Dublin - Castles, cottages, cathedrals, pubs, beaches, winding coastal roads, mountains, bustling cities, charming villages and craic (that untranslatable Gaelic word for just having a good time) – all add up to one of today’s most popular travel destinations.
Niall Gibbons, chief executive of Irish Tourism, tells me over a whiskey (Irish, of course) in a pub in Temple Bar, Dublin’s hottest, longest-lived party district on the banks of the River Liffey, that visitor numbers keep rising.
“The brand ‘Ireland’ is such a positive one,” he says, “it seems everybody wants to come here.”
That’s true. When I told friends, family and anyone who would listen that I was off on a whirlwind trip round this small island, I always got a positive response.
It’s the hospitality, wit and friendliness of the Irish that never fails to charm. Plus you’re going to see some of Europe’s loveliest and greenest scenery. Not for nothing is Ireland called The Emerald Isle.
You’re also going to enjoy delicious home-cooked food, from seafood and steaks to potato bread and pastries.
Maybe you’ll even discover some ancestors. More than 2.5 million people emigrated from Ireland during and after the great potato famine of the 1840s.
A long line of US presidents has roots in Ireland, as well as families all over what was known as the New World – Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
From the beautiful Georgian city of Dublin, capital of the Republic of Ireland (Ireland is still politically split – with the republic in the south and Northern Ireland part of the UK) with its gracious houses, world-famous Guinness Brewery, its castle (Ireland is littered with castles), its Book of Kells, its literary heritage (Ireland boasts three Nobel laureates for literature), our small group of South African journalists travels south past Kilkenny Castle.
The castle started life in the early 13th-century and was later the ancestral home of the Dukes of Ormond. The male line died out in 1997 (females couldn’t inherit) and today, after years of decay and desertion, it is slowly being restored by the government.
We continue south, dropping in at Midleton, County Cork, home of Jameson Irish Whiskey.When I watch the intricate processes, time (triple distilled), skill and dedication that goes into each bottle, I’ll never be able to toss off a tot so nonchalantly again.
Cork is the republic’s second biggest city, and Cobh (pronounced Cove) is the port where many emigrated on the infamous coffin ships, early steamers, and the great ocean liners.
This was the Titanic’s last port of call before setting off on its final fatal journey in 1912, and during World War I the Lusitania was sunk here by a German U-boat and almost 2 000 people perished.
If your family came from Ireland, you can check it out with the Genealogical Record Finder service at the Cobh Heritage Centre on the waterfront.
Our journey continues along the coast to Kinsale, now considered Ireland’s gourmet centre (where at Fishy Fishy restaurant I ate the best Lobster Thermidor I’ve ever tasted) up through Limerick to the Cliffs of Moher, southern Ireland’s most visited natural attraction, having competed with Table Mountain last year for one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World (Table Mountain romped home).
It was a grey day of swirling mist and driving rain, so there was no hope of catching a glimpse of the 214m cliffs which stretch for 8km along the western seaboard of the Atlantic.
But by the time we reached Galway Bay that evening, along hedgerows brimming with white hawthorn, impossibly green fields covered with yellow lilies where fluffy white sheep were grazing, the sun was setting, and the west of Ireland was bathed in sunshine.
Long ago, I’d lived in Ireland for seven years, but had never heard of what is now one of my favourite places – The Burren in County Clare, a member of the Unesco recognised Global Geoparks Network, now one of 87 Geoparks in 27 countries.
Millions of years go, this unspoilt corner of Ireland lay beneath a warm tropical sea. Today, plants normally not found together in the same country – Alpine, Mediterranean and Arctic – grow side by side in rocky crevices among the grey rocks and limestone “pavements” that protrude from the green fields encircled by “curtain lace” walls of interlaced rock.
“The holes in the walls are to let the wind through,” says Paddy Curtain, our knowledgeable driver and guide.
Humans have lived here for centuries and there are more than 2 700 recorded monuments, some dating back 6 000 years, including megalithic tombs.
There’s a lot to do at The Burren, apart from walking back in time and marvelling at the whole geopark. You can hike the coast, enjoy kayaking or world-class surfing, take artisanal food tours and cooking lessons, go camping, visit farms, take mind, body and spirit tours, go bird watching, or listen to great traditional music.
The last legs of our journey took us to Northern Ireland and Derry (also still called Londonderry), one of the finest examples of walled cities in Europe.
In the last few decades Derry was the site of bitter sectarian – Catholic and Protestant – strife, but with the peace accord signed in 1999 between North and South, there is now a Peace Park, Peace Bridge, and harmony.
The 75km Causeway Coastal Route, from Derry to Belfast, is a dramatic coastal drives. This is the home of the Unesco World Heritage Site of Giant’s Causeway, the hair-raising Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, stunningly beautiful unspoilt beaches, rugged windswept cliffs, gorgeous scenery and – of course – more castles.
Dunluce Castle, which hangs perilously on cliffs over the boiling Atlantic (its kitchen fell into the sea once), is my favourite because it is everyone’s idea of what a “proper” castle should look like.
Built by the MacQuillans around 1500, it was their seat of power for half a century before the MacDonnells ousted them.
Then followed centuries of shifting allegiances, family feuds, murder and mayhem, as each clan struggled to hold on to power.
So it’s not surprising that much of the popular Game of Thrones TV series was filmed here.
We went to the tiny harbour of Ballintoy and to Castle Ward, where we tried our hand at archery, ate a medieval feast of wild boar and berries, and armed with a medieval scroll map, cycled and hiked round the Lanister Camp, Winterfell Castle and Strangford Lough.
At last we got to Belfast, now Northern Ireland’s thriving heart, brought to life again by the awesome £97m (R1.8 billion) Titanic Waterfront development.
The Titanic Belfast building rears like a great, beautiful cross between an iceberg and the prow of a ship – fittingly because it was in this city that the RMS Titanic was built and, in April 1912, set out on its first and last journey.
Nine galleries over four floors take you on a journey through time from Edwardian “Boomtown Belfast” which tells the stories of the workers who built the ship and the passengers who travelled on it, to the fateful voyage, with video footage of where it now lies.
South or north, ancient or modern, Ireland is a must-see destination.
l Kate Turkington was hosted by Tourism Ireland.
l For information, contact the tourist board in South Africa for Failte Ireland (the republic) or the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Call 011 463 1132, e-mail [email protected] or go to www.ireland.com
Sunday Tribune