Jaunting cars and Waterford

Sunday 9th October

We left Kenmore and travelled to Killarney after a rather disturbed night’s sleep in the hotel due to some very noisy rugby fans. Here we went for a ride in the jaunting cars (horse and cart) and went for a ride in a very lovely nearby National Park. Lakes full of trout and salmon, a forest full of deer and other animals, but no hunting here today. I don’t know that I have been in a horse and cart since my farm days with Biddy. Rhodedendrums are a pest here and they are trying to control them in the parklands. We had a delightful but cool journey and the driver of the jaunting car described things in a very broad Irish accent which we sometimes found difficult to understand.

We then left Killarney and headed off towards Cork with the clouds rising for a short period to give us a glimpse of how beautiful the place is. Just before we reached Cork we came to Blarney Castle where the famous blarney stone was waiting to be kissed. As it is five floors up in the castle and Jill thought I already had enough blarney in me, she wasn’t keen on me kissing it. The castle was built in 1446 and was a very interesting structure, like a very large brick sitting on top of a very large rock. They had a garden of poisonous plants there as every castle did. Just in case there was someone you didn’t like, you could feed them something from this garden.

Moving on, we passed through Cork, the birthplace of Ned Kelly. On through Middleton which had a large whisky distillery, then to Dungavan where a large cross set in a field identified the site of a mass grave from the time of the potato famine when one and a half million Irish died.

Waterford, our destination for the night is a farming area where wheat is the major crop and the town is of course known for its Waterford crystal. We toured the showroom and saw them blowing trophy bowls, then followed it through to the cutting, polishing and engraving of the bowls. We got to see some prizes that will be given out at the Olympics in 2012 as well as other major events. They only make specialty products here now. Mass products are now made in the Czech Republic and Poland. It was a fascinating tour to see a product come out of a furnace and end up as a glistening crystal bowl.

This evening we went to Jack Meade’s Pub. This Pub was built as a house around 1647, became a pub in 1705 and has been ever since. The current owners have only been there for 150 years! We had a great singalong couple of hours with a very well known Irish singer named Tom Comerford and I enjoyed a couple of pints of Guinness.

We finished the day with a group dinner at our hotel as we have a VERY early start tomorrow, as we have to catch the ferry again. So tomorrow it will be goodbye Ireland, a very pretty country with 40 shades of green and a people who seem to have a marvellous sense of humour. I now have a greater understanding of Ireland and the Irish people.

Lesson – when speaking in the Celtic language, ‘bh’ is pronounced in English as ‘v’. (e.g. Siobhan) .