Killarney, Ireland

We are now experiencing Irish weather, a truly Irish experience is how it is described! In fact the tour guide played “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head” which he says is the Irish National anthem.


 It started raining at 9 this morning and continued all day. We spent a bit of time looking at some thatched houses, similar to ones we had seen previously. Perhaps the most interesting was the one that burned down. Apparently one spark in the wrong place and poof! Which is why the thatched houses are no longer for the poor – they are expensive to construct/maintain and insurance is outrageous. In fact most Irish companies will not insure so insurance is obtained from Britain where the thatched roofs are more prevalent.

Thatched hut being rebuilt

Fancy thatching

 We then proceeded around the Dingle Peninsula, on the Slea (pronounced Shea) Head drive, an area where Gaelic is spoken in everyday affairs. We travelled a very narrow (should be one-way) road. At one point the bus mirror had an encounter with the cliff. Are you getting the idea? And then there were the cyclists taking their lives in their hands riding along this road in the rain. We encountered sheep herders driving their sheep across the road to what appeared to be their doom, but there was a bit of grazing before the cliff. They amazingly hang on by their toe nails nibbling along the edge of the cliff. We stopped to view some clocháns, or beehive huts, which are stone huts used by monks, the precise construction dates are unknown.

Dingle Peninsula

Beehive hut

Shepherd and flock

 We then stopped in Dingle, a very busy little seaside fishing/tourist town to have a bowl of fish chowder, do a bit of shopping at a jewelry store (they make jewelry engraved with an ancient Irish script) and poke around a bit. They have a dolphin which has been a regular visitor for 30 years or more. They have named him Funghi – he is quite a tourist attraction. Some of the harbor tours advertise that if you don’t see Funghi your money will be refunded but then we were also told if they know he/she isn’t in the harbor they don’t go out at all.

Dingle Town

Norma and Funghi

This evening we went out to dinner in Tralee, a nearby town, at the Rose Hotel – famous for hosting the “Rose of Tralee” competition. After that we attended a performance at the Irish National Folk Theatre entitled “Turas: a breathtaking adventure in music, dance and song” – basically a performance of traditional Irish songs and dances (think “Riverboat”) mostly of County Kerry, where we are.

It is Saturday and we are in a Killarney hotel. Also in the hotel is a “hen party”: Irish for a “stagette”. They are all dressed in black and look very scary. Tonight may not be a quiet one.