Day 12 – A Day in Dingle

Another sunny and bright day.  Go figure.  We did a couple of quick loads of wash in the morning and actually hung it outside to dry.  European washers are notoriously small so we also dropped off jeans and pants in town to be washed.  Elaine cooked me fried eggs for breakfast.  Yum.

Late in the morning I walked into Dingle town to snap some pics.  Elaine met me a bit later by the harbor for a picnic lunch that she had prepared.  Then we walked up to Main Street – me to have a pint at the Dingle Pub, she to do a bit of shopping.  She met me there at 1:45 so we could watch the finish of the An Post Bicycle Race.  The finish line for the cyclists was just 150 meters up the road after a 133 kilometer ride from Charleville in County Cork.  We watched most of the 150 odd riders finish.  Elaine took the pictures of the racers.

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Elaine switched her drink to Cronin’s Premium Cider.  Elaine chatted up Jerry, a colorful local, in the pub.  And we met two women cousins traveling together in Ireland for the first time.  They were not staying in Dingle for the night, but we convinced them they had to do the Slea Head drive before they left.  Jerry ended up going with them as a guide.  We shall check the newspaper in the morning for possible news about an ax murder.

Then it was back to house for a nap after a trying day.  We have four British TV shows we like to watch during down time:

• “Four in a Bed” about four B&B owners who rate each other’s B&B’s
• “Dinner Date” about a man or woman who has three blind dates cook dinner for them before he chooses one to take out to dinner
• “Come Dine with Me” about four amateur chefs hosting dinner parties for each other and rating themselves
• “The Chase“, a quiz show in which four people try to build up a stake and beat the chaser, an expert who usually dispatches them all with no money won.

Dinner tonight was at James G. Ashe’s Bar & Restaurant which we quite like.  On our first visit to Dingle many years ago, I sat in the bar, and Kate, the owner/bartender, told me of the history of the place and the connection with Gregory Peck. The history of the bar in very interesting.  From their web site:

The first alcoholic beverage was served in Ashes bar in 1849. Like many traditional pubs in Ireland it began as a drapery and general store, which was licensed to sell alcohol, this being secondary to the other business interests.

In 1926 when the bar was passed on to John Kennedy’s eldest daughter, Hannah & her husband James Gregory Ashe, the bar’s name changed to ‘James G. Ashe’, as it remains to this day.

Along with the bar James manufactured soft drinks, and in 1932 became an agent for Guinness. His grandson Thomas continues as the main Guinness agent for the area today.

Thomas & Sinead inherited the bar in 2000, from Thomas’ father who ran the business along with his wife Kate for 40 years.

Over the years Ashes has seen many famous faces pass through its doors. Indeed, Gregory Peck, a cousin whose grandmother was an Ashe from Dingle, visited a number of times, and his family continue to drop in when in Ireland. During the filming of David Leans’ “Ryan’s Daughter” in the early 70s’, Ashes became a hot-spot for both cast and crew, many of whom became quite partial to Kates’ Irish stew. More recently the cast and crew of “Far and Away”, including Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, based themselves here.

Dinner was excellent!  Elaine had Glenbeigh mussels from County Kerry as a starter and roasted local scallops and pork belly as her main.  I had a scrumptious Ballydavid (a small nearby town we often visit) crab trio as my starter and roasted turbot for my main.  We split a lo-cal (heh!) ‘chocolate four ways’ as a dessert.  The wine was a Pinot Noir from Chile.

Then it was on to the Dingle Pub to listen to Richie (from the Irish band Dreams of Freedom).  The pub was a madhouse of fun, filled with officials (but no riders) from the bicycle race who were all having a jolly good time. We sat and chatted with two of them and watched the others party.

And finally bed which felt good.