The difficulty with this weeks challenge, “Countryside,” was which picture to use? I’m not really patient enough to be a great landscape photographer but I’ve got lucky a few times, including this time in Ireland.
I’ve not posted an entry for the last week or two, so there’s no suggestion to vote for my entry this week!
“Rain” is a good PhotoFriday theme for someone, like myself, who lives in the UK. I could have taken a picture on pretty much any day, but this way taken in August last year. Um, actually, in Ireland rather than at home…
There’s no need to panic and rush to vote for my entry in last weeks challenge since I didn’t enter.
This was the first wedding that I’ve been to in a while where I have not been the photographer in some capacity. It was nice to avoid the pressure! The disadvantage of course is that I was not always — not often — in the right place for the best shot.
It still didn’t stop my trying.
Over the last few years I have been to an Anglican church wedding, a civil partnership, a couple of registry office weddings, a Jewish wedding but never a Catholic one.
As anyone who knows me will realise, I’m not a man of faith, but it’s always interesting to see the differences.
The memorable feature of this wedding (in terms of the wedding service rather than what it meant to me to see a good friend get married!) was its obsession with the creation of new offsprings. Little mention was made of their one year old daughter…
As you might imagine of an Irish wedding, the service was only the start. The reception went on for… well, longer that I stayed awake in any case. All I can say is that at midnight, only a couple of hours after a huge meal, they were bringing out burgers for a snack.
One last thing that I wanted to mention, though it’s not strictly about the wedding. I got back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning and didn’t rush up the next day. It got to nearly ten and I realised that I had missed the breakfast. I wasn’t too concerned, since Tipperary town was only a five minute drive away, and continued to lay in bed for a little longer.
Just before ten thirty, the phone rang. Would I like breakfast? She wouldn’t take no for an answer. I love service in Ireland…
I generally prefer not to cover the same ground twice. I’ve got something out of pretty much everywhere I’ve travelled to and I’ve no objection going back to most places, but, the way I see it, there is so much of the world to see that, all else being equal, I’d rather see something new. There are, however, exceptions.
Eleven years ago I had taken a driving tour around Ireland with my sister. We had covered a lot of ground but spent a lot of time in the south west of the country, staying in Cashel and Cork. This time a friend was getting married in the same area. So rather the just shooting in for the celebration, I decided to stay on for a while, and retread some of the same ground. If nothing else, I have a better camera this time around…
Last time we had a car and rarely stayed more than one night in any location. This time I decided to base myself in a hotel in the Glen of Aherlow, just outside Tipperary.
As soon as you arrive it is immediately clear why they call it the emerald isle: it’s so green and verdant… and wet. It rained quite a lot while I was there, but not so bad that it forced a change of plan.
As with last time, driving was fun. Signs seemed to be scattered rather than planned, with dozens at some junctions and none at all at others. Getting to the hotel in the first place was made more complicated by a road closure and a diversion. A big sign directed me left, down a small road which finally intersected with a larger one. The diversion sign was the first and the last I saw. By the time I got to the main road there was nothing. I guessed right and then, seeing a lot of cars taking another right after a minute, I took a punt and followed them. After a few minutes it led to another sign. Unfortunately one that said “Road closed.”
To cut a long story short, it was necessary to ignore the signs, drive around them, and continue down the road regardless. After another few minutes there was the hotel.
Before the wedding I took a series of short walks in and around the Glen. Some started in small towns where the petrol station, pub, restaurant and shop were one and the same. Others started just off a main road, where you had to rummage around for ten minutes to find where it was supposed to begin. In either case, they were pleasant and easy and felt like a million miles from London, which is pretty much exactly what you want when on holiday.
On a few occasions I decided to sit in the car for a short time, hoping that the rain would stop. I got lucky for the most part.
When the clouds lifted and the sun shone through, it really is a beautiful area. Last time we had driven into Tipperary — more for the name than anything else — but had not stayed long. It was good to spend more time here.
In Tipperary itself there was in a party spirit. Tipp Town, as they call them, had a big game coming up and the whole place was covered in blue and yellow livery. Even one of the statues.
After the wedding I decided to go a little further afield. Tipperary sits at one end of a triangle, with Cahir and Cashel at the other two corners. The former has a castle and the latter a rock. I’m not really selling the rock, am I? Well, on top of the rock is a church and at the base is an old monastery. It’s so significant that the Queen visited on her recent trip to Ireland. Make of that what you will.
Of course the Queen had a welcoming party and tour guides and probably an easier time parking. I had a band playing in the main square. At least I assume they were for me. But I could have used a guide as I did not have an easy time finding The Rock. It’s is kind of bizarre when you consider that the town basically has a single attraction!
Okay, I exaggerate slightly but I did take a wrong turning and ended up on completely the wrong side of town before realising my error. I don’t remember it being this hard last time I was here!
The church was covered in scaffolding and so not looking its best. I decided to walk all the way around the rock instead. About a third of the way round there was an unwelcoming fence but it wasn’t big enough to dissuade me. I clambered over and continued. From the rock I could see some way in the distance in all directions. The old abbey, the cows grazing in the fields, the wind farms on the distant hills.
Back in the car, I drove to the third corner of the triangle, Cahir. The main attraction in Cahir is a castle. I got lucky on two fronts. First, I managed to be there when they were offing free admission. Second, I arrived just as a tour was about to start.
Like many castles, it has a long and rich history and the guide, with her strong, local accent, drew our attention to the visible evidence of it all.
Unfortunately this was the last “real” day in the country. The last day I just drove to the airport, though I did take quite a detour. I went south to Cork. When I was here in 2001 this took half a day as the drive was entirely on smaller, winding roads. Since then they built a motorway so it only took an hour to get there.
Cork, again, struck me as a pleasant town, though one, seemingly, without significant attractions to photograph!
The nearest famous tourist destination is the Blarney Stone so on my way out of Cork, on the way to Shannon, I stopped off for a quick look around. I guess I assumed a big field with a stone in the middle, kind of like Stone Henge but without the cordon.
Don’t believe my gut instinct.
Admission costs €10, though, to be fair, it includes entry to the castle and gardens as well as the stone. It seemed like a lot for kissing an unhygienic rock, so I passed and continued down the road to the airport.
Spending a night at an airport hotel is not a terribly glamorous way to end a holiday, but the flight the next day was early and I’d have missed Cork, Blarney and Bunratty had I stayed in the Glen of Aherlow for another night. Ultimately you can’t see everything, but I was very happy with what I did manage.
I thought for this weeks PhotoFriday theme, simply being “Inside” wasn’t quite enough. It had to show being inside which also implies that there’s an outside visible. So, here I was in Ireland, sat inside the car, waiting for the rain to subside. I thought that that made this a decent entry.
Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Glowing.” I’m entry number 184.
Ireland, as I’m sure you know, is a small country in the north west of Europe. It is famed for it’s glorious landscape and frequent and heavy precipitation. We were fairly luck, but we did get very wet on more than one occasion!
We started in Dublin, headed down to Cork via Cashel, up to Killarney and then back to Dublin through Limerick, Killaloe and Kildare. The location of most pictures has been noted.
The pictures of Limerick were actually taken in October 1999, but it didn’t seem worth putting them on a separate page.
Click the small pictures below for a full size version.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
If the pictures have piqued your interest, there are a few web sites that you might want to visit: