After years of talking about it, I took a family trip to Ireland with my mom and my sister, organized by my stepsister.
Dublin, November 20 & 21
Our first day in Ireland didn't quite go to plan; everybody's flight out of Newark was delayed by a few hours. The only thing we had time for was a tour of the Guinness factory.
Kilkenny and Waterford, November 21
On the way south, we stopped at Kilkenny to see its old castle from the 1200s, and then down to Waterford to see Waterford Crystal.
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Our first look at Kilkenny Castle. I think that was the parking lot of the train station we were standing in.
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The church of St. John the Evangelist.
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Inside the church.
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I can't remember what that was. A harvest type of thing?
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Stained glass.
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Very cool.
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More stained glass.
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Back outside.
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Walking to the castle.
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St. John's Priory, partially ruined.
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Should've stopped in.
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Kilkenny Castle.
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St. Francis Abbey.
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Gaelic football.
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The plaza/wide sidewalk at the main entrance to the castle.
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I thought this was a church when I took the picture, looking on Street View it's an office in an older non-church building.
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Fountain on the castle grounds.
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Kilkenny Castle (Caisleán Chill Chainnigh) was built in 1260.
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A statue at the northwest corner that I can't find anything about.
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Looking up the River Nore from the castle grounds.
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And downriver.
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Back toward the train station.
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The gate.
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And the crest above it.
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Through the gate, looking down the... yard, I guess.
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And the remaining three sides of the old fortress.
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An educational video inside one of the towers.
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The little slits for archers.
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The inside was remodeled during the Victorian Era, much like Cardiff Castle in Wales.
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Archaeology.
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A knight.
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Getting a little artsy there.
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Balcony.
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Dining room.
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About.
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Books.
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The fountain, from the top floor.
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Chess.
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Piano.
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A little chest-of-drawers kind of thing.
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Another painting. I took so many pictures of this castle. And the Canon did a worse job than the phone would have.
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A kid's room.
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The fountain again, and more of Kilkenny.
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Christmas tree.
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More Christmas decorations.
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Tapestry.
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Another.
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Detail on the fireplace.
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Some nearby buildings that are part of the castle complex, built in the 1700s.
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With some modern additions.
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About the Castle Yard.
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Cool building.
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Now in Waterford.
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A boat.
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Reginald Tower.
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Statue of Thomas Meagher.
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Some boats on the River Suir.
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A memorial to the SS Formby, sunk during WWI.
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More readable text.
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The lost.
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Similar memorial for the SS Coningbeg.
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Those lost in the sinking.
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More about Meagher.
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A model of the old walled city of Waterford.
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Coins from the 12th and 13th centuries.
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The English are coming, prequel edition.
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Phrasing.
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A look at Waterford from the tower.
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About the town.
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Looks cool, no idea what it is any more.
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Model of the tower.
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Up the street at Waterford Crystal.
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About.
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A clock made of glass.
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With a seahorse on top -- Waterford Crystal's logo.
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Trophies.
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Mo[u]lds.
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Part of the production line.
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Blowing the glass.
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Do I know what a WHAT is?
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More glass blowing.
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The furnace. My camera doesn't really know how to deal with things that are glowing red-hot.
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Neat refraction.
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Before and after frosting.
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Samples to measure against.
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More samples to get marked up, including a basketball trophy.
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Polishing again.
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I think that's how the frosted look is done. Can't remember for sure though.
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Piano, with bench.
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An old record player, and a bird.
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MURICA!
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Some fine detail on the record player.
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"I don't even see the code any more, I just see: door, snowman, dolphin."
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Waterford's (the city) coat of arms.
Cork, November 22 & 23
We spent a good chunk of the first day of Cork, which is where the Sullivan part of the family came from, on the train. The next day we went to an old castle to get up close and personal with a rock.
Killarney and Ring of Kerry, November 24 & 25
Killarney is a neat little town in the southwestern part of the country. We took a "jaunty cab" ride to a nearby park to see Muckross House and got to see their Christmas parade that evening, then took a bus tour around the Ring of Kerry the next day.
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The "jaunty cab" in Killarney.
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Old and new.
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A better look at the old. I can't find what this is on Google.
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Going along the road, which is part of the Ring of Kerry that we'd do the next day.
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Lough Leane through some trees.
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A better look at the lake.
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A little bridge.
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Muckross Abbey. There's no roof any more but the rest of it is in good shape.
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The graveyard behind the abbey.
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This is all in Killarney National Park.
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Our destination, the Muckross House. A Tudor-style house built in the 1840s and donated to the Irish Free State to create its first national park.
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Our transport.
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More of the house.
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Closer.
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Muckross Lake (or maybe the end of Lough Leane).
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Not sure where I took this from. I remember the house being (partially?) closed when we were there, but there's something at the top of the frame, and I seem to be above ground level.
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Or maybe not, this is a few seconds later and is at ground level looking at the lake.
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A window? An atrium maybe? At least I backed up a bit so I can take a guess.
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Walking to the Torc waterfall.
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A look at the waterfall.
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The top.
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The trail up to the top.
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The backside of the Muckross House.
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Another hotel Christmas display, this time in Killarney.
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On the Ring of Kerry. Our first stop was the Red Fox Inn, and the Bog Village Museum.
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It's a village set up to show harvesting peat from the nearby bogs.
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Inside one of the cottages.
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Bedroom.
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An antique here. And also some old things.
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Michael Clifford. Tended the biggest herd of goats in County Kerry. OK.
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Farm equipment.
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Bog ponies.
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About the potato blight that caused the great famine.
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About peat.
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Pile o' peat.
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Bog bodies.
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An actual old house, the others are recreations.
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He wanted some attention.
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About Irish wolfhounds.
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The wolfhounds at the museum. I honestly didn't think they lived that long.
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Pupper.
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The other dog.
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Irish coffee at the bar.
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The red fox.
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I accidentally did a tilt-shift thing here.
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The skellig monks, near Caherciveen.
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The Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church in Caherciveen.
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Village on the other side of the inlet.
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The statue of Mick O'Dwyer in Waterville.
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Waterville.
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And Charlie Chaplin.
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On the road again.
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The beach.
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In Sneem.
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Scenery.
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An old church near Derrycunihy.
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Horses.
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Getting ready for Killarney's Christmas parade.
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They got some balls over there.
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In a town full of Catholics, I managed to take a picture of a Methodist church.
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Headed over to Main Street/High Street for the parade itself. Here they go.
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Bagpipers.
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And drums.
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Donald Duck, for some reason.
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Mickey.
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I think Santa's on there somewhere. (He wasn't.)
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OK that one's cool.
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Maybe this one was Santa's.
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Elfs, at least.
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I honestly can't remember why there was a USA float in an Irish Christmas parade.
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I like the tree decoration hanging at the left of the image.
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You heard them, it's party time.
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Penguins.
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Gingerbread people.
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OK, this one's Santa.
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The man of the hour.
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More lights walking to dinner.
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There was food too.
Cliffs of Mohr, November 26
On the last full day of our trip we visited the Cliffs of Mohr. The weather didn't exactly cooperate. From there we went to our last hotel in Ballingary, and the next day was our flight home.
