A Wonderful Irish Tour for the Kellers & Trianos

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Wednesday September 26th

Arrive at Dublin airport with Are lingus 273 at 3.25pm

Our Airport Liaison Officer will be awaiting the party on the airside in Dublin Airport, and will arrange for the luggage to be loaded onto trolleys and be brought out to their guide.

Overnight at the Merrion.

Thursday 27th September

Private half-day tour of Dublin

Dublin has long been a centre of art and culture. Stroll through the elegant Georgian streets of Merrion and Fitzwilliam Squares, shop in the elegant emporiums of Grafton Street and Powerscourt Townhouse, explore the collections of the National Museum and National Gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and many fine small private collections. The range of art and artefacts is enormous, and you will have no problem spending many hours enthralled.. The city is over a thousand years old, and many of the towns and settlements that surround it are equally ancient. Successive centuries have left their distinctive overlays of character and architecture which means that Dublin has a wealth of historically significant and fascinating sights to explore such as Dublin Castle, where the Normans ruled from the 12th Century, St Patrick's Cathedral, of which Jonathan Swift was Dean, and Trinity College, famous for The Book of Kells and for its alumni who include Oscar Wilde and Oliver Goldsmith. And no visit to Dublin could be complete without visiting either the Old Whiskey Distillery or the Guinness Storehouse!

A Tour of Dublin's Fair City

Bank of Ireland , College Green
The prestigious offices of Ireland 's national bank began life as the first purpose-built parliament house in Europe . Completed in 1739 it served as Ireland's Parliament until the Act Of Union in 1801  
Trinity College
Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth. Among many famous students to attend the college were playwrights Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Beckett. Trinity's lawns and cobbled quads provide a pleasant haven in the hearth of the city. The major attractions are the Old Library and the Book of Kells, housed in the Treasury. Exit form the front of the Trinity complex and walk from College Green to Dame St and Continue west passing:
The Olympia Theatre - Dating back to the 1800s, this Victorian music hall-style theatre has a capacity of 1,300. It presents an eclectic schedule of variety shows, musicals, operettas, concerts, ballet, comedy, and drama. As a variation, for the late-night crowd, live bands are often featured after regular programs.  A brief diversion here will bring you into the trendy Temple Bar area. Across the Street is  
City Hall 
Erected between 1769 and 1779, and formerly the Royal Exchange. It is a square building in Corinthian style, with three fronts of Portland stone. Since 1852, however it has been the centre of the municipal government. The interior is designed as a circle within a square, with fluted columns supporting a dome shaped roof over the central hall. The building contains many items of interest, including 102 royal charters and the mace and sword of the city. Adjacent to City Hall is:
Dublin Castle
Built between 1208 and 1220, this complex represents some of the oldest surviving architecture in the city, and was the centre of English power in Ireland for over seven centuries until it was taken of by the Irish Free State in 1922. Highlights include the 13th-century record tower, the largest visible fragment of the original Norman castle and the State Apartments, once the residence of English viceroys and now the focal point for government ceremonial functions, including the inauguration of Ireland 's presidents. At this point Dame St takes on the name Lord Edward St , and leads to  
St. Patrick's Cathedral
 Ireland 's largest church was founded beside a sacred well where St. Patrick is said to have baptised converts around 450A.D. A stone slab bearing a Celtic cross and covering the well was un-earthed at the turn of the century(20th). It is now preserved in the west end of the cathedral's nave. The original building was just a wooden chapel and remained so until 1192 when Archbishop John Comyn rebuilt the cathedral in stone. Much of the present building dates back to work completed between 1254 and 1270.  Cut back to  

Powerscourt Town House Centre
The townhouse of a famous Georgian family. Today the building houses one of the cities nicest shopping centres. In the 1960's major restoration turned it into a centre of specialist galleries, antique shops, jewellery stalls, cafés and other shop units. Carry on to Grafton Street down the narrow Johnson Court Alley  

 
Explore the Great Georgian Squares and Doorways.;  Visit the famous Phoenix Park, Home of our President Mary McAllesse;  See the delights of the city of Roddy Doyle, James Joyce, Brendan Behan, Sean O' Casey, Oscar Wilde and Nobel Prize winners W.B Yeats, George B. Shaw and Samuel Beckett.; See Guinness Brewery, O' Connell Street;  The U2 Wall, The National Museum & Gallery

 And of course Molly Malone herself

"In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow, through streets broad and narrow, Crying cockles and mussels,
alive, alive o!"

We would suggest Dinner in the hotel in Patrick Guilbaud's Restaurant, a very serious (and very expensive!) restaurant with two Michelin stars;  or if something lighter and more informal is preferred, then in Ely's Wine Bar or in Pearl, both nearby and both excellent.

