England and Ireland Trip Spring 2013

We had a great trip to England and Ireland in May and June. We flew into Dublin, took a ferry to Wales and drove across northern England to Whitby to see Ellie’s dear friend, Jules, a Yorkshire girl who had come to the US as an au pair in the early 70’s. Ellie had visited once in the 80’s but they hadn’t seen each other in 30 years. It was so fun to see the quaint little vacation town of Whitby and then off to Liverpool for the Magical Mystery Tour.
Back in Dublin, we saw some music and then hit Glendalough (home of St. Kevin) and Powerscourt Gardens. Through the Wicklow mountains, our iphone GPS (renamed Brenda, the Navigator) decided the best route was a one-lane two-way country road. Then to Kilkenny (great music!), The Rock of Cashel, Clonmel (home of some of Kevin’s ancestors), Kinsale (more music), through the Caha Pass (Yikes!) to Kenmare (more music) and then to Dingle for spectacular scenery and yet more wonderful music.
We then took a ferry across the Shannon, visited another ancestral home in the tiny town of Carrigaholt, then on to Doonbeg for links golf for Kevin and spa for ellie. From there, to Galway (lots of music), then up to Sligo, where luck found us in William Butler Yeats’ hometown on his birthday. Ellie even got to sing “Down By the Sallie Gardens” in a pub. We had to take a slightly longer way to Armaugh and Omagh in the north to go around the G8 conference which was being held in Enniskillen while we were there. We even saw Michelle Obama and the girls in a motorcade when we got back to Dublin.
From Newgrange, built in 3200 B. C., to walking the paths trod by Sullivans, Branns and Kennedys, to all we learned about present-day Ireland and northern England, it was truly the trip of a lifetime.