St. Patrick’s day is celebrated on March 17th. What originally started as a religious celebration to honour the man credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland has now turned into a celebration of all things Irish. In England, while we were still in lockdown we could not go to the pubs for a Guinness or hop on a Ryanair flight to Dublin so we had to be content with a virtual celebration. I also decided to attempt a virtual walk of the Ring of Kerry.

I first visited Ireland with a school friend about fifty years ago, when I was studying history at university in Bangor, North Wales.  we caught the ferry from Holyhead in Anglesey to Dun Laoghaire near Dublin.

Dublin

It was the time of the troubles and at times we felt unsafe with our English accents.  On the return journey, we sailed in thick fog with lots of soldiers as our fellow passengers. Many of the young lads got drunk and some were sick.

Despite our fears, we found the Irish people to be welcoming and very friendly. We enjoyed a visit to the Guinness brewery with a free sample. We also went to Trinity College to see the book of Kells, a ninth-century illuminated version of the gospels.

This statue of Molly Mallone is a firm favourite with locals and visitors.

Recent visits

Since our retirement, Bill and I have made further trips to Ireland.  One year, We flew to Dublin from Bristol airport for a long weekend away. I was surprised to find the Celtic tiger booming. A lot of the Dublin streets seemed to have road works for the new metro system. There were fancy department stores and international restaurants. A lamp at the presidential mansion is kept lit to encourage the Irish diaspora to return

Another time we took a flight from Bristol airport to Cork and joined a coach tour around the wild Atlantic way. I learned much more about the history of southern Ireland. Our trip included a visit to the very moving famine museum.

We were also able to watch seals sunning themselves on the rocks close to our hotel.

 

Cobh

Our latest visit was a short stop at Cobh when we returned to Bristol from a cruise holiday. Cobh was the last port of call of the Titanic and has a very interesting Titanic museum. Visitors are given an identity card of one of the passengers and at the end of the visit you find out if you survived.

The Ring of Kerry virtual tour

As I could not visit in person in 2020, I  signed up for a virtual challenge to walk the 126 miles of the ring of Kerry.  It normally takes three and a half hours by coach but I  allowed myself three months to complete it. The challenge is run by Conqueror Challenges. The app allows you to connect a Fitbit or other fitness tracker and to plot your progress on google street view.  If you succeed Conqueror Challenges will plant real trees. They also send you virtual postcards along the way and a medal at the end.

I was pleased to find my route started in Killarney. I remember visiting Killarney national park a few years ago and being very tempted to take a ride in one of the jaunting carts that were for hire.

I was inspired to sign up by Erica who blogs at behind the scenery and is trying to walk around Iceland. My *link will give you a 10% discount on any challenge.

Driving the Ring of Kerry

Naturally it is much better  to visit Ireland in person. A good option is to rent a car The Ring of Kerry is a route around the Iveragh Peninsula in the south-west corner of Ireland. It includes low mountains, lakes and seaside villages. It is a beautiful area that was used as one of the filming locations for Star Wars episodes VII and VIII.  

It is better to drive the Ring of Kerry in a clockwise direction as that gives you the best views. (Like us they drive on the left in Ireland).