So pack your favourite PJs, some ear plugs, an eye shade and your favourite sleepy herbal remedy. Allow yourself a couple days to acclimatise to the new time zone.  Allow yourself to see things at a leisurely pace.  People watch. Get used to the new currency. Let your stomach curl with pleasure every time you hear an Irish accent and …EVERYONE is talking with an Irish accent!  Gently ease yourself into a different culture. Pacing yourself while touring Ireland will pay off in maximising your pleasure over the days and weeks you spend with us.

For many North Americans a tour to Ireland may be a once in a lifetime trip and you want to pack in as much as possible over a fortnight or less.  This is a mistake.

If you read this entire series you can see just about every item if your itinerary is planned with care.  You don’t have to run rings around yourself trying to tour Ireland. By prioritising what you want to see you will begin to discover in this series that you can see many of things you want to see and do in Ireland are within a circular tour.

I know you look at that map and see that the whole country fits comfortably into the state of Pennsylvania.  It can take around seven hours to drive across the state using the interstates and highways.  Ireland is not like that.  No roads run straight.  Think of the road system as as ornate as a Celtic knot.  It’s a parallel universe. It is to be savoured rather than gobbled in a few greedy bites.

Especially in rural Ireland you can take advantage to  wind down and merge with the slower pace.  You will have to creep behind tractors.  On little lanes you will have to stop for sheep and cattle being herded to new pasture.  This is life in rural Ireland after all!

This way you can find a central location and stay in one place for a week and launch yourself on day adventures.  Even on package tours I create for groups I try to keep there heads on the same pillow for two or three nights if possible.

Start off slowly.  You will feel jaded with jet lag on arrival and it is important, especially if you are doing a fly-drive holiday, to take it easy while you get into the groove of driving on the left hand side.  It’s easy when you are tired and on country roads to drift back to the right hand side.  I’ve witnessed drivers doing this!   Some fliers swear by Melatonin.  You cannot get this in Ireland.  The Irish remedy would be to take doses of homeopathic Arnica 30c – one a day two days before flying, then one on take off and one every three hours you are in the air.

Many scheduled airlines arrive at the crack of dawn in Ireland and the usual procedure is to pick up your car at the airport.  In thirty years of transatlantic travel I have rarely slept on a flight.  This compounds the jet lag and then you are going to drive? On the wrong side of the road? During rush hour? You call that a vacation?

So arrive.  If you want to see Dublin then go in and use the wonderful public transport.  Take a train to an outlying town and pick up the rental car there! You will have had a day or two to adjust your body clock and get used to the signs.  Pick up an ‘L’ plate in a garage or supermarket.  This stands for ‘Learner’ and this will alert people to treat you as the inexperienced (in Irish road terms) driver that you are on arrival.

Some of my clients have given very positive feedback after taking up my recommendation to settle into a B&B with an Evening Meal option.  This allowed them to tour during the day but return to a home cooked meal.  A tot of whiskey as a night cap set them off to a restful night and set them up for another day full of the things to see and do in Ireland that was on their wish list.  The combination of local hospitality and insider knowledge, good food and staying in the same bed for a few consecutive nights really made their tour of Ireland memorable and happy.

That wraps up the ABC of Things to See In Ireland.  If I can help you arrange your dream tour of Ireland then please email me at bee@irishblessingstours.com. Touring Ireland has given me much pleasure over that past thirty years and I hope my experience will only enhance your visit.  Be prepared to fall in love with the land.  I did and here I am for the past ten years.

Nobel Laureate and poet William Butler Yeats was born in London but his family was Anglo-Irish with roots in Sligo.  He was firm friends of the Gore-Booth family whose estate at Lissadell was north of the county town with both Atlantic beach and woodland domain. The folk traditions and spectacular scenery of Sligo inspired many of his most famous poems.

I shall arise now and go to the Isle of Innisfree

The poet was in London at the time and, standing in front of a shop window, was transported in his imagination back to Sligo.  The Isle of Innisfree is a small sland in Lough Gill, just east of Sligo town and bordering on the Leitrim town of Dromahair.

