Well HOW’s about ye!   Sure am going to tell youse all a wee story about our trip to Ireland. O.K. enough of that but you can hear or see I have been back to the olde sod and have lots of stories in store. Now to start with,  I do not remember everybody and his dog using the word “wee” so often …but they did…. including the dog! There was a wee card, a wee car, a wee bus, a wee pint, in a wee minute, in fact a wee everything!  I met a young Aussie girl who had lived there for only four years. “This is a grand wee country”, she told me. I tried to think up a typical aussie expression which I never use. “Good on you,” I replied sarcastically.

We arrived in Dublin airport from a very hot Dubai and this time I brought the wife with me on the trip. Well to be truthful, she brought me.  We were then whisked off to Naas where we settled in to recover from the long trip. As luck would have it, our host was working for Arthur (of the Guinness variety) and we were duly treated to a visit to the famous St. James Gate, where we experienced one of the highlights of the trip. This was worth a story in itself but as I am writing the Ulster column, I will let you use your imagination here.

The following day we were driven to Co. Clare where we visited the Aran Islands and Westport where some lucky leprechaun now owns a very good cam recorder and (if he did not sell it) a top camera. At this point I became the owner of my wife’s snapshot box!

 We had quite a few adventures around the Cliffs of Moher, Doolin, Durty Nellys before returning to Dublin and boarding a ferry to England where I had a gig at a local folk club. 

Then off to Nice in France, the Cinque Terre in Italy, Antibes in France, Barcelona and believe it or not a jet star flight to BELFAST. We landed at Aldergrove Airport. It was difficult for me to believe that in some thirty years it (the airport) had hardly changed. Well not the better anyway. As we strode serenely through the green “Nothing to Declare” aisle, I remarked to my wife that there was no one in sight of the customs officer variety. “Sure don’t we all have honest faces over here” remarked a passenger who had suddenly arrived to overtake us and had overheard my remark.

Now this was the first part of our trip where we had no accommodation arranged but who wants to go to Ulster in October. It turned out that hundreds of people from Donegal did!  Donegal were in the final of the All Ireland and the more than helpful young man at the information desk told us in his droll accent: ”Hard to get anywhere in Belfast to stay this weekend. It’s all booked up!”  I suggested we might hire a car and go north. “Aye youse could try that. Youse’ll have no trouble getting yourselves a car.”   He proceeded to phone the Causeway Hotel situated conveniently enough at the Giant’s Causeway. “I have a great deal for youse” he says after spending a few minutes on the phone. “Go get yourselves a car.”

I obediently trotted over to the budget car desk and asked the price of the cheapest car. “I could tell you that” this obnoxious git says, “but it would be of no use to ya!  None left! All hired out (you guessed it) by folks coming to watch the big game tomorrow. No need to try Avis or the others. We are all in the same boat.” He was most amused when I told him it was a car I was after not a bl…..BOAT!

So now we have a dilemma. We have a hotel (possibly) but no means to get there. We could I suppose get the express to Belfast and wait until tomorrow to get a bus to Antrim and Ballymena. Then to Ballycastle and perhaps walk the last few miles (they still have miles there) to the Causeway Hotel. Needless to say I did not suggest this idea to my wife. I did want to live a little longer!  “Maybe we can hire a car outside the airport” I suggested. So we tried to get out of the airport which of course was surrounded by security wire. Now I have always believed in Irish Luck and sure enough we were stopped by someone (job description unknown) who asked us what we were about. (Translation…. What are you trying to achieve?)  We explained our situation and in five minutes he had solved our problem. He phoned a company called Dooleys (head office in Limerick), who had one car left and they could send a mini bus to pick us up as they were about one and a half miles from the airport. We ran back inside the airport to book the hotel and half an hour later we were driving towards Antrim, Ballymena, Ballycastle and the Giant’s Causeway in a luxurious Ford.

 

 

 

The hotel was outstanding and situated a short walk from the entry to some really spectacular views.

 

The next day was one of the three that summer when it did not rain so after doing the obligatory walk around the famous Causeway, we drove to Portstewart, Portrush, Coleraine, Limavady and Derry or if you prefer Londonderry!  I confess I had never stopped in Derry before and it really is a spectacular walled city. It appears that it is the worthy recipient of the prestigious title “U.K. City of Culture 2013!  I did not like to mention that this was still 2012. We looked over at Donegal a few miles on before driving back to Royal Portrush Golf Club where they charge a cool 140 pounds each for a round of golf! Luckily for me it rained the day we were booked in for, so we cancelled. We had great craic in the hotel bar that night. I never realised how much I missed the good old Ulster humour but it just does not translate well in the written form, so I have left it out!
 The next day we drove the few miles to the Carrick-a-Rede Island and Rope Bridge. I do not have a great head for heights and the last time I walked it, it was so misty, I couldn’t see what was below. This time, as you see from the photograph, it was a little more spectacular.

 

Our next adventure was driving down the Antrim coast. A road noted for its bends and landslides. It is a narrow road also and the day being Sunday, it was choc a block with cyclists who we simply had to pass. The passenger seat in our Ford was not the place to be! We then arrived at Ballyclare to meet an old friend. Yes another bally and this is where Gareth Maybin plays most of his golf. Gareth was the only Irish golfer to play at the Lake Karrinyup golf tournament this year. Unfortunately he did not play his best. Bally of course means “place of” as if you didn’t know. Sometimes we think of it as “town of”. My favourite is Ballynoe which is situated just south of Downpatrick.  I have not yet found its sister city …Ballyea!

Oopps what is he rabbiting on about now I can hear you say. And so onward to Co. Down. The Ards peninsula, Bangor, Newtownards, Donaghadee, Portaferry, Strangford, Tyrella, Newcastle, the Mourne Mountains, Downpatrick, Killyleagh, Shrigley, Comber and back to Bangor.

Oh what a great memories those places brought back.  But I will save them for another day. So you can look forward to reading (in the NEXT BLOG) about our great trip to Donaghadee when we were stopped by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, (we had  Dublin license plates!)  and of course Belfast (where I was able to visit the Falls and Shankill Roads and some very new exciting bars in the centre of the city) and of course I did visit the Titanic Quarter. Well I had to didn’t I?