Amazing Art, Ancient and Modern, in Ireland

Gold 2,200 BC	Tara	Newgrange 3,000 BC

Day 1 Friday April 9th

Arrive Dublin in the early Morning. Your guide will meet you in the arrivals hall of the airport and bring you in a luxury coach for an  overview of the city.  Visit the prehistoric gold at the National Museum .   Light lunch in the tea rooms at the Chester Beatty Library - an art museum and library which houses the great collection of manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and some decorative arts assembled by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968). The Library's exhibitions open a window on the artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world. Its rich collection from countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.  Afternoon to relax.  Dinner at The Hotel .  Stay at The Merrion Hotel   The hotel belongs to Lochlann Quinn, one of the great collectors of twentieth century Irish painting   and Martin Naughton, whose collection rivals Quinn’s, though tends to an earlier period.  A selection from their collections is hung in the hotel.  LD

Day 2 Saturday April 10th

A day of Dublin  

The Rubicon		The Kerlin
Kevin Kavanagh's		Bacon's Studio

Although the commercial contemporary scene in Dublin is still dominated by a predominance of unadventurous and sentimental sub-abstract expressionism and the annual exhibitions of the Royal Hibernian Academy are even more conservative, there are some beacons in the darkness.   Today you will visit The Kerlin Gallery, The Rubicon, The Museum of Modern Art and The Hugh Lane Gallery.   Private lunch in a cookery school in a Georgian house in Ballsbridge, Dublin's embassy belt.  Tonight a play a the Abbey Theatre with post theatre supper in Dublin's most theatrical restaurant The Trocadero.  BLD

Day 3 Sunday April 11th 

Newgrange	Monasterboice	Dunsany

A visit to Newgrange the amazing example of prehistoric building and megalithic art,  Beaulieu House at Drogheda, the earliest undefended house in Ireland and still in the family of the builder’s descendants, and some of the early Christian sites including the fine high cross at Monasterboice. Lunch with Ashling Law at her country house Rosnaree - Ashling is the daughter of sculptress Imogen Stuart.  Visit Dunsany Castle – Lady Dunsany is a distinguished Brazilian architect, and her husband is a designer, especially of ceramics.   Their home is a treasure house of everything form the 13th century to the 21st century.   Dinner with traditional entertainment in an historic hostelry in Dublin.  BLD

Day 4 Monday April 12th

Leave Dublin and head to Carlow to meet the director of Visual, the most exciting new visual art space in Ireland, visiting  the Museum of Style at Newbridge and The National Stud Farm in Kildare on the way.  

 

VISUAL  presents the work of a balanced mixture of local, national international artists. It is the mission of the centre to be rooted locally but known internationally, so that the immediate community is integrated and linked in a meaningful way into the programmes.  The four gallery spaces have been designed to the highest specifications allowing for flexible and innovative displays which give artists an opportunity to flex their creativity and expand the scale and materials they use to make their work. The main gallery is unrivalled in Ireland for its size, light, clarity and proportions and will offer both a challenge and opportunity to any artist who takes it on. Two other white cube spaces, the Studio Digital Galleries allow for a variety of uses, including the display of audio-visual work and the presence of an artist in residence. 

On to Kilkenny for lunch in Shankill Castle with Elizabeth Cope.  Elizabeth  paints spontaneous, spirited still lifes, views of interiors, animals, portraits and domesticated landscapes. A decorative painter, her style owes a great deal to Matisse and to another decorative artist, Raoul Dufy. She has exhibited widely, both in Ireland and abroad, and her paintings are held in a number of important public and private collections.   Visit  the Butler Art Gallery in Kilkenny Castle.

Dinner as the guests of Susan Mosse as you enjoy her collection at Kilfane which includes works of art by artists such as David Nash, James Turrell, Bill Woodrow, & William Pye. Overnight in  The Mount Juliet Hotel, the 18^th century seat of the Earl of Carrick, now a luxury hotel.  BLD

	Kilkenny

Day 5  Tuesday 13th April

To Berkley Forest to meet The Countess Berstorff, the artist responsible for the Ros Tapestry.  

Crawford	Lismore	Glucksman

Lunch in Lismore and a visit to the sculpture collection in the gardens put together by the present Duke of Devonshire.  To the Crawford Gallery and the Glucksman Gallery in Cork and a little time to explore this fine city.  Overnight in Cork at Hayfield Manor. 

Day 6  Wednesday 14th April

Timoleague	Sky Garden	Kinsale

An early departure to see the James Turrell’s Sky Garden.  Lunch in a seaside inn, and the afternoon in Kinsale.  Those with an interest in studio ceramics will enjoy Francis Keane’s gallery. The Victorian Buddhist decorated Episcopalian church in Timoleague is also an unusual curiosity.  Return to Hayfield Manor for dinner.  BLD

Day 7  Thursday 15th April

The Hunt	Yeats

First to Midleton, famed for its Whiskey Distillery.  Then to lunch at Kilshanning house, originally the home of Princess Diana's grandfather, Lord Fermoy.  On to Limerick after lunch and a visit to the Hunt Museum.  John Hunt was Sotheby’s medieval art expert in the 1950s and built up one of Ireland 's greatest private collections of art and antiquities, dating from the Neolithic to the 20th Century, including works by Renoir, Picasso and Yeats.   Finish the day checking into the massive gothic mansion built by the Earls of Dunraven and now surrounded by a stunning Trent Jones Golf Course, Adare Manor.  Dinner at Hotel

Day 8  Friday 16th April

A day of touring with no cultural demands - a  trip to the natural beauties of Killarney, with its lakes, and the highlights of The Ring of Kerry

A final farewell to Ireland dinner at The Mustard Seed at Echo Lodge, an outstanding local restaurant.

Day 9 Saturday 17th April

Depart via Shannon

Rosalyn Manowitz
Valerie Wilson Travel, Inc.
2700 Westchester Avenue, Purchase, New York 10577
Telephone: Direct (914) 701-3202 or Toll Free(800) 776-1116 and ask for Rosalyn Manowitz
Email: rosalynm@vwti.com