Power was put at our house from 9 AM on. Not back on until 6 PM. No big deal. But we mostly stayed home anyway and just did some reading. A real low-key day. We went into town early to buy some bread and deliver our Arizona gift (a Solari bell) to Grainne, our gracious landlady. We have one for her mother as well. And I visited Curran’s later in the afternoon for a pint.

You can see we are powering down in Dingle and getting ready for our sojourn to Donegal which begins on Friday. I loaded some key addresses into my GPS (SatNav). On the way we have to stop at Shannon Airport and re-up our car. They don’t let you rent for more than 30 days at a time. Since we would be going right by Shannon on the way to Donegal, it’s really no inconvenience at all.

Dinner was at Fenton’s Restaurant. This was our only stop there this year. It’s run by yet another fishing family. We started with kir royales. Then I had oysters (of course). Elaine had the vegetable soup. We both had scallops for the main. And we shared a large pavlova for dessert. The wine was a French pinot noir.

After dinner we were off to the Dingle Pub for our last chance to see Richie O’Brien and Dreams of Freedom. We usually stay for an hour or so. Good music. David Geaney danced. Other people danced. (We did not!) But we hung in and closed the place. It was fun. And the crowd was lively and enjoying itself. It was especially nice because, while busy enough, the bar wasn’t jammed pack full. Here are some videos of the action including Richie singing Sean South, one of my favorite Irish rebel songs.

So it was midnight before we got home. It’s been a long time since we were out that late. Bed never looked so good.

Monday was a dull rainy day although we saw the sun late. I am posting this early Tuesday morning, and it will be very brief. We lose power for the day in an hour as ESB continues upgrading the local grid. Elaine did some shopping yesterday for Irish items that she wants to take home. Meanwhile, I had a pint or two. Dinner was at Out of the Blue. Elaine had fish chowder while I slurped down some oysters. Then we both had delicious chargrilled sea bass. Lemon posset for me for dessert; pear tart for Elaine. No picture of the mains – i forgot.

All good as usual. That’s about it. Dinner out again on Tuesday. More on that tomorrow.

Very Irish weather. Very windy. Lots of rain. A stay at home day mostly. The rain let up a bit around lunch, so we ventured to Ventry (play on words!) for lunch at Quinn’s Pub. Funny story about Quinn’s. Many years ago we stayed in Ventry in a rented house for four weeks. We invited Bill & Mianne over to stay for a week with us. They had friends, who we had never met, staying in Dingle for a month (or more). Anyway, well before Bill and Mianne arrived in Dingle, we stopped in Quinn’s Pub for a pint. As I was at the bar ordering, an American couple came in, and I struck up a conversation. “Where are you guys from?”, I asked. “Massachusetts”, they responded. “Where”? “Scituate”. So I asked, “do you happen to know Bill and Mianne from Scituate?” They looked stunned. “Yes, we know them and they going to have lunch with us here in a couple of weeks.” So, by pure circumstance, we met Paul and Joan Green well before Bill and Mianne had a chance to introduce us. We all later had lunch together in Ballyferriter. And, in future years, we met up again with Paul and Joan for drinks as they often were here at the same time we were.

Anyway, lunch today was good. Guinness for me; Beal Ban IPA (local brew from the West Kerry brewery at Bric’s Pub) for Elaine. We split a scallop starter that might have been the best scallops EVER. Elaine had a chicken sandwich with chips and I had lamb stew with mashed for our mains. It was all delicious. You can barely see Ventry Beach in the background in the last picture. The weather only got worse from this point forward on Sunday.

I did venture out later for a pint at Curren’s, but otherwise we hunkered down at home for the rest of the day and night. Not much else to say about the day.

The Republic of Ireland vs. Northern Ireland

The Republic of Ireland (26 counties) is completely independent from the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland, made up of six counties (Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Derry/Londonderry and Tyrone) remains part of the United Kingdom. The name Northern Ireland is a bit of a misnomer. It should rather be called Northeast Ireland. The northernmost point on the island (Malin Head) is in County Donegal which is part of the Republic of Ireland.

Now, since Brexit, Northern Ireland (part of the UK) remains, oddly enough, in the European Union Customs Zone but is not part the European Union (EU) itself. That was done as part of Brexit to prevent the establishment of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic (which remains a full member of the EU). This fact causes no end of problems between the UK and the EU and between the UK and Northern Ireland.

