The Homes of Donegal, aka: one couples vacation to Ireland

[MikeyK]

Great photos, David! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed yourself!

[greenfire6]

Thanks Mikey!

Friday morning (our second full day in Ireland) we visited Boyle Abbey in Co. Roscommon...
http://www.discoverireland.com/us/ireland-things-to-see-and-do/listings/product/?fid=FI_12037
http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/West/BoyleAbbey/

The Nave (choir rooms), bordered by the arches, is undergoing some reconstruction. This prevented us from entering the alter area.
The Cloister (central area), now covered by lawn, was where the monks grew their vegetables.


The gate house.


The color coding shows the main historical eras of the Abbey.
This includes occupation by English troops who both vandalized and modified the Abbey to suit their needs.


Our tour guide was both knowledgeable and funny. When pointing out construction and ornamental details he would say:
This is highly regarded by people who regard these things highly.
A classic example of how good the Irish are with words!


This tower, on the south west corner, was added in the 2nd Period.
The taller structure is a fireplace chimney. At its base was the kitchen area with two fireplaces
who's chimneys wye together into one chimney about half way up.
An impressive piece of stone masonry to say the least!


Inside the round tower looking straight up.


Back in the day this stairway led to the upper levels of the tower.

Edit: Once again I have no clue why (5) pictures are bigger than I intend. Maybe they will "fix" themselves like before?

[greenfire6]

After working up an appetite at Boyle Abbey we headed north to Sligo town keen for some hot lunch and more SHOPPING!

This was a "lunch on your own day" so Diane and I ducked into nearly the first pub we saw.
We ordered big bowls of chowder, her's with hot tea, mine with a pint of Guiness.
The soup and atmosphere of the place was absolutely superb! 
As this shot represents, we would often see school kids, of the teen age, scurrying about in nearly every town and village we would visit.
Not sure if they rush home for lunch or what. I shoulda' coulda' asked. I guess I need to go back and find out! 


Downtown Sligo looking up the Bonet River which, here, flows out of nearby Lough Gill to the Sligo Bay.
More about Lough Gill and it's Park Castle and Isle of Innishfree later. 


Looking down river toward Sligo Bay.


The pictures I've chosen to post don't represent what a bustling town Sligo was that day.
I enjoyed Galway, and please don't draw any conclusions from this single experience, but it seemed like Sligo was more fun.
I'm an extrovert for sure but perhaps it's a case of, by the second day, I was getting comfortable and
acclimatized to the wonderful Irish people.
We had a great couple of hours shopping and talking with shopkeeps and people on the street.


Sorry. As one retired from the fire service in the USA I'm naturally drawn to fire trucks. 

One more comment I will undoubtly repeat often in this thread... It's true, the Irish people are very warm and friendly! Far from naive they retain a kind of delightful "innocence" (for lack of a better word) that has been sadly lost by many people in the USA. May God bless them all.

[Emer Dreamer]

  You ALWAYS take great pictures!  And the captions are pretty good too. 

[greenfire6]

  You ALWAYS take great pictures!  And the captions are pretty good too. 

It's not me! It's Canon and the techno-gizmo miracle of point 'n shoot cameras. 

Much later I might put up the best picture of all which was taken by Bronagh with my camera! 

As for the captions I will have to take full blame... 

[greenfire6]

Leaving Sligo we took a "country drive" back to our home base in Drumshanbo.

One this drive we enyoyed some particulairly beautiful landscapes.
Keep in mind that it's late April and much of the foliage is not in summer covering and colors yet.


Stretched our legs at this little waterfall which was beautifully set up for public access.


Nothing unusual about sheep in Ireland, but...


I put these pictures up because I was struck by how young the lambs looked compared to the lambs where we live.
Obviously the sheep in Ireland are on a different schedule than those in northern Nevada and lambing takes place later in the spring.
My guess is it is releated to length of daylight more than anything else.

That night (Friday) we were entertained by Vinegar Bill, a popular Trad music band out of Roscommon town. Vinegar Bill is two pairs of brothers along with a sister to two of the brothers. They put on a great concert!

Vinegar Bill feat. Men of Worth.
Vinegar Bill and Men of Worth are good friends and have played together many times.


After our nightly music things were starting to hop in the Ramada pub.
We joined the fun where the annual music and dance festival and compitions was being kicked off.
Here are the plaques and trophys that the dancers would be competing for over the next couple of days.
In the background a session peopled by local musicians and singers is underway.

[greenfire6]

The next morning (Saturday) a bunch of us went on a long walk escorted by John Reynolds (the aforementioned local man with the passion for the history of Ireland). It was an exquisite morning for walking, talking and enjoying rural Ireland!!!!!!  

This pleasure boat has just been lifted up from the River Shannon, via a small lock works, into one of the many side canels or creeks.
The boat is manuvering under Route 208 at this moment.


The boat has now cleared the tunnel and is proceeding along the canal/creek.
I'm told that these pleasure craft can be rented all along the River Shannon for any number of days or weeks.
Fully equiped with galley and berthing one can explore the River Shannon region in this manner for days on end. (sigh)
Reason enough to go back to Ireland!  


This is what highway signs look like in the Republic of Ireland, information is almost always given in both English and Irish (Gaeilge).
Except for parts of County Donegal where we only saw Gaeilge. LOL! God bless those souls in Donegal!  


