Ireland

 This is the famous land from which many immigrants came to America during the middle of the eighteen hundreds. There was a severe famine at that time. The ruling class, which primarily consisted of English landowners, did little to help the Irish people survive and so they were forced to find a new home. As it turned out, these people later contributed a great deal toward making the USA the best country in the world. Janice and I had wanted to visit this land for quite a long time and, along with my sister Kai, we finally we made it! It was not better or worse than we expected, and we are glad that we could explore, first hand, this place about which we had heard so much. Like most places we have visited we found some very good things that we liked, as well as some things which were "MamaHuhu". (literal translation: horse, horse, tiger, tiger: This is an old Chinese saying which can be understood to mean "so-so".)

In Dublin,  we stayed for three nights in a hotel very near to the Samuel Beckett Bridge, which has the shape of a harp and is near the center of the city.

We walked around the city several times, and it was quite fun and  very convenient. Dublin has many museums, one of which describes the famine years. Below is a replica of a "famine boat". 

One of the places we visited was Trinity College, which is famous for maintaining the beautiful Book of Kells. It also has a very old library with an interesting design.

  outside and inside

 I also visited an undergraduate Science exhibition.

The whole group went to see the Guinness Storehouse, the famous Brewery.

Then we visited the location of the very first performance of Handel's Messiah. I took several pictures there:

 It is now a hotel!!!

 A near-by Church

We had some fish and chips for lunch

and went to a place which commemorates the people who died in the cause of Irish Freedom:

We then traveled by bus to visit four different places across the country. We stayed in each place for two to three days:

Kilkenny:

We were treated to a Hurling demostration, which was very interesting. Hurling is an ancient national sport which is very popular in Ireland. we learned ALL about it and it was quite fun!

After leaving Kilkenny we visited the Waterford Crystal Factory

         Crystal cutting

Cork:

  Michael Martin gave us a very interesting lecture about the losses of the Titanic and the Lusitania!

This is a picture of our hostess for the Home-Hosted lunch!  Our  Program Director is on the right.

On our way to Killarney we stopped at Blarney Castle:

  Castle garden    

 Inside the Castle  At the very top.

(None of us chose to kiss the Blarney Stone!)

We visited a working sheep farm and watched the farmer direct the sheep dog by vocal commands. It was a gorgeous day!

 at full attention

       The dog jumped over the fence - just to show off!

Killarney:

We went on a Dingle Experience Tour, which was really good but quite a bit rain had diminished the fun a bit.

These are small caves which were built and used by hermits.

On our way to Galway, we took a ferry across the River Shannon. Unfortunately, we could not see well enough to appreciate the place:

Galway:

Kai gave us a celebration gift for our wedding anniversary to have a tour of the National Park on a horse and buggy ride 

On our tour of Connemara and Kylemore Abbey, it rained pretty steadily.

There were many scenes we would have liked to explore, but the weather made it impossibile!

     Rocks on the coast

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