Scenes from the past-Ireland

I lived in this mobile home for the first 3 months of my gypsy sojourn in Ireland. You can't see it from the picture, but if you walk back a short distance, you would see Ballydonegan Bay and the Atlantic ocean plus where the Kenmare River flows from the Atlantic. That's my granddaughter Ara, standing in front. She came to visit me for 6 wks the first summer, and then her mom came for 2 wks to pick her up.



I then moved into this house and lived here for two years. I loved this house, and never had the feeling of peace, contentment, benign spirits, and mischevious fairies as I had here.



The light colored building in the right side of the picture is my house, and is taken from the road coming from the town, Castletownbere, which was about 10 miles away. It had a supermarket, several butcher shops, a library, a doctor or two, many pubs and small eateries, and numerous other little businesses. I managed to get there at least twice a week. In the early days, before I had a car, I either got a lift from someone or began walking. In almost all cases someone local would stop and give me a lift. When I got my car I tried to pick up anyone who needed a lift, and it was common to see high school age kids thumbing a lift. No big deal there, and safe.



This is looking down the driveway from my house, with some of the cows in the front. You can see where my driveway meets the side road (not the one from town). If I needed something from the "shop" in the village, such as a bag of coal or a cannister of gas, or groceries, I could call the shop and the owner would drop off my purchases. He also drove the school bus, and made deliveries from that. The coal and gas would be delivered in a larger truck and Keiran, an employee, would bring it into the house for me. The coal was in 80 kilo sacks, and he would carry one on each shoulder!


TRAFFIC JAM IN IRELAND! You can see I'm taking this from the driver's seat on the right side of the car, and the oncoming vehicle which is (herding the sheep) is to my right. This means in Ireland, England, and I think in Australia, you drive on the WRONG side of the car, on the WRONG side of the road. It is really difficult to get used to, but even more difficult to try to cross a street. You automatically first look to the left because that is where your first lane of traffic will be coming from. In the larger cities where they have an influx of tourists, the street at crossings will have painted in bright big white letters, "Look Right". It is common in the countryside to have your drive interrupted by a herd of cows or sheep. Some people get impatient, but I always just sat and watched in fascination. In this case, I stopped the car and let them go around me on both sides.



This was taken on one of my long walks, and was a real favorite of mine. The sea is at the mouth of the Kenmare River. I don't know what caused this particular rock formation, but there are several in the area. It was the action of the water no doubt, and I took this photo on my way to a spot where the sea has eroded the rocky cliffs into arches. I'll try to find those pictures for a future entry.


This is a typical scene in Ireland, the pub scene. I'm not talking about the fancy bars in the larger cities such as Dublin or Cork, as the best places to socialize are in the small villages and towns.



That's it for today, but I have loads more pictures taken in Ireland that I would love to share. The pictures were scanned, so the detail isn't as clear as it is in the actual photographs. I'm not sure if you can click to enlarge.