Typical Highway sign and Recreational signs.


This temporary sign is announcing the big weekend of music and dance compititions. Rock on!  


Anyway, on our lovely walk we eventually got around to the other side of Lough Allen
and got this view, across the water, of the Ramada Inn Lough Allen.

We walked by some beautiful homes tucked up and away from town on tiny little roads.

During this walk John told me about the first time he saw a "cinema" (movie). It was in the 1950s. A traveling cinema came to town, set up a huge tent and hired a local farmer's tractor to turn the electric generator. (God I love this stuff!) (For those that don't know "Lectricity" didn't come to the West and Northwest of Ireland until the late 1950s and early 60s.)

Irronically, the movie John saw was The Quiet Man. Well, I have always had issues with that movie so I couldn't help but ask him: Was the movie well received? He answered: No! Then went on to explain about the sterotypes portrayed in the movie overshadowed the good parts. I completely understood his explanation.

[greenfire6]

We had heard the buzz! A community "Horse Market" was scheduled in Drumshanbo for Saturday. Well this was a no brainer! Lets go!!!!  

Wrapping up our Saturday morning walk to the Horse Market
we discovered that the local farmers were bringing in everything from baby chicks to draft horse for sale or swap.  
Puppies too!  

It was quite a specticle! Straight away I was keen to buy my bride one of those famous 99s!

Puppys eating a 99!
Diane liked the 99 but I think she really wanted me to buy her a puppy!  
Bronagh was right there and I joked, This picture is gona' go viral!
She laughed as if, In your wildest dreams David. LOL!

These few following pics don't even begin to represent all we saw at the Horse Market!  

OK. I gotta' tell a story connected to this final picture from the Horse Market...  

The nice man selling these puppies (green jacket just to left of shot) immediately recognized we were Yanks. He first asked if we were on holiday. Then, straight away, he asked with excitement, Have you ever been to Graceland? I replied No! (Fortunately he didn't give me time to even consider expanding on my disinterest with that place.)

His reply was, My lifes ambition is to go to Graceland and see Elvis's grave. He then proceeded to tell me all about the first time he saw Elvis on TV in 1971 and what a great performer Elvis was. (God love him, on and on he went).

By this time I'm feeling like I've either slipped into the Twilight Zone or the movie The Last of the High Kings. LOL!  

So I tell him my "Graceland" is Leo's Tavern up in Co. Donegal and I'm very excited to be visiting the home of Clannad, Enya and the Duggan brothers in a few days.  

He knew about Leo's so I said, Since your obsessed with Elvis and I'm obsessed with the Irish/Celtic music maybe we should swap houses!  

He seemed interested but showed his wisdom when he asked, Wait a minute, just how far is Nevada from Graceland?

LOL! Needless to say the deal was off at the moment.

[greenfire6]

That afternoon we went to a raptor research centre for a Birds of Prey Demonstration.

...The IRISH RAPTOR RESEARCH CENTRE is a scientifically managed sanctuary for Birds of Prey and Owls.
Situated on 27 hectares, the sanctuary is home to about 350 birds and animals out of 75 species.
Established in 1999 the centre was originally set up for research purposes only, but as a consequence of increasing interest and local awareness, it was decided to open parts of the centre to visitors...

Complete information here: http://eaglesflying.com/index.htm

One of the first birds we saw was just another dumb American tourist!


Not sure where this Condor hails from but it could be a tourist from the Andes in South America.


Only part of the bird yard.

The raptor and owl demonstration was very dramatic and informative. A good time was had by all. Below are six images from the demonstration:

This will be my last post on the CWForum for several days. I'm throwing a leg over the BMW and going riding! Varooom, Varooom!  
Lord willing I will endeavour to pickup, where I left off, in about a week.  

[MaryNorth93]

AWESOME pics and stories David, glad you had a great time and thanks for sharing!!

[hayleynibhaoleafh<3'scelticwoman!]

Thank you for sharing all about your trip!!! I was all over this thread hehe^^ I just love the pictures! I certainly miss Home... You didn't by any chance meet anyone from Armagh did you?

[greenfire6]

AWESOME pics and stories David, glad you had a great time and thanks for sharing!!

Thanks Mary!

As you know deciding on, resizing and posting multiple images is a fair amount of work. Between the fairly high "view count" and an occasional encouraging word like yours I will continue.

[greenfire6]

Thank you for sharing all about your trip!!! I was all over this thread hehe^^ I just love the pictures! I certainly miss Home... You didn't by any chance meet anyone from Armagh did you?

Thanks for the encoragement Hayley!  Hope I'm not making you too homesick!  Now that I have visited Ireland I completely understand why you miss it.

I'm fairly certain we didn't meet anyone from Co. Armagh.

We met loads of people but most were local to the areas of the Republic that we visited. We visited Northern Ireland on two different days (as you will briefly see in future posts). Unfortunately, we didn't get anywere near Armagh. 

[Emer Dreamer]

 Hmmm...      Those raptor pics would be pretty cool for the "Birds"  thread. Just a thought...    p.s. and you are too modest. 

[greenfire6]

Hmmm...      Those raptor pics would be pretty cool for the "Birds"  thread. Just a thought...    p.s. and you are too modest. 

I will post a link from there to here. (If my 'puter is well behaved! LOL!  )