Reading List

This is a list of books I've read (or am reading*) as part of the preparation for the trip.  Four of the books listed deal with the Great Famine, because I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that this was allowed to happen to the Irish people.  Maybe if I keep reading different accounts of what happened, it will at some point make some sense to me. 

Paddy's Lament, 1846-1847:  Prelude to Hatred

Black Potatoes:  The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850

Vanishing Ireland: Further Chronicles of a Disappearing World

Angela's Ashes

When Ireland Fell Silent:  A Story of a Family's Struggle Against Famine and Eviction

* The Graves are Walking:  The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People

* In Search of Ancient Ireland:  The Origins of the Irish from Neolithic Times to the Coming of the English

* Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916

* Star of the Sea

* People of the Wetlands: Bogs, Bodies and Lake-Dwellers (Ancient Peoples and Places)

* To Hell or Barbados:  The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland

* Nan:  The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman (note: about the gypsy culture in Ireland)

Below are some pictures of a gypsy caravan similar to the one that Nan, the subject of the last book in the list, probably lives(d) in.  The one in the photos has been refurbished to accommodate tourists at the Phoenix organic farm in Castlemaine, Co. Kerry.  We'll be staying in this camper-style room (without facilities) for one night and try to learn more about the Irish travellers' way of life.  Of course, we'll be dining in high style on organic food picked that day on the farm and drinking organic wine - not your typical gypsy meal - but this night should provide us with some pretty special insight into one aspect of Irish culture not often understood by tourists. 

There's also a large pile of travel books next to the bed, some of which include:

Rick Steves Ireland

Around Ireland on a Bike

Cycle Touring in Ireland

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Ireland

Ireland for Food Lovers

A Foodie In Ireland

Delicious, healthy food isn't really what came to mind when I first thought of traveling to Ireland.  During my Irish-American childhood, I ate lots of meat and potatoes, and occasionally we mixed things up by having potatoes and meat.  Throughout most of the year, we ate canned vegetables with our meat and potatoes (or potatoes and meat), so I was always excited when summer arrived, because it meant that the farm down the road would be opening their fruit stand.  Luckily for me, my mom enjoyed shopping there and teaching me how to prepare fresh fruits and vegetables.  Overall, though, our diet was very basic, flavored only with salt and pepper (herbs? spices?  Jesus, Mary and Joseph, what are they?), and I didn't learn to really "cook" until my late 20s.  Cooking has become one of my true passions, and since I'm now also an avid grower of food, there's plenty of home-grown fresh, frozen, and canned produce to supply us year-round. 

So, the food in Ireland wasn't really a big draw.  Rather, it was something I knew we'd have to consume over there to survive for two weeks and that it might not be too bad as long we could find some good stew.  I wondered at one point how many variations of meat and potatoes we would try and whether or not we would find any (good) salad.  It's not like going to Italy, for heaven's sake, where the food - glorious Italian food - is one of the main attractions.

The first book I ordered to learn more about the type of food we might encounter was, "The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook."  The recipes reinforced the idea that we'd be eating the meals of my childhood, featuring none other than meat and potatoes:  colcannon (mashed potatoes with cooked greens throughout), beef stew, lamb stew, and that sort of fare.  Hearty and sustaining, and probably quite tasty, but not exactly heavy on fresh, leafy greens, curcurbits, or cruciferous vegetables.  That said, there were some recipes in the book that surprised me - Buttered Kale with Chives and Lemon, for instance.  Well, that sounds almost... Italian!  This is sounding promising, I thought.  So I explored further.

Then I was fortunate enough to have discovered Georgina Campbell's "Ireland for Food Lovers." It's a lovely book, and there is also an incredibly detailed, easy-to-use iPad app that I've downloaded for the trip.    Campbell provides county-by-county recommendations on artisanal food producers, places to shop or visit, places to eat & stay, farmers' markets, and food festivals.  The app includes links to any of these places that you desire to read more about, which is very handy. 

The most exciting part - for me - about the resources Campbell has put together is that they identify gems such as local jam makers and cheese producers, organic farm-to-table restaurants and places that serve and sell additive-free, organically-produced wine.  For example, here's an excerpt of a desription of what's grown specifically to be served at a restaurant on one of the Aran Islands:  "Potatoes, vegetables, fruit and herbs are home-grown on this restaurant site - an amazing range including spinach, braod beans, peas, scallions and onions, carrots, parsnips and radishes, fennel bulbs, rocket, lollo rosso, masses of herbs, rhubarb, pears and soft fruits like raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries and blackberries - and even the elderflower cordial is handmade in Cork by Marie-Therese's mother, Breda Leahy."  We're not talking basic meat and potatoes here, my friend.  This is a veritable symphony of produce, not just the same old chord!  Alas, this place isn't on our itinerary, but it's representative of the vibrant food scene that's taken hold in Ireland.

I wanted to share this, because I just wasn't aware until I found Georgina Campbell's book and iPad app that there would be so many amazing food opportunities in Ireland.  This is, in part, why my travel philosophy includes doing pre-trip research (but more on that later).  I've since found that there's even an Edible Ireland website (www.edible-ireland.com), chock-full of links to local food producers, shops, festivals, and markets, as well as restaurants that serve organic and locally-sourced fresh foods.  On the "About" page of the Edible Ireland website, the author writes, "As Colman Andrews says in The Country Cooking of Ireland, “Ireland — for its superlative raw materials, its immensely satisfying traditional home cooking, and its new wave of artisanal producers and imaginative but well-grounded chefs — [is] simply one of the most exciting food stories in the world today.”  Wow.

Here is a link to Campbell's website:  http://www.ireland-guide.com/shop/product.php?item_id=8901.  And to order the book on Amazon, go to this link: http://www.amazon.com/Ireland-Food-Lovers-Georgina-Campaperbackell/dp/190316429X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357332132&sr=8-1&keywords=ireland+for+food+lovers
I think you'll enjoy!!

