It's the photos from my

2004 Trip to Ireland!

(click on a photo for a larger view)

I flew into Bristol and met some of Erin's friends at the Marlborough, a tidy little cider bar. Then, we flew to Belfast where Erin's zoo friend Mike picked us up and took us on a tour of the northeast coast of Ireland. We visited the Bushmill's Distillery (which was closed, Erin's second strikeout at the place), and climbed around at Giant's Causeway. We had a tasty lunch and several drinks along the way, too!

We love Bushmills!
The Bushmill's Distillery was closed, so we walked away sadly.
Erin and Mike put on a brave face outside the closed distillery.
The Church of Bushmills. We had lunch at the Bushmill's Pub, across the street.
Giant's Causeway, just a stone's throw from Scotland

Later that evening we arrived at Tom Kerrigan's cottage, a lovely self-catering affair in Barnesmore Gap, just outside of Donegal. The Gap was a notoriously dangerous valley passage for centuries, where bands of robbers would wait for travelers to pass through the wooded Gap on their way to Donegal Town.

We had several pints at the local tavern, Biddy O'Barnes, an old pub along the Gap road which featured excellent pints of Guinness, and a large poster detailing the rough history of the region. Even with British guardposts at either end of the Gap, the robbers managed to stay one step ahead of the law until the Crown had the forested valley cleared in the late 1800's.

One famous story has a pair of women rushing into the guardpost crying "Thieves! Bandits!", whereupon the guards grab their rifles and rush out to save the travellers. Meanwhile, the "old ladies", who are robbers in disguise, seize the weapons and valuables and disappear out the back way into the woods!

The self-catering cottage outside of Donegal, in the Barnesmore Gap.
I can't believe there's a store that only carries frozen food!
A bar mural in the old town section of Derry.
One of the famous Bogside murals

We tagged along on one or two of Mike's sales calls, and got a ride into Derry, across the border into Northern Ireland. After visiting some of the department stores, we walked around the wall which encircles the old city on the hill.

Later that day we returned to Donegal Town and tried to see the castle there, but it was closed for the winter. We heard a cat meowing from inside the castle walls, but couldn't make it come to the gate. I found a sweet little restaurant called The Krusty Kitchen in the back of Donegal Town and had some great chips (french fries) there. Surprisingly, most of the chips I had in Ireland were terrible. Go figure.

Looking through Derry's western gate
The Presbyterian Church in Derry
A quick snap of Donegal Castle, which was closed.
The Krusty Kitchen in Donegal Town. First rate!

Donegal county was pretty grey and rainy in January, and one day the rain showers came and went every 3 minutes for over an hour! The cottage was nice and warm, with an electric fireplace as well as a peat-burning stove. Every once in a while the light would strike through the clouds and illuminate the surrounding hills in that certain magical way.

Swans on Donegal Bay
The view from Kerrigan cottage.
One brave sheep snuck into the yard for some tasty grass.
The historical marker for Cooly Cross

We drove around a bit in a rental car (I used my video game skills to successfully navigate on the wrong side of the road) and stopped at a couple of historical sites on Inishowen Penninsula, north of Derry. Cooly Cross stands on a hillside above Moville, and legend has it that deals were sealed by shaking hands through the hole in the top of this stone cross. While we were taking in the view from the nearby cemetary, a lovely rainbow appeared above the valley. Go Ireland!

We peered into a stone ossuary and saw some bones, but it wasn't clear whether they were human or just old cow bones. Down at the marina, we ran into a cold and lonely kitten outside the Maritime Museum. Judging from the smell of fried fish in the air from the museum's chipper, I guessed that he would't stay hungry for too long.

Cooly Cross. The hole in the top was for sealing an agreement with a holy handshake.
A rainbow? In Ireland?
The bone house at Cooly.
An Irish kitten, hanging around the Maritime Museum in Moville.

The car ferry at Moville was a tiny little platform with just one car on it. I wished we had time to take a ride, but we were headed in the opposite direction, up to the most northerly point of Ireland at Malin Head. After a couple of hours of driving through some beautifully desolate north Irish landscapes, we climbed the hill to the jutting point of rock which breaks the icy winds that blow in from Greenland.

If you look carefully at the picture with Erin in it, you can see the word "Eire" spelled out with white rocks in the background. On the way down from Malin Head we saw a group of very tired Puffins sitting right on the edge of the shore, not moving an inch. I think they must have just arrived from Greenland, and were very happy to see some land after all that flying through the arctic winds!

The car ferry arrives in Moville from Magilligan Point
The sun strikes through the cloud cover at Malin Head.
Malin Head is Ireland's most northerly point.
Erin hangs on for dear life in the North Atlantic winds.

Back in Donegal Town we walked down to the waterfront again to check out the waterbus tour. Unfortunately, they weren't going out without at least 10 people on the tour. I don't think there were 10 tourists in town at all! Winter is a great time to travel to Ireland if you're from Seattle; you'd swear you never left the Pacific Northwest.

We walked around and saw Donegal Bay, and the ruins of an old chapel which used to overlook the bay. The gravestones dated back to the mid-1700's and earlier.

