for the museum and visitors centre. It is well worth the fee. While there, be sure to check out nearby King's Stables. Very powerful place – or was for me.
The Grianan of Aileach, on the Hill of Aileach overlooking Lough Swilly in Donegal. Access is free and open. There is an interesting tourist centre some miles away in the town of Burt. While on the hill be sure to wander round and find the holy well.
Lough Gur, in Co. Limerick, and the Lios (also called 'the Grange').
The Hill of Tara is interesting, with free access to the site and a great bookseller. Tara is horribly windy – at least it was the day I was there – so take a warm sweater and a windbreaker jacket.
The Slieve na Calliagh, the Hag's Mountain, in West Meath is a magical place – but I never found the mound there – no signs.
Croghan Hill near Kildare – nothing there but the Brighid energy – this is the Hill of the Forge, where She eternally forges the Dagda's cauldron. Kildare Town is a definite must experience if you are devoted to Brighid.
Dowth, Knowth and Newgrange. Dowth and Knowth were closed when I was there in 2001, because of the hoof-in-mouth outbreak – a lot of places were closed – so I don't know what they are like. I was disappointed in Newgrange. The tour guides don't allow one a moment's silence or contemplation or solitude. If you try to wander away for even a moment from the group they are on you like ducks on a junebug. And no photos. And they won't answer any questions about the other things besides the grange. There is, for instance, the excavation of a huge wooden structure right beside the barrow but the guides won't discuss what it is, or let you take pictures of it – most disappointing. They do have an interesting tourist centre and museum there but I enjoyed Emain Macha a lot more.
(I understand if you know 'someone' at the University or in the Ministry of Tourism you can get special treatment when you visit Newgrange – a private tour and what not. So, if you know 'someone' ....)
ALL IN ALL
When all is said and done, there is nothing so enlightening as visiting the land of your ancestors. If your ancestors were from Ireland, you need to set foot on the 'old sod'. Not only will you discover wonderful and unexpected things about Ireland, you may also discover a missing piece of your own heart and soul.
Have a great trip and a grand adventure.
Tira Brandon-Evans is a Chartered Herbalist, the Founder and Moderator of the Society of Celtic Shamans, editor of Earthsongs: Journal of the Society of Celtic Shamans, and a Faery Shaman. Her books, The Green and Burning Tree: A Faery Shaman's Handbook, Portals of the Seasons: A Celtic Wheel of the Year, Through the Unremembered Gate: Journeys of Initiation, The Labyrinthine Way: Walking Ancient Paths in a Modern World, and Healing Waters, are all published by Elder Grove Press. She is presently writing a book about the Ogham. You may contact Tira by email at info@faeryshaman.org.
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