Wednesday & Thursday – Dingle Wind Down

It’s Thursday morning as I write this. Normally I post early in the morning with yesterday’s adventures (such as they are). This post is for yesterday and today. Tomorrow is a travel day, and I won’t make a post. So the next post will be either Saturday morning (depending on the wi-fi in our hotel in Ballina) or on Sunday from our new home for a week in Dungloe. We check in there Saturday night.

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We took early morning walks under cloudy and threatening skies, but no rain. Here’s some shots and commentary from along the way

I told you there was a walk of fame at Dick Mack’s Pub. Sort of like the Stars in Hollywood. Dick Mack’s is probably Dingle’s most famous pub. When we first started coming here, you could still buy a pair of boots in the pub. It was very small and very popular with local characters. No food. Since the sons took it over, it has changed drastically. It still has some leather goods, but no one really buys them. The pub inside has expanded and now has a large rear bar. And they have tables outside and serve food. And they brew their own beer which is available at almost all the local pubs on the peninsula. The locals have abandoned it for other venues. It does a large tourist trade. We haven’t been inside in years. But we walk by it every day. Some of the names on the stars you will recognize (Robert Mitchum, Dolly Parton). Others you will not. Tom Crean is the famous Antarctic explorer from nearby Anascual. Christy Moore is a famous Irish folk singer that you may have heard. Páidí Ó Sé (Paddie O’Shea) is a famous Irish footballer. We (and some of you) have been to his pub in Ventry. We met him one time (very drunk – him, not us) in the Dingle Pub. Although he has passed away, the family still runs the pub. You can Google the other names (if you want).

Home for the Aged – do they lock them in?

A barber shop and the Siopa Fin Chúinne (Corner Shop) and the dental practice. The corner store is closing after 29 years there. Sort of sad. It was not 2:30 when I walked by the dental office. (Laugh if you get the joke – Shake your head if you don’t)

Glamping in Dingle? Well, not yet. But someone wants to build eight glamping pods in a field overlooking the harbor. In 10-20 years he MAY get permission. Those workers in the field are not installing glamping pods. Those are ESB (Electricity Board) workers upgrading the local grid. Across the street from the field are two very nice B&B’s. This is all just above from where we live.

Dinner on Wednesday night was lamb sausage with potatoes and veg. Very nice! I love lamb sausages. The bottle on the table contains scrumptious, locally made tomato & apple chutney. Those flowers on the table have lasted three weeks – amazing. Dinner Thursday night, our last night in town, will be at the Chart House (our fourth visit). I will most definitely get rack of West Kerry lamb. With no post tomorrow, there will be no pictures. But the food there has been excessively pictured in previous posts.

I cannot tell you how nice it has been to listen to Irish and local Kerry news and not hear anything about mass shootings in theaters, malls, school, workplaces, dance halls, or at holiday parades. And no chatter about abortion rights – even in an overwhelming Catholic country, it’s legal here – case closed. Biden had a warm welcome here (in County Mayo) when we first arrived. Trump was also here to visit his golf club (in County Clare, I think) and was essentially ignored. Other than them (and us), the other notable visitor to Ireland this month was Bruce Springsteen (no link necessary) who did three sellout concerts at Croke Park in Dublin. Our friend Susan from the Chart House went to the Monday night concert – we’ll hear about it tonight at dinner.

I visited Curran’s for a pint on Wednesday afternoon. The locals in there have a tradition. If a race on the tv racing channel (featuring races from Ireland and the UK) has a scheduled post time of exactly 4:00 pm, then they bet the five horse. (Don’t ask about the logic – that’s just what they do.) There is a bookie shop almost directly across the street. So I joined in today. It would have been a much better story if the horse had won. He went off 9-1 with a good jockey on board, but he was nowhere in sight at the finish line.