The observation post at Malin Head
Another observation tower on the hill
View from the cemetary in Donegal Town
A gravestone from the late 1700's in Donegal cemetary.

After Mike headed back east to Belfast, we rented a small car in Derry and toured around a bit before dropping Erin off at the Belfast International Airport. One last stop at Biddy's for a quick photo was in order; we had spent several fun nights there, and as I mentioned before, the pints of Guinness were FREAKING EXCELLENT! They were matched only by the sublime creamy pints I enjoyed in Clifden on my last trip to Ireland. Really outstanding, no joke.

After seeing Erin safely off, I headed back into Belfast, got myself a hotel room downtown and headed out to the spanking new Odyssey Center where the ice arena, movie theatres and shiny new restaurants lived. Saturday night was a great night to go there; the hockey game was a real treat, with awesome plays by the local Belfast Giants and the opposing Coventry Blaze. Lots of Canadians in the Irish and UK elite hockey leagues. They all feed into the NHL, so you can see a lot of up and coming great players. The game ended in a 2-2 draw in overtime; smashing hockey, as they say!

After the hockey game the center was CRAWLING with youth, from 14 up to about 18 or so, out for a night at the movies or the arcade, or just to hang out. Wild scene, for sure, with lots of youth just milling about in large herds. A couple of teenage girlfights livened up the evening, broken up by no-nonsense security guards who looked like they saw it every weekend.

Biddy O'Barnes tavern is a welcome stop in Barnesmore Gap.
The rental car we drove up to Inishowen Penninsula
I caught a hockey game in Belfast.
The Belfast Giants face off with the Coventry Blaze.

The next morning I took off on foot for a walking tour of downtown Belfast. It was Sunday morning, so I was expecting things to be a little slow, but the place was deserted until well after 1 pm. Oh well. I walked through the Queen's University Botanical Gardens and around the Laganside waterfront. There is a lot of brand new development there, and Belfast is quickly shedding it's burnt-out tough town image for a new, young and energetic forward-looking city.

The conservatory at Queen's University in Belfast.
A statue to Lord Kelvin, who discovered absolute zero.
A signpost in the botanical gardens
The smallest car ever

Still, as I poked around on foot behind some of the new construction and into back alleys (like I said, the place was deserted), I found some older buildings that had definitely seen better days, and even a couple of hard-core old places with signs protesting the new development on their walls.

A sign near Laganside protesting the new developments in Belfast
A burnt out car near an old factory in Belfast
The Albert Clock Tower is leaning noticeably!
Artwork near Belfast Dockworks. In the distance are the Howland & Wolff cranes used to build the Titanic.

The back streets of Belfast had all sorts of interesting old building tucked away in them. The old city library, a museum dedicated to Northern Ireland's participation in WWII, and a tavern that I was terrified of, even in the cold light of day.

Back at the hotel, I was able to walk a block to the Grand Opera House, the Europa Hotel (Europe's most bombed hotel), and the famous Crown Bar. The story I had from a cabbie says that the original bar owners, a Catholic husband and a Protestant wife had a difference of opinion about the bar's name. He wanted to call the bar The Shamrock and she wanted to call it The Crown. The wife eventually won the naming rights, but the husband had a mosaic of the king's crown installed in the entryway, so everyone would be sure to step right on it as they entered the bar! (I did, too, before and after having 5 shots of Jameson.)

An old building awaiting renovation, downtown Belfast
The public library
A friendly-looking Belfast pub
The Grand Opera House, newly renovated after a car bomb in 1996

Just across from the hotel was the old government building, a block-long castle with massive spires at each corner. It was being renovated into offices and convention space, but the exterior was being restored and looked beautiful. Just past that was the "Golden Mile", a long road of shops and restaurants between City Hall (where the Goths hang out) and Queen's University. The entire multi-block pedestrian shopping district to the north has lots of big stores, and several interesting little shopping alleys which lead into the old market district of Belfast. Pottinger's Entry leads to the market area, and is the only archway which still survives.

The old goverment building tower in downtown Belfast
Pottinger's Entry into the old Belfast market section
Erin visits the famous Crown Bar, just before leaving for Bristol
One more: a photo of Bogside, the Catholic neighborhood outside of the walls of Old Derry.

I walked around Belfast so much, I wrecked my feet up pretty badly, but it was worth it. Don't miss Belfast if you're headed that way; you won't be disappointed!

The next morning I got a ride to the aiport and went from Belfast to Gatwick, then from Heathrow all the way back to Seattle. On the plane with me was Watoto, a 30-piece children's choir from Uganda who sang a couple of African folk songs in the airport while we were waiting to board. You can visit their website here!

It was a fun trip; I think next time I will be heading to the south part of Ireland to catch some more great music, drinks, and continue my search for the perfect french fry. Slainte!


these photos were taken with a Canon "Elph" S-100 digital camera
and edited with The Mighty Photoshop on a Macintosh computer.
contact: eire AT dossan DOT com
all content is © 2004 Dossan Publications