The Sullivans Do Ireland

For years my father has talked about taking all the kids and grandkids to Ireland. Almost a year ago I told him that if it was every going to happen Summer 2012 was a good time. No one was graduating from college, high school or 8th grade, everyone was gainfully employed, and he and my mother were still mobile enough to enjoy the trip. So, by late September 2011 dates were set and airline tickets purchased. In the modern world the latter pretty much sets things in stone. The rest of the plan came together over the winter.

The gathering started in Dublin. My brother Charlie and Tracy arrive on June15th. The parents arrived via London, the train to Wales and the ferry across the Irish Sea on the 16th. The rest of the gang--all five grandkids (ages 13 to 20) escorted by Patty and Scott arrived at 5:20 am on the 17th. Dom and I rolled into town the evening of the 18th.

The herd explored Dublin on the 17th and 18th. Among other things they took the Viking Splash tour (think Ride the Ducks!), visited the Guinness Brewery and Kilmainham Gaol. The older kids figured out the Dublin bus system and took off on their own.

By the evening of the 18th when we arrived they were ready for dinner in front of the Italy/Ireland Euro Cup match. If you are unfamiliar with the Euro Cup think World Cup (soccer/football) on a more regional scale. The Euro cup tournament provided a constant undertone to the trip.

On the morning of the 19th we picked up two vehicles (a Nissan Qashqai and a Volkswagen Transporter--neither of which are sold in the U.S.). Here is a picture of the two vehicles.

The Nissan seats seven but we never put up the rear seats so mostly it held four or five. The Volkswagen seats nine and often there were eight riding in it. I drove the Nissan (with some help from Patty) and Scott drove the VW (with some help from Charlie).

After loading everyone and everything at the hotel we headed out of Dublin enroute to Cobh (pronounced cove) near Cork City. Getting there was not without mishap. I was leading and we ended up heading the wrong direction (north instead of south) on the motorway. As we were trying to turn around I almost wiped a Garda (police) car off the road. I think the view of the near incident was more exciting from the following van. We were all amazed they did not pull me over. 

At that point the two vehicles became separated. There was not much to be done about that as we did not have any way to talk to each other. Since we all knew more or less where we were heading (the Heritage Centre in Cobh) both vehicles did their best to get there. Amazingly we arrived not too far apart. The van went the wrong way out of Dublin longer than the Nissan but the Nissan missed the exit to Cobh and went a all around Cork City before turning around.

Eventually we met up in Cobh and started out by having lunch at the Heritage Centre. Then we went through the exhibits. There was a good explanation of the history of emigration in Ireland (much of it forced by judicial and economic reasons) and because Cobh (formerly Queenstown) was often the last port for ships going from Europe to America there was also quite a good exhibit on the evolution of the ships from the 1700s to recent times. The town was also the last port for the Titanic before it sank so the exhibit on the disaster is quite extensive. There were quite a few Irish on the ship and most of them died in the sinking.

From Cobh we went on to Clonakilty where we stayed in a large family oriented resort. We went to the local grocery store and then picnicked in the sitting room in one of the family apartments--all twelve of us crammed around a coffee table filled with food. It was one of the most fun dinners of the trip.

Afterwards Charlie, Patty, Scott, Emily, Daniel, and I walked into the main part of Clonakilty (a really charming Victorian style street) to a recommended pub--De Barra's. The music was terrific and we were seated right next to the musicians who were simply tucked into a corner of the pub's main room. It was fun to see Emily order drinks for the first time (the drinking age is 18 in Ireland but anyone can go into a pub). She, Charlie and Scott taste tested a variety of porter, lager, ale, etc. I stuck to cider and water. The charming gentlemen in our party made friends easily and we enjoyed meeting a young man and the two Spanish girls staying with his grandmother. We also met two women from somewhere in Europe who were there on holiday. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera but pictures do exist.

The next morning we headed off to Baltimore to meet our tour guide for our two days on Cape Clear and Sherkin Island. More in the next post.