Update:  I just learned about the most amazing restaurant that's right around the corner from our hotel in Dublin:  http://www.cornucopia.ie/  I saw it on www.happycow.net, which I've found to be a great resource for traveling within the US.  Didn't realize they included destinations across the pond.  So excited!

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The Plan

Our plan is to explore the west of Ireland during a 2-week period in the late spring, right after my 50th birthday.  We'll use our rental car to get from place to place and ride our rented bikes in and around each of our destinations to burn off all the Guinness we plan to consume.  We both have Irish ancestors, and I've been doing research on Ancestry.com and with some newly-discovered relatives to try to find out more about where our families are from and how they lived.  This is going to be a very special trip!

The itinerary:

Galway, Co. Galway, 2 nights
Maghera, Co. Clare, 2 nights
Waterville, Co. Kerry, 2 nights
Castlemaine, Co. Kerry, 1 night
Adare, Co. Limerick, 1 night
Westport, Co. Mayo, 3 nights
Inverin/Spiddal, 1 night
Dublin, 1 night

Galway:  I chose the Park House Hotel for our first two nights in Ireland because it's within walking distance of the train station (where we'll arrive from Dublin), it's located right on Eyre Square in the heart of old Galway, and the rooms are very quiet and comfortable (no room is adjacent to any other room)  - great for recovering from jetlag and preparing ourselves for all the fun we're about to have.

Maghera:  Why the heck are we staying somewhere no tourists ever go?  Well, partly because no tourists ever go there, and partly because this is the closest place to where some of my ancestors lived.  The Morey line (my father's mother's line) lived in Tyredagh Upper, Affick and Tulla, towns just east of Maghera in Co. Clare.  The darling farmhouse we're staying in, called Hillview Farmhouse B&B (www.hillviewbandb.com), is located such that we can leave there on our bikes and explore the whole area east to Tulla. 

Waterville:  Not much going on in Waterville, but it's on the coast of Co. Kerry with views of Skellig Michael, the island we'll be visiting, and is situated well for (hilly and windy) coastal bike rides.  No accommodation booked here yet, but we're considering a small place called the Clifford B&B located right on the main road.  It's very plain but offers bike storage facilities and has decent reviews for such a simple place.

  Co. Kerry

Castlemaine:  Again, this isn't a major destination, like Dingle would be.  We intend to ride around the Dingle Peninsula and to shop and eat in the town of Dingle, but there's a fabulous organic farm with restaurant and accommodation in Castlemaine called The Phoenix (http://www.thephoenixrestaurant.ie/).  It positions us closer to the next day's destination, too.  At the Phoenix, we've rented the gypsy caravan for one night (we'll be "glamping"), and we'll enjoy an organic dinner of locally-sourced ingredients right there on the farm.

  The Phoenix, Co. Kerry

Adare:  This village has been named one of Ireland's prettiest villages.  Rather than stay right in town, I thought it might be nice to try staying in a country estate.  The place I chose, Clonunion House, is a 200-year old farmhouse located just outside of Adare.  There are many large, fancy estates and castles all over Ireland where tourists like to stay, but given the hardships endured by my ancestors, I don't feel comfortable luxuriating in such places.  This particular farmhouse seems a bit less grandiose while still getting good reviews.  We should be able to ride our bikes from the property into town for dinner.  Check out other photos of Clonunion House here:  http://www.clonunionhouse.com/gallery.php

   Clonunion House, Adare

Westport:  After sleeping for one night in each of two different spots, it will be nice to settle in for three nights at our darling B&B just outside of Westport in Co. Mayo.  The Woodside Lodge B&B (www.woodsideireland.com) is quaint on the outside and updated inside in a modern, bright style, complemented with a scattering of antiques.  This B&B is right by the entrance to the Great Western Greenway, the longest off-road cycling trail in Ireland - 26 miles of traffic-free, paved, coastal riding splendor (52 mi. round trip).  The village of Westport is one of Ireland's "prettiest villages," full of great pubs and shopping, and it's close to Foxford, where my husband's mother's ancestors lived.  The cycling in Co. Mayo is some of the best in all of Ireland, so we've planned to ride here at the end of the trip, saving the best for last!

  Woodside Lodge B&B, Westport, Co. Mayo

 

 

Inverin/Spiddal:  We'll have to return our car and bikes in Galway on Wednesday, so on Tuesday,  we're leaving Westport and getting a bit closer to Galway.  The coastal town of Inverin is right next to the better-known craft village of Spiddal, and I've found us what I think will be a fabulous spot for our last night in the west.  The An Caladh Gearr thatched roof cottage, built in the late 1800s, is a traditional cottage that's been made into a B&B.  This is the type of cottage that our ancestors inhabited over a century ago, and I expect that we'll have a very special experience here.  Here is the link to learn more about this historic gem:  http://www.goireland.com/galway/an-caladh-gearr-thatched-cottage-accommodation-bed-and-breakfast-id9519.htm

 

  An Caladh Gearr, Inverin/Spiddal

 

 

Dublin:  I think it will be with heavy hearts that we head to Dublin by train for our last night in Ireland.  I've chosen the Brooks Hotel, a 4-star boutique hotel in the heart of Dublin (www.brookshotel.ie).  It's just a 2-minute walk to St. Stephen's Green, which has been compared to New York's Central Park in terms of green space in the heart of a major city.  We should have just about time for a walk through St. Stephen's Green, an exploration of the Temple Bar area, maybe a jaunt across the Ha' Penny Bridge which crosses the River Liffey, and a short pub crawl before we have to pack up our stuff for the flight home.  Trust me, the pub crawl is the most important element of the evening :-)