The first time I clapped eyes on the Isle of Innisfree, was a misty October morning.  I could well imagine Yeats becoming spell bound by this special place and why, many years and miles away, he would revisit it in his mind.  You can take boat trips during the summer months around the Isle of Innisfree from Parkes Castle  on the scenic road to Dromahair from Sligo.

With Leitrim on the eastern boundary of Sligo, it is not surprising that the Glens of Leitrim also provided inspiration for Yeats’ poetry.  Glencar Waterfall is the site that is the touchstone for his poem The Stolen Child, which is at the heart of many Irish fairy traditions.  Indeed, Yeats’ was well aware of the fairy folklore of Ireland and his own spirituality can be said to be deeply influenced by Fairy Ireland.

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand.

For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

This Yeats’ poem continues to inspire Irish artists and musicians to this day.  Listen to what contemporary Sligo band have created from Yeat’s poem.

W.B. Yeats died in France just as the Second World War was kicking off.  After hostilities had ceased Yeats was exhumed and buried in the churchyard of St. Columcille’s Church in Drumcliffe, Sligo.  His grandfather had been rector of this church and it was Yeat’s wish to be buried in the shadow of Ben Bulben.

In 2003 a sculpture by Leitrim artist Jackie McKenna, was dedicated and sited in the car park of Drumcliffe Churchyard.  It is a stone and bronze sculpture that incorporates Yeats’ poem He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.

It is clear that for Yeats and many others that Sligo is a place draped in the Cloths of Heaven.

Each year the Yeats Society in Sligo organise a Summer School. In 2012 a programme of lectures and events will be held between 29th July and 10th August.

It’s wise when planning your itinerary for a trip to Ireland to allow some ‘give’ so you can be open to that magical moment that may be the making of your tour of Ireland.

Here’s how we came to live where we now live.  We were over from England where we were living then house hunting for four days.  We needed to check in with Tony’s mother who was recovering from breast cancer surgery.  On the way to Armagh, we took a detour to the Brigid’s Holy Well at Faughart to say prayers for her full recovery and for guidance on finding a new home. Once in Armagh we started to have problems connecting with the estate agent who had set up appointments to view three properties in County Clare, a good four or five hour journey from Armagh.

We set off in good faith but decided to stop in Manorhamilton, the capital of the Glens of Leitrim,  for an early lunch.  We found Lunny’s and ate a hearty meat and three veg meal.  On our way to the phone box (we didn’t have a mobile phone yet and you still could find public phone boxes ten years ago) we tried both the landline and mobile of the estate agent again.  Suddenly, he had fallen down some Wonderland rabbit hole and was not contactable.

As we talked over our options we passed a local estate agents window.  For all house hunters these are a magnet.  We realised that the prices were far better value than those the other agent was putting forward.  We looked at the area – one we had heretofore never considered. It has mountains.  We are no flatlanders.  It was close to the coast.  I need regular infusions of seaside ozone. And the prices were keen. It made us much closer to Tony’s family in Armagh. This was looking very promising.

We went in to talk with the estate agent and in five minutes he gave us more valuable advice than we had got in nearly two year’s worth of emails from the other guy.  And it is all because we heeded our friend Teresa’s advice when we left on our prospecting tour. “If you take an odd notion to turn left, just do it!”

Wise words indeed.

Then to underscore how ‘right’ this path was for us we began to tot up the synchronicities, or meaningful coincidences, we had experienced since setting out.

1. We sailed on a boat called ‘’The Isle of Innisfree”
2. Upon embarkation we turned on the radio to listen to  a song, which the announcer in the link declared “And that is Yeats’ poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree set to music by…”
3. As we set off to visit some estate agents in Sligo we passed signs announcing we were in Yeats’ country and signposts for Innisfree
4. When we finally stopped to have a pint in Sligo to peruse property particulars we realised that the bar we were in was…you guessed it..the Innisfree.

We have a rule of thumb in our household that if you have three coincidences then you really have to go with it.

So that is why we never got to Clare. The Manorhamilton agent fulfilled his promises to us and six months after our arrival we moved into our current home in West Cavan, which shares a border with North Leitrim.

Seamus Heaney in his poem Postscript sums up the beauty of keeping a loose itinerary and remaining open to that serendipitous X factor when touring Ireland.

          …                You are neither here nor there,

A hurry through which known and strange things pass

As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways

And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.

 

 

There are only a few more letters in the alphabet to go in my A-Z of Things to See in Ireland.  We have travelled quite a way, ranging  around many parts of the island of Ireland.  So it seems fitting to mention the many Walking Paths that you can tread in Ireland.  Along these way marked ways there are plenty of things to see and do in Ireland. Because they are often situated in spectacular scenery and national parks, you will experience many of things to see in Ireland mentioned in this series.

Many of the designated long distance walking paths coincide in part with Cycle Ways.  These  parts of the trail take you down quiet lanes that have very little traffic. It is well worth getting acquainted with some of the routes on the Kingfisher Trail in Northwest Ireland and the Greenway in Mayo.   The Kingfisher trail offers highland and lakeland views.  The Greenway, created from a disused railway line, includes a route to Westport, one of Ireland’s prettiest seaside towns.

Westport is also accessible to Croagh Patrick.  Each year pilgrims climb St. Patrick’s mountain as a religious practice.  Most pilgrims visit during July but you can attempt this rigorous climb at other times of year so long as the weather and local experts advise. While the mountains in Ireland may not seem high by North American standards you can easily be overtaken by a sudden mist or squall, lose your footing and have an accident. Always consult local wisdom before setting out on any mountain path.

In the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark there are two long distance paths.  The Cavan Way takes in the relict landscape of Cuilcagh and the Cavan Burren.  It also links up with paths on the Leitrim Way where Cavan meets Leitrim at Dowra.  In this  first town on the River Shannon, counties Leitrim and Cavan meet.  Indeed this is also the historic boundary between the ancient kingdoms of Ulster and Connaught, who went to war famously as set out in the Cattle Raid of Cooley. Remnants of the earthwork fortification to separate these two kingdoms is known as the Black Pig’s Dyke.  From the Cavan side of Dowra you can there is also a way to pick up the Miner’s Way that leads to Arigna in North Roscommon, which many local men trod to go and work in the coal and iron mines on that mountain.   There are also way marked ways for the Leitrim Way following byroads with spectacular views of Lough Allen.

The Ulster Way in Northern Ireland is nearly 1000 kilometres (625 miles) long and is one of the longest long distance path in either the UK or Ireland.  Nearly 130 miles of the way marked way is within the Marble Arch Global Geopark, an area with a UNESCO designation for outstanding natural and built heritage of international heritage.  The Ulster Way  also includes the Causeway Coastline and an inland route through the Glens of Antrim. The Giant’s Causeway is one of three UNESCO designated World Heritage sites in Ireland – the others being Skellig Michael and Newgrange and Knowth.

If you have only time for a short visit but want to get out in the countryside to stretch your legs you should consider the way marked ways along the Wicklow Way.  Wicklow is just south of Dublin and is easily accessible by road or public transport.  The Wicklow Way begins in Dublin’s suburb Rathfarnum with easy walks.  It is possible to walk the entire way in eight to ten days, but you should be fit for hill walking and to explore the Vale of Avoca.

Many of the long distance paths have circular route options that are possible to do as a day’s activity.  Walking is a a recommended way to see a country.  It’s important to slow down and see things at ground level.  For vacationers who need to ratchet down their stress levels tackling part of any long-distance path will offer spectacular views of mountains, lakes, forests, glens and beaches.  Slow down and get acquainted with the flora and fauna.

In my A-Z of Things to See in Ireland V is indisputably for the Vale of Avoca.  This beautiful part of Irish countryside is very close to Dublin.  For the time pressed visitor to Ireland with very few days for sight seeing, the Vale of Avoca can offer spectacular scenery along with the opportunity to see some early Christian sites at Glendalough.  Personally, I do not feel that you get to know Ireland if you only stick to the cities.  If you only have four days for a visit to Ireland you can have a leisurely visit to Dublin and the Vale of Avoca.

The area has been immortalised in this poem by Thomas Moore who lived between 1779 and 11852.

The Meeting of the Waters

There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from heart.
Yet it was not that nature had shed o’er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
‘Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no, — it was something more exquisite still.
‘Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.
Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.