Will Northern Ireland ever be reunited with the rest of Ireland in the Republic? Of this, I have no doubt, although it may not be within my lifetime. The six counties were once predominantly Protestant and Unionist. That’s no longer true. Catholics (better breeders) now outnumber Protestants. And the majority (but not absolute majority) political party in Northern Ireland is now Sinn Fein (fully pro-Republic and nationalist). Since Brexit, however, the DUP (the main Unionist Party) has refused to participate in government. The devolved Northern Irish Parliament (at Stormont) is, therefore, at a standstill at the moment. The civil service continues function as normal. It’s all a mess really.

A little more history will be in another post . . . maybe.

Coronation Day: We watched the Coronation (should that be capitalized?) of King Charles. The Brits know how to do ceremony. God Save The King! (Sorry, Mianne. Bloody monarchy!)

Kentucky Derby Day: Didn’t I used to do that? Well, about 40 times, but this year not only did I not go again, but I transferred the tickets to my friend Edward in Louisville who shared them with me. So, 15-1 winner who was still eligible for non-winners of two races. I never would have picked him. I’m glad for Javier Castellano though.

Darkness into Light Day: In Ireland, anyway. “Join us for the most important sunrise of the year and help raise much needed funds for suicide prevention.” In Dingle, the walk started (like most places) at 4:15 am. No thank you.

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We skipped our morning walks altogether to avoid running across dead bodies from the Darkness into Light walk. But it was (mostly) a beautiful sunny day. So after watching King Charles get the crown, we headed out for our favorite walk along the cliffs at Clogher Strand.

On the way I stopped briefly at the overlook to the Dingle Beaches (one of my most favorite views). You’ve already seen the view, but the surf action was at its best. Not so much crashing waves, but colorful none the less.

The walk is a loop walk – going out along the cliff and then back via a dusty, boring farm track and the busy main road. We do halfway out and then back the same way. Always a good view that way. We had nice sun on the way out, but it had become mostly cloudy on the way back, so the pictures are almost all on the way out.

First are two pictures from the cliff of the Great Blasket Island. As you can see, it’s hazy, but I like the effect.

Here are the rest of the pictures (a lot) from the walk. Spot the happy face. Spot the wild flowers. Spot me in my new blue Irish cap (No, it’s not the happy face I mentioned). Spot more views of the Great Blasket. Spot views of the Three Sisters Mountains. Spot the other odd walker on the trail. Spot contemplative Elaine. Is this the most picturesque walk in the world? It could well be.

After the walk I needed a nap, so it was back home. I’m grilling a steak tonight, so I think we are in for the day. It could be that rare Guinness-free day for me. No worries, there will be cocktails and wine with dinner.

And there was. With a nice cheese platter. We sat outside in the sunshine for awhile. My steak was, as usual, deliciously barbequed by moi. Yum. Elaine had BBQ pork sausages. Tomorrow night it will be lamb sausages again. We have three more restaurant reservations before we pack out for the road trip to Donegal this coming Friday..

The weather God rewarded us on Friday. When we awoke, it was very foggy, but it soon cleared off. It was cloudy for our walks. I didn’t take a camera.

The girls were coming in at 10:30 for linen change and clean-up, so we headed out. We decided, for no particular reason, to drive to Killarney, where we spent a pleasant few hours. As we got near Killarney, the skies cleared, and it was nice and sunny for the remainder of the day. We walked around a bit and visited some shops. No purchases. We saw a funeral go by. And we saw the mural commemorating Monseigneur Hugh O’Flaherty, of whom I had never heard. The link tells his interesting story. The distance shot of another church is of the Catholic Church (which is also St. Mary’s). Barber shop picture for Bob. By the way, Turkish barber shops seems all the rage here although this one wasn’t one. The Danny Mann Pub is still going strong. Elaine and I drank in there probably 20+ years ago. One of my favorite Irish music CDs is Spailpin – Live at the Danny Mann. Spailpin often played at the Dingle Pub in the early 2000’s.

St Mary’s (Church of Ireland) is very pretty. Elaine lit candles there. We were alone in the church save for one woman in the front pew texting (or something) on her cell phone.

We had lunch at the Laurels Pub. Quite good. I had a pint of Harp Lager just as a change of pace from my usual Guinness. Elaine had a Smithwick’s, her beer of choice this trip. She had an open faced salmon sandwich; I had the Shepard’s Pie.

On the way home we stopped briefly in Castlemaine, the home of the Wild Colonial Boy. You’ve heard the song. I took a snap or two of his statue. And we took the high road over the mountain rather than the main road.

Back in Dingle we stopped in Curran’s for a pint and were rewarded with a surprise afternoon music session. That rarely happens. There are a couple of recordings below. You can hear the background pub noise, but the music is good.

Dinner was at Ashe’s, our second visit. As you can see, I too have an evil eye. I had Gambas Pil-Pil for an appetizer; Elaine had the crab claw special. There are pictures of those. We both had the fish special, John Dory, but I forgot the pictures.

After dinner we stopped by both the Dingle Pub and O’Flaherty’s. They were both crowded but not jammed and we enjoyed a little music before retiring to bed for the night.

Our 21st day in Dingle and the first one when it rained pretty much all day. No morning walks. Basically we stayed in. Reading, tv, naps, lunch, etc. We did go out to the library to return some books and get new ones. And we did some grocery shopping at SuperValu. There literally isn’t anything else to report.

Dinner too was at home. Pies with carrots and peas. Wine, of course. My pie was steak and kidney; Elaine’s was chicken.

Reflecting on Dingle visits past:

I can’t remember for sure how many times we’ve been to Dingle. Thinking back, the first time we stayed for a couple of nights while on a two-three driving tour of Ireland. That was probably in 1998 or 1999. We stayed at Greenmount House which is still the premier B&B in Dingle. In 2000 after I retired we spent six weeks here at Conor Pass Cottage. Doc & Lena visited for a week as did Ed & Phyllis Wrenn and Bob & Tob Messina. We stayed again at Greenmount House for a few days but ended in a house that they own due to a mix-up in reservations. That house was on Radharc na Mara, not far from where we stay now. And we rented that house again for a ten-day stay another trip. And we rented and a house just a few doors from where we are now for another 10-14 day stay. The house next door has a teenager who played the drums, seemingly deciding to practice whenever I decided to take a nap. And we stayed for four weeks in Ventry, the next town est from Dingle. On that trip Bill & Mianne visited for a week as did Ann & Russ. Ann bought out Mulcahy’s Pottery Store. (We revisited there a few days ago – they have restocked and are looking forward to Ann’s return.) Then we discovered Grainne and her mother Marion. We stayed several times at Water’s Edge house including two times at Christmas and New Year’s. And we stayed at #23 Ard Na Mara our last few trips, Bob & Barbara visited us there. And now we staying at #18 Ard Na Mara. Elaine likes #23 better; I like #18 for the view.

We walked in the morning. No pictures.

Someone asked for lamb pictures and I never did any. Calving season is pretty much over, and there are baby lambs everywhere. Here are a couple of shots from the field just behind our back yard with our resident baby black lamb.

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We did a few errands in the morning and then had lunch at home. After that we headed to Inch Beach, about a thirty minute ride. It’s named Inch but it’s 5.5 km long. We walked a good stretch of it. I took a selfie during our walk. And you can see my footprints in another picture (if you look closely). It was cloudy, but the light was interesting. The pictures almost felt like twilight, but it was really early afternoon. The yellow lifeguard station (deserted at this time of year) is at the start of the walk. You can see how far we walked by the picture that looks back towards that lifeguard station in picture 10 of 15. Look really closely.

Back in Dingle we had pints in the Dingle Pub before going back to the house.

Dinner was visit #3 to the Chart House. The kir royales were on the house compliments of owner Jim McCarthy. I somehow resisted getting lamb yet again. Since was a chilly very windy day, we both had Seafood Chowder. I have Kerry Beef Filet. Elaine had baked hake. We shared ice cream with chocolate mint sauce for dessert. he win was our Chart House standard, Tinpot Hut pinot noir from New Zealand.

We went back to the Dingle Pub after dinner but it was chock-a-block full and we decided to give it a miss. We had a quiet drink at almost empty O’Flaherty’s – no music.

Odd pictures. The white flowers are calla lilies.

Being brief today.

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We walked in the morning. Cloudy but dry. There’s one electric car charging station in Dingle (that I’ve seen). I’ve never seen it being used. Photo worthy? Hardly. Remember the day when you didn’t take photos because film and developing was so expensive?

We took a ride. We stopped in Ballyferriter (Baile an Fheirtéaraigh in Irish) and visited the small church there (St. Vincent’s) to light some candles.

We drove down a new minor road and visited Wine Strand. Strand means beach. Duh! I suppose you knew that. We had friends that we met through Bill & Mianne who used to rent a house at Wine Strand — Paul (RIP) and Joan. We had some good times with them over the years of our visits. What are those standing stones up on the hill? We don’t know. We couldn’t get up to them because of barbed wire fences. The camera lens telephoto lens got closer than us. If we were ever at this spot before, it was a long time ago.

We had a pint each in Curren’s Pub back in Dingle and chatted up some ladies from Tralee (formerly from NYC). A good time was had by all. Maybe it was the beer.

