Galway and Limerick

Friday 7th October

A very early start after our late night last night, we set off on the new freeway to Galway. We travelled through true Irish farming country with farms and their stone fences everywhere. Fields often vary between between one acre and up to six acres. They are completely different to Australian farms. I am told Ireland is like a frypan! Flat in the middle and hilly around the edges, but wherever we go it is GREEN!! We stopped at Galway, sang some sad Irish songs on the bus, had lunch and a walk around the town. We then turned south and headed to Limerick where we stay tonight. The west side of Ireland isn’t as fertile as the east and this is where Cromwell forced the easterners off their land for not supporting him and sent them west. This is probably why the west is where Gaelic starts to dominate as the first language.

Tonight we went to a Ceildh – in a pub on the Limerick docks, where we had a typical Irish dinner. I had bacon and cabbage (delicious!). Not quite what you would imagine. A family of seven played toe tapping Irish music and a couple of the sons danced for us (like Riverdance) . It was a great night. I went to the bar and asked the barmaid for a lemonade for Jill. Red or white she asked. I looked at her blankly and she said “you want a white” . I still haven’t found out what a red lemonade is!