The town of Avoca has been made famous as the location where the 1990s television series Ballykissangel was filmed.  Apart from its scenic location beside the river and in the Wicklow Mountains, the town also offers the Avoca Craft and Gift centre where you can find quality hand woven woollen items and other Irish made crafts on sale.  So for a short trip this could prove the solution to any souvenirs you need to stock up on, as well as unique birthday and Christmas gifts.

A tour of the area should also take you to Glendalough where St. Kevin founded his monastic community.  There is an excellent example of a round tower as well as meandering romantic walks around the lake.

Situated in ‘the valley of two lakes’  in the Wicklow National Park this area includes the long distance walk trail The Wicklow Way along with the archaeological remains from the early Christian past. There is wildlife to keep the naturalist happy and observant.  But there is also a great peace in this valley and you can spend many happy hours contemplating the lake water and watching dragonflies, mayflies and other lakeside species in the deep quiet.

spark and flair of youth’s longing

May you know love

steady flame of the hearth

May you know love

glowing embers of age

May you know love

ever changing constant

May you know love

Happy Valentine’s Day.  I’ve written this special blessing for Valentine’s Day. Whether you have a partner or are single this blessing applies to us all regardless of relationship status.

My partner, Tony Cuckson, and I have been interviewed by Cavan Community radio as part of a celebration of love during Valentine’s week.  We have had the privilege to explore this subject for nearly three decades.  We met at a Poetry Circle so we included many of our favourites as readings during the broadcast.

The second half of the programme includes Tony, who hails from Armagh, singing one of my favourites “My Lagan Love” as well as our own musings on how relationships go through cycles and experience rebirth.  If you are a lover of Irish traditional songs be sure to listen to his rendition.  I know I may be partial, but sometimes it just makes me shiver to hear him sing it.

It truly is a blessing to have been able to and to continue to journey on the greatest learning curve in life.  Love also introduced me to Ireland and quite independently of any love for a man I also fell in love with this land, each contour, nook, cranny and cove of it.

Arriving at the letter ‘U’ brings us up in Northern Ireland, where there are, of course, many things to see and do.  In the ancient kingdom of Ireland Ulster was the Northern kingdom and included the six counties of Northern Ireland as well as Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan, which are in the Republic of Ireland.  Of particular interest to North American visitors is the Ulster American Folk Park, which is about five miles north of Omagh on the Strabane Road, in County Tyrone.

The Ulster American Folk Park offers many things to see and do, learn and explore.  Situated on forty acres with many outdoor exhibits, you need to have comfortable walking shoes and wet weather wear on a rainy day as you duck in and out of the many fascinating exhibitions.  The Ulster American Folk Park was created by the Mellon Foundation and celebrates the tycoon’s humble roots in County Tyrone.  But this is not just the Mellon family’s emigrant story.  The outdoor exhibits include many buildings moved to the site to help the visitor understand the life that emigrants left behind, as well as the perils of their journey to a new life in North America.

The Ulster American Folk Park even includes a simulation of what a Neolithic dwelling would have looked like! There is a smithy, a schoolhouse, a Presbyterian Meeting House and other buildings from the 18th and early 19th centuries.  There is a great indoor museum that explains the history of Irish emigration to North America and includes a map of how the majority of American presidents can trace family roots to Ulster.

There are special events going on throughout the year. One event coming up in 2012 is The American Wake.  This was the tradition to ‘wake’ the emigrant over the night before they left to take the boat to America.  Before air travel and Skype this meant that families never saw each other again.  In an age where there was no universal literacy a letter would have been a rare event.  It is said that as families bade the final farewell they barred the door so that the emigrant could not come back.  There was literally no turning back.  It was as if they were dead to the family.  Harsh economic conditions declared that they needed to leave in order to live. Offering passage to a new life was the best family’s could do for loved ones.

There is a genealogy centre attached to the Ulster American Folk Park.  Given the many things to see and do around the park they recommend at least 3 and half hours to take in the exhibits.  But it is so fascinating that we spent more than four hours at the sight because there is so much to learn, explore and to fascinate.