Dinner was at home. Those are not Mr. Kennedy’s sausages but rather the supermarket variety. Mr. Kennedy was closed Sunday through Wednesday. How dare he!

ODDS & ENDS

Weather: Our weather has been good. Not much rain, lots of cloud, some beautiful sunny days. The highest temperature we have experienced so far has been about 62º F. That’s about the best you can hope for in Ireland. In counties Kerry (where we are), Clare, and Cork (westernmost Ireland), mid-April to mid-May is known as the Scaraveen. Basically, “expect anything”.

The Irish Riviera (in Massachusetts): Our friend Mianne (who comments frequently on the blog) sent us an interesting article. You can view in here. She lives in Scituate (the heart of the Irish Riviera) for half the year (with the other half in Scottsdale). She and Billy visited us here the year we had a house in Ventry, the next town west from Dingle.

Our car Eion (Owen) has been great. As you might recall, it’s a Toyota C-HR Hybrid. It has an automatic transmission, something you pay dearly for in a rental car in Europe. We’ll have been in Dingle three weeks come Friday and, so far, I have bought gas once ($51). Gas is about $7/gallon. I brought my own GPS since it costs a ridiculous $12/day to get one from Avis. The GPS (SatNav to Europeans) has a female voice. Her name is Fiona. She doesn’t get much work as I know my way around here on the Dingle Peninsula, but she’ll be invaluable on the road trip to Ballina and Donegal later in the trip.

I guess that wasn’t that brief. See you tomorrow.

We awoke to a partly sunny morning and the weather kept getting better right through afternoon. We took our separate walks, meeting up half way for a brief chat. Note the statue built out of plastic waste built by the children of the local elementary school.

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Lunch was at home sitting out in the backyard with our beautiful view (that you’ve already seen). Then at 2:00 pm we were off to little St. James’s Church (Church of Ireland) for another Féile na Bealtaine concert. First some views of the venue and surrounding area. The church is conveniently located right next to the Dingle Pub. Benner’s Hotel, opposite the entrance to the church, was once owned by some Boston lawyers. Also nearby is the Hare’s Corner where we had breakfast one morning.

The concert was by a new group called The Weaving. The Weaving is an inspirational fusion of Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich (Begley) on button accordion, Owen Spafford on fiddle and Cáit Ní Riain on piano. (I couldn’t find a good link for Cáit, but here is a link to one of her songs. You heard Méabh last night at the St Mary’s concert in memory of her father Seamus. They all also sing brilliantly. Here are some pictures taken at the concert including one taken out the window next to my seat. No videos this time, but just below the pictures are four recordings that I took during the concert. Enjoy the music if you like.

Dinner was at a new restaurant that Elaine has been dying to try – Solas. Our landlady, Grainne, also highly recommended it. So I was finally convinced to try it. It’s a tapas and wine bar. And it was grand. Oddly for a wine bar, no pinot noirs, so we had a St. Emilion Grand Cru from France. You can read the menu choices (below): we chose to share the bread with tomato confit, the fig tempura, the chorizo croquettes, and the scallop ceviche followed by the octopus carpaccio (shown half eaten) and the pork belly (not shown). The last picture shows the dessert (dark chocolate mousse with cream).

After dinner we stopped at O’Flaherty’s for a quiet drink. No music tonight, and the crowds from the festival are leaving dingle. The pub was blessedly quiet and we had a lovely conversation with an Irish tour guide from County Wexford.

It was a real do-nothing Sunday until after supper. We never left the house until then. Then it was off to a concert in St. Mary’s Church. The concert is part of the four-day Féile na Bealtaine. There are dozens of performances and events scheduled in Dingle town and the surrounding West Kerry area. The program is here. It’s a big deal and the town is packed for the long weekend (May 1st is a Monday bank holiday). Our event was a Tribute to Séamus Begley (Séamus Ó Beaglaoich) , a beloved Dingle musician who passed away at 72 this past January. His whole family (a daughter, three sons, and even some grandchildren) performed. Pauline Scanlon (who we saw in concert at last year’s festival), Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, and Éilís Kennedy, all great in their own right, made guest appearances. The music was wonderful. Great singing, great flute music, great accordion music, and even some set dancing. Seamus’s wife participated in the dancing. Picture taking was discouraged but I did manage to take a short video during the encore after the standing ovation at the end of the concert. That’s Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh on the left and Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich (Maeve Begley) on the right. The night was a roaring success.

After the performance we decamped to O’Flaherty’s for a beer and a bit more music. The Guinness was a reward for two plus hours on a remarkably hard church pew. Smart attendees brought a cushion.