Now, if heaven is a place on earth….. Ireland is it.

This is the first post I have written for a while and to kick things off, I thought a post about this wonderful country…. was just the ticket.

Having not long arrived back from my second visit to the ‘Emerald Isle’ the first time being in 2014 and I wouldn’t say I would move there tomorrow, I would move there today if I could. I absolutely love everything about the country. The scenery, the wildlife, the people the music and yes…… the weather!

When it rains here in England, you will often here the words ‘its Fucking raining again’ but over there, it didn’t bother me…. well not too much anyway. Although, when it rained, it certainly rained! The weather in Ireland is rather challenging at the best of times and I don’t know if it was just the holiday feeling but it didn’t get to me like it does here in England….. being surrounded by the most perfect scenery certainly helps.

The first time we went to Ireland, we caught the ferry from Liverpool but this time we drove to Holyhead to catch the ferry. The ferry crossing from Holyhead only takes half the time it does from Liverpool. We arrived in Dublin port by 5.30am and headed to our first point of call…. Tubbercurry, County Sligo.

In February of this year my mother in law passed away and we decided that the best thing for her, was to take her ashes back to Tubbercurry, the place where she was born and spent the first years of her life before heading to England.

Now another thing I like about Ireland, is the welcome you get when you visit someone’s home. I had never been to that part of Ireland before and had never met my wife’s relatives from that part of the world either. Although, within thirty seconds of arriving, I had a cup of tea in one hand and a sandwich in the other and it’s like that where ever you go in Ireland.

My wife’s cousin had arranged for some of my wife’s closest relatives and an old friend to be there when we scattered her ashes. It was solemn occasion but also a nice occasion set amongst some truly stunning countryside and to top it off, we caught the sun as well…. wasn’t expecting that in Ireland.

We left Tubbercurry by mid afternoon and by then the eye lids were beginning to feel very heavy, after very little sleep in over twenty four hours and we headed our way to County Clare. With already several hundred miles behind us and a few more miles in front before we reached our final destination, the amazing Irish countryside helped keep those eyelids firmly open. We were going to stay the main part of the holiday with my father in law and my wifes step mum in the beautiful village of Mountshannon in the Lough Derg area of the River Shannon.

Not far from the County Galway border, the River Shannon less than five minutes walk away and the mountains of County Tipperary that can be seen from across the Shannon, it is a truly stunningly beautiful part of the world.

Being in the west side of Ireland you couldn’t stay in one place, even though there is more than enough to see where we were, we just had to get in as much as we could.

Galway City is a must place to visit when in Ireland and the day we went, the famous Galway race’s were on and the city streets were even more bustling than usual.

Everywhere you walk you hear music, dancing and singing on nearly every street corner. A wonderful cosmopolitan city that has a great chippie as well…. in fact, it has several.

Ennis is the largest town in County Clare and is such a great place, we visited twice. A great place to shop with narrow streets with a vibrant atmosphere and plenty to see.

Killaloe is just stunning.

We went to killaloe on more than one occasion often just driving through but the day we stopped and had a look around, the Irish weather did it’s usual but it didn’t dampen our mood.

Connected to Ballina by a bridge over the River Shannon and surrounded by mountains on all sides, it is simply breathtaking!

Killaloe is in County Clare and Ballina is in County Tipperary so it is certainly not a ‘Bridge to far’.

With so many other places we visited including Limerick, my camera/camera’s went into overdrive….

‘Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!’

The locals….

After two weeks and over fifteen hundred road miles and two ferry trips, I can’t wait and already planning my next trip to this wonderful country.

To finish off this post I just had to include a little music. For those of you who have visited Ireland, you will know that they are great lovers of their music. Although the following video is not from Ireland, it is a video I saw most nights were there…..

And finally…….

Apologies for the bad language in the post although, I blame my mum. I have in the past, been told off by my mum for the bad language in my posts and as I can’t resist a wind up and as I only included it it for the wind up….. it’s all my mum’s fault!

And if you don’t like that, you can all….