Dingle Dangle

 Saturday September 2, 2023

It was another foggy morning leaving Limerick as we drove along River Shannon.  A message on the wall of the river pier says "it will rise with the moon", referring to the fact that this is a tidal river --the river water meets the sea water of the estuary in Limerick.  

We stopped for scones and tea at a small pub in Listowel.  It was the home of John B. Keane, the Irish playwright, novelist and essayist.  The pub and its clientele provided much of the material for Keane's writing.

The 1990 Oscar winning movie "The Field" was adapted from a play written by Keane.  (We have it on our watch list now.)   His son Billy Keane, also a writer, now runs the pub and regaled us with stories about his dad and the characters he wrote about.  He was quite a storyteller and it was fun to hear from him first hand.

We passed through Foyes, the birthplace of Irish coffee, and also well known as a hub for transatlantic flights, as the "Flying Boats" landed in the water in this harbor town.  The first commercial passenger flight from USA to Europe, The Yankee Clipper, landed in Foyes in 1939.  I'm learning all kinds of new things on this trip!  I don't think I paid much attention in history class!

As promised, the fog lifted and we had a beautiful sunny day for the drive along the coastal area.  As I've said before, it's just not possible to capture the beauty of the landscape through the lens of a camera, and through the window of a bus!

Because it was such a beautiful day, our driver stopped for pictures of the great scenery.

Jim took this video of the landscape view of Dingle Peninsula, which is the westernmost point of Ireland.

We stopped in the town of Dingle for another "comfort" stop.  It is a charming town with free toilets and good ice cream--I tried the sea salt! 

They were having a marathon/half marathon run in the town, so there was quite a bit of activity.  It's supposed to be the most scenic race in Ireland.  Many had medals dangling from their neck after finishing the race.  One of the runners was having lunch next to us so I asked for a picture of his medal.  I asked how he did and he said "I finished!"

There was a huge beach area with lots of people out enjoying the sunshine.  I'm sure the water was really cold.

We headed on to our final stop for the day, Killarney.  At the top of the hill, we were able to look out over the city and see the lakes of Killarney.

and some pretty flowers too, dangling in the shadow of Dingle!