While you are in Ulster be sure to have a taste of the famous Ulster Fry.  This is the biggest cook breakfast on earth in my opinion and traditionally includes: Sausage, back bacon rashers, black pudding, white pudding, a fried egg, tomato, fried potato bread, fried soda farls, wheaten bread on the side, all washed down with gallons of strong black Ulster tea.  Some versions offer you baked beans and/or fried mushrooms, too.  It is fondly referred to as the Heart Attack on the Plate.  But it is truly an Ulster culinary tradition.  When my partner and I would arrive bleary-eyed off the ferry for visits home to Armagh, his mother would welcome us by asking, “Would you like a fry?”  The frying pans were already lined up on the stove at the ready!   It’s a singular feature of the generous hospitality of Ulster.

What is so special about Ireland is its vibrant regional theatre circuit.  In a country that would fit comfortably in the state of Pennsylvania (if you swivelled it horizontal that is) there is an amazing number of small theatre venues available for touring companies and amateur groups.

In Leitrim, which is only the 26th largest of the 32 counties of Ireland, there are three theatres.  At the northern tip of the county, close to the Donegal and Sligo borders is Manorhamilton’s Glens Centre.  This is a venue created from a redundant Methodist chapel.  The county seat of Carrick on Shannon has The Dock, named so because it is housed in the former Courthouse.  At the southern most tip, close to the Longford and Roscommon borders is the Cornmill Theatre in Carrigallen.

Kila, who performed the soundtrack on Oscar nominated “Secret of Kells” rehearse and record at regional theatre, The Glens Centre

All of these venues have been developed from old properties to offer a community focus for the arts.  Traveling musicians, bands, poet performers are on the bill as well as theatrical productions.   They also provide recording facilities and rehearsal studios for artists in living in their locality. The presence of these venues gives Irish provincial life a lively artistic fizz.

Garry Hynes, one of the founders of the Druid Theatre Company, is responsible for keeping the repertory theatre tradition alive and well in Ireland.  The company, founded in 1975, was the first ‘rep’ founded outside of Dublin. Based in Galway, on Ireland’s west coast, Druid traveled Ireland and found that the rural audiences were keen theatre fans. Druid has been widely responsible for mounting productions of contemporary Irish playwrights, often premiering plays.  With this solid dedications to the Irish theatrical tradition you can still see high quality productions outside of Dublin.  Druid premiered Martin McDonagh’s Leenane Trilogy in the early 1990s.

This is not to say that while you are in Dublin that you should not take in a play at the Abbey or the Gate.  It is just that provincial theatre is just as lively, entertaining and professional outside the capital city.

Stone Circles in Ireland may not be on the grand scale of Stonehenge but there are several good examples that you can visit without the hordes of other members of the public and the overlay of an interpretive centre.  Personally, I feel that ancient sites should be visited for themselves and allowed to speak to the heart of the viewer.  Archaeology can offer some suggestions as to the how and why and when.  But when it boils right down – their speculation is only slightly better informed than my speculation.  It’s why they call it pre-history.  History comes with writing and setting out your version of events.

Drumskinny Stone Circle is a small, perfectly formed stone circle near Irvinestown in County Fermanagh, well within range of other early and pre-Christian sites within the Marble Arch Global Geopark.  If you are visiting the southern part of Ireland then you may want to head to Castletownbere where another stone circle can be visited.  In both locations you are likely to be the only visitor and you can take your time to ascertain the bare facts and let your heart fill in the rest of the details.  Stone circles may have been astronomical observatories.  Stone circles may have had religious, spiritual or ritual significance.  Visit them, listen to the stones and hear what they may tell you of their past.

Public sculpture is a big part of Irish artistic tradition.  In Dublin the locals fondly referred to the famous Molly Malone statue as The Tart with the Cart and Anna Liffey as The Floozy in the Jacuzzi.  But this jocular response means that artwork is not revered.  It is simply that art is part of life and should not be taken over seriously. Art is part and parcel of the heritage in this country both North and South and sculpture tells us a great deal about the popular consciousness.

Brigid’s Garden in Co. Galway is a good example where horticultural and outdoor sculpture have worked in synergy.  This garden was created to celebrate Brigit and the Celtic spiritual consciousness.  It has gardens designed for each of the seasons – Imbolc (Spring), Bealtaine (Summer), Lunasa (Autumn) and Samhain (Winter) and incorporates many of the important Celtic symbolism of legend into the landscape.