Overnight the Merrion

Friday 28th September

 

 

Drive on to Kilkenny, where one should first explore the city, full of medieval laneways, inns with tales of witches, a great castle and of course lots of shops. Follow the valley of the River Nore to Bennetsbridge, with its many craft workers studios, Thomastown with the Cistercian abbey of Jerpoint and childhood home of Bishop Berkley.   

 

 

   

 

Head south to Co Wexford. Visit the  Dunbrody, a replica of the type sailing ship that brought immigrants from Europe to America in the mid 19th Century.   The Kennedy homestead is just south of New Ross.  Further down the peninsula are the gardens of Kilmokea at Campile, Dunbrody Castle, Tintern Abbey and The Lighthouse on Hook Head.  Wexford Town is a busy merchant town, and also well worth a visit

 

 

 

Overnight and dinner at Dunbrody House.

 

 

Saturday 29th September

 

Head south along the coast to Midleton Distillery.  A possible tour of the Cobh Heritage Centre, which traces the history of emigration from this port to the United States. Leave the farmlands of Cork for the hilly countryside of Kerry. Consider lunching in Capella Castlemartyr, once The Earl of Cork's seat, now one of the top resorts worldwide.  Head straight to Adare and arrive by late afternoon so that you can enjoy some leisure time to look around the town.  Overnight at Adare Manor. Dinner at the Hotel.

 

  

 

 

 

 

Overnight at Adare Manor

 

 

 

Sunday  30th September 

 

Tour The Dingle Peninsula  - Dingle is the main town on the Dingle Peninsula, the westernmost point in Ireland. It is just big enough to have all the necessary services for tourists, and a steady night time beat for Irish traditional music.Dingle is traditionally Irish, being in theheart of the Chorca Dhuibhne Gealtacht. The main industries here are farming and fishing.The harbour is always busy with fishing boats and yachts, and its few streets are lined with brightly painted shops, pubs and restaurants. In 1970, Dingle was introduced to the world through the film Ryans Daughter, and Dingle fans from all over the world flock to the small town every year. In the 1990's, the town has gained fame in the world of music, history, gastronomy, scenery and not least it's friendly dolphin. From Dingle travel on and visit Slea Head, Dunquin, Ballyferriter and back into Dingle. You now take the northern route via the lovely Conor Pass, to Stradbally, Camp and Tralee. There is magnificent coastal scenery at the Western end of the peninsula. The Dingle Peninsula – has been inhabited for almost 6,000 years. The first settlers on the peninsula were nomadic hunters and gatherers who foraged on the coast for their food. Later Stone Age man and Bronze Age man were to build their tombs, erect their standing stones, and toil the land for the first time. The Celtic population arrived in the couple of hundred years before the birth of Christ and brought their ancestoral goddess "Duibhne", after which the Dingle Peninsula has been named in Gaelic: Corca Dhuibhne, the seed or tribe of Duibhne. In the centuries that followed, the peninsula was to be visited by Vikings, Normans and English. It is also a centre of craft workers, some inspired by the talented Mulcahy family

 



Each wave of settlers left their mark on the locality and it may be said that the locality left its mark on them. They sustained life here only with great difficulty. Sometimes they warred with each other; at other times they lived side by side in peace and in neighbourliness. They intermarried until with the passage of time they became fused into one people – the people of Corca Dhuibhne of the present day, a people who still speak the Irish language and foster the native culture and who in their daily lives bear witness to indigenous values.

It is certain, then, that the settlers have been of different racial strains. There are very few written accounts of their doings, but they have left behind them a great number of material remains as proof of their journeying and their settling here.

This is one of the richest areas in archaeological remains on the west coast of Europe, with almost 2,000 sites. Here are the largest collections in the world of clocháns or beehive huts, of the stones with the unique ogham writing, of dúnta or ring forts. These remains, including the Oratory at Gallarus and the cross stone of Reasc, give evidence of skilled craftsmanship.

 

 

 

Carry on up to Limerick to overnight at Adare Manor for your last night.  

 

       

 

Monday 1st October

     

 

Explore the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. From their majestic height we see the Aran Islands in the distance, and we observe kittiwakes, puffins, razorbills, and other birds catch the dizzying coastal winds. “Not enough wood to hang a man, not enough water to drown him, and not enough clay to cover his corpse.” That was how one of Oliver Cromwell’s generals described the Burren. Words, however, simply cannot do justice to this eerie, peculiar 193-square mile area of ancient seabed that suffered glacial activity during its long history. Today we see treeless meadows of limestone karst that forms natural pavement interspersed with lush flora. Burren means great rock, and the rock formations do dominate the landscape, but many visitors come to study what grows between the rocks—an amazing mix of arctic, alpine, temperate, and tropical vegetation growing side by side. Twenty-two varieties of orchids thrive here, nourished by underground rivers and rich soil. Scholars of history can scour the Burren for tombs, chambers, and dolmens (two stones that support a horizontal slab), traces of Stone Age inhabitants.  

 

 

Depart Shannon airport at 5pm

 

 

Click here for a map of the route