[thechat] things to do while in Ireland

[Martin Burns]

On Thu, October 28, 2004 9:25 am, Norman Beresford said:
> Hi Joel
>
> The Mourne mountains are stunning, especially gorgeous in winter.  And I
> guess you'll have to take a trip to the Giant's Causeway  and you can drop
> into Bushmills.

Just round the corner: Dunluce Castle, a ruin on a cliff.

> My wife would go mad at me suggesting this, but most people I know that
> have visited the North have gone to see some of the political murals.

Which are actually pretty interesting. The Loyalist ones have historically
been pretty bland, but there's lots of interesting artistic styles going
on in many of the Republican ones - you can tell that the Republicans have
gone out of their way to build international links and been influenced in
return.

As well as the obvious Belfast ones (there's a taxi tour), you really want
to go to Derry/Londonderry (the name is contentious!), which has made a
major effort to boost tourism over the last 10 years or so. There are a
number of pretty useful things to see, and the City Walls walk is very
good. 20 years ago, you would have been shot for trying it, but is now all
touristified.

While you're in the North, don't miss Armagh - it has all the Christian
history of St Patrick (check the St Patrick's Trian centre for history in
the last 1500 years), and the prehistory of Emhain Macha (check the Navan
centre for this, including some nifty sources for the Wicker Man).

http://www.countyarmagh.com/armagh_heritage_cathederal.htm

I would assume that you're going to do all the classic honeypots, like the
Guinness Storehouse:
http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/
(it's an attraction about Guinness *in* the brewery btw - not *quite* the
same thing as touring the brewery)

Don't forget to rent a car and drive up into the Wicklow hills. Go visit
Avoca, and Glendalough.

Cheers
Martin

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