Many towns have sculptures to celebrate local heroes.  Mohill in south County Leitrim memorialises the blind harper, Turlough O’Carolan, who composed many of Ireland’s most famous traditional tunes, such as Sheebeg Sheemore, Planxty Fanny Power, and many more.

A stroll through the grounds of the National Museum of Irish Countryside near Castlebar in Co. Mayo will also have sculpture popping up amidst the shrubbery.

Stopping off in the Lough MacNean Park near Blacklion in Co. Cavan will offer this sculpture that views the North of Ireland from the Southern Shore.

As you travel the highways and byways of Ireland you will be struck at how many examples of public sculpture have been commissioned to adorn the landscape.

Indeed, not far down the N16 from Blacklion you can see Manorhamilton’s Leitrim Sculpture Centre which has trained many sculptors.  The town is home to Jackie McKenna, whose many sculptures can be seen locally and abroad. Two of the most famous are the Sligo Famine Memorial at Ross’s Point and the Kneeling Man at Drumcliffe where W. B. Yeats is buried.

Which leads us to the shores of Sligo where you can indulge in a seaweed bath.  I have to say that this is a truly sybaritic experience.  Seaweed is deeply emollient.  There are two bathhouses in Co. Sligo – Strandhill and Enniscrone – both south of the county town.

You have your own personal bathroom with a shower, steam cabinet and a large cast iron bathtub with claw feet that is full to the brim with seaweed.  You have control of how hot or cold you want the water but when the hour is sounded that your time is up you will either float out or want to take up permanent residence!

The seaweed is harvested sustainably along the beach. Sligo beaches have a rich supply of bladderwrack, laminaria and sea spaghetti.  There is also a long tradition of edible seaweed cookery in Ireland.  Mullaghmore doctor Prannie Rhattigan has revived this healthy eating option by creating a cookery book The Irish Seaweed Kitchen.

Beleek Pottery on the border between Fermanagh and Donegal is world famous.  The geology that is widespread within the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark also contributed to the founding of the pottery in Belleek, which had deposits of kaolin necessary for the manufacture of pottery.  The Pottery has a a museum, offers guided tours and has a shop and cafe.  Don’t worry if you want to travel light. They will ship!

There are other well known potters in Ireland, Nicholas Mosse being one of the best known. This modern pottery operates from Kilkenny and is famous for his spongeware.  Like Beleek, all the pottery is made in Ireland.

But if you are interested in seeing pottery made by a single potter you will find studios and kilns scattered around the country.  My personal favourite was finding Glenarm Pottery while travelling down Antrim’s Coast Road. Glenarm is the gateway to the Glens of Antrim next to a pretty harbour.   Glenarm, not far from Ballymena can be a first stop on the A2 coast road, which rivals the Pacific Coast Highway, for natural beauty.

For visitors coming over in spring time, the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations will lure you in.  Parades are traditional to the celebrations. They are part local business booster spirit. But there is also a long established tradition of political satire.  Dublin and Galway have large parades. Kilkenny also has annual parades.  But look around where you happen to be in Ireland and you are liable to find sweet parades lead by pipe and flute corps and floats hauled by tractors.  This is very much authentic Ireland.  Many villages and small towns will erect stages where the local children will strut their Riverdance stuff and Comhaltas scholars get to publicly perform the tunes they have learned over winter.

Which leaves us with Poetry Festivals.  Now, there are many literary and arts festivals that celebrate poetry as part of the programme.  But poetry is so ingrained in the Irish consciousness that there are at the very least three international poetry festivals each year.  These are festivals completely dedicated to poetry.  Poetry Now occurs in Dun Laoghaire, just south of Dublin, in March 2012. Strokestown, Co. Roscommon holds its annual International Poetry Competition finale and festival each May over the bank holiday weekend, 4-6th May in 2012.  Cuisle is another internationally renowned poetry festival held 17th-20th October, 2012 in Limerick. Poetry Ireland will be able to inform you if there is a literary festival or poetry festival on during your visit to Ireland.

Swans at Cladagh, Galway harbour in background

Galway is home of the Western Writers Centre which sponsors Poetry and other literary events